My Blog in Ten Photos

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Amy

This is the most fun idea for a blog post ever. I didn’t come up with it, but I’m going with it anyway. I totally stole the idea from Jen (see her post here). You’re gonna love it. I think. Or maybe not. Either way, it’s okay. I’m going to have fun doing it.

Okay, so here’s what Jen did. She went through her blog’s media files and picked out the 10 images that best represent what her blog is about. Hence her title, “Ten images that tell you everything you need to know about this blog.”

How freaking fun is that? I love looking back through old photos I’ve posted on my blog. So, I did. And I picked out 10 of them. So here you go. Ten photos that capture the essence of this little blog:

I write about the stuff my kids and I do. Maybe it’s not super exciting material, but whatever. I’m leaving a record for them here. The Summer Fun List I put together this year was one of the best things I’ve done. And I’ve blogged about it (obnoxiously) often since then. Here is the original post with the image. The list is also mentioned here and here. Oh, and here. And here.

Kids’ books, grown up books, love me some books. Original post.

I ought to have a picture of Super Friend and myself here, seeing as how I can’t stop telling you all about how awesome she is and how every mom needs one. A Super-mom-friend I mean. But oddly, I don’t have any pictures of the two of us and very few of her. So, instead here are my two older girls with her oldest three Mini-Supers. Original post.

Original post. And here.

I write about my husband a lot. Because he’s just the best (he’s the bearded one, BTW). I also write about family a lot. His. Mine. Ours. Several posts were dedicated this year to the family reunion party to end all family reunion parties: The Labor Day Party. Post #1. Post #2. Post #3 (containing ^^ that picture).

Original post containing this photo is here. But the photo is a much better visual for this post. Or even this one. Or this one.

I like to write about cooking, and post cute pics of my kids doing it with me. Original post.

Sometimes I get kind of crafty. And I like to do it on the cheap. Then I like to share. Original post.

We travel a lot. Original post.

Winter. It seems like every year I write about how much snow we are getting and how much of a pain it is to get my kids dressed to go out and play. As if I’m surprised that we are getting snow. In winter. In Wisconsin. Last year we had a fun visitor to add some interest to the gee-whiz-we-have-so-much-snow posts.

There you have it. Ten photos. My blog. Fun stuff.

Treasure

Posted on November 9, 2013November 9, 2013 by Amy

Yesterday we took the girls on a long treasure hunt. It was cold and windy. We ended up with one shell, one piece of shell, and two pieces of hickory nut husk as our “treasures.”

Not much in the way of take-home booty.

But, it was really one of the best treasure hunts we’ve had. The real treasures just weren’t things we could put in our pockets. My favorite was this deer carcass:

It had decomposed enough that it wasn’t stinky or gross. Granted, I didn’t want to touch it, but my Mother-in-law, bless her heart, took care of that when the girls asked to look more closely at different parts. They were fascinated by the ribs and spine and jaw and pelvis, and came up with various hypotheses about how the deer died.

My Mother-in-law showed them the teeth and discussed how old the deer may have been. We talked about the circle of life and how other animals had eaten the rest of the doe’s body.

It was a fantastic science lesson, without really being a lesson.

Then we had “gym class” climbing on this old fallen tree. They have been captivated by this tree since it fell over in the early summer.

The adventure turned out to be a bit of a disaster, because the girls were scared half to death by trying to balance on the tree trunk in slightly floppy rubber boots.

It was cool anyway.

Next stop was the beach. They enjoyed splashing in the water a bit (the whole reason we wore the rubber boots).

We went for a walk along the shore.

And found some deer tracks.

We explored some beaver handiwork too.

Though we ended up with just a couple of small in-my-pocket treasures, the real treasures of the day were the findings and experiences of nature.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling the girls is that I think it has made me focus on and cherish these kinds of occurrences even more than I did before. I enjoy having a new appreciation for how much learning there is to be done out in the world.

The Interpreter

Posted on November 6, 2013November 5, 2013 by Amy

One of my favorite things about the stage that Sis is in currently is that I get to be her interpreter.

Her language is really taking off, but much of the time, no one can understand her but me.

Of course, she has lots of words that are obvious to all, like “Wa-wa,” “Nigh-Night,” and “Otay!” But there are many of her words and phrases that are not so easy to recognize.

I love that I know what she means when others don’t. That I know that “Dow!” (down) means “Up.” And that sometimes it means “down.”

