Stuff I've been working on or Why I haven't had time to blog

Nothing exciting to report lately. Just the normal chauffeuring kids, making dinner, and doing laundry routine. I guess that is the way things go. But occassionally there are some other things that happen. So, here is a list (because I love lists) of our life lately:

Two sick kids this week.

I had 7 kids last week all week. Friends were out of town and we took some of their kids. Nearly double our usual 4. But it worked out just fine. The only time I really noticed a difference was at dinnertime and bath time. Our table doesn't fit 9 and bathing 3 little girls at once takes a while longer than one.

I've been sewing a bunch lately. I have a backlog of sewing projects that keep getting ignored. I keep adding new projects before I finish the old ones. Some get done, some get added to the work-in-progress pile. But this last week I finished capes, a dress, a jacket, bunches of mending and altering projects, a baby quilt and some pajamas. Still have more mending and lots more projects. But I love sewing. It is something I really look forward to.

Lots of piano practice with Hazel, percussion practice with Isaac, and flute practice with Aspen. She had a district band audition last weeekend. And now we are practicing Christmas music.

The weather has been beautiful here. 75 to 80 degrees in the day. 40's and 50's at night. One night we almost had a freeze. I wish it was a little colder to actually feel like fall. But this weather is nothing to complain about.

Finished reading Little House in the Big Woods with Hazel. The Little House series are some of my favorite books. I always wished I was a pioneer girl. I wanted to be Laura. Next up is Little House on the Prairie.

Started planning Hester's baby shower with my sisters. So excited for Hester, her baby, and the shower.

Watching Dukes of Hazzard reruns with my kids. Still my favorite show.

Had a movie party with the kids last weekend. We made pizza, a birthday cake (complete with candles) for no reason whatsoever, and popcorn in front of Toy Story 3. Cute and funny movie.

Premade some breakfast foods so that my kids don't just eat cereal every morning. Although they don't mind just cereal. I think they should have something more substantial. So now we are stocked up with veggie sausage biscuits, veggie breakfast tacos, turkey sausage pigs-in-a-blanket, and ham, cheese, and tomato english muffins to eat with our fruit, yogurt and milk in the morning.

We are still getting tomatoes out of our garden, peppers, jalepenos, onions, and basil too. We'll be having stuffed peppers every week for the next month. And lots of salsa. Yum.

Helping Toby with school stuff.

Helping the boys with scout stuff. We are also helping their friends with Eagle projects.

Helping Aspen with Personal Progress stuff. We have the Young Women in Excellence prorgram for our Stake this week. So Aspen is finishing up a cool project to exhibit. I'll have to take pictures of it and post it when she is finished.

Researching appetizer options for the cooking club that Nate and I are in. This month we are doing dishes featuring orange and pomegranate. It is going to be tasty.

Made atwo pumpkin pies. (The big can makes two, I can't help it.) And just about ate them by myself. I got inspired when I started planning our Thanksgiving menu. I like pie :)

Doing stuff for my church callings.

Thinking about Christmas: gifts, activities, vacation plans, food. Listening to Christmas music. I already bought a new CD for the season and have listened to it a couple times. Playing Christmas songs on the piano. We even wrote Santa letters the other day. I know kind of early. But I want to get Christmas shopping done early this year, and help the kids get theirs done too, so we needed some lists of ideas to choose from. Christmas season is so much more relaxing for me when all those things are taken care of early.

Finished reading the The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. Very good books. If you liked Hunger Games, you will probably like this series. I think there is one more to come. But it will likely be awhile since Scorch Trials just came out.

Started reading the latest installment in the Wheel of Time Series. I haven't gotten very far due to busyness in the rest of my life. But hope to finish this month.

Ward Halloween Party Costume Bonanza

Tonight was our ward's Halloween Party. Because I am such a procrastinator, I spent the day making costumes - when will I ever learn?) I love the costume aspect of Halloween. I'm not very good at pretend, but I love to make costumes for my kids. I always plan to make one for me as well, but I always run out of time - that pesky procrastination habit again ;)

Hazel wanted to be a purple cowgirl; she was very specific. Here she is with a couple of her friends: Jasmin, Jesse and a pink cutie-pie.

Aspen chose to be Strawberry Shortcake this year. I liked her friend's costume who came as Cinderella before the ball. Also is a friend from the 70's and one from the 80's.

Another Jesse and T-Rex (so cute when they are so small). I also loved this Airbender - he shaved his head just for this costume. That is dedication. His daddy dressed the same - but he was already bald.

Since I ran out of time for a costume, I joined Hazel as a cowgirl. Nate is Pooperman; goes well with the Whoopie Cushion (one of my favorite costumes of the night).

Isaac is a Cereal Killer. Toby is an army dude. We had originally planned on being a plastic army guy. But the spray paint was taking longer that I planned. Maybe we'll finish that tomorrow for the party he is going to. His friend, King Dallin.

One of the most original of the night: Peace and Quiet.

