How Public: Like a F--R--Blog

2018: Books 11-15

2018-03-09T23:51:40Z

11. Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

A very good read about a teenage girl on the autism spectrum who is in the foster care system. The story takes us through some relationships and experiences with both her foster and birth parent -- from whom she had been forcibly removed a few years before the story starts. There's a bit of a "mystery" element to the book (although it's not really a mystery to the reader, who just wonders why all the adults around Ginny are such idiots for so long ...). Also some good character development and a good story. Really enjoyed the book.

12. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel H. Pink and Rob Ten Pas

Career guide in comic book form. Not really any new advice, (do what you like, not what everyone else tells you to; the job is about the company/wider goals, not about you, etc.), but fun and easy-to-read format. Would be good for a high school class discussion, I think.

13. Crossing the Goal Line Line by Kim Findlay

This is from the "heartwarming" subcategory of Harlequin romance books. They are one of my brain candy indulgences. So, the romance story was completely predictable (as it always is in these books), but other than that, they can be well written and provide insight into different areas. Such as, in this case, professional hockey (him) and high-level sports coaching (her). The wedding scene still kind of bothers, me, though: it was allegedly a Catholic wedding, but there didn't seem to be time within the story for the premarital counseling that I'm pretty sure the Catholic church still requires, and it didn't address the "can't have a priest officiate at an outdoor wedding" issue, either.

14. Making Life Easy by Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Mixed feelings about this book. She goes pretty in-depth into some things, making it seem less "easy" than the title implies. On the other hand, her medical background and explanation of scientific/physical rationale behind stuff that is sometimes regarded as a bit "soft" (impact of feelings, etc.) is interesting and valuable. No real surprises here, as it's stuff I've heard elsewhere (eat more plants, accept compliments instead of deflecting them, etc.), but I found her perspective interesting. The book is average length, but dense -- and has a ton more books, etc. listed in the resource section that could also be of interest to me. This is one I might want to revisit (this copy was checked out of the library); at least, it also makes me want to reread her Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, which I own.

15. Passive Income Streams by Kristi Patrice Carter, J.D.

An eBook "rented" through Amazon Prime Reading, this went through a lot of options that, yeah, might provide passive income once you get them up and running. On the other hand, some will require constant attention/tweaks/more work, and almost all of them will require a whole lot of work; on the level of, say, doing them as an actual job (video production, writing an ebook, creating an app, designing websites, etc.) to get to the point where they bring in passive income. Not much new info here, and not super impressed.

2018: Books 6-10

2018-02-21T22:02:12Z

6. Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Rooney Doland

First, to be clear: the title of this book is an utter lie. There is no way you could do every project she suggests in this book, which range from things that address an actual 9 to 5 job, to household chores and housekeeping, to hobbies, calendaring, clothing, etc. in one week -- whether you were actually working outside the home 40 hours that week or not. You couldn't even do all this stuff if you stayed home all week, didn't sleep and used the bathroom only once or twice. All week. It's just a cute and convenient means of organizing the book -- and yet she persists in referencing this delusion throughout the book (e.g., "since you did this on Tuesday, ...). Also, since it was published in 2010, a few of the resources she references seem to be out-of-date. Since the book does combine advice about organization at a 9 to 5 job and home organization (most books seem to focus on one or the other), it does have some more useful organization/filing tips that are applicable to business than a lot of other home organization books do. Overall, though, nothing really outstanding or exciting.

7. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (for friends book group)

I had never heard of this book or author until someone else picked it as a selection. Turns out, she was rather well known in her day, particularly for a semi-autobiographical novel called Elizabeth and Her German Garden (she was married to a German count in the 1890s). This particular book appears to be set in the early 1920s (the references to "the war" are clearly WWI) and is about some British ladies who end up renting a house in Italy for the month of April. It's kind of Under the Tuscan Sun-y in the beautifully atmospheric and romantic descriptions of the house, gardens, climate, etc. of Italy. The sunny experience in Italy also opens up the restricted lives of the proper British ladies -- and, in some cases, their families as well. I enjoyed it.

8. Evicted by Matthew Desmond (for church book group)

This was well-written and, in terms of the language and reading style, an easy read. In terms of the topic, it was incredibly depressing. It's narrative nonfiction, incorporating research, statistics, and the author's personal experiences (he's a sociologist who did "on-the-ground" field work) about the topic of eviction in what he tried to choose as a representative medium-sized U.S. city (Milwaukee). He didn't want to choose something like New York which, be definition, is its own thing. The fact that it is so representative is what's depressing. He delves into systems that are basically set up against people, cites studies that show what the factor most likely to contribute to being evicted is (having children. Told you it was depressing), and tells the stories of various people. He does propose what he thinks are things that could help but they're things that require systemic shifts.

9. One Question: Life-Changing Answers from Today's Leading Voices by Ken Coleman

The topics of the questions could be inspirational (John McCain on courage, Jimmy Carter on reinvention, etc.) but I don't know if I'd call them life-changing. The format of the book is that the author relates a personal experience according to each chapter's topic (others include health, criticism, gratitude, leading with love, and more), often incorporating a conversation or story from some other person as well. Then he poses "one question" on that topic to the famous person featured in the chapter title, prints the excerpt of their response, and then shares a few more reflections on what they just said. I did enjoy the book -- and want to look up his podcast to see additional interviews referenced in infographic boxes in the book -- but that was because I enjoyed his personal stories and reflections and, honestly, I enjoyed the stories of the "preview" people just as much as, if not more than, the bold-face names featured in the chapter titles. Unfortunately, the "preview" people don't get the same star treatment or highlight. I also enjoyed the interview format and the writer's skill as an interviewer (for both the big names and the "preview" people).

10. Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

The conclusion of the trilogy begun in Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend. A fun and satisfying conclusion to this soap opera-ish read: the author did leave some possiblities where I could see him coming back to this storytelling milieu, but he also wrapped up all the various plotlines satisfactorily so you weren't left disappointed or worried about your favorite characters. (Speaking of favorite characters, there's some in this book that I would have liked to see more of.) Also, the movie of the first book in this series is coming out this summer. Sounds like it could be fun to see.

Frugal Accomplishments 2nd Full Week of February 2018

2018-02-19T23:25:17Z

Received free candy at work for Valentine's Day.

My mom came to visit for the weekend. She repaired a cookbook of my daughter's that had a plastic spiral notebook type binding that had come apart (tied through the holes with strong crochet thread). She also brought a fleece zip-front vest that had belonged to my grandmother and that my mom no longer wants. It fits me.

Paid off summer camps for my daughter through a nice Grandma contribution plus the remaining "refund" from last year's dependent care FSA (probably the last year we will use that service).

Took a Pinecone Research survey and checked my balance.

Signed up for getreferred.com based on Money Saving Mom's post.

Was notified that my Disney Movie Rewards points would expire if I didn't do something with them; redeemed some for a $5 concession cash coupon that does not expire until end of this year.

Finished three library books. (Ginny Moon is quite good.)

Mardi Gras dinner was a modified shrimp pilau recipe from my dad using some shrimp and bacon that had been in the freezer. Another meal involved thawing some of the leftover pulled pork we took home from extended family Christmas dinner and using for sandwiches. Made rhubarb coffee cake using rhubarb from freezer. I also made a recipe I've had and wanted to try for a while, grapefruit pie. It's a cold pie, using a strawberry jello base with grapefruit slices in it. It was all right, but I probably won't make it again. Daughter made pumpkin bread earlier in the week (and ate most of it herself).

I am in the midst of a trial run of a local yoga studio which offers a "$30 for 30 days" special for new students; you can take up to 2 classes a day during that timeframe. I tried one of the classes with a new-to-me instructor this weekend.

2018: Goals/Dreams/Plans

2018-02-01T23:45:30Z

Now that we have reached February (and Imbolc/St. Brigid’s Day/Groundhog’s Day – and almost Chinese New Year), it’s time to get my hopes/dreams/plans/goals for 2018 out there into the world.

In part, I didn’t do this in January because I was sitting with them for a while; in part because time just got away from me – every time I would think about doing something, some requirement would come up in my work or personal life; and in part because January is a time of reflection, of Janus’s looking both forward and back.

Also, plus side: I seem to have already accomplished some of my scribblings.

Here are some of my goals and dreams for the year, in various categories:

Health:

- Exercise:

• Yoga

~~- buy self a yoga mat~~

• Hikes

• Swimming

• Snowshoeing

- Massages

- Fruits and Vegetables from farmer’s markets

- Get out on the lakes in a boat

• Canoe?

• Kayak?

• Paddleboating at Centennial Lakes/Three Rivers?

- Reiki session(s)

- Participate in walk while the moon is full events

Possibility: salt caves

Beauty:

- Manicure(s)

- Pedicure(s)

- Regular use of face masks

- Skin care regimen

Possibility: try a facial

Family:

- N soccer referee training

- N horseback riding lessons

- ~~Watch Dance Moms with N~~

• Find a new show/something to follow up with after we’ve completed

- Read books N recommends

- Spa days with N

- Cooking with N

• Grocery shopping/budgeting

- N register for confirmation

- N pick MNHS sites for 6th grade use

- ~~Ice skates for N~~

- Tubing at Buck Hill

- Family restaurants to try: Russian (Nina’s Grill in Burnsville); Osaka in EP

- Get J new phone

- Date nights/something to watch with J?

- Extended family: party, wedding

- Extended family: grandma camp? Amusement park/cave visit(s)?

Friends:

- Church book group

- Friends book group

- Bible study circle

- Follow up with specific friends for dinners, activities

- Intentional connections

• Look at friends/groups from different segments/eras of my life

• Series of gatherings? At my house? Themed?

• Conversation Qs?

Spirituality:

- Read The Message version of the Bible

- Gather Bible studies

- Investigate being a confirmation guide

- Meet with pastors of two churches regarding membership/confirmation

- Track the moon cycles

- GLP?

- Lectionary readings?

- More journaling, reflection

- Phenology

- Nature, seasonal courses

- Spa vacation

- Write postcards to National Youth Gathering

- Write to Compassion Child

- Astrology/angels/tarot reading

Creativity:

- Track phenology

- Journal, blog

- Seasonal courses

- Organize, create and display photos

- Projects from sewing room

• Denim magnet pockets?

