Spray Park Morning

What do you mean I took 111 photos at the Spray Park? That's insane! Here's just six.

Mmmmmm Hoda

My youngest, Buzz, was near my desk and noticed my cup was empty. I disuaded him from poking his fingers or toys in my cup. A few minutes later he came running in from the kitchen in his cowboy boots, yelling, "Mom! A Hoda for you!" -- he'd brought me a can of Sprite Zero (formerly Diet Sprite) from the fridge. (Hoda means soda, if you didn't catch that) ... I thanked him but asked if he could get me one of the cans that were gold and red instead.

He said sure, and cheerfully ran off with the Sprite Zero, and returned a few minutes later with a can that was gold, red ... and blue. Caffeine free diet Pepsi. Yuck. I should've just stuck with the Hprite. I showed him the blue and said, "this is great with the gold and the red, but can you find one that's gold and red with no blue??"

"Oh! Yes!" he said, running off with the hoda again. A little later he came running back again, tripped over the toe of the cowboy boot, and a third hoda flung out of his little hand, rolled across the room, and smashed into the wall. He picked it up and brought it to me, and I kissed his knee. This well-shook hoda was silver, red, and green. Code Red Diet Mt. Dew.

So I told him we couldn't open the one that rolled, or it would blow up. Eminoodle cheerfully suggested exploding it outside, but we decided not to waste it, and put it in the fridge to cool off and settle down. While at the fridge I showed him the Caffeine Free Diet Coke next to the Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, and how it had no blue on it.

He very carefully carried it to my desk and said, "Now you can put it in your cup!" and watched the bubbles.

He's a sweet boy.

In My Yard Today

Just a few things spotted in my yard today ...

A little drying up mushroom that Tobi-wan Kenobi found and asked me to photograph:

Some later summer phlox ~ not sure if this is a different variety than the kind that blooms earlier ... I guess it must be. It's more magenta than the other ...

And a spiderweb that was nestled along the side of our garage ... until I got too close trying to get a better shot than this one, and accidentally unhinged one of the invisible support strands, collapsing the web. The spider survived the ordeal.

For Kerri

Huh. Go figure.

Who Watches The Watchers?

In my home today:

Windows going in ... little boys watching ... (sorry Kerri, no suit today)

Zucchini bread and muffins, thanks to my friend Sarah's gift of a giant zucchini

And ~most exciting of all~ Sputnik found a cicada just molted from it's shell -- click the images to see the bigger size at Flickr:

20 Weeks

20 Weeks ~ official Ultrasound time.

Judging from the fact that the tech stayed chatty, never turned away the screen and never got real quiet, I would guess things are progressing fairly normally. Baby is quite wiggly, it's amazing how something so small can be felt squirming so much.

Here are some pictures for your ultrasoundly pleasure. A profile 'standard' picture of baby, a creepy 3D ultrasound pic, and a really grainy blurry bad one of my 20-week belly. I guess I could've asked someone to take a nicer one for me, but in the end the camera-helpers were out and I decided just to do it. Maybe you can petition me for a better one. Or maybe I'll keep the blurry one so I can blame any bad hair and blemishes on the grainy bad quality.

I Challenge YOU to a ... Walk?

Okay. I did something crazy.

I signed up for a challenge at WalkerTracker.com which is a little beyond my reach.

The challenge itself is an insane "walk 1 million steps in 2 months" -- which averages out to 16,439 steps per day (or something like that) -- my average for this current month (which has been a good walking month) has only been about 14K per day. What does that mean? It means I have to walk about an extra mile a day. In addition to keeping up my regular average.

So, you might be wondering, what am I challenging YOU to?

Just the extra mile I'm tacking on. If you haven't been walking at all, that's only a mile a day average, or somehow coming up with 61 by the end of September, starting August 1st. If you've already been walking, it's tacking a mile on to whatever you do. And a mile is only an average of ~ 2000 steps - depending on your stride length. (You lucky tall folks, that's even less steps for you!) You can do THAT!

IF you already walk and have a pedometer (or want to get one, I highly recommend the Omron HJ-112, I love love love mine) you're welcome to join me at walktertracker - come be my buddy (comrade) and join a competition.

I actually started a competition there for 1 Million Steps in 3 months -- which is only walking a little under 11,000 steps per day. You could come join me there, if you think you could walk a little over the recommended 10,000 ... it's my backup if I can't make it in two months, LOL.

But really, all I'm asking you is ... wanna walk an extra mile a day with me?

Excuse me, this isn't mine ...

Apparently I was mistakenly given the wrong fortune at the Chinese Buffet today.

Don't you think?

