Never go to the Garden Center on an Empty Stomach

We did not get our garden in until the first week of June. That's o.k. though because UT's spring was unusally cold. Paul worked hard on weeding out our back and preparing the soil. He even arranged for a small wall to be built across the back to create a second terrace that would allow for more crops. This increased our planting space to almost 300 sq feet! This was all I could have wished for - this was my "baby gift" from Paul after Henry was born.

Once the space was prepared I headed to the Garden Center and picked up several plants including zucchini, squash, watermelon, orange peppers, yellow peppers, red pepper, pumpkins, fresh herbs, and several types of tomatos. I even got a few bags of seeds hoping to enjoy some fresh corn, beans, beets, and carrots later in the summer. I was so hungry though that I couldn't resist the little tags that read "asian eggplant" and "armenian cucumbers". I have a thing for ethnic food and my mouth watered and stomach growled as I thought of the delicious spicy fried eggplant I use to eat during the six months I lived in China. I also couldn't help but think of my favorite falafel complete with armenian pickles from Mazza. I grabbed a few of these plants and added it to my cart. I thought "what the heck- I do have the space for it, why not experiment".

It was a great week of the big and little working together when we planted our garden. The girls digged in the garden like it was a massive sandbox. The boys talked to their little seeds and plants like babies and watered them faithfully. They even illustrated little plastic signs where their "babies" rested peacefully. We memorized the scripture D&C 6:33 and talked about the great reward we would enjoy for all our hard work. I repeated the scripture over and over to my children as they began to complain about the weeding. The garden was sure to be all I had hoped it to be.

Unfortunately we have some issues with our soil and apparently there are several hungry birds and rodents around. All that has survived is 4 stalks of corn, a few tomato plants, and a handful of pepper plants. But that is not to say that they are thriving - what is thriving though is one watermelon plant, my asian eggplant, and armenian cucumber! How random! I don't know even how to prepare them, I don't know if anyone will like them let alone eat them. Any ideas? Any recipes? Anybody want some? I've got more than I know how to consume.

In the meantime I have plans for a super compost pile that should solve the problem for next year's crop. Im also glad we didn't invest up to $70,000 on our garden as other families have. Besides the money spent on the soil, plants, and retaining wall, I am only reporting a $20 loss on a pair of light up sandals that Peter thought to "plant". I don't suppose they will yield up any reward but I believe the real reward was the time we enjoyed working together as a family.

Ensign Peak

"This is the place" to go when your a/c is broken. Yes, it has almost been a week that we have been enduring intierior temps reaching mid - to high 80's. It's so hot that I don't want to cook...James made some quesidillas for lunch and spilled a bit during the process. The poor cheese was melted on the floor before I could sweep it up. The boys have now offered to help me build that solar oven I've been talking about.

We also had plans to meet up with some out of town friends and thought to spare them from the heat so we met up at Ensign Peak. Both the view and the breeze were refreshing. Maryanna's soaking it up and licking it in -the girl is full of life and looks as if she's ready to take flight. This was her very first hike free from Daddy's back and though it slowed us down a bit she enjoyed the freedom as well as filling her pockets with rocks. The boys played "I Spy" up top the peak and said the city looked like an ant village. They also laughed in the wind as my haircut took on new life.

The hike itself was actually very quick and easy but I still couldn't help but think of the pioneers because 1. they never had a/c and 2. they navigated up these rocky paths with several young children as well. We also encountered one snake along the way and I thought that may have been a frequent occurance for those brave pioneers.

As we headed down the sun began to set and we passed several young couples on their way up. I was quite amused by a hopeless young boy carrying his date up on his back....all because she chose to wear a pair of red hot stilettos like these. But I'm not one to mock the silly things one does in the name of teenaged love. I think my Paul is still just as love stricken because he was quick to run back up to the top of the peak when I told him Maryanna left her Sigg there. Free from the baby backpack he was quite quick. Infact, it took me almost as long to load up and buckle all the kids in the car.

We finished the night off with a quick 7-11 stop and offered Maryanna her first slurpee as a reward for good hiking. Unfortuantely she dumped it into Henry's infant carseat. I think we'll stick to just hiking and Siggs full of water next time.

Drawing our Dreams

Last night I made something interesting for dinner, sweet and spicy pulled pork burritos with a creamy buttermilk, garlic and cilantro dressing - kind of a knock off of what you may experience at Cafe' Rio. The kids liked it and ate a lot of it, the girls were even licking the dressing off their plates.

