Sunday, December 4, 2011

The First Half of Our Weekend

The finished tree. It wouldn't win any awards, but we like it. Though Jack keeps complaining that it's too small.

Madeline putting the tree-topper in place. This was a wedding gift from Eileen Dozler. We will treasure it always.

Decorating. It got a little wild.

See the child in the lower, right-hand corner? That's the reason things got a little wild.

J&J Treeland, where we've cut our tree the last 4 years. This is the first year it didn't snow on us. Kind of a disappointment. Check out Jon's sweet hat.

Jack, cutting the tree. Naturally.

Had to stop at my Amish friend's house to drop off some elderberry syrup.

We made a lovely day trip to pick out our Christmas tree yesterday. The weather was mild and sunny. We dropped off some glass jars and syrup in Amishland, found Jon's winter coat at THE best kids resale shop in Appomattox (yes, the very place where "our nation reunited"), drank coffee and looked at books at "Baine's Books and Coffee," knitted up a storm while riding about the countryside, visited the coolest model train display at "Bevell's Hardware" in Blackstone, and walked through the Blackstone city park's Christmas lighted village.

And let's not forget the Victoria parade on Friday, complete with "Uptown Coffee" drinks and music. And those crazy Shriner's, who drive their little cars. Even Sarah says, "Those Shriner's creep me out!" We agree, Sarah.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Friday Favorites

Chickens, off the back deck.

It's definitely Autumn.

My favorite mug.

Dozens of fresh eggs. 5 dozen, to be exact.

Homemade decorations that Madeline and I have been working on.
More about those later.

Comfy chair in the late afternoon light.

A plentiful trip to the library today. Lots of new books.

Crock-pot dinner just waiting for us all to get home.


Doesn't it all look really nice? Snort! What you're not getting to see is the dirty, finger-smeared windows that are letting in the lovely light, the conglomeration of crap (seriously, I know that there's tortillas chips, change, a dollar bill, and lots of paper scraps in there!) that lives in the bottom of the book basket, the chicken poop everywhere in my yard that results from the generous chickens, and the group of kids who will gag when served the contents of the crock-pot.

What's for dinner, you ask? Egyptian veal stew with a side of roasted beet salad. Seriously. Maybe Bill will gag too.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Sometime I miss this:

A new color for Madeline.


Mixing colors

And then I remember that I don't really.

It's a good thing that I have a daughter who loves to change her hair color. It keeps the hairdresser part of me contented.

ETA: I have no idea why everything is underlined. Weird, huh?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

There Are No Pictures For This Post

With my, ahem, significant birthday just a few weeks gone by, I've felt the need to prove that I can still run a few miles. On a regular basis. Without dying.

I exercise (can't stand the term "workout" because it reminds me of Jane Fonda circa. 1988) on a regular basis. I walk with the kids nearly every day. I have a huge library of exercise videos (yeah, even some Jane) that are well used. Heck, I can even do 12 boy's push-ups without breaking a sweat. But running any distance? Ummm, not so much since baby #4. I tried for a while when Sarah was a few months old, but exclusively breastfeeding one's 4th child when one is approaching one's 4th decade on this earth is NOT exactly conducive to comfort. Funny to watch, maybe.

So a few weeks back I stumbled across the "Couch to 5K" challenge. Basically, you start by alternating intervals of walking with a few minutes of jogging. Each week you increase the total number of jogging minutes, while decreasing the walking intervals. By week 8, you're supposed to be jogging 3 miles.

I'm happy to say that I can still run and I have not died. In fact, it's really not too bad. I run in the woods behind the house so it's awfully pretty this time of year and there's no one else around. Except a few deer and some wild turkeys that scare the hell out of me.

Will I ever run a marathon? Nope. Am I very fast? Nope. Doesn't really matter though, because I'm kinda having fun.

Monday, November 7, 2011

A Little Perplexed


See this picture?


It's hanging in the kitchen, above the table where we eat. Why is it there, you ask? It's there because that's where we hang an example of the work created by the artist who we are currently studying. You see, every month we study a new artist, and every week we study a different example of his/her work. Make sense?

We are studying the works of Giotto this month. This piece is aptly named, Crucifixion. You can see why.

This is where it gets good:

Today I asked Sarah what she thought this was a painting (it's actually a fresco--don't I wow you with my knowledge?!) of and she says, "It's Penguin Jesus. He lives in a house with the chickens. And I think that the water is very cold there."

