The Art of the Sheep

I've suffered from a little insomnia this week, some illness-induced, some child-induced. I wish I could fall asleep this easily:



Maybe tonight I should pull out my tap shoes...

The Caretaker

Now that Peter is getting so proficient at using the bathroom (thank goodness) he's discovered that using the facilities is an excellent way to delay bedtime. And Peter loves a good bedtime delay. Bonus for him: since we were sick yesterday he came up with a slew of other excuses. Last night he:

• Needed a tissue
• Needed to use the bathroom
• Needed a bucket (No, we weren't throwing up, but he asked for a bucket. Twice.)
• Wanted to snuggle
• Wanted to snuggle again (This excuse gets us most of the time. We like to snuggle too.)
• Needed a cloth

Why did he need a cloth, you ask? Franklin had thrown-up and he was going to clean it up. Bryan asked Peter if he had thrown-up too. He said yes. Peter showed Bryan some spit in the bottom of his bucket.

I think it's sweet that Peter wanted to help his friend. I often wish that he would spend more time playing with real kids, but it's good to know that he's taking good care of the fictional ones.

Sick Day

I'm sick.

Yesterday the boys and I stayed home from church so as not to infect our friends and neighbors. Bryan had to teach Elder's Quorum, but he stayed home during the other two meetings to take care of us. Cooper and I have it the worst. Peter is mostly just sniffly, but it was enough that we didn't want him wiping his nose on one of the other Sunbeams. It's a general achy, gross-feeling, sore throat, chills and low-grade fever kind of thing. I'm going to have to figure out how to do all of my normal mom activities in a semi-functional state.

I got a call from a member of the compassionate service committee last night. She was calling to find out if everything was alright, if we needed anything. This might bother some people, having someone check up on them and find out why they weren't in church, but I appreciated it. I guess it's nice to know that they noticed I wasn't there. It's nice to be missed.

No Nanny Needed

I watched The Nanny Diaries last night. Scarlett Johansson's not my favorite actress, but I had read part of the book (no, not all of it, there was too much bad language for my taste, but I did skip ahead and read the end) and was interested to see what they did in the movie. Bryan and I both kept saying as we watched the movie, "that poor little boy," "this is so sad," "that's awful." At the end of the film, rather than analyze the acting or directing, I had to go check on my sleeping boys and tell them that I love them.

I also kept thinking that I'm so lucky to be a mom who loves her kids and who aches when she's away from them. And I think they're lucky to have parents that are so actively involved in their lives. That might sound arrogant, but it's not meant to. There are so many children whose parents think of them as burdens or accessories, it's breaks my heart a little.


I'm so thankful for these boys. And I'm thankful that I'm thankful.

Stuff You Cannot Afford

Steroids?

This is one of carrots I pulled from my garden on Saturday.


I'll use the same size comparison that I did for the pumpkin.


Yes, I think this carrot is bigger than the mini-pumpkin sitting in our fridge. This picture doesn't do it justice. I have never seen a carrot this fat. I don't think this has anything to do with tender loving care I've been showing the garden. Did a whole bunch of little carrots decide to get together and become a giant mutant carrot?

I cut it and five of its neighbors up into lots of small carrot sticks and put them on a low shelf in the fridge, which made me feel like a really good mom.

Sweater Weather

Happy Autumn! I've been trying to get myself psyched for Fall (aka the death of Summer) by getting Peter psyched for Fall. He knew that yesterday was the last day of Summer. When ever I asked what tomorrow (today) was (is) he would say, "Halloween!"

Last night I put dinner into the oven late so Bryan suggested that instead of waiting for it to finish and in turn getting the boys into bed late we should have Peter's current favorite food: cereal. So I popped our chicken into the oven to bake and we sat down to Trix, Rice Chex, and Raisin Bran. Thank goodness cereal is relatively healthy.

We will have last night's dinner tonight. Before I put it into the fridge last night I tasted it. Delicious. It was so good my eyes got a little watery. And you know what? I made up the recipe. That's right, this girl, who has never been that great at improvisational cooking, invented something good.

