I want some sesame crackers

ever get a strange, out of the blue craving?

sesame crackers wouldn't be 'on program'

plus, I don't have any.

plus, nothing healthy sounds good.

I'm tired.

I took some food pix over the last couple days but haven't gotten around to posting them.

I was planning to tell you something else, but I forgot.

Anyone have a low fat, whole grain, healthy-and-quick (really quick!) sesame cracker recipe? Something I could whip up in, oh, 5 minutes, maybe? 'Cause that's all the time-and-energy I feel like spending on making something. Although i think I'd be willing to sit and whine about NOT having a good snack for longer.

He's going to make a great husband someday

I gotta admit, I love LittleD. He'll be 4 in a month and a half. His speech has been rather slow to develop and still fairly difficult to understand, at times. But he's really taken off talking in the last 6 months or so.

One thing I love to hear him say, though, is his sweet, enthusiastic "thanks!"

He's got big old shiny brown eyes, the color of melted chocolate. And when he gets dressed in the morning and finds his Mickey shirt in his clean clothes he'll exclaim in delight, "You washeded this? Thanks, Mama!" as if my washing his shirts is the most wonderous gift I could give him.

(I really do move clothing through the laundry and back to his room fairly quickly, these days, so his delight is not solely in the novelty of clean and folded clothes. Really.)

Last night I made a rice soup for dinner. I liked it. Most of the children (and the Grand Lunar) politely ate their allotted portion, but I suspect no one was terribly excited about it.

Except LittleD, who exclaimed, in the same delighted and awestruck voice, "You made this soup?! Thanks for making it, Mama! I like it!"

Of course, he stopped short of finishing his small allotted portion, causing me to suspect he didn't really like it all that much. But I'll still take the compliment. Especially one with so much shining enthusiasm.

Last night The Grand Lunar picked up a rebounder mini-trampoline. We had been talking about how much fun it might be to exercise to 80's tunes with a little bounce, and we read that even NASA loves them and makes the astronauts use them. Who can argue with astronauts?

So this morning LittleD spotted it immediately and tried it out right away. When the Grand Lunar walked past, he was busy jumping, jumping, jumping.

"Daddy! Mommy boughted this!" he exclaimed.

"Actually, Daddy bought it for us," I replied.

"Thanks, Dad!" he said, glowingly.

He's a keeper, I tell you.

On a side note, the rebounder trampoline is right next to my desk. Now that the big kids are up and jumping I'm realizing that, if it continues to be a major source of entertainment, I'll be online a lot less. The wobbling of my desk puts me in danger of a clutter avalanche, and the shimmy of my monitor is going to make me seasick very soon. Very soon.

Second Guessing My Plan

Alright, you've suffered through a few days of food. What do you think? Am I boring anyone? Losing readers?

I was pondering today making a "food blog" ~ separate from this one. Why? One, so I wouldn't bore readers who could care less about my soba noodle and bok choy salad with peanut butter sauce. Two, so I could link my Flickr food pix and other food-related comments to a blog without it opening up to the rest of my life.

But then again, I've tried maintaining separate blogs before, and it was yet-more time consuming.

In other news, I had all kinds of deep thoughts about stuff lately, but haven't had a good time to blog them. Gotta time them so no one sees me crying, you know. I always cry when I try to write deep things, but I hate having to try to explain it IRL.

Yesterday I was running late for church - well, that's not true. Actually we were slightly ahead of the plan, until I stepped out the door, in my beautiful beloved suede boots that have no traction, which The Grand Lunar told me not to forget to spray with suede protection stuff and Karen suggested not buying due to Michigan weather. Standing in the snow bank in my beautiful boots, scraping snow and ice off Moby, our giant van, I wondered why I hadn't thought to warm and scrape the van earlier. I must admit to secretly wishing it wouldn't start, so I could go in the warm house and blog. In fact, I thought of the Psalm/Song that goes "I was glad when they said to me, 'let us go to the house of the Lord'" and was feeling bad that I'm not usually glad when someone suggests we all go to church. I do like our church, and very much appreciate the sound Biblical teaching, and enjoy the people. But when it's time to go, I'm never glad and excited. I am usually weary, trying to make sure everyone is dressed and brushed and combed and ready, with their necessary bags and what-not. I am trying to anticipate whether the littlest will go nicely to the nursery, and what I will do if he falls apart in the nursery while I am trying to herd lower elementary students through the crowded hallways for choir. I must admit that nearly every week it crosses my mind that staying home would be nice."I was glad when I said to me, 'Let us go in the house and blog...'"

But you know, that's the way I am about social situations lately, too. I used to be such a gihugic extrovert that you could hardly hold me back, but my introverted husband must be wearing off on me, sometimes I have to agree that staying home sounds much better than going out. BUT I've found that usually I have a great time, despite dreading the going out. And it's usually the same way with church. I have been challenged and encouraged by the series the pastors are doing, and enjoy seeing friends and watching the children sing, and even enjoy herding them through the hallways. I need to somehow learn to anticipate the good, not just the frustrations of getting there. It would be nice to be glad on Sunday mornings.

Well, my half-eaten salad is good, but I've decided needs just a little more sauce on it. I think the bok choy might be releasing it's juicy goodness and diluting the sauce. So I'm off to mix up just a tad bit more.