I am happy that I’ve figured out that “Me!” means “Again!” and “Too” means “Me too!”

I’m glad I have deciphered that “I nit” means “I want that” and “I no” means “I don’t know.” That “Ah weesh” means “I wash” and “I brush” and “A fish.”

The mind of a 19 month old is so busy and so fascinating. She imitates everything, especially what her sisters do.

Here’s an example:

A few days ago she was in the school room with me. She pulled out one of the carpet squares her sisters use for circle time in school. She put it on the rug in front of the white board and calendar, sat on it cross-legged, pointed to the calendar, and said “Twooo, weeee, twooo, weeee” (two, three, two, three). That’s how she counts, and she was doing it like her sisters do when we count the days to determine the date. Then she got up and went to the window to look out, just like her sisters do when we are checking to see the weather for the day. She points to all letters and says, “P.”

She also has wonderful manners, even if I’m the only one who can understand them most of the time.

“Da-doo” = “Thank you”

“Shoo-shoo” = “Excuse me” and “Bless you”

“Pee!” = “Please”

“I wowy” = “I’m sorry”

“Ow you?” = “How are you?” and when I answer, “I’m well, thanks. How are you?” she says, “Ghee!” (good)

She calls Lass by her name (which is not Lass, BTW) and she calls Miss “Di-duh” (sister).

This past weekend when lots of family was here at the Farm, I had to quickly learn to differentiate “Di-duh” and “Duh-doh” for “Sister” and the name of one of her cousins, respectively.

“Nee” is “banana.” “Ee-ma-mo” is “animal.” And also “horse.”

“Way hoppy?” is “What happened?”

“Bay” is “blankie,” though it used to be “Bee-bee” which still is “Baby.” Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that she now calls her blankie “Bay” and think she is saying “Pay” which means “play.”

Just today she said a new word – “kets” which is “catch.” That one was pretty easy to figure out since she said it as she was trying to throw a ball at me. She said “Kets! Twooo, weeee…” and then threw it six inches in front of herself.

She loves to play with utensils, and sometimes it can be a bit hard to distinguish “Pooo!” which means “spoon,” from “Poooo!” which means “change my diaper!”

I consider it one of the great privileges of motherhood that I get to be the interpreter for my kids as they learn language. I love being able to translate for others who, knowing this ability of The Mom, intuitively look at me to tell them what my child said. I like understanding my girls. I like helping others to understand them.

It’s like my girls and I, for a while at least, have this special little bond wherein we speak a secret language, and I get to understand them better than anyone else.

I love being a mom.

A Deer Already and It’s Only Monday

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Amy

It’s only Monday night. This was only my husband’s fourth night of bowhunting. He already got a deer! Woo Hoo!!

I am so excited. This never happens. Usually it is the very last day that he gets a deer. There are several reasons for this, and they basically all boil down to the fact that my husband is meticulous and picky. He will not take a shot at a deer unless he is quite sure he can kill it. He also won’t shoot if the deer is too young, as he wants them to be able to grow on the property here.

In years past, he has waited and waited for a deer worth shooting that was within range for him to get with his bow. This year he got an opportunity at the beginning of the week! And since he had a perfect shot and the deer died almost instantly, he didn’t need to spend all evening tracking it, so the girls and I were able to go out to his hunting spot and watch him field dress the deer.

We found him and he led us right to the deer, just a few feet away.

The older girls had already observed the field dressing of a deer that their cousin shot yesterday, but they were still excited to see Daddy’s deer.

WARNING – There are photos of a dead deer below.

The girls walked with their Dad to see where his arrow landed in the ground. It went clean through the deer.

SECOND WARNING – There are a couple of photos of a dead deer being field dressed below. I am not posting anything too graphic, but the third photo down from here is a little gross.

The girls really enjoyed watching this process and hearing from their Dad about what he was doing and why. He showed them the various organs of the deer and explained what they do. Lass was especially interested in getting up close, though she did say, “No more killing deer now, okay?” Sweet, tender-hearted girl.

They covered their noses when he cut open the stomach to show them what the deer had been eating.

I stood back a little, because I have actually never watched a deer be field dressed up close myself (the last time I was in the field when it was done I stood waaay back). This time I wanted to see what my girls were seeing. But I was a little worried I would get really grossed out, so I didn’t get too close.

