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Dakota Gray is 3 years, 4 months, and 3 days old.
Rowan Sabine is 1 year, 7 months, and 12 days old.
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July 27th, 2010
Saturday was our anniversary. There is some dispute about how many years we have been married, but it’s generally acknowledged to be five or six. We don’t usually do much for it, with three kids and no baby-sitters, but we did have a wedding, thanks to our creative daughters.
Tacy was bridesmaid, Dakota was the flower girl, and Rowan was… well, Rowan. I got into my wedding dress, sort of, and the big girls wore their dresses from my brother’s wedding last summer. Rowan was wearing something, I don’t remember. Jeremy stood by the back door (dressed appropriately in the hoodie he bought on our honeymoon, since we didn’t have a tux) and the girls took turns walking down the hall toward him. Dakota was very solemn. Tacy was smiley. Rowan was excited to be doing something with her big sisters. After I proceeded down the aisle, Jeremy and I joined hands and spun in a circle, the accepted method of marriage in our household. Then all the girls got to hold hands and spin, taking turns getting married.
I don’t have any pictures, on purpose. My dress only zipped halfway up the back, and therefore gapped at the bust. I’ll let you picture that for yourself.
July 23rd, 2010
I just typed this whole post about Tacy’s birthday and then Firefox barfed and now I am back to zero. Stupid computers. Now it’ll just be the condensed version.
Here is the dress I made Tacy. We had a balloon theme, so I embroidered that red balloon on this otherwise very simple dress. The fabric is a cotton/linen blend from Sew, Mama, Sew, and I love it. I made myself a skirt from it too and I’m planning a couple of other projects as well as the purchase of some more. Maybe in other colors as well.
My dad made her this incredible balance beam, and my mom helped finish it. T has been asking for a balance beam for months, and she was very pleased. I had sent my dad a link to this which is about $300 I think. He came up with his version which is better because it is pink. I just realized that for some reason I only uploaded about half of the birthday photos to smug mug, so I’ll post a picture of it later.
Family came to visit, there were balloon animals by Amelia, gelato by Libby, grilled veggies by Jeremy, my dad picked up a bunch of meat, barbecued down the street at the Smoke House, and we had cupcakes by Sparkle.
June 22nd, 2010
Turns out, when we’re all kind of sick and can’t get to the grocery store, we ended up eating all sorts of homemade goodness, mainly out of necessity. Several people out there in internet land have made homemade bagels lately, so I thought I’d better give them a try too. I used this recipe, which I got to from a link from Angry Chicken. She had also mentioned that she did not make cream cheese to go along with them, but since there was no way I was dragging two sick and one bored child to the store for cream cheese, I made that too, again following a link she provided. My friend at Northern Lights Mama made the observation that bread flour is essential, and I have to agree. There is something not quite right about my bagels that I think would be improved by using bread flour. However, they are good. Especially when spread thickly with the cream cheese (which I snuck some heavy cream into). The cheese was super easy, and good. I think I would follow the advice of some of the reviewers and use a mixture of lemon juice and vinegar for a little bit more “tang.”
June 15th, 2010
It seems like Saturday was the first “real” sunny day we’ve had. Actually, our weekends have been quite nice, but this one had a different feel to it, I’m sure only because the forecast for the next five days is not filled with storm clouds. It’s really June now, summer is right around the corner, and we spent our sunny Saturday out front trying to rid our house of lots of “stuff.” We had a pretty successful sale, I think. We made a little money, but more importantly, finally unloaded the exersaucer, crib mattress, high chair, etc. The girls also had a cookie sale again. I wish I had taken pictures, but I was too caught up with the sale. We brought their little table and chairs out and set up their easel with a big “Fresh Baked Cookies” sign. They thought to bring out the cash register and had a great time ringing people up. A cookie stand has proven to be more lucrative than a lemonade stand would be around here. They charge a dollar a piece for those mama-donated cookies and sold 13 yesterday.
I had what I think is a pretty good find at a yard sale up around the corner. For eleven dollars I got away with a stack of Disney princess stories AND a Singer Merrittlock 14u44 serger sewing machine. I was told it works, but I don’t know how to use it so I can’t really test that theory. I’m planning on taking it in to the Singer store here in town and asking them how much it would be to clean it up and make sure it works. And also seeing if they can show me how to get started. It would be so nice to be able to serge seams and do rolled hems on the girls’ clothes. Finishing seams and hemming are my least favorite things. Also, I would love to sew knit things for them. I’m also looking for the accessories kit for this machine. I have no idea how hard it will be to find.
Anyway. We had a lovely day out in the sun. The girls had a blast running around and playing. After the sale we all trooped across the street to play in the neighbors’ water toys. The best thing was that while we were out there the ice cream truck came by, and the girls got to experience that for the first time. Everyone got a twin-pop (red, of course) and were absolutely thrilled to just be handed a popsicle out of a truck.