I'll be back later with pictures of breakfast and dinner. Unless you all vote for a new blog for the food.

S-A-TUR-DAY ... Night!

I should be in bed.

I was up doing the small church newsletter. Now I just have to remember to TAKE it to church. Don't you hate when you're doing something a newsletter and the necessary info doesn't quite fit on one page, so you have three choices: Make it tiny text to cram it in one page, make it big huge text to fill up two pages, or invent some content to fill the space. I chose option three, and surfed up some corny Valentine word finds, scrambles, and word ladders. The newsletter is about 45% fluff. Oh well. I guess I could've invented some real content, but then I would've been up even later.

While I was up late, I saw how pretty our icicles look with the back floodlight shining through them. But I couldn't get a good non-flash picture without a tripod and more camera knowledge. Someday I will learn what to do to take low-light pictures. Not tonight. So here's one with the flash, looking up the icicles.

In food news, our meals weren't all that exciting today. Leftovers for lunch. For dinner I was craving egg rolls, but of course those aren't low-fat, and I haven't found egg-free egg roll wrappers locally, and blah blah blah. I was running out of time, too. I actually do have some rice paper wrapper things ... is that what they're called? The ones you soak in water and they turn really slippery and pliable and sometimes fragile? I didn't want to mess with those. To make spring rolls, I think. Anyway, I tried to make something "chineseish" without much effort. It was one of those meals that, in the end, was ... adequate.

Of course, several of my children don't like rice, not even white rice (which I used. I know brown rice is healthier. I didn't have time, since I didn't plan ahead). They all ate a little of something, but none of them really ate much, and they filled up on whole wheat bread and whole wheat english muffins and all fruit jelly not long after dinner. Which, I suppose, isn't a horrible thing to fill up on, but it's disheartening to make a reasonable meal and have no one be very excited about it. I'll admit, even I wasn't excited about it. Not that it was bad. Just ... okay. You know what I mean? Am I the only one who has meals like that?

So what is it? It's steamed broccoli over white rice, and yet another cabbage salad. I put the same sauce over each, it was a home made teriyaki sort of thing, but I wasn't very pleased with it. Again, not awful, just ... meh.

So instead of posting the recipe for today's sauce, I'll point you to this previous post with a much better homemade Hot Garlic Sauce in it. If I was doing dinner over, I'd make that instead of making up something new. Because I'm very pleased with that previous sauce.

And now, I just remembered that I forgot to upload the newsletter to it's little home on the web. I better do that before I forget. And then I better go to bed. Two of the children are singing in the choir tomorrow, so I need to be alert and ready to help.

Good night, blog friends!

You can eat that?

Here's a great trick I picked up from the good doctor himself ~ this is a kimodification (of course) of a recipe from Dr. McDougall's Nov 2006 newsletter. That means it's a "legal" recipe ~ at least before my changes, and they weren't toooo bad! Healthy, on-program, and tasty? Who can argue with that?

Easy Fudgy Brownies

1 box Dr. Oetker Organics Chocolate Cake Mix
1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin

kimodification additions:
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I added this, to make it fudgier)
~1/2 cup chocolate almond milk (or rice milk)
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
~1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Pour the mix into a bowl, stir in the pumpkin until very well combined. (add kimodifications if desired) Pour into a 9 X 13 non-stick baking dish and bake until done, 20-25 minutes (insert a toothpick into the center, if it comes out clean it is done). Dust lightly with powdered sugar if your husband desires it.

Can you believe it? You can make them with just the box mix and a can of pumpkin. And seriously, they are not "pumpkiny" at all. The original recipe (just the cake mix and pumpkin) wasn't as chocolatey as we were used to. So this time I tried to modify it just a bit. Next time I am considering using more pumpkin rather than adding the chocolate almond milk, and white stevia powder rather than the honey. Adding the milk gave it a little 'cakier' texture, and we like our brownies dense, not fluffy-cakey.

Best of all, the Grand Lunar, never a big fan of "healthified" treats, likes these. Actually likes them. Maybe not loves them, but likes them enough for seconds, and that's big.

My next step will be to replace Dr. O's cake mix (which I was surprised and delighted to find at Meijer) with a healthy homemade cake recipe of some sort. I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out. But for now, this is as easy as boxed brownie mix, almost as good, and way healthier. Who would've guessed?

In walking news:

I have walked 63 miles -- 105% of my goal of 60 miles for January!!

I Ate This ~ Artichoke Tomato Soup & Homemade Bread

It appears the Yeas have it, and the quiet Nays will have to suffer through some recipes and pictures of food.

I will admit up front, though, that while sometimes I try for the artsy fartsy nice picture of the food (like yesterday's salad, I was pleased with that) some days I'm just going to have lame pictures of food on my (often crumby) table, sparkly lime tablecloth and all. Maybe someday I'll be a fancy food photographer, but for now it's usually about getting dinner on the table to feed the crew.

This is last night's dinner. Tomato-Artichoke soup and garlicky whole-wheat bread.