Turns out it wasn’t really that bad. At least from a bit of a distance. With my camera in front of my face most of the time.

I love that the girls got to experience this with their Daddy. Miss was so intrigued and kept talking about when she will get to go hunting with him soon. I am thrilled that it’s only Monday night, and I will now get to spend some time with my hubby for the duration of our vacation.

Unless he decides to spend the rest of the week fishing…

Halloween Fun

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Amy

This is a big photo post to share some fun Halloween pics.

We had lots of fun doing pumpkin and Halloween stuff in school the past two weeks.

We did marble painting to make spider webs

Or spoon painting…

Lots of other stuff too:

Sis loves the felt board.

We even had a Halloween costume party with our preschool co-op this morning. They were so excited to get their costumes on first thing.

They did crafts and played games and had white-chocolate-covered banana ghosts.

We managed a family photo before trick-or-treating tonight.

I didn’t think the little gnome would keep her costume on,

but she did the whole time!

It was pouring while we trick-or-treated.

It was so yucky out, we only went to four houses. The girls really didn’t care though. Miss kept saying, “Mom, I just love trick-or-treating!”

They loved the candy too.

The quote of the night came from Lass. After they got their treat from one of our kind neighbors, she very loudly said, “He’s really an old man!”

I hope everyone has had a fun and safe (and dry!) Halloween.

5 Ways Natural Childbirth is Like Running a Marathon. And 5 Ways It’s Not.

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Amy

When I was pregnant with Miss I read lots of things about preparing for childbirth. I remember in several instances it being suggested that moms think of labor as like running a marathon. At the time I had run two marathons, and I mostly just thought the suggestion seemed cliché. So I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Since then, I have given birth without pain medication twice. I’m not preparing at the moment to either run a marathon or give birth. But for some reason the comparison between the two experiences was on my mind the other day, and I realized that there actually are some ways in which natural childbirth is like running a marathon.

And then there are ways in which it is not.

Here are my thoughts on how they’re similar:

1. They can both be long and painful.

2. You have to remain focused on your end goal during both.

^Even in June, Lake Superior is like an ice bath.

3. They both require serious mental and physical endurance.

4. They can both involve lots of sweating and make you very tired.

5. They both sometimes involve throwing up (though I did not throw up during either of my marathons).

Here’s how they’re different:

1. You can practice for a marathon. Not so much for a natural childbirth. Not really anyway.

When you’re training to run a marathon, you run. You practice the act that you’re going to actually be doing, in increasing increments until your body is ready. Usually the longest training run for a marathon is 22-ish miles (if I remember correctly), so on the big day, you just add on 4 more and you’re all set. Now admittedly, that’s a very long 4 miles by the time you get to the end of a marathon, but you still trained for it.

You can’t practice childbirth. You can’t simulate contractions, no matter what they tell you about holding ice in your hands and breathing through the “pain.” Whatever. It’s not the same. And you sure as hell can’t practice the final push. No increasing increments. No.

Sure, breathing exercises, reading books, doing yoga and meditation, all that is great, but it is not true practice for the real deal. You just can’t practice that.

2. Giving birth is a completely natural process for your body to go through. Running 26.2 miles at once is not.

I guess this is reassuring, given #1.

3. When you’re running a marathon, you can stop running for a bit and walk if you need to. Heck, I suppose you could even sit down and take a break if you had to. You can get a drink of water, eat a banana, stop and go to the bathroom if needed. You get the picture.

You cannot do this during labor. It just keeps going. Walking is not an option.

4. After you finish a marathon, you can sleep for 12 hours if you feel like it. Not so much with a sweet newborn.

5. At least in my experiences, there is very little screaming and crying during a marathon. In fact, I didn’t observe any. I cannot say the same for my experiences with natural childbirth.

^This picture just makes me want to laugh. Somehow I had never seen it before going through to select photos for this post. I look so pitiful.

Can you think of any other ways these two insanely difficult and wonderful experiences are similar? Different?

All Things Pumpkin

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Amy

We have been a little pumpkin crazy here this weekend.

We did P is for Pumpkin in school last week and are continuing it through this next week. So over the weekend, we did a few fun pumpkin activities. Of course to start, the girls helped carve their jack-o-lanterns.

Naturally Daddy did most of the work, but they did help quite a bit, especially with creative direction.