- Cooking from cookbooks (new and try-again recipes)

- Read books from shelves

- Read books from library list (focus first half of year, before local library closes for remodeling)

Organization/Household:

- Rearrange laundry room

- Clear out office

- Clear out sewing/guest room

- Email cleanup/unsubscribe to many lists

- New top boards for backyard fence

- Replace kitchen dining area carpet

- New stove

- Replace kitchen cabinet pulls

- New kitchen chairs

- Replace screen door screen

- Replace/clean shower curtain liner

- Rehang (?-husband’s goal) bathroom mirror

Methods That Could Be Used:

- Donations

- Sales (JBF, NextDoor, Facebook)

- Employee discount

- Thrift store shopping (Goodwill, etc.)

Future: Replace kitchen countertops

Finances:

- Continue tracking monthly spends using BudgetSimple.com

- Work toward better actual budgeting with this software, assigning monthly allotments to my categories and carrying over/subtracting amounts that go under or over each month in those categories

- Get a will in place

- Pay off car loan

- Pay off small timeshare loan

- Increase contributions to IRA

Methods That Could Be Used:

- Check into reimbursements for medical procedures over past few years

- ~~Find out payoff balances on loans~~

- Gift cards: sell unwanted; buy discounted for items will use

- Couponing at grocery/drugstore (use CouponMom matchups; clip online coupons)

- NextDoor/Facebook sales options

- ThredUp/Schoola for clothing purchases

Career:

- Capture accomplishments from past few years

- Update resume

Methods That Could Be Used:

- Increase activity on LinkedIn

- Look into microgigs

- Read travel writers info

- Back40

- Other resources

Travel:

- Spa vacation

- San Diego

• Research San Diego transportation; activities; discounts

- Branson MEA

- Cheyenne Frontier Days

- MN Zoo: more frequent visits

- Buck Hills tubing

- MNHS sites

- Pipestone National Monument

- Holiday light tour

- Organize travel documents

- Organize travel inspiration information

- Frequent flyer accounts for N, J

Future/Plan for 2019: Courtney Long retreat? Charleston? Assateague? Washington, D.C.? Something for 20th anniversary? Duluth/North Shore with N?

Phenology: The Season of January 2018 in Minnesota

2018-02-01T18:34:57Z

Phenology: 1. The scientific study of periodic biological phenomena, such as flowering, breeding and migration, in relation to climatic conditions

2. The timing of a periodic biological phenomenon in relation to climatic conditions

(Source: American Heritage Dictionary)

The concept of phenology, or noticing the seasonal changes around us, is something that I was first introduced to through the writings of Waverly Fitzgerald, and since have seen discussed in posters at my local parks and in a “backyard phenology” small calendar pamphlet handed out at the 2017 Minnesota State Fair.

I want to make my own seasonal observations; here they are for the first month of this year, January 2018, for Minnesota in the area around the Twin Cities.

Temperatures wildly fluctuated this month, with some days seeing actual temperature highs in the below-zero digits Fahrenheit – some accompanied by wind chills in the 20 and 30-below range – while other days, the temperature climbed up into the 30s or 40s Fahrenheit.

This meant that what snow and ice there was on the ground experienced some melting; luckily for enjoying winter activities, however, it didn’t completely melt away. Due to extremely cold temperatures in the preceding December, I remember hearing someone say the ice pack on the lakes/parks was at least 12 inches thick, probably closer to 15 inches. (That could have been my friend Betty, an employee and volunteer of the regional parks system, when she was talking about her visit to a festival of artfully decorated ice houses (shelters for ice fishing) on one of the local lakes.

In personal experience, my daughter and I went ice-skating twice in January – once with a friend of hers, once by ourselves. I also bought my 11-year-old a pair of her own ice skates from a used sporting equipment store (although I continue to rent). The place where we go is a chain of three main ponds connected with meandering canals; there is a warming house with skate rentals an concessions, plus two fireplaces; there is also an outdoor firepit and pretty lights at night.

Our first visit was on a Sunday afternoon (January 7). Temps then were in the low 30s but it followed what had ben a series of subzero days. The ice was solid and thick and provided good skating on the canals and ponds. (We tend to skate toward the north one, which borders a bowling center, rather than the south one – which is where the hockey players are supposed to be limited to.) Our second visit was the following Tuesday evening (January 9). The lights on the rink were pretty and we could better hear the music due to the reduced crowd; also saw the lights and fire pit going outside of the bowling center at the north pond. Two to three days of temperatures in the 30s and 40s, however, had created a slushy layer on top of the ice, which made for trickier skating – and more falls. Also meant we wanted to stay in the middle sections of the canals when going under the footbridges, rather than getting into the slushier, more melted areas along the edges.

I was also out on the ice during the evening of Sunday, January 21, participating in a regional parks program called (erroneously) “Kicksled Under the Full Moon.” (Someone screwed up there, because that date was nowhere near either of the full moons of the month.) Kicksleds were first used hundreds of years ago for transportation in Scandinavia; they’re now enjoying recreational popularity – at least in Minnesota. There is a seat where someone can ride; the pusher holds on to handles that curve back from the seat and uses the long, skinny runners on the bottom of the chair assembly, either standing on one and pushing off with the other foot, or running along behind the sled for a while holding onto the handles, then jumping onto both runners to glide for a while – kind of like coasting on your bicycle.

Kicksleds work best on packed snow and ice; they were OK on the trails within the park to get to the lake, but difficult going when we had to trudge them through the snow-covered beach to get out onto the lake. The lake itself was fine, and fun, to see the expanses of the night sky, just to be out there on the ice on top of the water, moving around in nature. We didn’t see any actual wildlife, but when we moved to an inlet, there were multiple muskrat mounds built into the water. (We also saw a truck driving farther out onto the lake, going to an ice fishing house.)

We got a couple of lighter snowfalls in January, and one big one, on Monday, January 22, when my suburb got at least 8 inches of snow in a space of about six hours. I left work (further north, where they didn’t get as much snow); afterschool activities were cancelled and the school bus was late getting home due to the snow. I shoveled what felt like six inches off the driveway – and a shovel’s-width path on the sidewalk, after all that exertion – once; my husband shoveled once; and we had a neighbor with a snowblower take pity on us and go through for the third time.

With all of that snow, there was still snow on the ground for winter activities by that Friday evening, January 26, even though the temps had reached back into the 40s by then. We paid a brief visit to our suburban city’s “Winter Blast” celebration at a local park, but the skating rink was too slushy to be much fun; our sled for some reason got stuck on the sledding hill; and the music from the live band was aimed at younger kids. We did get some food from the food truck and sit on the haybales near the bonfire to eat it – resulting in a pleasantly smoky smell on our coats for the next couple of days.

I haven’t taken the dog for as many walks the past couple of months, due to the combinations of both the extreme cold temperatures and the early darkness – the sun is still setting around 5:30 p.m. (rising around 7:30 a.m.) so it’s dark when I get home. I have taken her a couple of times, where she rolls herself in the snow (trying to get her Gentle Leader off); she also, when it’s warmer outside, enjoys sticking her nose in the snow when she’s outside in the backyard: eating it, sniffing it, standing with her front paws on top of the outdoor table on the deck to push the snow on top of that around and get a wider perspective on her view …

I have also seen evidence in the snow of multiple squirrel highway system tracks, creating a pattern in our front yard and the neighbor’s, and providing evidence of a lot of squirrel activity that, even if it’s not designed to, has the effect of driving the dog crazy as she looks out the window.

At one point, I was sitting on the couch and thought I heard squirrel footprints on the roof, but when I looked outside, there were four or five ducks in our front yard – who had evidently, shortly before, been on the roof. It seems early for these. And yet, we have a neighbor the next block down who regularly puts out dried corn for the ducks. When I took the dog for a neighborhood walk on Saturday, January 20 (40-degrees-ish; snow had melted to some bare patches), as we came back homeward toward that neighbor’s, there was a flock of 60-some ducks in that yard. About half of them flew away as we approached, with a super-loud sound of their wings beating; as we got closer, more of the 30 or so left; and as we got super-close, there were still four or five ducks on the ground checking out the dried corn until the dog passed directly by. Also, as I was shoveling the driveway during the giant snowstorm, there was a female duck perched atop the neighbor’s roof watching me. It seems early for them.

On the last day of January, my daughter and I participated in another regional parks event, “Snowshoe Under the Full Moon.” This one actually was on the date of a full moon – the Super Blue Blood Moon of January 2018, to be exact. We couldn’t really see it, however, due to the cloud cover. There had been a light snow the night before, and it also began snowing during our snowshoeing trek. It was hard to actually see the snow as we went along, but we felt the soft, wet flakes falling on us, and there are some cool effects of the falling snow becoming visible in the photos I took of some trees along the trail. This event was at an historic park, so the snowshoes were the traditional type, wooden with lace-up bindings and such (which were a royal pain to get on and off, in my opinion). Also, the historic church where the snowshoes were set out for the introductory part of the event had the heat on – and was way too hot for all of us in our winter layers, snowpants, thick socks, etc. Once actually getting the snowshoes secured, however, and getting out on the trail, it was pretty to walk among the trees along the Minnesota River and listen to our guide tell us about local and natural history, the eagles who live across the river but fish from these trees so the sun isn’t in their eyes, the tamped-down deer tracks we saw, etc. Warm springs bubble up in the area, too, so there are pockets of open water along the river – and places for the deer and other wildlife to get a drink and sometimes warm up; the water comes up at about 55 to 60 degrees of temperature. Snowshoeing is very scenic, but man is it a workout for the thighs. It was also a heck of a lot easier for me going back, walking in the path that had been tramped down by the other participants – as we made our way out along the path, I was third in line behind the park guide and my daughter, which meant we were still part of breaking the trail.

I have been thankful this past month for snowpants, thick socks, and a warm hat.

