Random Blog Post #587

Today was art lesson day. We did a take on Van Gogh's Starry Night, but do you think I showed them the original painting. No! Bad teacher. I told them at the beginning that if they closely followed my directions, their project would turn out really cool. I think they were surprised that I was right! :) I only had to bust out the 'do you want to get a good grade in art, or not?' once. Seriously. I felt like an ogre, but a certain someone was not at all motivated to do his project, and he is supposed to be getting home school credit for it. It worked, and everyone had something to be proud of at the end. Even the little girls. Katie decided to cut hers in half, then complain because it was messed up. Scotch tape to the rescue!

I finished curtains for the boys' room. I hate making curtains so I was glad to finish them! The farm room is coming along quite nicely. I told James this morning that I was going to kick him out and move into his room, to which he replied 'Are you really serious?' Maybe I am. Who knows.
Here is a picture of the previously lavender boys room, now a nice shade called "Mexican Feathergrass." I love paint names. The old tin signs hang above the dresser. I had them hanging in my bathroom where I was perfectly happy with them, but they just had to go in the farm room. James decorated his door with John Deere stickers, and a chalkboard he wrote on himself. James is all about decorating his room. He is always 'rearranging,' even the furniture. (He doesn't appreciate it when I re-rearrange it back!) I am working on a horse quilt for James' bed. I haven't made a full sized quilt since I have had babies, so it has been fun to get back into it. Hopefully I will finish it sooner rather than later. (No comments from the peanut gallery, Rachel! :)

Curls

I bought a curling iron. I curled Katie's hair for the first time. It was SO MUCH fun!!

Butter, Sunshine, Hearts, Pictures, Recipe

Our butter experiment turned out, but the kids get no credit for that. James was so excited to make butter like the Amish people do, but he was not so much on the work part. Also, he was disappointed that I couldn't manage to come up with a butter churn for our experiment. Instead, we used the jar/marble method. James shook the jar for approximately 47 seconds, while Katie shook it for a bit longer. She was a little too exuberant, though, and I had to take it away for fear she would launch the jar through the window! After about 25 minutes of shaking, all we had was whipped cream, so I cheated and put it in the blender. Wow! I have made butter once or twice before, but it is quite amazing to see how all the sudden the butter just appears. (Or, perhaps, I am easily amused.) And guess what? It tastes just like butter. Amazing.


In other news, we are spending this SUNNY, WARM day lounging around, playing outside, and eating all manner of Valentine's themed food. Having kids is a nice excuse to do all the fun Valentine's Day stuff. James declared, after eating the scones, that they were 'so, so good and I could each these for hours and hours!!' I'll post the recipe at the end.

Sun!! Happy, happy sun!

Look, its real dirt!!

The snow is starting to melt!!!

My littlest Valentine!

He liked the scones

Drawing pictures in a sunny spot

Another happy customer

Oatmeal Biscuit Scones

1 1/4 C. flour
1 C. rolled oats
1/4 C. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. (one stick) butter, chilled
1/2 C. dried cherries, chopped (or cranberries or chocolate chips)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 C. buttermilk (plus extra for brushing)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
Sugar for sprinkling (I used raw sugar)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk dry ingredients together and cut in butter til coarse crumbs form. Stir in cherries. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, vanilla and almond. Add to flour mixture and stir to combine. (I added a little extra buttermilk at this stage) Pat into a circle on a sheet of parchment paper or a greased pan. Cut into wedges (no need to separate them) and brush with buttermilk. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 18-20 minutes, til lightly browned.

The Car Situation

I failed to mention that the car, after three days of hopelessly trying to start it, miraculously started. Therefore I have had a vehicle these last few weeks. Even more miraculously, Jeff swears up and down that the car runs better than it did before. He says that the car is tempting him to keep it, but we actually listed it on Craigslist this afternoon. As we speak, Jeff is on his way to the Auto Tags place to make the sale. The first person to call and come look at it wants to buy it. How quick is technology these days?! That means now we have to find ourselves another car. Hope that one is just as quick.