I hope whoever got mine wasn't crushed.

Houses

Oh, in case you're wondering, yes, I'm still pooped from last week. Or maybe it was the not going to bed early. Or the getting up early to try to get my time in my Bible and prayer and exercise done early. Either way. Still pooped. It's the new me. Oh, wait. I've always been pooped.

Moving on.

Houses. Finally this week the Window-Replacing-Guy is here. No new windows yet, since they started with the roof repair and other such things. But the windows are in the garage, quietly waiting, and I have a little incentive to make sure our bedroom and the little boys room stays clean each day.

I'm most excited about the new windows because it means soon thereafter we can move on to new paint. New paint is more exciting than new windows because it's a real change. Our house will look different. The windows are nice, too, because they will open and shut, things our current windows either don't do, or only with much effort. And nice because they will keep more cool in (in the summer) and more warm in (in the winter), theoretically. The only sad thing about the new windows is we wanted the kinds with the little grilles in top half, but we COMPLETELY FORGOT to tell the Window Guy that. Until the windows were here. Totally our error. Now, if we decide we want grilles, we will need to get that clippy-on-the-insidey kind. I guess we'll see how it looks without. Our current windows didn't have them, either, so we aren't losing grilles, just not gaining them.

We're only doing some of the windows, because windows are expensive. And, for the most part, you end up with the same thing you had before, only slightly more energy efficient and functional. Likewise, roof repair is important, but you don't really get a big "wow, we've improved things!" boost out of them. You just get a roof that works like it was supposed to.

And yesterday when it poured sheets and buckets of rain, I remembered that, at some point, we'll need to do something about our dampy leaky basement. Which, again, will probably cost a lot of money and result in a basement that isn't nice and improved and decorated, just not leaky. Don't misunderstand, not leaky is good. But wouldn't it be nice if all our home costs could go towards improving, rather than just keeping things working the way they should in the first place?

Some things like painting I figure I should just eventually learn to do myself. Well, I do know how to paint, I just don't make time for it. But littler things, like replacing doors. Maybe I could learn to do that. Then I could make some improvements but maybe they would cost less. Unless you factor in the cost of effort and the stress of learning to do something new. I'm not so good at those things.

I did take a before picture of my house, so that when it has new windows and new paint you can tell me how improved it looks. I'll remind you to do so at that time. :-)

Still Pooped a Day Later

Yesterday we met some friends at a local lake. We went here occasionally when I was younger, but they've outfitted it with a nice spray park, brick and cement walk way, lots of tables, and a nicely combed beach (we got to see the beach combing machine, although why they waited until 10:30 a.m. on a hot day to comb it is beyond me. They had to comb around our spot (see mom station picture below)). But even better than the nice, improved beach was how much fun the children had.

Here's the mom station, sans-moms, before it became a well-used conversation arc.

I wasn't sure my youngest would really like the beach. But he loved every minute of it.

Sputnik also gleefully splashing:

Tobi-Wan showing his post-ball-toss-form (the ball was so well tossed it's out of the picture)

Noodle demonstrating the Reverse Watering Can Hookah Splash Phenomenon:

The boys participating in an Epic Water Battle:

Detail from above pic, Gark getting well sploshed:

Iliacat laughing at the antics of some of the boys:

There were also light saber battles, sand castles, plenty of sunscreen, trucks and toys and buckets, and lunch. What more could you ask for?

No wonder I'm still pooped, today.

Darkness Descends

Well, it's not really dark ... yet.

Our power went out! I don't know why. I called the automated line and reported it. No restoration updates. At least one neighbor said his was out, too. I did what I always do, stand in the driveway and look perplexed. I'm pretty good at it, really. Too few neighbors do that, these days.

I'm thankful for my Uninterruptible Power Supply, which beeps insanely but allows me a few moments to get the word out to the blogosphere. 'Cause for some reason you surely need to know we're out of power.

I guess I used it up.

Summer Tastes Good

Lunch today:

The salad is leftover from yet another picnic last night. I took the picture when it was fresh and pretty. It's not quite as fresh-and-pretty looking now, but it's still good salad.

Yum.

Gooooin' to a Picnic and we're gooooonna take Coooookies

did you sing that to the tune of "Goin' to the Chapel" ? If not, go back and sing the title to yourself.

Okay, thanks for humoring me.

We're off to The Grand Lunar's work picnic, just as soon as I get the little boys all in the same color blue shirts and get their grubby little hands as clean as possible. How clever of me to let them dig in the dirt to keep them busy while I finished getting the cookies ready to go.

Blueberry cookies? Who ever heard of such a thing?

And yet, that's what I made.

