Fall Break Friday

Today so far...we've made pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies and 3 doz chocolate chippers. After a pasta lunch, Addie served tea & cookies, and now we are off to read halloween stories and take a nap (since they went to bed at 9 and got up at 6, missing 3 hours of sleep, and it shows!)... Tea Party (Peach Crystal Light and sugar cookies)
Addie and James are so cute...

it's warm out (50 degrees) so Heidi is tormenting the neighbor dogs.

There's mama in the kitchen (wearing my England apron today)

...and our tollhouse nummies...we'll eat them in honor of

DEAR COUSIN AUTUMN'S 29th (again) BIRTHDAY
(hope it's a wonderful day--we're so glad you were born, Autumn!)

***

We're aslo celebrating the Bozeman Stake Preparedness Fair,

which is tomorrow at the stake center form 10-2 with free lunch and lots of info.

You get lots of good info, and afterward, I get my husband back! YAY!

Real Quick

I am singing "Bring on the Dancing Horses" in my head because one of the kids was messing with the dash of the van and stuck in the Pretty In Pink Soundtrack, so when I had to go on a run (grandma Melin was here) to get Triaminic meltaway strips for Addie-with-a-cold, Echo & the Bunnymen serenaded me.

Richard is gone to an insurance conference in Great Falls, so it's just me and the children til Tuesday night. It's going to be a very busy few days, so I thought I would post tonight in a moment of silence (the kids all crashed by 7:30, except Addie, who crashed after said strips were administered and Emergen-C was chuggged). Tomorrow I have my nieces all day and Tuesday I am cooking up some food then taking the kids over to Helena (arriving around 3-4pm) to see Auntie Laura and help her get ready for her big surgery on Wednesday. Rich is going to meet me in Helena and bring the kids back home, and I am going to stay the night and make sure that Laura is okay on Wednesday (and do what ever I can to help--??). I have to be back for Thursday morning because the kids have a 5-day fall break, so I guess I can catch up blogging then.

All is well with us. I feel like a true Montanan because I am happy to be hunkered down, bundled up, cozy in my home while it's freezing outside. I just love it (until about January 2nd, then I will be hatin' it). Here are some recent pictures Rich took with his cell phone:

Last Saturday 10/03 we biked to the drugstore soda fountain between conference sessions...YUM!
My Sweetie Boyz

We picked our apples before the big freeze...

Yeehaaa!

Rich & James

Grandma & Addie

Addie in a tree James on a ladder

(on a hill...precarious...)

Gracias, Amiga!

Today is Heidi's Grandma Date, so it's just me & Ad this afternoon (James is engrossed in watching Monsters, Inc on my ipod). We were so excited to come home from school and find a package on our porch (in the snow). We were even more excited when it turned out to be Serendipity's FRRROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE MIX, a bday gift from Lisa M. Andersen (that's "M for Marvelous")...It really is delightful, and it only takes 1/2 c of milk to make this big glass, which is great news for the lactose intolerant.
A happy addition to my pantry's baking shelf (which may as well be the chocolate shelf).

It's a big hit!

Thanks, again, Lis...your gifts are always unique and thoughtful!

What's So Special About Wednesday?

I'll tell you what...

1. It's the 17th anniversary of the day I went into the MTC--10.07.92--and it's a Wednesday again. So if I were in UT Valley, I would take James and go over to the MTC and watch the new kids get dork dots and the crying--I love the crying.

2. It's the last day my Grandparents are in Utah, so I hope they are livin' it up in style...maybe lunch at a sweet li'l bistro...

3. Steph is going to be on Oprah! YOU MUST WATCH OPRAH on 10/7 (SET YOUR DVRs) even if you loathe her (and I'll admit to needing TUMS to get through some shows) and see the magnificent Clark and Nielson families share their testimonies!

Here's my hubs SHAKIN' THE TREE...and then I remembered the Peter Gabriel song...wow, life is full of happy coincidences. I'm shakin' some trees, too.

Shake the Tree! from MelinFamily on Vimeo.

oops--the code is broken--I'll be back with the actual clip when vimeo gets crackin'.
4:40--link still not ready, but here's something even BETTER (I made it last night as cupcakes and it was FAB--try 1 stick of butter + 1/2 c applesauce= less fat, more yum) :

Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups regular all-purpose flour, unsifted
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup soft butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Glaze (directions follow)
Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F.

1 Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.

2 With a mixer, beat together the butter and the sugar until they are smoothly blended. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. With a spoon, stir in the vanilla, orange peel, and zucchini.

3 Alternately stir the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture, including the nuts with the last addition.

4 Pour the batter into a greased and flour-dusted 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes (test at 45 minutes!) or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes; turn out on wire rack to cool thoroughly.

5 Drizzle glaze over cake.

Glaze: Mix together 2 cups powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Cut in thin slices to serve. Makes 10-12 servings.

Snowy Birthday Song from MelinFamily on Vimeo.

Happy Sabbath Thought...

