I Blog About Nothing

Tip or dare: Restaurant vs Homemade

2012-01-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

We don't eat out very often. Every once in a while we might pick up pizza or get fast food, but those occasions are really rare. However, D's Dad usually takes our family out to dinner around each of our Birthdays and lets whoever is celebrating their Birthday pick where we eat. For instance, #4's favorite place to pick is Pig 'N Pancake, and earlier this month on his Birthday, we all went there for dinner.

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Breast Dinner at a cost of $10.95. It comes with a choice of soup or salad, vegetables, a choice of sides (rice pilaf, baked potato, mashed potato or fries) and bread. I picked a clam chowder and a baked potato for my meal and then spent the rest of the meal and a big chunk of the evening thinking about how much it cost for the food I got vs how much it would have cost me to make the same thing at home. In fact, it has been bothering me off and on for a few weeks so I finally sat down to figure things out. My meal consisted of:

A cup of clam chowder

A slice of baguette style bread with butter

Vegetables (in this case squash, broccoli, onions and bell peppers, not my favorite so I only ate the broccoli)

A grilled chicken breast (boneless, skinless and fairly small, probably 4oz)

A baked potato with butter and sour cream

Also on the plate was a slice of orange for garnish, which I left out of my cost comparison.

First I decided to add up the cost of everything per serving if I were to buy it all separately. I went with soup from our local Cash and Carry (Restaurant supply) and depending on what is on sale that week the soup would cost between $.58 and $1.00 for a one cup serving. A 3lb bag of garden salad (Costco) comes out to about $.10 a serving, while croutons purchased at regular grocery chain prices run about the same cost as the salad per serving. I priced salad dressing at $.13 cents a serving if I were to be paying about $2.50 for a bottle. I never actually pay that price myself as I watch for sales, but I thought it was fair to err on the side of expensive. Vegetables I priced at about $3.00 for 2 lbs. This is for the fancier kinds like a carrot, broccoli and squash mix vs regular mixed veggies which are substantially less money. Veggies came out at about $.30 a serving. When it came down to the chicken I was in a quandary. I typically don't buy chicken unless I can get it for $2.00 per pound or less. However, I know that the restaurant was using portioned chicken because all of us that ordered chicken with our dinners got nearly identical looking, flattened chicken breasts. So I checked out the Cash and Carry again and found that a 6 lb box of portioned chicken regularly costs about $15 (or $2.50 a pound). I am pretty sure the portions we got were either 4oz or 6 oz, but for the sake of generosity to the restaurant I also figured out the price for a half pound of chicken which came out to $1.25 per serving. 4 oz would have been about $.63 per serving and 6 oz would have been $.94. For the baked potato I decided on a generous 8 oz also. Potatoes at the Cash and Carry generally average out at about $.20 per pound, and a lot less if you are buying it in 50 lb bags. I went with the cost of 10lbs of potatoes and figured the cost at $.10 per 8oz potato. I even added up the cost of butter. I get it at Costco for $2 per pound. Did you know that a pat of butter is usually a half a tablespoon? So my butter came out to $.07 because I allowed for two pats, one for the bread and one for the potato. A serving of sour cream is about an ounce. I priced sour cream at a cost of $2.00 for 16 ounces (again, I never buy it at that price) which came out to $.13 cents per serving. Lastly our local grocery store usually has baguettes for $1.00 each, and I figured on dividing it into 8 servings, so that would be another $.13. My totals for dinner came out to $3.31 for the food on my plate (minus the orange slice). I know that the restaurant buys in bulk and gets better prices on things like butter, sour cream and etc. I also figured the total using the higher priced soup vs the sale one, and I allowed for both soup AND salad instead of having to choose between the two. With the sale priced soup, the smallest chicken portion (which is the size I think I had) and no salad the cost goes down to $1.94 and if I chose salad over soup it would only cost $1.69 per serving.

Then I thought about how if I was making this meal for a big group of people, the number of servings wouldn't really match up for each item. I decided to price it buying everything I would need to make the meal for 16 people. My shopping list included:

A 72 oz package of Broccoli and Cheddar soup: $12, serves 16.

3lb garden salad: $2.00, serves 20

Croutons: $2, serves 20

1 bottle of ranch dressings: $2.50, serves 20

4 lb frozen veggies, Normandy blend (carrots, broccoli and cauliflower): $6.00 serves 20

6 lbs chicken breast in 6oz portions: $15 serves 16

10 lb potatoes: $2.00 serves 20

1 lb butter: $2.00 serves 32

16 oz sour cream: $2.50 serves 16

2 baguettes: $2.00 serves 16

The total cost is $48.00, which comes out to $3.00 per serving. I did choose to go with a soup that had 16 servings rather than 12, but it is still restaurant quality soup and I could have opted for the sale price soup at $7 and gone even cheaper. I went with the 6oz chicken size as well for the sake of keeping 16 as the number of servings. There would also be extra servings of salad, croutons, dressing, potatoes, butter and veggies after the meal was over, and I know that if I shopped sales and coupons I could do this for substantially less money.

So what do you think? My tip is to think about what you are spending your money on when you are eating out. I know that you are paying for more than food. You are paying for the waitstaff, the cooks, the dishwashers, the rent or mortgage on the restaurant and probably a lot more. For yourself you are probably paying for an evening of relaxation and not having to worry about the time it takes to cook a meal and you are paying to not have to clean it up afterwards either.

Still, if 16 people ate that meal together at a restaurant, it would cost $175.20 plus at least $26.28 in tips for a grand total of $201.48. I personally think I'd rather pocket the $153.48 difference and pay myself to do the cooking and the clean-up (or better yet, make my kids wash the dishes).

Go ahead...save yourself some money! I DARE you!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

We don't get snow here very often. So when we had some last week Miss B was very excited to play in it.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday #4

2012-01-11T21:52:00.000-08:00

K recently celebrated his birthday. Here are some pics of him over the years.

Baby K really loved his Pacifier

Around the time he turned one, his hair turned blond

I noticed while looking through pics that K often has dirt on his face somewhere. That is especially true of beach pictures.

Sweet smile.

K has always loved pretending and dressing up.

First day of school.

He has always loved having his picture taken.

Those permanent teeth sure make them look older! There's a big difference between six and seven.

At his Baptism.

K loves being a Cub Scout.

Happy 10th K! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-04T11:49:00.001-08:00

It may not be too exciting for my readers, but it was exciting for us!

Our first ever brand new fridge! We ordered it in the middle of November, and it finally arrived the day after Christmas. It's nice to have an energy efficient fridge with a light that works!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-21T10:48:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas, from our Santa Baby!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-14T21:11:00.001-08:00

D and I went to the Jetty on Monday.
It was a beautiful day. I'd been missing taking pictures and it was great to get back into it.

Gratitude: My Beliefs

2011-11-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

For my final gratitude post, I'd like to express my thankfulness for my beliefs. I'm thankful for the foundation that my parents gave me and for the path that my life has taken through building on that foundation. I'm thankful for the knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father who sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be my Saviour and my example of how to strive to live my life. I'm thankful for the knowledge that I don't ever have to be alone, even when things can sometimes feel hopeless. I'm thankful to have a testimony of eternal marriage and families and that communication between God and man exists today. It is a great comfort to feel God's love and influence in my life. I'm grateful for the restoration of Christ's church, and my membership in it. I am thankful for Christ's life and his sacrifice for me as well as his continued love and the knowledge that He still lives!

I so testify, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Gratitude: skills

2011-11-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for skills. Both my own and those of others. You might think this one was covered by the talents post, but I truly think that skills and talents are different things, although they can overlap. I'm very grateful for the opportunity I have had to learn the skills I have, and to be blessed by the skills of others. I'm thankful for the skills that my children are being taught that they will continue to develop throughout their life. I'm thankful for the skills of those people who build our homes and who manufacture the things we use. Skills are such a blessing in our lives, and it's wonderful that we can share them with each other.

Gratitude: Womanhood.

2011-11-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

I missed another day of posting. We have sick kids, and I wasn't feeling too hot either. I still think that only missing two days so far this month is pretty impressive, for me!

Today I am grateful for womanhood. I love being a woman, a wife and a Mom. I'm also so grateful for the many women who have been a positive influence in my life: Grandmothers, Moms, Sisters, Aunts, Cousins, Friends, Teachers, Leaders...I'm sending out a great big THANK YOU! to all who have been there for me and helped form the person I am today.

I'm grateful for that extra bit of compassion and nurturing that so many women have, and I'm thankful that so many have shared that in my life. Being a woman is wonderful!

Gratitude: Memories

2011-11-26T10:06:00.000-08:00

I know that memories aren't always totally reliable, but I am very grateful for the ones I have. Even though some things fade with time, it's so wonderful to be able to look back at my life and think about my favorite memories.
I really love my Grandma Nora. She died when I was 14, and oh how I still miss her! She had a great impact on my life, and I am so glad that I have memories of her and that I can still feel close to her even though I haven't seen her for over 24 years.
I'm grateful that I remember so many wonderful times in my life, and I am even grateful that I can remember the not so great times, because remembering those times helps me to appreciate what I have now even more.
I hope that I can give my family great memories in spite of how often I mess up as a parent and spouse.
I am grateful that I have memories of a Grandpa who I know loves me, even though he might not remember who I am anymore.
I'm grateful for the memories of meeting and dating D, and the beginning of our marriage and all the years that have passed since then. I'm so glad to be able to remember my children's births and baby years, and to have been able to see them grow up right in front of me.
Memories are a wonderful thing!