No one was allowed to taste them yet, so I can't tell you if they're wonderful yet. But the dough was wonderful (although I'm not saying how I know) and they sure smelled good.

We'll keep you posted.

'Cause that's my fun day ...

Everyone once in a while we do something just for fun. The whole family.

Today we went to Pizza Hut to use the library prize coupons the children had earned. The best part of that - even more exciting than the coupons - was the fact that the TVs in Pizza Hut were OFF. Blank. Wonderful! I hate those things. The worst part was that I came home to look up the nutritional information for what I ate, and apparently our Pizza Hut has some secret unpublished underground menu. Either that or what I ate does not exist and I'm soon going to wake up with a hankerin' for Pizza Hut. I should've known by the TVs being off that it was just a dream!

But wait, there's more!

After Pizza Hut (apparently I dreamed?) we went to a nearby town to play miniature golf on a lovely outdoor course with waterfalls and water hazards actual grass and rocks and landscaping between the holes, not just different colored astroturf. The children were amazed. Not that we golf at the other kind much, but that's all they could recall. We really rarely go miniature golfing.

With eight balls in play, and no phenomenal players, we did not move through the course very quickly.

Some people behind us swooped around, while many other times we sat out and let someone else go ahead. It started out breezy and overcast, and by the end was breezy but sunny and noses were beginning to turn pink. I hadn't thought to bring sunscreen, for some reason.

Here are some highlights from the event:

The Grand Lunar helping Buzz putt:

Buzz accepted this help exactly twice. Thereafter he exercised his Rights As The Youngest to hit his ball his way, carry it to where he wanted, and, place it right next to the hole to putt it in. Which, actually, moved the game along a little faster, so none complained. Here he celebrates his excellent putt:

Eminoodle, also celebrating an excellent putt:

The Grand Lunar showing us proper form and follow-through with one of his many excellent putts:

Here's where I made everyone line up and squint into the sun for a picture:

Being the camera-carrier, there are no pictures of me. Which, today, was a good thing, because windy miniature golf courses are quite the opposite of pools in their toll on curly hair. I left the house this morning with pretty good hair going on, but a few hours in gusty wind with unsecured hair did not make for a good hair day in the end. Here is a picture of my hair doing it's best Heat Miser impression, as seen in my shadow. Whether the wind is blowing it, or it's just stuck up like that from all the wind, I'll leave you to guess.

Homeschool Taboo

In which I say what no good home-schooler would ever say...

I hate the library.

Well, actually, I like the library itself. The building. Cool air conditioning, quiet places, lots of lovely resources and books.

What I hate is how we check out books and misplace them. Everyone is excited to go to the library, but no one is excited to go get their books to return them. In the excitement to get the Library Summer Reading Challenge prizes, we made the mistake of returning "a few" each visit, and checking out many more.

Now you might be thinking, "You should have a limit on how many each child can check out!" -- we do. But 5x6 = 30 books. Not too unmanageable.

But 30 books minus "a few" plus another 30, minus "a few more" plus another 30 equals way too many. Especially when very few are returned in the "a few" ...

Now you might also be thinking, "you should have one place in the house where library books live!" -- we do. Except those "in process" of being read. Which, astoundingly, in the excitement of the Library Summer Reading Program, didn't make it back to their home, but lived in their new home, under a child's bed, or behind a dresser.

And now you might be thinking, "Well, it's really their responsibility to find them on the days you go back." -- yes, yes it is. But there comes a time when there are 38 books on your overdue list, and fines of 10 cents a day per book looming, when the kids claim that they have "looked everywhere" when a mom has no choice but to step in and crawl under beds herself.

Crawling out with dust bunnies in her hair, bits of yarn on her pants, and a growing resentment of the library. And a handful of "unfindable" books.

I think from here on out I'm going to make the kids write their own books.

Pool Hair

Would it surprise you to know I like my pool hair?

Oh, not when it's wet.

But sometimes ... not always ... when I get my hair wet at the pool and it dries while I'm sitting on the side talking to another mom, all my curls fall into place together. Big fat bouncy ringlets, not unlike the girl in the TRESemmé ad ... I can not make my hair do that at home. I even bought the TRESemmé curl goo. I didn't by the whole line. Maybe that is my problem. I have a hard time believing the shampoo and conditioner are really all that different from any other shampoo and conditioner. And I have a cupboard full of wishful thinking curl-oriented gels and potions, so I didn't buy the special gel. There is also a 'revitalizing spray' and maybe that's what I need. I just got the goo. But that doesn't explain how pool hair works.

