Christmas JOY

What a great Christmas we've had. Lots of photos at:

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=543261230350268052/l=441453890/g=25280692/cobrandOid=1000131/COBRAND_NAME=comcast/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
Christmas Eve was lots of running around and fun with family. Christmas Day was a quiet day at home with just us. Mom came over for Christmas dinner. We played tons of games and did crafts. Almost every toy has been played with at least once already!

Santa Was Here Early

Here's my little pre-Christmas present:
Sad, I know, but I'm THRILLED. Suddenly in the middle of a pre-Christmas frenzy of cleaning, my vacuum just gave up. I called Tim, who was out shopping with Zachary. Next thing you know, this little beauty was sitting in my living room. It was probably time for a new one. The old vacuum had a shredded cord, wouldn't stand up, and I couldn't even empty it because it was bagless and I would have a sneezing fit every time I tried. (Why did I ever think a bagless vacuum would be a good idea?) Look closely at the photo - there is a "CLEAN" and "DIRTY" light. Truely entertaining for the WHOLE family. Don't believe me? Imagine the four of us following the thing around watching the light change from red dirty to green clean. A little cleaning victory complete with loud cheering every few seconds.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! We've had a full day of celebrations, enjoyed special stories and songs at church, put out the cookies, sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn, and tucked two little boys into bed. Zachary's bedtime prayer was, "God, thanks for being born so we can celebrate Christmas." Well, there you go. Have a Christmas day full of blessings, and don't forget to thank God for being born!

Angel Boys

Aren't they the best when they're sleeping? Lately, we've been getting the line, "I'm lonely. I can't sleep." (From both of them!) One night, we sent J into Z's room to sleep. I found him asleep on the floor with just the tiniest scraps of blankets under and over him. Tonight, they are happily sleeping on the fold out couch in front of the Christmas tree.

OKAY - They're kinda cute when they're awake, too!

Big Brother

Yesterday, Jeremy and Zachary had their 5 and 7 year checkups. As Dr. Ringel was asking Jeremy questions, Zachary sat on my lap. After a minute of question and answering, Zachary, in a very authoritative, big-brother sort of way, whispered to me, "Jeremy's doing excellent, Mom." Such a great kid!

Congratulations to my yellow belt boy!

YAY! Zachary tested for and earned his yellow belt in Karate this weekend. He had to speak in front of a large group of people and show his form and one steps. He did GREAT! Another mom (who we've only known from karate for a couple of months) stopped me in the hall at school today to tell me how she almost had tears in her eyes he did so well! Yay for Zachary. He is a HARD worker and a good boy. So much thanks goes to Mr. Patten and Mrs. Broyles for recognizing his potential and expecting him to live up to it.

Check out his photos at www.keepkicking.com (under photos/December 2008 testing/White belts).

First Snow and Birthday Party

Yesterday was our first real snow, and we woke up this morning with a decent covering of snow on the ground. The boys (all three!) went out to play after church:




We also celebrated Jeremy's birthday at Mom's house.




One of Jeremy's favorite gifts was the remote control R2D2 from Grandma and Grandpa:

Waiting for St. Nick

The stockings were hung...

Holiday Creativity

What a great day! For a few hours, Jeremy and his friend, Reece, played and played and played while their moms enjoyed some creative time. We had a blast creating some tags for Christmas and just hanging out. The boys had fun with most every toy in Jeremy's room and the playroom. Good for them! They are great (and cute!) kids. I'm thankful for good friends and sweet little boys. Plus, my new camera came today. No, it's not a Canon Digital Rebel XSi (Santa, are you listening?), but I can deal.

Feast

"Well, how was your feast for Thanksgiving, Uncle Mike?" asks Zachary after finding a ROTARY phone and learning how to dial up his uncle. "Our feast was delicious, even with 3 desserts!" Delicious, indeed. I am so grateful -- for two good boys and their dad and a great extended family and a good meal and blessings too many to count.

Here's the sweet potato recipe for Connie and Pam (or anyone else who wants it!):

18 ounces sweet potatoes, canned (I prefer fresh sweet potatoes, baked and mashed)
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 stick butter
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pinches fresh nutmeg, grated
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix 1st 10 ingredients. Pour into buttered 9x13 pan.
Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle over potatoes.
Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, uncovered.