Miss helped me season some pumpkin seeds for roasting. I’m actually not a fan of pumpkin seeds, but I thought it would be a fun thing for the girls to do. We made some with just salt and some with salt and brown sugar and cinnamon. They turned out okay.

I know Miss enjoyed helping me make them. And she said she liked eating them, though she didn’t eat more than one of each flavor. Lass wouldn’t even try them.

I’m not sure that the result was worth the time I spent cleaning off the darn seeds to get them ready to roast (is there some trick to this that I’m completely missing?). I think next time I’ll just have the girls clean the seeds themselves.

But that’s not all the pumpkin-y goodness we’ve got going on around here.

I am sometimes a fan of a pumpkin spice latte, so I decided to use this recipe to make my own crock pot pumpkin spice syrup today. It’s yummy and will be good in coffee and smoothies. I also soaked some pepitas to make spiced pepita milk.

A week or so ago, I did not know what a pepita is (a pumpkin seed without the shell, FYI). Then I saw the recipe and had to try it. I use almond milk in my coffee, and thought this would be a fun alternative for fall, so I made some tonight.

It’s so yummy I can’t wait to try it in my coffee.

I’m also planning to make pumpkin spice smoothies and paleo pumpkin pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.

We’re reading pumpkin books and doing pumpkin crafts and singing pumpkin songs. I was going to make some pumpkin pies, but I decided to wait until Thanksgiving for those.

Like I said, pumpkin crazy over here.

Miss asked to make pumpkin cookies to eat after trick-or-treating, but I drew the line at that. I’m pretty sure we won’t be needing cookies to eat after tromping through the neighborhood gathering a bucket-full of sugary treats on Thursday night.

7 Quick Takes – Snow Flurries, Bad Housekeeping, and a High School Reality Show

Posted on October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 by Amy

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary again, this time at Clan Donaldson.

1. We went out for a family date night on Wednesday.

^ Baby Sis thinks it’s very funny to take her shirt off whenever possible.

On the way home, it was snowing. I am really and truly not ready for snow. Fortunately it was just brief flurries. But it was snow. We can’t have snow yet. I’m just not ready for winter.

2. On that note, I had to finally go in the basement and get out our big (overflowing) bin of winter weather clothing.

My girls got a kick out of putting on their heavy coats and hats to go outside yesterday. They even still fit (mostly) from last year.

3. Speaking of last year, I found a little leftover treasure from last Christmas yesterday. We have some shelves above our odd “wet bar” in our family room. I rarely pay any attention to them.

And when I say “I rarely pay attention to them” what I mean is “apparently I never dust them.”

Looky what I just noticed yesterday that got left out last Christmas:

I just noticed it yesterday. Think that shelf is a little bit dusty? I can’t see it, but yeah, I imagine so.

At this point that little bell is just going to stay right there until after this Christmas. And I guess I’ll be working on remembering to look up when I dust.

4. Tomorrow I am participating in the Rite of Welcome at our parish. It’s the first rite of the RCIA process. I am kind of nervous. I have to stand up in front of everyone at the 5pm mass. My husband and my church sponsor will be with me, and they have more things to remember to do than I do, but I’m still nervous.

5. After mass my hubby and I are going out for dinner and a movie. We go out to dinner fairly frequently, but I can’t remember the last time we went out to a movie. In fact, I don’t know the last time I saw a movie in the theater. Avatar, maybe? Watching a movie in 3D seems to be the only thing that will prompt us to go to the theater. We aren’t huge movie watchers, and when we do want to see something we use Amazon to rent and watch from our comfy living room. We’re going to see Gravity. It’s a little silly how excited I am.

6. My brother sent me the link to a trailer for a show MTV is doing about my old high school called Wait ‘Til Next Year. My alma mater’s football team lost 66 games in a row before finally winning one this year. And according to the show’s website the cheerleaders were heckled for being “clumsy and forgetful.” Evidently, MTV thinks this makes for a good reality TV show (or app show? I didn’t know there was such a thing, but I guess this show will be on the MTV app). The trailer shows kids swearing (bleeped out f-bombs), talking about losing their virginity, etc. I have to be honest, it looks pretty disturbing to me. I remember high school, and what they’re showing in the trailer isn’t that far from what I recall, but it’s still kind of shocking to see a show made out of it. I made a lot of bad choices and said and did plenty of stupid things in high school, like plenty of kids do. But fortunately no one made a record of those choices for all the world to see forever and ever. I just wonder if these kids might wish this show didn’t exist when they’re 35. It makes me sad that a show that could have been about working hard to overcome adversity seems to have been turned into yet another exploitative reality show. Maybe (of course) the trailer was just intended to shock, and I’m just old. Maybe.

