Baseball and Climate Change

This post is about Archer. He loves the Yankees, and he works in climate science. This is an awesome video that unites both of these interests in a useful way. Also, it's fun to think that Archer has worked with/done research for the group that published this video! (NCAR)

 

Signs you Move Around a Lot

I know I am WAYY behind on updates and pictures, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the paper/virtual-paper tunnel, so maybe by Christmas I'll be up-to-date? 

In the meantime, we are considering/deciding where we will be next year, and thinking hard about where we should be after that, maybe, uh, permanently?!! 

I just can't help sharing this blog post from one of my favorite blogs about simple, home-made living called Small Notebook: 

18 Signs That You Move Around a Lot

Here are my additions:

19) You periodically look at your accumulated *stuff* and think, "We've gotta go through that so we don't have to move it again"

20) You invest in a high-powered scanner to eliminate the file-boxes of paper.*

21) Your "filing cabinets" are plastic boxes with handles from Target, and you have a hard-and-fast rule re: the total number of boxes tolerable.

22) Rather than paying for carpet cleaning or replacing carpet in your rental, you save up for a big, pretty, wool rug that will disguise the inevitable stains from 3 kids and a dog, protect your security deposit, and you can take it with you when you move!*

* Indicates my current household savings goals. :) 

Love to everyone! I do post a lot of pictures on facebook, so feel free to friend me if you know me in real life and you can see some chubby cheeks before I get this updated!

That last post was a one-year-old

At first I thought the blank blog post that just showed up in my rss feed must be the work of hackers.

Then I checked my phone, and remembered that in my laissez faire day yesterday, all 3 of my little girls got to play with my phone. And the blogger app was open. Heh.

Clara recently purchased a novel, deleted my livestrong.com app (for calorie/weight tracking), and now has written her first blog post.

She is giving her big sister Noelle a run for her money- Noelle only managed to purchase one Russian spy novel in her tenure as resident toddler-hacker.

More fun to come!

They came up with this themselves, I tell you!

I know, I am waaaayyyy behind on sorting and uploading pictures. The good news is that most of the people who read this blog have had some opportunity to see at least one of us in person this summer. But I know that for us, as well as for our beloved family, that is (almost) never enough.

So if I can manage the bandwidth, I will start with high-value per-upload: VIDEOS!

This is what our family is up to lately.

***************************************************

We have only girls. They do things like this. I promise I did not teach them this.

whisper whisper whisper

giggle

SCREAM WITH LAUGHTER!!!!!!

Noelle Plays with Fire

Independence Day in the state of Nebraska is one fantastic celebration. Last year we were surprised (pleasantly) by all the booms and sparks flying around town - and enjoyed just laying in bed (no mosquitos) and watching fireworks go off in the sky through our bedroom window.

Arch bought a few popping fireworks for the girls last year, but this year I wanted to join him in the shopping experience (a novelty to me). So the whole fam went down the street and surveyed all the explosives - COOL! We invested a whole $3 in snaps and sparklers and a few other little popping things, then raced home to our Independence Day block party! Once everyone had eaten and the sun went down, our neighbors and friends all got out our fireworks and started playing.

Suffice it to say, that at camp the following week, Noelle listed her favorite thing as "FIRE" and "FIREworks".

Starting off with snaps:

Then these stringy bottle-things:

As it got darker we started in on the sparklers:

And more sparklers:

She watched each one with the same intensity.

Again.

And again,

For hours,

and hours.

Really, this child should be in bed, but she is sooo excited about her fireWorks!