One caveat to the recipes: We're trying to reduce sodium intake. I'm still in the process of using up some higher sodium ingredients, but trying not to add a lot of salty bullion or whatever to the things I make. Everything I've read says your tastes adjust in less than a week. So if you try them and find them bland, put your salt shaker on the table and salt to taste. Really! It's okay if you start with a low-sodium *base* food, to use salt at the table. Studies have shown that people use less sodium that way (adding it to taste) than if it's in the recipes/ingredients to begin with. Apparently it loses some of it's perceived flavor when it's mixed in rather than on the surface to contact the tongue.

Back to the recipes:

Tomato-Artichoke Soup

1 can petite diced tomatoes with sweet onions (note: this is not a low-sodium ingredient)
1 can + water
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 T. minced garlic
dried basil to taste (1/2 T, maybe?)
dried oregano to taste (1 tsp, perhaps?)
~1/2 T. Hauser Vegetable Broth (this is an all vegetable, no added sodium broth powder, scroll down to the bottom on the link to see it)
1 cup Rotelle pasta

Simmer the first ingredients together while making the bread. Add the pasta about 10 minutes before serving. You may need to add more water. In retrospect, I would've done this with a smaller pasta. Also, health wise, whole grain pasta would be a better choice. But ... we don't do whole wheat pasta here, at this time.

Garlicky Whole Wheat Bread

This is a variation on my favorite homemade whole wheat bread recipe.

Modified from Nita's Handmade 100% Whole Wheat Bread (2 loaves)
Original Recipe By Nita Crabb, Real Food Digest

2 cups water -- 110 degrees
2 Tablespoon yeast - this was doubled from 1 T. for speed-rising. I use SAF Instant yeast.
2 Tablespoons honey (just a glop to feed the yeast)
3 cups whole wheat flour - I am currently not grinding my own (gasp!) but using King Arthur White Whole Wheat.
~ 2 T. additional honey
1 Tablespoon flax seed, ground (added to original recipe in place of oil)
250-500 mg Vitamin C* tablet, crushed (sugar free, optional)
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1-2 cups additional whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
~ 1 Tablespoon dried basil
~ 1/2 Tablespoon dried oregano

additional whole wheat flour for kneading, if necessary

For Kitchen Aid: In 6-quart Kitchen Aid bowl, dissolve yeast in water; stir in 2 tablespoons honey and 3 cups flour and let "sponge" while putting together remaining ingredients. Add additional honey, ground flax, and garlic to the sponge. Mix in a separate bowl the salt, gluten, spices, and 1 cup flour. Add to mixer and mix on "2" until well combined. Add additional flour by 1/2-cupfuls, until dough cleans the sides of the bowl and holds together in a mass. Let machine knead for 6-8 minutes.

Remove dough two lightly greased round cake pans. Let sit in a warm place (I use my oven at 150 degrees) for ~20 minutes. You can spritz them lightly with water to prevent the tops from drying out. Leave in oven and turn temp up to 350, bake 20-25 minutes. Cover with a dishtowel while hot to prevent crusts from getting hard.

For making by hand: Mix as above. Turn out onto lightly-greased counter and knead, adding flour a little at a time, until dough cleans the counter and holds together well, but is still sticking to hands and between fingers. Knead for at least 10 minutes, scraping fingers and rubbing hands together often to remove excess dough. Dough should be sticky, but not unmanageable. You should "feel" the dough change and become smooth and elastic when the gluten is well-developed. Follow remaining directions above.

Makes two 8” round loaves.

*The Vitamin C is an optional dough enhancer, which can help yield a better rise. It seems to help my bread. You can buy fancy bread-specific stuff, but crushing up the kind that's sold to be non-chewable vitamins works fine, too!

Salad In The Limelight

Back by popular demand! The asian inspired salad.

That would be my demand, of course. I'm the only one who eats my fabulous lunches.

Kerri and Ethan asked about the recipe. I had neglected to say it was posted here at Flickr, with the original pictures, but I will post it on the blog, as well.

Asian Inspired Salad

Salad Portion ~ a loose & adaptable recipe (I don't actually measure things):
~2-3 cups shredded napa cabbage
~1-2 cup green cabbage
sliced onion to taste
~1/3 cup dried cranberries

today's version (above) adds 10 almonds, chopped, and 1 mandarin orange, pulled into segments.

sauce:
~2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
~1 Tbsp reduced sodium Tamari (soy sauce)
~1 Tbsp light agave nectar (or honey)
~1 tsp creamy peanut butter
~1 tsp minced garlic
~1 tsp minced fresh ginger
a few shakes dried red pepper flakes (1/4 tsp?)
a few shakes whole mustard seed (1/4 tsp?)
a few more shakes (1/2 tsp?) sesame seed

today's version omits the peanut butter and adds just a few drops dark sesame oil. It's good, but I really like it best with the peanut butter.

blend sauce together and pour over salad. Eat fresh or let sit awhile.

Obligatory Kimodification notes: This salad is good with lettuce, and probably with spinach, although I'm not a big fan of it, myself. I love it with Bok Choy, and it adds a great dark green contrast. If you aren't familiar with bok choy, this is a good way to try it. Anyway, use the veggies you like, I will not let you be bound strictly to my recipe. ;-) Oh, and the white "rib" parts of both napa cabbage and bok choy make great finger food for kids. They're similar in texture (but somewhat less stringy) than celery, but have a milder, less "celery-y" flavor. Often when I'm cutting up my salad, I have little hands reaching up to ask for pieces of the 'ribs'. You can't ask for better than kids asking for veggies!