How We Entertain Ourselves

I have officially hit the end of my good humor toward the 'cozy' winter months. Staying inside no longer feels cozy and nice. I need some fresh air! Dirt! A walk! Its supposed to be 50 degrees on Sunday so you better believe we'll be outside. In the meantime, here are some of the ways that the kids and I have kept busy lately.

• Repelling down the stairs
• Building a kid-sized stagecoach
• Making a desk for James out of a diaper box, an old cowboy calendar, and some cork board (its a beauty)
• Practicing our roping skills (Jeff is the best of us all so far)
• Building/Racing our own mousetrap cars (Mine won!!!!!!!! I'll blog about that later, if the snow ever melts and we can take mine out for a long distance run. Did I mention that my car won?????:)
• Reading lots of books from the library
• Playing with play dough
• Making lots of crafts
• Sorting my button stash by color
• Building 935 versions of a horse pasture
• Giving the kids 935 sheep/horse/bucking bronco rides
• Making cookies
  
• Tents in the living room
• Dancing to the radio and singing really loud
  
• Pulling the kids back and forth across our slippery floor as they hold on to James' rope
  
• Bouncing off the walls
• Drooling over way too many seed catalogs
• Ordering way too many seeds
• Spray painting the snow (with food coloring/water)
• Going through enough drawing paper to fill a semi-truck
  
• And today....we're making butter, the old fashioned way (James' request)

The Stagecoach Is Leaving (Plus A Few Pictures)

Although we didn't find a place to go bike-riding yesterday, James struck gold when we stopped at a thrift store on the way home! He found a toy stagecoach with a team of horses. When we got home we did a little google research on stagecoaches, and James quickly came up with a James-sized version for himself. He loads up Katie (under the blanket) and then takes her to various locations, including Kansas and Virginia. That was a $1.50 well spent, I tell you! It has kept the kids entertained for a day and half now.

I just finished painting James and Tyler's room, and now its on to decorating! Can you guess the theme? Farmer/cowboy. Shocking, I know. I actually have ended up with more ideas than I will ever have space for so I have to decide what I am going to hang up. My friend Linda sent some John Deere wall stickers which we promptly hung up in the 'silo' and on the door. (Silo=closet) I'll post more pictures when I am done. This picture is of an old tray from a printing press, used to hold letters. Now, it holds some of the kazillion little animals James has.


James and Katie in their Cubbies vests! They are so excited to have their own vests.


Here is a picture of our tree during the ice storm. Fortunately, it didn't take too long to turn to rain.

44 Degrees!!

Its up to 44 degrees here in the state of PA, and it feels downright balmy. I packed up the kids this morning to take them to a local park that has a lot of nice, paved walking paths. They were so excited to get out and ride their bikes! However, we were not so lucky. Only one path was partially cleared, and so we had to look elsewhere. We went to another park, but with the same luck. So, we spent the morning driving around and looking out the window at the nice weather. I think this afternoon calls for a walk!

In other news, Jeff took Friday off and we took the kids to the fish store and the Amish market. He has been trying to use up some surplus vacation days which is a nice problem to have! :) Friday my sister and bro-in-law came up from VA to visit. We haven't seen them since November so it was about time! They finally got to open their Christmas gifts from the kids, which was quite entertaining. Katie had chosen red and white striped knee socks with fur trim for for Auntie Rachel. James bought a giant foam sword for Uncle Phil. (It lasted about 30 seconds) Its pretty funny to see what the kids pick out for people. And speaking of funny, I will leave you with a quote from James. They were eating breakfast this morning, and Katie was wiggling around on her chair and messing around. James said to her, 'Katie, I am more civilized that you.' Ha, ha, ha!!!!

Seeds

After contracting a severe case of cabin fever last week, I am officially chomping at the bit to get started on my garden. Of course, I have way more aspirations that I have time or energy, but that's what makes it fun. This year, I am planning to adding another bed for cut flowers and vegetables. I am also beginning to seriously plan for a couple of chickens. I must admit that I am a little bit nervous about raising them from their cute, fuzzy state into nice happy hens. It seems so complicated and I hope I don't kill any of them on accident. As far as the garden goes, of course I am going to try a few new things. The kids have more and more ideas each year about what I should plant. We decided to go Strawberry Popcorn as an experiment. James also wants to plant radishes, beets and cabbage and pear tomatoes for Katie. And me, well, I would like to plant one of everything but that's not going to happen. I've got to narrow down the list!

