Wisdom from Our Addra

(Essentially I copied this from where I originally posted it on Facebook.)

Okay, this is partially a braggy post about how great my 9yo is. But it’s also partially a really great bit of wisdom (from her). So if you want to skip the braggy bit, just go down and read the last three paragraphs. You’ll be glad you did.

In our church, members of the congregation are asked to speak on various topics (we don’t have paid clergy who preach every week). Our family was asked to speak this week—whoever we wanted from the family. So we went home and discussed it and decided that Brice, the 12yo, and I would speak. The 9yo at that time didn’t feel like she wanted to.

Fast forward to this morning, sitting in church before the meeting started, and the 9yo leaned over and said, “Who’s speaking?”

I told her and then ask, “Did you want to speak?” I fully expected her to say no.

She kind of nodded and said, “Maybe.”

So we figured we could give her the space to do it. She tried her talk on Brice while we were sitting there, and then when the time came, she just went right up and gave that talk. No prompting or help from us, except for one small comment from Brice before she did it. And her talk was beautiful and sweet and just perfect coming from her.

I am in awe of this child sometimes. I don’t understand her half the time; she is a mystery—the way her mind works, the things she thinks about, the way she sees the world. But sometimes she pulls back the curtain a bit, and I get to see the incredible soul that she is inside, and I’m so grateful for that. I’m grateful that our Heavenly Parents entrusted her to our family, because she’s something pretty special.

And now for the talk (this is obviously just my basic summary, not word-for-word). She went up and talked about a time recently when she took a bunch of little scraps of fabric from our fabric bin and she put them together and made them into something that brought her happiness and that she has been able to enjoy and play with. She could have just cut the scrap fabric up, and that would have been fun and she would have been happy, but then a few minutes later it wouldn’t matter at all. She encouraged and invited the congregation to use our scraps of time in doing things that will bring long-term happiness into our lives.

She said that you could just eat a piece of chocolate cake sitting out on the counter and you would be happy about it for a few minutes, but it wouldn’t matter for very long. Or you could spend that time cooking something that you could then share with a neighbor, and it would make you happy and that happiness would last for longer.

So, my friends, use your scraps of time in things that will bring you and those around you some long-lasting happiness. Wisdom brought to you by my daughter, who made this doll with her scraps of fabric. (I'll add a photo when I have it.)

Gingerbread in June

Because why not?

I've never made gingerbread before, and the kids wanted to do something tasty. I don't remember how gingerbread came up, but we decided to go for it.* We found a recipe that even suggested the shape of the pieces and such. It turned out easier to make the dough and harder to actually fit things together than I thought it would be. Learning new stuff! YAY! Next time we make a gingerbread house, though, I really want to make a gingerbread hobbit hole.

We all got a side to decorate, and we used Coriel's cake-spinner-thing that she got from her cake decorating class. So, win!


*Lest you're in the background thinking how cool and spur-of-the-moment I am, let me add that our plans had been cancelled that day, and the kids were sad, and I had to really gear up mentally to do it. Meaning it took me several hours to get up the oomph, and it was after I was already prepared to do something different and fun that day. 

Koa's side. It's a door. Which should be obvious, right?

I have always wanted to do the shingles on a gingerbread roof. Now I have! They started out better than they finished. :)

Brice's side. Awwww!

This is Coriel's heart door. See the doorknob?

My hand-cut gingerbread man.

Addra's roof piece.

A glance at the whole thing, sort of.
In front: Koa's lion/hippo/not sure what it is, but he was determined that it stand up next to the house.
In back: Coriel's happy heart person.
The plate we're working on: Yes, it is indeed the plate that I made when I was six years old. You can't see it, but it has my standard pregnant unicorn on it. All my unicorns back then were pregnant-looking (though not actually pregnant).
The blue rim underneath is the cake decorating wheel thingie.

Jewelry!

 It's been a jewelry kind of a day. Every once in a while I get a chance to work on it, and today was the day! I really just dabble, but I quite enjoy it.

Today was ...

... the beginning of a treble clef pendant and earrings. Not done yet, but mostly done.

... a random experimental ring that spells "love." I've never made rings before, and this one isn't good, bit it was fun to try!

... a pair of earrings made by Addra for me. She designed them and I put them on the hooks.

... a bird's nest pendant that I've been planning to do for a while.

Yay!

Spindles, baby exercises

The kids and I are reading Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George, and there is discussion in it of carding and spinning, so we watched some YouTube videos about that. Then we watched one about spinning wheels, and I kept waiting to see something that Sleeping Beauty could have pricked her finger on. Alas, there was nothing.

So then we looked at the Perrault text of the story and discovered it mentions a spindle but no wheel! It was a drop spindle! Oh, Disney. The shame of it all.


In other news, every time I've had a baby, I've thought someone should invent a workout routine that uses the baby as the weights. Today I discovered one! Too bad my baby is now too wiggly and too heavy to use effectively for very long.

http://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/workouts/too-tired-too-busy-too-bored-work-out/new-baby-strength-training-routine

Podcasts, Pandy

 Do you ever listen to podcasts with younger kids? We've been listening to a few fun story ones that my kids like. I can even stand most of them. Here are a couple recommendations! Going from least favorite to most:

Storynory. Some fun ones, but some that I found sort of annoying.

Stories Podcast with Daniel Hines. Or Heins? Or Heinz? Not sure. We listen on Brice's phone. This one had a lot of genuinely delightful stories that we rather enjoy. And also a lot of singing, which mostly isn't annoying.

Story Pirates. These guys take kids' stories and retell them. It's a fun concept, and thought we've only been listening to a few, they've been fun. National Whoopie Cushion Day! The Girl Who Turned into Spaghetti! The Really Cool Dress! Fun to hear the adaptations of kids' stories.

But the best--drum roll, please--is called The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian. These tales are delightful. Really fun, silly, full of literature and adventure and space and robots and laser bunnies and attack moths and edible art. Seriously. You should go listen. I'm talking to you, my siblings and friends with small children. Or even vaguely small children. Or even adults who sometimes act like children. So, so fun.


Okay, enough about other people's stories. I know you've been dying to hear what Pandy has been up to. So, since he went on his dinosaur dig and had an unsuccessful dig at home, he planted a big garden in his cleared land. On his previous travels, he'd fallen in love with eating salad and he wanted fresh ingredients. After that was done, while he was eating a salad, he decided to build himself a bamboo treehouse.

He built an epic bamboo treehouse, but then he was super hot because it was summer. So he decided to travel to Switzerland and ski in the Alps (thanks for the idea, Jana!). After that he was so so tired that he decided to try out what all the other bears do this time of year: hibernate. So he had a huge meal and then went and found a cave inhabited by other bears. They invited him to share, and now he's snoozing away.

Next up: Pandy realizes he's too cold to hibernate, so he goes on a jungle safari instead (thanks, Dawn!). But then he gets too hot and decides he really needs some ice for his drink. So back to the mountains for him (thanks, Brice!). I think after that he's going to be to exhausted from traveling to do anything else. He'll go back home for a while, maybe take up crocheting. Economics and space travel are still in his future (thanks, Derrill and Marneen!), and plenty of other stuff too, but he needs a break.

Crawling, Earrings

Today's random stuff is normally post on Facebook:

The baby is eight months today! And to celebrate, he decided to officially crawl! Yay! And also eek!

Whenever we go on long drives, I get time to do things like my jewelry making. So I made two sets of earrings yesterday. For other people. Eventually I'll get to the jewelry I've been meaning to make for me. I was totally going to post photos, but apparently blogger doesn't want me to post photos from my phone. Sigh.

Happy new year! I hope that we can all focus on the awesome this year.

Update: pictures!

Stay Family Yearbook 2013

Testing, testing... This may or may not work, but I'm attempting to post our 2013 yearbook here. Um, yes, it is a bit late. Also, don't feel obligated to look through it. It is a bit long. :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

February Recap

Well, it turns out that Blogger hates me today. I had just finished putting captions on everything and getting the pictures somewhat arranged (well, loosely sort of arranged, anyway), when it decided to freeze on me. So . . . maybe I'll add pretty captions and formatting and all that jazz someday. But let's be honest, probably not. So you'll just have to sift. :)

I recommend reading the text way at the bottom first and then looking at the pictures. I think they will make a little more sense that way.

Necklace made from purple noodle beads

In case you were wondering, Princess Aurora is standing in for
Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The cat and horse are . . . horses.

Addra eating the plate at her fancy tea party
in the middle of the hallway

That day the girls decided to be matching as much as possible

Here are a few highlights from our February, complete with even some pictures!

Coriel continues to love taking photos and videos. She would document everything if she could some days (no matter whether Jeanna showered or not). There was one day where the girls took turns dancing on our coffee table and taking pictures of each other—at least fifty pics or so, just on and on.

We played a round of Iron Chef (see previous blog post).

We had some massive snow days. Most particularly, there was one day that Brice built the girls a little snow fort to play in. Mostly, though, on snow days, Jeanna stayed inside and shivered, waiting for the girls to come in shivering too. Then Brice stayed outside for a whole long time afterward, either playing or shoveling.

For Valentine’s Day, Brice wrote a silly story about two birds of paradise, and he had the girls illustrate it. It was adorable. Brice also made a yummy brownie/whipped cream/raspberry dessert.

We visited Brice’s sister and her family in Arizona. It was WARM! And fun! Because her family is awesome! And also because I got to go a writers conference! And because, despite knowing that this is far too many exclamation points, I’m going to use them anyway!!! (I will have to write more about this one in a different post, though, because there’s lots to say.)

My sweet friend Sariah sent me and the girls a couple of delightful board books: the Pride and Prejudice Counting Primer and a shortened version of “The Jabberwocky,” with very cute illustrations. Also with P&P came a set of little play figures to tell the story. It was awesome. I have told Coriel most of the story of P&P now, using those figures and some of our various figurines and toys to fill in the other characters (like Dopey as Mr. Collins, which felt appropriate). A few days after our latest installment of the story, I was telling Coriel a story about a rich man and she replied, “Richer than Mr. Darcy?” I was so proud.

Fun homeschool projects from February month:

*Making naan. This turned out surprisingly easy and yummy, even though it didn’t taste exactly as expected.

Also, if you go to a glass blowing demo,
you'll get to see a guy in these really dreamy
super-short leather apron outfits. Bonus!

*Making pretend stained glass to emulate the ancient Phoenicians, who were famous for their glass and seem to have been majorly involved in the invention of glass blowing. (As a side note, we attended a short demonstration of glass blowing a few months ago at a Renaissance Festival, and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. So incredible to watch how quickly the fellow turned a glob of goo into a beautiful, colorful vase. I could go on and on about it forever, but I’ll just say this: if you ever get the chance to watch someone blow glass, do it.)

*Dying purple cloth (and some beads made from noodles). The Phoenicians were also famous for this. Apparently it took seven days for a batch, they used snails, and the process was so stinky that it was a common insult to tell someone they smelled like they were from Tyre (one of the main factories where the purple dye was produced). We, however, did not to any of these things. We used boiled blueberries. It was still pretty darn cool. (Also, this was technically the end of January, but that’s close enough.)

Iron Chef: Stay Style

Here I am, making some dinner.

Brice and I were cooking chicken nuggets for dinner this last Friday, when Coriel declared that we were going to have an Iron Chef competition.

Normally when she declares such things, I turn on my practical mommy routine and say, “Some other time, when we have planned it, dear.” But the hour was not too late, and there was no real reason why we shouldn’t, so Brice and I kind of looked at each other and shrugged. And the game was on.

If you have never watched Iron Chef competitions, you really should (you can watch some for free on hulu.com). They’re delightful and over-the-top. Essentially, two chefs have one hour to prepare five dishes, all of them using a secret ingredient that they are about to discover. In the end, they’re judged on taste, originality, and presentation.

So first we needed the secret ingredient, chosen by Coriel. Drum roll, please . . .

Chicken nuggets!

We decided three dishes was enough for our competition, and I think we ended up with about 45 minutes to prepare (we got a couple time extensions; we started with 30).

Coriel got into her job as Chairwoman (the person who runs the contest), reporter (the one who follows the chefs around, asking them questions about their dishes), and the judge (um . . . the one who judges?). She came up and pushed an invisible microphone into our faces and said, “What are you doing here, chef?” or “It looks like you’re making something with nuts.”

In the meantime, Addra was mostly just standing around watching happily. Brice and I were brainstorming and cooking and realizing that we are not quite up to Iron Chef material. But we’re still epic.

So here’s what we ended up with, complete with opinions/judgments (mostly rendered by me and Brice; Coriel only had a few things to say, and Addra was mostly just eating). We hoped that Addra and Coriel would try most of the dishes, but that didn’t quite work out as hoped. Partially because they preferred to simply dismantle the dishes and occasionally eat the components separately. Also for another reason you’ll discover at the end.

Brice’s dishes:

We decided our favorite presentations were his
coconut nuggets and my parmesan plate nuggets.

* Nuggets on a bed of crunch carrot slices (we thought the crunch of the carrots was nice and refreshing, but it would have worked better if it was one thin round slice instead of a bunch of little slivers; Coriel ate the carrots separate)

* Nuggets on a bed of ramen noodles (this was the losing dish for me and Brice, but not surprisingly it was the winning dish for Coriel—although she ate the components separate)

* Nuggets with a garnish of sweetened coconut and chopped macadamia nut (this was one of the two top dishes for me and Brice—it was actually quite tasty, and we added some of the topping to more of the nuggets afterward; the slight sweetness of the coconut was very good with the nuggets)

Originally I'd only made two tasting samples, and then I realized
I should have made them for me and Brice as well as the kiddos. Duh.
So that's why I have different presentations for some.

Jeanna’s dishes:

* Nuggets with a brown sugar and acorn squash puree, topped with a toasted walnut (seriously! I toasted a walnut! I’d never done that before) (this was an okay dish, but something about the spices of the nuggets didn’t go well with the acorn squash; the components were better separate than together)

* Nuggets on a parmesan plate with a garnish of dried cranberry (this was the other winner for me and Brice; we again loved the slight sweetness of the cranberry with the nugget; also, a nice little parmesan crisp is awesome)* (<--that’s a footnote)

* Bacon-wrapped nuggets (too heavy on the bacon for me and Brice; Addra just ate the bacon)

In the end, Coriel barely tried any of these dishes. She said her stomach wasn’t feeling good. At first I partially wondered if this was her excuse to not try weird stuff. But since we’d had stomach flu going around, it was debatable. Well, she proved the truth of her statement about an hour later; nope, her stomach definitely wasn’t feeling good. So it was probably a good thing she hadn’t eaten much.

However, Brice and I had such a fun time being Iron Chefs and trying to be creative with our food. It was a fantastic Friday night (even with the barfy ending), especially given the lack of good dates we’d been having lately. Sure, the kids were there, but it still felt like an awesome date night like we used to have back in the oh-so-distant past. I highly recommend this for a great, fun activity—and, with older kids, have them compete too!**

Okay, now I’m sure you’re dying to know who the winner was, right?

It was Brice, of course! Mmmm . . . the judge loved that ramen.

* In case you were wondering, here’s how you make a parmesan crisp: sprinkle some parmesan in a little circle on a plate—it has to be actually shredded parmesan, not the sprinkly powdered kind—and microwave it for about 30 seconds. So good!

** Another time, we’d probably suggest that Coriel compete with us, or that we do teams, but she definitely wasn’t interested this time.

I killed a styrofoam bear.

Some assorted tidbits from the first week of the new year! Complete with pictures and vids at the end that I didn’t even bother to try to insert in the right places.

Ella and Lumma

We like to celebrate Three Kings Day (6 January). It’s the celebration of when the wise men visited baby Jesus, and there are lots of different ways to celebrate, ranging from very spiritual (it’s called Epiphany in the Catholic Church, and it’s one of their big feast days) to silly (which is more what we do). We leave out a small shoebox filled with grass at the foot of the bed. Then, when we wake up in the morning, the wise men’s camels have eaten the grass and left behind a small gift. This year the camels left some new pet fish: two bettas named Ella and Lumma (those were the children’s choices of names; don’t let the names fool you, though—both fish are boys). Coriel was so excited. She has been wanting a pet forever. Forever. Forever. And since I am super-allergic to all things furry (and also unwilling to take care of anything more furry than, say, Brice), we’ve been avoiding getting anything. But a couple of fish, I can manage (barely). The fish are beautiful, even I can admit. Ella is a blue-green crowntail betta, which means he’s got an awesome frilly tail. Lumma is a brick red veiltail male (isn’t that fun to say!).

Forget the birds and the bees. Let’s talk fish!

The fish also led to one of my first official sex talks with Coriel. Yes, seriously. We had told her specifically that we couldn’t have a boy and a girl fish, and she wanted to know why. She also started telling me she wanted Ella and Lumma to have two baby fish so we could have more pets. So I explained to her that fish make lots of eggs, not just two. And I had to explain at least a little about the boy/girl issue. It was pretty surreal, let me just say. But we made it through, all unscarred, and totally calm and rational and all sorts of good stuff. Let’s just say hoorah for that semester-long class I took about sex therapy, huh?*

Thirteen

Coriel was assigned to say the thirteenth article of faith in Primary on Sunday. We worked on it a little bit during the week, just a bit every day, and miraculously (because she’s awesome like this), she got it all memorized in time for church. I was so proud of her! She did such a great job, and she certainly has an excellent memory.

My daughter is a cat.

I don’t exactly remember the context, but at dinner the other night, we were talking about something that we were going to do. Addra didn’t want to do it and expressed her disagreement like this: “No, meow.” I wish you could have heard it. It was as if it was a natural part of her conversation, as if inserting a “meow” was just the sort of thing you do when speaking. She also has a tendency to rub up against my legs when I’m standing around in the kitchen, curl up in my lap to be petted, and meow at random moments. Sadly, she does not curl up and fall asleep in small patches of sunlight.

And now they are both dogs.

Our visit to the pet store, complete with trying out the doghouses.

I killed a styrofoam bear.

This last week Brice and I and a friend named Leon all went to an archery range to get a short bow shooting lesson and shoot some fake animals. It was fun, and I wasn’t even all that bad. Not good, mind you, just not bad. By the time it was all done, I had killed a number of targets and, most notably, a large styrofoam bear. Die, bear, die! I also developed a strange tingling sensation on the outer edge of my left ring finger and bruises on my left middle and ring fingers. All that bowstring-pulling-back-ness makes for weird finger feelings. (Five days later, it still tingles slightly! Hee hee!)

I am a play-doh master.

I made a really great play-doh horse this week. I mean, seriously impressive. Believe me, it was Art. In fact, don’t believe me. View images of my sheer awesomeness.

Coriel’s art

Lest you think I’m the only one in the family with mad artistic skills, please observe Coriel’s awesomeness as well. This is a rainbow (obviously) in the sky (witness the clouds). The cat on the ground has a tail that reaches “up into the universe.” Then you can see the blue line, which is the planet earth. And, of course, a space alien. 

Goodbye, Prologue

A new post on the other blog, in which I lament sending my chapters to the garbage bin.

*I see some of you widening your eyes in surprise. You remember, right, that I was studying to be a therapist long long ago? A marriage and family therapist? Yes, it turns out that sex is kind of important in marriage, so you’ve got to be able to therapize it (no, therapize is not a real word). It also turns out that, of all the classes I took, this one was probably one of the best, most practical, and most useful). 

The real reason I don't need any pets.

My horse of awesomeness.

The horse pulling a wagon Coriel made. And its headless driver (the driver did have a head at one point).

Showing a camel to the fish.

A bad shot of Ella

I just want to hug the space alien.

This one is Lumma.