For the birds

Last week I wanted to grill some chicken for dinner. I went outside to start the grill and imagine my surprise when I opened the lid and found this:

What in the world?! I originally jumped because I didn't expect to find my grill full of the scraps of my backyard but then I really freaked when I realized that an animal, most likely a nasty, dirty, poopy bird placed all these scraps here. I nearly peed in my pants when the thought of one very pissed off, nasty bird would come flying out to attack me. Thankfully I opened the grill while they were out for dinner so I wasn't attacked. We had to completely sterilize the grill before I would put food on it. I've opened the grill every day and the persistent little feathered creatures won't give up; they start over on their nest every day. Well, this morning I just left the grill lid open so we'll see if they are birds that enjoy voyeurism.

On a completely different song note...
The school was having the spring carnival this weekend and I volunteered to bake goodies for the cake walk. I found some very cute bluebird cupcakes online and decided to make two dozen for the school. I had decided this before I found nasty bird remnants in my grill, otherwise I wouldn't be making any cutesy bird products.These cupcakes are supposed to resemble a bird nest with three baby birds tweeting for some food. I quietly relish in the fact that someone ate the heads of these birds. OK no, I'm not some deep dark personality that likes to harm animals. But, if these birds don't stay out of my grill...

My baby is 7!

Happy Birthday Matthew!
I can't believe my youngest child, my little sweet boy, my baby is actually 7 years old today. Matthew decided to make a grand entrance and cause a lot of hub-bub commotion 7 years ago and he didn't stop there. A few things about Matthew:
1. He loves to build. He will build with anything he can find and has the most creative ideas. (in fact, his teacher had to remove a stack of paper from behind his desk because every time she looked up he was folding paper to build sculptures; is it bad that I laughed?)
2. He loves anything to do with Egypt and mummies; he knows more about mummies than I ever cared to learn. The grosser, the better.
3. I am convinced he will be an archaeologist when he grows up but if that doesn't work out he will be an architect.
4. He idolizes his big brother, Jacob and even said he wanted to have the same job Jacob does as an adult so they can be together.
5. He will climb any and every tree he can find; the picture is proof. He was actually climbing the small tree so he could reach the bottom branch of the huge tree. He has named that tree "The Grandfather Tree;" because I guess it has to as old as a grandfather?
6. He will ruin every shirt and pair of pants I buy with mud or holes from sticks. I have given up and started letting him wear his holey jeans because he thinks it's cool.
7. Despite his mummy loving, tree hugging, clothes ruining characteristics he has the softest heart of any boy I know. He has always been a cuddler.
8. He is very sensitive but also tries very hard to not show others he might be crying; "I've got something in my eyes" is his favorite cover-up for tears.
9. He is a great friend.
10. He is a wonderful son and he makes me a better person. I might have gray hair before he graduates from high school but he is going to give us a ride we'll never forget.

Adoption Fundraiser

We are thinking of several different ways to raise funds for our adoption and our first attempt is a Tastefully Simple catalog party through a consultant will donate 50% of her profits towards our adoption. Fill up on some good, EASY food while helping us bring our new girl home! (I can't wait until we get matched and decide on her name so we can stop saying "new girl, new sister or new daughter!") Click on the Tastefully Simple logo to order through our fundraiser.

My favorites are the beer bread mix and the almond pound cake. The beer bread can be made with any carbonated beverage making the possibilities endless! Check out the recipe section for many different uses for both products.

Easter dress

Here are the kids before we went to the Easter service at church.

I started making Emily's dress about a month before Easter and then procrastinated the finish work until a few days before. That dress is heavy, it has to weigh at least 4 lbs! It has a ton of material in the skirt and it is also fully lined. She loves it so that makes me happy.

Tie-Dye Eggs

I saw a blurb on TV about dying eggs with printed silk from neckties, scarfs or blouses. It looked really cool and I thought it might afford me one year in church with fingers that weren't blue, green and red. So I headed to the second hand store to buy a few ties because I have a husband who does not enjoy wearing items knotted around his neck.

