Simple Food

BEETS!

(This batch came from my mom's vegetable garden this fall.)For some reason when beets are mentioned lots of people turn their noses up - including a few of my children. (I remember a little children's book my family used to have about a kid who refused to eat his beets until he had a bad dream about a giant beet coming to eat him.) I can't figure that out - because if ever there was a vegetable that was sweet, yummy & easy to make, this is it.

People seem to get all fussy about removing the tough skin, and so end up avoiding them all together because if you're trying to peel them first they're tricky and really messy. I deal with them the way I deal with new potatoes: scrub 'em, chop 'em, steam 'em - and then add a little butter at the end. Plus, beet greens are super nutritious. I like to saute' them with a little butter and garlic, just until they wilt a little. The kids actually love the greens. (go figure?)

Beets + quinoa for dinner. That's what I'm talking about.

A Very Merry Christmas and A Botched Good Deed

Merry Christmas all!
We decided to make the holiday a little more interesting this year by taking in an injured bird intending to nurse it back to health. The afternoon before Christmas Eve the kids and I rescued a dove from the clutches of our cat Pluto, who's lately had a taste for wild birds (she can't help herself when the evergreen in our front yard is the winter residence of every bird within 10 miles). Typically we find out that she's been hunting when we find a pile of feathers at our door in the garage. This time we caught her in the act...and the bird was still alive. With kids crying for me to save the bird, what could I do? I could tell that she was badly injured, but I just couldn't walk away and let the cat kill her. I found a shoe box, gently put the bird in and carried the box upstairs to my bathtub. We gave her food, tried to clean her up & I gave her water from an eye-dropper.

When I told Mike over the phone what I'd done he was very doubtful, but nice. The dove actually seemed to be doing better over the next 24 hours - and I was beginning to wonder what to do with her long-term until she could fly again.

Christmas Eve...

We went to Mike's parents' to have Christmas Eve dinner and open some gifts with them. We had a good time and awesome food over there (as usual). It was great to see everyone. Two of Mike's brothers, Tim and Gary, were in town.

Afterward we headed over to the Sullivans' for the annual nativity. It's always a highlight at Christmas. This year my mom was calling our production a "journey to Bethlehem."

The cast suiting up.

I seriously LOVE my niece's face in this one.

Shepherds in their fields.

Meanwhile...

We returned home Christmas Eve to find that the dove had died. I felt really bad knowing that I had only managed to prolong its suffering...poor thing. Mike was very sweet and refrained from telling me, "I told you so." The kids soon shook off their sorrow because it was Christmas Eve after all...and the bird had gone to a better place.

Christmas morning brought all the usual excitement, and kids begging us to get out of bed so they could go see what Santa brought.

We made our way through lots of wrapping paper. And then our parents and lovely grandmothers paid a visit to see the kids in the morning. We are so happy to have both of them here this year. We finished out the day at the Sullivans with a big Christmas dinner. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. We have so much to be grateful for... especially Christmases like this when our kids are young.

Festivus...and more

You gotta love Noble... Christmas Nativity on the ice planet, Hoth

We've had a BUSY week. In general, I try and avoid scheduling so much...but at Christmas time it's hard not to. In contrast, this is how my sister and her family spent the week. (Can't wait to get down there for a visit next month.) The rest of us (most of the rest of us) toughed it out in the cold with our own Christmas fun:

"All the cool kids at the back of the bus..." On the train at the Pioneer Village

We got together with the Sullivans (including my Grandma up from Silver City, New Mexico) at This is the Place Monument (the Historic Pioneer Village) for Candlelight Christmas. Christmas as it was observed on the 19th Century frontier: colder, darker, quieter. I think stuff like this is pretty cool. (I'm glad my kids do too... so far). We ran into my cousin Brian, who is the biggest Civil War reenactor junkie of all time (and apparently does the pioneer thing on the side - here he is as a shepherd outside the live nativity).

The kids had their Christmas Sing-Around at school on Thursday...and that's always kind of a big deal because Christmas excitement is thick in the air.

Here's Grace (shortie on the left) singing with the second grade. I only got off a few decent shots because I was crammed in the very back corner of the room with Sully. The place was packed with parents and grandparents.

