Corndogs on China

At our house there are usually three types of eatingware: paper plates for eating outside and those times when there are no clean dishes in the cupboards. The everyday dishes for well, most everyday. And the fancy dishes that come out about once a year from the boxes they are stored in. I usually make a nice dinner about this time of year and pull out the China from the said boxes in the rarely used highest cupboard. Last week I put dinner in the crockpot, set the table then left for a few hours. Little did I know that I turned the knob to "Off" on the crockpot instead of "Low. I came home to a not very cooked dinner and five hungry people waiting for their dinner. The fastest thing I could think of to cook was corndogs (which I don't really like to buy, but sometimes four year olds are so convincing when you are shopping. Especially the picky ones). So, there you have it, corndogs on China.

Fall comes

leaves on trees begin to turn,

then like a huge gust of wind

it's cold, rainy and gray.

Fall comes again

after the storm

even more brilliant than the first time.

Bright red, yellow and orange burst

from trees.

The sky is so blue, the bluest crayon

couldn't add more color.



There is something I like about every season, but I think there are more things a like about fall. In my opinion it is very near to perfect.

The World is an Exciting Place When You Learn to Walk

First Day of School

For some unkown technical reason I haven't been able to post pictures- for a long time. So here are a lot of them.

Fun Things from Labor Day

Triathlon Pictures- from a long time ago

A Missing Tooth

After the tooth came out she said, "now I have a place to rest my tounge."

"Sometimes you get tempted to make
something wonderful even better but
in doing so you lose what was so
wonderful to begin with."
-from the book Everything on a Waffle
by Polly Horvath

Another Insight

After sweeping up
*cheerios
*sunflower seeds
*very small pieces of couscous
*and potting soil
it seems that a person deserves one of those
chocolate melting cakes, or something like that.

My visiting teacher gave me this quote yesterday. I really like it.
" I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that had mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails form helping to weed someones garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

A Few Insights

The following is a list of things that I have gained a few things from (at least I think I have).
There may or may not be any importance to any of these things. I'd like to think there is some importance, nontheless, here you go.

*Watching a seven year old learn to ride a bike is fun.

*It's okay to lose a tooth when you are four, even if you are not five yet.

*Remember your take home box of food from the restaurant because you paid for the food.

*Remember to grab the take home box off the top of your car after you buckle your kids in, (before you drive away).

*Read the fine print on all coupons and most major documents.

*Recycling is good.

*If your feet hurt, sit down (easier said than done).

*Sometimes giving things away for a good cause is good too.

Nothing to profound, but take it for what it's worth.

Advice from little people (who may or may not know everything)

Green thingys in food are not acceptable.

Here is a random quote for the week
"Mom, I need to find the Sleeping Beauty doll so we can play the Moses game!"
(????)
Maybe we need to review our Bible stories and fairy tales.

Something Like a Magnetic Field

There's something about babies and the toilet paper roll in the bathroom. I'm guessing it's some sort of magnetic field that pulls them in whenever they are crawling by the open door. Every little person I have known (mostly those living in my house) have loved this activity. This particular baby especially likes to tear the paper into small pieces and throw them around the room while laughing with delight. Talk about cheap entertainment.

One is Fun

Something Satisfying

A garden can be discouraging or very satisfying. Our garden is becoming more satisfying this week as it now looks like a garden instead of a weed patch. And..... the things we planted this spring are GROWING! Like things are supposed to do in a garden. It really does help if you water and weed and that sort of thing. I'm looking forward to the satisfying taste of the end result. Thanks Mom for the million weeds you helped pull.

Happy Thirty-something!

Pictures From a Picturesque Place

We had a fun trip last week- hiking, climbing, playing staying out of the downpours in creative covers, drying out, eating and having a good time being together. I did consider packing up and leaving exactly two times. The first being the time my husband got a two inch sliver in his thumb from one of our tent polls then promptly fainted after pulling it out. The second being the time I was standing under our screened-in tent porch during a thunderstorm waiting for everyone to come back, my little boy to go to sleep in the tent and for the torrential rain and wind to stop getting me wet. The screened-in tent porch was pittance compared to the storm. But the sun came out, and everything seemed better. The amazing landscape we saw is just that, amazing. Pictures don't do it justice.You have to be there to understand its amazingness.

Thanks everyone for making our adventure a lot of fun.

I think spring may have decided to come, maybe. Or possibly the weather may decide to skip straight to summer, none of this pleasant seventy-degree-and-no-rain weather for a few days. Although I do like not having to worry about watering the vegetation in our yard.
Last weekend was very nice weather. Especially for a triathalon. Some of us had a fun time watching and others of us had fun time racing (there were moments of questioning their sanity during the race but afterward said it was worth it.) It takes a lot of preparation to race in a triathalon. Good work to the racers. I will have pictures later. Thank you to those who remembered to bring their cameras all the way to the race and not bring it close to the race and leave it in your parked car half a mile away.

