Holly Hobby Visits Iowa's Capitol Building

Alienor's Shoes and Tile Detail

Steps inside State Capitol

Iowa State Capitol

Did They Really Say That?

You just never know what might happen...or what a child might say or do, even after the crazy, unpredictable stage of toddlerhood has passed. I guess we are now entering the other new stage of adolescence.

Aragorn decided to cut his hair, out of the blue, seemingly, but there was certainly some motivating factor that I will never know about behind the decision. He also chose a musical institute he would like to attend in his old age, as in when he is 16 or so. And yesterday, he announced that he was going to become a minister. I stopped breathing for a moment, while I pondered this unlikely change of heart from my 12-year-old son. My first thought, would you believe, was "he's not the third child, that doesn't sync with birth order characteristics." My second thought, (really, what kind of mother am I? statistics before instinct?), was "I didn't think he liked church that much."

Then came the reality check, way too quickly on the heels of the original declaration. "Online I can get a certificate for $11 and be a minister. My friend L. did it and he is going to meet with some people this week about celebrating their wedding." Oh man, words failed me, except perhaps all the wrong words. I think I said; "no way, you cannot marry anyone before you can vote." This was followed by something akin to; "you would have to be an idiot to be married by a kid." Nice.

I do see the opportunities here for deep discussion on the importance of relationships and marriage as a sanctified, solemn commitment, not to be entered into lightly or quickly. Another on respect for vocations that have taken people years of study, deep reflection, and devotion. But I was doing the dishes, making a dish to take to a church potluck and trying to sort out a few pressing details requiring phone calls. It was far from my finest moment as a mother.

Then Lily chose the movie for our knitting night and gave me another shock. She and I have watched "Miss Potter" and "The Sound of Music", "Northanger Abby" and countless teen-type flicks of the science fiction/fantasy genre. You could have knocked me over with a breath when she hit the play button and began "Jackie Chan, the Spy Next Door." And it was a perfect movie to watch together, light, funny and full of daring stunts and complex relationship struggles. (Not that the struggles or characters were complex, just the relationships.)

Besides martial arts movies, Lily has been studying sailing; types of boat materials, stories of sailors from around the world, learning about longitude and latitude and prevailing winds around the bottom of S.America and Africa. This has all been self-directed, as is her exploration of boarding schools and writing contests. Here is a link to her blog: literaturesrealm.blogspot.com.

It is fantastic to live with children who will keep forcing us out of our boring comfort zone, into new territory. Enjoy the trip!

Winter Coat

Pre-Haircut

Spring Trim

Yogurt and Tooth Aches

Write, no,
housework, medium,
concentrate on anything long enough to be productive, ugh, sigh,

discover new yogurt, check!

Looks like the universe has sent me a number of lessons in the form of the worst tooth ache of my life. There has been little to rejoice about these past 10 days, or so I thought, until I tasted "noosa, finest yoghurt". Let me back up.

Children come down with things all the time. Someone always has a cold or a sore throat or a tummy ache. Poor Alienor, 9, has had repetitive pain in her teeth. She has too many and an "advanced dentition for her age." I have tried to be sympathetic, but sometimes the same refrain was honestly, getting old, "my teeth hurt." Really? Again? That much? 

Yes, it does really hurt that much. trust me. Sorta wrecks one's day, or night. I will be more empathetic to the pains and aches of people of all ages from now on. Who was it that said that there is no better person to have at one's bedside than a hypochondriac? 

Second benefit; a raid on the local grocer's yogurt section yesterday produced a real treat, one I did not think I would ever encounter in the US; fantastic Greek yoghurt. The reason; I needed some extra probiotics in a form that my son would eat because both he and I are on antibiotics. I got some plain, natural yogurt, the kind without the icky gelatin effect. I moved on to a new chocolate kind that Alienor discovered and thought it would be just like the "creme" in France that her mamie keeps them stocked in. It wasn't, more nasty gelatin ruined that one. And I found the new Greek yoghurt selection, it was huge! I bought a couple different brands to try. Now, Greek yoghurt, or strained yoghurt, is special in that it is a thicker, creamier version of yogurt, without the fat. It is strained to remove the whey, leaving it lush and smooth and satisfying. There are many uses for strained yogurt, both savory and sweet. As soon as I got home and the children heard that we'd found new yogurt, they all set into my stock like starving bandits. It looked like I would be returning all too soon to the grocery store. But it did not pan out quite that way. 