I also finished up the Christmas shopping, did 8,000 loads of laundry, helped the kids make Christmas gifts for their friends and teachers & went with all our 19 Activity Day girls (including Jessie) for a Christmas/skating/pizza party at Classic Skating. (I have to tell you, you'll never see more heavy eye-liner and badly fitting ratty tank tops ANYWHERE.)


And, of course, I snuggled as much as possible with Sully.

Here he is attacking me in the kitchen this week. My favorite part of this picture is his teeth visible through the binky...grinning.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Christmas cards are sent. Most of the decorations are up. We missed putting up any outside lights this year (it snowed on us before we could get to that). We were looking into some solar powered lights this year. Maybe we'll have to wait to put them up next Christmas.

As Christmas trees go, ours is no designer creation. It's full of all the gnarly preschool/hand-made kid ornaments we've collected over the years. Plus we strung some cranberries this year. Messy but so pretty. We even have MY kindergarten ornament, which my mom gifted back to me a few years ago.

10 more days... of Sully pulling all the ornaments off the tree & smacking the angel on the Little People Nativity to hear "Away in a Manger" all day long... love it.

David McCullough and Natalie Cole

David McCullough next to the tiny cottage/office in his yard where he writes.

Mike was lucky enough to score coveted tickets to the annual MoTab Choir Christmas concert. I was all over that when I found out that my favorite author, David McCullough, would be the guest narrator/speaker. Natalie Cole is great and all...but I was there for the super-star historian. In another life I would do what he does (except I would probably use a computer - he writes his books with just a type writer - his publishers must love that). He spoke at Mike's graduation at the U. this past year (too bad we didn't make it in person to the ceremony). I was bummed that he didn't speak longer than he did at the concert - but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

Almost a Snow Day

Ok...I don't think this was actually a snow day - but it's a great photo anyway. This is 1992... I think...some of the gang from Ingot Way. Why didn't anyone get any pictures of our real snow-days? Pulling each other at break-neck speed around the block on tubes behind 4-wheelers & motorcycles? Man, we had SO MUCH FUN!

After shoveling ten feet of snow from the drive way (twice) and 300 feet of sidewalk...I opted out of my morning run. We received NO snow in November ... but no worries, we caught up last night. As I drove the kids to school this morning I was trying to figure out how much worse it would have to get for them to call a snow day. Morning traffic was at a stand-still. We sat in a line of cars trying to keep pace with a guy who was WALKING next to us on the side of the road. Whenever he passed us the kids would moan,"Oh man! He's passing us!" But then every few minutes traffic inched forward a little bit and we'd creep up behind him, kids cheering wildly ("We're bookin'! Look we're going to catch him!!!) Ha ha ha ha! It was so hilarious.


We've had the fire on all day long (I hope our gas bill isn't a million dollars next month).

Wednesday Morning

Cold this morning.

In the carpool we watched a GIANT full moon set over the Oquirrh Mountains to the northwest, and then the sun rise under a bank of clouds between Lone Peak and Timp in the east. It was a sublime moment in the carpool.

Then I came back home to hang out with Sully.

There was a time (when Jess was little) when this stay-at-home-mom thing felt like dull business, like I'd given up something more important, like I was wasting my options and talents. I can't say I ever regretted having kids or staying home to raise them - but there was a time when it seemed like I was being left behind by the world.

That all changed several years ago. I realized that the "sacrifices" I thought I was making weren't actually sacrifices, that I had gained the most.... I was embarrassed that I had ever felt negative and apologetic about being a mom.

Even though there are lots of times when I still feel frustrated and exhausted, I can honestly say that I appreciate my job as mother more now. I think I see it in a more truthful light = THE most important (and satisfying) work. Motherhood (actually parenthood in general) does more to refine and teach us the essential lessons in life than anything else I can think of. It's constantly humbling, challenging, thankless, and beautiful. Makes us into creatures who live to give to others. I can see that better now.

I'm back...and better than ever.

You don't know what you've got until it's gone.

Amen to that.

Our new computer arrived via UPS this morning!! - and our man Tim had everything transferred and running smoothly tonight. Oh man - it is so nice.

So, a bit of an update is in order.

As a family we've finally worked our way through every viral and bacterial malady known to the CDC. Our grand finale was my attempt at the flu and pink eye at the same time (thanks Sully). We appreciated all the well wishes and concerned phone calls over the last month. I think we've fulfilled our illness quota for the next 5 years (and probably come pretty dang close to maxing our lifetime insurance limit). My mom was there when I needed her: picking kids up from school, putting dinner on for my family, folding laundry, the beautiful roses she cut and brought just to cheer me up (it worked). Thanks also to Mike's mom for the yummy soup and the nebulizer just when we needed it.