And so, I present to you The Chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts, cut in half hamburger style (so now you have 6)

Combine in freezer size Ziploc bag (or whatever brand bag you happen to have, it won't effect the food... as far as I know)

• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (we made bread crumbs from this)
• Parmesan cheese (I think I put in 1/4 cup, but that's really just a guess.)
• A few shakes of course ground black pepper
• A few shakes of dried sweet basil
• A few shakes of garlic powder (Sensing a trend?)
• A few shakes of season salt
• The secret ingredient: A few shakes of cinnamon

Give the chicken the old Shake-and-Bake treatment and cook it in the oven at 350 degrees until it's done. I used a meat thermometer, so I'm not sure of the exact time. Forty minutes maybe?

As you can tell this can barely be called a recipe. It's more of a throw-what-you've-got-into-a-bag-until-it-smells-right-and-then-cook-it-and-eat-it. The cinnamon adds just the right hint of warmth and richness. It's very Fall-ish. We're going to eat it with rice, slices of homemade bread, and green beans and carrots picked from our garden.

I'm looking forward to dinner. And maybe Autumn...

Elemental, My Dear

Peter asked a great question on Friday. We were reading a book about the planets and he wanted to know how Saturn was able to hold onto all the stuff that makes up its rings. I thought it would be a good question for Bryan to answer, so I posed it to him during dinner that night.

Bryan contemplated how to answer, decided to explain that everything in the universe, including Peter, is made up of matter, and then planned to move on to a discussion about gravity (something I try to explain every time Peter jumps off the furniture). He began with a question of his own:

Bryan: Peter, what are you made of?

Peter: Pink.

Walk the Walk

I've had requests (from my Mom and Grandma) for another movie of Cooper walking. And because I aim to please, here is one that I took on Wednesday. Notice that he no longer holds his hands above his head when he walks? They've moved to out in front. Soon I expect they'll be out to the side like an airplane, then maybe on his waist like Peter Pan, and finally coming to rest at his sides. Baby steps...

Think Pink

I bought something pink this week. Before you get all excited, it's not for me. My friend and her husband are adopting a two-year-old girl on Friday and I'm going to a toddler shower for her tonight. The boys and I hit Costco and got some quality pajamas. And they're pink.

Behold:
and

This is progress people. I don't usually buy pink stuff, not even for other people. I have occasionally, but I prefer purples and reds. But these felt right. Does that make any sense? When I buy things for others I'm very picky. (Okay, I'm picky all the time, but especially when it comes to gift giving.) I want the item to scream out "BUY ME! THEY WILL LOVE ME!" And these screamed much louder than any of the other pajamas on the table.

The boys don't seem to have the same pink prejudice that I do. They rode around Costco with these slung over their shoulders like stoles. It was awesome. Really.

Buying pink things, wanting to know how to sew, am I *gasp* maturing?

Fantastic

Ocean's 11 + Wallace and Grommit - British accents = Fantastic Mr. Fox

A Needle Pulling Thread

I've been feeling lately like I need some new skills. It's a thought that keeps floating through my conscious. There are things that I should know how to do, useful things.

I mentioned yesterday that I sewed on a button. The last time I tried to sew on a button was before I met Bryan, so probably ten or eleven years ago. The button-attaching was truly a domestic triumph. Sewing is such a stressful experience for me, but I would love to be able to sit down at my sewing machine and actually make something. I think part of this nagging feeling comes from the blogs that I read. I know some very talented people. (I know other talented people with blogs, but they're either private or don't have any examples of their wares on their site.) Lest you think I'm going all crafty on you, rest assured, I'm only interested in things of a practical nature.

Here's my current list of talents that I think it would be good to develop:

• Sewing. I would love to be able to mend our clothes, make simple clothes like skirts, hem pants without the use of staples or duct tape, you get the idea.
  
