Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Happy Fall Ya'all


Okay that's so cliche but I couldn't help it. I love Fall! Who doesn't right? Scarecrows on the front porch, pumpkins by the front door begging to be carved, and actually being able to pull the sweaters out of the closet (here in SoCal that only last for a few days so we really take advantage). Can't you just smell that pumpkin pie cooking in the oven...or maybe not!

One of my favorite Fall traditions is making my favorite Pumpkin Bars recipe courtesy of our long lost blogger friend Annie. I love these things! I make them every year - several times in fact. I love giving them out to neighbors and taking them to any Fall Festivities we might be attending. Imagine my surprise when I went to Vons last week to stock up on my canned pumpkin for the season only to find out there is a NATIONWIDE CANNED PUMPKIN SHORTAGE! Whaaat? At first I thought the teenage clerk helping me just didn't know what aisle the pumpkin was on (I couldn't find it anywhere) and was trying to brush me off. But after he confirmed with his manager that the shelves were empty and he didn't know when any would be coming in - I was shocked. One more thing to add to my food storage - canned pumpkin. Who would have thought.

I looked it up on the Internet when I got home and sure enough there is a shortage. "They" say not to worry, production will catch up but I'm not taking any chances. I bought the last three cans they had a Stater Brothers and I'm keeping my eyes open for more. Have you tried to pie canned pumpkin this year? Am I being punked or is there really a shortage?

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Trees

Remember the age old question "If a tree falls in the forest, and there is nobody around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

A favorite song around here is

Trick or treat
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat
If you don't, I don't care...

And then the line is supposed to say I'll pull down your underwear.

Being the mean mom that I am I don't allow my kids to say the line about pulling down underwear. To get around that they've been creative about inserting different silly things like "I'll knock down your silly door" or "I'll take your rocket for a week or two" (they make no sense) This song is sung any time of year whether it's Halloween or not. On occasion I have heard them whispering into friends ears what the forbidden line is and everybody giggles.

Tonight Emma was walking into the kitchen singing the song and caught herself before belting out the line about underwear. She quickly inserted some silly phrase about rockets for the sake of her mother who was listening (me). Then she asked "mom, if I sing it to a tree than is it okay since they don't wear underwear anyway?" I gave her a funny look and said "huh?" She replied "If I sing to a tree, and nobody is standing by me, than is it okay since the trees don't have underwear ?"

So...the question isn't whether a tree falling in the forest makes a sound. The real question is: if you sing to a tree about pulling down it's underwear does it really count as something naughty since trees don't wear underwear?

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Why I Love This Kid



Tonight at bedtime:
I start tucking Jacob in, but then he remembered he forgot to brush his teeth. We go and do that and on the way back to his room I say "why don't you go kneel down and say your prayers and I'll just watch by the door" (I usually kneel down with him but I was oh so tired tonight and trying to take a shortcut.) I mentioned the fact that he was getting older and could start doing that on his own. His response "but mom, I'm the same years old as I was before so I still want you to come in". How can I argue with that.

During his prayer:
"Please bless everyone that they will sleep good tonight, except the robbers and the bad guys, don't bless them to sleep good, but bless the good guys that they will sleep good. Bless the poor people that might have to sleep on the ground because it's hard, please bless that they can sleep good and make the ground not so hard for them".

Daily Recap

Favorite Moments Today:

Playing iphone light sabers with Ben - me on my iphone and he on my dad's. Swinging iphones at each other and watching his face saying "I got you!" all to the background sound of Star Wars and Light Sabers - best App I've downloaded yet!

Picking cherry tomatoes off the vine and popping them in my mouth while out enjoying the backyard. Watching the kids pick beans and tomatoes off the vine and popping them in their mouths.

Dumbest thing I did today:

Turned on the Rotisserie to cook the Rotisserie chicken but forgot to turn on the heat. It was spinning round and round but not getting cooked. Delayed dinner by one hour. Had to turn on Dinotrain for the kids to watch to appease the wait. Have you seen Dinotrain? PBS. My kids love it.

