December: the good, the bad, and the ugly

The good:
I really love our gas fireplace.  It's so cozy to sit by the fire in the evenings with a good book.

I've successfully kept up with the Christmas spiritual thought advent thing Mom made several years ago. It might be the first time.

I had a $15 gift certificate to "The Civ," a small thrift store run by the city (all proceeds go to them). I hadn't been able to find anything to use it on, but last time I went I scored a pair of Old Navy khakis new with tags for Brian, three new-looking Thirsties diaper covers in cute girl prints, a Gap shirt for Owen, and a couple okay maternity shirts for me.

Owen's speech has gotten better this month.  He says 4- 5 word sentences that we can actually understand sometimes.

The bad:
We spent $$$ on car repairs and still have more $$$ to spend, all while trying to save money to pay upcoming medical bills ($$$$ because of our insurance) and other related expenses and pay for Christmas things. And things in our house and car keep breaking.

We all got sick with a norovirus that passed through the entire town. I got it twice.

Camille keeps asking for something she won't be getting for Christmas. I tried to prep her this morning by talking about how she might get some other cool thing, and she almost started crying.

The ugly:
We got the homeliest Christmas tree we've every had. It's worse because all the ornaments from the bottom 2/3 of the tree got packed away after Owen kept breaking them, all the presents got put away for the same reason, and one string of lights has had about 20 lights go out.

The forecast for Christmas day includes rain turning to ice with less than an inch ice accumulation.  Measuring ice in inches makes me nervous,  even if it's supposed to be under an inch.

Owen's Week

 Cookie's Week Owen's Week 

by Tomie DePaola a Very Tired Mother

On Monday...Owen sat in the sink and filled his rain boots with water. There was water everywhere.

On  Tuesday...Owen found a razor and tried to shave. There was blood everywhere.

On Wednesday...Owen got into the bathroom closet. There was toilet paper everywhere.

Oh, wait, different mess, different week

On Thursday...Owen got into the fridge. There were cracked eggs everywhere.

On Friday...Owen ran in the snow naked. There was melted snow and tears everywhere.

On Saturday...Owen took all his books off his shelf, all his clothes out of his dresser, and all his stuff out of the closet. There was junk everywhere.

Tomorrow is Sunday. Maybe Owen will rest.

All Is Safely Gathered In

This was our first try gardening in a new location. We moved in at the end of April, so we were busy moving and didn't get the garden in until late. We also didn't have a good idea of which areas of the yard would get full sun when. We still managed a respectable harvest.

We planted four tomato plants and one green pepper plant, and we had more success with them than we ever did in Provo. We mostly made tomato sauce and froze it, which has turned out really well. It is cooked so it doesn't get the weird frozen tomato texture, and we didn't have to bother with canning. We did make some salsa to can for the first time. We did 12 pints over two batches, and both times it was a tiring undertaking; however, hearing the jars ping as they come out of the water bather and seal is one of the most satisfying sounds ever. Hopefully we did everything right and it doesn't kill us.

I know I took a picture of the salsa, but I can't find it now.

We successfully produced carrots. We never could grow them in Utah, but we used the existing planter boxes left at our new house and got about twelve carrots. They are very mild tasting.

The zucchini and cauliflower were total flops, and the radishes and chard were mostly useless.

One of the reasons I love fall is the harvest celebration. Also the fall leaves. I have missed fall in the Midwest, and it was especially beautiful this year. There's nothing like driving down the road seeing the fall colors and watching the combine bring in the crops.

Halloween is not one of the reasons I like fall.

Projects

On Native American Day (Columbus Day for you who aren't lucky enough to live in a state where there are a significant number of indigenous peoples), Brian had the day off(!), so we worked on some projects.

First, this child card table and chairs. When the people cleaned out the house next door in preparation for selling it, they kept bringing over junk and asking if we wanted it. Trying to be nice, I accepted way more than I should have. This was one of the things. It was already in bad shape, and then leaving it outside for a few months made it worse. I don't have before pictures of it, but everything was rusty and the hard board on the table was all warped from getting wet. I sanded everything and Brian spray painted it. He didn't tell me until after that he had never spray painted anything...

The green chair is going to need some work. It didn't cover well, and it got all gloppy. Brian wants a redo now that he learned better spray paint technique.

I still need to get some vinyl for the table top and we need to decide whether to try and replace the hardboard. It is still warped, but covering it with vinyl and padding may hide that. I will also put some padding and vinyl on the chair seats. Brian wants to get two more chairs. Too bad I gave away 7 child-sized folding chairs in Provo.

The other project is Owen's toddler bed. We've been pondering how to rearrange kids, and in all situations, Owen would need a new bed to free up the crib. Someone was selling this toddler bed frame and mattress for $5 because it had some rust spots and needed some work. I just sanded it along with the table and chairs, and Brian painted it. 