What's in a pool? Water. And perhaps too much chlorine. (We won't think about what else might be in the pool) All of which (that would be water and chlorine) I can get right out of my tap here at home. Why buy the fancy 'revitalizing spray' ?

And yet. If I put my pool-like tap water into a bottle and spritz my head until it's quite wet and let it dry, here at home, what happens? It's fuzzy and the curls don't sproing. Why is that not the same?

Occasionally, at home, I get to half-sproingy. Almost sproingy. With not too much frizz. And I call that a good hair day. And it's okay as long as it's not windy, nor do I sleep on it (which means I have to choose between a nap and continuing good hair, sometimes it's a hard choice), nor do I fiddle with it too much. The more I touch it, the more the good hair slips away.

Rain hair, like pool hair, often (but not always) turns out well. Occasionally when caught in a downpour, I have some excellent curls going on.

Why is it that showering, leaving my hair very damp, and letting it dry here at home doesn't result in pool hair or rain hair or TRESemmé hair?

My kingdom for sproingy hair ... but I really don't want to have to go swimming every day to attain it.

My least favorite season ...

Not Summer itself, I like parts of Summer.

What I like least about summer, though, is School Planning Season.

Most home-schoolers I know are deep into School Planning right now. Some are blogging out loud their thoughts and curriculum purchases, likes and dislikes. Some are taking days alone to plan and schedule.

I have to admit, the whole thing gives me a deep sinking feeling every year.

Not only am I not a planner, by nature, but the whole task we've taken on - to school our children at home - is a daunting, overwhelming one. Oh, sure, some things are easier. Like not having to get everyone up, fed, dressed, and presentable at a specific early time. If that was the only reason to home-school, I would trade it all. But it's not. Each time we've reconsidered, we've come back to believing this is where we're supposed to be, as a family.

But that doesn't make thinking about next year -- even if I already know what we're doing and have purchased it -- any easier. Well, maybe a little. I still don't want to think about it. We're still wrapping up last year. Still trying to figure out what we're doing this Summer. Still trying to learn new chores and make them routine, and get the rest and fun we need and expect in the hot and sunny days of Summer. Next School Year seems like it shouldn't be looming on the horizon just yet.

Maybe it's because, growing up, Summer seemed to be a wondrous dream-land of a lack of responsibilities and schedules, at least from a child's perspective. Maybe there were some chores, and certainly the swim team I was on took some scheduling, but I didn't do the scheduling, I just hopped on a bike or into a car and went when I was told. And the rest, so far as I remember, was just play. And oh, how we looked forward to Summer. That residual dreamy promise of Summer still crops up at the end of the school year.

But now, as a parent, even the wonders of fun take scheduling, planning, discipline, and work. Finding swim clothes and enough towels, or the right park bag, or remembering to pack the lunch and have the right groceries for that packable lunch. And in the midst of all that different-every-day-fumbling, the regular chores march on, relentlessly.

I think I need a Summer break from our Summer before I even think about school.

The Day Of Too Many FIREWROKS Pictures

Ahh, the Fourth of July. Independence Day. The Grand Lunar declared, somewhere around noon, that he would stay in his robe today, declaring his independence from clothing. But he did not stick around to be photographed.

Later we enjoyed dinner with Moogie and Poppie, complete with grilled burgers, potato salad, chips, cucumber salsa, corn on the cob, finger-food-veggies, and watermelon. I totally forgot to serve the popsicles!

Then we walked down to the local FIREWROKS* and played frisbee and hung around listening to the band and the singers until the show began.

Then I took too many pictures, as usual. I managed to narrow it down to just 11 to show you, and you don't really have to look at all of them I'll post the little Flickr thumbnails and you can click on the ones you want to see bigger or to go to the whole set of 11, bigger. Some of them aren't great but I liked them anyway, for one reason or another. Some of them you might not be able to tell why I liked them from the tiny preview, but that's okay. Maybe you'll never figure out why I liked them. Maybe the title of the photo will give you a clue. You never know! Some of them I took, some the Grand Lunar took. I can't give him credit for his, though, because once you come home, they all look the same.

*FIREWROKS! - There's place in town where a trailer pulls up, year after year, at the edge of the gas station, to sell fireworks. Only their big banner, hanging on the side of their trailer, for several years in a row, said FIREWROKS. You would think, with a fancy printed banner, that they could've insisted the printers do it right. But then again, maybe once you pay for it, it's yours, and they figured they better get their money's worth, reusing the misspelled banner, year after year. This year I kept forgetting to check and see if it still has a typo.

Asparamawhoosit What??

So. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I took someone dinner, and also gave her some Nutella because, well, it's one of the best foods on earth.

And that was the end of that.

Or so I thought.

Until Monday. When this woman showed up at my door with a bag of fresh asparagus and a recipe. Apparently ever since I gave her the Nutella, and we shared our mutual admiration for hazelnuts, she's been wanting to get me the ingredients to go with this recipe.

For Asparagus and Hazelnut Soup.

(short pause while you ponder that, because, if you're like me, you never would've thought of those two things in the same thought, much less the same soup)

Have you ever had someone do something very sweet for you, like that, and yet didn't quite know how to react? I was pretty sure no one in my immediate family would like Asparagus and Hazelnut Soup. Not to mention the output issues that come (to some people) with asparagus. But I thanked her, because, really, whether I liked the soup or not wasn't the point, was it? She had been planning this very sweet thing to do, and had brought me just what I needed with the recipe!

But, then again, I'm not always as brave as I pretend to be, so the asparagus sat for a few days in my fridge, making me feel guilty. Because, just between you and me, I wouldn't have thought twice of NOT making the recipe, and just passing on the asparagus to my asparagus loving parents, were it not for the sweet thought behind it.

Today I got my brave on, and decided to make it. Well, a half recipe. For my lunch.

You know me, I did kimodify it a little. One because I didn't have celery. Which really ought to be a produce staple, yet wasn't to be found in my fridge. Two, because ... I'm me. I couldn't help it. I added just a little fat free half & half to make it a little creamier, and because I had some to use up. And, thirdly, because I apparently can't read.

I give you ... Slightly Kimodified Asparagus and Hazelnut Soup.

Wanna know something surprising? It's really good! I am serious! I like it! It's also very RICH, with the hazelnuts pureed in it. I'm sure I didn't need the ff half&half kimodification after all. Oh, but I did reserve some of the asparagus, partway through cooking, to dice up and add back some veggie chunkiness to the creamy soup. I'm glad I did. The asparagus flavor is there, but subtle. The hazelnut flavor is there, adding a more complex richness than butter or other fat would've. It is a very rich soup, I couldn't make this part of a low fat, plant based diet. Unless it was a verrrry occasional part. With the dairy omitted. Which I think would work fine, really. It's rich enough it didn't need the butter, and thick enough it didn't need the white sauce to thicken it. Whoa, and I just re-read the recipe to type it and realized that I put in WAY more hazelnuts than it actually called for. I could've sworn it said 2 cups! Whooops. No wonder it was soooo rich and creamy!

Karen, if you've never tried a soup like this, you should, I think you'd like it.

The recipe was copied from a cookbook, but I don't know which one or I'd give credit where credit is due.

Asparagus Soup With Hazelnuts

2 lbs fresh asparagus
3/4 cup hazelnuts* (I used 1 cup chopped hazelnuts for the halved recipe, whoops)
Boiling Water
4 cups chicken broth (I used about 2 cups, or enough to cover the asparagus in the pot)
1 rib celery, sliced (omitted)
1 tsp dried basil
5 T. butter or margarine (I used about 1 T. butter for my halved recipe)
4 T. all purpose flour (I used a little more than 1 T. for my halved recipe)
salt to taste
cayenne pepper (that's what you see sprinkled so pretty on top in the pic)
1/2 cup fat free half & half - cause I had it on hand and need to use it up

Clean asparagus and break off tough ends. Break into 1" pieces.

Cover the hazelnuts with boiling water and let stand about 5 minutes. Drain the nuts and place them in a thick turkish towel. (What, doesn't everyone have one?) Rub to remove the skin. Most, but not all, will be removed. (Note: Yadda, yadda, I didn't do all that. Starting with the 'Cover the hazelnuts' I just opted for the lazy mom way. I used chopped 'recipe ready' nuts which did have some skin on them, but ... whatevah.)

Combine chicken broth, celery, basil, and asparagus in a sauce pan. Place over medium heat and simmer until asparagus is tender, approximately 20 minutes (depends on the size of the asparagus).

Here I reserved some of the cooked, cut asparagus, just a bit before it was all very very tender.

During the last 5 minutes add the hazelnuts.

Puree the mixture in a blender and strain into a clean bowl. (Strain? I didn't strain.)

Melt the butter in a pan (I used the same one), whisk in the flour until smooth, and add the blended soup, stirring constantly until thick and smooth. And a pinch of cayenne pepper and adjust salt.

Garnish with lightly steamed small asparagus tips.

Serves 6-8

Enjoy! Even if you're not sure you will. :-)

Maybe, just maybe, I'll use the other half of the asparagus to make it again, tomorrow, only use the right proportions of asparagus and hazelnut, and omit not only my kimodified half&half, but also the butter and flour thickener.