Find yourself some old silk ties or scarves in the closet or hit the second hand store as I did. Also find some white material, it can be muslin or even an old pillowcase.
Cut both materials into squares big enough to wrap up around an egg.
Wrap egg with silk material, printed side towards egg, and fasten with a twist tie. Wrap white material around the silk and secure it with a twist tie.
I buy drawstring trash bags so I did not have twist ties lying around. I headed to the grocery store to find they don't sell a package of twist ties. I could have bought a box of trash bags that use twist ties but I thought that would be pretty useless. So instead, Emily and I got some fresh produce and accidently dropped some twist ties into the bags. Oopsie

Boil your eggs for 20-25 minutes in a non-reactive pot with 1/4 cup white vinegar. Immediately place eggs into an ice bath (this gets rid of that funky green coated yolk) until cool enough to handle.

Have fun unwrapping your eggs!

Easter Cake

I had planned on making this cake with the kids this weekend but they were downstairs playing so nicely that I decided to spend some therapy time in the kitchen baking; just me and my Kitchen Aid. There is one thing that I have learned beyond "never wake a sleeping baby" and that is never ask questions when all three kids are playing nicely.

J and I have done Weight Watchers for three months without any baked goods in the house so I thought we'd splurge this weekend...sort of. I took this recipe out of Family Circle magazine and tweaked it a bit. OK, after looking at the recipe and picture I guess I kind of took this cake as the inspiration and pretty much changed every part of it.

Original:
http://www.parents.com/recipe/layer-cakes/oreos-n-cream-cake/

Now my cake with changes made to be a bit more friendly to those of us who need to fit into the majority of the clothes hanging in the closet.

Cake:
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, lite margarine sticks, softened
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1-1/4 cups buttermilk skim milk with 1 1/4 tbsp. lemon juice to make buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 2 8” circle pans.
Mix dry ingredients (first 5). Beat butter sugar and vanilla for 3 minutes, add eggs 1 at a time. Slowly beat flour into sugar mixture, alternating with buttermilk. (Begin and end with flour mixture.) Divide into two pans and bake 34 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and turn cakes out.
Bakers Note: If I had regular margarine sticks I would have used those. Due to my longing desire to fit into the clothes in my closet I only stock lite margarine sticks in the fridge. The batter gets pretty runny after adding the eggs when using the lite margarine but the cakes appear to have baked fine. Also, it took a bit of extra flour to make a cake batter consistency so either plan on using a bit more flour or a bit less buttermilk. Consider your kitchen a mad science lab!

Filling: (original filling completely scrapped)
1 container fat free Cool Whip
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tbsp. sugar

Divide each cake layer in half.
Mix all ingredients until smooth and then spread 1/3 of mixture between the cake layers.

Frosting: (original filling completely scrapped)
1 container fat free cool whip
3 cups crushed Oreos

Spread cool whip over cake. Place crushed oreos on sides of cake.

The original cake is 13 points per piece (16 servings). My diet twist is 5 points per piece (16 servings).
I can say that the cake was completely gone in two days, so I guess it was edible even with the diet twist.

More veggie soup

Another dose of blogger vegetable soup; if you don't like vegetable soup imagine chicken noodle or french onion- just stay away from the clam chowder. I don't like stinky blogs.

Whenever I go out I look for hidden treasures that other people overlook and try to figure out a way to fix it up and use it. All that means is I like junk; I look for junk and then try to find a way to make it pretty junk that I will use in my house. Sometimes it works, and other times i just make the junk even more junky so I toss it out.

Last week I found this lovely, painted mirror for a mere $16. The frame around it was great and the mirror even had a bevel around it. I would have paid a lot more for just a mirror, let alone a frame as well. Only one problem; it was ugly! Copper looking paint doesn't match a darn thing in my house and I can only imagine that is why it was still sitting on the clearance shelf. But I was able to look beyond the hideous, gaudy colored frame so I bought it and bought a can of spray paint the same day.

Here is the painted version in our bedroom. Every time I bring home of these ugly gems my husband always gives me a look. It is the same look every time which says "that is ugly, very ugly and what do you plan on doing with it in our house?" I always tell him my grand plan and I still get the look, only now it has transformed into "that won't work, but have a nice time trying honey." He hung my mirror for me a couple days ago; enough said.

Last weekend the fifth graders got to take a trip to the science center and sleep there overnight. I didn't think a mom with a group of 10-11 year old boys was a stellar idea so I volunteered J. I could tell the second I saw him Saturday morning that it was a long night on a very hard floor. Although, I think he secretly had a good time wagering bets with the boys on how much pizza they could eat.
(Doesn't Jacob look like a mini-me of J?!)