If doubling the recipe, don't double the topping.

Happy feasting to all!

My Little Characters

Friday Fun with Friends

A week ago on Friday, Jeremy and I had so much fun going to Totter Otterville with the Kruse family.

Local Eating

Many of my friends who know about my involvment in the CSA just a mile or so from my house have been wondering how it works and/or how I like it. First of all, let me just say I thought being involved in a CSA was an awesome experience. The CSA I belong to, Earthshares (http://www.earthsharescsa.org/), happens to offer the choice of working 30 hours per summer in the gardens or not. Cost is adjusted accordingly. I worked and loved it. Yes, it was a bummer to have to go work sometimes, and yes my back often did not appreciate it. BUT, it was SO worthwhile. I can't say enough about the sense of peace, connection to the community, and connection to the food I'm giving my family that the experience gave me.

So, what was it actually like? Here's a photo from one of the first weeks of pickup. You can see that the napa cabbage didn't do so well, but we had several yummy salads that week:

The long scallion-looking things are young garlic plants. You can use the entire thing, just like a green onion. There was also kale. Greens seem to be the big item for the first several weeks, so you better like them! I grew up with things like swiss chard and kale, so I was in good shape. If there was anything we didn't manage to eat, it wound up as nutrients in my compost pile, so I didn't feel too badly about it.

As the season went on, we added things like brocolli, then green beans, peppers, tomatoes (up to 20 tomatoes at a time!), summer and pattypan squash, basil, parsley, garlic. Towards the middle of July, the sweet corn came in. Here's a list of what we picked up one week in early July:

• 6 pounds tomatoes
• 2 pounds peppers
• 1/2 pound swiss chard
• 1/2 pound lettuce greens
• 1 green cabbage
• 2 red cabbages
• 1 pattypan squash
• 1 pound beets
• basil
• parsley
• 3/4 pounds broccoli

And some of the gorgeous potatoes that started arriving around September:

Then, some photos from the first week of October:

(These photos were thanks to Ali Edwards' week in the life photo project. She's an online, blogging scrapbooker who encouraged people to document a week of everyday life through words and photos. I highly recommend this project! I actually did it AND created my photobook already.)

You have to be ready to cook, freeze, can, or compost stuff when you are going to be getting 10 or 15 pounds of produce every week. Some weeks I used everything; some weeks stuff went into the compost bin. Some weeks, I even took the "freebies" (leftovers from the previous pickup 3 days before) and froze them right away. I pawned some free tomatoes off on my mom who made and canned ketchup! I can't say I've tried the canning thing yet, though I did learn how.

Just one more note: Many moms really involved their kids in this endeavor. I saw babies in backpacks, older kids helping out, and little kids hanging out at the end of rows while moms and dads worked. My kids did come to the garden with me a couple of times. Zachary really enjoyed weeding. He didn't enjoy it enough to want to come with me more than a few times, though! I actually enjoyed the quiet time. Jeremy liked looking at the garden, but he did NOT like to be there while I worked. We took walks there instead. Tim put in an hour of the 30 our family had to contribute!
The gardeners, Steve and Mary Lu, were so helpful and knowledgeable. It's really an art to get it all just right - much more so than for conventional gardening. They were always willing to teach people what to do and patient with all of the newbies to gardening. If you wanted to know anything, they were more than happy to teach. Steve even took our family to see his huge breeding hogs and let us watch (AND SMELL) him feeding them. Cool, but SMELLY!

So there you have it. I wish I had had some of this info last year to help me feel better about investing myself and my money in something I had never tried before. Turns out, it was totally worth it.

Feeling Joyful

Just feeling really grateful for these kids. Today was a great day. Zachary got the second tip on his karate white belt. Jeremy and I spent the day at Totter Otterville with the Kruse family.

Below are some photos of last Saturday. Besides a soccer game, we had fun at the pumpkin patch. We met Lisa (Beck) McMahan and her family there. She was my next-door neighbor growing up. Now, she's a fellow Lovelander. Her son Christopher is between Zachary's and Jeremy's ages. They got along great and had big fun at Blooms and Berries.