Gratitude: Employment

2011-11-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm very grateful for employment. Specifically at this time I'm grateful for D's employment and that we are able to have our needs met and to enjoy some really wonderful luxuries.

I'm also grateful that I have been able to be an employee when we needed it. There was a time a few years ago when D lost his job, and although he found another one, it wasn't enough to support our family. I was able to get a job working at our local Fred Meyer during the graveyard shift so that I could still be with the kids during the day. It was a hard ten months, but we were able to make it work and make ends meet. I was very grateful when D was able to get a promotion that allowed me to stop working outside of the home, and I'm glad now that he is able to make enough for me to continue to keep my focus on our kids.

Gratitude: Dreams and Goals

2011-11-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for dreams and goals. I'm so glad that people have the ability to see beyond their current situation and to reach for a better life, more happiness and joy, and to make changes.

Dreams are great, but they can be discouraging at times. I love that we can set smaller goals to help us achieve the things we want to achieve. Yes, we sometimes fall short, but it's wonderful that we can try, and we can grow and when we fail we can get back up and try again.

Gratitude: Imagination

2011-11-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

Imagination is a wonderful thing isn't it? I'm so grateful to have an imagination and for the imagination of others! Think of how boring life would be if no one could imagine something different? The inventions that would never have happened, the entertainment that would no longer be available, the hope and joy that we would miss out on. I love that I can imagine other worlds while I read, or even just in my head when I am feeling bored. Without imagination we couldn't have goals because how could we set a goal if we couldn't imagine something different for ourselves? Imagination=hope to me. I'm so glad to have it!

Gratitude: The Kindness of Strangers

2011-11-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

I'm not much of a people person. I have a tendency to keep to myself. Generally I like to stay in my own little world and I don't tend to interact a whole lot with those outside of it.

That said, I'd really like to take a moment to express my gratitude for the kindness of strangers. Just a little smile or a nice comment from someone can really make a difference. Of course there are people who aren't so kind, but since this is a post about gratitude I'll just stick with kindness.

Being kind doesn't take a lot. You don't have to do anything grand or difficult. Just a smile, a friendly look, a thank you, holding the door for someone, letting someone merge in a busy traffic situation, a compliment, putting a grocery cart away for someone, not judging...there are so many ways that we can be kind!

All of these kindnesses and more have been performed for me in the past. A couple of months ago we were out to dinner with D's Dad and all our kids. Often our kids can be a handful. That's to be expected with seven of them, and on top of sheer numbers, some of them have rambunctious personalities. We were minding our own business, and for the most part the kids were being good. As we were getting ready to order our waitress let us know that a couple who had been in the restaurant when we arrived were impressed with how good our kids were behaving, and had paid for two pies of our choice off the menu. We don't know who they were, but it was a very kind and generous thing for them to do for our family. A lot of times it seems like people only notice our kids when they are misbehaving, so to have someone notice that they were being good was really a wonderful moment for us.
I'm really grateful to that couple, and to the many people who are kind to me each day!

Gratitude: Modern Medicine

2011-11-21T10:07:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful for the many ways in which medicine has progressed from the past. I'm very thankful not to have to be leeched, or bled and that so many things that used to shorten people's life spans have become less likely to do so through the use of modern medicine.

Progress is amazing!

Gratitude: Photos

2011-11-20T10:03:00.000-08:00

Most anyone who reads this blog will know that I love to take pictures. Photos, whether hard copy or digital are among my greatest treasures. I love how you can capture a moment in time in a photo, see places and events you wouldn't otherwise be able to see, and share in the lives of others through pictures. I'm so grateful to have so many photos, both old and new and to be able to share them with my family and friends.

This is a picture of my Grandmother as a teenager.

Our wedding reception.

B in her blessing dress.

North Head Lighthouse.

Gratitude: Books

2011-11-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

I love reading. I REALLY love reading. I'm so thanful for books, and that I am able to have access to so many. Books are a great way to escape from what sometimes feels a bit monotonous about life. Books open up new ideas, tell us the stories of the past and are gateways for our imaginations.

I think that literacy is one of the greatest gifts I have, and I am so glad that I am able to read and enjoy books.

Gratitude: Communication

2011-11-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

I suppose that this post could go along with technology in a lot of ways. I am grateful for communication. I'm especially grateful for the ease with which we can communicate with those who are far away. Cell phones, computers and such all make it easy for us to talk to others who might be far away.

When I was a kid I used to watch The Jetsons. I thought the video phone in that cartoon was so cool, but I didn't really think it would ever be a reality. Now we can skype with others and talk to them face to face over thousands of miles!

I'm also grateful for being able to communicate in person and spend time with friends and family members. I'm grateful for the ability to read and write. In spite of the many great technologically advanced ways of communicating, I still love getting a letter or card in the mail. It's wonderful that we have so many ways of communicating.

Gratitude: Servicemen and Servicewomen

2011-11-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

I should have done this one on Veteran's Day, but I want to express my gratitude for those men and women who serve or have served our country in the Armed Forces. We live in an area where there are a lot of Coast Guard and I am humbled to know families who continue on with life while their spouse or parent are on ship and away from home. I'm so grateful for the sacrifice of families of all branches of the military who endure so much while their loved ones are in harms way. I don't like to be away from D for even a day, and I can't imagine how hard it must be for families to be apart and worrying about the safety of their soldier for months at a time. It especially breaks my heart when those soldiers sometimes don't return. They deserve so much gratitude from all of us for their sacrifices.

My Grandpa fought in WWII, as did D's. I know that their experiences there had an effect on the rest of their lives. D's Grandpa especially had a hard time with the horrors he saw in the war and he didn't like to talk about it. I'm thankful for those who fought in wars past and those who are willing to enlist now to protect our country.

My friend Marie is an EOD tech (her job is to diffuse IED's and such) in the Air Force. She has been deployed a few times and loves her job. I'm grateful for her willingness to risk so much to help protect other soldiers. You can see a video about her and her colleagues here.

THANK YOU to all those who have been or currently are enlisted in the military!

Gratitude: Talents

2011-11-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

I'm very grateful for talents. I think it's so wonderful that we aren't all cut from the same cookie cutter. We have our own strengths and weaknesses, and we are able to support and encourage one another in our differences.

There are so many different kinds of talents. They aren't just about things you can showcase. Some people have a talent for talking to others, for helping people feel comfortable, for making people smile. There are talents that we are born with, and talents that we work hard to develop. I'm thankful for opportunities to explore my own talents and to learn and grow. And I'm very thankful for the talents of others and for their willingness to share them.

Gratitude: Heritage

2011-11-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

I'm grateful for my heritage. I have roots in a few different countries. Germany, Norway and England are where the bulk of my family came from. Some of my family came to America pre-Revolutionary War (1600's), and some came as late as 1908 from Germany. I am grateful for my ancestors and for the strengths that they passed down to me. I'm thankful that they were brave enough to start a new life in this country. Because of those choices, I am able to enjoy the many freedoms of America.

Gratitude: Knowledge

2011-11-14T16:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I missed a day, but I still think I'm doing pretty well with posting about gratitude. I thought about backdating a post for yesterday, but I think it's okay to just let it go. No need to stress!

Today I am grateful for knowledge. I'm grateful for all that I have learned, and that I have the ability to continue to learn. I'm thankful for the knowledge of others and that they are willing to share it. I'm grateful that I can read and add to my knowledge through study as well.

Gratitude: Senses

2011-11-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

Aren't senses wonderful things? I'm so grateful that I am able to see, hear, touch, taste and smell. There are so many beautiful things to see and hear. I love holding my kids and my husband. Foods to taste and smell, as well as the smell of the ocean and the rain. We are all very blessed to be able to have our senses! They connect us in so many ways. Not just our sense of touch, but the memory of a scent, or the sound of someone's voice. The taste of a special recipe might bring back childhood memories and connections to loved ones that are no longer with us.

I love seeing family and friends, babies and the beauties of nature. I love the sound of my children laughing, music and the ocean. I love the touch of my husband, holding my babies, and rain on my face. I love the taste of comfort food, of recipes that turn out well, and of my favorite ice cream. I love the smell of a newborn baby, the piney scent of a Christmas tree, and cookies baking in the oven.

These things along with so many others make me grateful for my senses!

Gratitude: Music

2011-11-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

I love music! Music has power to lift my mood like nothing else. It can be a wonderful expression of love, and of so many aspects of life.
Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My Dad writes music, sings and plays the guitar. Growing up I loved singing together as a family. I loved singing from when I was very little, even though I'm not the best singer. In 5th grade I started playing the Viola and played for about 13 years. Someday I hope to get a viola again and relearn what I have lost. My Dad gave me my first guitar when I was 12, and taught me to play. Again, I'm not the best at it, but I enjoy it. I'm hoping to get back into playing the guitar and learning to play the mandolin. I had the opportunity to be in two different bands as a young adult, and while we didn't hit the big time or anything, I really enjoyed singing, playing the guitar, viola and occasionally bass, and writing music. Music has such a great scope for expression.
Music is part of my heritage. My Grandfather was a singer and my Grandmother played the organ and piano. My parents were in a rock band together in high school. I have one of my Grandfather's mandolins and hope to learn to play it.
I love many kinds of music. This time of year I listen to a lot of Christmas music. I also enjoy many genres of music in general. D and I are particularly enjoying watching The Sing Off each week. There is music for every mood, and I find my life to be so much richer for it. I'm so grateful for music!

