Recovery mode

We're getting over various colds and viruses (virii?). The Christmas Tree finally made it out the door last weekend (and only out the door...literally) and we moved furniture around so the new tv, which doesn't fit in the old cabinet, could be at a normal height instead of on top of the tv cabinet where it hurt your neck to watch. We must have about 12 miles of wires back there - many of which have been rabbit-chewed and thus need replacing. It took 4 of us to move the former entertainment center to the other side of the fireplace where it will house the kids' computer and other homeless computer peripherals. We still don't know what to do with the stereo, but it will probably involve doubling the amount of wire that we already have...

The Husband will be installed as an elder in church this weekend and we're celebrating The Boy's 12th birthday tomorrow (his day was yesterday but we had choir so he requested Saturday to be family-only day). Sunday afternoon we'll be watching the Puppy Bowl (which is ridiculously cute) before the Superbowl (go Steelers). We're not a football family but it's an excuse to have junk food for dinner).

LOST

It makes my nose bleed...

Don't read this if you haven't watched the current episode.
I'm so glad that ABC moved it back to Wednesdays - last season I occasionally skipped out of choir practice early so I wouldn't miss the beginning (sorry Jill). And two of my favorite bloggers follow it, too - Shannon and Nancy Today, so our noses can bleed together this season.

Ms. Hawking is Daniel's mom! Charles Widmore was an Other! Was he banished? Charlotte (the anthropologist) has to be there because of the Heiroglyphics in the Donkey Wheel chamber and the Four-Toed statue, right? Charlotte/Miles/ Daniel and Locke are on the Island -- in 1954! Is the H-bomb presently buried in The Swan Station? Ben pledged to kill Penny and Penny is currently headed to LA where Ben is. Locke returned to the US where he died as Jeremy Bentham...what's with that? Locke told Richard Alpert to come see him on the day of his birth! Head hurts...must...stop...reading...the Fuselage. If you don't watch it you NEED to! If only to share my pain. But you HAVE to start from the beginning. Past episodes can be viewed here and here (second link, go to Free Episodes---Lost. You have to install a plugin that I can't get to work in Firefox with Vista).

CPSC Overkill



On February 10, in response to last year's spate of toy recalls, a new law will take effect which requires product testing for any item intended for use by children 12 and under (toys, clothing, hair accessories, cloth diapers, cd's, books - ANY ITEM!). While at first blush it sounds good, it will devastate the home-crafting industry and many other small-scale sellers of children's products, who will be unable to afford the $4000 per item price tag for the testing (and who were not involved in the recalls of Chinese-made lead-contaminated toys).

Please click on the above image for more info and consider contacting your congress person/ senator (links to those are in the above article). Thanks!


Rearranging the blog furniture

I'll be playing with the look for awhile...'cause you know that with Christmas a week from today I don't have nearly enough to do.

Snow day today and we've had the 4 neighbor kids for the day as well. They've watched movies and made cinnamon ornaments and played out in the snow, but were getting a little bored. So I pulled out an early Christmas present - the Electronic version of Monopoly. What is it about Monopoly that causes children to LOVE it and adults to DREAD it?? I decided that either the electronic or the Wii version was the only way they could get me to play it with them.

We probably have 6 inches of snow and it's expected to go on for the next 6 hours or so. Naturally The Husband is getting ready to go out and get milk :-)

Free Hidden Expedition: Titanic

We love Big Fish Games - especially the Hidden Object games (and my neurologist encouraged it so I felt less guilty about joining the Game Club)

Go here and download Hidden Expedition:Titanic. After you have done so, click "Buy Now" and enter the code:
HOLIDAYTITANIC

Nothing much new here

Same old busy-ness. Starting to get a little frantic about Christmas - so many projects happening. Every year I *swear* that I'll start earlier the following year....yeah.

We just got home from "A Night in Bethlehem" at our church. The fellowship hall was set up with 5 or 6 tents and there was a family activity to do at each one - weaving, baking, jewelry making and a few others. Oh, and there were shepherds there who took each family to the stable to see baby Jesus. It was a new Advent activity for our church - definitely fun! And The Husband had a LOT of fun as we were leaving. It was snowing and he was able to do doughnuts in the parking lot. And his wife didn't yell at him (much).

Last weekend was busy with 3 church services on Sunday - the Sr Choir sang at both morning services (and The Boy played handbells with one other boy to accompany the choir - they did a great job) and in the afternoon we had an Advent Communion service at which I sang in a quartet. This Sunday we only have to be at one morning service but there is another afternoon service - a Love Feast service of Remembrance and Hope at which the choir is singing. And the Youth Group is leaving first thing in the morning to go to Moravian Open Door in NYC to deliver the Christmas Tree that they funded and to help decorate.

