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The C Word

<whisper>Pssst. Guys … 51 days until … Christmas</whisper>. I know. It seems sacrilegious to me still to be thinking about Christmas this early. I even bought a couple of Christmas gifts LAST MONTH. Like BEFORE HALLOWEEN. I know. *shame*

But. You should see our December calendar. Yes, ALREADY. It’s quite full … and messy! We have a ski weekend, several parties, a turkey-fry with our crazy friends, and even an informational meeting on kindergarten. And of course there’s all the un-scheduled things we need to fit in, like Zoo Lights and gift-wrapping and tree trimming and cookie-baking and mass-attending and caroling and wassailing and one-horse-open-sleigh riding and so on.  So I am already making the list and checking it twice and trying to get as much shopping and crafting done before Thanksgiving as I can. Because come Dec 1, I want to be kicking up my feet and taking it easy.

So. Things I have to do :

1. Christmas shop. This is hard … I will probably place a giant Amazon order, but it’s all the rest that get tricky. Bugging people for lists, running around town. And with the kids it’s the constant battle between having a fun Christmas for them and buying crap they don’t need. Plus I have to help Santa out and keeping that straight in my mind is always tricky.

2. Ornaments. Since Tabby was a year or so, we have been assisting her to make hand-crafted ornaments for the family. And we also do an ornament with the kids’ Christmas photo (sometimes we combine them) too. Last year it was glass ornaments with paint markers. The year before that, teeny tiny canvases with Tabby originals painted onto them. This year something new and I think Ben is ready to get in on the act. Not sure if we’ll do one for each to decorate or what. Should be fun … ish.

3. Other craftiness. I have a few projects I would like to complete as Christmas gifts for some people … some pajama bottoms for the kids, and maybe a few other bits and bobbles here and there. I need to figure out what I’ll realistically have time for and make it happen.

4. Calendars. Another tradition since Tabby was a little one is a photo calendar for all of the grandparents and aunts and uncles. It is not hard, but it’s time consuming to do photo selection. Part of me would also like to do some sort of photo book, but as that makes my head hurt, it probably will not happen.

5. Christmas cards!! Part of me says I should just give it up and let Shutterfly or some other service design our cards, but I really like doing it myself. Plus, when I use Premium Postcard, they send them for me. Cheers!

Lots to do … good thing it’s all fun!

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Brainwashing My Kids

One of our base theories in parenting is that it’s easier to lay the foundation for a “good kid” early than fix a load of problems when they’re 15. There is at least some evidence that supports this and it makes sense to me on a gut level, so I’m going with it. As part of this, I am endeavoring to brainwash my children with some of the most valuable life lessons I’ve learned in my 31 years on this planet (many of them from my own parents who come to think of it may have been successfully brainwashing my sister and I since our formative years as well … hmmm).

When things come up with the kids, Tabby in particular as she is older and somewhat rational, we try to say the right thing so that we not only have a positive outcome but that we have a positive outcome for the right reason. If she’s having trouble with something she’s learning, we encourage her to keep going and remind her that you are best at things you work hard at, no matter how good you are at them naturally. When she gets overwhelmed picking up her room, we try not to just do it for her, but to help her strategerize on how to best attack the problem and find success herself. We advise her to save her money and refuse to let her buy junky plastic toys that won’t last.

So one of our favorite things to instill is the value of hard work and not giving up on something. One day Tabby was doing something, cleaning her room or practicing her letters or whatever and she gave up on it with hardly a second thought. It wasn’t the first time this had happened recently and I was a bit peeved. It was looking too much like a bad habit. So we talked about it and I told her that anything worth having was had to be worked for. I also explicitly told her, “Lazy is the worst thing you can be.”

After I said it, I had a moment of second guessing myself.Was it? Surely being a liar was worse. But really, what is lying if not a form of laziness? You’re lying to make things easier on yourself, right? So you don’t have to deal with what you’ve done or handle the repercussions from truth-telling. And sure, being a murderer or a child molester are worse but we don’t really delve into those subjects with our four-year-old.

Anyhow, we’ve noticed some positive changes in Tabby’s attitude toward working at something. So I think it’s working. Beyond that, I have pretty concrete evidence that she heard me loud and clear. Last week when we were at my mom’s house, Tabby wanted my mom, who was resting on the couch after hours of marathon cooking, to get up and turn on the bathroom light for her. My mom said, “Can you just leave the door open a crack. That should let in enough light. Grammy’s feeling lazy right now, Tabs.”

To which Tabby responded, quite solemnly, “Grammy. Being lazy is the worst thing you can be.”

On another, child-related note …Congratulations to my SIL Theresa and her hubby Bryan on the birth of their darling new baby girl, Autumn!! I’m so excited to be an auntie!