Boys

This morning during our Art lesson, I showed the kids examples of famous paintings that used recognizable shapes. They did really good recognizing the shapes and colors that went into each painting. They started working on their projects with interest. By the time our lesson was over, the boys were drawing robots with mohawks and tigers lifting their tails to go poop. Seriously? Boys!! At least they are practicing their drawing skills, right?

Ready For Spring

We are supposed to get a big storm tomorrow and Wednesday. Ice, snow, sleet, and who-knows-what-else. I am ready for spring. Ready to play in the dirt and plant the garden. Ready for the kids to be able to get out of the house. Right now, they are running around, all happy, and VERY LOUD!!! We need to get outdoors! But enough of my ranting. I did finish painting the boys' room today which I am very EXCITED about! I posted a skirt over at my crafty blog, so that means I have been sewing too. It keeps me sane. And thus ends quite possibly the most boring blog post ever. Adios, amigos!

More Snow

Its getting a little ridiculous around here. We got about 16 inches of snow on Wednesday. It was quite a storm, complete with news-to-me 'Snow Thunder.' It took us about three rounds of lightening to figure out what was going on. Yesterday we played outside for quite a while, shoveling, making a snowman and sledding down the snow pile on trash can lids. Even Tyler loves the snow. I will say that getting three kids dressed up for snow play is a lot of work! This morning cabin fever hit us hard. After staying home all week sans car, the kids were bouncing off the walls. Mom had the crazy idea of us walking over to their house. That entailed her meeting us at the road and carrying Tyler so I could carry the stroller across the green belt and the foot bridge. If she wouldn't have been there to help, there would be no stinking way I would have done it! But, I think we all benefited from getting out of the house. Now to entertain them for the rest of the day....


And here is a picture of the beautiful bowl that our friend Con-Rachel brought back for me from Africa. She went last year and brought me the salad tongs, and this year brought a bowl to match! It is so cool. And the fabric! She brought me two huge pieces of fabric to sew with. I have several ideas already for them. We'll see what they end up as.

Sunshine, Snow and Shoeboxes

Yesterday it was mostly sunny and almost 40 degrees! It felt downright tropical. OK, maybe not tropical, but it was nice. Our 'quick' walk turned into a nice, long walk (bike-ride for James). Katie stopped every 8 feet or so to pick up a stick, or a handful of snow. She would plop down in people's yards and make snow angels. We would stop and let her catch up, only to fall behind again. She's off in Katie Land as we've begun to call it. :) It was quite nice to get out. This morning we getting more snow, between 4 and 8 inches they say. We might also get a layer of ice. Thankfully I went out last night when Jeff got home and got some books and movies for today. Yay for extended library hours!! And what is the 'shoeboxes' about? Every year we fill up shoeboxes with toys, school supplies and toiletries for Samaritans Purse, who then distributes them to kids around the world. They partner with missionaries, churches, and others to distribute the boxes to local children. They also hand out picture books in many, many languages called the 'Greatest Gift,' telling them the story of Christ. Many of these children are from orphanages, war-torn countries and destitute situations. Quite often, they have never recieved a gift before, and have none of the things we consider basic 'necessities'. Because of the humanitarian nature of their distribution, Samaritans Purse is allowed to go into countries that wouldn't otherwise let outsiders in. China and some middle Eastern countries come to mind. Anyway, the whole point of me telling you about this is that we are able to 'track' our boxes to their destination. Yesterday we found out that some of ours went to Zimbabwe! Our other boxes went to the Phillipines and Peru. Its very excited to actually have an idea of the places our boxes are going. I am thinking that the winter hats we packed in our boxes won't be used too much. :)

That Was Interesting

This weekend we had both cars inspected. (PA law) First the car, then the truck. On the way to pick up the truck, the car died. And, it appears that it has died for good. There is a small possibility that it will magically start up tonight but its not looking good. Everything was frozen solid and there was not enough antifreeze in the car. So now, we are a one car family until we figure it all out. I know that there are a lot of worse things, but it won't be fun. Jeff works an hour away so that means he gets the truck. Seems how it is a whopping 9 degrees out today, I don't think we'll be walking anywhere. :) Ah, well, to use a famous Grandma quote "This too shall pass." Hopefully soon!!