(Oh, and while not really a “natural” phenomenon, the seasonal occurrence of the SuperBowl in Minnesota has been kind of a big deal this past month. It doesn’t directly impact my traffic flow, but one of the ramps I pass by on my way to taking the dog to her weekly doggie daycare appointment has been closed this past week for security because one of the teams – I think the New England Patriots – is using the Minnesota Vikings’ training facility. Also, Minnesotans who actually care about football are somewhat embittered over the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the last game of the playoffs – and the way the Philadelphia fans treated them.)

2018: Books 1-5

2018-01-19T23:18:05Z

(Evidently forgot to publish this in January; as discovered when I went to write/publish the Books 6-10 post).

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan

The second in a three-part series (we read the first one, Crazy Rich Asians, as a selection in my friends’ book group a while ago, and many of us have now been working our way through the series). Fun, very soap-opera-ish reads about rich and glamorous – and, in some cases, v. private – people mostly based in S.E. Asia (there’s a lot of globetrotting that goes on in these books).

The Other End of the Leash by Patricia B. McConnell

Written by a dog trainer/behavioral specialist who lives on a sheep farm in Wisconsin with her own dogs (and sheep). I enjoyed both the dog advice and the anecdotes about her own animals. Insights like that domestic dogs behave like juvenile wolves – they’ve just never grown up; that “alpha” dogs or those training puppies use their bodies to block other dogs going in a direction they don’t want them to and never use barking to stop barking (the dog’s reaction to someone screaming at them to stop barking is “my-owner-is-just-as-excited-as-me-about-this-must-bark-louder!”). I also really appreciated the commentary/insight that perhaps one reason humans and dogs get along so well is because we are both so obsessed with balls, as witnessed by the countless football/basketball/baseball, etc. games that can be found on TV at any given moment (and she points out that we don’t want to give the ball back to the dog when it’s our “turn” in a game, either).

The FabYouList by Susan Campbell Cross

The premise of this book is that the author wrote down a bunch of things that she hadn’t yet done, but wanted to, by the time she turned 40. The book is a chronicle of her experiences in doing them and what she learned about herself along the way. It’s a similar concept to a bucket list/Gretchen Rubin’s 100 things list, but well written and enjoyable. I like peeks into other people’s lives and backgrounds, even if her list of things wouldn’t be my list of things.

Living Rich for Less by Ellie Kay

I like to read books like this every so often for frugal inspiration. This one, published in 2008, didn’t really have much new to say and I think some of the resources published in it (online shopping comparison sites, etc.) are likely outdated. The thing that makes it most distinguishable from other books in this genre is her emphasis on giving as the most important part of a financial plan – it’s the focus of the first third of the book. That was nice, but overall, the book is just OK.

5. The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg

A fictional exploration of the life of 19th century French author George Sand (a pseudonym for Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin). One of my favorite authors (Elizabeth Berg), in one of my favorite genres (historical fiction), in one of my favorite book settings (France). And yet, it all added up to ... meh. I give props to Berg, who usually writes contemporary women's fiction, for experimenting with something else, and it wasn't bad, per se ... it just wasn't my cup of tea. As an exploration of an historical figure's life, there really wasn't any plot, and despite my bachelor's degree in French, I am not a huge fan of nineteenth century French literature (that could, in part, be attributed to the particular professor who taught that class ...) and have never read any George Sand.

Frugal Accomplishments Second Week of January 2018

2018-01-08T19:05:41Z

Feel like I didn't do too much last week other than hibernate against the cold weather later in the week.

Bought Nora used ice skates at Play It Again Sports, to save on rental fees and wait times. Went ice skating on the day it warmed up to 20 or 30 degree temps, and again a couple of days later. Skating is free if you don't have rent skates, and the two outings so far have saved half the cost of the skates.

Also went for a hike in one of our regional parks, for free, with a walking group. Free snacks afterward.

Used online grocery shopping at my local grocery store for the cold weather. It's also (so far) saving me time and money, as I can doublecheck when I'm placing the order from home what we have on hand and what we're actually out of (I don't end up buying something we don't actually need). I'm also using up some of the food from the pantry and freezer for meals. Made tuna noodle casserole one night, and found a half-full box of pasta so I didn't have to open a new one.

Tried to fend off a cold by gargling with salt water, using essential oils and eating chicken soup. So far, it's remained just the slight sniffles plus a sore throat when I first wake up in the mornings (the saltwater gargle helps with that).

Used a birthday card from my stash to send to my niece. (Note to self: need to reevaluate card stash.)

Read two library books.

Submitted extra payment on car loan -- trying to get that paid off in first half of the year.

Frugal Accomplishments First Week of January 2018

2018-01-05T23:16:52Z

We had our extended family Christmas celebrations on New Year's weekend. Brought back leftovers from both sides, which were incorporated into breakfasts/lunch/dinners for the week. Pulled pork (also froze some for future use); havarti cheese slices, banana bread, pecan and pumpkin pie.

Used a Shutterfly coupon code to order part of next year's Christmas cards for a discount. (I only ordered some because the total amount I wanted, even with the coupon code, was still more than I wanted to pay. I'll use additional coupon codes throughout the year.) Went through Upromise for cash back.

Organized and recycled my physical coupon storage; replaced the three-ring binder where I keep newspaper inserts in sheet protectors, which was falling apart, with a "new" binder (i.e., it came out of my home office storage and was one my daughter previously used for school).

Checked gift card balances.

Registered daughter for a week of summer horse camp; saved $100 by paying in full by end of December.

Went to a movie on New Year's Day. I had ordered tickets and food online through my AMC Stubs membership (I rarely make any purchases without some kind of discount code/cash back option/loyalty card). Food is supposed to be delivered to your seat within 10 minutes of the time you specify. It wasn't, so I had to go out to the lobby and follow up on that, then carry popcorn and drinks back while trying not to spill them. I talked to the manager afterward (nicely) who offered me a refund on the cost of the food. (Also noted: even though I waited the full 10 minutes, which I had set for movie start time -- which is really "preview start time" -- they were still in the midst of showing previews by the time I got back to the theater, so I didn't miss any of the movie.)

Put up the three free calendars I received. (One from my insurance company; one from National Wildlife; one from Unity.)

Christmas 2017 Wrap-Up

2018-01-04T18:40:48Z

As Epiphany approaches, I’m writing a Christmas wrap-up for the end-of-year holidays of 2017.

We had an at-home Christmas with our little family on Christmas Day, unwrapping presents and having a Christmas dinner of ham with maple/brown sugar glaze and pineapple slices (Nora specifically requested the pineapple slices to go with the ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner rolls, our family cheeseball recipe with crackers, our traditional molded strawberry jello salad, and Christmas cookies for dessert. We also had our traditional snacky Christmas Eve dinner, with a big tin of popcorn/caramel corn/cheese flavored popcorn, and little smokies done in the crockpot with barbecue sauce.

Food memories and thoughts: <lj-cut>We only had part of the strawberry jello salad this year, because at first I opened the mold, then realized that I needed to run hot water over it to loosen the jello from the mold, and did that, but possibly didn’t get the lid put back on tightly all the way, because when I was done running it under hot water and attempting to transfer it over to the serving bowl to unmold it, the lid popped open and most of the pink layer created with the sour cream and red jello liquid ended up on the floor and then in the garbage. (The dog licked the floor a little bit, but apparently this wasn’t her favorite Christmas dish.)

No sparkling grape juice this year, because while it’s been fun, my family didn’t really drink it when I brought it to extended family Thanksgiving. So I skipped for Christmas.

The dog did enjoy stealing a large slice of ham out of the garbage (she didn’t get to eat all of it), and, earlier in the month, I had a glass sitting on the coffee table with my eggnog remnants in it. She stuck her tongue in there and licked out the drops clinging to the sides. (I think she figured, “Hey, I like ice cream and frozen yogurt …”).

Nora’s cookie requests for at-home baking (we also went to a cookie bake/exchange, and received Christmas cookies from my mom) were snickerdoodles and molasses cookies. We made the Joe Froggers Molasses Cookies recipe from my New England Sampler cookbook (I think I may have acquired that on our honeymoon in Vermont), substituting 1 teaspoon of cinnamon for one of the two teaspoons of ginger called for. They were big cookies, and quite good – Nora had ten of them for breakfast on Christmas Day. (I had a dark chocolate and raspberry flavored candy bar from my Christmas gifts.)

I also had the foresight this year to copy the recipes for our traditional dishes, including cookies – with notes like “double the recipe” for Oreo balls – and put them in a Christmas notebook, so I don’t have to hunt through a bunch of different cookbooks for different recipes in the future. </lj-cut>

Gifts: <lj-cut>While I have an overall idea of the total spending on Christmas gifts, I still need to go back and do a breakdown of how much I spent on different people – because I feel like I overdid it a bit on the Christmas spending and want to plan better for the future. It was also a bit bittersweet that the only one in the family who got new actual “toy” toys for Christmas was the dog. She got a new tug toy and a stuffing-free giraffe squeaker toy in her stocking, as well as some dog treats. (And she doesn’t even like the giraffe.)

On the other hand, Nora did get some fun stuff, including a blue fleece material hoodie/footie pajama set (the feet zip off if you get hot), which she promptly put on for much of the day – informing us that we two were the strange ones, “Why are you wearing actual clothing?” – and then also proceeded to wear for much of her school break. She also got thick, fuzzy socks, unicorn slipper socks (with protruding horns), and “stuff to make stuff.” A thing that’s like a miniature crockpot/fondue pot for melting chocolate, etc. – she’s made at least two batches of chocolate candy with the molds that came with it so far; a lip balm making set; and a soap making set. I came home from work one day to find soap setting in my refrigerator, since the instructions with all of these kits are things she can do on her own.

I mostly got candy, plus some tea from my sister, and the DVD of the former television series “The Tick.”

Note for future: DH took Nora shopping for me, but she didn’t mention this until the weekend before Christmas, at which point I was DONE with the extra work for me. I let her put her name on one of the presents I had gotten him (a new laundry hamper, since she had observed that he needed one) and told him that next year, she’s planning better – and planning with her allowance. Need to keep that in mind.</lj-cut>

Travel: <lj-cut>While DH took the whole week off between Christmas and New Year’s (only three days of vacation, since he automatically gets both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off), the weather was so cold – subzero temps and windchills in the teens to 20s below zero – that there wasn’t much additional activity. I only took a couple of days off (in part to free up vacation time for 2018 travel).