• Quilting. I think this could come in handy. I suppose it's really a subset of sewing, but I would certainly have to tackle these separately.
• Crocheting. I have crocheted for several years. I can do one stitch that turns into an uneven and gradually shorter, um, potholder? My brother gave me a crochet instruction book a few years ago (he makes beautiful afghans and scarves) that I think I need to dig out of my sorely neglected sewing box.

I guess that's all for now. They're in the same skill family, but distinct enough to warrant their own bullet.

My biggest impediment to gaining these abilities is my lack of time. I'm sure I could stop doing other things to make time. Things like sleeping and reading and spending time with my children. But I consider the first two to be vital to my sanity and the last one vital to my soul, so I won't be cutting back on any of them.

And this whole want of skills post raises the question: what would I do with them if I had them? Rather than serve as an outlet for my creativity (none of my creative tendencies flow in these directions), it would serve my deep-seeded need to be frugal. I really hate spending money and I would love to make the things that we have last longer if possible, even if I change their form. My sophomore year of college I had a pair of jean overalls that I wore out. I decided that I should save all my non-functional jeans and make a blanket out of them. So I cut up the overalls. And then did nothing with them. And that seems kind of wasteful to me.

Maybe I'll start with something small, like a potholder that has four sides of equal lengths.

Wants and Kneads

While walking back from a quick trip to our garden this morning I smelled something wonderful. What was it? Pizza? Bread? And then I realized that all of our windows were open. It was my house I was smelling. This came out of the oven a few minutes later:


Bryan made this on Friday... and Saturday... and Sunday.


Delicious. It was fun to watch how delighted Bryan was by the whole process. I love that he is often the more domestic of the two of us. He does the ironing, the mending, the reupholstering, the yogurt-making, and now the baking.

I sewed a button on a shirt last week, so I think I'm closing the gap.

You Are Seventeen Going on Eighteen...

Bryan's brother Spencer turned 18 this week, so we had a little party. We made a fancy, extra-sugary-sweet cake, brownies with egg substitute that turned into chocolate hardtack, and low-sugar yellow cupcakes with low-sugar chocolate icing. I ate the cupcakes... and the brownies.


Spencer got a big box of assorted food items, something that every college freshman needs. Melinda is modeling the present that Peter made for Spencer. It is an empty paper towel holder. With a hole bitten out of the middle. Seriously.


Cooper couldn't even tell the cupcakes were low-sugar.


And we wore Peter out.


Maybe we should have a party every night...

School Days?

Peter has been asking to go to "big-kid school" for a while now. He won't start Kindergarten for another two years because he has such a late birthday. I'm not ready to send him to Preschool, but I do like the idea of an in-home, joy school kind of thing.

I guess a bunch of women in our ward did this last year, but they had the boys and girls separated. The girls would actually be taught, while the boys would play. They said it was because boys are slower academically than girls. What? I think there may be truth to the whole boys-and-girls-developing-at-different-rates thing, but I think it's sad that they just assumed the boys wouldn't be able to learn.

Anyway, I would like to try a different approach. I know that some of you have done similar at-home preschool programs. What did you teach? How often did you meet? Did you use a specific curriculum, or did you make it up as you went along? Lots of questions, I know, but I have discovered that when I ask a question here, I am showered with a fountain of knowledge.

Rise and Shout

One New Year's Day I was feeling mildly rebellious, so I decided to do something that was rarely done in our house: I watched football. I'm not kidding. I plunked myself down on my parent's bed and watched a football game. I have no recollection of who played or how long I watched, so the impact must not have been great.

In high school I attended one football game. I was in show choir and we were doing a fundraiser which culminated in an upstanding member of the community kissing a pig during half-time. There were eight finalists for the snort-smooch and I was asked to escort one of them to the field. I think I left once my pig-duties were done.

At BYU I was shocked at how many people had these things called 'All Sport's Passes.' They would dress up in blue, paint their faces, and return to the dorms a few hours later with matching sunburns and hoarse voices. (I thought BYU should have offered an All Show Pass, a ticket that gained the owner access into all performing arts events. I would have totally bought one of those. If it existed.) I went to the Homecoming game because somebody had an extra ticket, but I didn't really know what was going on. I think I went to one other game a few years later, but it was at someone else's request (and on their dollar).