I was pondering trying to chronicle some of my better experiments with food. I know I've always posted recipes here and there (note to self, turn back on the old recipes entries) but it was more in a "Oooh, this turned out great" sort of way. But as few of you know, we're back to trying to eat a low fat, plant based diet, for health reasons. Not that we think meat is evil, or will eschew it forever (eschew, giggle) but that we won't eat it as part of our daily life & meals.

One of the most common reactions I get to that concept is "Oh, we couldn't do that!" to which I sometimes wonder, "Why not?" There are some great meals out there that don't contain meat and dairy and high fats. Tasty, healthy stuff. It's not all twiggy or plates of spinach. Of course, I've been posting salads, but that's because I like salads. Well, these, anyway. Of course, there are great, tasty meals out there that are high fat or high in animal products, too, I won't argue that. I have some posted in old entries. But that kind of recipe is pretty easy to find. I bet you already have some. And sometimes, when you go looking for vegetarian food, you find it's all cheese and eggs. Or it's all weird food from far away places. (Then again, maybe my salad seems weird to you). I'm striving to find a little core of "normal" plant based foods that we like. Comfort foods, staple foods, healthy foods.

Anyway, so what do you think? Are you interested? In seeing my food? LOL

Sounds kind of lame, put that way. :)

Feelin' Groovy

Alright, first off, I have a confession to make.

I don't hate exercise anymore.

I know.

Me, of all people. Hater of All Exercise.

Don't you hate when they are right? They, the ones telling you that if you get into exercise you'll start loving it and blah blah. Okay, well, I don't love it. I promise you that. But sometimes I kinda like it.

I like the idea of being a healthy, fit person, someday. And I like the idea (theoretical as it may be) of being lean and muscular, someday. I love when Leslie Sansone talks about being 'functionally fit' ~ having enough energy to *do* stuff. But also, sometimes, when I'm walking, especially on the longer walks, I just have fun. Sometimes I do the 4 mile on a Saturday when I have extra time, and I rewind the DVD back a mile from the 3 mile marker to the 2 mile point, and do an extra mile! Okay, some of that is to get ahead of Rosanne, but some of it is just because it feels good to be walking and know I have the stamina for 5 or even 6 miles, repeating the fastest pace miles.

Sometimes I wonder, if my life weren't so busy, if my disorganization didn't keep me from bumbling out with 6 children in tow, might I walk every day, for the rest of my life? I'd like to be one of those people who wakes before dawn and walks 5 miles. Maybe I could even run ?? Okay, ha ha, I'm going off the deep end, now.

ANYway, where am I going with all this? Nowhere, you should know that by now. I'm just rambling.

So at WalMart the other day I'd set out to buy Leslie's 5 mile walk, having heard it was there, but it wasn't. So I bought a 2-pack of Billy Blanks Tae-Bo workouts. Crazy! I've always wanted to try them. Yes, yes, I was planning to borrow Barbie's, but I just couldn't wait any longer, LOL. Maybe she has different ones, so I can still borrow hers.

So tonight Iliacat and I did a 45 minute Tae-Bo workout and it was HARD WORK! Boy, do they move fast. We spent the last 35 minutes of it counting the minutes to the end and saying, "I might not make it!" but we made it! I am hoping I burned a ton of fat. Iliacat has no fat to burn, poor child. So I hope she survives the workout. She's gonna be one lean and mean nice kid, LOL. It was definitely harder work than the most pumped up 4 mile walk I've done. We'll see if I can walk tomorrow, with the poor burning leg muscles and the other ones that I probably pulled tipping over trying to kick. I'm not so coordinated as I'd like to think, but I'm catching on. The video was fun because it was full of energy, with the other participants shouting out the counts and, I believe, yelling "no!" in (perhaps feigned) disappointment when he stopped a move and yelled "walk it out!" ... I had fun and ended the evening tired but pumped, feeling good that I made it through.

In semi-related news, I made this yummy salad today, and my sister sent me a link to a Flickr group on posting recipes, so I posted it there. So you get to see the picture of my food. LOL! This is a variation on one of my standard lunches, I really like big asian-style salads. I'm sure I've blogged about it before. This is the dressing, just before blending it, isn't it pretty? (Oh, and Linda, I picked up some Agave Nectar at Meijer and it's pretty tasty! But expensive. But still! ) You can see the salad -- mostly napa cabbage and regular green cabbage, in the background.

As far as the walking/exercise goes, I've decided to count non-walking aerobic workouts as miles in 15-minute increments. So if I Tae-bo for 45 minutes, that's the equivalent of 3 miles. I figure since I walk non-aerobic steps around the house each day and don't count those, it'll even out. And that way I won't hold back on other fun exercise just because it's not walking. That's fair enough, right?

So ... to wrap this rambling up rather abruptly, here's my WalkOmeters for the month/year:

I have walked 55 miles -- 91.67% of my goal of 60 miles in January!!

Always Carry A Camera

I don't usually carry my camera.

Today, coming out of church, the air was filled with poofy, big, beautifully crystalline snowflakes. Of course, since it's not the first snow, it would've been hard to photograph against the light gray sky, light gray ground, or white van.