It worked out pretty well for $5 and a can of paint. Luckily the blue paint looks really nice. Owen likes it, although he fell out last night.

I finished another project that I blogged about over on the sewing blog.

We finally painted the kitchen

Orange is kind of a cool, bold choice for a room, but I decided it's not a choice I will probably ever make. It was just too dark and bold for my tastes.

I chose what I thought was a gray with green undertones. We even got samples so we could make sure it looked okay. The painted room looks way different from the sample, but I still like it. My idea with the gray/green was that it would match the green in the coppery looking backsplash, but I don't know that it does. The color shifts a lot between gray, green, and blue. Oh well. It is lighter and brighter.

It was also a good opportunity to clean off the island.

Brian doesn't like it. He only likes plain beige walls. Since the kitchen is my domain, his opinion doesn't really matter.

First Day of Preschool

Camille had her first day of preschool yesterday. She wore her locket so she could remember me, and she did great. Preschool is actually shorter and less days than Little Explorers over the summer, so it really wasn't that big of a deal. I definitely didn't cry. Neither did Camille.

Owen slept in the car while we sat in the Walmart parking lot pretty much the whole time Camille was at preschool. 

She came home with this. I hope she isn't too set on being a ballerina. She hasn't even had a ballet lesson because "creative movement" costs like $180 plus the $50 costume plus shoes, pictures, etc. 

Olympic Fare: Rio Edition

In keeping with my tradition, we've been enjoying some foods from this year's Olympics host country.

Since the opening ceremonies seem to always be on a Friday night, we seem to always have Olympic ring pizza. It was kind of a flop this year. I did read that pizza in Brazil tends to be thin crust, floppy, with plain tomato sauce (no seasonings), and my pizza ended up that way somewhat by accident. I tried to stuff the crust with cheese; it was semi-successful. Also, I forgot to get olives, so we didn't have any black things for that ring.

Camille has been really into making personal pizzas, so she made hers into a kitty since the dough kind of stretched that way.

The first Brazilian meal we had was feijao, beans and rice. I just used my normal black beans and rice recipe since it seemed similar to the recipes I saw. I also noticed that a lot of the recipes included meat in the beans, so I threw in an extra brat we had in the fridge and some leftover pulled pork from a branch picnic. I think I would have liked it better without the meat, and honestly, most Brazilians probably eat their beans without the meat.

Next was pao de queijo, Brazilian cheese bread. I love these things at Tucanos, so I was excited to make it. YUM! They were so stinking good. I highly recommend, even though it's a bit of a splurge with the tapioca flour and the cheese. They didn't really make balls, more like pancakes. Next time I'll add even more tapioca flour so they can be round. Brian and I ate most of them, which means between us we had 1/2 c oil, almost 3 cups of tapioca flour, and 1-1 1/2 cups of cheese. Brian was nostalgic because they reminded him of Paraguayan chipa.

I made some fried bananas to go with the cheese breads. Brian reminded me that the fried bananas at Tucanos are breaded, but I just fried mine how I always had them on my mission. I'm a big fan of fried bananas. On my mission we had them usually cut in half lengthwise, but the Brazilian "recipes" I saw said to cut them in half widthwise, so I did that.

Yum. Best Olympic foods to date. Also, the cheese breads and the fried bananas probably made it the highest calorie foods to date, but it was worth it. I am still planning on making the roast beef, tomato and cheese sandwich because it sounds easy. We'll see about the seafood soup.

Summer is Winding Down

Due to the university beginning early, school here starts in two weeks. Camille is going to miss the beginning of preschool because we planned our trip to Utah for that week without realizing that preschool starts then too. So, our fun summer activities are winding down. 

Free lunch ended, so I'm back to making lunches for my kiddos. Owen never ate much of the school lunches, but at least I wasn't making food he then didn't eat. Along with the end of school lunch was the end of "shopping" for the kids, where they got to choose a grocery bag of food to take home on the weekends. The program actually does continue during the school year, but they put together the bags for the kids that actually don't have food at home and somehow distribute them discreetly. It was nice for them to choose some food and snacks all by themselves and it slightly lowered our food bill.

The kids often got to play on the playground at the school where free lunch was, and they both learned how to climb the rock wall. I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant for a two year old...

In an effort to be a fun mom (I got jealous of how fun Camille's pretend mom was), I made some peanut butter play dough. It was also a good activity for getting Owen some extra calories.

There are one or two Adventure Club adventures left this summer, I haven't gone to all of them, but it has been nice to do some things I wouldn't go out of my way to do. My favorite so far has been the fish hatchery. The kids got to feed the fish in the raceway (it was pretty full of fish, but hard to see in the picture), and touch some tortoises and crabs. There is also a free little aquarium there.

Camille has been really deep in her imaginative play, and it has recently included Wild Kratt-style animal play. When we were bears we got to hibernate in the "den." I was the best hibernator. 