One brand of the "Greek" stuff was eaten, passed around to taste, and given an "OK" review, but with the caveat; "it's not like in France." True. I would use the plain variety of this brand again, in sauces, in salad dressing, even for a sugar-free dessert  with fresh fruit .The chocolate and caramel kind we ate as a special dessert was a huge deception, only Puck even finished it. He finished two or three, so I guess if your expectations are different, it is OK stuff. The problem: it looked just like the dessert in France, it was written in French, but it had been America-fied for sale here, awful. However...the "noosa"; oh my! While it makes no claims of Greekness, it has all of the wonderful qualities of a Greek yogurt. It is creamy, it is delicious, the selection of fruits is outstanding (strawberry rhubarb?!) and it almost makes up for the fact that my crown is fast approaching the "need a root canal" stage...but I'll need to go get some more of the blueberry kind before that happens.

Recipe: Cucumbers in Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Peel, seed (if you really want to do it the French way, this means removing most of the seeds, then soaking in rock salt to remove more moisture, I usually skip these steps) and slice the cucumbers.

Sauce: 2T plain Greek yoghurt

            1T olive oil

            1T balsamic or wine vinegar

            salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients of sauce, toss with cucumbers. Bon appetit!

Screen-Free Week, Part II

A week without any screens of any kind, did we survive? It really wasn't as dramatic as it could have been, first off. Did I miss the television (that we use to view videos)? No, the kids didn't really either, unless you count Arthur, who asked me about 12 times to watch a movie. The rest of them were absolutely fine, busy and entertained. Did I miss my computer? Yeeeesss! and no. The reflex to turn it on and "do stuff" was strong, as it was for my older children. One felt the need to "do research" (so we went to the library), the other kept needing just a minute to "get a guitar tab," (so he practiced more of the songs he already knew after 2 of those incidents.)

It comes down to having habits that are questionable, really. Do you need to run to the computer every time you have a question? Search engines are mighty entities, I will be the first to admit. I'm watching "The Tudors" and I want to know more about Henry VIII. I can look it up, in the blink of an eye, and get pictures too, I love it! When I have a child with an odd condition in the middle of the night, I google it to see if I should go to the ER. Now, without google, I would have instinctively felt and known if something was serious enough to merit a doctor, and I still do, but the security blanket of being able to read words concerning the condition written by "an expert" is too difficult to resist. When I was at the bowling alley, holding a 3-year-old with a bloody chin the other day, I knew right away he would need stitches, now. I did not grab my i-Pod (no-touch) and ask how many inches long the gash needed to be before it needed fixing. I went to the ER for stitches. Besides, who wants blood all over their i-Pod?

We had a fabulous week. We went to the museum, the library, to the playdate/silk-dying event with our Waldorf homeschool group , and brought home two of the children from that wonderful home. Our seven children played and played and drew crazy pictures for over 24 hours, almost non-stop (I had to make them turn out the lights at 1am!) And we're talking about teens, who supposedly "need" a screen to survive, to be cool, to entertain. Nada, just card games, jumping on the trampoline, playing some sort of troll/pirate/zombie thingy and drawing. They helped out a lot with dog training too.

We read aloud, baked hot cross buns, played lots of board games with the younger ones, but did not learn gin rummy or take many walks, it rained most of the week. Eggs were dyed, music was played and things were hammered in the garage. For our weekly knitting night, Lily and I listened to "Gilda Joyce" on CD instead of watching something on video. I think it was one of our best knitting nights ever. We had a fire in the fireplace and the speakers connected to her i-Pod. 

And my promised updates during the week? Did I mention how busy we were? I forgot about Wednesday's, besides it did not feel right to have the computer on when I was telling the kids "no." I also became very involved in knitting five little gifts for five munchkins' Easter baskets and by Friday, I was almost at the deadline! I hope your week was as pleasant as ours!