The children's hair was peppered with flakes, and it was cold enough that they were not melting quickly. As we went to climb up into the van my son said, "Mom, you have a perfect star on your head!"

"Why, thank you!" I replied.

"Let me see!" came the chorus from everyone else. So I dutifully aimed the top of my head towards each of the children.

"ooooh! It really IS a perfect star" they all said, admiringly.

I couldn't see it. I climbed into the front of the van and The Grand Lunar said, "Oh, that IS a perfect star!"

I lowered my head and the mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of the much exclaimed-over flake. And sure enough, caught in the darker hair of my pulled-back bangs, was a beautiful, perfect, crystalline 6-point star of David. It was amazing. And fascinating.

As I gazed at it and wished for a camera, to aim awkwardly at my head, in macro mode, in the church parking lot, the warmth of the van's enthusiastic defrosting blast on the windshield made my lovely flake slouch and turn clear, then turn into an indistinguishable droplet on my head. Small and nondescript, with no sign that it had been something spectacular.

So ... I guess I should start carrying my camera with me. Just in case.

AndFam Under Ice

House Under Ice

Well, I'm sure this is too many pictures. Sorry, again, dial-up friends. I always feel I shouldn't leave any of the kids out. But that always adds up to too too many pictures. Especially when Buzz is so cute. Only there's no good Noodle shot today, because she was eating snow in all of them. Which isn't that horrible itself (toxicity of snow notwithstanding) but they just weren't action shots. She did a lot of action, I just didn't manage to get them in the shots.

ANYway, this is also 'old news' from Monday, was it? When the snow first hit. It just took me this long to get them up. But since you haven't seen them, they're not THAT old news.

Since this has been an unusually snow-free winter, so far, I granted a snow holiday from school on Monday. We were good and did school the rest of the week.

The children with a neighbor shoveled a big heap in front of the swing set, and then would leap from the swing onto the heap. The best crashing into the heap pic I have wasn't my child, so I figured I better not blog it. It's HARD to hit just the right moment to capture the impact and snow flying.

But here's some about-to-hit pix:

Tobi-Wan was cold and miserable when his mittens got wet. Don't you pity him? You're supposed to, it's his best "pity me" face.

But he's not always so pitiful.

LittleD liked being out in the snow. Very much, thank you.

Buzz was another story. At first he did not want to go out. At all.

Until he saw us all out there. And decided to get himself ready.

And then had a lot of fun playing snow-bat-smack:

And, since poor Eminoodle was left out of the other pix, here she is, modeling the scarf-mit set we made, which we were able to give to Moogie, and I think, I hope, Moogie will enjoy it much:

I took this leaf picture hoping to be as cool as my sister's snowflake pix on Flickr (Kelly, may I link to them?) but it's just not cool.

Turns Out

Rush doesn't grow on you.

And absence of Rush doesn't make the heart grow fonder.

I'm just sayin'

Their Enthusiasm is Gonna Kill Me

I guess I must be doing something right, with this homeschooling thingie.

Several of my children have been nearing the ends of their Math-U-See books. So I ordered the next step up. Math-U-See has, however, changed their curriculum since we began, so my three oldest are transitioning to the new system. I decided to continue to use "Classic" with the littles since less changed and I already have the teacher's materials and all that.

Anyway, we've been waiting anxiously for the order to arrive and today it finally did. It actually arrived at the same moment, in the same delivery, with a separate order of Magic Eye books, which was equally anticipated, and purchased for a great price through BookCloseouts.com.

So the screams of "The Math is here! It's from Math-U-See! It's here! It's here!" quickly shifted to "Oooh, the Magic Eye books are here, can we each do one?" and I thought the Math Enthusiasm had waned.

I was wrong. The Magic Eye excitement lasted only a few minutes before they were begging to open the math. And then they stood screaming over each newly-packaged book, with their fancy greek letters, and asking which one was for whom. Since the program is new to me, and it took me several days, myself, to figure out who would move to what and which one to get for whom, and shoving them in my face, while the 3 year old yelled, over and over, "I get a new math? I get a new math?" and I couldn't remember whether I'd ordered one for him, and if so which one, and whether I'd gotten Primer for the almost-4 year old or for the Kindergartner, and with all the enthusiasm and shouting I just couldn't think.

In the end, we got it sorted out, divvied up, and labeled with the children's names. The oldest 3 rushed to their "old" math to finish up so they can dive into their new books. Iliacat just needs to polish her last test from the old book and dive into the new, which is about 2/3 review and I expect her to whiz through it, getting extra practice and feeling smart, and then I'll order yet another new one for her, the next level.

Gark is a little behind her, but not much, and is really motivated to catch up. So he's busy trying to see how fast he can finish off his old book.

It's loud and chaotic and enthusiastic, but since it's all about math, I guess I can't complain.

I just wish my 3 year old would find his volume control. And stop asking the same question again and again and again if he doesn't like the first answer.

Yeah, that could be me ...

I swiped this quiz from antknit.

I have to admit, I got "dishcloth cotton" at first, but it really didn't sound like me (hardworking? born to clean? I don't think so!). So I changed 2 answers that I'd waffled over, and decided this sounded more like me. I guess I cheated a little. But not so much as that time I took the color quiz over and over and over until I got the color green I wanted.

