Angry Little Dude

I am trying so patiently and so peacefully to understand just what gets into a 4 year old boy that could make him call me a "stupid poop head mommy" and start swinging.
I started to read Raising Cain, I am not far into it yet but I am sure some mystery will still remain at the end of it. One thing I do understand though is that he has a need to be tough and awesome and in control of himself. My daughter had this same need for control around this age but it came out in puddles of tears rather than what looks like anger.
I am not sold on the idea that this is anger. Deep in his eyes there is something bigger. Something that looks more like sadness and defeat. As if my control over him means he is powerless and not the tough, spirited boy he thought he was. I have won, and in that he is somewhat wounded.
Now, of course I can't let him just run wild but I am trying to loosen my rope a bit and let him feel free. This means bounding through the supermarket, balancing on ledges, stomping in mud, climbing the unclimbable, while I hide my fear and pray.

Oops

Why hello there little blog.
It seems that somehow I just forgot all about you. I can't imagine what I was doing to keep me so occupied that it's been over a year since I have been here.
Well, now that we have reconnected I feel I better visit more frequently and show you some love. Thanks for sitting around in cyberspace waiting for me. How nice of you to keep going on without me.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....
Can I offer you some pie?

My latest creations

These are all gifts for my daughter. I plan on making my son an owl as he said he would like one but mostly he wants cars and trucks and things that go SMASH!!
These are needle felted with the exception of the play silks. Those I ordered raw and then hand dyed with kool-aid for a permanent rainbow of color.

Felty Felt and the Funky Bunch

I have a new hobby! Hooray for new hobbies!!! You know, I just had so much spare time that I figured I should pick up something else to fill the hours with. Being a domestic goddess only takes about 24 hours out of your day so really you can see how I had an opening in my schedule.

My new obsession is FELTING!!! I am currently working on a top secret project. Since my kids can't read very much I will tell you. I am making a felted gnome family, some fairies, and eventually a tree house and lots of mushrooms and other felty magical things to go along with it.

This is a dangerous hobby. It involves a needle with barbs so sharp and tiny that some are microscopic. I was told I would bleed profusely if I touched them. I have to admit it scared me a little since our family now has an agreement that I am banned from using super glue (for very good reasons.)
I got a kit at our local fiber craft store and after procrastinating for a week I decided to dive in earlier this week. I made my first felted gnome yesterday and to my great surprise it was very easy and he came out rather fantastic. Way bigger than I had planned (about 7 inches instead of 3) but still he is a smooth looking fellow.
I suggest you catch the bug.... and head over to this ladies site who explains the entire thing via little videos.
I now want an alpaca of my very own but haven't convinced that dear husband of mine.
I guess I could always sheer the dog.

VOTE!!!!!

Today is the day to vote if you haven't already.
Still don't know who to vote for? You could write my name in if you want to.
Seriously though... here are the facts on Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

You may click and go read or take my word for it and vote for CHANGE!!!

oh, and after you vote if you tell your local Starbucks they will give you coffee for FREE!

Get an awesome new president and a free cup of coffee in one day. How cool is that?

Get the door...it's McCain!

This a short funny little tale.
On my way to drop off my ballot the kids and I were talking. We were discussing what the president's job was, what the Mayors job was, what the county commissioners job was. They have been noticing all the yard signs and always want to know who everyone's name is and the job they want.
Anyway, I said that Barack's job will be President, and Kitty's job will be Mayor, and Rob's job will be county commissioner. So Zionna asked "What about McCain? (his name is on a couple signs.) I said, "Well, he also wants to be President." She said, "NO, He can't! Just Barack! He needs a different job." So I asked, "What kind of job should he have?" "He should deliver pizza," she replied with authority.

TAXI!!!!

I really should paint my car yellow with all the zipping around I do now that school has started. Maybe install a little fare meter in the front of the car and deduct it from future allowances my children will eventually desire.

I haven't updated in awhile, and while I could try to blame the driving to school... it ends at 11:45 everyday so I am not sure that is a good excuse. I don't know what I have been doing.
I did crochet some things, a hat, scarf, and headband, and 1 baby bootie for Ted's cousin's baby. I do plan to make another on my journey to TX.

Oh, and our family possibly saved a tree with our new avoidance of paper towels. We were using about a roll a week if not more for our messy kids. If a cup goes on the table the chances of a spill are about 95% in our house. This meant lots of trees dying to clean that up. Now we have a growing collection of dish cloths and even switched over to cloth napkins (all from the thrift store.) It has not really added to my laundry pile since I just throw them into whatever load is next in line for washing. I must give the husband kudos on this as it was his idea. Clever Ted saves the world!(or at least a tree.)

I'm getting excited about the election. My ballot comes in the mail very soon (maybe tomorrow) and I am ready to Barack the Vote!