What I didn't get done today:

Finish the laundry
Mop the floor
Plant my fall garden
clean my room
*sigh*

What I did get done today:

Went on a walk with a friend
Played Thomas cards with Jacob (thanks Wendy)
Fixed some sprinkler heads
Checked Facebook
Practiced the Piano
Finished my Visiting Teaching


Monday, September 28, 2009

Signing In

Back to School, Back to early bedtimes, Back to the blog. Wow it's been a long time. So long it took me a few tries to find the right password to log in. I feel a little rusty at this but I'm sure it will all come flowing back to me just like riding a bike, which I have been doing lately and I haven't fallen off yet. There is so much to say I couldn't possibly say it all so I'll just start with the present. This will be a little bit of a boring catch up about which each of my kids are doing, more for my record keeping than for yours but if your interested keep reading.

The first few weeks of first grade were rough! Not at school. Emma's doing great at school. It's not until she gets home that the explosions happen. I think sitting in a classroom all day on her best behavior just about took it all out of her. She comes home and throws tantrums reminiscent of her three's and four's. My patience was all but got and things have finally settled down. She really likes her teacher, she loves recess, and has done the monkey bars so much she has blisters all over both hands. I so remember those days! Monkey bar blisters, tether ball bruises on the pinky - oh the memories.

Jacob is in "pre-k" as they call it at his school instead of preschool and he just thinks he's so cool being in "pre-k" this year. He has a really great teacher. He's gotten this really crazy streak lately which is new for him and quite honestly I hope it doesn't last long because I can only handle one crazy kid and stay sane. For those of you who know my kids know which one I'm talking about! I need my mellow middle child to stay mellow.

Ben is just such a funny kid! He loves life and lives it large. He has a great vocabulary and keeps us laughing. He's starting to hit that "I don't want to take a nap stage" and my brain is screaming "noooooo" I'm not ready for that yet!

All my favorite Fall shows have started and I even have missed the first episode of most of them. Usually I"m on pins and needles and Fall line up doesn't start soon enough for me. But this year I was like "what??? it's already Fall and I've missed my shows?" I swear summer flew by. I loved summer this year. We traveled, we relaxed, we swam, we slept in sometimes (by sleep in I mean 7:30), and we stayed up late. I didn't stress about bedtime or dinnertime and all that. We just lived Joi de Vivre and it was great. I was sad to see it come to an end. I guess since it was our first real school year it was our first real summer. When you're a mom of little ones seasons don't really mean a whole lot except for the holidays. (especially in So Cal where the weather doesn't even change). You don't have to plan vacations by a calender or schedule dr. appt's for after school hours. It's so nice. It takes getting used to have school age kids - the whole ballgame changes. Now I have to plan vacations at the same time everyone else does.
At first I was really bummed for school to be starting, having to run a routine again, run kids here and there, and lose the carefree - ness of summer. But now that we're in the swing of things I'm actually starting to enjoy start of a new season. So Happy Yom Kippur (we got it off school), Columbus Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving and here's to a Fall full of joy and laughter. What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

Monday, August 10, 2009

Too Busy to Blog

You'll have to excuse my absence this summer, we've been too busy to blog...


Taking road trips...



Playing at the beach...


Swimming in the pool.


Going to baseball games


Watching our Monarch Catepillars grow and build cacoons




Harvesting the garden.


Enjoying our new pets.

See you in the Fall!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Summer Mornings

Can I just say...I love Summer mornings! Kids sleeping in a little from all they partying the day before (sleeping in means 7:00am), laying in bed contemplating what I'm going to do when I get up and none of it involves carpooling or packing lunches, watching the kids stumble to the couch with bushy hair and sleepy eyes (usually in their underwear as we've been on a summer pajama strike) giving me snuggles before they move on to their morning activities. *sigh* Summer is half over and I'm already not looking forward to going back to school. I didn't really differentiate between summer and any other season (except for the weather) until I had two kids in school last year. All the hustle and bustle of getting kids out the door in the morning is not missed around here. Although I guess if we didn't have that hustle and bustle I wouldn't appreciate these relaxed summer mornings as much. I'm sure as the kids get older and the craziness gets crazier - I'll appreciate even more these lazy summer mornings with nothing to do, nowhere to be, no people to see.