Golden Boy

I had a whole weekending post planned but guess what?  Time.  It slipped through my fingers AGAIN.

Instead you get three identical pictures of a the sweetest golden boy you ever.did.see. 

He makes pizza with me every Friday night.  Without fail.

OH- it's idyllic sounding, sure.  But the fact is- he makes A LOT more work than help.  And, given the teensy counter I have to work on making several large round pizzas- he takes up most of my needed space too. 

This past Friday I wisened up a bit and pulled a chunk of dough off and gave it to him to knead over at the table.  He added flour.  He kneaded.  He kneaded until it went from dry to sticky again.  He added more flour.  I didn't have much hope for it but at the end I figured- what the hey.  Let's let him make his own little loaf of bread.

Well, he was just the proudest little baker ever.  I cut all the little slices and he buttered them all and ran around giving them to people. 

That proud smile, bathed in the golden light of morning...makes a Mama's heart swoon. 

(And the bread wasn't half bad either!)

Judahbear

Because...if YOU were his mother, would YOU only be able to post one?

Pepper Snitcher

 

What really makes me giggle is how offended he looks when I discover that he has been skeefing the red peppers bits.

A Weekend (and zucchini, OF COURSE)

        This morning Corynn said "Yesterday was the last day of the zucchini week, huh?" I nodded my head, bracing myself for the collective sigh of relief from the breakfast table.  But you know what happened instead??? A collective GROAN.  (I am TOTALLY serious.  They even asked that this week ALSO be a zucchini week (which I politely declined, hehe)!  This says an awful lot for the group of children that were getting downright sick and tired of the sight of raw, roasted or sauted zucchini at the start of last week.  The goal was to have a varied enough palette that no one grew tired of eating zucchini---and obviously it worked beautifully! 

Thank you for all your recipe suggestions- by email or by blog comment.... I didn't get to use nearly as many recipes as I would have liked last week- but as I assured the children---they haven't seen the last of the zucchini YET.  ;-) I will be trying them all, I hope, before the zucchini finally dies. 



Here were the zucchini dishes I made from Friday until the end of the week (Sorry for not posting over the weekend, I am a terrible weekend blogger), in no particular order~ the recipes from Zucchini Week will be posted on my recipe blog sometime this week-along with a few rogue zucchini recipes from this summer.  I'll let you know when. 

Garden Veggie pizza- for Friday night pizza night

Now THESE are zucchini brownies!  ;-)

Zucchini Hashbrowns

And now you guys are probably SO THRILLED that I will not be posting any more pictures of food for a while.  NOW is when I will hear the collective sigh of relief, I am sure.  (Speaking of which~ I am sorry about my constant whims and that you must endure them.)  

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And a bit of the weekend~



* Judah remained sick, feverish and obsessively clingy all weekend.  It took four days before he would even consider allowing me to do anything other than hold him.  Thankfully, I have helpers.  Needless to say, he got a lot of attention. 

Awwwww.

The little sick Prince and the Pea

He is HOT! Love Adele's face there.

~ He eventually let me take him outside for some fresh air for a little while.  (Hallelujah!)

* I had this massive, freakish, meltdown at church because a wonderful woman, out of the blue rubbed my shoulder and said PEACE BE WITH YOU and at that moment, and for many reasons, peace was very, very far from me.  I love Mary and am constantly amazed at how intuitive her love is.  But it kinda stunk that I made an absolute fool of myself.  But if you can't make a fool of yourself in front of your family-then when can you, right?

After Saturday Night Baths~ bright and shiny like a new penny

* I finally got a chance to sit down with the books and begin preparing for the school year that is FAST approaching.  *sigh*  It is too bad the school year doesn't begin in October-November.  September is such a busy month harvesting month.  It was good to finally sit down and think about things a bit.  More yet to do, but it was a start.  And a good start---out in the warm sunshine, an apple pie candle, and surrounded by curriculum catalogs! 




* I started crocheted a Christmas gift.   I might make ONE Christmas gift this month after all.  Wonder of wonders!


There are so many more things I could say (and so many more pictures to post) but this computer is taking FOREVER to upload pictures so this is all you get for today. 


Thank you for all the book suggestions in the last post!  Wow!  If ever I want more comments, all I have to do is ask about books.  :-)  What great suggestions you all gave; many I had never heard of.  Thanks so much (and methinks Corynn will be thanking you too.)  You guys are swell.

Corny

It was his first ever ear of corn... 

...and he liked it.


As for her, it was NOT her first taste of corn on the cob.  But you see, the sun was just so and her wisps and hair poofs were glowing....and I just couldn't resist.

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As you can see, I *did* start making the necessary blog changes.  Man, is that a JOB!  I am not completely done (though I wish I were) but I do think it will be easier for you for now.  There are labels over in the sidebar that you can search under...unfortunately, since I never labelled anything there are hardly any posts under those categories.

Oops.

I'll get to it.  But not tonight.  Tonight I have a date with a lake and a picnic table. 

A Chronicling of Days

At the expense of appearing like an unfit mother, I blog these photos. You will just have to trust me when I say it is rare when this boy is out of my sight for two minutes straight. I know how much damage can be done in just two minutes...


My children love to color and paint and being that I am one of those wacky homeschooling mothers, I love that about them and even encourage them to be so. I keep the art supplies out of the reach of little hands but where they can be reached by bigger hands -so that the children have access whenever and where-ever they might get the urge.