Gratitude: creativity

2011-11-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

Isn't it great that we can be creative? I love opportunities to be creative. Family activities, cooking, crafting, writing, music-so many great outlets for creativity! Not only am I grateful that I can be creative, but I am also so grateful for other people's creativity. So many times I have found myself at the end of my creativity and have been able to look to others for ideas and inspiration. I love that so many people are willing to share their ideas.
I'm also grateful for creativity in my children, and in the people that influence their lives; Especially teachers that use creativity to help their lessons stick in my kids' heads, and people who bring us entertainment with their creativity.

Gratitude: Freedom

2011-11-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

I'm very grateful to live in a free country. We are blessed to have the freedom to think and to worship as we choose. Free to travel the country, to get an education to express ourselves. I think that many Americans don't appreciate our many freedoms as much as they should.

Gratitude: Food

2011-11-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

Of course I am grateful for food for the nourishment and life it gives, but also for the connection that it gives to so many things.
My husband went on a mission to Korea, and when I make Korean food for our family, it connects D's memories of his mission to our life now, and it gives our children an appreciation for another culture.
I love that we can learn about other cultures and in some ways travel to other countries through their food. We might not be able to afford a trip to Europe or other places, but we can get in touch with those places by eating the food and learning about them.
Food also connects me to family memories. As I have gotten older, a lot of childhood memories have slipped away. I don't always remember events themselves, but I often remember the food that went with those events. Making sugar cookies every Christmas Eve at my Grandmother's house was something that we always looked forward to. We didn't frost the cookies, but we painted the raw cut out cookie dough with Q tips and food coloring and then baked them. Without frosting they weren't the best tasting cookies in the world, but we loved painting them with our cousins and Grandma, and we loved the way the food coloring made our mouths and tongues colorful after we ate the cookies.
My Grandmother died when I was 14. She was and still is one of my very favorite people. She didn't spoil us, and she was sometimes stern, but she loved us fiercely and she was wonderful. Even though she has been gone from us for more than 20 years, we have hot German Potato salad every Christmas Eve in her memory. It was something she always made, and it makes us feel close to her to have it then.
Lemon meringue pie and Circus Peanuts always make me think of my Grandpa and those memories of him make me smile.
When D and I were first married we lived in Utah, and far from our parents. D's Grandparents lived in Salt Lake City, and we would drive up to visit them every so often. D's Grandma always had snacks in the freezer. They were always homemade baked goods. Cupcakes frosted in maple frosting and individually packed in baggies, or cinnamon twists. She would always pull some out of the freezer when we got there. It made us feel special.
I remember my Dad taking me to a bakery near our house when I was little. It's one of my earliest memories, and it is one that I treasure.
Food has become an integral part of our family traditions. Cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning are something that my kids have all grown up with, and I hope they take that tradition into their own families when I am gone.
I love collecting recipes from loved ones and from other countries. Food, far more than just nourishment, helps to bind us together.

Gratitude: Technology

2011-11-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

There are some days when I'd like to get back to a simpler way of life, but for the most part, I am very grateful for the role that technology plays in my life.

There is the technology that allows me to be writing this blog post, and has introduced me to some very dear friends through blogging.

Technology allows for instant communication with friends and family.

It also makes it possible for D to get some of his work done from home and have more time with family.

Technology lets me take pictures of my family and of nature and lets me store those pictures to view at a later time.

It allows me to search the internet for ideas and to have education at my fingertips.

Technology helps heat our house, lights the darkness and makes life easier in many ways.

I could go on and on about the benefits of technology, but I think you get the point. I'm thankful to live at a time when technology is available for so many things.

Gratitude: Transportation

2011-11-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

I am very grateful to live at a time when there are so many forms of transportation. It's about a hundred miles to our nearest family members and I'm so glad that we have the ability to get there in about two hours. There are many times when I wish that we lived closer, but really we're very blessed to be as close as we are. I know that many people have to travel much further to see their families.
I'm also grateful that we can visit those who live further away. Just a century ago it was much harder to get from place to place. Transportation has made the world a smaller place and given people the opportunity to see things they might never have had a chance to see otherwise.

Gratitude: The Beauties of Nature

2011-11-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

Living where I do, I am extra aware of the many beauties of nature that surround me. Beauty can be found everywhere, but in my opinion, nothing quite compares to nature.

The oceans...

The rivers and streams...

The colors of sunrises and sunsets...

Woods and waterfalls...

and the lights in the heavens are a testimony to God's power and love.

Gratitude: Home

2011-11-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Even though I can be quoted as having said, "I hate this house." on occasion, I really am very grateful for it. It has provided us with safety, shelter and warmth as well as being the central point for so many of our family memories. This house has not only been our home, it has been life's classroom for our children (and for us in many ways as well). It has been a refuge from the frightening things of this world. Though I often long for a second bathroom and to replace the shag carpet and a myriad of other improvements, I am so glad that we live here in this home, and for all that it has been to us.

Gratitude...friends

2011-11-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

I have been very blessed in my life to have been able to make some very dear friends. Some of those friendships have drifted over the years, and some have remained strong. I am thankful for each friend that has been there for me over the years and through all the bumps, bruises and joys that life has brought me.
Making truly close friends isn't very easy for me. I have a lot of acquaintances and people I like, but many of them don't really know me very well. I am thankful for those people as well, but in particular today I am thankful for those friends that really know me and love me anyway. They truly enrich my life.

Gratitude for extended family

2011-11-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

Not only do I have a wonderful family in my household, but a great extended family as well. I have four sisters and a brother, and D has five brothers and three sisters. Between the two of us we have ten nieces and thirteen nephews so far. That's a lot of cousins for our kids and a lot of fun at family gatherings.

We don't always all get together as often as we'd like to, but when we do we really enjoy it. I'm particularly blessed to have all of my siblings and parents live within two hours of us, so I get to see them fairly often. D's family is much more spread out, and we wish that we were all able to be together more often.

I'm so glad that my kids are able to enjoy spending time with cousins. I got to be around a lot of cousins growing up, and it was always something I looked forward to. Having a big family is great!

My family a few years ago (there have been some additions since then)

D's side of the family at our reunion this summer (again, there have been some additions and one brother and his family weren't able to be there)

Our kids with some of their cousins at "Cousin Day Camp" over the summer.

Gratitude...

2011-11-01T12:13:00.001-07:00

I have been pretty guilty lately of feeling sorry for myself and having an attitude of wanting rather than being grateful for the things I have.

My mind has been consumed with wishing for new carpet, a second bathroom, a second car, a bigger house, etc, etc, etc.
What I really need to be doing is focusing on my many, MANY blessings and thinking about how many people in this world don't even have the basics that I enjoy every day.

With that in mind, I have decided to try to focus my blog posts for this month more on gratitude.
I've been pretty bad about blogging in general lately, so I can't guarantee anything like daily posts, but I will try to post more often and at least express gratitude for some of the wonderful things I have in my life.

To start out, I am most thankful for my family. I have a great husband who is loving, gentle and my best friend. We've been blessed with seven awesome kids who are healthy and strong. Sure, there are challenges, but I really think that the challenging times make us appreciate the good times even more. I love my family!

Our latest family pic.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

Monster House Lives!
Happy Halloween! (both pics taken by D)

Wordless Wednesday courtesy of D

2011-09-21T13:20:00.001-07:00

Boats in the bay at dawn.

Boat and bridge reflections.

Fall is fattening...

2011-09-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

I know it technically isn't Fall until September 20th, but it's close enough for me!
This weekend the rains returned to the North Oregon Coast. It has been fairly sunny all summer. Not hot, but not wet either. Just the kind of summer I love!

I had really been missing the rain, and our grass was getting crunchy and brown, so I was ready for some rain. This week it finally came. It rained Thursday night, and then yesterday and today it has been raining quite a bit. I don't mind the rain most of the time, since it makes things here green and beautiful. It does start to wear on me though when it rains for weeks without pause though. For now, I'm okay with it, even though it means the kids' shoes will be wet all the time.

Today was rainy and cool. It turned my thoughts to all the foods I have been waiting for cooler weather to enjoy. Now I'm craving soups, baked goods and comfort foods. Especially churros. I haven't made churros in a long time, but right now they sound really good.

The thing is, D and I both need to lose some weight. We each need to lose about 20 to 30 pounds, and thinking about Churros isn't helping with that! I need to find some foods that are comforting without adding a blanket of fat to my body. Any ideas for me?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-14T17:27:00.001-07:00

A snake the 11 year old scouts found on a hike. Taken by D.

Wordless Wednesday: Paint

2011-09-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here's what we've been up to lately. In progress...

Almost done on this side.
We still have to paint the gables and the porch, but we're making progress!

Apathy is my greatest enemy...

2011-09-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

And yet it seems to be my frequent companion.

I often employ apathy to ignore my stresses and problems, but somehow, when I feel apathy towards one aspect of my life, it suddenly seems to take over and I find myself feeling it about everything.

The thing is, I have a great life. I have a wonderful husband, and a beautiful family. Stress is part of life. Why is it that when I acknowledge that I have stress along with all the good things, I feel like I'm going to implode?

How do you deal with apathy?
I need to get off my rear end and start enjoying more about life!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

Barrier falls at Gnat Creek. Taken by D on a scout outing.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Butterfly in our garden. Taken by D.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

A quick note: I try to have a majority of my Wordless Weds pics be ones I took myself, but lately D has been the one behind the camera. He takes great pics, so I'm sure none of you mind that the pics over the next couple of weeks will be ones he too.

Peas in a pod...

Radish. As big as my fist.

Pea plant.

Droplets on Kale.
How is your garden doing?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

It's dragon fly season!