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Cranky Ghost

Well Halloween was a great success. I have no photos of my adorable children in their costumes. I was too busy running all over the place making sure everyone had drinks and forks and such. My husband, bless him, was too busy running around finishing last minute projects. He dreams big and procrastinates much. I tried to put the kibosh on this several times, but to no avail. Ah well, Nan took a bunch of photos and I will be stealing from her. Eventually.

What we did get footage of, however, was Matt’s big project for the year … a crank ghost. It’s run by a fan motor which moves pulleys, etc. to make the thing move. It was all Matt … I did nothing besides lend moral support and help glue a bit of cheesecloth. He also had his buddy, Andrew, help him with assembly. Thank goodness. I’m too short to be of much help with an 8′ tall frame.

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First Snow of the Season

Last Wednesday Old Man Winter showed up with 6-8 inches of snow (more in the foothills and high country!). Since temps stayed pretty reasonable and nothing got icy … and it didn’t ruin any fun or stay around too long I am OK with it.

Plus it was really really pretty!! Especially the next day when the clouds were gone and the sun came out to turn everything bright and sparkly.

The only bad bit was it downed quite a few trees, including one in our front yard (but luckily it was the one slated to be removed this weekend) and, unfortunately, one limb from our beautiful Bradford Pear tree. But it will survive … and I loved seeing its beautiful orangey leaves next to the crisp white snow.

It also made Tabby a weee bit cold in her mermaid costume as she headed for her Halloween parade at school. But she wouldn’t have traded either the snow or the costume. And it looks really cute with her pink hoody anyhow.

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Cooking up a Storm

Apparently fall is making us a bit crazy. In the past week we have made:

Yep, it’s a lot, but not a ton of kitchen time and that mostly for dishes! Happily, everything has come out pretty well! The refried beans were super super tasty and we got a lot out of them and froze the extras. Matt and I both thought they were somehow more filling than the kind from a can. The pumpkin bread is some of the best I’ve ever made and we are already most of the way through one loaf. The kids have eaten everything but the popcorn balls were a mega hit (one that’s not likely to be repeated anytime soon).

Looking through this list it occurs to me that none of these recipes includes meat (I think the soups require chicken stock though). How funny that my meat and potatoes husband has come over to the dark side. We’re not vegetarians and we probably never will be, but there are way too many tasty fruits and vegetables to get bogged down into the same beef, chicken, fish routine. That said, I do think there’s probably some turkey bean chili in our future.

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Apple Chips

This “recipe” is so simple I hesitate to even post it, but these are my kids new favorite snack and they are healthy, cheap and contain only one ingredient, so I thought I should share.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 medium apples apples, thinly sliced

Directions

I will give two methods for doing this. We have a dehydrator so we used that, but you can also use your oven. The prep, however, is the same. You’ll need to slice your apples very thinly … 1/8 inch or less, I’d guess. I’m sure someone can do this by hand, but I’m not that person, so I use a mandolin. They’re not too expensive and they’re super useful for many things as they slice in many thickness and grate as well. I do not bother to core them since the seeds come out as you slice thinly.

Oven: Heat oven to 225 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with silpats or parchment paper. You can also use cooling racks if you have some that are big enough to span cookie sheets. Place the apples on the cookie sheets. You can put them right next to each other, but don’t overlap. They will shrink some as they dry. Bake for an hour and flip if you aren’t using the cooling racks. Then bake another hour.

Dehydrator: Line all dehydrator racks with apples. You can really get them close together since they shrink as they dry. Turn dryer on. They will be pretty darn good after 2 hours, but we like to go closer to 4 to get them real crispy and since you’re not monopolizing the oven forever, you can.

There are all kinds of recipes on the net for these that add sugar (or splenda or maple syrup or honey), but I personally think the apples have all the sugar you need, especially after it’s concentrated when they dry and shrink a bit. I would like to try sprinkling a little nutmeg or cinnamon on these, but really, they are incredibly good as-is. We have been going through a batch a day easily. Luckily apples are 77c/lb right now!

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Worst Gardeners EVER

We are seriously terrible at gardening. We have good intentions (or we start with them anyhow). This year we even did our own starts … like from SEED! We may have started a bit late, but we did get them grown and plunked in the ground. We even made sure they had adequate, regular watering.

Then we did … err… nothing. Absolutely nothing. We didn’t weed (though our garden doesn’t seem to get very weedy?). We didn’t trim back. We just let it do it’s garden thing. We went about our summer and last Friday, Tabby went outside and proclaimed that we had a ripe tomato! And indeed we did. Quite a few of them as it happens.

Turns out we also have a squash! Forgot what type this is – I’ll have to look it up. Not sure if it’s ready for picking or not (another thing to look up), but Ben is convinced it is and that it is HIS. But for the moment, it’s still hanging out in the garden.

So Farmer Joe we are not. CLEARLY. But the kids had a splendid time combing through the vines, collecting tomatoes and exclaiming how over-crowded the garden is. And that alone makes it pretty worthwhile in my opinion. Maybe next year!