In her own words:

Some Summer Shorts

Lily learned how to tie her shoes in 2 lessons from Dad. When we recently went to buy her some new sneakers she requested shoes she could learn how to tie. How she feels about her new-found independence:

How cute she is accomplishing her feat (feet):

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This afternoon, I took a shower for 5 minutes (downstairs) while all three of my children were awake (upstairs). I came up to find: Noelle, playing happily with her baby dolls. Lily, cozied up in the guest room with soft things, and Clara:

playing in the toilet water, pulling off toilet paper and putting it (splashing it?) into the potty. Still, they all survived and she got washed, so I consider this a success.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This evening, my hubby bounces into the living room, "Hey guys, you want to see how the skin has layers?" The girls "oooh" and "aaaahhh" while he displays his peeling sunburn, and they discuss how dead vs. alive skin feels if you try to peel it.  My daughters will be looking for one-of-a-kind men. Real charmers.

Sparklers on Independence Day!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Have I mentioned that Noelle loves FIREworks? Oh, and Fire.

Peach Adventure: Part 1

So we ran out of my mother's famous peach jelly earlier this year. For those not blood-related to me, it is important to note that this peach jelly has been entered in the Texas State Fair. Why it didn't win is mind-boggling to me. It's like gold in a little sparkly jelly jar.

At our house, it is called "Ritter's Jam". And everyone wants it. Every time we have toast. Or biscuits. Or crepes. Or anything else that could possibly require jelly or jam. As a matter of course, I put other jams and jellies on the table, and leave Ritter's Jam in the fridge, hoping my jelly-gluttonous munchkins will not notice its absence. We pray. Lily will then sigh discontentedly with whatever other perfectly good jam options are on the table, and ask (maybe even whine?) for Ritter's Jam. Depending on the mood, either she or I will return to the fridge for the golden jar. Then I pull a Minerva* and spread a microscopic film of jelly on her toast, and anyone else's - provided they remember to ask nicely. No giving this stuff away for free. This is our last jar, girls.

In related news, most people are aware that I love to stockpile food. Especially in my freezer(s). When I went to a perinatal mood disorders clinic 2 years ago (in an attempt to prevent PPD) this habit was described as "obsessive compulsive tendencies". I thought this was hilarious. Not every mama of 2, being 6 months pregnant, had a freezer full of 50+ entrees and hundreds of muffins, breakfast cookies, and burritos? Anyway. I planned a garden this year for hours, only to be stopped in my tracks by the idea of protecting my produce from the prolific deer that live in the verysmallforest behind our house. So my grand ideas of canning hundreds of jars of tomato sauce were thwarted. So I decided to make peach jelly.

Determined to at least have enough jelly for my own family, I decided to make a double recipe, which would (according to my mother) make about 16 half-pints (8 cups) of jelly. I got the recipe. I called mom to clarify amounts. I called again from the store. She said 12 lbs for 1 batch. REALLY? 12 POUNDS of fruit for only 4 CUPS of jelly?!! No wonder she only gives me one jar a year!

I bought a 24lb box of peaches.

 I counted and weighed them. I called again. This sure is a lot of peaches!

Then I started chopping. I did not peel. But I chopped.

And chopped.

And chopped. 

This is my canner (aka REALLY HUGE POT) filled with chopped peaches.

Then I started cooking. All these peaches got cooked. Then with Superman's help I put them all into a clean pillowcase to drain out the juice. "Hey Mom? What do you do with all the leftover fruit after you squeeze out the juice? Surely you don't just throw it away?! This is a lot of fruit!"

Typical of my genetic inability to completely read directions prior to following them, I started to drain the peaches by hand. My sweet hubby came by to see how it was going, and noticed my statuesque behavior - it was SO HEAVY with just half the peaches I could hardly hold it up! Then I read the instructions to "tie it up and let the juice drain out, pressing lightly". So while I held the pillowcase against the microwave for support, Archer rigged up a juicer for me with a broom between two chairs:

The contraption was then covered with a king-size sheet, because I was NOT about to share my golden liquid with any annoying, disgusting flies.

Then I went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, I had 2.5 GALLONS of juice. 

Did I mention it only takes 3.5 cups of juice to make one batch - 4 cups of jelly? 

I hope I have conveyed that really, I was not trying to stockpile jelly until 2025 (when Lily will graduate from high school. yikes!). However, everyone who is related-enough to value it, will receive peach jelly from me for Christmas.

