Just try and beat this cuteness

This is Libby doing yoga.

You might recognize the white rectangle under her feet as a Wii balance board.
You might even recognize her yoga move.
It's a sun salutation. It's also her favorite. She's been caught trying to do it without the Wii Fit just because she felt like doing it again.
She works really hard at doing it right. This of course is not the sun salutation. It's a sit up maneuver that I don't even try to do. She doesn't care if it's hard. She just wants to play with the Wii like everyone else.

His Head is Banging

Joshua recently discovered his dad's old Queensryche album. He steals my boom box and carries around the house with Queensryche turned up as loud as he dares listen to it. (seriously outdated term here. Is there another one or am I just a loser because I can't say he steals my iPod dock? and are we even bigger losers because he's listening to the original tape and not a CD even? Is the oringal tape vintage cool now? Should I not even mention that I still have the boom box Steve bought me for Christmas when we were engaged that doesn't even have a CD player, just a double tape deck? It does have a mic jack though so if you have the right cord it can be used as an MP3 player speaker thingy. We have the right cord. See? We're not totally stuck in 1985.)

The other day Joshua had a friend over. He told his friend to listen to the album because it was cool. (And you're missing out because you can't hear Joshua say cool. He says it in this intense, breathy way like being cool is the very best thing anything could be.) The friend listens for a minute and says, "hey, that sounds like the songs on Guitar Hero."

These boys make me feel old.

Sometimes it takes me awhile

just as a reminder, we don't get very good TV reception. PBS only. Which means there's not a lot for me to watch during the day. Unless I want to spend the time between 1 and 3 watching a bad art show, a mediocre cooking show, and last night's Charlie Rose, there's nothing for grown ups until 7pm.

We also have an elliptical machine. It sort of faced the side of the entertainment center so you could kind of see a small bit of the tv if you craned your neck just right, which meant falling off the elliptical.

This meant that I had two things available to me to distract me from the fact that I was trying to kill myself through pain and torture: the clock and a book. The clock is a bad idea. the second hand moves too slowly and I feel every tick of the minute hand as a slow, rising burn in my thighs. The book is slightly better, but only slightly because I bounce on an elliptical. lots. The words get a bit shaky and hard to follow. I tried reading scriptures and exercising at the same time. Those tiny little lines are tough to read when they are bouncing up and down. I burned through my reading quickly but it's hard to get anything from it when I spent the last half of my reading time breathing fake curses under my breath and re-reading the last verse because the meaning of it escaped me the first three times through it.

Until yesterday. When I remembered that the eleptical is actually right next to my computer. The computer that has Hulu.com and instant viewing from Netflix. I've managed to up my exercise time by ten minutes just by forcing myself to keep going through two episodes of a sitcom. Of course, that means that Libby has to come and click the "next" and "full screen" buttons for me on the Netflix viewer, but hey, having a four year old who can read has to be good for something, right?

I did some sewing this afternoon. I had this jumper cut out for Libby and i whipped it together in under an hour, standard stupid mistake included. (because I can't sew anything without making at least one stupid mistake and it's always different.)

Isn't she cute? She loves the jumper. Unfortunately, I forgot to measure for length and it's a bit shorter than than I like her dresses to be. Luckily the whole leggings with dresses thing is still popular. ;) The photo above is my favorite from this afternoon, however, Libby herself is more partial to the one below:Of course, she's four and sometimes her taste is a bit suspect.

She writes too.

There's something about learning to read that makes children want to write as well. At least my children. Libby's reached that stage, now. Right now, she's sitting next to me with a drawing she did writing "once a upon a time" across the top.

Learning to read stories makes them all want to write stories, too.

At least my kids.

BTW, I forgot to take pictures of most of my Christmas gifts. I will try to get pics of the ones I gave the kids soon. I'm going to have to beg for pictures of the bunnies from my sister. They were really adorable.

Only Steve

could make de-boning turkey soup into an anatomy lesson.

Steve cooks on Sunday. We had a turkey carcass in the fridge that absolutely had to be used by Sunday. I helped him make soup. This meant that he got to do the yucky job of separating out the meat from the bones after the broth had boiled for several hours. H started pulling out bones and naming the parts to the kids. He pointed out all the different parts of a back bone and talked about how it related to a human back bone. He even told the kids what part of the body the wishbone is, something I didn't even know. (It's the bird's collar bone.)