And finally, here is a picture of the kids' bathroom. We have had ducks in our kids bathroom for four years so I figured it was about time to change to something else. I painted the walls a very light lime green and added turquoise rugs and the brightly striped shower curtain. It is like a color explosion in there! Even with the new theme we still refer to it as the "ducky bathroom" because "stripey bathroom" just doesn't have the same flow.

Your reward

Thank you to all the family members who will soon be receiving three seperate post cards, all containing the same information. Every year at school the kids bring home a packet of post cards to address to friends and family with the hopes that they will be suckered into buying a magazine subscription with money coming back to the school. Some years I'm able to quietly dispose of them, but not this year. An assembly and promise of a great toy made it impossible to wrangle these post card packets out of their dirty, long fingernailed (yes, I say that is a word) hands this year. All three of them were so eager to get their straw glasses.

So, without further ado...I give you your reward for accepting three offers of exactly the same thing and so lovingly disposing of them, for me.

Toes and more

What do you think the purpose is of the little toe? You know, the short little stubby stub at the end of your line of toes; what is that thing there for? Do we really need to spread our weight out among five toes, one of those being a little stubby stub that barely grows a toenail? I think the little toe is simply there to act as our spatial guide and to loudly let us know when we get too close to something. Think of it like a cat's whiskers determining the space they can fit into. My spatial awareness is quite off; like a swollen stubby stub little toe with no nail- off. OK, very off. I'm about to invest in steel-toed shoes.

When you eat whatever you want regardless of calories that would include eating the full fat, full sugar chocolate. Do the manufacturers kindly guide you to the amount you should eat? Nope, they will even sell you a king size version.

What happens when you decide to try and lose weight thus requiring you to buy the sugar free chocolate? You just want to enjoy a little bit of chocolate flavor after all.

Why do they put that suggestion on the DIET chocolate but not the full fat, full sugar variety? Isn't that a bit backwards?

This- This is why they tell you to eat sugar free chocolate in moderation.

Sorry for the poor pictures; my camera is also revolting against the diet chocolate.

Absent

Some of you may have noticed that I am blogging far less these days. If you didn't let's just pretend you did; for me, OK?

Anyway, we are adopting! I have been very focused the past several weeks to get our adoption off and running and it has been an insane amount of paperwork. I researched anything and every thing I could find for over a year and the amount of paperwork still surprised me.

I am reserving this blog for our chaotic, comical moments so I started a separate blog detailing our adoption journey. You can find a link to our adoption blog on the right, titled, "Five, Six...Pick Up Sticks"
Follow along as we work through the mountain of paperwork, rolls of tape and immense joy of adopting our next child...a daughter from China.

A word from Jacob

One morning last week I was in my room getting ready while the kids were also getting ready for school and I overheard the following conversation.

Matthew- Yea, but what is a depression?
Jacob- It was when companies couldn't afford to pay people so they lost their job and then when they looked for a new job they couldn't find one so they had to travel somewhere else and that meant that families were spilt up and separated. Then because their family was split-up they became sad and depressed; that is why it is called the depression- because so many people were depressed.

I did take the opportunity to tell him that an economic depression is different than medical depression but when you stop and think about it; it makes complete sense.

Last night we were discussing a savings account with Jacob. He decided he wanted to open a savings account with his few dollars in change so he could start earning interest and getting more money. We revisited the idea of the 401 P, as in 401 Parents, with matching contribution. We have told the kids for a couple of years now that whatever money they present to buy a car at the age of 16, we will match it. So that got Jacob's wheels turning and J sat him down at eBay to find what $1000-$2000 will buy him compared to $3000-$4000. He looked for awhile and then came into eat dinner.

Later that night I found a sheet of paper with Jacob's requested car features.
-tinted windows
-tilt steering wheel
-tachometer
-split fold down rear seat
-rear window defog

I nearly busted a gut laughing when I saw this list.

Happy Birthday Emily!

Nine years ago today I was lying in a hospital bed, crying and begging for the doctors to induce me. My dear daughter had overstayed her welcome by one week and J would be leaving for a week in two short days. It was imperative that I put the "Closed" sign on my womb and evict the tenant. The doctor's finally relented and decided to induce my labor. I tried to tell them that I'd be no trouble, my babies come quick and I wouldn't use too much of their time. They didn't believe me.