A Sunny Place to Be

Happy Birthday to a Sweet Seven Year Old!

Spring?

I don't ever remember coming in from outside after mowing the lawn and having my fingers get the itchy tingly feeling from being so cold. I think it is still May. The calendar says so. Mr. Winter must be asleep in the back freezer while Mrs. Spring is late coming back from her vacation in Bermuda (from a good picture book I read). Well it's nice to see the the flowers bloom and the trees blossom. Here's some spring pictures anyway. Even if it's snowing outside my window.

Spring

I love the colors that appear every spring.
It amazes me that the plants know when to pop up
out of the cold barren ground after a long winter.

Spring is:
Beautiful
Warm
Sometimes Cold
Colorful
Fragrant
Trees bursting with
Green
Wet
Renewing
Windy
A time to play
and dig your fingers
and toes in the dirt,
and smell the flowers.

The answer is 49

As a parent of young children you are supposed to know all things, right? There is a never ending list of questions. Are you a mermaid? Is it night in China? What land are we in? What does it mean when there is an "N" and an "O" and then a dot? And one of my favorites, where is that plastic thing that goes to the thingy?

It's Easier to Breathe With Two Less Teeth

When asked how it felt with two missing front teeth, the answer was,

" it's easier to breathe because there is a hole."

A Day in a Life of a Cat and Pictures You Didn't Know Were on Your Camera

The lost art of kitchen appliances--and other things

This is a silly thing to write about, but as you noticed if you kept reading I'm going to anyway. I inherited this awesome egg beater a few weeks ago. No plugs, cords or motors to burn out and stop working. Total kitchen appliance awesomeness! There should be a campaign to make more kitchen gadgets like this. I also inherited these nice dishes. They have a long history, coming from Japan a long time ago.
Another thing I am excited about------ SPRING! And possibility of playing outside, a lot. Hopefully soon without coats.

Sometimes you need to go for a walk with a waffle

It was one of those days when everything seems to come at you at once. Dinner, dishes, hungry kids. The natives where getting restless. So I asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk. I also asked if anyone wanted a snack while we were on our walk. I asked what we should have for a snack. The answer was, " A waffle!" We had a nice walk to the end of our street carrying waffles with peanut butter on top.

Random Wednesday Thoughts Part II

Some random pictures.
Some random quotes:
"I'm glad we buy salsa and have mints. That's why I like my family."
"Soup should sweat, then it wouldn't be so hot."
"Everyone in the world likes eggs...except Santa Claus."

Locking yourself out in the middle of winter- not a very good idea

Today I was very thankful for a lot of things.
*Very nice neighbors who didn't mind entertaining, feeding and visiting for most of the day.
* A warm house to be in
*Huggies diapers because it takes a lot for them to leak.
This morning three of us went down the street to visit some neighbors. I, thinking I didn't need a key because I would go in through the garage, locked the door and left my keys inside. The door in the garage is usually open. Not today. I did have some toy keys. Those don't work to open the door. My nice neighbors visited with us, helped me try to get in our house, feed us lunch and snacks, brought out toys and watched movies with us. It was quite a nice day actually. My kids were well behaved despite the situation and I got to know my neighbors better, I also realized you can't do laundry, dishes or pick up toys if you can't get in your house. I'm also thankful for a husband who came home early to let us back inside.

Somethings got to give if you want to eat your lunch

Someone in our household who shall remain nameless came home a few days ago and shared this experience. This individual put their lunch in the microwave at work and left to take care of a few things and forgot about the lunch until driving home from work. A call was made to a co- worker still at work to see if the forgotten lunch was still in the microwave and "could they please put it back in the fridge for later consuption?" Signs that you have to much to think about.

Random Wednesday Thoughts

Sometimes things are so busy it seems there is not time to do much of anything. Usually when there is time. I'm too tired to catch up on things. I count my blessings though and try to look for the small and simple things. Yesterday my husband came home from work in the afternoon- and made dinner! For which I was very grateful. Dinner was also delicious. More so because someone else made it. We have a warm home. We have good food and clothes. We have three good kids. I have a family who loves and cares for me. Sometimes those things are good to remember.

Random quote for the week: "I want to play with the balls because I'm feeling spiky!"

Twenty or Two Thousand?

This is my burning question for today. Is it twenty-ten or two thousand-ten? Not that it really matters. I hope you all out there had a nice New Year celebration and a fun, happy Christmas. We had both. Having small children to celebrate with makes celebrations fun. Everything is exciting. It also makes things interesting. I often wonder what makes the wheels turn inside their little heads. The following quote from a three year old may illustrate this point. Said while walking down the aisle at Lowes: "You get the brains over there and then we'll pack up our stuff." It was then repeated when I did nothing but keep walking. Luckily it was forgotten by the time we made it to the next aisle. I was relived I didn't have to pack up the brains.