But the creating and the cleaning up aren't given equal attention and inevitably, a marker falls to the floor and hides under a table or chair, just beckoning Judah to come and partake.

And since 'creating' is an every day occurrence around here, this happens every single day.

Our days are named around here now.

This was a red day.

This one was black.

And so on.

And so forth.

I think you get the idea.

This particular day the whole 'color theme' got a bit too close for comfort. Mr. Marker Eater decided to up the ante by finding a can of orange spray paint on top of a chest freezer (which, of course, he climbed to get to). I had just begun stuffing deviled eggs, completely unaware my son was nearly going to blind himself just one room away. That was a fun day.

It would almost be cute.....

if it weren't so INFURIATING.

~and yesterdays victuals~

::: Tuesdays Menu :::

Breakfast: Huckleberry Zucchini Muffins.

Lunch: Tuna in whole wheat Pita Pockets

Afternoon Snack: Hummus and pita wedges. Dried Apples.

Dinner: Matt took pity on me (and my fried brain) yesterday and took charge of supper. Leftover tomato soup. Hummus Pitas. And possibly a few pickled eggs.

Without Fail

This is what happens when we head outside to enjoy the unusually warm weather for WINTER and the tractor starts up in the distance:

Judahbear hears it.


He gets up and says "ruahr?", always with a question in his voice and pleading in his eyes. The boychild wants a ride.


Impatient for me to accommodate, he waves goodheartedly


and hightails it outta there.


Then, wouldn't you know?


His Papa, being the swell man he is, stops his work and gives him a bit of a ride.


Just a circle round, but that's all he wanted anyway.


Just a moment of time.


P.S. As you can see, boychild still has the happy scowl.

P.P.S. These photos were taken awhile ago-the husband sports a very...prolific...beard as of late. For you beard-stalkers out there....you know who you are.

P.P.P.S I helped Judah across the road...for you folks curious.

P.P.P.P.S What kind of a mother do you think I AM?!?!?

DoubleMint

Once upon a time, which though it feels like forever ago was in actuality only a few weeks ago, there was a double birthday at our house. September 2nd is the birthday of two of my babies. (I told you September is always a busy month for me!) Though instead of twins, the day is shared by my eldest and the one who currently holds the title of 'youngest'. Corynn says they are "almost twins".



Here are the outdated (few) photos of that day. I took more pictures of the presents than the children (which is just plain WRONG), but in all fairness~ I was busy making birthday requested meals, cakes, and yes~ finishing the last minute present preparations.

I intended to do formal birthday shots at some point, but then we had a visit from Lee.


Their birthday fell on a Friday, which in our house is pizza and a movie night. The requested dinner, then, was stuffed crust PLAIN pizza. As you wish....


I don't know how the whole cake business is going to work down the road, when two requests are made (especially since we are not really a cake family...) but this year only one was old enough to make a request so it worked out well.

Actually, the request was in written form and HAD been since her LAST birthday! The very night she turned seven, after eating cake, she drew what NEXT years' cake would be and I saved it in my BILLS folder ever since.

The request (hopefully) :


My "15 minutes before rest time is over so hurry up and get it done" interpretation:


Judah had to get used to the idea of cake at first...


...but warmed up to it almost immediately. Frosting does that to you.


And now for the presents. da da da DUUUUUUUUUM~~~

I have known for over a year what I would do for Corynn. Judah, on the other hand, I had no idea what to do for him. Believe it or not, I have a hard time with first birthday presents. Babies, in my mind, just... don't need (or want) anything but hugs and kisses. I refuse to clutter up the house with JUNK just because that is what you are supposed to do.

So very last minute, and after two trips down TWO different store toy department aisles, I *FINALLY* came up with something that wasn't plastic rubbish. (OR expensive.)

Wooden blocks on clearance at Target which I then spruced up by Mod-Podging photos onto them of everyone in the family~


Because, really, how much more intrigue is added to play by THIS look?


Awww............. I remember that shirt....


He liked them. But not as much as my kisses.


For Corynn, I have been planning to do a sewing basket for over a year now.


Having been given a boxed up craft room, it ended up making for a VERY inexpensive gift! I still recall when I received my sewing basket (about her age) and the tremendous feeling of overwhelming awe at all the beautiful grown-up things I could have (all for myself!) to CREATE with. I remember fondling the scissors with utter amazement. I can still FEEL it! I knew this would be a special birthday gift for her.

In the basket I included things like~

thread, fabric pencils, seam ripper and a thimble....

...a felt pincusion........


... and pretty pins (I glued on beads to the ends of pins).....

... a jar of notions. Trim, lace, ribbon, buttons. Good stuff. Lots of pink. ;-)



.... I whipped up a felt needle book with a cute little Hedgehog and Modpodged fabric onto one of those measuring tapes businesses give for free....

... I glued sparkles onto her pair of scissors so we wouldn't confuse the two (MINE IS MINE!), an embroidery hoop and some fabric from my stash...



A treasure chest of goodies, really. And one of the cheapest presents I have ever put together!





And along with it~ this book:



...and the promise of a sewing lesson a week.


I love these two pieces of me and I love that each new year brings new, delightful reasons to love them more. Looking forward to this one!