Sarah and Joshua were fascinated.

I just had to laugh. Only Steve would find a way to make bird bones interesting.

Everything is Cuter When It's Small

Especially houses.

It opens up to show a little front yard and a wild wallpaper. This is a doll house I made for one family of nieces and nephews. There are four kids all under eight in the family. I think they will enjoy this. I followed the pattern on the blog UK Lass in the US.
I made mine a little bit bigger, 5x5x7 rather than 4x4x6. If I were to make one that size again it would be a 5x5x8 because of the construction method the bigger side would be easier to work with. I will be making another one for Libby because I think she would fall apart if she doesn't get one complete with a bunny family to go inside. (She's sitting on my lap reading as I type and just giggled and danced at the very mention of it.) I will also be doing either button tabs or velcro tabs in the future because the elastic was so hard to work with and I'm having a hard time with one loop in particular. I am also making a little barn (shown in the same link) for my nephew for Christmas.

If you do want to make one of these, keep in mind they take a long time to make. I invested over six hours in that house yesterday. I think a second one won't take quite so much time, but I don't think I'll save much more than an hour if I'm lucky.

They are worth it though. :) This house is the epitome of cuteness.

All Done

With the Christmas dresses anyway. I still have several more projects to do.

Sarah looks cute doesn't she?

She says thank you.

She likes to curtsy too. I think she's the one that taught it to Libby actually. Notice the cummerbund just like her sisters? I'm feeling particularly clever these days. You should see the doll dress that looks exactly like one of Libby's summer dresses right down to the orange ribbon. (You probably will after Christmas. It's a present.)

oh and spin. Every girl loves to spin. She has a bow in back too.


We started a little later than I wanted to when we headed out, but the positive side was I got sunset pictures.

Another mouth to feed

This is Leo.

Leo is just your average orange tabby. He's also a bit camera shy so this is the best I've got. It's not even Caterday worthy. We'll have to work on that.

He's technically Joshua's cat. We had a friend who had managed to acquire too many pets and asked us to take one of their cats for them. They offered the cat that Josh had bonded with this summer. He's cuddly and playful, not mean in anyway. He also doesn't really like Peaches, but he'll just have to deal with that.

If it weren't for the fact that his litter box stinks to high heaven all the time, I'd be 100% for the little guy. I can't handle litter box stench. Joshua is required to clean it out every morning and we're using expensive "multiple cat" litter. Not helping. What's also not helping is the fact that the cat keeps missing. How can he not know his butt's in the wrong place?

As soon as he's fixed (Thursday) he'll be more of an indoor/outdoor cat and hopefully that will translate to less litter box stench. I need less stench.

Marilla's Christmas Dress

I finished Marilla's dress! I'm losing a bit of steam lately on these projects I need to get moving faster if I'm going to be done with all my Christmas projects in time.

anyway, same pattern as Libby's, and to be frank the same size around, but a size 6 in length. Rilla's a skinny one. ;)
Gotta have the big bow. Rilla's sash is cut from the border design, so I left them rectangular to show off the print better.

With Rilla's I also cut the bodice from the border and left her cummerbund removable. I doubt we'll ever wear it without the cummerbund, but it does give us another option if we want it.

Detail shot of the edge of the skirt. I do love this fabric. I love the green and black and gold on this. So pretty.

And of course, the doll, Gracie, got a matching dress!

Whew! Now onto Sarah's. Hers is turquoise and her border design has elephants in it. She wants a cummerbund and full skirt as well. We chose the pattern for the bodice style we like and I'll cut a skirt in a basic rectangle to fit like we want it to fit. The rectangle shape isn't the most flattering skirt shape but it has to be that way so we don't cut off the poor elephants.

Nothing To Say

Really. I feel like I need to update my blog but nothing much has happened this week worth reporting.

I have a few more wrestling pictures from Sarah's last match. She lost both matches but she fought hard. Both wrestlers were more experienced than she is and were able to control the match.