Pictures!

Precious!!

Katie in her new dress
(If I had all the time in the world I would sew Katie a new dress every day! :)

More snow. I saw an idea somewhere to fill spray bottles with water/food coloring, and spray paint the snow. The kids liked that.

I think I will hang this one up somewhere prominent. It makes me laugh every time I see it.

They are definitely unique! :)

Childhood Memory: There's a What?!? In The Front Yard

I was reading James a little about owls early and it brought back memories of the time when a Great Horned Owl came to live in our weeping willow tree. The tree branches hung over the sidewalk and that owl would look down at us as curiously as we looked at him. Or maybe he was thinking we were the biggest and tastiest looking mice he'd ever seen. I must have been pretty young, because that owl seemed so big to me. When leaving for the bus stop, I would look up to see if he was there. I don't know how long he stayed, but Dad said that it wasn't long before the rabbit population disappeared. I do remember picking apart the owl droppings with a stick to see what it had eaten. Just a handy little thing I learned from my Sunday School teacher, Mr. Harris. If you ever want to see mouse bones, you know where to look! (You can thank me later :) Another thing we found occasionally in our front yard was a random assortment of livestock. Our neighbors horse had a knack for unlatching the gate and would sometimes come over and graze. One morning I walked out for school to see what I am pretty sure were cows in our front yard. (I remember cows, but it might have been horses) They looked like giants to me and I ran back in the house. I was so scared. I remember my parents telling me just to walk around them and go to the bus stop and sure enough, they did me no harm. You just never know what you are going to find in your front yard!

Dad's Sermon

Here's the link to Dad's sermon: click here.

Sopapilla Lament

Jeff and I found a really good Mexican restaurant when we went away for our anniversary. It was quite exciting, really, given the fact that there are no decent Mexican restaurants in the area. Upon entering the restaurant, we were encouraged to find that the wait staff actually spoke Spanish. That's always a good sign. I ordered 'El Grande Especial' because I figured either go big or go home. It was pretty funny when we got our orders. Jeff received his platter of food: two chimichangas with rice and beans. I got my order, and it was so big it came on two platters!! Mmmmm....it was good. No, I didn't eat it all and fortunately we were able to make use of the redneck method of refrigeration: leave it in the car overnight=frozen food. We were quite excited to see 'Soft and Fluffy Sopapillas' listed on the menu. Emphasis on SOFT and FLUFFY. You see, apparently a good sopapilla is hard to find. (On the East Coast, anyway.) When we have found Mexican restaurants here, they serve a fried tortilla with whipped cream and fake chocolate sauce. Don't forget the maraschino cherry! Talk about major, life altering disappointment. :) Thus the reason we were thrilled to see the listing for SOFT and FLUFFY sopapillas. However, when we received our order, we were disappointed to find that their definition of soft and fluffy was more along the lines of flat and crispy. I have to say that whatever it was was a bit thicker than a tortilla, but barely. And fluffy? Fuggedaboudit! We laughed so hard I almost choked on my food. Our poor waitress must have wondered what was up. They actually did put honey on it, but it was not a real sopapilla. It was even more amusing when we saw 'soft and fluffy sopapilla' listed on our bill. I think we have given up all hope of ever finding a good one around here. I think I need to become my own full service Mexican restaurant. Until then, I will have to settle for fried tortillas with Hershey syrup. Ick!