?

To the best of my ability, I've decided that the blue background does, indeed, resemble water. And maybe the little cherubim might look a bit like penguins. The chicken house that she speaks of probably means a barn. But Penguin Jesus? I have no idea.

I love that girl.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Yee-Haw Things




That's what Sarah calls the reins on a horse's bridle. This morning she decided that there should be some horseback riding included in our weekend activities. Luckily, our local Tractor Supply was having an Autumn Festival (pronounced fest-ee-vahl if you're Sarah) today that included rides on a real horse. We were so there.


Cowboy "Dan Wilson" at your service. Dan Wilson is Jon's alter ego.






Sarah on her horse.




Holding onto the yee-haws.





Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Waffle Wednesday

Elderberry syrup, made fresh today, from a HUGE supply of elderberries given to us by a friend named, Herb. We call this concoction "Herb's herbal syrup."

Grandma Klecker's waffle batter, ready to be made into waffles.

This is the waffle maker that Bill and I received as a wedding gift almost 17 years ago. It's still going strong (the waffle maker and the marriage!). This was a gift from Bob and Kay Pendleton. Seriously. I remember all sorts of completely useless facts like this.

I love to plan out my family's meals. Doing so makes it easier to shop for groceries. It's also nice to have an idea what I'm making for dinner more than 15 minutes before I start cooking. I try to keep our menus simple, healthy, and including things that everyone will eat. I also like to have some days with a set menu; like Tuesdays are "Taco Tuesdays" and on Fridays we always eat pizza.

Several months ago while planning out that week's meals, I happened upon Facebook and a status update from my cousin's wife, Maria. She was talking about making waffles for her family on "Waffle Wednesday." Now THAT was a new idea that I could easily incorporate into our meals. Fast, easy, and sort of nutritious. Thanks to Maria's suggestion, we've now adopted "Waffle Wednesday" into the rotation. But more importantly, we've also forged a new family bond.

Funny, I've never met this girl in real life. In fact, I'm sure I haven't even seen my cousin (her husband) in 10 years or more. It's amazing though, that something as simple as waffles can bridge the many miles that separate us and offer a common ground for becoming acquainted. It just sort of makes me smile. And when we're both using the same waffle recipe from our Grandma Klecker on Wednesday nights, I know that she'd be smiling too.





Tuesday, November 1, 2011

November 1st


And in no particular order:



Jon on the rock. This is the new ladder that Bill and Jack made. It's made of hand-peeled cedar that is joined with hickory pegs. No nails. Now EVERYONE can climb on top of the rock.




See? Even Sarah is able to scale the rock now. Is this dangerous? Heck yeah, it's dangerous. I have visions of scraped chins, broken arms, and cracked heads.



New benches for the fire pit. And look, there's my shadow to the left!



Beautiful trees. Seriously. It is so pretty here right now.



















Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween: Sort of.

This is actually Sarah's smile for the camera.


The only picture that turned out. Taken on Wednesday night for a Harvest Party that we attended.


Our camera has been on the fritz, but I think I fixed it tonight. Maybe we can start blogging again.


Sarah is wearing a clown costume that I made for Madeline 14 (!) years ago. It was one of the first things that I ever sewed for my kids. I think that each of the other kids has worn it for at least one Halloween. Since it was a little short in the sleeves and legs for Sarah this year, I added the red ruffles on Wednesday. Be sure to notice the "beep-beep" nose that's painted on her real nose. That was a must-have for this little clown.

Jon is, of course, some sort of Marine. Madeline graciously applied the cammo. makeup to his face.


Not sure what the other two are. Maybe Jack is supposed to be a bottomless pit? And Madeline is dressed as a "I'm-bored-and-why-do-I-have-to-go-with-you-guys" teenager? That's about right, I think.


It's raining here tonight, so we've had no trick-or-treaters. And to think that I made a last minute trip to Walmart just so I'd have candy on hand. Oh well, I'm sure we'll have no trouble taking care of THAT problem.