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Acrylic.While you are very versatile, your plasticky countenance can be offputting. You are very good with children but can become a pill if left alone with them too long. You are very flexible but don't give in to manipulation.
Take this quiz!

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Rambles

Here's some random rambles for your evening. Or morning, if you don't read this until tomorrow. Or afternoon, if you sleep in, on top of that.

The Pit Book: I'm still reading Gett Out of that Pit. It makes me cry a lot. Not bad crying, really. I like the book, overall. I have had God reinforce the concept of praying Scripture to Him, clinging to what is True rather than what I Feel. I don't feel I'm Out yet. The part I am struggling with most is the whole "I'm gonna do this wrong" feeling. On one hand, I know it is God who delivers pit dwellers to the Rock. And there's no one who does it so wrong that God can't deliver them. But on the other hand, there's the "my part" part of it ... and I worry that I won't pray *enough* or be disciplined enough in seeking God's deliverance, and will eventually lose heart and never get out. which of course takes me back to the fact that I need to pray the Truth and not lean on my own understanding and emotion.

Knitting. I started a replacement poncho for eminoodle, since the first one I made for her was too long for her. But I haven't worked much on it.

Spam. I've been getting a lot of blog-spam again. The lame kind where the comment is nonsense and the links change every time, and the IP address changes, or the comment is just "nice site." with a commercial URL. It's stupid. There's some anti-bloggy-spammy-thingie out there that someday I'll get around to trying out, but if that doesn't work, I might have to make you register to comment. Which would be a bummer. I rarely comment places I have to register, I don't know why. I don't want to stifle you! But the spam is wearing me down. I get a lot of email spam, too. I get tired of skimming it for real email, tired of deleting it. Spam tires me out. Must be all the anti-nutrients in the can.

Design. You know, my walking challenge guy is so out of date. I made new ones. I just haven't gotten around to changing my site. Because I want to redesign the whole thing. Only I'm not that css-savvy. I have no doubt I could be, but I'm not. And where would I find the time to become so? But I can't pay someone to design it, because I know I could do it myself. So I'm stuck with half-done, choppy, and out of date. Talk about lame.

What else? There was something else I thought I'd ramble about. What could it be?

Oh, I know! I totally missed De-Lurking Week this year! I didn't realize it until the last day, Friday. But you know what? Let's pretend I'm in a different week-zone in the blogosphere. I'm off a week from the real world. So THIS week is National, er, local De-Lurking Week. Or maybe just this post. So if you're a lurker, friendly or otherwise ... um ... make that friendly or polite-otherwise (don't really want to hear from the unfriendly AND impolite) and don't usually comment, why not pop me a comment? I promise I won't bite. I'll even try to come visit your blog. We all had such fun last year when we all delurked. It's much better than when the Klingons decloak in front of you. That's almost always bad news. Unless they're decloaking to fire and it gives you a chance to aim at them. But that's beside the point. Say hi! I won't make you do it again for another year. Or so. Depending on the week-zone shift. I think my blog exists in a rift in the space-time continuum. That's a nice word, isn't it? With all those u's together. You don't get many double-u words these days. W, yes, uu, no. Blah blah. Sorry. Maybe I'm tired.

Okay, here's the cute image to remind you, since I've gotten us off topic, to delurk for a bit. Oh, and regular commenters are, of course, also encouraged to comment. As always.

The Walking Tickers

I didn't want to be pestering my readers with walking posts all the time. But I think I'll date this post 12/31/07 so that it stays on top and just use the little updating ticker thingie, at least for the 2007 goal. Did you know that TickerFactory lets you store a password and just update the ticker, so you don't need to re-paste it as a new URL each time? That's handy!

I have walked 31 miles -- 62% of my goal of 50 miles this month!!

*** Changed my mind about keeping it on top. LOL ***

Not Competitive?

I didn't think I was competitive.

But I walked 6 miles today because Roseygrape walked 4 yesterday, trying to get ahead of me.

Maybe I am a little competitive.

I have walked 29 miles -- 58% of my goal of 50 miles this month!!

Baby, it's cold outside

Ta Da!

Baby, it's cold outside.

Sometimes, when you're out walking, wouldn't it be nice to have a warm place to tuck your hands?
An additional layer when your gloves aren't keeping for fingertips warm enough?

Okay, I didn't invent this idea. I was inspired by some pattern for pocket-ended and mitten-ended scarves I saw somewhere*, but then couldn't re-find. I was even going to BUY it. But I still haven't been able to re-find it. Plus, the pattern had complicated things like cables, which I don't know how to do.

Then, when I was surfing for mitten patterns, I came across these crocheted ones that are crocheted in one flat piece with a hole, then folded in half to seam up. Of course, I don't crochet, so I couldn't use the pattern. But I thought the idea would lend itself perfectly to the end-of-the-scarf idea, so I just muddled something out myself.

So I made this up. It's not bad for a "first draft" if I do say so myself ~ the mitten size was a little off. I did want them roomy, so that they could go over gloves, but they ended up kind of wide and squat, don't you think? But it works, and I still like the idea. I'm happy with the results, even if they're not perfect. Hey, I'm happy just to come to closure on a product, if you know me at all you know I don't finish things.