Basking in the setting sun

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

We recently had our annual family water fight.

Due to my involvement in said fight, all the pics today were taken by D.

Old battles were renewed.

New ones erupted. (I really love this pic of two of my sisters).

Children showed no mercy to their mothers.

Also, today is my 5th blogaversary. Time flies!

Summer report...

2011-07-21T09:16:00.001-07:00

Summer has sped by so far, and I have slipped back into my habit of posting Wordless Wednesdays and not much else. So I thought an update was in order.

First off, we got new siding on our house this summer. It was way overdue. You can see what the old siding looked like on the garage to the back and right of the house. We will eventually update the garage siding, but that will probably be a couple of years down the road. We also replaced all of our windows and the front and back doors since last summer. The pic above is before painting. We get tons of compliments on the "new color" of our house, but that is really just the primer color that came on the siding. We will be painting the house sometime before the end of summer, weather permitting. The new color is a blue called Mood Indigo, and it will have light blue, almost white trim and burgundy accents.

I haven't done a garden post all summer. We planted a little earlier than last year, but still not as early as we would have liked to. We got ten raspberry plants, which won't produce much this year, but hopefully will next year. We also have another section of garden with pumpkins growing there and we have blueberry bushes as well. We had zucchini, but slugs got to all three plants, and I haven't planted more. It has been nice to eat salads made with our own romaine, carrots and radishes, and hopefully the spinach and kale will be ready soon to add to that. So far the garden is doing well.

We enjoy the local wildlife here year round. Above some young birds are enjoying the sun. You can see a parent bird feeding one of them on the right.

We saw some nutria on a hike recently as well. They are a large otter like rodent. It was fun to see them frolicking around in the water.

Can you find the aphid in the pic above? I think it looks like a tiny shrimp. We have a lot of berries that are fairly accessible to where we live. The salmon berries above are just outside our back gate, along with some thimbleberries. We also have blackberries both in our yard and just outside of it. We are hoping that next year we will have a good crop of raspberries and blueberries to go along with all the berries that grow wild here.

Other than enjoying where we live and the mild climate here (I think we got to 70 once or twice this summer, but mostly we have been in the mid 60s) we have had a few lovely visits with family, and have more scheduled before the summer is out. With just a bit over a month of summer left we have a lot to keep us busy. How has your summer been so far?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

Summer Sunset

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Summer Flowers...

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-06T10:55:00.001-07:00

Don't you wish you were here? (photo credit to D)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

An old WWII bunker lost in the woods.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ships in the fog

The Astoria Bridge on a foggy day

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite places on earth! D and I were married here.

D took this shot.

Are you prepared? Re-evaluating our 72 hour kits

2011-06-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

I have asked this question before in a tip or dare. That was over a year ago, and I thought that it was time to revisit the subject!

Living on the Oregon Coast as we do, we are aware of the dangers of Tsunami's and such in our area. We are also overdue for an earthquake off the west coast as well, and since Japan's Tsunami in March the very real possibility of something like that happening here has been in our thoughts.

We have been pretty good about keeping our 72 hour kits, and we even did our own family Tsunami Drill last April to help the kids to be aware of how long it will take to get to our "safe zone". The main thing we learned from that drill was that our kids' packs were a bit on the heavy side, and they were slow getting to where we needed to be.

After what happened in Japan, things around this area have been re-evaluated and we found out that if there is a large earthquake in this area, we will have only fifteen minutes to get to our safe zone. Our house is three feet above sea level, and near a river. If a Tsunami did happen here, the water would first take the path of least resistance, and the rivers would flood. Our safe zone is actually towards the ocean. Crazy I know, but the elevation there is much higher than here, although still below a hundred feet above sea level. Any other direction we could go would mean crossing water and after an earthquake, the bridges and overpasses are not to be relied on, and the roads won't always be driveable either, so towards the ocean we will go, and pray that we are high enough.

Since March my thoughts have been about how long it took us to get the 1.1 miles to our safe zone when we did our drill, and with that in mind we decided to revamp our 72 hour kits and make them lighter. Our original kits had some canned food and such in them that was pretty heavy. Typically we had to switch out the canned food every year to year and half and the food was all pop top style cans so that the kids didn't have to hassle with a can opener. What we have opted with instead is to go with emergency food bars for the bulk of our food. A two day supply of food in that form weighs about the same as one can of ravioli did. The food bars we got are good until the Spring of 2016, so we won't have to worry about rotating it out as often.

I could go into a lot of details on what we got and why we got it, but I am not sure that anyone is that interested in the information, so I am just going to post a couple of pictures and a little bit of info instead. If anyone wants to know more, just ask me! .

This is a picture of one of our kids' basic kits. There is food for three days, along with other emergency items and a couple of things for entertainment (paper and pen, and a matchbox car). When I took the pics we had been planning to put the small cans of apple juice in the bag, but changed our minds about that. Everything fits together, with some room to spare should we decide to add more, into the green bag in the top left corner. The bags are military surplus that I got online, and they are rubberized and although not 100% water tight, they will keep rain and etc out pretty well unless they are submerged.

Here is a shot of the bag all packed. It has everything they need except water. This bag goes into their main backpacks that they carry their 72 hour kits in. Its contents will stay dry and protected. We also know that we won't have to rotate the food in this kit for five years, so even if we forget to rotate some of the other things in their packs, we can feel good knowing they are covered for food and basic warmth and etc.

We also put together a few very basic first aid supplies in a ziplock baggie and included it in the above kit.

Additionally each packpack contains a change of clothes, a couple of bottles of water, some snacks and granola bars, etc. These are the items we will have to be rotating every six months. I feel better knowing that they have three days worth of food in the green bags, and another full day of food as far as calories go in the foods we will rotate. The "grown up" pack also includes a water filter and water purifying tablets, so that we can get additional water if we need to. There are also additional supplies not included in the smaller kits.

Is there more I could do? Sure there is. I feel pretty good though that all the supplies for the kits above costed us around $18 including the purchase of the green bags. The additional water and snacks only amount to a couple dollars more so comparing what we have to the cost of some of the basic kits out there, I think we are doing pretty good. The kids' packs weigh around 8lbs including their water bottles, clothes and packs, and B's probably weighs less than five. We still have a few things to pull together, but all in all I am feeling pretty good about having what we need to survive for four days or more in the case of a natural disaster and evacuation. How about you? Do you have a basic 72 hour kit? I dare you to start one if you don't. Even if you just toss a few cans of food and some water in a backpack or bag, it's a start, and a start can save your life!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Hawaiian Chieftan sails at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The Hawaiian Chieftan and Lady Washington. (pics by D)

The Lady Washington

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

View from the Jetty. Pacific Ocean to the left, Mouth of the Columbia River to the right.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

Splash!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

A seagull brings home fish for dinner...

For those few of you who might read this blog via a feed...

2011-05-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some blog clean-up. I took all my posts out and have been adding them back in, leaving some out, and making some changes along the way.

I have decided that I am not going to have so many pics of my kids on the blog. I will have some, but the portrait style pics we have done of them and such, are not going to be on this blog anymore. There will still be some pics, but pics that I would worry about getting stolen, as far as my kid pics go, will not be included.

I will be going through and putting my copyright watermark on my old Wordless Wednesday pics as well, and adding them back over time.

I am explaining this because the RSS feeds will be showing a ton of new posts from me from time to time. This is because I am republishing the older posts in my archives. I apologize for the onslaught of outdated posts!

It probably seems like a lot of hassle for a blog that only has a few readers. However, I just feel better going this route. Thanks for your patience!

Wordless Wednesday: May Flowers

2011-05-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-04T08:44:00.001-07:00

Ants hard at work on their anthill...ewww.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-27T07:36:00.001-07:00

The fortress of solitude has been hit by a shrink ray!

Melting...

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-20T09:21:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I am astounded at the pictures D manages to capture.
This one is the North Head Lighthouse.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-13T08:23:00.001-07:00

We recently visited Stonehenge! No, not the one in the UK, but a replica one built in Washington State.

It was built as a memorial for WWI soldiers from the area who died in the war.

Wordless Wednesday: Perspective

2011-04-06T08:07:00.001-07:00

Which one is the big brother?

Dollhouse update

2011-03-24T14:09:00.002-07:00

I got partway through B's dollhouse remodel before she decided she had to play with it again. This is the kitchen!

This is the living room. The other two rooms have wallpaper, but no flooring yet. I will post pics if I ever get around to finishing it. B loves playing with her dollhouse!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-23T08:01:00.001-07:00

Ecola State Park (D took this one)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-16T07:59:00.001-07:00

D caught this wave on a recent visit to the beach.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-09T07:55:00.001-08:00

Signs of spring...

I can't wait for the real thing!

Weekend Project...

2011-03-05T18:38:00.001-08:00

I had big plans to make Miss B something awesome for Christmas this year. It was a little dollhouse for peg dolls that I saw here. I liked that it could be disassembled and stored flat, and that there was a lot of room for creativity in decorating it and such.

All of my good intentions went unfollowed though, as I never could find someone who had a router I could borrow, and the whole busy Holiday Season and having a newborn put a damper on my homemade gift making anyway. I like to imagine myself having great skills at woodworking, but really don't know much about it. I'd love to learn, but right now we all know that my specialty is cardboard and tape anyway.

We recently bought a farmhouse bench for our kitchen, and the box it came in was made of double thick cardboard. This gave me and idea, and I set out to make the dollhouse out of a medium I was more comfortable with.