In the words of my lovely daughter "I like Obama because he is going to save the world."
(I never said that, all her words.) Even a child can feel the Hope.

So it begins

Yesterday was Zionna's first day of school. She was eager and excited to begin her Kindergarten career. She was the first one to run to the teacher when the door opened for the start of class.
I must say that I'm sad I cannot go with her to school. Not because I cannot stand to be away from her, but because this school just sounds so fun!
It is a public Waldorf school and that means that instead of focusing on academics and pushing to keep the" every child left behind act" happy, she will be discovering nature, singing to fairies, dancing, playing music, painting, sewing, knitting, and all sorts of other wonderful things that five year olds SHOULD be doing. It feels like an extension of our home and I have no doubt that she will adjust well to the rhythm of school.
Everything in the room feels good, all fabric and wood. Not a touch of plastic and I am so happy to say that not one computer is in the room.
When I toured schools around Eugene it was often a horrid sight of 5 year olds with headphones, microphones, and laptops zoned in to there own little space and not even an ounce of interaction with each other. It scared me, and still does to know that children are going to schools like this. We are very blessed to have gotten into this school, and even more so that we are not having to pay for it since it's a public charter.
This is a very thankful post. Knowing that Zionna is in such a positive and nurturing school that will inspire her creativity and allow her to blossom even more.

Broken

Liam flipped off of a swing Sunday night and broke his collar bone on the left side. He remains happy and continues to try to do daring things. The morning after the fall he asked to go to the park! He is napping right now and that is how I am able to be on the computer. I have to watch him oh so carefully because he keeps trying to do things that one should not do with a broken bone.
Should be healed in two weeks if I can keep him out of trouble for that long. On a positive note he got a rockin snoopy and the gang sling to wear while it heals. I will update with a photo at a later time.

Wet Paint!

I finally took advantage of the very short non-rainy season here in Oregon and got out my paintbrush. Originally I was planning to make my own paint out of flour and clay and other non-toxic things but after hearing about somebody in Seattle who did the same and had mold growing on the walls thanks to the damp northwest climate I decided not to.
Instead I got some no VOC paint from Dutch Boy.
Because the paint didn't have nasty chemicals I was able to paint while the kids were in the house. It took me a week and here are my results!

Children of the Corn... Syrup

Shopping for groceries with children is always a frantic and forgetful experience. I have read stories of teaching children colors and things like that by walking through the produce. That sounds like a wonderful idea, however WALKING through the produce aisle doesn't happen with my kids. It's more of a riding the cart, jump off and hope mom is looking, run towards the cookies type of trip with my two assistant shoppers. This means I don't have a whole lot of time to read ingredients. I go for as many things that say organic as possible. Recently though I had a trip to the store that required extra caution.

I went to the junky discount grocery. The one that has Pop Tarts, Trix, and florescent "fruit" snacks the moment you walk into the door. Artificial is the main word you see. They do, by popular demand of our nations "green" trend have organic things. You have to search but the prices are low enough it might be worth the battle.

I found some turkey burgers that seemed OK and went to grab some buns to go with them. The first one I picked up was pretty inexpensive so I checked the ingredients. Corn Syrup was number 2 on the list. After checking every bun they had, and some brands I had picked up at other stores without looking. Corn Syrup was on every one of them.

Next stop... "mommy can we get applesauce? I like it now!" Sure! Ground up apples sound like a great cool summer treat. Once again, corn syrup. On one of them it came on the ingredient list BEFORE apples. I'm not sure how that was even possible. After some digging I managed to find one that didn't contain that nasty ingredient. Thank you Tree Top!

Now, we are in a nation that has a childhood obesity problem. I have heard it blamed on video games and too much TV. I'm not saying they aren't to blame some, but come one! Corn syrup is in pretty much everything we buy. You have to really go out of your way to avoid it and with two children in the store it's pretty exhausting to do.

Recent studies have shown that as the use of Corn syrup in food has increased there has been a parallel increase in cases of diabetes. With all the activities that kids are signed up for these days it really is hard for me to believe that sedimentary lifestyle alone is to blame for the weight gain of American youth.

Simply avoiding products that are known sweets like cookies and cake just doesn't work. I ordered broccoli for Zionna at a market and the helpful sales person informed me that there was corn syrup in the broccoli I was about to purchase and she asked me if I was sure I wanted it. This was a rare instance of a person caring enough to tell me. I was extremely grateful for the information but mostly I was shocked.

The floods in the Midwest took out a bunch of corn fields, there is rumor of food prices going up even more because of this. Gee, do you think if they removed corn syrup from the ingredient list of all these foods maybe we wouldn't be in such bad shape price wise?

It's going to be hard, and I will have to find a recipe for hamburger buns, but my family is done with corn syrup.

Can I fix it?