From the start of Pitocin to a bouncing, screaming baby girl in my arms was 2 1/2 hours. I secretly love proving people wrong; one labor nurse in particular.

It is hard to believe my little girl is 9 years old today. Here are a few things I love about Emily.

* She has a very caring heart and is always thinking of other people.

* She loves any type of crafts, making for a great craft partner.

* She has beautiful eyes that are a color of her own. Her eyes are a grayish green that doesn't match anyone in the entire family.

* She has beautiful, thick hair. She often likes to complain about how thick her hair is and I remind her that she didn't have a choice; it is a trait that she comes by honestly.

* She makes friends easily but then does not forget them when we move her around often. She will have many friends all over the country by the time she graduates.

* She loves little children and is wonderful with them; she will make an excellent babysitter in a few years.

* She likes to bake and cook.

* She is an excellent student whom the teachers always love.

* She is extremely responsible for her age.

We will be taking Emily and three of her friends to lunch and a movie on Saturday to celebrate.

Bottomless Pit

So it has started. I knew when I gave birth to two boys that a few years down the road I would be needing to make grocery store trips a couple times a week and a family meal at a fast food restaurant would cost more than a sit down meal for J and myself.

Last week I took the kids to Subway before we took the dog to training. Each child ate a 6 inch sub; so much for the kids meal subs. Then 1 1/2 hours later both boys were clutching their stomach and whining "I'm starving, Mom!" Yes, because you know a 6 inch sub is not nearly enough to feed a 6 and 10 year old boy; what was a I thinking?

I dread the sounds my bank account will be making as we get through the full teenage years.

A little thought for your food

Every woman loves chocolate, right? OK, well I have met a few loose nuts that say they don't like chocolate and I wonder if they've ever had their estrogen levels checked because that just doesn't sound normal.

But, have you ever wondered where your chocolate comes from? I learned last year that most big name chocolate manufacturers actually buy their cocoa from plantations that use child labor. Here is a photo slide show that msnbc.com posted online this morning showing cocoa production in Ivory Coast, Africa. And here is an article detailing the child labor at cocoa plantations.

This Valentine's Day I urge you to pay a little bit extra to buy chocolates from a fair trade manufacturer. It will cost more than the chocolate bars that saturate the market but I have found it tastes a bit sweeter when I know the workers on the beginning end of my chocolate bar were paid fair wages for their work and more importantly- were not children.

To find retailers near you that sell Fair Trade Certified products, click here.

To view a list of chocolate brands that are presumably slave-free, click here.

The kitchen

I've never posted a kitchen after we finally finished the wood floor. We finished off the floor around Thanksgiving but the kitchen has not been showcase clean until this week. We were preparing for our first visit from the social worker for our home study so all the island paper weights were hidden in the cabinets.

Snow Day

A way with words

Matthew seems to always find a way to make us laugh with his one-liner comments and tonight was no different. Emily had quite the attitude this evening and after being very disrespectful to both of her parents she was not only sent to her room but sent to bed early as well. She threw a real doozy of a fit once she got to her room (only reinforcing the fact that she was indeed tired) and it was about that time Matthew came out of the bathroom from his shower. He told her very frankly, "Emily, what is your problem? You sound like a dying pigeon." The good parent in us told him that is wasn't nice but that was only after we laughed and asked each other where in the world he comes up with his analogies.

Lately funnies

Several nights ago we went out to eat dinner and afterwards Matthew wanted to stop by Michael's and pick out some yarn for a scarf (I just recently learned to crochet and Emily has 2 new scarves.) From the restaurant to Michael's we had to listen to the children argue about boys having scarves; Emily insists that boys don't wear scarves and everyone told her yes they can. Among all that chatter Matthew looked up at the store front and saw that one of the letters had a light bulb flickering and pointed it out. We all looked and agreed and then he said "That is a stroke light." Yep, those good 'ole stroke lights.