Joshua is obsessed with paper airplanes. He makes several a day, throws them around the house, and then leaves them there on the floor. He keeps trying to find the perfect paper airplane, whatever that means.

Rilla is excited to get to try on her Christmas dress today. I'll be sewing in the zipper today and finishing the cumberbund. It looks like Libby's except hers is green.

Matt is still a spelling freak. Libby brought home magnetic letters from a library reading class this week and it's Matt who plays with them. He loves to spell words. Word World on PBS is his favorite TV show.

Libby decided to make a shopping list this week. We needed TOES (toys) and a princess car. She is writing more words now that she's more comfortable with reading. She's progressing well and is now about a mid 1st grade reading level.

Tomorrow we're going to do family pictures and we're going to the zoo. We tried to go last week but the Africa exhibit was closed and that's the reason we were going. I'm excited to get to use one of the parks in Boise for the pictures. I'll have lots to say next week, I'm sure.

She's a Winner

It was a pin in the second round. (Sarah's the one in red.)

She fought hard and was really tough. The other girl never had a chance really. Steve was so proud he could have burst. Of course, he spent the whole match yelling instructions to her from the stands. I doubt she could hear him, but he yelled them anyway.

She has at least a meet a week until the end of the season. I think she's even more excited now that she has a win notched in her belt.

Target practice

No really. I did go target shooting. I know, not exactly in my normal character. I'm a peer pressure pushover though, so when my friends decided the wives needed to join their husbands on the shooting range, I followed along.

I shot a 22 rifle, some pistol that I can't remember what it was, a Glock with a silencer (that was easier than the one without the silencer to aim,) a small .22 pistol, and the one that will make my brother jealous: an AR-15 assault rifle. Yeah, one of those army type guns.

I discovered that rifles are easier to aim than a pistol. that I need to shoot rifles left handed or I can't aim a thing. Being left eyed and right handed doesn't exactly line up the barrel right. But I did best with the big army gun because it had a scope. Once they adjusted the stock so it fit me, I did pretty well.

My friends were impressed anyway.

Steve was not impressed when the girls went the car and visited instead of watching the menfolk shoot clay pigeons. Apparently we were supposed to be sitting in the car ooohing and ahhhing over their rifle shooting prowess. He should have warned me.

I wish I had pictures but I forgot my camera. dang it. I totally planned to bring it and then didn't grab it before we left. It would have been cool to have a picture of my shooting the AR-15 right about here:





You'll have to use your imagination.

Libby's Dress

They match.

And you can cursty in it.
With the requisite big bow.

I think she's happy. Don't you?

Experimenting in the Kitchen

I have quite a bit of fresh herbs I rescued from my herb garden before it got too cold. Lots of lemon thyme (love it so much more than standard), mint, Oregano, and a bit of basil. I have no clue what to do with most of it now that it's sitting in my refrigerator. Today I decided to experiment a bit with the mint just for fun. This is what I came up with:

Creamy Mint Risotto

2 c Arborio rice

2 T butter

1/2 sweet onion, like Walla Walla or Vidalia, chopped fine
5 c chicken broth (aprox. 3 cans if that's what you use)
4 t finely chopped mint leaves
1/4 c Romano cheese
1/2 c sour cream

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and sprinkle with a dash of salt. Cook until onion is soft. Add rice and cook stirring until edges of rice turn translucent. Begin adding chicken broth. Start with 1 c. and stir until the broth is absorbed into the rice. Add rest of chicken broth 1/2 cup at a time, cooking until broth is absorbed between each addition. Cook until all broth is absorbed and the rice is soft and creamy. Reduce heat to low. Stir in mint and cheese then add sour cream.

I garnished mine with a mint sprig because I've got plenty, and served it with pork chops. I think it would also be good with chicken flavored with a mild marinade. Risotto can be heavy and rich, but the mint lightens the dish as a background note. It was very good. Let me know if you try it and like it.

Stupid

computer that is. I have no clue where the supposed "virus" is on my blog. I have no clue how it could have gotten on the page or why it's so "dangerous" when you don't actually download files from here, but whatever.

