Ball Room

Matt and I finished our six week ball room dance class last night. I tell ya, we rocked the dance floor with our fox trot. He still accuses me of taking the lead once in a while and I counter with I'm praciting the steps, I can't help it if I catch on faster and keep going. All joking aside, though, we had a fun time and he's a way better dancer than I am. Now all we need is a wedding in the fam to show off our mad skills. The instructor does a Thursday Night drop in dance party where she teaches a basic step and then lets everyone dance for an hour and she brings snacks. Our babysitter--who drives over!!!(yes, that many exclamation points are needed)--says she'll be free on Thursdays so we might make this date night without any kids more of a tradition. Up until now date night is doing something after the kids to bed, but we're usually too tired to be more creative than watching TV or finishing a house project. Or going out to lunch with the two youngest. When my kids get to dating age, I think it would be fun to have their dance dates come over a couple weeks before and teach them the easy two step and four step dance so they don't dance in stupid circles. I'm definitely teaching all three of my boys.

Two Librarians

At dinne one nights Elyse said, "Mom, look. This is what I do at school to look like the librarian." So then Paul had to join in.

Project 52 Week 7: Elyse snuggling with Jarom

It's so hard to choose just one photo every week. Here were my favorite three. Elyse made this nest of blankets on the floor and brought Jarom in with her for snuggling during some Olympic watching. Luke saw the camera come out and immediately stuck his head in front of the lens, but I managed to get a couple shots without him in the way.

Project 52 Week 6: Cheerios

Jarom sleeps in till about the time the kids walk out the door to catch the bus. By then Luke's already had breakfast and is watching Mickey Mouse Club House, so Jarom's breakfast is usually a bowl of dry Cheerios in front of the TV (I'm sure that will win me the mother of the year award). I don't know why I bother with a plate. This is what always happens.

Guilty of Self Pity

Why do things break in 3's? Three weeks ago all the lights on the outside of the house died. New bulbs haven't fixed the problem. Then our light and ceiling fan died two weeks ago. The thing runs like 24/7 and I've really, really missed it while sleeping. And just yesterday, Elyse thought she set the kitchen timer on the microwave to time her piano practice, but really just ran the microwave-empty-for thirty minutes. She completely fried it. And it was brand new, too. For about half an hour I was totally down in the dumps, frustrated with how much everything was going to cost, wondering when Matt would even have time to fix things, etc. But then I opened an email from my sister LeeAnn who'd sent me pics of Latter-day Saints in Haiti living under the stars around the church. Most of them have lost their jobs, their homes, the kids were double dipping from the sacrament trays because they are so hungry. Here I have a warm home, clothes, and food in so much abundace it's ridiculous, Matt has a great job, and the kids have a first rate education. We're so spoiled. So what if I have no power on the outside of my house? There's even an old microwave in the basement. It won't fit above the oven, but I can still have something to heat up the kids' meals quick. I'm truly blessed.

Indian Project: Survived (barely)

The end of January Elyse completed an Indian project on Michigan's Chippewa Indians that took us five loooooong weeks to complete. Nearly every day after school I had to hound her to do research, color something, build something, read something, take notes, paint, glue, etc. Now that it's over, her regular homework seems to take no time at all. I'm amazed at how much time we have added to our afternoons. Here's a pic of her diaroma that had to include more than one aspect of indian culture if you wanted full marks, plus a detailed description of everything included in the scene. She made a wigwam out of sticks (I glued, she tied) and scraps of fabric she butchered, painted it without any direction from me, cut out indian clothes (once again I glued because she's not allowed near the glue gun). I was stumped on what to do to show how they harvested wild rice. She got out a bar of soap and used a vegatable peeler to carve it into a canoe all by herself. I was pretty proud of her for completing the project. She didn't even complain too much when I made her rewrite the entire paper after I edited it (just grammer and order of paragraphs. Her opening was: Hello, this is a report on Chipewa Indians. And the phrase after harvesting wild rice: That is cool.) We even found a recipe for an indian treat, boiled maple syrup taffy, and made it for the class. While obviously kid engineered in comparison to a lot of the typed by parent reports and Mom made dioramas, I was proud of the work she did. While exhausting, I think she learned that planning and tackling a little bit at a time was better than cramming things in at the last minute (at least I hope she learned that). And it boosted her self confidence in coming up with things that I couldn't find an answer for. While I wish I could just save all the posters and notes and diaroma for Paul in two years, he's got to do the work himself if he's going to learn the same lessons.

New Oven, oh how I love you

My diet has suffered this month and I place all the blame on the new love in my life: my new oven. My old unfriendly beastly oven with it's one burner that heated semi well and the three crappy burners that never came up to high, and the weak interior that never could cook a chicken in under two and a half hours, was finally escorted out of the house this month. And in it's place came to live this double decker beauty with duel energy: two electric ovens, one with convection, the other that preheats super fast, and a gas stove top with one huge burner with 16,00o btus (I don't even know what that means, but it sounds powerful) and four additional burners that have constant, easy to control heat. I can actually fit a pressure cooker and canner on the top of this thing (as opposed to my last that could fit neither. I was reduced to canning four jars at a time in a soup stock pot). My stir frys come out fried instead of poached or steamed. My cookies are lovely golden brown. We've made since its arrival: chocolate chip cookies, brownies, blueberry muffins, pizzas, stir frys, croutons, a WHOLE chicken with forty cloves of garlic, cupcakes, super fast omelettes, Navajo tacos, wheat bread...The cool thing is I can make dinner and dessert at the same time. Or rolls and roast at the same time. Or...or...the possibilities are endless. Now I must use my new super power for good instead of evil. It's time to turn away from the desserts and start testing this bad boy out on my weight watcher recipes. Sigh...I love my new oven. I even ate out less this week just so I could stay home and play with it.

Project 52 Week 5: Pirate and Thief

This picture makes me chuckle, so it's my pick for the week. The boys have the same Mickey Mouse outfit and I wanted at least one picture of them wearing them at the same time. The best I could get, though, was Luke holding the camera lens cover up to his eye and Jarom had found Paul's handcuffs and was sucking on them. He got mad whenever I tried taking them away. In the end, I liked how the picture came out. My pirate and my thief: there's no toy room they can't bust out of.

Luke was watching Jarom play with the handcuffs. I called his name and captured this sweet pic. Jarom is like TV for Luke. He could watch and play with him most of the day and not get bored.