June 8th, 2010
Several projects are whirling around in my head right now. The first we almost accomplished this weekend. Last week I got the very smart idea to move most of our furniture to make better use of our rooms. Again. To Jeremy’s delight, of course. It really was a totally good and smart idea. We have a “split” floor plan, meaning the master bedroom is at the opposite end of the house from the other two. Many people like this, I really don’t. It means the girls are far away at night. Again, many people like the idea of their children being far away at night. Again, not me. We gave the girls the master bedroom quite a while ago as a big bedroom/playroom. This was ok, because they were at the back of the house, but we still weren’t comfortable with them being so far away. Especially because half the time D ends up in our bed and T is left all alone.
So… my bright idea was to move our bed to the front room of the house (which was the office), the girls’ bed and dressers to our old room, and make the master bedroom a combination playroom/office. We moved all the major pieces of furniture, including the 500 lb desk, the treadmill, the king sized bed, and the queen sized bed. And some bookshelves, etc. Whew. My parents were stopping through on their way home from a trip, so we enlisted their help to move things and entertain small girls. I still have little bits of everything everywhere, because I’m still not sure where everything will go. My entire wardrobe is on my bed and the couch (which seems normal, but usually it’s only half my wardrobe piled on the couch). I actually have an empty spot in the living room and I’m not sure if I want to fill it or leave it for now. Until I find something else to put there. I’m kind of arguing with myself about what kind of house I want to have - the kind where the kids’ stuff goes in their space, or the kind where I spread it out. I think I’m landing on spreading it out, mainly because even when I try to contain it, it spreads itself out. Jeremy will not agree when(if) he reads this, but I think I actually need another piece of furniture or two.
Rattling around my brain:
- I need to fix up our backyard a bit. It’s a mess and I don’t like hanging out out there. Also, need to work on acquiring/building some chairs to sit on. And maybe finishing the waterproof picnic blanket I have half done.
- A yard sale… I’ve been putting it off and need to just do it to clear out my garage.
- A very fun and exciting project involving cupcakes. Hooray!
- Home school… we went to the Kindergarten round up at our local elementary. I’m not thrilled. I think I need to spend this summer really buckling down and getting together a plan for teaching. This should be something I can accomplish, considering I was a teacher, but it seems very hard. I was always a follow-the-lesson-plan-that-morning, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of teacher. Also, I never really liked teaching kids to read. I got out of it whenever I could, usually by taking the advanced reading group where I could do more fun reading activities. I’m good at that. Not so much at the phonics and stuff. I’ve been perusing the internet for ideas. There’s a lot out there. A lot is bible-based, which we’re not really interested in. Some is too not-schooly enough for me, like super Waldorf stuff. I like Montessori ideas, in general, but not all. I need some structure, but not too much. Also, I need to have cool home school not weird home school. If anyone has ideas, please let me know. I need them.
Also, the sun has come out. Finally. We’ve had so much rain, though not as much as in the Portland area. For us, a lot. It’s been so dreary. but now, it’s here. I hope to stay. Update: It is not here to stay. More rain predicted this week. Lame.
May 27th, 2010
This was going to be a super long, wordy, post about an accident Rowan had earlier this week. Several days later it seems silly, as she is just fine. However, I feel I should record these moments of terror she gives us for future reference. I’ll keep it much shorter.
She fell, knocking her head on the sidewalk, while playing with her sisters outside. Jeremy was out there with her and got to her first. He scooped her up and then noticed that she looked like something was wrong. I’m not sure exactly when everything happened, but by the time he got her to me, she was convulsing and her lips were starting to turn blue. We realized she wasn’t really breathing and began to panic. Also, seeing your baby convulsing in your arms with her eyes rolled back in her head is terrifying and makes you think all sorts of things you never want to to think. Our friend Ryan was outside with them as well, and got on the phone with 911 immediately (and was totally calm and collected despite the fact that I was screaming at him “SHE’S NOT BREATHING!” ) Jeremy went inside with the big girls to get them calmed down and I took Rowan back outside, mainly because I wanted to be around someone else who could maybe save her if necessary.
She stopped convulsing, I think, and I put her back on the sidewalk. This was not so smart, I think now, but it’s the flattest surface out there because our yard is so crappy and lumpy and I wanted to make sure her airway was clear. She continued to turn blue (hands and feet now) and I started randomly blowing in her face and sort of puffing at her mouth - not really doing anything I was supposed to, and probably doing things I shouldn’t. Finally, her lips suddenly turned pink and she started making little moaning noises. Soon after that the paramedics came, and I held her in the ambulance while Jeremy drove along behind.