I started out making the base. It is made of layers of the double thick cardboard glued together and then taped around the edges to smooth things out. First two 12 1/2 inch squares of cardboard for the bottom of the base, and then four six inch squares (again, made of two layers of the cardboard glued and taped together) which were glued onto the larger base, leaving a half inch groove between the smaller squares. I used a couple of textbooks to weight down the cardboard while the glue was setting.

Next came the walls, which I cut from two more 12 1/2 inch squares (making the walls 12 and a half inches wide by 6 1/4 inch tall). I cut a door in each side of each wall piece, and a groove in the middle. One wall has the groove in the bottom, and the other has it in the top. The grooves are a half inch wide.

The two pieces slide together to make a t shape that will fit into the grooves of the base. The "boards" are really very sturdy, but lightweight, and the whole house can be taken apart for storage if need be.

Here is the house all set up. By the time I had it this far, I had to stop working on it because Miss B just wanted to play with it. Here are some pics of it while she was playing with it.

The kitchen. A sharpie transformed some of our old (and beat up) blocks into a fridge, stove and sink for the kitchen. Some of the soon to be painted peg dolls are enjoying a meal off of their button plates at the table.

It's family movie night in the living room with a block couch and widescreen TV. I have plans to spiff up some of the blocks and make better furniture for the dollhouse, but for now Miss B is pretty happy with it.

The bedrooms with Sharpie enhanced dressers, block beds and blankets made from scraps of fleece. The boys discovered that B's finger puppets fit nicely over the peg dolls too, so now there can be pets such as the bunny above.I started work on painting the peg dolls yesterday, and Miss B has been pretending with them already. It's so cute to hear her make the Mom and Dad dolls call the B doll "sweetie". All in all, I think it was a worthwhile way to spend a few hours yesterday. It was a great way to recycle some of the cardboard, and didn't cost me anything but time and supplies we had on hand to make. If B gets tired of playing with it or it or it gets ruined, it can be tossed into the recycle bin pretty easily or just broken down and stored until she is interested again. It's also very sturdy, so I don't think it will be getting trashed anytime soon.

I have also started decorating the house using scrapbooking paper and modge podge to cover the walls and the floors. I will post some more pics when I get it all completed. It's already looking much better with the masking tape covered up with the scrapbooking paper.

I may even add a second floor addition at some future point, if she keeps playing with it regularly.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-02T07:30:00.001-08:00

We recently hiked the clatsop loop trail. This view was one of the rewards on our way back down.

A close-up of the snow on the hills.

Ten Things I love about J: Birthday Edition

2011-02-28T15:31:00.001-08:00

Our oldest son J just turned 14. So instead of just a regular birthday post I thought I'd do ten things I love about J.

1. He loves his baby brother. Every morning J comes in to see if the baby is awake, and to get him to smile. Sometimes teenagers aren't that interested in baby siblings, and I love that J loves Baby D so much.

2. J loves seminary. In our church when kids start high school, they also start seminary, which is an early morning church class (at least it is where we live) that is before school. J is not a morning person, and I wasn't sure he would be excited for seminary, especially since he is a year younger than most Freshmen, but he loves going despite being tired in the mornings.

3. He loves to cook. Cooking is something J and I have in common. He asks me almost every day if he can help cook dinner, and I love knowing that if I really don't feel like cooking, he knows how to cook a few meals and is always willing to pitch in.

4. I love J's freckles. I hated having freckles as a kid, but I love that I passed my freckles down to my own kids. D doesn't have freckles, so I know they got them from me.

5. His imagination. J has always had a great imagination.

6. He loves to read. J learned to read when he was three (not because of anything special I did-he just learned how to do it automatically). He reads even faster than I do, and I read pretty fast. I love it that he likes reading. Most of our kids will read if we make them, and they like it once they get started, but J just likes reading and we don't have to motivate him to do so. He also likes to read a lot of the same kinds of books as I do.

7. His sense of humor. J was diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum when he was in Kindergarten. He has since been labelled as having Asperger's. When he was younger I wasn't sure he would ever understand sarcasm or subtle humor, but he has gained quite a good grasp of it as he has gotten older.

8. His laugh. You might think that this goes along with a sense of humor, but trust me, J's laugh is in a category all it's own. It isn't one of those forced laughs. I will admit that I sometimes call it a cackle. What I love is that when he laughs he does it from his core and you know he isn't faking it. If he laughs, he really means it.

9. His innocence. I suppose our kids have lived somewhat sheltered lives, and that is okay with me. I like that they are still innocent in so many ways. A lot of other kids J's age aren't so innocent and that makes me sad.

10. He is musical. J loves music. He plays the clarinet and he appreciates good music, including classical. I'd love to take him to see a symphony sometime, I know he'd love it.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-23T19:17:00.001-08:00

The Tillamook Head Lighthouse.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-09T10:15:00.002-08:00

After the fun I had making B's microwave, I decided to add a little stove to her collection.

It's just a small box, duct tape, sharpie and an old oven knob.

B loves her kitchen toys. She even has a real (but tiny) frying pan to pretend with.

Ten Things I Love About Living Where I Live...

2011-02-06T18:33:00.001-08:00

1. Wildlife. There is a wide variety of wildlife in this area, especially birds. We love to be able to go on walks and see beautiful birds like the above Blue Heron up close.

2. Small town living. I love being away from the hustle and bustle of a big city. Sometimes I miss the conveniences, but generally, we have everything we need here, and bigger cities are less than two hours away.

3. The ocean and the beaches. I have always loved the beach and being able to see the ocean. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to live on the coast, but now I hope that we can always stay in this area. I love being less than five miles from the ocean. A plus is that the town we live in, while it has access to beaches, isn't a touristy town, so even though our beaches get somewhat crowded in the summer, our town doesn't.

4. The green. Green is one of my favorite colors, and I love that there is always green to be seen where we live.

5. The sunsets. There's nothing quite like seeing the sun sink into the ocean. The reflections, and the colors can be amazing. In other places the sunsets are beautiful of course, but the ocean just gives it something extra special.

6. The traffic...or in this case, that there is substantially LESS traffic here than in other places. I have gotten used to mostly driving on roads with just one lane in each direction. Big cities are scary for me to drive in now. And, as I mentioned earlier, our town is not one of the tourist traps, so while we do get a little bit more traffic in the summer, it is mostly on the highway and not so much through town.

7. The rain. Yes, I have been heard to complain about the rain on occasion, but I also know that it's the rain that provides a lot of the beauty in this area. Plus, when you have this much rain, you are bound to have more of these...

8. The fresh air. It's so lovely to be able to breathe and not be breathing in smog.

9. The rivers. There is a small river just a block or so from our house. The Columbia River is also nearby as well as several tributaries.

10. The stars. Living away from the big city means that there aren't so many lights around. I love being able to look up on a clear night and see the stars in a way that you just can't see them in a big city.

I'm not a very good blogger these days...

2011-01-17T13:19:00.001-08:00

I've even been forgetting to post my Wordless Wednesdays! To be honest, I'm not sure why I've been in a blogging fog, I just have for a long time. I'm thankful for those that still stop by here when I do post.

Sometimes I think I am doing a service by only posting an occasional Wordless Wednesday and not much else. That way, people don't have to feel bad for not keeping up with me...because there hasn't been anything to keep up with!

I could blame my lack of blogginess on having seven kids, but really, aside from getting to hold a cuddly cutie pie all the time, and more diapers to change, seven kids isn't much different that six. I love my kids, I love being a Mom and I wouldn't trade any of them, and YES, they do sometimes drive me crazy! Such is life. There are days I get a headache from all their noise and days I really just want a break from it all, but when it comes down to it, I love my family, and the wonderful times make the frustrating times worth it!

So, to catch everyone up on my life lately...

We have seven kids! (I know...you already knew that right? See? You are great at keeping up with me!)

We have a small house. Seven kids and a small house make for a lot of noise, and not a lot of elbow room. One bathroom and three bedrooms wasn't cutting it. But at the same time...we are so incredibly blessed to have that much!

When I was a kid, my parents slept in the living room because they had six kids and only three bedrooms. I am a bit more selfish than they were, so we still have our own room. What we did do was to build a bedroom for our daughter B in the living room. Our house is old. The living room and dining room are kind of one big room, and they have shag carpeting, so we have always had our table in the kitchen to avoid the evils of cleaning ramen out of the shag. The dining half of the room was where we kept the computer and piano. We built a room for B in the living room side, got rid of our couch and moved the entertainment center into the other part of the living room. After four months we finally bought a new couch. Our living room area is tiny, but luckily our kids are pretty small too, so we make due. They have room to play on the wii, and I'm pretty sure that's all they really care about as far as living rooms go. So B is in her own room, and once Baby D is older, he will share with her for a few years.

Yes, we are hoping to add on someday. The housing market is failing so much right now, that our house value has dropped, so we couldn't get a big enough loan to add on. We got new windows and siding instead, and hope to add on in a couple of years.

So that's about it for excitement around here...new bedroom for B, new baby for all of us, new windows, back door and siding and new couch.

I will try to be a better blogger. At least I'll try to consistently post a Wordless Wednesday every week. Hopefully it will stop raining for long enough for me to get some decent pics soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wordless (okay so not really) Wednesday: Tsunami Drill

2010-04-28T00:12:00.001-07:00

Sunday afternoon we decided to do a practice Tsunami drill. Here we are heading out through the back yard with our 72 hour kit packs.

Just around the corner and everyone is still fresh faced and happy.