YES I CAN!!!!! (Bob the Builder reference, not Obama)

This is my braggy post because I am proud of myself for being a handy gal around the house.

This past week I....
Made two rain barrels for water catchment
took apart and fixed the washing machine (i think)
dug up bamboo from somebody's yard and transplanted to my own
harvested lots of lettuce, peas, and spinach
blanched and froze lots of spinach
killed 500 million weeds with my bare hands
planted more food
ripped up some of the lawn and turned it into a wildflower bed
fixed two pumps on our pond and gave away some of the extra plants
built an Adirondack chair (ok so it was a kit in a box and mostly done)

I think that is it.
This next week I plan to paint the kitchen and possibly make my own paint. Oh yes, fun fun!

There are no photos because I have been to tired to take any. I shall now go soak in the hot tub and drink my wine!

Dead Head

I wish this was a posting about that stinking Nutria! He is still around and after my lettuce!
This isn't a posting about the Grateful Dead, although Jerry did make a few stops in Eugene back in the day. This is about Rhododendrons.
Now if you are like me a few months ago you will be like...Rhodowhat? They are a VERY popular flowering bush that grow in just about every yard in Eugene. We have at least 6 in our yard alone.
When we bought the house they were just plain green bushes and this summer I was delightfully surprised to see flowers all over them. Pink, white, purple. Oh, they were so pretty! Then the weather got slightly warm and the flowers dried up and began to fall off.
My super helpful neighbor explained to me that it was time to "dead head" them. I think I looked at him sideways for at least a few minutes before he walked into his yard and gave me a demonstration. You pluck off the top "dead head." However, you must wear gloves and bring a bucket to fill. When you pick them they are sticky like sap and will cling all over you.
Today I ventured out to the front yard and managed to "dead head" three of the bushes.
Now, why would we do such a thing? Why not wait for a heavy rain or wind to knock them off? Well, for one they look kinda depressing once they are dead. Second, and more important...they won't flower anymore if you don't! Every year that you don't take the heads off they produce less and less flowers. If you do take the heads off then you get EVEN MORE gorgeous blooms the next spring. We will see next spring if it was time well spent today.
My gloves are sappy and it's time to listen to some dancing teddy bear music... or not.

EVOO what the?

So, I am mostly a non-tv watcher and my house doesn't get a million channels. (I would prefer not get any but the cable company insist it cost the same for internet with or without the tv.) I don't get Food Network. Maybe I am out of the Rachael Ray loop but for this should I suffer when trying to find a good recipe. Should my family suffer when I force them to eat this dried out thing once called a zucchini?
I had a recipe swap with some friends a couple years back and after flipping through the book we had created together I saw a recipe for baked veggies. One in particular for Zucchini. Looking at the recipe pretty much everything was a spice except one I didn't recognize called EVOO. I figured it must be a spice as well so I spiced up the zucchini and stuck it in the oven. What I got was a very dried out, flavorful, but odd textured thing that my kids refused to eat. (oddly enough my children actually like zucchini.)
Today I decided to make it again, only this time I was going to google search EVOO and figure out where to buy such a spice. Well, for non-food network watchers like myself. It stands for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Rachel Ray said it one day and apparently it's all the rage among the cooks to say EVOO instead of the longer version. I don't have anything against Rachel. She seems nice enough, I saw her live on a taping of the Tonight Show when we lived in LA. I'm sure she didn't mean to ruin my dinner.
Come to think of it, I hate acronyms in general. My husband used them a lot when we were first chatting online (yes folks, we met online) and it just made me crazy! I finally told him about my hatred of acronyms and now he uses them even more. Nice guy eh?
Anyway, back to the Zucchini problem. Cooking the new improved recipe as we speak. Baking in the oven. La la la... this is what we do while we wait. We shall see how the recipe ends up with my new knowledge.
Here is the recipe for those of you wondering, and everyone who could care less too.

Oven Roasted Zucchini
---------------------
Preheat oven to 400
cut your zucchini into inch thick rounds
mix in a bowl with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (that wasn't so bad to type out really)
sea salt, ground black pepper, rosemary, and garlic seasonings.
lay zucchini out on a baking sheet
bake, uncovered for 25-35 minutes
check often for your desired tenderness.