I was aware of football season, but more in the way that one is aware of a fly buzzing around their head. The area around campus would become a mad-house and we would have to remember to avoid main roads before and after games. When people would ask if I saw the game (whichever game it was at the time) I would smile and say "No, I missed it" instead of, "No, I think it's an amazing waste of time."

Last Saturday we made the trek down to BYU to take the boys bowling. We figured it would be a fun family activity, and we were right. We had come prepared with a picnic dinner and at the conclusion of our game we headed upstairs to find a place in the Wilkinson Student Center to eat. It was once we arrived on the main floor that I started to wonder what was going on. There were people everywhere. Now, the Wilk is often hopping on weekdays, but Saturday is usually a day of calm for the building. Not so last week. Turns out the first BYU football game of the season had just started and was being broadcast by ESPN. Huge screens showed the game in progress. Peter was interested in what was going on, so we stopped and watched for a few minutes before continuing.

When we got home Bryan asked Peter if he wanted to watch the last few minutes of the football game. Peter said yes and the boys retired to the living room. Neither Bryan nor I knew which channel ESPN was on because we had deleted it when we first moved in. After finding it (channel 35 for us) they started watching. I joined them because I was tired and wanted to sit down.

You know what? It was, dare I say it, fun. The game was exciting, a nail-biter even. Bryan explained everything that was happening on the field. (I had no idea that he knew so much about football, but I shouldn't have been. Bryan seems to know something about everything.) We were the underdog. It came down to the last three minutes of the game. And we won, 14-13. The boys had fun and Bryan and I sang the Cougar fight song. I even tried to come up with some clever Facebook status about being a proud Cougar, but was unable to because too many of my friends are not from BYU and I didn't want them to think I was celebrating being a heavily made-up middle-aged woman in leopard-print leggings that hit on college-age men, because I'm not any of those things.

As I lay in bed that night I wondered if I was being somehow untrue to my artistic heritage by watching a football game. Hadn't I conscientiously chosen to avoid the rough-and-tumble sport? And if I had, why? What had made me decide that football was beneath me? (That's a horribly prideful thing to fess-up to, but it's true.)

I have come to the following conclusion: it's okay to watch a football game, especially one that my alma mater is playing in. And it's okay to enjoy it. It doesn't detract from my intellectual or artistic interests, as long as I don't dive in and devote all my time and energy to it.

And when Bryan's grandpa asks us if we've seen the game (and he will, he always does) we'll be able to say yes.

How Do I Love Thee?

I was unable to embed the newest Mormon Message, but you can find it here.

While trying to find a way to show it on here I came across a different one. This talk was given at a BYU Devotional and I was there. I went to many Devotionals during my time as a student and my subsequent stay as an employee of the University, and this was one of my favorites.



You can access his full talk for free here.

The Big 3-0

I suppose I should save that title for my birthday next year, but I'll use it on this fitting occasion. Today is my parent's 30th Wedding Anniversary. That's a commendable milestone.

My parents, taken the day of my baby blessing, just over 29 years ago.

In honor of their happy day I ask a question of you, my loyal readers: What is the best marriage advice you've been given? Or, what advice would you give to someone getting married today?

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Happy, Happy Birthday

Today is my brother Ian's twenty-eighth birthday and to honor this day I've decided to post a whole bunch of old pictures of him. And since most of these pictures come from my personal collection I'm in almost all of them too.

I think this might be the day of his baby blessing, although that's just a guess. It's the youngest picture I have of him.
This is my favorite old picture of us. We're only fourteen months apart in age and I think this was the last time I was the taller of the two. At least this much taller. He's taller now, and has been for many years.

Ian is very funny. He's a great story-teller and a wonderful actor. This is a picture from A Midsummer Night's Dream that we did in high school. We were two of the five mechanicals. I was Quince (that director only cast me in male roles, I don't know why) and Ian had the difficult but oh-so-humorous task of playing The Wall between Pyramus and Thisbe. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the play. Or watch it somewhere. Anyway, this is my favorite "action shot" of us because we're the only ones still in character. Yes, we were in the background, but we were still supposed to be involved in what was happening on-stage.

