Little Mommy

Whoever said that girls act like girls and boys act like boys only when we train them to do so was wrong. Totally.



Since little Jeremiah arrived on the scene, Miss Joanna's favorite past time is seeing, holding, hugging, and kissing "her" baby. She is such the little mommy. She brings him diapers, bottles, and toys constantly, whether he wants them or not!



She loves to give him hugs and kisses. The boys, while loving in their own ways, were NEVER like this!


MY baby!!


Sweet kisses...



"Eye!"






Josiah gets in on the baby love as well--after all, Joanna can't get all the camera attention!

It's sweet to see Joanna and Josiah loving on their baby brother. One, it makes for adorable photo ops and two, it's about the only love going on here among the kids these days. Jon and Jordan seem to have some sort of battle going on that results in pretty constant bickering between them, Joseph grumps at all his brothers lately, and Josiah picks on Joanna every chance he gets. I'm SO hoping this is just "new baby adjustment" and that all will be back to normal soon. I'm thinking I might just have to make everyone hug everybody else multiple times a day, while reminding them that they need to LOVE each other (or else!!!) Think it'll work?

On an unrelated note, after posting about needing ideas to use up eggs yesterday, I got a suggestion to make French toast. (Thank you, Linda!) Not being one to do things the easy way, I made this recipe of homemade challah bread last night, since it makes utterly fabulous French toast. I'd never made it myself before. Probably not the best project to start at 8:30 p.m. (it takes about 3 hours with rising and cooking times) but it turned out quite nicely:



I used up 15 eggs--5 for the bread itself, and 10 making it into French toast. I think this will make the breakfast rotation, if I can make and freeze a bunch of the bread in advance. It was delish!


No pics of the final product--it got scarfed down as quickly as I could get slices off the griddle!

I have 2/3 of a loaf of challah left...I'm thinking it might make a tasty bread pudding!

I'm a List-making Fool!!

Now that we've started back to school, it's time to get (re)organized! There's something about a new school year that makes me want to revamp absolutely everything possible about our day-to-day routine. This year, that goes double. After moving last fall, immediately finding out I was pregnant again (before getting organized in our new space) and now starting this school year with a new kindergartener AND a new infant, I'm drowning in the chaos!

So I'm making lists like crazy: home school checklists for myself and the boys, menu lists to simplify shopping and meal times, chore lists for me, chores to train the boys in, lists of craft projects I want to do this year, even lists of things I want to blog about! *grin*

Now, I'm not claiming that many of these lists are actually being implemented all at once here, but it's a start!

My primary list-making obsession focus this week is making a set weekly menu for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, then using that to create a master shopping list that will cover those meals for the whole month. In other words we will eat the same breakfast every single Monday, etc. I'm hoping that this will significantly simplify shopping and meal prep, and also help me cut down the grocery budget by knowing exactly what to stock up on.

I've got a basic list going, which I'm sure will need tweaking as I actually put it into action. It'll be a process to make sure my meals are nutritionally balanced throughout the day and to see how much of each ingredient we actually use in a month. I have a feeling that's going to be eye-opening for sure. My bunch can EAT!!

Here's my (very general) plan so far:

Monday--breakfast-scrambled eggs, fruit, bread*--lunch-baked pasta (pasta, sauce, mozz. cheese), veggie
Tuesday--breakfast-oatmeal, fruit--lunch-ham or turkey sandwiches
Wednesday--breakfast-cereal w/milk, fruit--lunch-hummus with whole wheat pitas and veggie dippers
Thursday--breakfast-scrambled eggs, fruit, bread*--lunch-grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup
Friday--breakfast-oatmeal, fruit--lunch something with eggs? maybe a quiche or egg salad sandwiches?

*the bread item can be toast, pancakes (I cook extras when I make them on Saturdays), muffins, bagels, etc.

It's still pretty general. I think I want to make it really specific, so I can have an exact shopping list that repeats every week. The other challenge I have right now is trying to incorporate what we are growing ourselves, so there is no waste. We have large quantities of a few different kinds of veggies, and we're also getting about 7 dozen eggs a week. I'm obviously in dire need of some creative ideas for using up eggs, lol!