Here's the scarf, knit all in one long strip, before the mitts were folded and seamed:

Here's a close-up of the way the mittens are knit (and you can see my Excel spreadsheet "pattern" I made half-way through the first mitten, so I didn't get confused. Next there's a pic of one close up when it's folded and seamed.

I'd make them a little longer through the fingers, and maybe the ribbing at the wrist tighter (and longer?) if I did it again. Which I plan to do.

This started out as a gift to match the hat knitted by Iliacat, seen at the top picture (thus all the secrecy). But the hat turned out to be too itchy for the recipient (and thus did the scarf) so now I'm not sure who it's for. But we get to make another with softer material. So that's fun.

We used Lion Suede in teal (although it's darker IRL than it looks on their site, almost a dark spruce) and Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in banana berry. the Banana Berry is 100% acrylic and a little scratchy.

Oh, and the edges roll. A lot. What's up with that? I guess I need to learn how knit so the edges don't roll. Is it because I was using two yarn strands at once?

But anyhoo, I wrote down what I did, so that i can do it again, with kimodifications, of course.

So ... that's the big secret project. What do you think?

---
* look!
I finally found the concept-inspiration scarves again!

half done with the almost done ...

I did work on the project today. I got half the sewing-up part done. Tried very hard to do a nice mattress stitch, but between the increases and decreases and ribbing in one part, it turned out to be ... adequate. not a pretty mattress stitch joining.

But it took me over an hour, and I almost missed my much needed nap.

And then I didn't get around to doing the other half.

I could do it now, maybe. Although it's already 11:30.

I feel bad making everyone wait another day. 'Cause I'm sure you're all waiting at the edge of your seat to see the great unveiling.

But the Grand Lunar's game is no longer making happy bling noises (that's not bling in the popular (but nonsensical) sense, but the noise the game makes. Onomatopoeia and all that.) and now he says he's going to bed.

So ... how about tomorrow. I'll work on it tomorrow and get it done.

Deal?

Remember the Top Secret Project?

I am pleased to announce that I'm almost done!!!

I mean, I finished the actual knitting part around midnight tonight. Or is that yesterday, now?

But I still have a portion that needs to be seamed or sewed together or whatever you call it.

And since it's 12:17 now, I probably shouldn't start learning it now. I don't really know how to do it, but I think I remember seeing a little category for seaming things up at knittinghelp.com. So I'll have to look.

Tomorrow.

After school.

After naps.

After choir, perhaps.

So don't hold your breath. Just know that it's coming. Soon.

Technically it's not even a secret anymore, I had to let the cat out of the bag over the holidays. But I didn't tell you yet, so I guess it is still a secret. Ha ha! You have to wait.

Oh, but i did take pictures all along so you can see the progress, and so, if it's semi-successful, I sort of documented what I did. It's not perfect, but I think it'll be a good start on what I wanted to do.

Anyway.

In other blogworthy news, I need a new Apple iPhone. Really.

We watched the keynote address from MacWorld while I was finishing my knitting and wow. Wow. And more wow.

Oh, and lastly. The up at 4:40 thing?

Someone suggested that maybe I was up that early because I had gotten enough sleep. I am still laughing at that idea.

Turns out it was because I don't know how to set the alarm on a clock we've owned since, well, I think The Grand Lunar had it before we got married. The clock I've been setting for years and years. Yes, when I set the alarm, I accidentally set the clock ahead two hours. I was up by my own stupidity. Yessiree, Bob.

Okay, this is freaky. It's WHAT time?

Um.

I'm up at 5 am.

But wait, there's more.

My alarm went off at 6:40. I snoozed it. But while it was snoozing, I lay there thinking that I didn't have any cinnamon rolls for our traditional Sunday Breakfast. And I really should have breakfast cooking at 7, if I'm going to wake and feed everyone on time for church.

So I hopped out of bed and crept to the kitchen and made some peanut butter muffins.

Popped them in the oven just a few moments ago, to bake while I shower. Right at 7 on the nose.

On my way from the kitchen to the shower, I walked past a clock with a dead battery. It said 5. Except the second hand was still moving.

Weird, I said.

And looked at Lunar's clock by his computer. 5. Uncanny.

So I woke up my computer. If I'm awake, it should be, too, right? Guess what time it thinks it is? Yes, 5 am. That's a little too much coincidence.

So all the clocks in the house - except possibly my bedroom one - think it's only 5.

Which means I got up at 4:40.

I guess.

The clock couldn't have said 4:60, so ... what did I see that made me think it was 6:40? And why did I think my alarm had gone off. Did it? What is it set for? Would I wake the Grand Lunar if I snuck back in just to read the clock?

Now I can't go back to bed because there are muffins cooking. Muffins that will be warm and toasty at 5:30 and cold and sad when the children wake up.

I guess I could go ahead and shower. But if I do that and then go back to bed for an hour, my hair will dry goofy. Trust me on that.

So I'm kind of at a loss for what to do. If I had noticed 3 minutes earlier, I could've just let the muffin batter sit until time to bake it. But no, I didn't notice earlier.

So.

I guess I'll shower, and quietly clean, and try not to fall asleep during the sermon, since I can't overcaffeinate myself today. If I clean now, I could nap later, before our Bible Study.

Freaky.

A Belated meme

I'm days and days late on this.