I found a semi-local candle and soap supply shop so I took a drive down this week to get some new fragrance oils for Christmas soap. I made a batch of Honey Oatmeal soap yesterday and cured it in the oven in the mold that I finally got around to making. It's an interesting process (oven prrocessing) and I'm gradually learning what I want from the molds. The next one will be hinged.

It's 10:28pm and I finally hear The Husband coming up the stairs to work on tomorrow's sunday school lesson with me (Essentials of Christianity). And now he's asking Younger Daughter to clean up the red wine that he spilled on the stairs...

Happy Thanksgiving

Go check out the "turkey" cakes at Cakewrecks

Storm cleanup

Last weekend the whole family gathered at my in-law's house to clean up storm damage. We spent 8 hours cleaning up fallen limbs and cutting up trees. Much of the brush was burned in the bonfire. Younger daughter took many of these photos:

Here's The Husband looking rather scary...although probably not as scary as when he went over to Older Daughter's halloween party wearing his black leather trenchcoat and one of her friends commented "hey, your dad even dressed up!" when he had come home from work that way....




We took Wilma with us and left the noisy Shelties at home. By 5pm she was pooped!

Family Tomato canning day

The Boy took some pictures a few weeks ago when we canned a half-bushel of tomatoes (that's 7 quarts of stewed tomatoes and 1 quart of juice).


Unfortunately I don't actually have 3 hands...



This bowl of fruit came from the next-door neighbor's trees (and vines), plus another box full of peaches. We got two pears from our pear tree this summer but they weren't in terribly nice shape for eating. Maybe next year - that will be the 3rd summer for most of the trees (apple, pear, peach). I finally got a cherry tree in this fall so I expect that will take a few years before much happens.

Giveaways

I'm not participating with a giveaway but I wanted to alert you to the Carnival of Bloggy Giveaways going on at bloggygiveaways.com. If you don't know what it is - lots of bloggers offer prize drawings that you enter just by leaving them a comment - this Carnival has over 1200 participants! I won two books in the last Giveaway Carnival. It's a fun way to find new blogs to read :-)

Late

Sunday we were late to Sunday School. It's bad enough to walk in late, but when you're the teachers...yeah. And you won't believe the excuse: our two bedroom clocks set themselves and they decided to "Fall Back" a week too soon! It took us awhile to figure out exactly what time it really was.

E is for Energy

Which I've had a lot of lately! Laundry is still behind but gradually getting done. I've been baking pies and bread, making soap, sewing, and celebrating the girl's birthdays (including YD's BFF who is our third daughter. She lives across the street and comes to our house both before and after school. Their birthdays are 6 days apart). I've made two batches of apple butter, one of which got canned today. The house has slowly been emptying of unwanted and unneeded stuff which went either to the trash or to the church rummage sale. And all of this is on top of the fact that The Husband has been sick yet again so I've been carting the kids everywhere by myself. We even went to an afterschool "Health and Wellness Fair" at the Middle School in between shopping and choir practice last week. If I can figure out how to get the pictures out of The Boy's new camera (Kodak 2MP - $10 at the Salvation Army store - and it works!) I'll post the photo of him posing with Larry Holmes who was there signing autographs.

The current big project is the bedroom. I love having a huge bedroom but the walls have been closing in as the crap has accumulated. I gathered a black trash bag full of trash and have been organizing my gigantic pile of magazines (yes, I do regularly look back through them) which was interspersed with books and papers and was scattered about the room. It is now contained on a shelf and in a basket until I can get (make) magazine holders for them. There's barely a dent in the room as a whole but progress is being made ("baby steps...baby steps...")

Break's over - back to the pile

Awesome commercial

Enjoy!

August Monthly Post :o)

I'm just getting this in under the wire...

School has begun! Tuesday it will begin for real (they have a 4-day weekend for Labor Day). I spent the month of August stocking up on the cheap/free school supplies available (spiral notebooks for $.05, free cap erasers and folders, etc. and amazingly I didn't have to buy much besides two binders and a calculator once the kids got their lists from the teachers.

For the moment we have our "other" 4 kids in the mornings before school starts (actually only 3 of them, the 3 yo goes to day care) and this past week 1st grade girl was very sick with a virus. The Husband worked from home so he could help me out (It didn't help any that I crashed several days in a row - sleeping for 5 hours at a time). Hopefully this coming week will be a bit more normal.

Younger daughter will start her soccer games this week (they've been practicing up til now) and Church activities start up next week. Younger Daughter and The Boy will be doing Jr. bell choir this year. Older daughter would like to but it goes up to 7th grade. She squeaked in last year even though she was "too old". The Husband and I will be teaching an adult SS class plus choir, worship committee and whatever else comes along. O.D. is in choir with us and Sr. Youth Group, the other two are in Jr. Youth Group. Let's just say that we spend a lot of time at church - I often miss living right next door like we did when I was growing up!

We just had a family picnic - just us and Grandma/Grandpa but man am I wiped! Of course, it didn't help that The Husband kept punching and kneeing me in his sleep (allegedly...) so I hardly slept last night. I'm thinking of eating crackers on his side of the bed tonight :-)

Lake Glory

We got the same campsite that we had last year - the one with the tree smack in the middle of it. I don't know what kind of pine tree it is but the needles are really hard and sharp. We have named the tree 'Spike'.
This view is looking toward the back of the site and there is a stream about 15 feet past the tent.







Thursday morning breakfast: bacon and eggs in a paper bag. We had them sittin the grill alone til one caught fire and we put the griddle on.


See the bird? The night we set up he and his friends played very noisily and roughly for several hours. They flew right by our heads a few times.


There is a red deer farm nearby and they bring a trailer with a deer to the campground for the kids to see and feed.


And Friday Night's dinner:

You need:
One London Broil
One or two bottles of yellow mustard
One canister of table salt
A wood fire burned down to coals

A pair of tongs or a fork for turning is nice but if you forget and leave it at home you can make do with some sticks and a hunting knife.


Squirt the mustard on the meat.


TOTALLY cover it...I promise you won't ruin it!


Now the salt



Cover it all. At this point I'd let it sit for 5-10 minutes next time I do it to let the salt soak into the mustard a little better.




Now flip it salt side down on top of the coals in the fire pit



Carefully (those coals are HOT!) cover the naked side with mustard and salt. Let it cook for about 7 minutes.







Flip it over carefully using the tongs that you packed or a marshmallow stick and a hunting knife.


That excess mustard just wipes off and you don't really taste it, but that is why the next time I'd let the salt soak in for a few minutes before dropping it all in the fire.

This is one of our favorite camping meals - I dare you to try it!

July's monthly post...

I was kidding about the monthly post but it's kinda turning out that way....

Our July 4th Weekend trip out to Knoebel's was much more pleasant than anticipated. The weather was cool, the campground was quiet and the park wasn't overcrowded. Unfortunately I was exhausted the whole day so I barely even got off my little electric scooter and took very few photos. We got some rain but not until late Thursday and again Friday night. Our tent stayed dry inside but we did have to pack it up wet (ick).

First, some pics from the park:


Shooting at the tanks (two people drive and shoot from inside a tank. The observers can shoot balls back at them. This kept our crew entertained for well over an hour)



Some spinny ride:


Another spinny ride - we call it The Hamster Wheel but I can't remember the actual name. My Boy - the one that gets motion sick if he walks too fast - rode this one at least 4 times.


The Twin Cousins:




Under the rollercoaster


The rain held off til around 7pm and we all put on our classy rain gear:


Next time I'll post some campground pictures, including the infamous London Broil in the Fire and Bacon and Eggs in a paper bag. We have VBS this week (Power Lab) and Friday we're packing the van so we can leave for Maine at 4am Saturday

Monthly Update :o)

Older Daughter is no longer a middle schooler - off to High School in August! I'm feeling particular old because in the store today the cashier (no spring chicken herself...) asked me if I wanted the Senior Discount!! I went directly to Walmart for hair color that claims to cover stubborn gray.

Last weekend we had a graduation picnic for her and her motley crew (the midget on the end is not a student - he's her cousin)


And uncle:

And puppies:

And Younger Daughter's collection of Barbies on display:
Speaking of YD, here she is with her Science Fair Project. She won 4th place for watching ice melt:
The Boy is still playing baseball - they have several rained-out games to make up. Older Daughter is going up to Maine with my sister and her two rugrats this weekend. Younger Daughter can't wait for Soccer season or school to start again. I have a ton of projects to work on, all I need is some motivation. I'm really good at getting the shopping part of projects done, but once the supplies get home they don't actually assemble themselves for some strange reason.

8th Grade Semi-Formal....

Daddy spent the evening cleaning his arsenal.

YD had her 3rd grade Precorder Concert last week during Art Night at school


And afterward she had her face painted with a lovely...skull...Pics of Older Daughter's Semi-Formal are forthcoming (i.e. they're still in the camera).