Ordinary Time

[2023 me here to say this is one of those old posts that makes me cringe more than a little bit. Feel free to read it, but know that I very much disagree with my younger self here. Parenting posts after 2012 are usually much more in line with my current views. And I remind my older self that my younger self just didn't know what I didn't know.] Sometimes parenting is hard work.  While the big, dramatic happenings with our children are difficult, I find it is the every-day-I-don't-feel-as-though-I'm-making-any-progress stuff that is somehow harder.  You know, where you have a child that you are working on certain character issues and you feel as though you say the same thing over and over.  There is a phrase in the attachment world:  "Nibbled to death by ducks."  This pretty much sums up how I feel some days.  It's the little things that build-up over time and become almost too much, and you can't point to any one thing that is wrong.  It's th...

Obviously, my computer has been returned to health.  I forget how much I use it throughout the day when I don't have it available.  But it did enable me to focus on apples.  All day long. First, let me show you my newest toy: This is an attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer which strains fruit.  Before I have always used a Foley mill to strain out the seeds and skin from the cooked apples.  It was effective, but time consuming and made for sore muscles.  Then I came across this nifty tool which attaches to the pasta maker/meat grinder piece which I already had.  (If I hadn't had two of the three pieces necessary, I probably wouldn't have bought it.)  It is amazing, and I will sound like an advertisement for a brief moment.  It took B. and me just two hours to prepare, cook, and strain a bushel's worth of apples.  It was super fast and did a better job of straining than the Foley mill did.  In the picture above, you can s...

I'm sitting right now at the schoolroom computer because my laptop is in the shop.  A word of advice... if you see a security notice warning you that there might be a virus on your computer, don't click on it until you have proofread the thing.  The only way we discovered (after the fact, of course) that it was fake was the one misspelled word.  It looks as though I won't have the laptop back until possibly Monday.  So, if you have emailed me, I won't get it until then.  Since I can't stand to type on our dinosaur desktop computer, I will be having a completely unconnected weekend.  Think of all I will get done! Have a great weekend... and I'll have the apple cider doughnut recipe for you on Monday. TTFN

These cute little objects are hard boiled egg molds.  During my Bento Box obssession last summer I came across these.   (No, I do not know why I developed an obssession with Bento, it's not as though I ever pack anyone a lunch.  If you don't know what Bento is, look at this Flickr pool to see some amazing examples.)  I had never heard molding hard boiled eggs before, but fell in love with the idea.  Last week I finally broke down and bought some molds.  It's probably easier if I just show you what they do. First, you hard boil your eggs, just as you normally would.  Then when they are still hot, you peel them and put the egg into the mold.  I haven't had any problems peeling them.  I do it in the sink and hold the egg under the faucet whenever it gets too hot to touch. You then close up the mold and put it in a bowl of cold water.  They stay there until the egg has completely cooled. When the eggs are cool, you open up the mold...

I think I mentioned how my friend brought the babies some squeaky shoes from China.  In case you don't know what they are (shoes, not babies), they are children's shoes with a squeaker in the heel, much like a squeaky dog toy.  When the child walks, the heel is depressed and the shoe squeaks.  With each step.  Every single time.  And L. loves her shoes.  Heck, she just loves shoes in general... to the point where she took a pair of shoes to bed with her because she didn't want to let them go.  I think I foresee trouble ahead with her in that department.  Here is a video of L. walking around in her squeaky shoes.  Some days are so nice that you just have to cancel your regularly scheduled school activities and head outside.  Yesterday was one of those days.  (Though, A., who is reading over my shoulder as I write this, would like to point out that she did all of the work she had scheduled.  Perhaps it was just me tha...

As I have mentioned before, we eat dinner together every night.  During last night's dinner, several thoughts passed through my head that I thought I would share. First, I think everyone is in a growth spurt.  (Well, the children, that is.  J. and I don't need to have growth spurts.)  It used to be that if I cooked two pounds of pasta, it would give us plenty for dinner and also some leftover for lunch the next day.  The past couple of times we've had noodles, there has barely been enough to satisfy everyone at dinner, much less have any left for another meal. Actually, leftovers in general have been few and far between.  I'm afraid the bad news is that it is time to go from doubling to tripling when I make dinner.  (Or depending on the recipe, to go from tripling to quadrupling.)  It makes me think of the picture book, The Seven Silly Eaters .  There is a line in it about the children growing, but their appetites growing with them....

The clothes situation around here was getting truly dire.  TM and D. have grown so much that they had very few clothes that fit.  They were showing a lot of ankle.  Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and went shopping for them.  Now the key to clothing so many people is to never buy anything at full price.  And if you can get things at a thrift store or a rummage sale that's even better.  So, my first course of action when clothes are needed and I don't have them in my basement is to head off to my favorite thrift store.  Mondays are always half price so it's the only day I go.  It was a particularly fruitful excursion.  Here's what I found: This pile contains:  11 pairs of pants (both jeans and dress pants) for TM and D.; 8 long-sleeved button-down shirts (both casual and dress) for the same boys; 1 pair of pants for K.; 3 button-down shirts for K.; 3 pairs of boys' dress socks; 2 skirts for A.; 2 skirts for E.; a skirt, a jumper, ...