Happy Turkey Day!

Today we packed up food, some kids and Holland's bow and arrow (don't ask) and went to my in-law's cabin for the day. It only ended up being about 7 hours, but it was long enough. There were 18 of us there, so it was cozy. I was supposed to bring corn, peas and a dessert. I went to Martha's website and found this yummy looking chocolate ganache tart. It even had this little video that showed exactly what to do. It called for bittersweet chocolate and after googling "unsweetened" I felt confident that it was interchangeable. Let me just say it wasn't. I was supposed to pour the ganache into the prepared tart crust. When I got through heating the cream and pouring it over the chopped chocolate (12 ounces of it), it was as thick as cookie dough. I called my mom to see if I could salvage it. She told me to taste it, maybe it wasn't that bad. It was gross! There was no possible way of saving it, so I had to dump it all! I used 1 and a half boxes of those chocolate squares. I only had two left. Some little stinker found out that those little chocolate squares weren't as good as they looked. Isn't that how we all found out?

The recipe was for a chocolate pudding filling that was supposed to firm up once refrigerated. My sister called this morning and asked how the pie came out. I said I wasn't going to look until we left and if it didn't turn out, we'd stop at Fred's on the way to the cabin. :-) It didn't look like it had set and when we cut into 7 hours later, my suspicions were confirmed. How could I mess up two different chocolate recipes? Note to self: chocolate is finicky and do not attempt any more chocolate pie recipes. On the up side, my 2o year-old niece was impressed with it and was doing a splendid job of selling it to her cousins. I only came home with 1/4 pie left and there were 3 other desserts to choose from! So, all in all, I guess it was successful.

Here's a picture of the beasts on the deck of the cabin. I was hoping to get a nice shot for Christmas card pictures, but there was something wrong with each one in every picture.

Question of the Day

Do cat's eyebrows grow back? Are they even called eyebrows? Egypt has done her own types of projects lately. First, there was the stuffed bear patient who got bandaged after a haircut. Now we have a cat that has gum stuck between her eyes. Egypt really likes gum, but recently she hasn't been very good about disposing the gum.

The other day she asked me if I had seen Fancy's face. When I found the cat, there was a chunk of gum stuck right between her eyes on the top of her nose. There was no way of picking this out. So I got out the scissors. And cut. And some of her eyebrows got cut. I took a 'before' picture, but they're all blurry because she wouldn't stand still. You need like 3 hands when you're trying to take a close-up of a cat.

The Pizzeria

This morning when Romania woke up, he was coughing and had a fever. Today was our co-op and I was supposed to help teach the math games class. I had to call one of the gals in charge and tell her I wouldn't be able to come in. I hate to do that because it puts everyone in a tight situation, trying to find another mom to fill in. I wasn't feeling so great myself, so we all had a very quiet day at home. Holland also had his weekly meeting with our ES and his speech therapy. I didn't want to take Romania out so Super Hero was able to take sick leave and take Holland to his meetings.

I decided to experiment with pizza dough again for dinner. I found a blog by a woman that was diagnosed with celiac as an adult. She had tons of recipes and it sounded like she had done all my experimenting for me. I had all 4 of the flours the recipe called for and made Holland his own personal pizza. I know from experience that making a gluten-free pizza is not something that the other two kids like, so I made a second pizza dough in my bread machine. I seriously can't believe that he ate it. The recipe said the crust would be sticky before you roll it out. It wasn't. It looked like pebbles of dough. I added more water to at least get it all to stick together. Then when I rolled it out, I couldn't even pick it up. It crumbled and I had to flip it onto the baking pan without touching it. You're supposed to bake it first and then add the toppings and bake again. When it came out of the oven, it was all cracked. It did not look appetizing and didn't look like what the blogger described, but I didn't say anything. He ate it and said it tasted good. Wow. He's so brave.

Then I made two more pizzas - pepperoni for Egypt and Romania, and a pesto, mozzarella, chicken and tomato one for me. So now I'm a regular pizzeria.

A Good Day For Blogging

You know it's going to be a banner day for blogging when you walk into your room and find your 4 year-old standing wide eyed and saying, "I'm sorry." This is what I found in my bathroom after Egypt asked if I would please come to her room with her. I had a really hard time not laughing when I was scolding her. At first I thought she had cut her hair because there were scissors and chunks of blonde hair on the floor. After taking the towel off of her patient, I realized that the hair on the floor was the bear's. And if you notice the bandaids, she covered each spot that she cut with a "Cars" bandage. She even put the mirror on the floor so "Rocky" could look at herself.