That is, if it comes out. Overwhelmed even by the math of trying to figure out half-pints from gallons of juice, I must admit that I have not yet made the jelly. I had company coming, Archer was by then out of town, and as soon as he was back and our sweet friends were gone, I was heading out of town for a FANTABULOUS wedding in which I had much responsibility. Not a great time to deal with gallons of juice.

So. The first part of the Peach Jelly Adventure ended with:

Several bags of juiced chopped peaches frozen for smoothies.

A triple batch of acceptable, but not phenomenal peach muffins. (Now frozen.)

And the juice (isn't it pretty?) in these containers, also frozen, awaiting the day when I had enough child-free time to both do the math required for this massive jelly-making-scheme, and then actually make it. In preparation I have already bought more jars, lids, and gelatin, but I'm still not sure I have enough sugar - since for every 3.5 cups of juice, I need 7 cups of sugar.... 

That's why it's golden sweet stuff!

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* My mother has always complained that her mother, Minerva, for whom my Lily M. is named, would never put enough jelly on her toast. And whenever any of her offspring do something characteristic of our matriarch, we call each other Minerva. And even though only my aunt and my daughter actually bear the name, somehow we all have retained some of those odd behaviors - like tearing off minuscule bits of paper towels, wrapping bite-sized bits of leftovers with saran-wrap and rubber-bands, etc. I did this last one just yesterday at with someone else's leftovers! HA!

Alphabet Personalities

We are on the road back to the scorched corn fields. Arch is loving the personalities coming out in the alphabet game (which letter comes before B):

Lily quietly thinking until she figures out the correct answer.

Noelle randomly shouts out her guesses until she gets it right.

Clara yells out the last letter she heard, and maybe more if she can think of them- she gets cheers just for participating so she keeps chiming in at top volume!

A Walk in the Park with Ritter

So my mom (aka Ritter) came up last week for a quick visit, and on Wednesday morning we headed out to a nearby lake to take a walk and play at the park. It was a grayish day, but still felt great to be outside (unlike the 102 degree day today).

We started out like this:

Feeling adventurous, we decided to deviate from the concrete path and take the jogger off-roading down the horse-trails.

All was well, until we noticed all of these things crawling all over us:

Ticks! Well, two city-gals, we panicked. We bolted for the side-walk, quickly found a park-bench and proceeded to strip the babies and search for ticks. Not that it was hard to find them at first. We probably pulled many more than 10 off of Noelle, and quite a few more and Mom and myself. Clara was some-what safe in her stroller seat (Bella had gotten out to walk right through the grasses), but later at lunchtime, naked, we were shocked to see one crawling up her face! Ick! 

Even as I write this my skin is crawling! After doing an initial tick-search, we finished walking around the lake and did end up in the sandy park.

Thankfully, none of the ticks had time to dig into us (i.e., BITE and suck our blood), but by the time I got to Padme, I found several had already found a good spot and started feeding. I called the vet, who graciously pulled out 4, said there were probably dozens more that we wouldn't find (she's brown and black after all), and gave her a dose of Frontline, and gave me some recommendations on how to kill any more we found. Sadly, I was not super excited to have Padme dropping ticks around my house - dead or alive, so she was banished to the porch and garage for a couple of days. Poor dog considers herself a lap-dog, and was not very happy about being quarantined outside. 

So following the de-ticking, baths, scouring and vacuuming the car, spraying tick-killing spray on the jogger, etc. We still found a couple of ticks AFTER all of that! And Padme has been leaving dead ones around anyway. I did some research on ticks of Nebraska, and it appears that the risk of Lyme disease is incredibly rare here. So I breathed easy, for 2 days, until I found out that my neighbor's father was diagnosed with it! However, I have to say that I would rather go outside and take the risk (although avoiding walking through the grasses) than spend the entire summer indoors. We love our nature walks too much! I can guarantee that we do thorough checks, though!