If there were a real Tsunami we might have died. Baby B couldn't stop playing with rocks! (she carried her own backpack most of the way too, but eventually we helped her out-not to worry her pack is lightweight only holding diapers and wipes, her change of clothes and a couple of snacks. Her food and etc was carried by the grown ups)
We made it the 1.1 miles to our destination! We sat down for some water and a granola bar before heading home.

Some of the boys are not as happy on the way home. They are tired! Note that #5 has turned his pack to the front. The boys helped pull the granny cart too (we didn't load everything on it, and have decided that the stuff in the bucket will fit in our pack to make more room in the granny cart for other needs). We are also thinking that maybe our double stroller that is also a bike trailer might be bette than the granny cart. If we have time in an emergency we will use it instead, but will keep the cart handy for now because it is quicker and will fit with the rest of our emergency supplies.

I apologize that this isn't really a wordless wednesday. I thought the pics needed explanation!

We have decided to do this drill quarterly to get the boys used to it. Where we live, if there is a local earthquake, we might have as little as 30 minutes before a Tsunami hits. It took us 45 minutes to get to where we were heading. I think we will improve with practice, and once the boys get used to the scenery I am sure we won't be pausing as much along the way to look at fascinating things like skunk cabbage. Our goal is to improve our time each time we practice.

Tip or Dare: Are you prepared?

2010-04-25T12:13:00.001-07:00

With all the earthquakes and whatnot happening in the world lately, emergency preparedness has really been on our minds. That isn't to say that we haven't had some sort of emergency prep in place for the last several years, just that we are making a real effort to perfect our system and make sure we are really prepared. (We are also finding out that there is always more you can do to be prepared.
We live in a Tsunami inundation zone, which doesn't mean our house is in danger of being swept away by the initial wave, but because we live between the ocean and a river, we are quite likely to be flooded. The nearest safe zone for us is a bit over a mile away, walking towards the ocean to higher ground. Since we have spent the last couple of weeks getting our 72 hour kits in order, I thought I would share a few tips here. They aren't in any particular order, and they certainly aren't meant to cover every aspect of preparedness, but it's a start.

1) Start a 72 hour kit. An unfinished kit is still better than no kit at all. It doesn't have to be super fancy or expensive. Just start by putting together some things you might already have on hand. Find a backpack, a bag or a bucket and start collecting things you might need. Some good resources for ideas for 72 hour kits can be found here or here.

2) Make a kit for each individual in your family. Hopefully in an emergency you will be able to stay together, but what if you are separated somehow? We have a basic kit in a backpack for each of our kids. The kits include a change of clothes (sealed in a plastic bag to keep them dry), food items (in this case they each have a can of soup, a can of ravioli, oatmeal packets, snacks such as granola bars and fruit snacks, and some ramen. They don't have three complete days of food, because it would be too heavy for them to carry, but at least, they have a couple of days worth of food), water bottles (again, they can't carry three days worth alone, but at least they have a start), some hot cocoa packets, a toothbrush, a small baggie with a few things to entertain them (a pad of paper and a pen, a glow stick, a matchbox car), a garbage bag, diapers and wipes for those that still need them). The cans of soup and ravioli are the pop top kind, so that the kids can open them alone if they need to. I have heard that these kinds of cans can sometimes burst (it was fruit that I heard that about). We packed the cans in carefully so that they remain upright and the backpacks are on a shelf where they won't get jostled or stepped on, so I think they will be okay. Just in case, the clothing and other items are all in plastic baggies so they won't be ruined if something leaks. We also bought rain ponchos that can snap together to make a basic tent shelter and will be adding one of these to each person's pack.

3) Have a way to carry heavier items. We have a small two wheeled granny cart that we keep next to our shelf of emergency supplies. It can be collapsed to take up less space. We keep other emergency items on the shelf where we can put them into the cart when we need to. In this case, the cart is for carrying a case of chili, beef pepperoni sticks, extra bottles of water, a small cook stove and our bucket of other supplies. In our bucket we have twine, rope, a roll of toilet paper, some extra cans of food such as tuna, a can opener, a mess kit, water purification tablets, candles, waterproof matches, emergency blankets, a folding stove and fuel for it, hand warmers, an emergency radio that can be charged by hand crank, a lantern and a tent that we can use as shelter for our family.

4) Don't just be prepared at home. Emergencies can happen anywhere. The next thing on our list is to get a basic kit together for each of our cars. It certainly won't have as much in it as our home kits do, but it will have some basics such as a case of water (we always keep one in the car) and a tote with some food, a first aid kit and other useful things inside. This way, if we are away from home we still have something to fall back on. Having a kit in a car is a smart thing to do anyway. What if your car breaks down somewhere, or you get stranded in the snow. Having some food, water and supplies can save your life. It's also a good idea to have a basic kit to keep at your workplace if you have a space of your own there. If a Tsunami were to happen here, there is a good chance that D would be at work, and while it is only two miles from our home, he might not be able to get to us if the roads are flooded. I am going to add a basic kit for him to keep at his office as well.

5) Keep your home kits in a safe place and together. We bought a shelf that we keep our emergency supplies on. It is near our back door and everything is together for easy access. There were a couple of years where we had most of the supplies we needed, but they weren't all together. In an emergency you might not have time to run around the house looking for everything you need. We know that we can grab our backpacks, and our cart in moments and head out the door if we have to evacuate.

6) Practice makes perfect, and it also takes away some of the fear. Make sure family members are familiar with their 72 hour kits and know what to do if an emergency comes. Family drills where everyone practices getting their packs on and meeting outside the house are important. Becoming familiar with what to do will keep children and adults calmer when the time comes because it won't seem so scary when they have been practicing regularly. Have a family drill quarterly where everyone practices what they should do. Make sure older family members help the younger ones get their items so that it isn't a madhouse of people all trying to get their stuff at once. As I mentioned, we live just over a mile from where we would evacuate to if there were a Tsunami here. We plan to take our backpacks and walk to the evacuation area so that our kids will be familiar with how to get there, and they will also know how it feels to have to carry their packs that far.

7) Rotate, update, rotate. We update our 72 hour kits every six months. For us, we find it convenient to do this around our church's General Conference which happens the first weekend of April and October. Check expiration dates and make sure clothing still fits. Change out whatever needs to be switched, and make sure that food items will last at least until the next time you update, and preferably longer. You want to have time to use up canned food that you switch out of your kits, so that there is no waste. Snacks like granola bars are rarely good for a whole year, so we switch them out every six months, and make sure that we check the expiration on the new packages when we buy them.

8) Make sure you think about your family's individual needs. Every family is different. Does anyone take special medication? Make sure you have what you need on hand. Is there something particular that would bring someone comfort? A family picture, a special toy or book, a blanket? Take into consideration what would help your family be calmer. A little comfort or something familiar can go a long way.

9) Keep important documents where you can get them easily. Right now we keep our documents in a fireproof box. Some things, like the kids' birth certificates, we have two copies of. I have plans to get a waterproof case to keep the second copies in, and to put them with our 72 kits. We can also keep immunization records and other important documents safe and ready to go with us if need be. It's also a good idea to keep current family pictures with your kit so that if you do get separated you can show the picture to others to help you find missing family members.

10) Make a list, and post it. Keep an inventory list of the things you have in your kit. This way you can easily look at it and see what you might need to add or update. Include expiration dates on your list. For instance, I have put individual packets of instant oatmeal in our kits. The packets themselves don't show an expiration date, but there was one on the box they came in. Make sure to note on your inventory list when things expire. This way, when it is time to update, you can just get out those things you need to switch and you don't have to look at every can and check it's expiration. This will also enable you to shop ahead and get the things you need to switch out ahead of time. This is one of the things I still need to do. I am planning to laminate my list so that it will be waterproof, and then we will keep it on the shelf with our other items. I can cross off expiration dates with a sharpie and write new ones in as we switch things out. One laminated list should last us a few years.

Again, these are just a few ideas we have had. There are many resources out there, and you can also purchase basic 72 hour kits if you don't want to put together your own. The important things is, to start preparing before an emergency happens so that you can be more secure and confident when and if something does happen. Go ahead...I DARE YOU!

Internet Dependency

2008-01-18T22:52:00.001-08:00

I never thought of myself as Internet dependent. Like so many alcoholics or users I was the kind of person that said to myself, “I can quit anytime I want to.”
I am writing this blog post in a Word Document. Why you ask? Because when I got up this morning, finished my routine of using the bathroom, but not getting dressed and sat down in my PJ’s for my morning dose of computer time. I started out opening the email and checking for new mail.
To my surprise there was an error that popped up and said that the server name was invalid, or that the server might be temporarily down. Hmmm. So I checked the Internet, preparing to start my usual morning perusal of the blogs on my favorites list. Upon opening Internet Explorer I again found an error. Our internet was not working.
I checked the router, the DSL modem, etc. It was all a go. I figured the kids must have messed with something, so I decided to wait for D to get home for lunch so I could ask him about it. When he was finally home I mentioned to him that the Internet was not working. He replied that he knew that, and that there had been some kind of fire somewhere and all the Internet and phone services were down to some extent. I can call people that start with the same exchange as I do, but I can’t call across the bay to the town five minutes away because the exchange is different. I can call a 1-800 number. I know because I tried using the calling card to talk to my Mom and Sister (you have to have something to do when there is no Internet) and it worked.
No big deal…this was my thought…I can go without the Internet for a while. Do you believe me? If you don’t…you are smart. Here is the list of things I thought about looking up on the Internet today.
Recipes
Serving sizes (I am putting together a how to eat on a cheap budget cookbook for my sister Ezre-not her real name-who is getting married next month).
Web M.D. or an equivalent that can give me horrific ideas as to why I was experiencing severe abdominal pain. It would have been nice to try to figure out how long I have to live…
Beach house rentals
My online Scrabble game that I am playing against my Mom (she is winning)
The weather for this weekend
Songs that would be good for a wedding slide show (I am doing one for Ezre’s wedding, but she doesn’t want anything too traditional. She likes to be unique.)
And of course the 30++++ blogs I frequent on a regular basis.
Not to mention I was supposed to write a Fiction Friday post for today (and I should be writing that now so it will be ready…instead I will probably catch it up on Monday…we have family coming this weekend.)
Still…I survived…I can make it a whole day without the Internet…WAIT! Did I just hear a Virus update! My Internet is BACK! I am off to catch up! I promise I will do a late version of Fiction Friday soon.