7. Today will be the first time I will take Lass somewhere and drop her off. She and Miss are going to a morning Halloween event at the place where they take gymnastics. They’ll have games and activities and crafts, and lots of gymnastic-ing, I’m sure. The girls are excited about it. They love gymnastics.

I’m feeling a little bit strange about leaving them though. I know this is so dumb. Miss went to preschool for a year and has done a few weeks of wee camp at the YMCA. I don’t know why I’m fretting about it. It makes me feel a little bit better that they’ll be doing the program with each other and with one of their Mini-Super-Friends (Super Friend’s oldest daughter). I’ve just never done this with Lass before. I know. It will be fine. She’ll love it.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Peaceful and Joyful

Posted on October 23, 2013October 23, 2013 by Amy

Today I had an acupuncture appointment. Each time I have gone, when I start the treatment, the doctor tells me to try to focus my mind on a time and/or place that is peaceful and joyful.

As I psychologist, I have done lots of work with clients on mental imagery. I’ve trained plenty of people to use it for relaxation. I’ve studied mindfulness and taught many people how to be mindful. But I’m not that great at doing it myself.

I can do it. It’s just not easy for me. So when I am directed to focus on mental imagery of something peaceful and joyful, I can’t spend 20 minutes focusing on just one scene. Can’t do it.

So I flow through lots of memories of peaceful and joyful times, picture myself in various peaceful and joyful places. I find it interesting to think about the scenes that come to my mind.

Here are a few of them:

^^ The Farm, where we got married

Several moments from our wedding day came to mind. Also, any time I’m in this guy’s arms = peaceful+joyful

^^ Every single time (P.S. this is an old picture, from when I found out I was pregnant with Lass)

Hawaii 2010:

^^The place we had breakfast most mornings

The Farm. The day I married my true love. Finding out I was pregnant. Being hugged my my husband and girls. Our trip to Hawaii.The first time I saw/held each of my children. Seeing my girls meet their new sisters for the first time. Church.

I imagined myself in each of these places/moments and felt peaceful and joyful. It’s a fabulous way to spend 20 minutes. I highly recommend it (needle-poking optional).

What images make you feel peace and joy?

Tomorrow Is Another Day

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Amy

I didn’t sleep well last night. I got too hot, which never bodes well for Mama’s sleep. Then I woke up at 4am when a light from the girls’ bathroom shone into my bedroom. I thought Miss had just gotten up to go. No big deal. But the light was on forever. I kept waiting for her to get finished, turn it off, and go back to bed. Then I heard this little voice talking/playing. I got up to investigate and found, not Miss, but Lass, on the floor outside the bathroom, playing with chapstick.

At 4:15 am.

She happily went back to bed after I helped her smear some chapstick on her lips and sent her on her way. Then at about 4:30, precisely 2 minutes after I fell back to sleep, Miss did wake up and go to the bathroom, waking me up again (I just can’t help but hear when they get up).

Needless to say, I didn’t get up at 6 this morning for my early morning workout and coffee time. I woke up when Sis did at around 7:15. Now that I’ve gotten used to getting up earlier than the girls, it seems like mornings never quite start out well when I don’t.

This morning didn’t start out so well. This morning, I learned the hard way that Sis can and will reach things on the counter.

She was behind the gate in the family room as I was getting breakfast ready. I heard a strange spilling/dripping sound and looked over to see her, with my coffee cup, pouring it out all over herself and the family room floor. I had set it on our counter in the family room (we have a dumb wet bar in there). It had been almost full. I hadn’t drunk nearly enough of it.

Revenge for the gate? Probably.

The day went downhill from there: Almost nonexistent napping from all 3 girls, an aioli that broke when I was trying to make dinner, and potatoes that would not. get. cooked.

As always happens, the evening worked out just fine. Dinner was good (once I fixed my broken mayo and the potatoes softened), Veggie Tales smoothed everything over, and the girls went to sleep almost instantly they were so tired.

It’s late and at least the laundry is folded. I have a glass of wine and a good book to dive into. Or maybe just a comfy bed at this point. To quote one of my faves, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”

Motherhood and Miscellany

Author: Amy