Name Plaques

A sweet friend of my moms has had these beautiful name plaques made for my girls... Lily got hers yesterday so I couldn't resist getting all their pictures before bedtime.

Also, I've noticed when people are in trouble: if you just go by middle names, we have quite the turn of the century name collection:

Minerva,
Elizabeth,
and Jane.

But such brand-new baby sweetness!

Days without Lily

This morning I had to wake everyone up to get Lily to school on time after a super-busy weekend. After running to take her to her teacher, I hop back in the car:

"mom, did you drop Lily off?"
"yep!"
"mom, did you take Lily to her teacher standing outside?"
"yes, Noelle, I did!"

.... Quiet as we drive home...

As we reach our street, she says,
"Mom, when we go a our home I miss Lily. I want Lily a stay with us forever and ever."

Sigh. Me too, Noelle, me too. ;)

MC Camping Trip

Another camping trip at Louisville SRA - the only issue I forgot about was the midnight trains. Poor Clara woke up scared to death! Despite one night we aborted and came home (after Archer stood out in the rain by the car), we had a great weekend of hanging out with friends!

2012_06June_MCCampingTrip

On Wheels...

From 2012_06June

It seems as if all three of our girls are enjoying being on wheels the most this summer. Clara apparently wants to skip walking altogether and just move from crawling (her current mode) to biking. She has attempted to shove Noelle off her tricycle several times, so I recently rejoiced at finding two push-toys for her to ride at a friend's garage sale (thanks Michelle!). She loves those, but still prefers the big girl trike, so Archer setup the Disney princess bike for Noelle, I found a good-sized bike for Lily (with NO training wheels!) at the Goodwill, and now Clara can climb the tricycle to her heart's content. They all keep growing up! Clara takes a few steps at a time before she reverts to crawling. Noelle just needs to figure out how to stop braking on her new princess bike. Lily just needs to figure out how to ride without a parent holding her up! It's so fun to see them accomplishing new things!

Mother's Day 2012

This year Archer really outdid himself. I have learned in the last 7.5 years of marriage that he really WANTS to do whatever I really want - and we are both better off if I just tell him what that is, rather than waiting for him to guess. So, when I read on a blog about an absolutely fantastic idea for how he and the girls could pamper me on Mother's Day, I sent that link right along to his email, and was left to enjoy a fantastic day. Yummy italian food, a trip to the botanical gardens to see some gorgeous roses, and a home-made spa day with two young masseuse and Archer whipping up a sweet sugar-scrub. Lily was especially thrilled to bring me hot towels from the dryer and to come baby-sit me to "see if you need anything, Mama". :) Such sweetness! Half the fun was just seeing how the girls LOVED being able to do something special for Mama.

Mother's Day 2012

School Days

School Days

So this spring we stepped up the home "school" a notch, and had regular school time with the big girls, largely while Clara was sleeping but sometimes she got to participate! She is down to one nap a day now, though, so I am trying to figure out how to include her in the "school" part of the day! We are almost done with our kindergarten curriculum (My Father's World, for those who are interested), and have decided to officially homeschool Lily next year rather than send her to public kindergarten.

However, our local public schools have a three week summer orientation for incoming kindergarteners, so since Lily was really wanting to "go to school with a teacher what is not Mama, and ride the bus", we decided to send her to the orientation. So far she loves it, but is utterly exhausted - it's full day K here - and by the 3rd day she was melting down every time she got in the car at the end of the day. A couple of the days she actually fell asleep during their rest time, but by last Thursday she was begging to not go to school, but to put her pajamas back on and go back to bed! One more week! I think it's been a good experience for her - she has learned to navigate the playground with "much bigger boys, like 1st graders" chasing her, buying her lunch in the cafeteria, and taking care of her lunch and snacks in her back-pack. Noelle and Clara have somewhat adjusted to playing with each other kindly rather than relying on their big sister/constant entertainment, and I have enjoyed 1) being forced to get everyone up and out of the house early (no bus for summer school), and 2) focusing more on my little girls while Lily has been gone.