Bad Hair Days

2008-01-11T18:29:00.002-08:00

Gee, that would pretty much cover my entire childhood.

Emma Sometimes is having her 3rd Annual Mullet Photo Contest...and since I have missed the last two years of this contest, I am going to have to humiliate myself with more than one mullet photo. Enjoy the laugh, and if you want to embarrass yourself feel free to post your own mullet pictures and join the fun.

8th Grade...unfortunately one side of my turned up collar went flat before the picture. The saddest thing is that I loved this school picture more than any of the other ones for several years. That curl is all natural too...

Ah, high school. I think this was freshman or sophomore year. My bangs were so long I had to walk around with my head constantly tilted to one side so I could see.

The saddest thing is that I have at least one more school picture of me with a mullet. I just don't have it scanned.

Drowning in vomit

2007-12-22T23:01:00.001-08:00

If that title doesn't turn people away from reading this post I don't know what will.

We have sickness here. Too much of it.

It started out Thursday evening when #5, our youngest wasn't feeling well. He threw up three times that day and seemed better in the morning. However, late in the afternoon on Friday he wasn't feeling well and refused a cookie (a sure sign something is wrong). He threw up a couple more times that day, and today he was still laying around on the couch for most of the morning. He perked up later in the day and seemed okay. We ran some errands, got some things done and then in the evening #2 started feeling sick. We set him up with the bucket and pretty soon he was using it. #3 said he didn't feel like throwing up but his stomach hurt. We made him lay down in the living room as well. Pretty soon he joined in the fray, and #4 wasn't far behind.

At one point #3 was throwing up into a bucket in the living room while #4 was in the kitchen throwing up in the garbage can. Then #5 started to look green around the gills. He ran for the bucket which was unfortunately occupied by #3 and ended up throwing up on the floor and into the bucket. D took the bucket and went to empty it out, and at that point #2 woke up and said, "OH NO!" I ran over with a (luckily lined) trash can, and he threw up in it. Its one of the most disgusting things I have ever witnessed, and yet we were laughing about the horror of it.

I went to the garage and got a tarp. Are we cold hearted or what? We spread it out on the living room floor and made sick boys lay down on it with their pillows and blankets. We got them each their own bucket or container to puke in and they have spent the evening throwing up, sometimes at the same time, and sometimes one after the other. All of them refused to use Sally (for those of you not in the know, Sally is the barf bowl I have been using during pregnancy, she is a high class Tupperware bowl that will never EVER be used to store food again.) I have to say that I am kind of glad none of them wanted to use her since I still need her on a regular basis and I don't want their sick germs contaminating her.

If you have read this far without getting sick, I applaud your stomach of steel, and I beg for your prayers. If any of us are throwing up (other than morning sickness, I hope I can tell the difference) on Monday we will have to miss out on our family Christmas Eve celebration and that would break many of our hearts. My family used to get together monthly, then it became quarterly, but it has dwindled a bit to just a few times a year and our next get together with everyone at once is not until summer. Please pray for us to be healthy by Monday morning. And if we can't have that, then Tuesday. We are scheduled to fly to California and spend a few days in Disneyland the day after Christmas and our flight leaves early Wednesday. I don't know how we can take pukey kids on a plane, and they certainly wouldn't be able to enjoy Disneyland once we get there if they are sick. Not to mention that there will be cousins there as well and we don't want any of them getting sick.

#1 has been crying out of fear that we will miss Christmas with family. He is the only one of the boys that has not gotten sick yet, and D and I are dreading and waiting, and hoping against hope not to get sick. We know it will take a miracle considering the amount of puke we have been cleaning up. The boys have thrown up several times each this evening.

I hope your prospects for a Merry Christmas are looking better than ours are! I wish you all safe travels, and a puke free Christmas!

One Week...

2007-12-17T22:32:00.001-08:00

...to get all your presents wrapped, all your ribbons tied, all your treats made, and all your preparations finished...I am so far behind.

In years past I have been known to make up to 17 different kinds of treats and goodies, but this year so far I have made NOTHING. I just haven't been up to it. I have even bagged out on making my Christmas morning cinnamon rolls this year. I just have nothing in me right now as far as cooking goes. I delegated the fudge to my sister, and I plan to make truffles because I fear for my life if I don't.
My shopping however, is pretty much done, although not wrapped up yet ;o) Every day I think to myself...I should wrap some gifts and get a head start...and yet...still I sit. I love Christmas... but I am not in the spirit this year. I don't think its only the nausea, there are other stresses I am thinking about.
So tell me...how do you get in the Christmas Spirit? We have decorated, we have made ornaments, we have watched Christmas movies, but I am just tired, and stressed, and I want to make the last few days before Christmas fun for the boys...so hit me with your best ideas!

It could have been so much worse...

2007-12-08T18:31:00.001-08:00

After weathering the recent storm and miraculously coming through it unscathed...my mind turns to how much worse it could have been.
Today I got an email from Kathryn aka The Daring One over at Daring Young Mom. If you want to see how much worse things went for a lot of people, please check out her post here, and see if there is any way you can help.
Christmas is rapidly approaching, and there are families without homes, and who have lost everything, including their livelihoods. I can only imagine how horrible and helpless they must feel. Please, if you have the means to help...do what you can. Thanks!

The Perfect Storm

2007-12-07T12:46:00.001-08:00

There will be no Fiction Friday Post this week. I apologize. It has been a stressful and busy week here, and I just don't have it in me today.
The majority of people won't know since news coverage has been sparse, but here on the Oregon coast we were hit with two huge storms Sunday and Monday. The winds were up to 120 miles an hour, and most of the coast lost power and many lost phone service. Our power was out for 75 hours, and the phones were out for about three days as well (including our cell service). All the roads leading inland were also closed due to the storm because of flooding, or downed trees, so we had no way out either. We finally have power here at our house, but many people in nearby neighborhoods still are without power. Many people suffered a large amount of property damage, and it has just been a surreal experience in many ways.
We were very blessed at our house that the only damage was some downed trees that did not hit our house, and several shingles blowing off of our roof. Sunday night we didn't get much sleep with the wind, and I feel like it was pretty miraculous that there was not more damage to our home. I was awake most of the night listening to the wind, and it was blowing so hard that it literally felt like an earthquake, our whole house shook. The boys spent four nights sleeping in the living room where it is a little warmer than upstairs and we used up our supply of glow sticks so that the boys could have a little light in the room they were sleeping in, and to light the bathroom at night.
We were fairly prepared as far as things go. Not perfectly prepared...for all the flashlights we have, the boys manage to lose them pretty often, and we couldn't find any of them. We have oil lamps, candles, a battery operated radio as well as a wind up radio with a lantern, a batter operated lantern, a push light, and a butane stove burner like they use in catering. Sunday morning we knew there would probably be a power outage, so we filled up our cooler with ice and essentials from the fridge so that we wouldn't have to open the fridge when the power went out. We played games such as Spongebob Monopoly, Life and etc. and we did some Christmas art projects together during the day. It was actually kind of sad when the power went back on (although we were happy to save the food that was thawing in our freezer). We had some great quality family time together for those three days the power was out, and got along better than usual.
It was hard not having phone service to let family know we were okay, and we realized that we needed to be more prepared. Although we were more prepared than many people, there is still a lot we could have done (always have extra TP...ALWAYS...luckily that was just a close call and not a nightmare experience) such as making sure we were caught up on laundry and have adequate gas in the car. After a few days with no gas pumps going you get desperate for fuel. We are going to implement the half tank rule that D's Grandpa always followed rather than letting the car get down to empty before filling up.
Anyhow...I am sure most of you were thinking I was sick and just not posting, but in fact, I had no power, no phone and no Internet...I will try to get back to a regular posting schedule next week, although there is a chance we will lose power again before everything is back to normal.

Family Countdown to Christmas

2007-11-28T09:50:00.001-08:00

This post is an entry for Scribbit's Winter Bazaar.
You know those advent calendars that come with a tiny piece of chocolate about the size of your fingernail? Well...we came up with a better idea for this year.
In years past we have seen advent calendars, the kids make a paper chain at school and each day of December we take one chain off until we get to the top and then its magically Christmas! When I was a youth we made an advent candle that came with a list of scriptures and each day of December you burned the candle down a little bit and read a scripture that had to do with Christmas. Those are all great ideas. I am not discounting any of them in any way. This year I thought up a way to have some family togetherness in addition to the excitement of counting down.
You can certainly make a calendar for this activity if that's the way you want to go, but my idea involves using a jar, a bowl, or any container you can fit 24 small pieces of paper in.
First of all, I would recommend looking ahead in your calendar for the month of December. Are there school concerts to attend? Other family obligations? Sporting events? Make a list of things you are already committed to doing for the month.
Next you need to come up with 24 activities to use for the countdown. The beauty of this is that you can tailor fit it to the amount of time you have to spend on a given evening. If you will be busy all evening and only have half an hour or even just 15 minutes to devote to an activity, that is just fine. All you need to know is about how much time you will have each evening or day to devote to a family activity, and then choose short ones or long ones according to your needs. Write the activities on a piece of paper. I recommend color coding. For instance, red paper could mean the activity is in the 15 minute to 30 minute range. Green paper could mean that you have more than an hour to devote to the activity. You can use as many colors as you want to, just make sure you write a key on the lid of your jar that says how long a time is represented by each color of paper, and make sure you put the appropriate amount of each color to fit your schedule.