Not sure how I feel about that: it would be nice to have extra time at home during the holiday season – especially as I usually get all these messages from email lists I follow, etc., about how you have time to do such and such, contemplate the new year, clean out your house, etc., etc., after Christmas is over, and I think, “No, I really don’t,” – but I do also seeing extended family, too.

Not such a fan of the weather this year, though. We went down to Iowa on Thursday, planning to spend the day at my sister’s on Friday, but a winter storm put the kibosh on that. We just hung out at my in-law’s farmhouse; I looked back through 2017’s budget tracking entries in an attempt to get some planning info for 2018, and Nora read some new books she got for Christmas, while DH perused farming and farm collectible magazines.

That meant that both our family celebrations were then on Saturday, following each other. Again, nice to see everyone, but shorter time than planned. No time for playing games at my sister’s (something I was looking forward to), and no shrimp dip at the farmhouse, as the regular maker was sick with bronchitis and didn’t make it to the family gathering.

We got back to Minnesota on Sunday and picked up our dog-dog from her boarding stint (they were full for New Year’s Eve) and I spent a few hours unpacking and doing laundry and such.

Some year, maybe I’ll get the balance right, but I often feel I don’t have downtime/enjoying time until after the holidays, since as “Mom” I do most of the work around them, including the meal planning/prep, cleanup, gift buying, pre- and post-travel work, etc. </lj-cut>

Notes for Next Year:

<lj-cut>- I added the recipes to Christmas notebook. (Yay!)

- Need to add a gift planner/budget to Christmas notebook.

- Need to get a new Christmas card record book (I keep track of who we send and receive from; it’s a good reminder for addresses that need updated; gives me a ballpark for how many cards we need, etc.)

- Order Christmas cards earlier. (I had some great photos this year but didn’t get the cards designed on Shutterfly in time when taking into consideration the shipping time. And I actually enjoy sending, and receiving Christmas cards. This year, I ended up buying cards at the dollar store and getting prints from Walgreens of a family photo taken in 2017. The photo would have made it onto the photo Christmas cards, and we hadn’t done a family photo in a while, so it did work out.)

- Read a couple new Christmas-themed books that I received in December 2017, but too late in the month. (I did read several Christmas themed books in December, as I like to do, but by the time these arrived, I was Christmas booked out.)

- Possibly go on a Christmas lights tour, where somebody else drives you around so I can look at the lights instead of the road.

- Be more intentional about down time at home/with family: movies? (did watch White Christmas this year on TV and Christmas with the Kranks on Amazon Prime) games? Tea party?</lj-cut>

Scenes of Summer 2010: Flowers and Their Names (Sort Of)

2010-08-17T22:12:47Z

Nora has been using my "flower book" (a field guide to Minnesota wildflowers) this summer: she wants to know the names of various flowers, and it's something I'm interested in, too. I showed her the color codings on the edge of the page, and she knows to look in, for example, the yellow flowers to find a match in the picture -- and then I'll look and confirm (or deny) and read the identification.

Besides the bird's-foot trefoil, violets, butter and eggs, and so forth, identified in this manner -- which, in my book (literally ;) ) are wildflowers, not weeds -- we've also been doing some identifying of garden flowers. Which has led to some interesting conversations.

At a local park, looking at a neighboring yard: "Mommy, Mommy, look! Lots of black eyes!"

Black-eyed Susans, that is.

In another neighborhood: "Mommy, they have noodles, too!"

Can't figure that one out?

Hostas. Think of what it rhymes with.

Scenes of Summer 2010: Pool and Beach

2010-08-09T22:20:24Z

"Mommy, there's sand in the bathroom. " Yes, there is. And I suspect there's going to be some stray sand in our bathroom, at least until September. There's also likely going to be an extra laundry load per week, consisting of beach towels - and sometimes a picnic blanket/tablecloth -- until the same timeframe.

Yes, there have been frequent trips to the beach this summer -- as well as the pool, since we spent every. single. Monday. and Wednesday. in July taking Nora to her first round of swimming lessons.

She was an enthusiastic participant in these lessons. So enthusiastic, in fact, that I fear the shyer little girl in her class didn't get as much time with the teachers: Nora would yell "Take me! Take me!" whenever they were about to wade out into the water with a little one they were teaching a new skill.

There were five kids in this class, and two teachers (technically, a lead teacher and an assistant; high school students from our area who were teaching in the parks and rec classes for the summer). I was very impressed at how fun they made this class: they had the kids sit on the entry steps to the 3.5-foot depth pool for the teacher's brief discussions and demonstrations of skills, and then they would take each kid out one at a time, with one of the teachers holding onto them as they practiced these skills -- like the arm motions that will eventually become the crawl, as they had the kids make "scoops" with their hands to try to catch some rubber ducks that had been thrown across the pool.

They used equipment like kickboards, pool noodles and, one day, life vests -- the kids got to swim "on their own" for a few brief seconds that day, without the teachers holding onto them. There was also one day that they had a big rubber hippo-shaped mat that they had all five kids hold onto the edge of, and then the teachers towed the class around the pool, lifing the edge of the hippo up and down to make waves.

On the last day of class, the little kids got to go down the water slide in the pool -- the teachers picked them up and placed them a few feet above the end, then let go and let them slide down into the water -- into the waiting arms of another teacher.

In this smaller depth pool, there were two classes going on at the same time -- Nora's (preschool two) and the preschool one class. While Nora has not had any swimming lessons before in her life, when we took her in for an evaluation at the community center pool earlier this year to figure out what level to sign her up for, she was slated at preschool two, largely, I believe, based on her almost-fearlessness and enthusiasm for the water. (During evaluation, she asked for extra times to do the jumping into the pool to a teacher who would catch her portion.) So, I guess it's not particularly surprising that, while she has some reluctance to put her face in the water (improving since, midway through swimming lessons, I bought her some goggles -- 75 cents on clearance, since, of course, July means summer is almost over in the retail world), she retains almost no fear of the water.

Sometimes, this is not good. Like, when she was goofing off on the steps during swim lessons, went under the water, and had to be fished out immediately by the lifeguard who was on duty on deck during all of this. Was she contrite or scared? Not one iota.

We've also put some swimming lesson stuff into play in our own family trips to the beach. For one thing, Nora used some of her birthday money from her great-grandma to buy herself a pink princess kickboard. Whenever I see her at the beach with this tucked under her arm or balanced on her head, I have flashbacks to watching reruns of "Gidget" when I was a kid.

She's getting the hang of using the kickboard, and we also sometimes play "chop, chop, timber!" In the swim lesson version of this, the kids line up on the side of the pool, put their hands together and make chopping motions, then, on timber, jump/are lifted into the pool by a teacher in the water, who swings them back and forth a few times. In the beach version (since there's no edge and I'm already in the water), she just jumps up on timber, I lift her, lower her, and swing her back and forth for a few splashes. (Quite the exercise program for Mommy, I must say.) We also have our own beach game of "barnacle," wherein she wraps her arms and legs around one of my legs and I try to move around and dislodge the barnacle.

Our last two trips to the beach have seen interesting parking situations, due to events at the parks where the beaches are located that I've been unaware of beforehand -- but that provided interesting entertainment. For instance, we got to watch the high school rowing clubs piloting their long boats on the lake during the regatta held at one lake -- and witnessed the long line of people out in the lake for a local mega-church's baptism event at another lake.

And, she's taken to taking her goggles to the beach -- leading to the time when she ran up to our area on the beach, obviously looking for something. "Are you looking for your goggles?" I asked her, and then informed her, "They're on top of your head!"

Scenes of Summer 2010: Summertime Seasonal Food

2010-08-03T22:03:00Z

Last night's dinner at our place was taco salad: browned hamburger, kidney beans, chopped-up onions and salsa, all mixed up and cooked together, topped with some shredded cheese and some torn-up lettuce (torn up by a four-year-old who is getting experience in kitchen helping this summer), plus tortilla chips for scooping. Apparently, according to the four-year-old, this meal is “yummy” and, if we had only had chocolate chip cookies on hand for dessert, it would have been the perfect meal. As it was, she had to content herself with blueberry ice cream* topped with some actual blueberries.

My original thought had been to top the taco salad with some tomatoes from our garden – i.e., the containers on our deck that are growing: tomatoes, plum tomatoes, strawberries (theoretically), mint, chives, basil and sage, plus marigolds. The ripening schedule of the tomatoes, however, did not cooperate. The big ones aren't ready yet, and the almost-ready grape ones weren't actually ready until today. Neither tomato plant is producing a bumper crop, but we have eaten some of the grape tomatoes this summer: some went into a blueberry-tomato salad (blueberries, small bits of tomatoes and a vinaigrette dressing, also prepared with help from a four-year-old), and some were used as part of our Saturday night supper of BLTs, with toasted bread, lettuce, tomatoes and turkey bacon. I'm awaiting the ripening of the larger tomatoes to make a meal of cheeseburger pie with fresh tomato slices, but I don't think I'll get enough tomatoes this year to make and freeze tomato sauce, which was one of my thoughts when planting things on Memorial Day weekend.

I am starting to think about how to preserve some of the herbs for winter, though, now that it's August and sort of/kind of the beginning of harvest season. I chopped up a bunch of the basil a while ago and froze it in olive oil in an ice cube tray, with the idea being that I could then dump the olive oil-ice cubes out into a freezer bag and have them for flavoring soups, pastas, etc. during the winter. The challenge, however, is that I can't actually get the olive oil-ice cubes out of the ice cube tray: they froze hard.

We've eaten some of the basil this summer in spaghetti sauce (made with purchased canned tomato sauce and some of our herbs and spices), and....some other stuff I don't remember. Likely salads. The sage, I put into an egg bake dish at one point, and also cut up several leaves to go into the corn casserole I made for tonight's Night to Unite block party. (Scraped the remaining kernels off the ears of sweet corn we didn't eat for supper the other night, along with creamed corn, for a recipe from one of my old – 1997 – issues of Taste of Home magazine. I've been having some fun flipping through old summer issues for inspiration for seasonal recipes.) I've come to the conclusion that I don't really know what to do with sage; it's not necessarily an herb I'll be growing again.

