i'm a puppy!

This little Nay Nay girl loves to pretend that she's a puppy. When she saw the camera, though, she went into "model mode".

view of the harbor

Tonight we ventured out to the bridge that overlooks the harbor several blocks from our home. It also overlooks the port for the huge cruise ships. I wanted to capture some photos of the ships but they had all left the port already when we got to the top of the bridge. I was, however, able to capture these pictures as the sun was setting.

thanksgiving pictures

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at James' mom's house this year. She had the meal catered which meant barely any clean up and no tired feet for any cooks in the house. It was nice and low-key.Eating our turkey dinner. James' mom is seated in between Naomi and James.

This is Dave and his wife Jackie. Dave is James' mom, Lynn's brother. They live with Lynn.

After the kids finished eating Jackie and Dave joined us at the table.

Our Thanksgiving Family Picture:

James, Me, Jackie, Naomi, Henry, Lynn, Marcail and Dave

sugar bear

On Thanksgiving we tried taking family pictures but they kept turning out blurry. Out of the 5 or 6 pictures we took one or two of the kid's faces were blurry. I just loved the smiles on Naomi's and James' faces in this picture, so I cropped the photo down to just the two of them. Daddy and his Sugar Bear.

our huge library

We went to the public library this morning. It's downtown, about 5 minutes away from where we live. It's 4 stories of books, sections and literature. It's safe to say that the library is ginormous! I am not altogether impressed with the children's section of the huge library. There aren't any cool chairs or fun little toys or even a "reading area" for kids to look at books. It's very plain and simple. There are a couple tables which the kids can sit at and a couple puzzles with which to keep them entertained. But, still! The teeny-tiny library in my hometown, Lindsborg could kick this big city's children's section!

So, upon looking up the books I wanted to find for the kids to check out I wrote down the call numbers and began searching. And searching. I asked the kind librarian where a certain section was. She showed me. I said that I had looked for the book in the section she said it would be. It says on the online catalog that the book is here. Why can't I find it? The librarian proceeds to tell me that it may not be shelved yet and that it may be in the library but is lost. What? I said that was too bad. She agreed then went back to her desk.

Needless to say, I was a bit miffed and disappointed. I felt like getting mouthy. But, I didn't. Instead I found some other books. As the kids and I walked toward the back of the children's section I stumbled upon this:

Yep! Books upon books, carts upon carts of un-shelved children's books. I was appaled! Why weren't they shelving these books??? Even a cart a day would be better than nothing at all! This is how I probably looked upon finding all those books just yearning to be read!

So, I went ahead and asked for the books I was looking for to be held. I think we may be going to a different library from now on!

potato heads

While playing with Mr. Potato Head, Naomi decided to become a Miss Potato Head.  She found it highly amusing as did I!  Do you see how she's standing on the Potato Head feet?  She's also holding the hands.

Marcail liked Naomi's idea so I had to take a picture of her too.

So, did Henry!  I love the ears the best!

painting of the day

Title:

Mother and Child

learning as we go

A few weeks ago I rented a preschool learning dvd from Netflix.com.  It was about shapes and colors.  I got it with Naomi in mind since I think that Henry and Marcail know their colors and are getting the hang of their shapes.
   When Henry awoke from his nap I plugged it in and he sat spellbound watching and listening to the man on the dvd discuss colors and shapes.  It wasn't far into the dvd that Henry asked for his notebook and pen.  He was inspired!  He began to draw squares, ovals and circles!  Mostly, though, the squares looked like circles but he knew what he was drawing.

After I had begun taking these pictures Marcail wandered out from nap as well.  So, you can see the still-sleepy Marcail and her feet in the background of some of the pictures.

the cuties and me

These pics were taken with my phone.

the rat

We have a rat that hangs out around the house.  Mostly he/she can be found on Marcail's bed sleeping.  Some days the rat is pink with black hair or blue, sometimes even green.  Usually it's either pink or purple.  This is an interesting rat, you find yourself thinking.  Well, yes, it is indeed!  For, you see, the rat is an imaginary rat which comes out to play if so invited by one of the kids.  Marcail usually enjoys playing with the rat.  I think sometimes there are two or three rats, it depends on how imaginations are working that day.  Henry will have his own rat and so will Naomi.
   The kids will cup their little hands together to carry their rat around.  They will talk to it.  Mostly, they spend their time finding the rat if they are pretending rat.
   The name of the rat also varies from time to time, this is a highly evolving animal!
   I know that the kids have amazing imaginations but I think this one takes the cake!  In the picture above, the rat was invited along to the beach with us, see?  She's in Marcail's outstretched hand.

make believe

Henry likes to pretend he's fishing.  He scored big when he found this branch since it was complete with a line!

painting of the day

Title:

Young Girls

we're addicted

...to the beach! It was 5 p.m. and breezy and chilly and overcast, and we still went to the beach! We bundled up into our jackets put pants on and walked over to our playground on the beach. Since it wasn't really "beach" weather, we were the only ones there for the most part. We always call it "our beach" when we don't have to share the playground with anyone else. It was really nice even though it was cool.