Tonight I told all the kids to put on their pajamas. This would usually result in Matthew finishing first and Jacob last but tonight it was reversed. I was quite puzzled on what could be taking Matthew so long so I went to check on him. He tried to put his pajama pants on and found the legs to be knotted. He couldn't get them undone and then Jacob yells from his room "just pull the two strings." I tried to explain to him it wasn't that kind of knot and he persistently told me yes, it was. Finally he said "I know how they got knotted; I did it." Upon further questioning he said in his book The Boys Book, How To Be The Best At Everything it says "How to annoy your sister or brother" and follows with tying the legs of their pajamas in knots. I wonder how long those pajamas have sat in his drawer with the legs knotted before Matthew chose them to wear.

This weekend we have to choose Jacob's elective for his first year of middle school. He has the option of band, choir or study skills. He expresses some interest in band but not a lot and I'm trying not to force him into liking band just because he has two parents that were band geeks. Today he brought home the recorder- the screechy when you don't open your throat enough, recorder. After an hour I had to ask him to give the practicing a break; I'm now rethinking this band idea. God bless our parents.

Normal

Hypothetical situtation (well, sort of)

You go to the doctor for reoccuring migraine headaches despite being on a daily preventative medication and even having the dosage increased. Your migraines have dramatically increased and have become more than a nuisance at this point. Your doctor is very caring and seems concerned; he/she looks into your eyes for a great deal of time while shining a 60 watt lightbulb deep into your head causing your eyes water down your face. Then you are sent downstairs for a blood draw to run some labs and make an appointment for an MRI to take place two days later.

Deep down you feel that there really isn't anything seriously wrong but it never hurts to follow through with some basic medical measures just to make sure.

You think you've had an MRI before but quickly realize that you actually had a CT scan and the two things are very different. You keep your eyes closed and try to deep breathe (but don't move!) while inside a tunnel with a cage around your head for 25 minutes. All goes well and the tech says you should have the results in a few days.

Two weeks go by and you haven't heard anything. You could call to get the results but surely you would have heard by now if there was something seriously wrong. No news is good news, right?

OK, so you finally receive your hypothetical letter telling you that everything is fine with your MRI. It might read something like this:

Dear Mrs. Jabberblogger,

The radiologist and myself have reviewed your MRI films taken on Dec. 34, 2039 and want to inform you that all results were normal. If you would like a second opinion please contact me and I will arrange it.
If you continue to have an increase in the occurance of your migraine headaches or feel your symptoms dramatically worsen please call me. I would like to follow up with you in a month to check the effectiveness of the medication change.

Sincerely,
Dr. Kitterzapper

Or, you might receive a letter like this instead (actual scanned letter, just changed the names):So much white space, almost like I might be missing something but my brain is normal so I know that is just plain, white space. Happy New Year to me!

Dinner

As a fly on the wall of our house last night you would have heard the following:

Emily- I am NOT eating that!
Matthew- Eww, what smells?
Emily- You don't need to put that on my plate because I am NOT eating it. (Then green beans went on her plate) UGH, that too?! Well, I'm only eating potatoes.

Then the plates were put on the table in the dining room.

Emily- This is so disgusting.
Matthew- Yea, what is this green stuff on it?
Emily- I am so NOT eating this.

Later we were talking about going camping and canoeing with Papa and J asked them if they would go fishing and then eat their fish for dinner?

Emily- No way, I would not eat that; we would be camping.
J- Well, when you go camping you go fishing and then have a fish dinner. (All the while I'm saying how good fried catfish tastes and Matthew is talking about how fun it would be.)
Emily- No, I'm taking real food with me when I camp. (We ask her what this would be.) Stuff like chicken nuggets, pizza, fish sticks.
WHOA WHOA WHOA

The girl who just called my dinner disgusting, smelly and green says she will eat fish sticks because they are real food. We made sure we told her what went into fish sticks and Matthew even made sure to point out- EVEN THE EYEBALLS!

Want to know what I served for dinner last night? Broiled salmon with a teriyaki glaze, green beans and potatoes. To her defense, the green beans were gross; I like green beans but will not buy that kind again. She made sure she pointed out that nobody ate their green beans, not even mom or dad.

We informed the kids how nutritious salmon is and we called it "brain food" because of the Omega 3's. Jacob gobbled his up and said he knew he was smarter. Emily begrudgingly ate her salmon after the fish stick and brain food stories but followed it up with a sassy "I know it doesn't really make you smarter."