Friday, September 16, 2011

I Heart Grandma Barb

Reposting this entry in memory of G.Barb.  5/26/12

Grandma Barb is Bill's paternal grandmother. She's 89 years old and lives alone. I might add that she lives alone in the same house on the farm that her husband's family settled close to 100 years ago. G.Barb likes to share the stories about the horrendous state of her house when she "came home" around 1940(ish). There was no running water, no electricity, nothing but an outhouse (a 2-seater--she's proud of that fact), and a few cows that had roamed through the rooms. She's lived in this house a long time. She raised two kids here, was married for 60 years here, and can tell a million stories about all of the things in life that she's experienced here. Personally, I think I've heard all of them, though she's been known to surprise me with a new one on occasion. (My all-time favorite G.Barb story is about how she and her mother-in-law snuck down the the local brothel and wrote down the license numbers on all of the cars parked there. She was proud of that one!)

I love Grandma Barb. Since my own Grandmas died when I was young (one when I had just turned 13 and one when I was 19), I've always been so thankful for her place in my life. I was so happy to have a Grandma available when Bill and I were married, when I had my first baby, and at all the other milestone moments in life. She was always there, wearing her brown and orange (she LOVES the color orange) pantsuits, Coty Wild Musk perfume, and sensible brown shoes. Always offering a listening ear, maybe a little advice, and usually a funny story pulled from her own experiences. Always one to cry at happy and sad events, G.Barb likes to say that her "bladder is behind my eyeballs." I love that one.

Grandma Barb has a fiery tongue. I've seen her tell people off in such a way that if there were awards for such things, she would be the Grand Champion. Flipping the bird at bad drivers? Oh, yes. Very much a G.Barb thing. God help the person who would mess with any of her family. Bill and I still laugh when we think about her favorite chide at his childhood sporting events: "Hey, you kid! Watch it!" And my all time favorite, "You rummy car!"

Something else we love about G.Barb is her incredible collection of figurines. Holiday figurines, animal figurines, ugly figurines. You name it, she probably has a figurine to represent it. Through the years she has shared some of these treasures with my figurine-loving girl. When we travel back to Oregon for a visit, you can often find Madeline talking with Grandma Barb, discussing all sorts of important things. Sometimes they visit for several hours, just sitting and talking, occasionally eating one of her chocolate chip cookies or always-present Drumstick ice cream cones. This has always struck me as a bit unusual, a preteen (and later teen) girl who would take the time to willingly visit with her elderly Great Grandma. I really think they both enjoy it.

As we were putting the seasonal decorations around the house this past week, we rediscovered many of our G.Barb treasures. Each one reminds us of her and the many, happy times that we've had together.

These are our seasonal favorites:



This pumpkin was certainly from the Dollar Tree. Nothing special, but G.Barb has one just like it.
Mr. Ghosty. He made the precarious trip via the USPS. His candle holder was broken during shipping, but we still love him.

My favorite, albeit unnamed, squirrel. This screams Grandma Barb to me. Madeline believes that this might be her first G.Barb original.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A Really Old Dress












This is a dress that my Grandma made for my Mom. My Mom was to be the flower girl in her sister's wedding (her sister was 20 years older than she). I believe she was about 3 years old at the time the dress was made. Without divulging my Mom's age, suffice it to say that this dress is over 50 years old, but under 70 years old.



Every girl child in our family has had their picture taken in this dress. Starting with me, then Alison, Rheann, Madeline, Victoria, Hannah, Olivia, and now Sarah. The dress is getting more fragile with each wearing. the seams are dissolving a bit and the fabric is yellowing with age. But it's still a beautiful dress, made entirely by my Grandma's own hands. It is truly a treasure.



Many of the portraits of this dress were taken by a good, childhood friend of mine, and are absolutely exquisite. However, this friend lives in Oregon and, alas, I live in Virginia. This time, the portrait would have to be created by someone else. And where, in Southside Virginia, would I possibly hope to find a source for such a beautiful picture? Why, WalMart, of course! Like any good local girl, I had my baby's picture taken at WalMart. Eric, please forgive me.



Isn't she cute, though?







Madeline's Birthday

The cake.

After blowing out the candles.


More cake.




Birthday dinner table. Fondue, veggies and fruit, bread,and Dr. Pepper.


Now just waiting until the 24th, when she ventures out to Oregon.








Monday, September 12, 2011

Am I Really THAT Old?!

The need for consolation this morning (I'm the mother of a 15 year old child, people) caused me to create a play list made up of all sorts of music that I loved back when I was 15. I cleaned up our breakfast dishes, helped kids with school work, baked a cake, and generally felt really old whilst listening to Erasure, The Go-Go's, and Depeche Mode. Good gracious, when I think back to myself being 15, it really seems like forever ago.