Since we frequent the beach almost daily the kids occasionally get cuts on the bottoms of their feet. I think from the sand maybe rubbing them raw or maybe some other pieces of debris in the sand cutting their little toes. Usually its in the cracks under their toes. Henry had complained yesterday about his foot hurting. When I asked for him to show me I couldn't see anything. Today he said it hurt again. When I looked again I saw a cut under his little toe right where it bends. It was a tiny cut and he was touchy about it so I left it alone. He's gotten cuts like that before. However, tonight as we were reading books before bed, he asked if I would put that "bubble stuff" (hydrogen peroxide) on his foot and a band-aid in the morning. So, I looked at it again and the cut was a little bigger than this morning. Poor guy! I went ahead and cleaned it and put a band-aid on his toe. It was so tiny but those are always the cuts that seem to hurt the most. He cried and barely let me touch it as I was cleaning it. There was sand inside the cut too so I know that it was very painful! That hydrogen peroxide worked wonders bubbling the sand out. Marcail was so sweet the whole time I was tending to the cut. She kept saying, "It's going to be over soon!" and "Look, Henry, you get to have a boy band-aid, see?" and "It's ok, Henry. Mama's fixing it." So sweet. She even got Henry his blanket for him. Anyway, he got some neosporin and a band-aid and was just fine. He even giggled when he got to see the peroxide bubble.
Tomorrow is Friday...I just may try to make a real loaf of bread! I actually bought wheat gluten today to see if that helps. I shall persevere!

it feels like.......fall

Today is a breezy 71 degrees with winds from the NW at 13 mph. To me, since I've acclimated to the South Florida tropical weather it feels chilly! We are donning our jackets and jeans or light-weight pants today. I opened up all the doors and windows this morning to get some nice, fresh air in and the kids complained of being cold. I thought it felt great and made the apartment smell wonderful!

Don't those clouds look wintry??? They probably hold lots of rain but it's not in the forecast so I'm thinking they're just going to blow over.

painting of the day

Title:

Louise Nursing Her Child

The paintings Mary Cassatt did of mama's nursing their babes get me everytime! If I miss anything about having a baby in the house it that! Nursing was such a joy for me. I absolutely loved it, even when I felt like a Jersey cow.

the bread...

Before:(it still needed to rise another 3 hours before baking)

After:(yeah, those are some flat loaves of bread)

What a bummer, all those 7 days of feeding this dough and that's what I get. I'm beginning to think that baking bread of any kind in South Florida is a lost cause. I sure hope the kids eat it without any complaints for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

day 7 of sourdough starter

Tomorrow is Sourdough Bread baking day! It will have been 8 days of watching my starter ferment and grow to this awesomeness! It's starting to grow so tall that I'm not sure if it will stay contained in the biggest glass bowl that I own overnight. This evening, I set the glass bowl inside my huge plastic bowl as a precaution for overflowing. Do you see the wonderful air bubbles? That's the dough fermenting and getting all yeasty. I sure hope my loaves of bread turn out ok tomorrow. I don't have any glass bread pans so I will be using miscellaneous glass casserole dished that I have. Should be interesting!

here's how it turned out

All morning I checked to see how the laundry detergent was setting up. It smelled so good and clean. Made the whole apartment smell fresh! At about 5 this afternoon, I stirred it around to break up the gelled clumps of detergent and this is the finished product! It is going to be so fun to use....maybe tomorrow?

I also used my two old detergent bottles that I've been saving to store the soap in. It made enough to fill the Gain bottle completely full as well as the Sun bottle almost completely full! That's roughly 275 fl oz!...and that's a lot of soap!

sourdough starter update

Well, it's day 6 for my starter and it's starting to smell more like sourdough and not so much like "gag"dough. It's doing everything it's supposed to be doing and looking pretty good! Wednesday will be day 8 and that means sourdough bread making day!

this was so easy!

Making my own liquid laundry detergent is way simpler to do than I thought it sounded! I had bought all the ingredients necessary over the past couple weeks so that when I used the last of my store-bought detergent I would be prepared. I thought this would take a long time to make-that it would be a huge process! But, I was so pleasantly surprised when it took probably 10 minutes to put all of it together. Here are the ingredients that are required: 20 Mule Team Borax
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
Fels-Naptha Soap
Patchouli oil(not required, but adds scent)
The Borax I bought at Target in the laundry detergent department. The Washing Soda and Fels-Naptha Soap I found at the grocery store, also in the laundry aisle. The Patchouli oil I bought in the candle and air freshener aisle.

The first thing I did was grate the soap.

Next, I melted the grated soap in a pot of hot water.

Then, after the soap was melted I added the borax and washing soda to the pot and waited for it to dissolve. After it's all dissolved I poured the soap into a small trash can with some more water.

The original recipe I followed said to use a large bucket but it was easier for me to just buy a new trash can for the detergent.

After I poured it all together I added the patchouli oil and stirred it some more. Now, all I do is wait until tomorrow for it to be ready to use. Liquid laundry detergent takes 24 hours after it's been "brewed" to gel. Tomorrow I'll let you all know how it turns out.

This is the recipe I followed for anyone who may be curious.

oh yeah!

We got lamps at a garage sale today as well! A pair for $10.00!

garage sale goodys

There were lots of great garage sales out today! James' mom kept the kids so that we could get some "saleing" done. On our adventure we found so many great bargains.

A bookshelf for $10.00
A large vase for sourdough starter-$1.00

Oh, by the way, the starter seems to be doing the thing it's supposed to be. Growing, fermenting and smelling. James has assured me several times that my sourdough starter smells just like it should---sour. I'm on day 4.

Rival Electric Skillet-$15.00

Laundry bags-$1.00 each

Fun frame for kid's room-.25

I bought these angel pictures at a thrift store this week for $5.00

We also bought Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders for a $1.00 each that had not been opened for Christmas gifts. Two glass mixing bowls, several books for the kids, a few clothing items and some toys for the kid's Christmas gifts as well. We had such a great time together and really enjoyed finding all these great buys today!