Random Bits

• Tyler now know plays peek-a-boo, says 'Uh-oh' all the time, and several other words
• He still hasn't learned that he word 'No' does, indeed, apply to him
• Katie bought a package of 9 'wings' (rings) from the dollar store, which she wears...all at once...and gets upset if one of her 'wings' falls off
• James is mad that the snow hasn't melted off his 'farm' so he can do his farm chores
• Jeff spent the weekend fixing both of our cars in the 29 degree weather. Despite my fervent prayer that the Impala would somehow roll out into the street and get hit by the trash truck (while Jeff wasn't working on it, of course), the car has now been restored to its previous condition (AKA Running, but barely)
• Dad preached at church yesterday, and I actually listened to him! (unlike the days of my youth when I was not in the least bit interested in listening to my Dad preach) It was a darn good sermon, I might add. I brought James up with us so he could hear his Chappy preach and for the first half, he sat there like a little man, hands folded and listening intently. After that, he stayed quiet by drawing pictures on the bulletin. (I have drawn MANY a picture on church bulletins...in fact I used to draw the backs of peoples heads and make Mom guess who they were. Good ol' Evora Rippey wouldn't flinch during an entire sermon so she was quite an easy subject.)
• See, I told you that would be random! So random, I can't even come up with a cohesive conclusion. Have a good one!
  

More Garden Pics

Some of the lights: the pictures don't do it justice

This garden was closed, but we could see a lot of it from the gate. It reminded me of chocolate cakes dusted with powdered sugar!

In the 'Silver' garden: the really tall cactus was called 'Mexican Fence Post,' and you can see the 'Old Man Cactus' on the bottom (there was also a similar, furry palm tree called the Old Man Palm Tree) The Christmas tree in there was very pretty, with Dusty Miller and sage interspersed through a blue spruce (?)

In the orchid room: its smelled very good in there!

Big Leaf Hydrangea looks like shooting stars; funny sign at the Children's Garden, Jeff posing with a flower in his 'hair' and I use that term loosely ;)

In the Children's Garden: the pelican fountain was my favorite; Jeff pretending to be trapped inside the tunnel

In the Children's Garden

A Christmas Tree for the wildlife: everything was edible! Not surprisingly, this tree was full of birds.

One end of the beautiful library: all of the book shelves had glass doors, and there was a hidden door to a powder room at the other end.

Longwood Gardens was built by Pierre Dupont who owned the Dupont company, and helped run General Motors. He was, by my highly scientific estimation, filthy stinkin' rich. He gave lots of money away to the community, and poured who knows how much cash into his Longwood estate. He was fascinated by both plants and water, and so he made sure he was surrounded by both...in large quantities! From what we heard, he designed a good deal of the water fountains himself. (They were closed while we were there) The Duponts loved to have people visit the gardens and set up a structure to enable to the gardens to go on in perpetuity. Its pretty amazing that a) someone had enough money to do something like this, and b) that he wanted to make sure it was always open to visitors. I look forward to seeing it again in the spring or summer.

Longwood Gardens Trip!

This weekend we took a little trip for our anniversary. My parents bravely volunteered to take the kids overnight, so this was our first ever trip sans kids. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) They survived, by the way, and I don't mean the kids. Mom and Dad, that is. When we went to pick them upDad said that Tyler is very, very active. He even said that he doesn't think he has ever seen a kid so active. Dad had actually put his pills up on a high shelf so Tyler couldn't get to them, and guess what? The little bugger did. Fortunately they caught him in the act and no harm was done. The kid is definitely a fearless climbing fool.

Back to our trip, we went to Kennett Square, PA and visited Longwood Gardens. Even though we only saw about a third of it, we were impressed!! It is spectacular. We went in the afternoon and walked around everything that was open. We went back after dinner and saw the amazing lights. There are lights everywhere and it was quite beautiful. There is one room that was really amazing. We walked in and it was like a tropical forest with huge palm trees and interesting plants. It was dark, and it looked like a million green stars were twinkling everywhere: on the ceiling, on the plants, on the walkway. There were special green light bulbs hidden beneath some of the plants that cast green sparkles everywhere. It kind of looked like a million green fireflies. Each room of the conservatory had a different climate: desert, Mediterranean, rainforest, etc.. Everything was still decorated for the holiday season and each room had a living wreath appropriate to the climate.

My favorite wreath: covered in cactus and hens and chicks.

This is the largest room in the conservatory. You can see on the top left a huge Christmas tree at the end of a series of pools and fountains. The bottom left picture is a living tree made from cyclamen plants.



This is the DuPont summer house. The small picture on the left is their pantry....its quite a pantry. They have so much china its ridiculous. The large black safe in the bottom right picture is their silver safe (in the pantry). The picture on the top right is the built in towel drier. Below that is their HUGE fireplace which has a swinging arm for the kettles to hang on.

This is inside the DuPont's personal conservatory which connects the two wings of their summer house. Nice, huh?


Here is a display of some of Mrs. DuPont's miniature collection. There were even tiny (and I do mean TINY) wine goblets and a centerpiece of holly in the middle of the table.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow, which might be a bit overkill but it was just so darn pretty! I promise to post a picture of 'Old Man Cactus,' which is pretty amusing.

Just Right

We got the perfect amount of snow this morning. Just enough to play in, but not enough to make a big mess. We took out the awesome sled that my mom found in someones trash. (Seriously, who throws this kind of stuff away?!) This was Tyler's first experience really playing in the snow and he really liked it, especially when I pulled he and James along in the sled. Katie spend her time making tiny little snowballs and giving them to everyone. James spent his time throwing snowballs at everyone else. When we got back, James helped our neighbor clean off both of his cars. James thinks that is just the funnest thing, and he made sure to take frequent breaks to pelt poor Bud with snowballs. Luckily, Bud throws them right back! James was even happier when he came home $2 richer. :)

You Are My Sunshine

Roping Dummy

James got a rope for Christmas: a 'cowboy' rope, as he calls it. Not too long before that, he had found instructions in our Family Fun magazine for making a steer skull out of a milk carton. Its one of those crafts that, despite the simple instructions, its obvious that they did more to make theirs look as nice as it does. However, ours isn't to shabby although he could use a coat of spray paint. Around the same time we made this plastic/tinfoil/masking tape creation, James expressed that he wanted something to practice roping. In the interest of protecting his younger siblings, we decided on a solution. We bolted the steer to a heavy cardboard box, and voila! A roping dummy. I am sure pretty soon I will be having cowboys lined up down the street wanting to purchase one of these things! Ha, ha!

Snow Pictures

Its been about a week since our snow storm, and I've finally uploaded the pictures. As you can see, James and I took turns pelting each other with snow. I really need to get snow pants, because jeans get wet really quick!

This past Saturday, we went on a walk through Five Mile Woods, which is about as close to the 'great outdoors' as you can find around here. It was really fun! We looked for, and found deer, rabbit and cross country ski tracks. The kids stopped and climbed on just about every fallen log, and Tyler enjoyed riding in the backpack.

Bumpy Weekend

This weekend was rife with mishaps. Tyler banged his head on the table, leaving a nice bruise on his forehead. Katie was doing acrobatics while she was supposed to be sitting still in time out and she fell on her forehead, leaving a bump and a scratch. James decided it would be a grand idea to put his arms inside his footie pajamas while spinning around on our desk chair. He fell like a lead balloon, with no arms to reach out and buffer his fall. He earned himself a pretty mean couple of bumps on the side of his face. (We have laminate in our house...no carpet to soften the fall) And then, during a particularly raucous game of 'Who can find Waldo first?' James was sitting in my lap and we were racing to find Waldo. I had found him the first couple times, and James was really itching to find him first on the next page. I said 'I see him!!!' and James said 'Awww, no!' and threw himself back, managing to connect his incredibly unyielding noggin with my eye/cheek bone. It hurt really, really bad. And now, I am sporting a black eye to prove it. Fortunately its not too bad, but I'm sure it'll look pretty as it turns all the lovely shades that bruises do. (Incidently, this is my second black eye in 30 years, and the other one was also obtained while playing with James.) Send the bubble wrap and helmets, we need them!!!