Some ideas for shorter activities...

Reading a Christmas story at bedtime. Check your local Library and see what they have available. I have heard of people reading a different Christmas storybook for each day of the countdown. Its quick, its relaxing, and its good family time. You can also include reading scriptures about Christmas as part of this.

Watch a Holiday special. We don't get TV reception where we live, but we do have some Christmas and Holiday versions of TV shows on DVD. Garfield, Charlie Brown, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph and etc. Many of these are between 20 minutes to a half an hour, and you can rent some of them from the video store if you don't own any yourselves. For us it has been fun to watch shows we loved as children with our own kids.

Share some Christmas Memories. You can look at Christmas photos from years past, and talk about how Christmas was when you were younger. You can also find out your children's favorite Christmas memories and record them in a family journal.

Have hot cocoa with whipped cream and other fun ingredients and listen to Christmas music.

Take fun family photos with a Holiday Theme.

Have a gift wrapping relay race.

Color Christmas coloring pages. There are always coloring pages to be found on the web that you can print out.

String popcorn, cranberries, or make a paper chain...decorate the house a little bit at a time!

Longer Length activities...(an hour or more)

Make Christmas candy. You can get candy molds at your local craft store as well as chocolate melts to use for candy making. Our kids always enjoy making candy as a family.

Decorate goodies. Christmas cookies, gingerbread houses, cupcakes, whatever floats your boat!

Make Christmas Ornaments. Family Fun's Christmas Site is a great resource for finding kid friendly Holiday crafts, decorations and recipes. I will be posting a fun family craft next week. I can hardly wait!

Deliver Christmas treats to friends and family.

Do a family service project. Before we were married and had young children we loved to go and put shopping carts away at Christmas. In the rush of Holiday shopping many people would leave their carts all over the parking lot, and its cold! So we would deliver the carts back to their little stalls in the parking lot so the cart jockeys would have an easier time of it. I don't recommend it for families with young kids because of traffic. There are tons of other family service projects you can do though.

Make Christmas cards. Homemade cards are fun to make, and kids love the opportunity to be creative!

Go caroling! If you are too embarrassed to carol in public, just spend an evening at home singing Christmas songs together.

Watch a Christmas movie. Its a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Home Alone...take your pick! This one is a great weekend activity.

Have a family gift wrapping party.

Make a snowman (if you live where there is snow). If you don't live where there is snow you can print out a paper snowman here or here. Or you can draw your own.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. There are tons of crafts, recipes and other fun things out there that you could use as a fun activity. I would love to hear ideas you have to add!

Once you have your jar filled, just pick the appropriate color of paper for the day you are choosing for. You could even draw them out one day ahead to make sure you have time to prepare, or if you would rather plan ahead, you can simply make up your own advent calendar and list the activity for each day and your kids can still be surprised when its time to reveal the next activity. I hope you have fun with this if you decide to use it!

Christmas is coming...

2007-11-24T21:45:00.001-08:00

Your Christmas is Most Like: The Muppet Christmas Carol

You tend to reflect on Christmas past, present, and future...And you also do a little singing.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Six weeks and counting down!

2007-11-13T12:58:00.002-08:00

If you are anything like me, December gets to be a very busy and overwhelming month. I try to keep things as stress free as possible by planning ahead. This year has been hard because of being sick and all, but I can still do some things ahead of time so I don't have to stress about them later.
One thing I like to do is to make and freeze cookie dough. This way when you need to bring treats to something, or have a last minute need to fill, you can just take the dough out of the freezer, bake it up, and voila! Fresh cookies with less mess because you made the mess and cleaned it up ahead of time.
What are you doing to get ready for the Holidays?

Pumpkin Bread

2007-10-31T08:00:00.001-07:00

This post is for Scribbit's Winter Bazaar...even though today is Halloween I opted to do a more Autumn themed recipe. Pumpkin Bread is a great dessert bread, and would be a great thing to bring to a Halloween get together...

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Bread
Yield: 3 loaves
3 c Sugar
3 1/2 c Flour
1/2 t Salt
2 t Baking soda
1 t Cinnamon
1 t Nutmeg
4 lg Eggs
1 c Vegetable oil
2 c Pumpkin (cooked)
2/3 c Water
1 1/2 c Walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your containers well. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the eggs, oil, pumpkin and water. Beat thoroughly. It's easier to get all the lumps out if you use an electric mixer. Stir in the walnuts with a wooden spoon if you decide you want nuts in the bread. Pour the batter into the containers, filling each only half to two-thirds full. Bake for 60 minutes, for regular loaves, or 15 to 20 if you are making muffins. I usually make two loaves and a dozen or so muffins with this recipe. The bread is done when a toothpick in the middle comes out clean. Cool about ten minutes, then loosen the edges of the bread with a knife, and turn out of the pans to cool the rest of the way on a rack.

Only 8 more weeks!

2007-10-30T16:40:00.002-07:00

Eight more weeks until Christmas Day! Are you ready?

If you came looking for Halloween tips, I am sorry...

2007-10-24T09:08:00.001-07:00

I would love to do a post for Scribbit's Winter Bazaar, but I am sick. I have been puking my guts out for three days, and I barely had the energy to do a Wordless Wedneday post (please see it below). I didn't want anyone to think I died...but I feel like I would like to. Until I am better I may only post a couple of times a week. I am not sure about Fiction Friday...we'll see how I am feeling by then.

Happy Birthday Carrot...

2007-10-20T00:15:00.001-07:00

A Birthday Wish for Carrot. May you be protected from furry blue monsters, and from Magicians who want to make you "disappear". I hope you have a great birthday!

Happy 200th to me!

2007-10-18T00:01:00.001-07:00

My 200th Post has crept up on me. It just doesn't seem like that long ago that I wrote my 100th. It has, in fact, only been a little over four and a half months since I wrote my 100th post which was actually a Wordless Wednesday, but oh well...it was still #100.
I briefly thought about trying to think of something special to do for my 200th post, but that would mean that I would have to take some extra time to really think of something good, and since I feel like writing a post right now, I am going to forgo the fanfare and just keep the celebrating to a minimum. Maybe in a few months I will hit 300 and then do something really special. Until then, thanks for reading, for commenting and for being all the wonderful people you are!
Now, on to my previously scheduled post...

Tonight we are waiting on a storm. Living at the Oregon coast means that we enjoy some rain of course, but it also means that we get quite a few wind storms every year, and several power outages. For the most part the power outages are short. Last year we had one that lasted a couple of days, but it wasn't so bad once it was over. Although we aren't living high on the hog when we have a power outage, we have hot water (because our water heater runs on natural gas), a way to heat food without electricity, a stove top popcorn popper, oil lamps, and a kerosene heater.
When we heard that there was going to be a storm coming, we decided to make sure we had a few more essentials. While I don't necessarily cook everything from scratch, I don't generally keep a lot of meals in a box or can around the house. Mac and cheese is the one exception to that, but generally I make that from scratch too. So to prepare for the storm I sent D out to Costco and had him buy a case of chili. Yes, I know its not really conducive to family togetherness because of some unfortunate side effects, but it will give the boys something to laugh about because nothing is funnier to boys than those kinds of bodily functions. We also got an extra case of water even though we already have a couple of them in the van, some glow sticks (they are comforting to scared children), some bread, crackers, and most importantly a case of Ding Dongs. Usually we like to eat our Ding Dongs frozen, but in the case of a power outage we are willing to make an exception. Even though the whining is almost unbearable, the house gets colder than we like it, and everything is dim, I find that I enjoy the occasional power outage. The boys are quieter, we read together, we all stay in the same room instead of spreading out around the house, and I just enjoy being together.
Don't get me wrong, after a day of it I am always ready for a return to my email and my blogs, but a little power outage doesn't hurt. If we didn't get them so regularly in the winter time, I would be scheduling our own family power outages from time to time myself.
So if you don't hear anything from me for a couple of days, we might just be right here, huddled around the table with the glow of an oil lamp and some candles, eating popcorn and drinking cocoa. Try not to be jealous...

Busy Week...

2007-10-15T08:59:00.001-07:00

This week is very busy for me. I have all kinds of things going on. Last night I put together a quick slideshow for the funeral of a complete stranger, and today I have to make sure that it gets to its destination on time. There are Doctor's appointments, and a mole removal surgery for #4 going on this week, making cookies for a blood drive on Thursday, and getting ready for our church's big Super Saturday activity that I am in charge of on Saturday.
Super Saturday is a women's group activity and we are doing crafts in preparation for Christmas. I am in charge of three out of six of the crafts...I think I have a delegating problem. One of the crafts is the placemat purse I talked about making back in August. They are the perfect size for carrying your scriptures, and I got so many raves about my cute scripture tote, that I knew it would be a perfect project. I am also in charge of the embossed advent candle project, and the picture frame mat that we are decorating with pictures from Christ's life. