Sunday, July 13, 2008

My Funny Husband


Two Funny John stories
  1. We had a teenager knock on our door and ask for money to support a program to keep teenagers off of drugs. I politely turned him away. John then complained that teenagers should not be paid to stay off drugs, they should just choose to stay off drugs. Then John said he was going to go door and ask people for money to keep him embezzling money from his company or joining the mafia.
  2. John played a six hour game of age of empires with Ruth, Kate, and Johnny today.
Baby Pictures








Sunday, July 6, 2008

Slow Down


When I hold Anya I just love and adore her babiness. When she pulls up on her knees in the position to crawl I just think, "Oh, stay a baby a little longer-- just one more day. There is lots of time for you to grow up." But when Ruth was a baby, I would hold her and wonder what she would be like when she grew up. As soon as she got up on her knees I moved her toys across the room so she would have to move to get them. When she crawled, I got anxious for her to walk. When she walked, I got anxious for her to talk. When she could talk, I got anxious for her to learn her alphabet, and when she learned her alphabet, I got anxious for her to read. After having so many kids I have realized how fast babyhood and childhood go. Most of the time, I want it to go a little slower. When I cuddle my little baby Anya, I just want her to stay that size, and to keep cuddling me. I feel the same way about Ruth now too. I love the happy age she is at. I love that Johnny always wants to play with me, and that Kate loves to have me read her stories. I love it when Adam says, "my wuv you, mom. How was your day?", and when Rachel sits in the corner and sings to her dolls. Of course, I still rejoice with the new accomplishements of each of my children. I just know that soon Ruth and Kate won't want to help me in the kitchen or have me read them books, instead they will be off with their friends and busy with a lot of school work. And Johnny won't want me to play nintendo with him because his friends will be more interesting. Adam will start saying, "I love you," and Rachel will stop rocking her babies. Anya is going to start walking and talking and everything will be different. I used to want my kids to grow up so quickly. I still love to watch them grow and develop, and I even want them too. More than anything, I want them to become happy succesful adults. But I just don't want to miss my cuddles, and smiles and sunshiney kids while I have them surrounding me and wanting me.

Friday, July 4, 2008

The Spiderman Climb


At the zoo, watching the chimpanzees climbing around, Adam got very excited and declared, "They can do the Spiderman climb just like me!!"

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

French Bread Recipe

Most of the time I write my blogs as if I were writing a journal. I have found that blogging is a very convienant way of keeping track of all the cute, sweet, silly stuff my kids do, or to just say how I am feeling. This is not one of those blogs. I ran into a really great bread recipe. It is fast and easy to make and very good. So I am posting it here for any one who would like to try it out.

French Bread

mix together:
2 1/2 C of hot water
1 tbs yeast
1 tsp sugar or honey
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 C flour

After this is smooth kneed in:
3 C flour

The dough will be sticky, but that just makes a lighter bread-- it is good.
Let the dough rise about an hour.
Roll out the dough, and then roll it into a tight roll. Sprinkle a cookie sheet with corn meal, and place the bread on top. You can mix an egg with a tbs of water and rub onto the top for softer crust (I never bother with that part).
Let it rise another 10 to 20 minutes
Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until the loaves are a light brown.

This recipe is fat free and contains none of the expensive ingredients like milk and butter and eggs. I think that it would be good for food storage. I have not tried it with half wheat flour, but I plan to at some point. Anyway, my family loves it. I do not think it has lasted more than 2 hours after it comes out of the oven. Oh, and another great thing is that it takes me only about 10 minutes to mix the dough by hand. We really like the simplicity of it all.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Portraits



Every year we take our kids portraits ourselves. Then we get them printed into 8x10's and hang them on our wall. These are this years. We think that the pictures came out better this year. We are very pleased with the results. All of our kids did very well.


Posted by Picasa

Portraits



Posted by Picasa

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Adam and Boy


This is Adam's cat. He named him "Boy". When the kittens were born, Adam picked this one out right away as his cat because Adam's favorite color is yellow. Ruth dictated who would name each kitten and was generous enough to give the orange cat to Adam to name. At first Adam said his name is yellow cat. Then a moment later he dedcided the kitten's name would be boy. All of the other kids objected on the basis that boy is a ridiculous name. But I got the final word on the matter and declared "Boy" the official name, unless the kitten ended up being a girl. Well "Boy" was indeed a boy, and "Boy" has stuck. Boy has been the most handled kitten since they were born in early May because Adam was just in love with him. Adam sometimes is very sweet. Sometimes he will get a string and play with Boy, but sometimes Adam is very mean. We do have to keep an eye on Adam and Boy. We know that Adam would be heart broken if Boy died because he swung him into a wall or smothered him with pillows.

John has been worried that Adam will turn Boy into a fierce cat. But so far, Boy is gentle and sweet and very tame. Boy will just sit on people of his own accord. He will even just come up and greet you when you go out into the garage. Boy will sit and hang out with all of the kids when they are out on the grass talking or inside in a group playing Nintendo. Boy has only scratched Adam once and just on the finger. I think he will grow up to be a very tame and nice cat.

The name Boy has had some funny results. John and I have always wanted to name a cat "dog", but the kids would not have it. We feel satisfied with the name "boy" because it just seems similar enough. The other day I said to Adam, "Okay, boy, get out of the bathtub." Adam responded, "Don't call me a cat-- call me a people." So I said, "Okay, people get out of the bathtub." Adam, said, "Don't call me people." Well that went on a bit until Adam said, "Just call me Adam."

Anyway, we all love Boy and basically acknowledge that he is Adam's cat.

We have given away the two girl kittens, and have kept the two boy kittens. We are keeping the mom cat, Meg, and we are sending Ginger, the grandma cat to the pound. Ginger did not like the kitten invasion and has turned pretty mean. She attacks her daughter, Meg. Well, that is cats so that is okay. But she now attacks our entire family if we even put your hand toward her, so she has to go. That will give us three cats, and they will all be spayed, neutered, and vaccinated soon. The two little boys will go first because we do not want prowling male cats peeing all over.

Posted by Picasa