This is how I spend my days: trying to make a grumpy 9 year-old do his writing; cleaning up bear hair; unclogging toilets; sweeping old food off the floor and picking up a dirty towel that was shoved under the couch and reeks of milk. It took me about a week to figure out where the smell was coming from. I thought it was one of Romania's stinky shoes. This is why I never feel like cooking dinner. Or cleaning up. Or doing laundry. It's one big hideous cycle of events. Holland has done exactly one page of math today. After his OT appointment and dropping off the shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, we came home and tried to work. He complained of just about everything. We had tried eliminating one of his meds to see if the gluten-free diet had anything to do with his behavior. He's gone back to his "old" self and is not doing good. So I spent most of the day with a crying, complaining and depressed boy. At one point I gave him a CD audiobook so he could rest on his bed. He listened to one disc and then decided building a lego destroyer ship was way better than schoolwork. Now at 4.45 p.m. he's irritated that I'm making him finish school.

Like I said. Banner day.

Community Service Project

Today was a school-wide day off for Romania. They scheduled a day so that each student could participate in a community service project. They gave lots of ideas but we ended up filling our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. We went to Target and found so many great things. I bought plastic boxes this year. I've always done regular shoe boxes but thought this way the recipient would have something more permanent to keep his treasures in.

The kids each chose to buy for a boy or girl of a certain age group. The boys picked out things like toy cars, hard candy, an etch-a-sketch, toothbrush and toothpaste, crayons and a drawing tablet. Egypt chose things for a girl between 2 and 4. She chose a stuffed zebra, some hair clips and ties, hard candy, princess stickers, a bracelet, a pink pen and drawing pad and some playdoh. After lunch we wrapped the boxes and Romania even wrote a letter to his new friend. We included paper and an envelope addressed to him in case the child wants to write back.

Go to Samaritan's Purse and find out how you can help. Either pack your own box for donation or make a donation online to help with shipping costs.

The Budding Artist

Today while reading history to Holland, Egypt kept trying to sit on my lap. Well, her head's so big that I can't see what I'm reading (actually it's her hair. same thing). So I tried distracting her with an art project. I gave her a nice clean tablet of paper and a big bag of colored pencils. She went right to work. When I looked down, she was half way done with a picture with a lot of green in it. She said, "This is a girl who is hiding behind a bush."

"Oh, that's nice." She's always making up stories, songs and silly sentences, that I didn't think much about it. Then she said,

"It's a girl hiding behind a bush and looking at her brother on the water."

Oh, of course! It was Miriam! She drew and colored a picture of Miriam watching Moses. She said they learned about her in Sunday School "last night" (everything's 'last night' to a 4 year-old.) Holland was so impressed. She even made thank-you cards the other day for her grandparents, aunt and cousin (he played 'cats' with her, so she sent him a card) and signed her name. I didn't even know she could spell it by herself. She has said the letters before, but not in the right order.

It's amazing how fast things come together when you're not looking. By the way, Miriam is the pink blob at the top of the picture. It's hard to tell, but she's actually got a smiling face! How do you like her bush? She's finally graduated to using more than one color for a picture.

Deja Vu

So when Holland was about 2, he loved playing with my cats, Molly and Millicent. They were both very tolerant, Millicent more so. One day he was busy playing and came over to me and signed "cat, cold". I didn't really get what he meant, so I asked him to show me. He walked over to the refrigerator and pointed. I opened the door and sure enough, there was the cat.

Today I was getting lunch packed for Romania and Egypt was helping me in the kitchen. We both heard one of our new kitties meowing and couldn't find her. We walked over by the desk in the kitchen, more meowing. Walked into the school room, and could still hear the meowing. Walked back into the kitchen and noticed that the fridge door was a bit open. I opened it and out walked Fancy. Apparently when I was getting peanut butter and jam out she had walked in and then I closed the door.

I sure hope that Egypt doesn't get any ideas from this. She really doesn't need any help in the naughty department.

Rocket Man

Holland is going through another "creative" stage. Half the time I don't even know he's doing something until it's half completed. The other day he built a 'rocket' with a battery attached and a light. He was trying to launch it with a tea light candle (super hero was there, don't worry). But it was funny because he had this curling ribbon attached to it, and a wide area cleared out so if there was "a fire", nothing would get burned. Oh phew. I thought we were going to have to call the fire department. (Good thing I have a friend who's husband wouldn't report me. Right?)