Once I get my menu plan and shopping lists finalized, I'll be sure to share them--and my other lists-in-the-works, too! :) I'd love any feedback on easy (and cheap!) breakfast, lunch, and snack ideas as well...or any ideas on what to do with all these eggs!

Works in Progress...

With all the spare time I've been swimming in lately (Ha!), I've added a few little projects to my growing list of "works in progress." After all, the newest little J-boy needs some hand-made goodies, and I need the brief moments to relax. I'll probably never understand why having a bunch of unfinished craft projects is therapeutic, but it is. Maybe it's having lots of choices when I have a spare minute or two. Maybe I'm actually certifiably insane and haven't recognized it yet. I like to think it's the first option, but who knows?

This is a simple crocheted blanket I started while Jeremiah was in the NICU. After spending a full day alternating between staring at the walls in the cafeteria and staring at the walls in the lobby between baby feedings, I knew I HAD to have a project. Then the other nice folks in the cafeteria and lobby could stare at ME, while I alternated between crocheting furiously and nodding off to sleep.



These flannel squares are going to become a rag quilt, or rather 2 rag quilts--one for Jeremiah, and one for a friend. I had the hardest time selecting the fabrics for these. Little boys are harder to sew for than little girls for sure. The fabric selections are just not even comparable. I have an orange fabric that I'm still trying to decide on. We'll see if it makes the cut.



The finished quilts will look like this one that I made for Joanna:



While I love the finished product, I think I vaguely remember promising myself I would NEVER make one of these again. Cutting all those seams was a beast. A trip to JoAnn's for spring-loaded scissors might be in order. I just got a new 40% off coupon that needs to be used...

And while I'm aware that it is only August, these fabrics have been calling to me as well:



(After all, playing with Christmas fabrics in August is much more fun than grading math or cleaning my bathroom. Which are what I SHOULD be doing.)

I bought them on sale before Christmas LAST year, and didn't do anything with them. I'm thinking they might become advent calendars. Hopefully before December, so we can actually use them.

I also need to get back to work on this quilt. I kind of lost interest in working on it because I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. But now I know the perfect place for it to go!

Now to go tackle the boys' math workbooks. (The bathroom will still have to wait!)

My Crafty Kid!

I love it when my kids get creative! Well, to be more accurate, I love it when my kids decide to channel their creativity into cute little projects that don't destroy whole rooms with their messes, rather than turning the playroom into one enormous blanket fort full of hundreds of puzzle pieces and millions of Legos.

Yesterday, Joshua got bitten by the creative bug and decided to make a stuffed bird for his little sister. He made a pattern on paper and then cut it out, sewed, and stuffed it entirely on his own (while I took a nap! Yay!!) I think it turned out pretty cute!

I'm choosing to overlook the pins left on the table, scissors under the table, and felt strewn about the floor, and just focus on the cuteness:



Cute, huh? I love that he thinks about making things for his siblings. He also made these fun bean bags (scroll down to the bottom) for Josiah's birthday last year, which also turned out really nice. I think I'll encourage him to make homemade gifts for Christmas this year--and clean up after himself when he's done!

Garden Pictures

I'm way overly excited about our garden's first season! Not because it's grand (like my original big intentions)...because it's not--it's basically the first 12 feet of a 100-foot long space. Not because everything is growing fabulously well...I actually planted things much too closely together and too late, and several things seem to be stunted. No, I'm excited because I decided a couple months ago, when I realized that my big intentions just weren't going to happen, that this season was going to be about learning how to garden here. Anything we actually harvested would be a bonus! :) It's definitely been a learning curve, but learn we have! And, in spite of getting the garden started at almost 8 months pregnant, it's been fun as well.