At the ER, we basically sat around for a while. There was no visible injury, and everyone seems pretty sure that she did not pass out from hitting her head, but from holding her breath too long while winding up to cry. Also, everyone kept saying how normal it was for her to convulse and turn blue. Needless to say, normal or not, that is not something Jeremy or I ever want to see again.
The title of the post is about Lost. This is not. This did happen on the night of the Lost series finale. I did still get to watch, I loved it and thought it was a great, Narnia-esque end to a great series and held the baby the whole time.
This is still kind of wordy, but nowhere near where it was.
May 11th, 2010
This picture is not brand new, but I forgot I wanted to post it here because Rowan picked out all her own clothes that day. And then chased a bird all around the yard for a while.
April 28th, 2010
 
The big girls each got new jammies this week. A couple of weeks ago I bought each girl a 3-pack of camisoles when they were on sale at Fred Meyer. I have enough fabric already to make them each at least 3 pairs of pajama pants, so for under $15 they’ll each have three sets of pajamas to wear this summer, which I think is plenty. Especially since they each already have a pair or two that were either bought ahead or hand-me-downs. Rowan has plenty, I think, from her big sisters, so we should be all set.
For this first pair, I used the pattern for bloomers from this pattern (which I used to make Dakota’s birthday dress, and plan on using a couple of more times, at least.) They are supposed to have elastic near the hem, so the legs get all poofy, but when I let Tacy try them on to make sure the waist was the right size, she told me she did not want elastic at the bottom. Which meant that Dakota didn’t either. I think they’re still cute, especially in this really light weight cotton. Both girls love them, even though they aren’t pink, because they have little blue flowers. I think they also love them because it’s all French seams inside, so no raw edges anywhere. I think next I’ll use the pajama pants pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.
Maybe I’ll even get around to making some for Mama and Papa, too.
April 27th, 2010
We’ve been making a lot of this no-knead bread lately, and really loving it. However, it doesn’t exactly fit in with healthier eating, or reduced calorie consumption. Not that it’s inherently bad for you, it’s just a bunch of white flour, and it’s so good that it’s really easy to eat half a loaf without noticing. The kids really love it, especially Dakota, so they eat a lot too. What it comes down to is that we try to eat mostly whole-grain bread. The bread I make for our sandwiches and toast, etc is mostly whole wheat and oatmeal, with just a little white flour to help with leavening.
Anyway, I felt I needed to try making this with at least some whole grain flour. I know there books out there that have fancier recipes, but I don’t have them, so I thought I’d just stick to the basics and use the same recipe I’d been using. I pretty much follow it, with a couple of changes: I used 2 Cups whole wheat flour and 1 Cup all-purpose flour. We’ve also been using 1 1/2 Cups water instead of 1 5/8 Cups water as the original recipe states. We got this tip from Rose Levy Beranbaum. This last time I made it I also used parchment paper for it to sit on for the final rise, rather than the floured muslin we’d been using. We were having trouble with the floured muslin sticking to the dough and turning into a big mess when we turned it into the baking dish (or so covered with flour that it was a bit unappetizing once it came out of the oven caked with a quarter inch of plain flour). The parchment paper worked very well, thank goodness. Oh, and we don’t have a nice cast iron dutch oven, so we bake it in our slightly-too-small Corningware casserole dish.
I don’t know that this makes a “better” bread. The crust is a bit chewy, rather than crisp and crackly, and the loaf is just more dense and chewy over-all. It was good, though, and certainly better for us. I’m sure we’ll make the all-white version still from time to time, but the whole wheat one is tasty enough to accompany dinner on a regular basis. Which is nice because it means the more ingredient-heavy, time-consuming sandwich bread will last a bit longer.
April 26th, 2010
I realize this is late for a post about Easter. But I just finished editing/uploading the pictures and wanted to share a few. This was Ro’s first real Easter that she could participate in, so it was fun for all. We got up (early, thanks to Tacy’s excitement) and once I got my cardamom rolls rising, we all gathered ’round the table to dye eggs. In the past we’ve gone out of our way to buy a dozen white eggs from the grocery store, but this year we tried just coloring the brown eggs we get from the Grower’s Market. The colors turned out a bit deeper and earthier, but we liked them. Also, the kids aren’t really old enough yet to expect the eggs to look a certain way, so they were happy too. We just use the store-bought dye, but someday, if I ever get it together, I’d like to make my own. We’ll see. Maybe next year.
Jeremy took the girls for a little drive after that so the Easter bunny could stop by. Eggs were hidden, baskets were filled, and gifts from grandparents set out. The girls came home and excitedly dove for their baskets and treats, of course. Dakota and Rowan tied, I think, for who found M&Ms first, and concentrated on eating those the rest of the day. Tacy pretty much did the egg hunt on her own, though we managed to coax Dakota and Rowan to find a couple for some photo ops.
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