He's built about three different battery operated vehicles inspired by his "Fun with Electricity" class at the co-op. Today he added an attachment to this crossbow he has. The little arrow that shoots out has foam on the tip and he stuck packing tape to it and tied curling ribbon to it. We have a colony of fruit flies that have moved in and he thought if he stuck tape to the tip, and shot it, he could catch the fruit flies and then reel it back in. I thought it was very clever. For the most part his inventions lately do not seem to be as dangerous as they once were.

I think he's matured ;-)

Today Romania had off from school. This always seems to put a crimp in my schedule with Holland and Egypt. I still need to do school with Holland and usually get distracted with something else when Romania has a day off. Today I decided we really needed to play catch-up, so I had both boys work on math, all three of them did a painting project with new 'real' watercolors and we also read "Hudson Taylor" a book Holland is doing in his co-op class.

Now they are outside raking the leaves. I sent the boys out first because our back lawn is covered in leaves and it's killing the grass. Egypt sees the fun and wants to join them. I told her she could be out there if she helps them pick up the leaves. Holland was raking, Romania and Egypt are picking up the leaves and dumping them on the other side of our fence. This of course turns out to be a dream, because it is not happening the way I envisioned it. Surprisingly, Holland is the only one actually working. I'm working in the kitchen and about every 2 minutes, I'm barking orders out the window. Romania is continually caught lounging around, then he was jumping on the trampoline, claiming he was getting the leaves off there. It would be so much easier if I just marched out there and did it myself. Sometimes it's just so frustrating trying to train them to do what's right. I brought Romania in the house and we discussed that he knew the difference between right and wrong. He knew he was doing wrong, apologized and then went right back outside and didn't work. I told Holland he could come in the house and had Romania finish the job of raking. He came in 4 times crying and calling me "the meanest mom ever!" He finally did finish. I told him it was going to be cold and dark soon and hoped he didn't have to work in that.

Here are a few of them painting the trees from our neighborhood.

It's a Sad, Historic Day

The election is over. A concession. A victory. And a sickening feeling of what lies ahead. Even after surviving two Clinton terms, this election ending feels so very different. I've been doing so much reading online about Obama's "redistribution of wealth" concept. He's basically saying if you're successful and worked hard, you're going to be taxed more because there's some other poor sap who was (too lazy, unmotivated or unlucky) not to make as much as you did. I keep thinking about Oprah and how she oozes praise for him. So, I'm wondering, Ms. Winfrey. When do you plan on giving my my share of your wealth? After all, I've been hard at work at home, teaching my kids about the value of a dollar and I'm ready to receive my fair share of your hard-earned money.

Jobs will move overseas because people will not be able to afford to have a business in the States. More people will go on welfare. And why not? The government has promised that they will be taken care of. No need to find a job - the government will give you money because it isn't "fair" that the founders of Microsoft or Google have gazillions of dollars and you have nothing. I've completely lost my motivation to earn over $150,000 dollars. I want to be taken care of. I want a bigger house, free healthcare and a pony.

I have nothing against a black man being elected POTUS. In fact it has nothing to do with that for me. What it has to do with is this: this man that was just elected our next President has a socialist view of the economy; is affiliated with Left-Wing radicals; thinks the government needs to have more involvment in your personal life (you know - teaching Kindergartners that homosexuality is a normal and acceptable family structure), and the most disgusting thing to me is his stand on abortion. This may not seem like a deal-breaker to some. But to me it is. If a candidate is Pro-Choice (or "pro-killing babies" in my mind) and she or he is a Republican, I would never vote for that person. Why? Because that one position in politics defines who that person is. It predicts how they will treat the elderly, the young, the unborn, foreigners, the disabled and any other group of people deemed 'unnecessary' to the advancement of the United States. Does that seem like a radical view? How sad that valuing life has now become abnormal.

Our Own Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"

Ever seen that movie? It's amazing how creepy birds can be. After a few errands this morning Holland and Egypt were in the kitchen getting ready for a snack. All of a sudden, about 30 birds came swooping into our three feeders. I grabbed the camera (I mean, what else would a good blogger do?) and took a short video through the kitchen window. It's a little blurry and it was hard to get the overall picture of how many birds kept flying in. But it's amazing to me that we witnessed that. It wasn't creepy like the movie, but it was just weird and amazing and wonderful all at the same time.