Hey, Brent! You still have that convertible VW? I sure could use a ride in it today.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

My Bad Luck

On the eve of Madeline's 15th birthday, we're hoping that our string of bad luck has come to an end. I hesitate to even mention the possibility of an end so as not to jinx myself, but I'm also trying to be totally optimistic. Yeah, good luck with that.


We're busy with birthday preparations around here right now, having just returned from Madeline's annual birthday celebration in Roanoke Rapids, NC. Every year we make the trek to this dying town to eat Crazy Bread at Little Caesar's Pizza, drink coffee at Starbuck's, and peruse the aisles of Walgreens. We TOTALLY know how to have a good time. Madeline will be jetting off to Oregon in a few weeks (this is what she wanted for her birthday) so I think our celebration at home will be pretty low-key. I don't exactly remember what I got for my 15th birthday, but I do know that it wasn't a plane trip across the country. Lucky kid.

About our bad luck: In the past few weeks we've had two cars die on us. And one of them wasn't even ours! My van's transmission failed the first week my parents were visiting here. All of our plans to visit Norfolk's Naval Base and Jefferson's Monticello flew out the proverbial window. Thank goodness my parents were here and I wasn't left without a working vehicle. And their AAA membership allowed my van to be towed to the mechanic at no charge. I won't even tell you how much a new transmission will cost, but suffice it to say that most of the cars I've ever owned have not been worth as much as the new transmission. All of the other cars combined, that is.

And then some friends generously lent us their pickup to use until my van was fixed. During my weekly trip to the bank on Friday, an unnamed child accidentally bumped the 4-wheel drive switch on said pickup, which resulted in our inability to get the vehicle out of 4-wheel drive. It was 8:30 at night, we were 30 miles from home, and we were stuck in 4-low. There might have been a really poopy diaper too. With no extra diaper or wipes in my possession. It took us over an hour and a half to limp home at about 30 MPH, driving the entire way with our hazard lights flashing. Jon was crying hysterically. I assumed his concern was for our safety, but then he blurted out, "Daddy's going to get fired!" (We borrowed the pickup from the family that Bill works for) Now THAT was funny.

Then there was the day last week that Jon was attacked by our rooster, Big Herb. This was a traumatizing experience for poor Jon. Now, Big Herb did not come to us on purpose. When we bought our baby chicks this spring, we were assured they were properly sexed and that we would end up with 8 lovely laying hens. Well, as the summer progressed, one of the hens grew a little larger than the others, and started to make funny noises in the morning. Jack, who feeds the chickens in the mornings, thought this hen was choking on her food, and thus, the reason for the funny sound. Can you say, "Cock-a-doodle-doo?" Big Herb grew more aggressive by the day, attacking anyone who ventured too close to his ladies. He attacked me, he attacked Bill, and he attacked Jon. That was the final straw. Big Herb is now residing in my freezer, waiting until the next cool evening prompts a craving for chicken and dumplings. Or more like Big Herb and dumplings. Personally, I think that the remaining hens are a little relieved to be rid of that rooster. He had only one thing on his mind.

"Bill's Problem -Pet Euthanasia" business was further dispatched last week when our vagrant, feral cat returned home after many years of freedom. Not sure what the exact cause of his injury was, but he now resides under our big pine tree, free, at last, from pain and suffering.

There was also a nasty burn from the lawnmower on Sarah's knee, a shower drain that backed up, and some really awful weather that threatened to blow our roof off. But I think that's all over now.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a great day, and the start of some better times. We can't believe that 15 years ago we were looking at our baby girl for the first time and being completely awestruck by the miracle. Now THAT was a great day.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Here's a Few

A hand-turned walnut bowl that I found at a garage sale for $.50. Just needed a little beeswax polish. Used to hold napkins on the kitchen table.



Vintage breadbox found at the local fleamarket. Jack has been telling me forever that we needed a breadbox. How does he even know what a breadbox is?!



Sarah, wearing a dress that my Grandma made for my Mom a LONG time ago. I wore the dress on my 5th birthday. It was seriously short on me then, and I seem to remember having a heck of a time getting it over my head. Sarah thinks it's "cute."


Today I renewed my driver's license online. As in I did not have to go to the local DMV and stand in line forever. In fact, the renewal notice said that if I wanted to get a new picture taken and renew at the DMV, there would be an extra charge of $5. Just for coming into the office. One more thing to love about the internet.