The chives, on the other hand, have definitely proven their worth this summer. Easy to grow, easy to snip off, and adding a nicely sharp smell to things, they've been chopped up and added to potato salad, egg salad, chicken salad (made with shredded leftovers from a fried chicken dinner), ham salad (made with torn-up pieces of ham lunchmeat to use it up more quickly), tuna salad, pasta pea salad and plain-old pasta salad, among other things.

Yes, it's been a very salad-y summer around here. They're quick, they're easy, they're cold, they make great picnic food – and my little one likes them, particularly the hard-boiled egg-based salads. (My “recipe” pretty much consists of “hard boil six eggs, chop them up into pieces, add chives and pieces of whatever we're calling this salad, whether it's the chicken or the ham, add some mustard and some Miracle Whip to a proportion that looks good, stir.”) We had shrimp salad one night: shrimp served on top of lettuce with a dressing made from ketchup and lemon juice (my mom's recipe for “cocktail sauce” from when I was a kid and she occasionally served frozen breaded shrimp; I didn't have any horseradish on hand to add like she did, though).

We've also had “side dish salads” like the aforementioned blueberry-tomato, watermelon-cucumber (pieces of watermelon and cucumber with a cooked vinegar-sugar-and-pepper-flakes dressing) and creamy cucumbers (cucumber slices with a dressing of Miracle Whip, sour cream and sugar). Plus “fruit salad” (pineapple chunks, orange slices, sour cream and Cool Whip, plus marshmallows – as in, the ones that were leftover from our campfire roastings at church camp). Still on my agenda for the summer: I'd like to get in a steak salad. I've also been flipping through the salad sections of some cookbooks/old cooking magazines for inspiration – I've got some ideas for apple salads in the next month or so as we transition into fall, and I foresee a series of soups for my family this fall and winter.

At the moment, though, it's still summer, and I'm talkin' 'bout summer food. It doesn't seem like I've made as many batches of homemade popsicles as in past summers – we're on the second of the summer; I think the first were orange, and these (which are, admittedly, almost gone so that I need to make some more this week) are cherry-flavored. I did, however, find a mold set for a quarter at a garage sale – one of ours is cracking and will need to be replaced soon. (I guess 30-plus years is a good lifetime for these things; I'm currently using the sets that my mom had when I was a kid.)

We have also had ice cream sandwiches from a really good sale, and Nora has discovered smoothies: ice cream, milk and fruit blended up in the blender. She will pretty much eat any berry in sight, so that is where most of our grocery store-purchased straw-/rasp-/blue-berries have gone this summer, plus a couple of bananas. As mentioned before, I'm also having her help more in the kitchen this summer: she's supposed to set the table and clear her place, and she's been rinsing fruit off, slicing bananas, buttering her own graham crackers for snacks (and then, of course, dropping them butter-side-down on the floor...), tearing up lettuce, and putting bread in the toaster and pushing down the lever.

She also likes to help pack the picnic basket for our picnic outings by putting in the juice boxes (we drink a lot more juice boxes in the summer than we do at other times of the year – because we take them on picnics in the park). Our picnic fare usually includes some kind of sandwich – we had our tuna salad in pita bread pockets this weekend – plus, at various times, we've added cheese slices, berries, chips, and, always, cookies. (It's time to open another box of Girl Scout cookies from my niece's spring sales, since we ate the last of the Thanks A Lots at this weekend's picnic.) We've had a couple of these picnics at our park that has free music concerts several times a week in the summer. Nora hasn't necessarily wanted to stay for the entirety of the orchestra or brass band concerts, but she got some cultural exposure in and learned what a conductor is – and the playground where we go when she is starting to get too rambunctious is close enough to the amphitheater that I can still hear “76 Trombones,“ etc.

At the end of a day, I like to relax with a cup of something; sometimes, in the summer, it's lemonade sipped on the deck out of a tin mug (Nora has also been learning to make lemonade this summer: we use the CountryTime mix and have a Pampered Chef pitcher that she can just plunge the top up and down to mix up – and I make her do this in the sink). Sometimes, all year 'round, it's tea. I've finished off the purchased ginger peach tea from our anniversary trip in May – that's a flavor that I find tastes better as iced tea, so I'm much more likely to drink it in summertime, plus the “summer breeze.” Most of my summertime tea now is coming from the mint plant on the deck: I snip off a few leaves to make my own mint tea, which is good either iced or hot.

* What happens when you go grocery shopping with a four-year-old.

Scenes of Summer 2010: Church Camp Part 1-Fire and Water

2010-07-22T22:43:09Z

(Have been lax on the blogging this summer, and want to record some of these memories. "Scenes of Summer 2010" is kind of my own personal catch-up series.)

The June weekend post-birthday of this summer, we were off to camp. Nora, my mom and I all went to "preschool family camp weekend" at the camp in northern Minnesota owned by my church. (DH has to work most weekends during the summer, and also, I really can't see him sleeping in a bunk bed in a cabin.)

We had a cabin for our family unit, and, since the cabins are used for youth campers during the week, there were enough beds and bedrooms that we each ended up with our own bedroom. The thing we forgot when packing (there's always something) was Nora's sleeping bag, so she ended up borrowing Grandma's sleeping bag to use on her bunk, while Grandma used blankets. I also was reminded that I need to get a travel nightlight. I had to go comfort a little person at 3:30 a.m. the first night when the solar lantern she'd received as a birthday present burned out in her bedroom; the next night, we left the curtains open and I showed her how she could follow the support leg of the bed with her hand down to where we'd put her flashlight if she needed it -- which was quite exciting.

She had, of course, when originally told we were going to camp, associated it with camping, i.e., "tent." When she was informed that we would be sleeping in a cabin rather than a tent, I got the question, heavily tinged with tones of suspicion, "Are we gonna put marshmallows on a stick?"

We did. Although the camp provided fixings for s'mores at the "formal campfire" on Saturday night, I also packed our own stash of graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows, because promising marshmallow roasting and then delaying it once you've arrived at camp is just not fair nor easily understood by newly minted four-year-olds. Not, evidently, that she actually cares for s'mores. She will eat the components separately but, when it comes to roasting, she prefers her marshmallows solo -- and lightly toasted, to a somewhat gooey consistency but so that they maintain their mostly white coloring. (Her grandma likes them burnt to a crisp. I prefer a golden edge to mine -- which I like to eat in s'mores.)

The campfire ring was right outside our cabin, so we got plenty of marshmallow roasting done on both formal and informal campfire nights. (Formal campfire apparently meant the camp staff attended and held up sheets of paper that actually had the lyrics to the songs no one had known how to sing the previous night.) The pastor-on-duty for the camp weekend played guitar for songs around the campfire both nights, including "Pharaoh Pharaoah," a song sung to the tune of "Louie Louie" that apparently has an interesting history: http://louielouieweb.tripod.com/pharaoh.htm. From the descriptions of how many different versions of the songs there are on that website, I suspect my mom is correct in her assertion that the chorus we were taught: "Pharoah, Pharoah/Oh, baby, let my people go/Uffda!/Ya, sure, you betcha" (and which my kid is still singing around the house) "has got to be a Minnesota invention."

Also relatively close to our cabin was the camp beachfront. We were at camp from Friday evening until shortly after noon on Sunday. Nora was on the beach/in the water *at least* six times in that timeframe. Possibly more. She and I did some in-the-lake rock throwing (I used to be able to skip stones, but then again, I used to be able to find flat ones) late Sunday morning, while very-kind Grandma was packing/cleaning up the cabin and on the day it finally warmed up, but most of the weekend was too chilly for anyone over the age of, say, five, to actually want to be in the lake water. This did not deter Nora. Luckily, most of her lake-going was gathering water supplies in her bucket for sand creations. (However, there was a *lot* of this water gathering.)

She had received some new sand toys for her birthday and brought some of them along. One set consists of an "ice cream bucket" with two plastic "cones," shovels shaped like seahorses, and a shaker with removable lid. I suspect this was the inspiration for the many flavors of sand/water creations pretend ice cream she offered me, including "seahorse blueberry." (Evidently, my fake food poisoning reaction to that one was so entertaining, it has been requested at later times we've played together.) She also made, she informed me, "sand/water soup," which she stirred with a shovel, because Daddy stirs it when he makes soup. The shaker and its lid made a fine container for the rock and little tiny snail shells she brought home. The sieve that went with the other set of birthday sand toys proved confounding to the almost-two-year-old from another family who was also attending camp. She would try to put water in it, and would get very mad that it wouldn't stay in there.

Scenes of Summer 2010: Church Camp Part 2- Friends, Family, Animals

2010-07-21T21:55:31Z

(Have been lax on the blogging this summer, and want to record some of these memories. "Scenes of Summer 2010" is kind of my own personal catch-up series.)

We were one of five families attending camp that weekend. Among these families was an almost-four-year-old girl Nora has played with before, and a four-year-old boy (older brother to the almost-two-year-old) that girl has played with before. The three of them became quite the trio: playing on one of the camp's playgrounds (there are two; they liked to hang out at the one closest to the beach), chasing bubbles blown by an adult from the giant bubble solution, offering "helpful" advice from a peanut gallery to the dad trying to get his six-year-old's Frisbee out of a pine tree by throwing other things up to dislodge it, making up running games on the deck around the dining hall lodge, playing in the sand together, playing with Nora's ring toss game, visiting each other's cabins and climbing up to top bunks, etc.

Nora and the other girl (M) also apparently considered themselves experts enough at ring toss to instruct the college-aged camp staff in how to play after they had invited them to do so. Nora also brought out her card games (a Melissa and Doug set of Go Fish, Old Maid and Animal Rummy) to some picnic tables to play with her friends whilst Grandma and I were talking to some grownups -- but apparently figured out on her own that she's not yet capable of playing cards without some help. She, Grandma and I did play through all of these games a couple of times (luckily, it worked out that everyone got a chance to win at Animal Rummy) during Saturday afternoon quiet time in the cabin while other kids were still napping. At one point during the weekend, as Nora and M were walking up a hill toward the playground, M informed her, "Nora, you're really nice." The response was, "Yep. I'm really nice." (I think we need to work on how to accept compliments.)