So if anyone can give me an idea of how to fix the virus warning I'm getting from my virus protection program, I'd love to know. It tells my it's in my temporary Internet files, but I can't get to the right folder to delete the problem. How do I get there, because the "my computer" file route isn't giving me what I need.

sigh.

and my bum still hurts. new guess is that I did break my tail bone rather than just bruise it. Lovely.

But in good news, I have Libby's Christmas dress half done and the matching doll dress completely done. I'm excited because they are matching what I pictured in my head when I planned them and I love it when that happens. Pictures coming soon.

Why you should ignore dirty towels after 11pm

I fell down the stairs Saturday night. thank you all for your sympathetic wincing. I do appreciate it. There were dirty dish rags in the sink, leftovers from the all day apple cider making marathon (50 quarts, btw.) I thought to myself, "I'll just take these downstairs and get them in the laundry now so the sink doesn't stink in the morning." Myself was interested in the idea and agreed to go along with it.

The dog agreed to go along with me too, although I didn't invite her. She decided to lead the way and then about halfway down the stairs she thought better of that without telling me. That's when I slipped. The first step wasn't that bad. It was the other two that did me in.

Luckily nothing is broken, but sitting is somewhat painful. So is walking. Standing's not so bad until my feet get tired.

I'm just so looking forward to sitting on the bleachers for Joshua's last football game tonight. I did manage to get out of church (yea! I got to lay down instead of sit on hard chairs for three hours.) but I don't think I'm getting out of this football game. He sort of needs me there.

Following in Daddy's (sport) Shoes

Sarah signed up for a sport today. She didn't tell us she was going to do this and she didn't really plan it. Some of her friends were going to sign up, so she joined in on a lark. One of the boys razzed them, not believing they would follow through and really join the team. This, of course, made Sarah even more determined to join.

So my daughter is now a wrestler. A wrestler. I'm still very uncertain about all of this. Part of me wants to put my foot down and tell her no, say it's not appropriate, good girls don't wrestle. Part of me is ready to go cheer her on. It's tearing me up.

Daddy, of course, is all for it. "Right on!" he said when he heard the news. He's very excited for her and happy she wanted to join the team.

The coach, strangely enough is happy to have girls on the team as well. He's already planning on the purchase of girls' singlets for the team. It surprises me that they make such a thing as girls' singlets, but I guess times have changed.

We're a long way from the instigation of Title 9. I guess we'll see how my girl does in the 105 weight class. She's strong and she's stubborn. Sort of like the perfect mix of her mom and her dad.

Following Through

I love to look at magazines. I especially love the ones like Better Homes and Gardens and Martha Stewart with their lovely picture perfect homes. I love the dinner party ideas with decorations and themes and great food. I always wanted to have a real dinner party with friends. I wanted them to show up dressed up and eat under candle light. I've wanted this for years.

Tonight I finally did it.

I served dinner to ten of my very best friends. We sat twelve at two tables pushed together. I always said my house was too small for parties but it fit us all just fine with the couch taken out of the living room. I made table clothes and napkins. I decorated with gourds and silk leaves and cute little acorns. I cooked all day and served, to be completely immodest, a very good four course dinner.

I had a moment when we sat down to eat, everyone paused just before the prayer, where I felt overwhelmingly grateful for the chance to be together as friends. I admit I teared up just a little. It felt so good to finally follow through.

There's something I've learned from my friends this year. It's something I thought I had learned back in college, to be honest. Just do it. You want to do something? You want to go somewhere? Just do it. We've had a great year with lots of socializing with lots of people. When my friends say "we need a girls' night." We all say "how's Saturday for you?" and it happens.

I love that.

I can be a very passive person. It has been a great lesson for me to break out of my shell and really actively pursue friendships and a social life. I've been a lot happier.

Two of our friends who sat at that table with us are moving shortly. We'll never again all sit around a table together. I can almost kick myself for not having a party sooner so this wouldn't have been the first party; it would have been the third or the fourth or whatever. I won't let time pass me by again.

I'm tired. My feet hurt. I never want to look at chicken cordon bleu again. I don't care because it was all worth it. I followed through and it was everything I hoped it would be.

I have a book, do you have a book?

My friend Helena sent us a present a while ago. She sent us The Happy Hocky Family. You need to have this book too. It's about a first grade reading level (slightly higher in places). Libby can read it and she loves it now.