And I love this zombie's hair. But I would dread trying to get all that product out of her hair later.

Poor Danny looks unhappy, but he loved his little car. And lastly the cutest little family of Vampire boys and Jasmin again with her flapper mom. She pulls off the look very well.

Other great costumes that I was too busy to get pics of: A whole family of Mario Party, Willie Nelson, Ozzie Osborne (very much in character too), Scooby Doo, Thelma, and Shaggy, Ben 10, Old time Mafia guys (think Blues Brothers). We have some very creative friends in our ward. Good ideas for next time.

It was fun to play games and go through the haunted house put on by the young men (they enjoy that job a bit too much). And of course the trunk or treating. Isaac changed his costume and went the rounds 3 times. Sneaky boy.

Takin' a Spin in the Caddy

Nate here: I have subscribed to Road & Track for a long time. About 10 years ago, I got invited to test drive some BMW's. A couple months ago I got an invitation to attend the "Cadillac V-Series Performance Lab" at a track in Houston. It was a blast. We were there for about five hours. They had some classroom-like sessions where they talked about the performance of the cars, and then they had drivers from Skip Barber take us through some different activities. The highlight was driving the cars around the track--they recorded the whole thing, and just sent me the link to the video:

http://www.p1productions.net/cadillac2010/556152482686

This totally changed my perspective on Cadillac. If you are in the market for a high-end performance car, the CTS-V is definitely worth checking out. 556 horsepower, 191 mph top speed, and definitely fun to drive.

Thank you Road & Track and Cadillac for a very fun weekend.

http://www.cadillac.com/vehicles/2011/ctsVCoupe/overview.do

Tomahawks, knives, and fire: a boy scout's dream campout

Nate went with Toby and Isaac to our area council's Scout Jam celebrating 100 years of Boy Scouts. Apparently, it was fabulous. The boys came home happy and tired. (Isaac wanted to go straight to bed - shocking coming from him at 6:30 pm).

We made him shower first.

Then he did go straight to bed.

There was knife and tomahawk throwing. Isaac was in heaven. He has been begging for a tomahawk all summer. And he came home and browsed for throwing knives on Amazon to add to his Christmas wish list (emphasis on the wish part). He also got to make his very own arrow head.

There were also guys with guns from WWII that they shot off for the boys (firing blanks of course), a helicopter,

and someone shooting a flame thrower. That was an especially thrilling part of the event.

I'm glad that Nate is willing to go to so many scouting events with the boys. They get to make lots of fun memories together. Thanks Nate.

Update: Adding video of the flamethrower.

What do I do?

This is Mango, Toby's parakeet. She has been laying eggs all summer. Usually, they get abandoned on the floor of their cage, and we toss them. We tried putting a nesting box in the cage with the birds, but she wouldn't use it and kept laying her eggs on the floor. This time, she has decided to sit on the most recent ones. (There are three.) If you look closely under her wing you can catch a glimpse of one. She sits here on her eggs all day. I guess she is serious this time.

But what am I going to do if they actually hatch? I don't really want three more birds. We'd have to get a much bigger (very expensive) cage. They are rather loud, and somewhat messy. And did you know that parakeets live for 20 years?! I had no clue about their life expectancy when we got them for Toby one Christmas. I guess I could save them for his children. They'd still have a good ten years left in them. Still. As cool as little parakeets would be to watch hatch and grow, I'm kind of hoping that this little experiment doesn't really happen. Or maybe someone wants some baby parakeets? I'll keep you updated.

Stocking my freezer

Fall makes me want to cook. Well, at least October brings on the cooking frenzy. We are still having upper 80 degree weather here. But I am breaking out the crock pots anyway and hoping that eventually the weather cools a bit.

I've spent the last week making soups (split pea, yellow pea, chicken noodle, tortilla), chili, browning ground meats to add to sauces, making meatloaf (very convenient serving size when made in a muffin tin) banana bread, pumpkin bread, spaghetti sauce, and chicken stock.

My chili ended up being way too spicy. I had to triple the recipe to tone down the fire just to get it to manageable levels for my family. So now I think I have enough to last us until 2011. But it is rather tasty so I am looking forward to some cold nights to enjoy it. So now my freezer looks like this:

I've still got some more meals to make to use up the rest of the chicken and ham. I've got Toby helping me too. He is a fabulous cook and so I am employing him to make the chicken makhani, thai red curry and massaman chicken this afternoon while I am working on the soups. (One of the joys of having a homeschooled kid is the built-in helping hands during the day.)

A fully stocked freezer is the best reward for a couple days of cooking and dish doing. Now, when it's 6:00 and I'm looking for something for dinner, I'll just have to warm it up and we're all set.

Priceless.

Aspen Was Inducted

into the National Junior Honor Society yesterday evening. We are so proud of her. She is a wonderful daughter. She is smart and caring, beautiful and creative. And she wrote a great essay on leadership for her application. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of it on the other computer. Way to go Aspen!