Three days into my Tamiflu regimen I felt well enough to take a day trip with my friend Kirsten to Heber to print our Christmas cards on a vintage letter press. Her brother and sister-in-law own the studio and press. I had a great time & the cards are pretty cool as well. Here's a picture of me at the press (scroll to the bottom).

Jessie performed with her class last week in A Mid-Summer Night's Dream as Hermia. They did an outstanding job, really. Here's a little clip with Jess - (in purple):

After the play Mike ran into his mission president and his wife (their grand kids apparently go to our school). That was crazy - it's been 15 years. They were so pleased to see Mike and talk to him. I snapped a picture.

As usual we have lots going on. I'm just glad I'm back in the game...and that I have a computer again.

Wha...???

I was sick for a while. Really sick. (I still sound like a toad.)

Our computer breathed it's last. Our new system hasn't arrived yet.

Result: I've been pretty much disconnected from the outside world.
This post comes to you courtesy of my mom...and her computer (which I stopped to use so I could find out just how much of life has passed me by over the last two weeks - you'd be surprised).
Still...there's something kind of nice about having no internet in your house for a while (once you get past the anxiety of missing important emails, having to wait to start all the Christmas shopping, going without convenient information, balancing the check-book, etc.)...
Anyway, I should be back in the land of the connected this week. Until then...if you need me... my phone still works. :)

Addendum

As a supplement to my last post, this documentary aired on PBS tonight - the influence of the Beatles on the opening of the USSR. Pretty cool.

...and the WALL came tumbling down

Our computer's been in it's death throws this week... but thanks to the skills of my bro-in-law, we've got it limping along until our new system is up. (Actually we're not technically related at all. He's married to my Russian "foster sister", Lena - which segues nicely into my post for today.)

Twenty years ago yesterday the Berlin Wall came down. I remember, as a 14 year old kid, thinking that the impossible had just happened...and it was only a matter of time before the Soviet Union dissolved. For anyone who grew up during the Cold War (who watched Red Dawn in horror as a child -- I know, it's laughable now) the fall of the Berlin Wall represented a gigantic change of paradigm.

I spent a summer in Russia not too many years after the collapse of the Soviet Union (where I met Lena) & saw some of the painful transition from a communist state. Later, in college I did my senior paper on the roll of western pop-culture in the demise of the Soviet Union/eastern bloc. It's a subject that has continued to fascinate me.

In commemoration, here are a few of my favorite books on the subject...for anyone remotely interested:

A very cool little children's book - one man's experience growing up in the Soviet bloc (and later defecting).

In my opinion, probably the best book written on the subject. I literally cried reading it.

Simple Food

My Mom's Chicken Eggs

My mother loves to keep a small brood of hens around her orchard - both for company and for the eggs. I think they have something like 6 chickens right now producing, as my Dad calculated, 15 dozen eggs a month. Subsequently, we receive a dozen here and there. I LOVE them.

Happy chickens ranging free around the orchard...the good life.

Halloween Highlights

As with any holiday in a large family, Halloween was pretty action-packed. Too much to show here on the blog (by the way, if someone could show me how to do a photo collage or slide-show in a post - that would be great). To begin with everyone was mostly over the plague which over-took us this week (in the end, everyone but Jessie, Mike and I fell victim). Tillman did an abbreviated trick-or-treat this year - just our circle - before he settled in, watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The other kids went full-throttle, the oldest two trying to set a record for pounds of candy accumulated in one night. As you might surmise, at the end of the evening there was a great divide between the "rich" and the "poor" (one child to the next) if you measure prosperity in candy. In the past we have let the kids eat some on Halloween night and then dumped it all into the communal candy bucket where everyone partakes equally until the candy gives out sometime around Christmas. They've complained in the past about this...but with some effort they usually see reason. This year the kids held a special emergency meeting in one of the upstairs bedrooms - and then came down with a whiteboard and note cards to lay out their "Candy Objections" (that was literally written on the white board). Each of the kids stood and read their grievances from their note card ("It should be our choice if we get a stomach ache." "We went out in the night to get our candy, we should be able to keep it." etc.) - followed by a vote: for the "Bucket" OR for the "Kids". We didn't know the kids could unionize like that. Mike and I felt a little rail-roaded...for about a minute. Then Mike started in about Democracy vs. Parent-ism, and calmly explained how parents had to be responsible for certain choices involving their children. Then he opened the floor to suggestions for compromise. In the end we resolved upon a new official

Halloween Candy Policy:

Introduction:

In order to provide for a more equal distribution of Halloween booty, and to ensure the health of each family member while protecting the rights of those members to enjoy their hard-earned holiday treats, we adopt these rules.