There was a brief Bible study session on Saturday morning, focusing on the story of God's promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah, the birth of Isaac, and the meaning of Isaac's name, read from the children's Bible the church gives to three-year-olds. We talked about names as part of the discussion, and I have to shake my head at my mother, who claims she doesn't know why her parents named her what they did, unless they had run out of ideas, since she is the youngest of her siblings. I am shaking my head because, for pete's sake, mother, just ask *your* mother -- but you might want to get on that, since she'll turn 96 this fall.

Sunday morning worship was in an outside worship area overlooking the lake, with the altar and cross made from pine logs. It was beautiful and, if it wasn't an almost four-hour drive away, that's where I would worship all summer.

We also did camp crafts, went on a hike on a short trail -- saw a few wildflowers, including a field of daisies and a forget-me-not that Nora identified because we had been looking through one of my wildflower field guides some in June -- and, prior to Saturday evening's bonfire, went on a pontoon boat ride. It was Nora's first boat ride, and it was a great experience with nature around the lake: we saw eagle nests in some trees in a bay, and spotted the parent bald eagle as well. We watched the adult eagle swoop over the lake, catch a fish, and bring it back to the nest. We also heard and saw more than one loon, one a mother with a baby who was riding on her back, then got off to try swimming on its own.

Scenes of Summer 2010: Amusement Park

2010-07-20T22:17:19Z

(Have been lax on the blogging this summer, and want to record some of these memories. "Scenes of Summer 2010" is kind of my own personal catch-up series.)

In addition to our Princess Pony party the day before, we spent the actual day of Nora's birthday at the Como Zoo and amusement park - the polar bears are back from their extended stay in Detroit, now that their exhibit has been updated, and were snacking on carrots and playing with their orange bucket during "enrichment" time. We saw part of Sparky the Sea Lion's show.

And we rode many rides at the amusement park, which is geared toward young children. I figure it will satisfy Nora for maybe one more year; two, tops. (We have also taken her there for her second and third birthdays.) She was old enough this year to go on the "driving school" ride and did surprisingly well at steering her little car around the enclosed pretend city. We brought her swimsuit, so she had a good time playing in the new splash pad area -- even though it was overcast and, to me, chilly, and then she further froze herself by eating a cold strawberry smoothie afterward. She sped down the zip line in the play area. She was able to ride some rides by herself: frog hopper, the train, some little cars that go around. And she was accompanied on some by her mommy: swings that go fairly high up and around (my personal favorite), teacups, tilt-a-whirl -- and the roller coaster. I hate roller coasters.

Yes, this was a small, kids' roller coaster. Nevertheless, it was indubitably *not* my favorite ride. In fact, I had my eyes squeezed shut for much of it (and my face slightly averted so as not to advertise this fact to the newly-four-year-old). Who was not scared of this in the least. As my head was getting rattled around, on her second time around the course, she was cheerfully calling out next to me, "Mommy, we're gonna go up, and then we're gonna go down, and we're gonna go around, and it's gonna be fun!" "Uh-huh," I responded, with my closed eyes and gritted teeth.

When she gets older and wants to go on the bigger roller coasters, we are finding other ride-riding-enabled relatives to accompany us on these outings.

A Berry, Berry Berry Day

2010-06-27T02:50:35Z

You know how the parenting books say there are some things that become family traditions accidentally? Berry picking seems to fall into that category for us.

We went last year, and it was apparently enough of a highlight that Nora included "strawberry picking" on her list of things she wants to do this summer that we brainstormed over Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, due to busy-ness and travel the past couple of weekends, we didn't make it until today, which is kind of late in the game for strawberries.

We tried a new farm for us, though, which is both closer and cheaper than the one we picked at last year -- and which also has raspberries. The strawberry prices had been reduced because it's at the tail end of the season, but we did still manage to get enough that I spent the afternoon prepping the majority of them and got 12 cups of washed and sliced ones to freeze.

We also picked raspberries. Nora does pretty good about not eating all the strawberries in the field. The same cannot be said for raspberries. We kept trying to put a moratorium on her field consumption -- and she kept ignoring us.

The raspberries are currently at peak. We got 10 cups of those for freezing, plus the eating ones that are in the fridge.

Our car smelled like raspberries all the way home, even though DH says he couldn't smell it. I think something must be wrong with his sniffer.

Dessert for lunch was vanilla ice cream with raspberries; for supper, at Nora's request, we had strawberry shortcake.

Pony Princess Party: How We Had One

2010-06-16T22:15:01Z

Previously on this blog, I reported on the "castle cake" for Nora's "pony princess" 4th birthday party. And now, for the rest of the story …

The key to this was pre-planning. I actually enjoy hostessing and planning events, and the research, which started in earnest about two months before the party, was fun. I flipped through the "Kids in the Kitchen" and "Thinking Up a Theme" sections of my Taste of Home compilation cookbooks, looking for ideas, and visited websites and bookmarked blog posts like this one on having a frugal birthday party, this one on general birthday party planning, and this one with pony-specific ideas.

I also ended up with one unexpectedly free evening when an event was canceled and used the time to do a blitz of idea-gathering/price comparison shopping at places like Target, Michael's, the dollar store and Party City. It was very handy to keep track of ideas and prices in the "Notes" feature of my iPod Touch (something I received as a birthday gift last year).

Then, it was time for watching the sales and putting party planning into implementation. I did use eVite for some of the invitations, but didn't have all the parents' email addresses (plus, most of our invitees can't even read yet, much less have email), so I did pick up a pack of official "My Little Pony" invitations from Party City. We had these prepared in our "play outside" bag to hand out to our neighbor girls on our way to/from the park.

Six of our seven invitees accepted our invitations (the seventh had a conflicting family birthday party). Three moms stayed; two dropped off. (Two of the guests were sisters, if you're doing the math.) Our "everybody's arriving" activity (again, this post on Offering Hospitality was very helpful in planning) was making picture frames with foamy frames and princess-themed foamy stickers.

We then went outside for some playtime - some unstructured time in the sandbox, and a couple of "organized" games (only some of our guests wanted to participate, but that was OK): "Pony, Pony, Princess" -- renamed for our party from its usual incarnation as "Duck, Duck, Goose" -- and "Red Light, Green Light."

With a fenced-in backyard and a couple of other moms out there, having little girls running around and playing outside gave me time to duck back in, finish cleaning up the table, wash my hands, get wet washcloths ready for a hand cleaning line, and get the food set out. We intentionally scheduled our party for mid-morning in order not to deal with serving a meal (and to avoid afternoon naptimes); we called the treats a "snack."

The snack consisted of the cake, ice cream and ice cream cones, pink popcorn (one of those recipes from Taste of Home), and purple grape juice or pink lemonade. I popped the popcorn the night before (on the stove, the old-fashioned way), and coated it with a mixture of light corn syrup and melted butter, then tossed it with pink sugar.

After snack, we did presents in the living room -- having Daddy and his knife handy for those stupid clamshell packages, and my old laundry hamper nearby for wrapping paper. The girls then played with the presents (and other toys) for a little while, and then it was wind-down time: we read a My Little Pony storybook (from the library) - a suggestion from the birthday party ideas on mylittlepony.com, actually.

We handed out small goodie bags as our guests left: pink princess crown bags from Target, with small boxes of crayons from Party City, coloring pages of ponies and princesses printed out from online, then rolled up and tied with pink ribbon I had on hand (I suspect from Nora's baby shower, actually); pink and white pony-shaped small bottles of bubbles, and some My Little Pony stickers (I bought the 62-sheet at Party City and cut it into strips for the goodie bags).

Oh, we also had decorations at our party: My Little Pony paper plates and napkins, plus My Little Pony balloons -- including a latex Rainbow Dash (her favorite pony) balloon. This was partly to get the pony theme in, and partly because for many of the previous months, whenever Nora would play tea party, her definition of required party elements seemed to be "cake, balloons, fireworks." We had two out of three.

She also wore her pink dress with ponies on it that her grandma bought her at a garage sale this summer. I think our guest of honor, and our guests, had a very nice pony princess 4th birthday party.

Pony Princess Party: Cake

2010-06-16T22:13:56Z

This post is part of FishMama's Birthday Cake Roundup at Life as Mom

This year, for the first time, Nora requested a "friends" birthday party. Since she is a very social child and I want to encourage her to develop (and sustain) friendships, we had one. The theme? "Pony princess."

Over the years, I've seen several suggestions for cakes decorated as castles, and when asked what kind of cake she wanted, Nora was pretty determined that it be "white cake." I used two boxes of Duncan Hines cake mix and baked them in a 9x13 rectangular cake pan and two round springform pans the weekend before the birthday party, putting them in the freezer when cool, because supposedly this makes it easier to spread a "crumb layer" of frosting -- you then put your "real layer" on top, and it looks all nice and stuff. Assuming your actual cake hasn't broken apart when you take it out of the pan and/or put it into the freezer. ("White cake" scraps mixed with strawberries and Cool Whip make a pretty nice trifle. Also, frosting can act both as a coverup and a glue.)

Anyway, I was nicely reminded (by this very helpful post from the Offering Hospitality blog) that the point of a cake for a four-year-old's birthday was not so much about the beauty of the cake, but about creating memories, which come from participating in the experience. So, after I had placed the round layers on top of the rectangular layer and done some initial frosting, Nora helped me finish the frosting. She also helped decorate. She decided that we would use the gumdrops (gigantic ones were all I could find) entire, rather than cutting them in half to make "castle windows." The circles of gumdrops on the different layers, particularly the purple circle on the top layer, were her idea and handiwork. (Well, she did let me put a couple of the lower tier ones on.)

We also placed our pink wafer cookies (theoretically, "drawbridges," "doors," etc.) wherever. It was my idea to put the empty ice cream cone on the very top as a castle tower/turret (although DH had to ask about that, since he wasn't sure).

She and her friends had fun with the cake -- although one of the four candles sure acted like a trick candle and refused to go out when she was blowing.

(And, since readers of Life As Mom will be interested in the frugality of this: 2 Duncan Hines classic white cake mixes, purchased in the weeks leading up to the birthday with sale/coupons: $1.43; 2 Betty Crocker vanilla frosting tubs, coupon/sales/cupboard item: $1.69; gumdrops: priced at $2.00 for a tub of large ones, free at Walgreen's with Register Rewards; strawberry wafer cookies: on sale at grocery for $2.00, free using $4 catalina from previous trip; ice cream cones: $1-something regular price, I think, purchased free with Extra Care Bucks at CVS, along with a Princess Aurora 4-year-old birthday card. Total cake cost= $3.12.)

"Finn," the Book

2010-06-16T17:11:10Z

Finished reading last night Finn by Jon Clinch. Can't say that I truly enjoyed it -- but then, is one meant to enjoy an exploration of evil? -- but it was well-written and somewhat compelling. (And, after I finished it, I re-read some of the pertinent chapters of Huckleberry Finn, which is a much faster, and more enjoyable, read.)

Finn is written in a loagy, ponderous style, much like the movement of a river on a hot August day as things -- logs, rafts, dead bodies -- float down it. It's the backstory of Huck Finn's father, and how he ended up floating dead down the river in his house in Chapter 9 of Twain's novel - and how Huck came to be.

Again, can't say as I enjoyed it, but it's definitely well-written -- and it really points out the need in book genre nomenclature for the genre that is "'mainstream, serious fiction' that is also fan fiction."

Conversations with a Three-Year-Old

2010-06-12T02:21:24Z

Because this is probably one of the last times I'll get to use this tag...[sniff].

Nora: "Mommy, Mommy, say it again! Say what you said yestihday!

"Say, 'how would you like it if somebody called you poopyhead?'"

* * *

"So, if you put a piggybank in the washing machine, that's how you could get the money out."

* * *

Theological questions and insights:

"Mommy, can God talk?"

[different occasion, appropros of nothing] "Mommy, is God angry?"

"God taught me how to skip!"

* * *
[as I am carrying a basket of laundry downstairs to the laundry room, with someone following hard upon my heels]

me: "So, whatcha doin'? Following me around like a puppy?"

Nora: [completely serious] "No, I'm just following you around like a kid."

Weird Waterfowl Game Names

2010-06-09T16:59:51Z

These results of a poll regarding what people call the children's circle game “Duck, Duck, Goose” are fascinating. (You can almost pinpoint the spot of influence to Duluth!)

http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/198250/results

You see, in Minnesota, people call it “Duck, Duck, Grey Duck.” And, considering that many Minnesotans grow up here, stay here, vacation at the lake resorts, etc....you have a hard time convincing them that they are Wrong. (Even though, as the poll results clearly show, the rest of the nation would just think this is crazy.)

This is particularly relevant to me at the moment because this game may be part of the activities at the planned birthday party this weekend. (Assuming a) it ever stops raining for pete's sake!!! b) related to a, we get the lawn mowed so the grass is not high enough to lose small children in.)

In keeping with the party theme, however, the game is likely going to be “pony, pony, princess.” With a “backup” name of “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Because my kid needs to be prepared to live in the real world.

The Unofficial Beginning of Summer

2010-06-03T17:39:58Z

With Memorial Day weekend marking the unofficial beginning of summer, Nora and I worked on our list of things to do this summer this past weekend -- using the Summer Family Fun Planning template from 247moms.

Among Nora's requests for the summer: "wear my new Dora swimsuit to the beach," "go strawberry picking," "go to the farmhouse" (my in-laws), "do chalk," "play with with soccer and basketball," "have a playdate with J--," "go to the ice cream place and get strawberry ice cream," "ride my bike," "have 4 picnics" (she was pretty specific about the number), and "this summer when I get bigger I want to learn cartwheels."

I have a few other ideas for our list (swimming lessons, church camp...four-year--old well check....), but I'm pretty happy at her ideas and think we can probably accomplish almost all of them (we'll see how she does on the cartwheels).

In fact, we started out with our first picnic of the season this Tuesday evening, meeting one of Nora's friends and her mom at our neighborhood park. Luckily, the big rainstorm had occurred that afternoon and all was clear again by evening.

Our picnic food was pretty basic (as befits a playdate between four-year-olds at the park): turkey, cheese slices, mustard and bread for assembling into sandwiches, juice boxes, Teddy Grahams crackers (or "teddy bear grahams" as Nora calls them), strawberries and blueberries, some Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. Our friend brought (and shared) carrot sticks, string cheese, and popcorn, along with her own sandwiches and cookies.

I did, however, take some inspiration from Econobusters post on picnicking and some from previous tips from the Gooseberry Patch Feather Your Nest email newsletter, and "fancied things up" a little with a blue and white checked terrycloth tablecloth (that came out of my linen closet) to throw over the picnic table and bandanas wrapped around our silverware to be used as napkins. All of this stuff went in our actual wooden picnic basket -- a purchase by DH and I on our honeymoon 11 years ago. It seemed somewhat romantic and impractical at the time, but now it is such fun to use an actual picnic basket. Especially if we are having at least four picnics this summer. ;)

Our park picnic was, of course, right next to the playground, which provided most of the entertainment.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I also got the chance to make a traditional "summer" meal: fried chicken (in the deep fat fryer from my grandma; recipe from an old Taste of Home magazine); sweet corn (wrapped in wax paper and done in the microwave) with cow- and pig-shaped ear holders; potato salad (using some of an 88-cent 5-lb. bag of potatoes); and strawberry-rhubarb cobbler (which used the last of the bags of frozen strawberries in our freezer from last summer's pickings -- although there's still a couple of packages of rhubarb in there). I also made up the first lemonade of the summer.

We got out the flag-themed quilted placemats my mom made for me a while ago, put mini flags in a small blue pitcher, and (at a different meal) made Pop-Tarts Celebration Flags with frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts, cream cheese, sliced strawberries and blueberries.

We also hung our family's U.S.A. flag out on our flagpole for Memorial Day, and took it in before it got dark at night.

May Days

2010-05-24T22:21:59Z

(Originally wrote this post on May 24, but didn't get it posted. Accomplished this weekend: seasonal clothes sorting, garage cleaning, planting.)

This month has been crazy for my family, both in terms of schedule and of weather. Mostly a good crazy, but nevertheless.

Weather: within the same month, we have had nights with snow flurries in the air, and 95 degree days. We had some nice, warm weather in April, so I had achieved doing the seasonal sorting of Nora's clothes -- just in time for it to turn cold again, and have to battle a three-year-old about why she couldn't wear shorts. My spring/summer clothes have not made the journey up from the "out of season closet" yet, so it's catch as catch can for me to get dressed, although I have been washing up winter sweaters and laying them out to dry -- although there were days when I wondered if I should have been wearing them instead. Not a thing has been planted outdoors at our place yet, because during the brief moments there was time, it was literally freezing. I'm hoping to get a bunch of outside stuff (including sweeping out the garage of winter crud, and untying the deck furniture from the rails/washing off the patio table) done this upcoming weekend.

Celebrations Away

DH and I celebrated our anniversary at the beginning of the month, spending a couple of nights at a bed and breakfast. The accommodations were not my favorite bed and breakfast ever -- a screen partially dividing that section of the room from the bed/TV area does not, in my mind, constitute a "private bath" -- and the winds were horrendous. But it was nice to get away, and we managed to watch a bunch of old film movies, something that we used to do a lot more often pre-kid. We also had a nice anniversary dinner al fresco at a restaurant's sidewalk tables (the winds had died down), and watched many, many teenagers in prom outfits who were out on the town pre-prom.

Nora stayed at my parents', and was thrilled that my mom took her to visit a friend's pony farm.

We've also taken a trip to our home state of Iowa this month for DH's niece's wedding. (Well, technically, the reception -- the wedding itself was very small.) We stayed at my parents' place again, and got some nice free lodging and some Grandma time: playing at the park, admiring her blooming lilies of the valley, phlox, peonies (just starting to open) and bleeding heart. We also found a rabbit nest in my mom's backyard, and got a peek at tiny baby bunnies, with their eyes not open yet, before replacing the nest cover made from dead grass and mama rabbit fur.

The reception was fun, with visiting with relatives, a nice meal -- one of my sisters-in-law had made the cake -- music and dancing. I didn't get to dance very much, but Nora did: she and the other small children were party animals, doing the twist and more. We had "done up" her hair by having Grandma put it in braids after her bath earlier in the day, which made waves when we took the braids out. She got lots of compliments on her tresses, and on her dress -- even though she was kind of a stinker about the dress when getting ready: she refused to wear her Easter dress, or the backup "fancy" dress I'd brought along, but did finally get dressed in a flowered sundress her grandma had found at a garage sale the previous weekend.

(Part of the problem was that Grandma had also found a pink "playtime" sundress with horses all over it at the garage sale, and Nora was in love with that dress. I finally convinced her, after two days of wearing it, that it *had* to go in the wash.)

There was also an incident about sitting at the head table -- some stink was raised by our three-year-old, who didn't quite understand that she couldn't sit there, even though her age-peer "cousins" that she plays with all the time, were (because they are daughters of the bride's sisters and were flower girls in the wedding).

I also got to have the conversation about her uncle's dog dying. "Mommy, is T-- dead?" "Yes, she is." "Where is she now?" [pause] "Where do you think she is?" [pause; this is not cutting it; I'm going to have to answer] "Do you think she's in heaven?" "Nooo, silly Mommy, dogs don't go to heaven!" I differed with her on that point.

Driving back to Minnesota the day after the wedding, I asked if she liked the wedding. "Yeah! I liked the cake!" "Was the cake the best part?" "Yeah! And the dancing was the best part!"

Celebrations at Home

DH made a yummy lemon pasta, plus cheesecake and...something else I'm embarrassed to admit I've forgotten...for Mother's Day. He also mowed the lawn (a task I took on all last summer) -- with the lawn mower we're borrowing from one of my coworkers for the year, since the one we had, which we had acquired used from my parents and has already been fixed a few times, quit working again.

I won the opportunity from HouseParty.com to host a Shutterfly photo book house party this month, too. I and my guests got codes for free photo books and greeting cards, and we walked through making them at the party, and passed out the nice party favors, too -- reusable shopping bags and pens from Shutterfly. I enjoy playing hostess and chose a "spring forward on your photo projects" theme. I was going to use a spring floral-patterned small tablecloth from my grandmother that's in my linen closet but discovered too late that it really needed ironing -- so I just folded it up into a decorative table runner type thing to use with a photo display. I also put ice water in a big Pampered Chef pitcher that was a gift from my mom, and used clear plastic glasses and cheerful polka dot paper plates and napkins that are in my party supplies stash from something or other I've hosted in the past. (They work well for a variety of themes.) Made a fun centerpiece from a vase from my grandma that has a pattern of pale purple violets on it, using some Easter grass as a base for my "floral arrangement" of spring-colored (pink, yellow and lavender) wooden tulips that I got from Terry's Village some years ago and fabric ones from my bridal shower. At some point, my in-laws gave me a set of flower shaped ceramic serving cups, which have held various things at my entertainments (ice cream toppings, for one); this time, they held some cashews and M&Ms -- which were also found in my grandma's milk glass bowl.

I used a couple of recipes I'd been wanting to try from Emilie Barnes's The Twelve Teas of Celebration: cucumber-egg sandwiches (basically, egg salad with cucumber slices in the form of those little "tea" sandwiches with the crusts cut off), and lemon bars -- I left off the powdered sugar topping because, while I love lemon bars, that stuff always makes me choke.

This month saw the last day of Sunday school - there was a party for that, where the kids played Giraffe-a-Laff limbo, made African style masks, ate a snack of tropical fruit and watched some kind of video (the snippet I saw seemed to involve making Kool-Aid in a wading pool).

It was also the last day of preschool; the parents had a pizza party, the kids had Oreos, and each child was presented a certificate and got to pose for pictures in front of a backdrop featuring mortarboards and stating "Class of 2024." This was the week after they celebrated all of the summer birthdays in that class -- 10 out of the 15 students. Each one of those 10 got to wear a birthday crown they'd made, and we sang an individual "Happy Birthday" to every one of them.

Not in her preschool class, but celebrating a birthday this month, was Nora's friend J, who had a party at Chuck E. Cheese. She and Nora chased each other all over the place playing the games (and making me cringe every time their short attention spans moved on from a game two seconds after putting their tokens into it). Their favorite was "the princess carriage that was pulled by horses." Nora also made a point of telling me she thought the cake was a best part of the party.

Other Stuff

Have we done anything else this month? Why, yes. We've gone to the zoo (we have memberships, so can go relatively frequently); I've worked at a a charity hot dog stand; and garage sale season has started. I found Nora some pink snow boots for next winter for $2, a dress with horses on it (not quite as popular as the one from Grandma, though, since the one I found was yellow, instead of pink), and a stack of winter clothes including several pants, shirts, some pajama components and a jumper, for $4.

Nora has not yet figured out that, of her two most frequent questions, "Can I watch a movie?" and "Can I ride my bike to the park?" I am much more likely to say yes to the latter -- but she asks often enough that we've done it a few times.

She's also had some good pony playtime: last week, the horses from her Fisher Price castle and carriage, her two Dora ponies from Christmas, her Barbie horse she bought with last year's birthday money, the Pegasus she brought home from her Grandma's and she (a "big horse") were all participating in horse races -- their people had to walk them to the gates, and have glasses on so dirt didn't get in their eyes, and then I had to provide a trumpet sound and announcement of the race start. (She and her dad had watched the Preakness this month while I was off hot dog standing and registering her for swimming lessons; and she and her Grandma watched the Kentucky Derby.) She also built the ponies a corral with the fence from their stable, and the hay bale drove the Dora pony truck that the horse trailer fits in. She also asked me, last night, as she was being rocked late at night because she claimed her tummy hurt, the important late-night question, "Mommy, can horsies swim?"

She has not abandoned her interest in at least some sheep, though -- one of the questions on our drive back to Minnesota was, "What's a big pile of sheep called?" I think she was referring to a "flock."

Blooming Spring

2010-04-06T21:47:17Z

I forgot to include in yesterday's roundup of our seasonal activities over the last month that we also went to the spring open house of one of the greenhouse/florist businesses in our city. They had chicks, ducklings, bunnies, a calf and baby goats to be petted. They also had an activity where kids got to plant a seedling in a little starter pot -- making the hole in the dirt, and also digging around in a giant vat of soil for more dirt to put on top of it.

The seedlings were impatiens; this morning, Nora led me by the hand out to the living room to show me, "Mama, look! My plant growed into a beautiful flower!"

One red bloom so far; about three more buds on the seedling.

A Very Springy Easter

2010-04-05T22:23:05Z

It is now April, and spring has sprung! Much earlier than it normally does here in Minnesota: there is actually no snow left on the ground -- and it didn't snow on Easter!! (Trust me, this is unusual.) It's actually been warm enough to get outside some, and some of my tulips are starting to bloom. (So far, just the red ones.) Birds are singing -- I've seen a few redwing blackbirds around, and am seeing more Canada geese pairings wandering in roadside grasses (they seem to like ditches and roadsides).

We've been doing more bike riding, too; yesterday afternoon, Nora actually rode her bike all the way to our neighborhood's park, which is a few blocks away. (There was some starting and stopping, some assistance, and we're still having her walk the bike while crossing streets. But still.) Last weekend's bike ride saw marked improvement from even the previous weekend -- we did a couple of long blocks then, and she was pedaling away from me, balancing so well and going so fast, that I had to run to keep up with her. Until the Speedy Gonzales/Evil Knievel parts of her personality took over on a hillier area than she was prepared for, and she took a tumble. But I did manage to convince her to "get right back on the bike" on a more level area about half a block away from there. She's even able, frequently, to get herself started going without a push from behind from a parent -- a skill I didn't master until I was at least seven.

We also spent some time watching a real, live bunny sitting in our backyard munching our grass and then pretending we didn't see him from our perch on the sandbox. And Nora has been wanting to go out and "explore" with her plastic kids' "pin-o-cu-leers" from the Easter Bunny.

Our seasonal activities in March included making Cat in the Hat hats for Dr. Seuss's birthday, out of frosting whipped up with confectioner's sugar and water to spread between our Lifesavers Gummies. The places I saw this suggested said to use red and white ones, but I don't know where they're finding white ones; we just used pale colors. I also discovered that, while my kid is a Dr. Seuss fan, she does not like Lifesavers Gummies. You can imagine what a boon this was for this gummy-candy-loving mom.

We also made our tissue paper rainbow from the suggestion Your Big Backyard; it's now being bright and colorful on one of our living room windows. And we participated in the last (long) block of our church's palm parade procession on Palm Sunday. There was a lot of waving of palm branches and singing "Hosanna to the King!" (which is still going on in our house over a week later), and there was also a live donkey who participated in the parade. (He is 31 years old, and donkeys' life expectancy is 32. You have now learned your fact for the day.) One of the main things that Nora got out of Palm Sunday is that "the donkey can't come in the church [sanctuary], because he might poop." (Evidently, there is less concern about our narthex...) They also had another mini-parade in Sunday school. More than one three-year-old -- mine included -- had to be almost physically dragged away from the box of maracas, cymbals, tambourines, etc. when classtime was over.

This past weekend, of course, was Easter this year. Our church had an event for kids on Saturday afternoon, where they heard the Easter story, sang a song, ate treats, made centerpieces to decorate the tables for the Easter morning brunch at church, and hunted eggs. Nora is a huge fan of eg hunts (we had been to one the previous weekend, too, and it's what she kept asking me about during Easter time "are we going to hunt eggs"). She also enjoyed making her centerpiece -- a bird's nest made out of clay, Easter grass, sticks, a fake plastic chick and some jellybean "eggs." We had been reading the latest issue of her Click magazine subscription earlier in the day, which talked a lot about being a nature detective, reading clues, and animal tracks -- so her fake chickie made a lot of "footprints" in the clay nest.

The song they sang was "Hallelujah! Praise Ye the Lord!" The youth and family minister introduced this portion of the program by asking, "What's a song we might sing on Easter?" to which Nora responded, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!" (The youth and family minister answered, "That's a good one, too...") She did learn "Hallelujah!" well enough to sing it throughout her bath on Saturday evening.

We did deliver the rhubarb coffee cake I'd made to church for the brunch before the service we attended, and picked up our centerpiece to take home afterward, but we didn't stay for the brunch at church. Instead, we went home and changed out of our dressy Easter clothes (Nora had a new pink dress, made by her grandma, with a matching dress for her Sheep), and cooked up some resurrection rolls -- a stuffed Sheep, stuffed pig and stuffed bunnies served as the guards for the tomb (aka, the oven) while they were baking -- to go with our own Easter dinner: ham done in the crockpot, resurrection rolls served with Grandma's rhubarb jam, hard-boiled eggs, appetizer/table decoration bird's nests made with chow mein noodles stuck together with melted chocolate and butterscoth chips, with jellybean eggs in them, plus rhubarb/strawberry crisp.

The chocolate bunny from the Easter basket was consumed later in the day and the hard-boiled egs (dyed and stickered on Saturday) were also used in ham salad for that evening's supper.

The Easter basket also contained bubbles (unfortunately, it was really too windy yesterday to effectively blow them outside), stickers, a My Little Pony coloring book, some more candy, and some books, including a devotional for preschoolers (we haven't done this before; we're going to try it out).

Also had nice phone conversations with various family members yesterday and, over the weekend, I listened to part of the recording of Handel's Messiah and started reading one of my "brain candy" books called Easter Promises, with a very nice, springy picture of lambs on the front.

Alleluia, He Is Risen!

(April 14): Also asked Nora to tell me about Easter last week. Interesting perception of "lamb of God": "Jesus died on the cross. Then a Super Sheep took him down from the cross and put him in the tomb, what had a picture of Christmas on the wall, and gave him a blue and a red flower."