Swamp Rat

If you have ever watched Aladdin you may remember him being called a street rat. Well, I sometimes call Ted a swamp rat since he was born in Louisiana. It was a joke, he claims to be a Texan and I like to remind him that officially he is not. I thought I had made up the term "swamp rat" being the clever lady that I am.
Now the point of this post isn't to OUT him as a non-texan or prove that I am a mean horrible wife who makes fun of her husband's origins. The point is, that I met an official SWAMP RAT! It's living in our backyard, it may have friends, and despite the fact that we have given it a name it will be relocated soon.
Her name is Peggy the Lawnmower and she is also known as Nutria. Looks like a groundhog with the tail of a rat. She enjoys munching on grass, taking long dips in the pond, and living under our shed. Her habits have led to making my koi pond look more like a potty and everyone tells me that she will be tearing apart the garden next.
Now, these critters were brought into the USA (Louisiana to be exact) for the fur. Apparently they make a fantastic hat! The rule here in Oregon is that you can't catch and release, you can't shoot in city limits. So grab a cage, drag it to the country and fire away!!!! yee haw!
I plan on breaking the law and releasing it into the wetlands area. If you see me on the 6 o'clock news please come bail me out of jail. I don't like killing things, even if they are pests. I even catch mice and release them far away. I do kill spiders though, so WATCH OUT nasty little spiders!!! I will smush you in a second.

Fairy Festival

There was a Fairy festival last weekend and I took Zionna. Last month she drew what she wanted her dress to look like and then I went to work sewing it. I made it out of a pillow case, a valance, and some sheer rainbow fabric. I am thinking of making these dresses and trying to use 100% recycled material from thrift stores and then maybe sell them on etsy.
We had a lot of fun at the fairy festival wandering around the life size Candy Land board and playing with our friends. For our wings we used coat hangers, and tights that Zionna outgrew. Then we painted designs on them. I didn't get a photo of mine but I was wearing some of course!

Don't eat the leaves!

While in my garden area I discovered a very large plant that looked familiar. Turns out it was rhubarb growing from the past owners of our house. My grandmother always grew a ton of rhubarb and made the best pie. I made a strawberry rhubarb pie with mine hoping the kids would eat it. Liam and Ted loved it, but Zionna decided it was too tart despite the heaping amounts of sugar I put into it. I meant to take a photo of the pie when it was finished but I got so excited about eating it that I totally forgot to take the finished photo. I could show a photo of my tummy now that I consumed almost an entire pie, but that is just gross!

Oh Oprah..what have you done???

I just received an email about Oprah and her new church????
I was very confuses so I watched the YouTube video in the link to see what was going on. I mean, I don't watch TV so I can miss things like this if I'm not careful. Or maybe I am being careful by missing them.
Here is the video... and if you don't have time to watch it makes Oprah look like a cult leader and then at the last 2 seconds throws Obama in the mix.

My response:

My thoughts on this would be that Oprah is like so
many people today, she is searching. With her busy
life I would guess that she is very lonely and so it
makes since that she would be searching for a deeper
spirituality.  I know she was hanging out with a bunch
of Scientology people awhile back. She is lost.
 As far as the Church of Oprah, well yeah she is
teaching a web class.  She does that sort of thing
with her book club.  I think she is just excited to be
feeling something and wants to share it just like
anyone would.   Of course she is Oprah so she is
sharing it with millions.  Is she evil? Trying to
corrupt Christians and others? Nah, she is just trying
to share her experience in her personal search for
enlightenment. 
Hopefully those Christians watching will have a faith
strong enough that this won't throw them off course.
Perhaps those unbelievers who watch will continue
searching and eventually land upon Christ. 
Ok, and the Obama thing at the end was just silly.
That had nothing to do with the entire show so I'm
guessing a McCain or Clinton person put the video
together.   Oprah endorses Obama, not to be racist but
it sorta makes since.  First black president seems
like the kind of person a woman who so proudly
recognizes her heritage would endorse.  Obama wasn't
meditating or on the web conference so why stick his
name on the end? 
Did Fox news make this?  LOL!
:) 

Robotic Baby "Care"

Do you wish that you could afford a Nanny take care of your baby for you? We all know how expensive a nanny would be, especially a night nanny. Well, now you are in luck! For only 24.99 you can have your very own robotic baby timer. No longer will you have to wonder or care why your baby is screaming. Simply check the timer and it will tell you if the baby is wet, needs food, or should just be ignored because clearly it isn't TIME for it to need anything yet.
It even has a little night light to keep your baby feeling safe when you don't come in.

Why bother listening to your baby or reading the clues that it gives. You know that little uncomfortable wiggle and cry when the diaper is wet. Well, don't bother yourself with that. In fact, with a little luck you won't have to even look at your baby for most of the day. Just make sure the timer is close enough to hear it go off and enjoy your day.

I saw this product when I was cutting through the baby section to dodge the toy aisle. I must say that I was horrified and then just really sad because I am sure a million of these things will be sold. When you think about how babies are born today it makes since as the next step.
The entire pregnancy and birth is timed and measured and women are told when they should be dilating, when they should be pushing, and when when should be cut open since it's taking too long and dinner is getting cold. It only makes since that someone would try to continue this pattern of technology intervention.

Good News!

If you watch the evening news, or really any kind of news then you know that Good news just isn't in style as far as the media goes. Today I discovered a great website for some good news.
I could go on and on but... why not just let you go there yourself. Check THIS out!