I haven't been around much, sorry about that.

But here I am, more or less back. We had company visiting. It was a very nice time. Sad to see it end. And I'm in denial about the school year re-starting on Monday. Just imagine me going La La La.

So anyway, the meme. Theresa tagged me. I'm the Only Blogging Kim she knows. LOL. I pre-tag all of you. In case I forget at the end.

5 things that you don't know about me

If I can think of that many. I think you all know me. I'm an open book. I'll try to think of things you don't already know.

1.) in general I don't like the washing dishes chore, but my specific dislike is drying dishes. I would rather let them sit (for months, if necessary) and air dry, to put them away. If you wash your hands and drip on my nearly-dry dishes, it will frustrate me.

2.) I used to LOVE Diet Pepsi and HATE Diet Coke. And then, one day, while in my college years, I suddenly but wholeheartedly switched. Flip-flopped. Now I hate Diet Pepsi. Can't stand it. Will NOT get it in a restaurant. Once I made them take one back because I ordered a diet coke and they brought diet pepsi without telling me they didn't have coke.

3.) I like berries. I like pancakes. I do not like berries in my pancakes.

4.) I strongly dislike the colors orange and brown. Especially when they're together. No matter how retro-trendy they might be. I will always hate them as much as I hate Diet Pepsi.

5.) In 7th Grade a kid known as "The Fish" used to throw raisins and peanuts in my hair, trying to get them stuck in my curls. And in 8th grade my History teacher told me that it looked like I kept spiders in my hair. And in 9th grade I bleached my hair orange with Sun-in, let it grow out a few inches, and then got it cut short on the sides and back and long on top (guess the era!) and only the top still had orange. So I kept it that way on purpose until the summer before my Senior year. I bleached the top with successfully stronger bleaches until the top was white and brittle and screamed if you touched it.

Which of those did you already know? All of them?

They're not that interesting.

Should I change them?

That first one is pretty lame, eh?

Um ... what would I replace it with?

You already know I used to slice ferret brains with an electron microscope.

Did you know I was asked to be a lead in a school play in first grade because my voice "carried so well" ? Or that I played Lucy in "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" in 8th grade (or something like that) ??

I think you all knew all that already. I have no secrets.

Tag.

Being An Idiot - Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

I'm an idiot.

I was signed up to take a meal to a friend who just had a baby. Last night. The meal, not the baby.

And I completely forgot. I can't believe I did that. Not even a glimmer of "what am I forgetting" went on yesterday.

I even knew when I signed up that we'd have company, but had it planned, that I could easily cook a nice meal for all of us, plus some for them. And I had it all figured out. And on my calendar. And the sheet right here at my desk to remind me. I can't believe I forgot the whole thing.

I didn't remember until after lunch today. It just suddenly hit me that January 2nd was YESTERDAY and that yesterday was TUESDAY and that it was all OVER and PAST.

She was very sweet and gracious, her mom brought over leftovers for them. I'm going over tomorrow to show her how to use the sling and to bring them dinner, she's giving me another chance.

But I feel lower than a worm. I can't believe I completely and totally forgot.

Boy do I feel like dirt.

Happy New Year ~ One Day Late

Well, I meant to post yesterday. No, really, I did.

Sorry I'm slacking off. I'll be a better blogger this year, I resolve to.

But, one day late: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't believe I totally forgot to say, "See You Next Year!" to everyone I saw on the last few days of 2006. Because that is one of my favorite things to do. Because it's so funny and original.

(mumbles to self) "See You Next Year!"

*snork*

ahh well, I missed it. Bummer.

Walking: It's begun! I did not let January 1 pass without putting my foot to the pavement. I took a 1 mile leisurely stroll around the block with my visiting sister-in-law Linda, my daughters, and Bindi (seen below).

In case you don't know me well enough to know, Bindi is not my dog. Bindi is visiting with Linda. I do not do dogs.

But I concede that Bindi is a very nice dog. She's very good, and sweet, and cute. And my children are having a wonderful time playing with her. Poor Bindi, they might just wear her out.

But this does not. mean. we. will. get. a. dog.

Evah.

But I'll let Bindi visit. The kids will just have to squeeze all their doggy love out of Bindi's visits.

But for me and my house?

no.

dogs.

I'm just sayin'.

So, anyway. What was I saying? Oh, right, the walking.

It was fun to write on my little walking chart Jan 1, 1 1 1 1

I have a little chart where I write down my deliberate exercise walking miles. So that's 1 for the day, 1 for the week, 1 for the month, and 1 for the year. LOL! I've always been fond of repeating numbers.

I need to update my walking graphics so they require NO maintenance. But I broke the walking blog, somehow. Actually I think when I fixed this one, it broke the other one. But I'm not really sure. So I'll have to call on someone to help me fix it. If only I knew someone big and strong and computer-smart to come to my rescue. *giggle*

My walking goal for this year, I think, no, boldly declare, is 600 miles. If I do an average of 2 miles a day, I can do that easily. If I slack off at any point, I've got no hope. LOL! So I'll need you all to help me. Stay with me. Don't let me slack off!

Huh. There was one other thing I was going to tack on to my blog today. But I blanked out on what it is. Imagine me, sitting here, staring at you with a slack, blank face. I guess that about wraps it up, huh?