I've Been Scammed!!

This just makes me so mad. With all we have going on, I'm constantly online either researching all the different ailments my kids have, finding homeschool resources or looking for ways to make some extra cash. This is what I was doing and got scammed. Snookered. Taken. I can see how elderly people can get ripped off so easily. If I wasn't going to be so busy writing a book about the big puzzles that my children are, I would get involved with keeping people from being taken.

Several months ago Holland's OT told me about 2 different grants. One was for this exercise vehicle and another was a dollar amount to help with medical bills. I didn't get either grant, but I thought there must be more and scoured online to find out. It was impossible to find anything. It's like back in high school when all the guidance counselors told me there were just hundreds of thousands of dollars to be had in scholarships. Well, I didn't live in New Jersey; my family didn't farm and I wasn't the daughter of an entomologist. (That's about how crazy they all were). I found several companies that offered CD's to help you navigate the web to find all this money. FREE MONEY! whoopie! I found one that charged shipping only. I got the CD and it wasn't any more clear than what I was already looking at. I gave up trying to figure out how access to services had anything to do with getting or writing grants.

Tonight super-hero is checking our balance online (again). We are so tight and can't figure out why. He doesn't get paid until Friday, but I had to buy food and Holland has two doctor appointments tomorrow. I'm in the kitchen cooking dinner and he starts yelling. I come in to see what in the world is going on. Turns out we have been paying for a service that I was conned into signing up for. That CD I bought? It was actually a monthly service fee for accessing the information. Are you kidding me? I thought that's what the CD was?? And to top it off, I mysteriously signed up for THREE of these! It goes back to like April. It was about $300. Three times every month. And because I didn't "cancel" (cancel WHAT?) within 7 days of receiving this valuable information, they automatically took the money out of my checking account. I cannot believe they are actually getting away with this. I found other people online who had the same thing happen to them. There's no phone number to contact them; just an email address.

Now I've got to figure out if Hardy Myers (for you non-Oregonians, he's our state's Attorney General) even cares if this is happening. I can file a complaint, but what will actually be done?
It's just unreal to me that a company can be so vague and manipulative to the consumer.

I'm so forgetful

This weekend was a whirlwind of activities. The boys both had soccer games at different times, at different locations. That meant finding all the paraphanalia that goes with soccer season; getting food in everyone and packing the cars with water, snacks, coats, chairs, etc. As I was watching Romania's game, I was chatting with another mom and mid-conversation realized that I had missed the team picture re-takes for Holland. My mind was so bogged down with the entire week of places to be, things to do that I completely forgot. I was also trying to get ready for Egypt's birthday party. It wasn't anything fancy, but at 2.45 I was still running around buying ice cream, wrapping paper and Necco wafers. So it's really not surprising that I forgot.

The birthday party was nice and so very low-key. We had my sister and her kids over and both sets of grandparents. The kids just played outside and we watched to make sure Egypt and Cutie Patootie didn't escape the backyard. I didn't get very many good pictures because the batteries in my camera died as soon as the candles were lit. I ran around the house looking for batteries with juice in them. We have reject batteries still in the box we keep the good ones. The boys just end up switching them around so I never know which ones actually work. They go from the Rokenbok, to the Wii, to remote control things, to Holland's newest pet project: his battery powered inventions. (Which reminds me I have to get a picture or a video of what he made. It's a shoe box made into a vehicle, with a pinwheel that spins, an alarm that rings all while it actually moves - forwards and backwards! I'm very impressed he could do this)

This week there's more insanity with ceramics, doctor appointments, blood draws (for me and Holland!), the homeschool co-op, meeting with my ES, speech and OT.

Happy Birthday Egypt!

Today is Egypt's birthday. She kept asking me when the people were coming over for her party. Even the boys have trouble with this. They think the party has to happen on the day of the birthday. I let her open one gift - a pink tutu skirt, kitty shirt and sweater. She was most excited about the "ballerina" skirt and ran around the house, twirling and spinning.

She is having so much fun withe the cats. Here's a quick video I took on my camera. She set up a box on a chair and is reading to the cats. It's hard to hear, but she keeps saying "something" is "destroyed".

Finally They Have Names

For some reason, I take too long to figure out names. It happened with the kids. Holland's (real) name was decided almost immediately. The grandparents emailed us pictures of him right after he was born and from the list of names we had, there was no disagreement on his name. The next two, were completely different. Romania's (real) name took me almost 3 days to come up with. Mostly because it's so unusual and Super-Hero really didn't like it. But in the end, he agreed with me. Same thing with Egypt's name. Not only did we not agree on a first name, but I complicated things by adding two middle names - those of great-grandmothers.