Next year we plan to use Sonlight's kindergarten curriculum, and while I plan on year-round school for our family, this summer is turning out to be largely extra-curricular "school"! Besides Lily's 3 weeks of kindergarten, both Lily and Noelle will attend Vacation Bible School, then we all are going to Michigan for Family Camp at Cedar Campus, then 2 weeks of swimming lessons, then it will be August with TWO weddings and LOTS of traveling across the country to Dallas and California/Colorado/Wyoming!

Yes, we have pictures from 2012!

This video explains one of the many reasons I am SOOO behind in sorting through my 1000+ pictures from this year (2012) and uploading good ones.... and it's funny!

From 2012-03March

Car Trips with Children - Part 1: Supplies

Lots of people think we are crazy, to drive such long distances with 3 small children. To a certain extent, I agree. However, Arch and I love road trips, and we love a challenge, so it just makes sense to us to figure out how to make the seemingly impossible happen: an enjoyable road-trip with 3 girl-babies under 5 years of age!

A friend recently asked for some tips, and in an over-caffeinated state I went a little overboard in my response, so I thought I would include some pictures and make this just a fun "how-to" for everyone to enjoy!

So here is what we bring along for our entertainment pleasure:

For Mom/Dad:

• A list of all the things we want and/or need to talk about. 
• In case you haven't heard, Archer had a list of his thoughts about dating, that took him over an hour to explain after he said the words: "I like you a lot and would like to pursue a dating relationship." I thought this was soooo charming. We like lists. ;-)
• For example: the fights conversations that we both fell asleep in previously that might actually need to be discussed, as well as how-to-deal-with-the-latest-child-who-has-stumped-us strategy discussions, which state should we travel or move to next ideas, etc.
• All the latest podcasts of interest: from NPR: Cartalk, Planet Money, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Science Friday, and then all of the most recent sermons from Mark Driscoll, John Piper, and our two home churches: Coram Deo (Omaha) and Knox Presby (Ann Arbor). 
• Our respective favorite music.

For the girls:

• Audio Books. We just got into these, but you can download a TON of kids books online. I recently found a bunch of Beatrix Potter and Winnie the Pooh. I've also heard some good things about Gustav Mole, but haven't gotten a hold of those myself. I did download a few free Adventures in Odessey, but they seemed a bit too old for the girls (and too corny for me, personally).

• Coloring. I like to have like a clipboard for them so they can actually keep it still/firm to color. I bought a carseat tray but it isn't a whole lot better than their laps, honestly, and just ended up being extra paraphernalia in the backseat, so I haven't used it in a while. I get a select # of markers/crayons in a ziploc for each girl, and that's what they get.
• Sewing cards. I just put them in a gallon size ziploc (scrap the box) and these are great.

• Magnetic scenes to play with. Someone gave us two American girl scenes, and I found a ballerina magnetic paper-doll type thing, so those are favorites. Like this. I never would have thought of it, but it's fun. 

• Books, of course. At first I would bring the big anthologies because there were more stories, but they can't handle those themselves easily in their carseats, so now I go for the big sturdy flat ones with lots of little things to look at: Richard Scarry types are good, as are things like One Thousand Words, and Things People Do. Board books if they tend to tear them. And magazines like Highlights High Five (or "mazagines" as Noelle would say). They can rip them up and I just toss 'em. 

• Sticker activity books. Love the Roger Priddy ones the best. Very good travel occupation! It's like a scavenger hunt to find where each sticker goes.

Snacks:

• Fruit snacks (my kids think these are candy)
• Peanut butter crackers
• Apples 
• Dried fruit - mangoes and prunes. These are especially good, I think, to help keep everyone's digestion somewhat healthy while on the road when our eating habits are in uproar.
• Little packets of M&Ms are great for when everybody really just needs an attitude adjustment. 
• Juice boxes

And finally:
The best things that ever happened to our road trips, and what I would consider highly worthwhile investments are:
3) a kiddie potty setup
2) an iPad
and
1) a minivan