End of the Summer

And I finally have time to write again. This summer has been a whirlwind of activity, between baseball that went on F-o-r-e-v-e-r, hurricanes, a visit from Grandpa and Grandma, and a broken car. Oh, and let's not forget to include the killing spree that Bill went on. Yes, life has been so full these past few months. With the days getting shorter (the days don't really get shorter, just the hours of daylight--I kind of hate it when people say that the days get shorter. A totally misused statement.) I'm ready for everything to fall into a new rhythm. One that is slower.

Camera is charged and ready to go, so I'll update with new pictures very soon. If you can believe it, I have very few pictures of our summer activities to share. Even though the camera was with us every place along the way, I seldom took any photos. That's a bad habit.

On another note, have you seen Pinterest? You have to check it out. It's an easier way to bookmark ideas and images onto a virtual pin board, rather than continually adding favorites to your favorites bar. Love, love, love it!

Friday, July 15, 2011

District Champions

This picture is from this morning. The boys were interviewed at the local radio station. They also recorded a commercial.



After winning the district title last night.


Jack and his team will be travelling to Botetourt County VA to compete in the Dixie Youth Majors State Tournament. This is an exciting opportunity for these boys and we're looking forward to watching them play. Opening ceremonies are to be held next Friday, July 22nd. Jack's team's first game will be Saturday, July 23rd, at 4:00 PM. The local radio station (Rewind 101.9) will be broadcasting the game live. The team will be playing until eliminated. Possibly all the way until the following Thursday!


Oregon people: You can Google the station (because I'm too lazy to provide the link) and listen via your computer. Remember the time difference though!



Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Jack's game.







Sorry that the picture is so shaky--I had a baby on my lap!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Oh, hello there!

Where have we been? Well, let's see.....

Madeline has been working one day each week doing data entry for a friend's business. She has to deal with truck drivers! Poor girl. I know there's been some knitting going on--something about knitting a roll of toilet paper. Seriously. There's also been a lot of reading, per the usual.

Jack has been at baseball practice. A lot. Like everyday for the past 14 days we've either run him to and from practice or been watching a scrimmage game. Be sure to ask me about the awesome EMT skills I've learned while being a spectator. This weekend is the district tournament so we'll just have to see where that takes us.

Jon has been further studying World War II history. Though now he's pursuing an interest in the Korean War/Conflict. He has entered an interesting developmental stage where he is overly paranoid about germs, poop, and life in general. Makes for some remarkable conversations.

Sarah is talking like crazy. Just today she told Madeline that last night's thunderstorm "scared the pee out of me!" Hmmmm. And there was one day of successful pottying. Just one day.

Bill has been wowing the locals with his incredible baseball skills. Oh yeah, he still has it. Last night he threw BP (batting practice) to a bunch of 12 year old boys and struck them all out. Except the one who hit the ball W-A-Y over the center field fence. I'm told he did make an unbelievable catch and throw a kid out at first. We're proud of dad.

I've been busy Momming. Lots of driving, cooking, knitting, and coordinating everyone's different agendas. I've finished freezing the zucchini, almost finished with the pickles, picked countless blueberries to freeze (and certain people ended up with chiggers!), made another batch of soap, and nailed a new cheese recipe. I've pulled ticks off of kids, procured new swimwear for everyone, completed this year's lesson plans for school, and unsuccessfully fought off Japanese beetles on my beans. Heck, that's all I'm going to say about me because listing it all makes me tired. Did I ever explain that I'm a totally overzealous, workaholic, type-A person? Oh, and that I don't sleep anymore because of insomnia? I'm a ton of fun to be around sometimes.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Summer Solstice

It was THIS hot yesterday. Lucky the Cat is assuming the perfect position for the kind of heat we experienced on the first day of Summer.




Sarah is demonstrating our new favorite paint.



Outdoor "Chalk" Paint

mix together equal(ish) parts cornstarch and water

add food coloring and a squirt of dish soap

Mix well and start painting!


This paint goes on pretty light, but it dries to a darker, more opaque color. And it squirts right off with the hose. No staining, and no scrubbing necessary.


We celebrated the longest day of the year by having a fondue feast for dinner, chocolate mousse for dessert, and a fireworks display for the entertainment.

Yes, we've gone Laux at our house!