But here they are. Super-Hero keeps calling them "Molly 2" and Millicent 2". I've decided he doesn't get to know the real names because he won't stop calling them that. I'm so much more original than calling a cat "the second". So, kitty in the first picture is "LuLu" and kitty in the second is "Fancy". Lulu's name was easy for me to come up with. It just fit her personality. Fancy took awhile. I wanted something that wasn't too long, or weird, or comical. But in the end, it was her face, it was 'fancy'. Here they are lounging on the couch around 9 tonight. I love how they sleep and walk all over each other. When I was taking this picture, Fancy got up from her nap and walked right over to the camera and started to paw at it. Then she climbed on my shoulder and head and walked around. The whole time LuLu, just lay there looking at her sister, probably wondering why she was disturbing her nap.

Kitty Adventures

These two are so hilarious together. Holland and Super-Hero built this cat post covered with leftover carpet we had in the basement. They actually climb up and down it, wrestle and fall off it. It's funny to watch them wiggle their bums just before they pounce.

Pumpkin Party

This afternoon we were invited to our uncle's house for hot dogs, smores and picking pumpkins. My sister and her kids came too and the kids got to search for a pumpkin that had each of their names carved into it. They had such a great time running around. Here are some pictures of the pumpkin part; I'll have to make another scrapbook to fit the rest of the pictures!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Because I'm such an industrious blogger, here's another slideshow. I didn't bother taking out the duplicate pictures. It won't kill you to see them twice. Make sure you click on "full screen" (I paid for that feature, so you'd better use it!)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Welcome the Newest Members

Last night we picked up our new kitties. I was planning on giving one to Egypt for her birthday, but the kids quickly became possessive about which one belonged to them. So now they are both mine :-) They are both female and very sweet. Holland made a little box for them to sleep in and put a sign on the bathroom saying they were sleeping and not to disturb. We are having fun watching them roll around together, and play under the couch trying to grab our feet. Cats are so entertaining.

Science Guy

Today was the last day of Holland's "fun with electricity" class at the co-op. He had a great time building circuits and lighting up little bulbs. The last experiment had me holding a balloon that was popped when the teacher made an electrical connection.

When we got home he was still so excited about having the circuits he built at home that he built this circuit that lit a bulb and made a pinwheel turn. Here's a short video I took on my camera.

Everybody On Your Toes

Today was just one of those weird days that you can't do anything about. It actually started last night when I got a call from Holland's psychiatrist at 9:30! We hadn't been in for awhile and I had asked him several weeks ago about possible med changes since we started the gluten-free diet. He called to say he'd had an opening and did I want it? It meant a lot of finagling because it was right when Romania needed to be picked up at the bus hub. I said I'd take it and I would call the receptionist in the morning to check on the time.



So at 9:30 at night, I call the only person that can help me out - a mom of one of Romania's friends at school. Would it be possible to have Romania come home with you? Sure, no problem. So in the morning I called the school to make sure they knew about the transportation change and also emailed his teacher. Whew. Then I called the doctor's office to confirm the time. "The doctor is not in today." Um. Exsqueeze me? He just called me last night to offer me this time slot. She said she'd email him, but was pretty confident that I had my pages mixed up.



Two hours after calling his cell and leaving a voice mail, the doctor called me and said "oops! I got my days mixed up". Oh boy. He had no idea how involved I already was in this ordeal. This meant undoing the transportation mess I'd created, and telling Romania he couldn't go to his friend's house. I called my friend and asked if she'd still be available for tomorrow afternoon? Yes, she would. Great. I offered to flip the deal and have her son come over to our house (as a little peace offering for all the trouble I'd - I mean the doctor - had caused). So I called back the school and explained that now to confuse the school even further, I needed Romania to come home on his regular bus and to boot, why not throw his friend on there too?



The boys had a great time running around in the backyard. And they also got to play legos, Rokenbok and a little Wii Star Wars. I even got Egypt to clean her room (gasp!). I told her the friend's brother was coming when his mom picked him up and would she like to show the boy her room? Yes - she would! Okay, then you should go clean up your room so he can see it. In 10 minutes it was spotless! Of course, most of it ended up in her closet, but lately I've been cleaning the same way.