I had the opportunity to see Ian into the MTC. He served in the Georgia Atlanta Mission and spoke Spanish. Funny story: the night before he went into the MTC he slept on the couch in Bryan's kitchen. Bryan and I were friends at the time, but the reason Ian stayed there was because Bryan's roommate Scott was my good friend from the year before (and maybe my home teacher? my memory is fuzzy on that detail). I got married while Ian was on his mission. I felt bad that he missed it, but was glad that he had at least met Bryan, even if it wasn't intentional.


Okay, so Ian kind of has crazy eyes in this picture, but I think it's really cute of my sister-in-law Amanda. Also, all of my photo archives (with the exception of the stuff Bryan scanned in for me last night) are temporarily unavailable, so I had to grab a picture of them from their blog. I really love Amanda, I think she's swell. So this picture is to say, "Good job Ian."

And this is my new favorite picture of Ian. I hope that he and Amanda don't mind that I snagged this from their blog too. Ian is a wonderful father. Clara is a lucky little girl. Although, looking at this picture, I think Ian would say he's the lucky one.

Happy birthday Ian. I hope your day is just what you want it to be.

Prepared

This week Bryan and I started talking about Christmas presents. We're not usually so ahead of the game. Well, I'm not. Bryan is. Our second Christmas after we were married he bought an almost full-size digital piano for me and hid it in our two-bedroom Wymount apartment. In August. I didn't find out about it until I walked in on the last day of work before the Christmas break and found it set-up in our living room, playing carols.*

So far I have one thing on my list for the boys. This book:


We've checked this out from the library at least three times and each time I read it I discover something new. The text is cute, all about a large family gathering at grandma and grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. It's the pictures though that really get me. Diane Goode, the author and illustrator, has visually captured so many familial truisms that she must come from a large family herself. As each family arrives you learn something new. And the families are dressed in color-coordinated outfits, so you always know who belongs with whom, which adds even more to the story.

Click on the picture and check out her website. You can view some of the illustrations to get an idea for how detail-rich they are.

Now, I wonder if I can hide this from my bookworm boys for the next four months...

*Bryan and I are both sure that I've already written about this, but I've just looked through all of my past posts and can't find where. So if I'm repeating myself, oh well.

It's the Great Pumpkin!

I picked our first pumpkin on Monday. It turned orange a few weeks ago and stopped growing, so I thought it was time.


And this one should give you an idea of the grandeur of the gourd.


It's dainty. We planted a sugar pumpkin (produces small fruit) and a carving pumpkin (produces large fruit). This one came from the carving pumpkin. Cross-breeding?

One Day at a Time

Thanks for the comments and advice on the potty-training post last week. We've been taking some of the suggestions out for a spin.

Peter has worn underwear for the last two days and has had two accidents each day, but that's not terrible. I told him that when the daytime Pull-Ups were gone we wouldn't be buying anymore. We had to run errands on Saturday so he wore a Pull-Up over his big boy pants. Same with church on Sunday. I think that helped him to be more aware of when he was wet but still keep the mess contained.

We've been heaping lots of praise on him. That seems to help. Sometimes he'll let us into the bathroom with him and other times he demands his privacy. On Sunday he physically shoved me out of the bathroom, which should have gotten him a timeout except then he went and used the bathroom AND was still dry, so I focused on the good and not the bad.

We've set timers to remind him when to go. He has refused at times, but he's also told us that he needed to go before the timer beeped. I think that's progress.

We've also been plying him with goodies (hence yesterday's post). I'm so anti-sugar that this is really hard for me, but sometimes it works for Peter, so my desire for him to be potty-trained is winning out over my desire to instill healthy eating habits. Although, there have been a handful of times that Peter has finished in the bathroom and announced, "I don't want candy this time." That's fine with me.

Of course yesterday he refused to use the bathroom until about three in the afternoon, but after that he did swimmingly.