What's strange is this morning's breakfast conversation was full of the craziest images from last night's dreams. The kids described scenes of the sky full of bombs and balloons, Octopuses that squirted chocolate, swimming helicoptors, and children dressed up in gorilla suits at a resturant called Old MacDonald's Farm. I immediately thought of a snippet from one of my favoirte L.M. Montgomery books, The Story Girl.

"Peter and the Story Girl, so it appeared, had wooed wild dreams to their pillows by the simple device of eathing rich, indigestible things before they went to bed."

Maybe it was a result of our broken a/c or maybe it was the food. Either way the imagery described at the breakfast table inspired me to pull out some cardstock and colored pencils. I was curious of how they would interprete and illustrate such images from their subconcious and I also thought it would be fun to record their words on the back . To make it more exciting I let them use a box of Prisma color pencils from my art class. They are different from regular pencils in that they are soft and creamy and the colors seem to melt together - they are even vibrant on dark colored paper.

It is sometimes fun to try new mediums and the older boys especially enjoyed the change from regular crayons and markers. The pencils themselves however, are too expensive to be used unsupervised. In the past we have also experimented with acrylic paints, water color pencils, colored sharpees, and oil pastels. I just got the new ASW catalog and thought it might be fun to also try some watercolor crayons, plaster cloth, and a few of their interesting molding materials.

So here's to mixing strong flavors for dinner and experimenting with new art supplies. I'd be happy to post the pulled pork recipe for those who are interested and have their cardstock and colors ready - Enjoy!

p.s. My dream was really weird also. I was going through the high school hot lunch line and served a chocolate covered cinnamon baked baseball. I was enjoying this hot and gooey treat and wondering how I could get a hold of the recipe when I realized all my peers were staring at me because I was leaking milk through my shirt. But I attribute that to real stuff and not last night's dinner.

This is the way we do the Laundry

Monday is a big laundry day for us and the only way to get through it all is to wear the baby. Suz gave me (actually it was a trade for my miracle swaddling blanket) this new Moby wrap and I'm really liking it! I'm just getting the itch to hand dye it though. I like all of the several "wear your baby" contraptions but I tend to switch them around depending upon my activity or task as they each have their own pro's and con's.

Moby Pro's:
-It is very comfortable - probably the most comfortable of all
-You can wear the baby in several different positions
-It looks great - almost like an interesting fashion accessory

Moby Con's:
-It is too bulky to fit in your purse
-Bit complicated to figure out (it came with a booklet that I followed and had to practice it a few times before I felt comfortable)
-It is not as quick to put on and off

I didn't get into wearing my baby until had my second baby. With my first, I just held him and there was little need for multi-tasking. Since then however, there have been many instances where the baby was strapped securly to me and I have had to scoop up a toddler and carry them at the sametime. It doesn't sound that impressive but I am not the strongest creature so the baby gear definately helps. During one of these intances a neighbor stopped by to deliever a meal. After seeing how I handled two at once she shared a story about one of her pioneer ancestors who had several children close in age. It was recorded that she would use her apron as a sort of sling and would be able to complete her homemaking tasks with two babies somehow wrapped about her. I was thinking - Wow! and apron sling combination - how inventive, I may have to work on that in all my spare time......For now though I've got enough contraptions to get me through my day.

I like wearing my babies for more than just productivity of it. Here is why else:
-I like the smell of my babies heads
-It conceals the troubling post partum mid-section
-Keeps the babies happy (I suppose they feel secure)
-Gives the baby a good view of the world
-Keeps strangers from trying to touch your baby
-Adds resistance and burns more calories
-With all the choices of colors and styles it is just plain fun

I also think it is kind of cute when Daddy wears the babies.

Real Stuff

I'm so glad I did not grow up in the era of text messaging....if so I would not have had the pleasure of re-reading through this grab bag of love notes that Paul wrote to me back in high school. This was the prize after another long day of cleaning out and now I'm so giddy from reading through all the mush that I just don't know what will come of this post.

I had great plans for us on Paul's day off for Pioneer Day...cleaning out the "spider room". Actually it's our storage room but why it is called the spider room and why we had to clean it out is for another post. We followed Marie Rick's E.E.E. plan and decided it would be most effective to leave the kids entertained and locked in their room while 1."Everything was out" and being 2."Eliminated". It felt good to eliminate but still overwhelming to sort through the 3."Essential" that were to go back in. Our essentials that were left fell into the following catogories: food storage/utility supplies, office supplies/homeschool resources, and sentimental treasures.