Kittens!! And another picture

When Joanna visited we went up to De Smet, homestead site of the Ingalls family. It is the location of By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years. The highlight of the trip was obviously the kittens. Camille almost cried when we had to leave them.

The tiger cats were the favorites

The kids also got to have a little ride on this cart and a wagon ride, make a corn cob doll, make a rope, and we saw recreations of Ma's house, a dugout, and we saw the school house. It was pretty fun except for the 2.5 hour drive there and back.

Summer in Vermillion

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

Other than avoiding doing the dishes and listening to Owen keep himself awake by counting (Vun! Two! Fee! Foh! Fi! See! Veven! Ey! Ni! Den! Beben! Eh! Ni! Den!), we've stayed pretty busy so far this summer.

Camille is enjoying her Little Explorers class. I'm also enjoying her being at Little Explorers. It doesn't seem to run very smoothly, but I can't expect much from a program that costs $80 for three hours a day, four days a week, and runs for nine weeks.

Camille is also enjoying swimming lessons. They were also a bargain--$15 for 8 lessons. She is the youngest and smallest in all of her classes because she just barely turned four.

We have also been going to the free lunch program at the elementary school. They give free school lunch to anyone under 18, M-F through the end of July. I also found out today that they leave trays of day old bread and buns at the door for anyone to take. It's always white bread, but hey, it's free.

The library had a huge summer reading program kickoff  that involved popsicles, and a bouncy house, and a cardboard box maze, and a little ball pit. They also do free weekly movies at the little movie theater over the summer, but we probably won't go to that because it's during Owen's nap time.

A lady in the branch put together an "adventure club" where moms take turns leading a field trip to some nearby locale. We skipped out on the splash pad last week because Owen was just getting over his barfiness and it was thundering. I am planning on taking the kids to tour the recycling center this week. Super exciting stuff. I still need to think up what adventure I should be in charge of.

I'm starting to see the same people at a lot of these things, so it's also a good way to get to know some other families. All the members always go to these things, so it's been nice to get to know them outside of church and nice for the kids to make friends with them outside of church.

It has also made me really happy that for most of these things (library, pool, free lunch) we can walk or bike. Lots of other people walk or bike, too. The bike rack at the library was overflowing with kids' bikes this week, and I've seen lots of people using bike seats and trailers to transport kids, which I never saw in Provo.

I'm loving the summer here, except for the excess of mosquitoes and the fact that it is going to be super hot for the next two weeks. I thought I was getting away from that by moving to South Dakota.

I spotted these free desks on the side of the road when I was out running yesterday. Last night I wished I had gotten them, so I made Brian go see if they were still there. They were! I know our kids aren't going to be desk age for a little while, but I can't pass up free good-quality desks.

Memorial Day Weekend

We decided to drive up to Aberdeen after church and spend Memorial Day with the Aberdeen Allreds. It's a nice drive, just under 4 hours, and I always love driving through the "lake district" in South Dakota. I really like calling it the lake district; it makes me feel like I'm in England.

Owen really took to Great Grandma Allred. Every time he came downstairs and she was sitting in the living room, he would drag out this truck and climb up on her lap to play with the truck together. The kids also liked playing with the Johnsons. Hannah brought her old Polly Pocket collection, and Camille loved it and played with it almost every free moment. Hannah was nice enough to even give Camille a couple of the Polly Pockets, which Camille now takes to bed.

We visited Storybook Land. I was just planning on enjoying it and maybe paying for the train, but Brian splurged on the 10 pack of tickets, so we rode the train, the rollercoaster (Camille was terrified of it), the carousel, and the spinning balloons. Sadly, they took out the barrel that you spin in like a hamster. It was probably super dangerous, but also one of the most fun things there.

Every year the Allreds have a little Memorial Day thing at the cemetery, so we joined in that. It was very nice.

On the way back we stopped at a children's museum. Camille has been dying to go since she sees a commercial for it on Brian's pbs channel. (Mommy!--the South Dakota Children's Museum is just a short trip away in Brookings!) I consider this part of her birthday present.

This was the coolest part: you could dig for dinosaurs bones in the sandboxes.

We got home at 4:30. I hadn't planned well for Camille's birthday, and Brian wasn't feeling well, so he went to lie down. I put on Little Einstein's for the kids to watch and ran to the store. I bought a birthday cake. I feel bad about it because bakery cakes are so stinking expensive, but I didn't see how I would be able to make a cake and celebrate her birthday that night otherwise. She was really happy with the cake though, and we managed to get them to bed somewhat on time.

Her expectations for future birthday cakes might be a little too high now.

She got some kids furniture for her dollhouse and a couple books, and the Cinderella doll on the cake. She is happy with it all, although I still don't think she ever plays with her dollhouse.