Article 1:

To preserve the rights of trick-or-treaters to enjoy their own candy, following the yearly acquisition of said candy each child shall choose 25 of their favorite items to be reserved in a bag for their own consumption. No trading or bartering shall be allowed after the initial selection process (also see Article 3).

Article 2:

To ensure greater equality of candy distribution, after the Favorites Selection, all remaining Halloween candy will be pooled into the Jack-o-lantern bucket to be shared equally.

Article 3:

For the protection of the health and well-being of family members all Halloween candy shall be consumed in moderation, by parental consent.

Halloween 2009

The crowd favorite at this year's Sullivan Halloween Bash: Casey, Helen & clan as Ghost Busters / ghosts (or Ghost Busters meets KKK)

Randy & Ralphie (if you don't get it, we'll have to talk)

Neighborhood kids... I especially love the sweet Optimus Prime (or as Noble called him "Awesomeness Prime")

Sully in the living room enjoying some Smarties

Psycho Sick

This says it all...

CONTAINMENT - Wii-style

We have spent much of the last week and a half coping with one ailment after another. With 5 kids, it's been a bit of a challenge to keep track of who's had what when (especially because Mike and I are operating on less than 4 hours of sleep a night for the last 3 nights). This morning I groggily sat over my calendar trying to recall and make a note of what days were missed at school over the last week by which child, and what variety of symptoms they'd experienced when. I AM PRetty Much EXHAUSTED.

Health update: Noble is recovering from a case of H1N1 - all Tamiflu-ed up. Tillman suspected to have the same thing (no Tamiflu prescribed because he has less of an asthmatic history & they're saving Tamiflu for riskier cases - the doctor told him tough luck). Grace tested negative for strep, most likely a stomach virus unrelated to flu (getting better).

I have to tell you, that in 11 years of parenting I haven't seen anything like this. For starters just the sheer variety of symptoms (bouts of vomiting, days later: cough and extreme fever) multiplied by 4 kids (Sully is so far unscathed - knock on wood). Plus, stuff that I have NEVER seen before like the past two nights - Noble has had constant hallucinations with his fever.

THAT is freaking scary.

He's telling me: "Mom, where are all the people that were with me? They keep disappearing when I get up to go to them. They're carrying musical instruments. Mom, my arm is tingling!!! I keep trying to wash it off! It's smaller than the other one!!" This, was how he explained running up and down the stairs ALL NIGHT LONG. I kept thinking, "He's totally having bad dreams." But then he was completely cogent and interactive. And he remembers all of it... says that the people (the same ones came the second night) weren't scaring him, just keeping him awake, he could hear voices.

I know, it was completely psycho... it scared me to death. I was so close to rushing him to the emergency room at 2 AM. Mike finally gave him a blessing & he slept after that.

YIKES. Seriously, Jessie's habit of sleep walking is enough to weird me out - but this was nuts.

Snap-shots from the week

Mitch gets a hair cut (Grace took this picture - not bad for a 7 year old)

A moment of irony living with an economist - a capitalist lulled to sleep by a communist

Carving pumpkins @ Sullivans'- Grandma helped / cranked CCR over her new intercom while Grandpa made cookies (furniture conveniently cleared away, their floor recently refinished)

Most recent project: a spot to show off the kids' art & school stuff. Holly left instructions for this one. (Of course. You didn't think I would attempt this unaided? I actually got last minute instructions from her over the phone as I went out to buy the stuff.) A 4x8 piece of sound-proofing board cut in half, glued, backed with masonite, covered in fabric. We found the fabric at IKEA. (I really like it. Thanks Mike for picking it out!) The friendly folks at The Home Depot hooked us up with everything else.

I finished putting it together while Mike watched BYU get squashed by TCU.

I like it.