I made this last night...one of my favorite Nibley quotes with one of my favorite pictures.

Addie on Parenting (again)

We were seated at our bar tonight (Rich was gone to priesthood meeting) eating dinner (another soup--beef stew this time, made with our own carrots, onions, green beans, corn, and tomatoes, local beef, and store-bought celery, with RHODES rolls on the side--HEAVENLY) and I was still scolding Heidi for getting into the frozen yogurt and getting it into her hair FIVE MINUTES after her bath & blow-dry.

"I need you to listen and stop making bad choices," I said.

"Well, you're the baddest mom in the world!" she retorted.
"Yeah, you're the baddest mom!" James chimed in.

I was about to ask them if they meant that in the Michael Jackson-sense of the word, because then I would say, "Why, thank you!" But Addie piped up first.

"Hey guys, mom is NOT the baddest mom in the world!" She turned to me as if to share a secret and said, "They just say that when they don't like what you're saying. You're not really a bad mom."

"Oh, thanks," I said.

"Heidi, if mom was the baddest mom she wouldn't know how to cook or do the dishes. And she would say mean things all day and lock us in our room, " Addie explained.

"And she would take away our toys and she would just sit on the couch and eat chips and watch movies, " Heidi added.

"And feed us just, like, celery and peanut butter for dinner," said Addie.

So there you have it folks--a backhanded list of what it takes to be a bad mom. I hope that makes all you moms feel much better about yourselves [ROFL.......].

What Addie Said

I was in the kitchen tonight just about to put dinner on the table (beef-vegetable soup with homemade tortilla chips) and Addie came into the kitchen, sniffing the air, saying, "Mom, that smells SO GOOD!"

"Have a taste," I said, handing her a chip.

She tasted the soup and said, "MMMM! Mom, that's really good!" [thank you, Bear Creek Country Kitchen]. She stood there for a second kind of wistfully stirring the soup.

Then, appropos of nothing she said, "When I was 4, I thought you were going to torture me when I got bigger."

"What? What do you mean by torture you?"

"I thought you would--you know, lock me outside and only let me come in for lunch or dinner and bed, and stuff like that."

"Why would I do that to you?" I asked.

"I thought that's what parents were for!" (how sad is that? too much cinderella!)

"So what do you think parents are for now?"

"To keep you safe and make you happy and help you choose the right so you can grow up and be a parent, too," she explained.

"That sounds good," I said. "Do you think that Dad and I are doing that?"

"Yeah! And now you're my best friend, too! And this soup is so awesome!"

I just cracked up and hugged her. It's so crazy how kids' brains work and how/what they deduce from life experience. For example, I made a mental note to myself when I was about six that the boy I married should be close to my age because if he were, say five or six or seven years older (like my dad was than my mom) then we would get divorced. Imagine my confusion when I discovered that my happily married grandparents were six years apart!

Anyway, I just love my girl so much--she's growing up to be such a sweet and thoughtful and helpful person.

It is Useless To Resist

My nephew's cuteness is kind of killing me...

Schooled at School

Today was my first day of working in Addie's classroom, even though her teacher and I have been planning on doing it for a month (James has a playdate with his cousins from 8:30-12:30-ish). So I observed for about a half hour while they worked on their reading/phonics program "Fundations" (Are any of you familiar with this program? It is spectacular! Even I was having fun!). When I learn the program, I will help the kids who aren't getting it during that time. Then we did centers--one group did reading and worksheets at their desks, one group did reading lessons at a table with the teacher, and one group did an art project with me that correlated with their story of the week (the illustrations are collages and they're framed with these cute borders that look like quilts).

So all of the little "paper quilt" frames turned out beautifully--every single one--but every single kid had a different method for putting them together. I kept wanting to compliment the kids who were doing it the way I would do it (gathering up all the squares of paper I liked, then arranging them into coordinated patterns before reaching for the glue and creating the frame--the more organized, less creative way), when I realized that all the results were amazing and it didn't matter how the thing got made. See where I got schooled? It's quite the parable for life, that most of us are striving for the same ends, but often there are as many means of getting there as there are people. In most of our pursuits, the means don't matter as long as there is a beautiful end.

I came home at lunch time, but on the way home, I felt so motivated, I thought about how I could make Thursday all about my kids. I could help in Heidi's class for a while, too (maybe 8:30-10:30 with Addie and 10:30-lunch with Heidi) and bring sack lunches for all 3 of us to share, and then come home and get James. I think that would be fun. And just a month ago, I was thinking, "Yay, they're back in school! I am going to have a 4-hour block all to myself for the first time in 8 years," and Thursday was going to be Me day. It only took a couple of weeks (and no Me days at all) for me to miss my kids enough to trade in a Me day for a Kid day. Once in a while I have clarity and see how fast their childhoods are passing and know that my hobbies, educational goals, and heck--even the dishes, will still be there when my little ones are grown and gone. I've only got one shot at this, and I think I've already spent too much of it cleaning! ;)