A Day in the Kitchen - Or a Day of Home Learning

Today has been a day spent in the kitchen. It has been calm, quiet and uneventful. Tuesdays are always really calm around here. The kids tend to hide away in their rooms playing with toys, reading books, colouring, and today bird watching - thanks to the rustic bird feeder my husband built for us over the weekend. There are few confrontations. Calm. This is my favorite day of the week. This is also the day that I get most of my chores done. Today's chores centered around the kitchen.

My mother had a huge, HUGE, turkey dinner on the weekend. Then she promptly left for a week holiday. Consequently, she left the enormous quantity of leftovers for me. :) I am very grateful as we have pretty much eaten our way through our freezer stockpile of curry's, soups, and stews. So, today saw me turning the leftovers into a gigantic pot of soup and another of curry. The house smells awesome.

Also, the kids and I attempted an all day cooking project: Almond milk, Almond Yogurt, Almond Flour. Yup. We are testing it all out. We started by soaking some Almonds. Then mixed it up to make Almond Milk. We had a taste test, but only twin1 and I enjoyed it. We took the residual, spread it onto a pan and dehydrated it making Almond Flour. It turned out perfectly and will be used to make some Almond cookies tomorrow. Yum. The untested Almond Milk had culture added to it and was put into the oven to ferment. Hmm. Not sure about this one, but we are always up for an experiment around here.

Eeek. I see the dinner hour is upon me, so I better get cooking, or rather, heating up again.

How to Stop Dad from Watching the NHL Playoffs?

My wife asked me to share this story with you. It was game six of round1 NHL Playoffs and I was at home with two sick boys. I made sure they had some dinner and entertainment, but not much was stopping from watching the game until, "Daddy bandaid." I looked over and there the toddler was holding a bandaid. This was a feat in itself because I didn't know he knew where they were and they were put away high up. I quickly looked him over, thinking he had cut himself some how. And like every father would think - Great, he has cut himself and I am going to be in trouble for not paying attention! I couldn't find a cut..whew? I asked him, "Where is the ouwie?" "My nose," he replied. He had solved his runny nose! Put a bandaid on it! And so we did. It didn't stop running :(

Toddler Problem Solving

We Say Goodbye to Our Friend -

Horsey. He has been a companion, first to my husband and then to my toddler. He is greatly missed. Oh the thrills, mine resulting with my heart in my throat, you gave us all.

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I have been told that playing with feet is quite normal in the baby world. However, she is my first, and I guess only, child to do this. I am fascinated by it, and I guess so is she.

Who won?

I told this guy that he had to eat his dinner or he would go to bed. Well...he did go to bed. Does that mean I won, or is it a tie?

Her favorite place - with mom.

This guy is quite the artist and builder.

If ever there was an animal in trouble, this guy would come to the rescue.

Decisions

A lot of decisions being made around here. Kitchen reno to accompany the new roof? Does the entire roof need replacing, or just a cleaning and re-shingling? Where to register the kids for school next year? Curriculum choices? What activities to participate in? Planning for cross-country RV trip? Yard clean up and garden preparation and planting? Family time? Dinner? Simplifying life? Taxes? It is exhausting. And no real decisions are being made.

I am reading an interesting book called Simplicity Parenting. It is good. I believe the main premise is that kids are overly stressed and acting out because they are not allowed to be kids and are exposed to too much - too busy, too much media, too many obligations, too many adult decisions, too much choice, too many toys. Boredom is not a bad thing, but the precursor to creativity. And creativity is a pressure release. As a result, I have been purging the house of broken or unused items (decisions).

All this simplifying emerged out of the letting go of my teaching position (another decision). I am officially unemployed. This resulted in the mental allowance to finally pitch all the teaching supplies I had been keeping. 7 huge boxes whittled down to 1. Needless to say, we had a lot of recycling this week and a lot of book donation. It is amazing how it feels to let go of all that stuff.

We have also been organizing all the baby stuff to pass on to my sister. Baby stuff takes up so much room.

Well, back to the decision making.

You Have Got to be Kidding Me!

Last weekend was a beautiful day. Gorgeous. In fact, that was the day we walked on the river with my nephew. He was still visiting and all 4 boys were out riding bikes in the front having a great time together. The baby chose this time to finally sleep longer than 40 minutes; however, this was making us late for dinner at her house. The twins were going to have a sleep over with Nan and Papa. Woohoo. I ran inside to phone mom and tell her the baby was sleeping and we were going to be late. I was not gone for more than 2 minutes. I am sure of it. But, when I headed back outside, 3 boys were staring at twin1 who was pulling his pants up with a huge smile on his face. I am thinking, oh well, he watered the grass. Nope. "Mom, I pooped!," he announced with pride. My mouth dropped. He pooped on the grass, right beside the road....and I mean he pooped. As a stiffled a laugh, I lectured about bacteria in people poop and how inappropriate it was....

Wouldn't you know it, a few days later we were hiking and twin1 stopped in the middle of the path bug eyed. I asked what was the matter. He had to go - now. I shuffled him over to the side of the path and whipped down his pants. He was very concerned, "but, mom, what about the bacteria?" I of course did not have a bag to clean up the poop this time. Next time, I will though. Hmmm. Sometimes, you just can't win.

Too Cute

Yup. He fell asleep on the stairs. Very cute. My husband discovered him when we took the twins to bed.

A walk on the river

(If you are wondering, this is twin1's rescue pack. He decorated it with eyes and a mouth and collects various things with it - today it was rocks.)
We took advantage of a gorgeous day. Picked out my nephew and away we went. We picked rocks, threw rocks, drew pictures, found secret paths, climbed tree stumps.... Fun.

A Thank You

I have had a number of posts in my head for some time, but we have been oh so busy enjoying spring. Yesterday we hiked up to a local lookout. It is pretty steep. All three boys made it the entire way and I carried the baby in the Ergo. We enjoyed the view for a while then headed back down. I carried the toddler on my back in the Ergo and carried the baby in my arms. I was sure my legs and arms were going to fall off. The twins had a blast. They ran ahead and back. They noticed birds and moss. They imagined panda bears and a jungle. Just beautiful. I do not, however, think I will do that again for a few days until my muscles heal. We have been getting the garden ready. Manure just needs to be tilled in today. Then we are ready to plant our cold veggies. We have been rock picking a couple times. The river is beautiful. We even spyed a bald eagle. We have to enjoy the river while we can before the spring runoff begins because it will all soon be under water. Then, off to the beach. Speaking of beaches, we visisted the ocean last weekend and played around for a bit. We dug for clams and walked out on the pier. We searched for crabs and shells. It was a beautiful day. So, like I said. We have been busy enjoying life.

Well, enough of life. Here is my thank you to my cousin. Who saved us with our recent journey into strict eating habits. He introduced us to Lentil flour and I am not sure we will ever turn back. It tastes wonderful. Here is a montage of the preparation and consumption of some Banana Pancakes.


If you wait until the banana's are really ripe. No extra sugar is needed.

They no not puddle like real pancakes, so you do have to spread them around with a spoon.

The toddler loves these. He is a pretty picky eater, but has waited in anticipation of these for the last week and a half. Wonderful.

This guy even gave them the wiggle dance approval. Now that is good. We know when he really like something because he wiggle dances while he eats.
This guy gobbled them down so fast, I had to ask him to come back so I could take his picture.

Thanks again.

Crawling

We have a new crawler around here. Eeek. I am not ready for this. She isn't moving far, but she is moving forward.

New Favorite Thing

Home made Playdough

1c flour
1/4 c salt
2 T creme of Tar Tar
1 T oil
1c water

Mix and cook on med until firm. Knead. Voila. Hours of fun.

The Littles

Yup. The many faces the toddler can make. This is about the extent of life with him these days. He has officially mastered the pout.



And here is the baby. Too cute. She has 2 teeth and rolls all over the place. My husband had her laughing the other night and she has a full hearty laugh. She is happy as long as I am in view. She loves to roll around on the floor and is practicing some knee raises - which I am not happy about.

This week was extremely busy. My sister and her husband came out and we drove to listen to a talk he was giving. He did a great job. Getting all the kids dressed, out the door, and then sitting for the talk wore us out, though. Then we headed off for a wonderful family dinner at The Great's. We attended a memorial for the passing of a family member. Finally, the twins headed up for their last ski trip with Nan and Papa. Alas, this week we learned about life and the value of family.

On a sad note, we had someone to look in on our attic situation. Not enough vents were put in and the entire roof will have to be replaced...ug. Perhaps we will make some changes to the roof line that we can finish later on down the road when we have money again.