Sentimental treasures are the most fun to sort through but hardest to weed out. I love the smell, the story, and memory they contain. I laid there on the carpet, for hours, surrounded with boxes and junk to be tossed, lost in the pages of these love notes just smiling and laughing. This is just what we needed to get through the rest of the project because Paul and I were both starting to get a bit irritable. Our original plan was to watch a movie later in the evening as a reward for all our hardwork....now we had something even better than a movie to enjoy - the zip lock full of teenaged love notes.

I'm just a bit nervous though because I too wrote him some mushy love notes but they are no where to be found! I'm also wondering how to I keep them and enjoy them for myself without allowing them to fall in the hands of posterity. I suppose this little bag could use some filtering.

Just not yet because I'm getting too much joy out of them. My cheeks and stomach are sore from all the rolling on the floor laughing, my voice is hoarse from trying to read out loud while fighting through the out bursts of laughter, and I just can't stop smiling. These little gems don't belong in the spider room - I think I'll keep them under my pillow instead. I could never get mad at Paul after re-reading through a few of them. Even in high school Paul had a very unique and entertaining writing style, when you add a bit of mush and taggled up teenage emotion it is enough to melt you. I suggested he take these notes and write a little screen play, a Disney sitcom, or even start a blog called "teenage love notes from Paul". Either way today I feel like the luckiest wife in the world. I sure had an amazing boyfriend in highschool but even greater husband now. Thanks for all the notes Paul and thank you also for spending the day helping me clean out the "Spider Room", maybe you could write me another mushy note sometime.

Dress-Up Closet

Before last weekend the storage space under our stairs was full of all sorts of junk! I've been cleaning out and decided to tackle this closet which seemed to be a holding zone for things I just didn't know what to do with. There were several boxes of Christmas and Holiday decorations, baby gear that I forgot to use and pull out for the last two babies, loose luggage, Paul's old baseball cards, and a box of random stuff from college. We put the luggage up on hooks in our utility room, down sized my holiday decorations to 3 boxes, gave away the baby gear I haven't used in years, pulled out a few treasures from the college box then threw out the rest, put a few of Paul's baseball trophies up on our mantel (the boys love them) and I'm still waiting for Paul to find a spot for his box of baseball cards. Cleaning out is invigortating! It helps me think a bit more clearly, breathe a bit more deeply, and enjoy the real things in my life - my family. It also keeps my spending and accumulating in check. The last thing I want to do after cleaning out a closet is buy something.

So here is our new "dress-up closet"....the whole space which wraps around and goes under the steps is dedicated to the kids and their imaginations. Where the ceiling gets low Peter named "the fort" and he has set up a pillow and blanket to relax there. The front half which is more accesible is lined with hooks on both sides with a mirror mounted horizontally just above the hat hooks. There is also a vertical mirror mounted on the inside of the door. At the back of our closet there are several buckets full of accessories such as shoes, weapons, googles and whatever else won't fit on our hooks. We also have a few empty suitcases that the kids like to use on their "adventures".

Dress-up is fun - even for boys. In fact, the majority of our dress up was collected before we had our girls. Most of the items have been picked up at garage sales, handmade, or given to us from others.

Here are some of our favorites:
2 sets of boxing gloves
Michigan football helmet and uniform
Astronaut suit
Chef hat and apron
Old wooden cane
Orca suit
Knight's armor
Davey Crocket hat

In the spirit of Pioneer Day today Clara is sporting an old bonnet my Dad bought me as a child visiting Lancaster, PA and an apron made by my great grandma. She is also holding a toy blood pressure meter. It is fun to see the combos they come up with and even more fun to ease drop on their play.

Going Even Shorter

I got my hair cut....even shorter this time. I don't know if I've ever had it this short before but its fun. I needed to see something thin on my body and I chose my neck. It's just hair - and will grow back if I let it, but not until the other parts of my body feel thin again.

Archie (our dog) kept barking at me because he didn't recognize me..... James said to me "it is so fluffy -is that what one might call an afro"? Paul said "I'm not going to say it" but he didn't need to say even that because I could read his mind - I do kind of look like I'm from Utah now. The other kids haven't said much about it but have enjoyed rubbing their hands over the small portion that was shaved at the back of my neck.

Actually I do remember I got my hair cut this short shortly after my sister Julie passed away. I promised her that after her last round of chemo and her hair was growing out that I'd chop my hair just as short as her and we would have fun waiting for our hair to grow back together. She never made it through additional treatments so I guess me chopping my hair was a coping mechanism. Perhaps I'm doing that now....messy house, lack of sleep, chubby body - I needed to control something and it was my hair. Either way, it is a fresh variation from the old standard- a pony tail.

Behind me you may notice some of the happier clutter that fills my life, its in our art room/office and itsa favorite spot for the kids. I will blog about it another time because I too love this room.