Tomatoes in the foreground, pole beans on the fence behind them

As soon as the fence was up, we had a big load of top soil delivered to make the beds. The older boys got the job of shoveling the dirt into a wheelbarrow and dumping it in beds. I supervised. :) This was a win-win, as the boys are always saving up their money for something or other, and I paid them 50 cents a wheelbarrow load. Altogether I think I coughed up about $60 to get most of 20 yards of dirt moved. I'm just glad I didn't have to do it myself, at 8 months pregnant!


A California Wonder bell pepper

Everything in our garden was started from seeds I ordered last December. This was a first for me, as I had always done transplants from Home Depot or Walmart in our Texas garden. We learned that starting from seed is an effort in patience!


This bed has tomatillos in the front, and Roma tomatoes behind those. Along the fence in an L shape are zucchini, yellow, and scalloped squash.

It has been so rewarding to see the kids get excited about the garden! Everyone down to Josiah enjoys looking for things to harvest, and while I'm not thrilled about them, the boys LOVE all the bugs they can find here!



Beefsteak tomatoes...can't wait for these to ripen!


Roma tomatoes


Purple-podded bush beans (and a LOT of weeds...)

Under the circumstances this season (can we say "busy" LOL) the weeds have gotten a wee bit out of control. I'm hoping the raised beds I'm planning to build for next spring will help us keep the weeds down in the future. Of course, we did put a garden in the middle of what was basically a hay field, so some stray grass, etc. is to be expected.


Yellow squash

We've had a few pests to deal with--squash vine borers attacked our squash plants. We've lost one yellow squash plant and one zucchini plant so far. There is evidence of the little buggers on the others as well, but so far the other plants are hanging in there and producing squashes faster than we can eat/freeze them!


A small cucumber

The cucumbers have been the most fun, so far. They sat in the ground as tiny seedlings doing absolutely nothing for so long, I just about gave up on them. I think the weather was too cool for them in June. But then they took off! Jordan and Joseph wade through them every day looking for "pickles." I keep trying to tell them they're called cucumbers until they are actually pickled, but to no avail!


Tomatillos

I'm super excited about our tomatillos! They aren't ready to harvest yet, but there are literally hundreds of them on the plants. I'm drooling in anticipation of some home-made salsa verde!


Pole beans reaching for the sky


Okay, this photo is mostly weeds, but there are a couple zucchinis hiding in there...consider this one of those hidden picture games, lol!

A couple days ago, I found our first few tomato hornworms. Ewwwwww! I can not STAND those nasty things! Fortunately I have boys! Josh and Jordan were only moderately grossed out (probably only because I was) but it just took a little convincing (and the offer of 10 cents per worm) to get them to pull them off for me. A few minutes (and $1.00) later, Jon showed up. He was very disappointed that he had missed the hornworms, and hunted high and low to find one. He finally found a small one--and promptly popped it into a jar for a pet. The good news is that I no longer have a bunch of worms defoliating my tomato plants. Instead I have a 10-year-old boy defoliating my tomato plants--he has to feed his hornworm-in-a-jar, after all!


The nasty beast, I mean Jon's pet, before it ended up in a jar...*shudder*


Yes, this thing now lives in my HOUSE! Ah, the joys of raising boys!!

Thankfully, this season hasn't JUST been about learning...we ARE getting a harvest as well! And it's been yummy so far!


Bell peppers and 2 varieties of jalapenos, a hot one on the left, and a mild variety on the right.


We're getting LOTS of cukes!


Yellow, zucchini, and scalloped squash. Boy, do we have this stuff coming out our ears.

Of course, I'm still waiting for that first big, red, ripe juicy tomato!!

Caught!!!

This is why I have a lock at the top of my pantry door:



(Obviously I don't always remember to lock it...)






Sneaky girl!

All My Cuties!

I finally got some updated pictures of all 7 of the J-kids! Aren't they a handsome (and pretty) bunch? Enjoy!!


Joshua David--12 years old



Jonathan Caleb--10 years old



Jordan Abraham--7 years old



Joseph Daniel--5 years old



Josiah Gabriel--3 years old



Joanna Keelie--1 year old



Jeremiah Benjamin--1 month old



Everybody smile!



So hard to get them all looking at the camera at the same time!



I love these little guys! :)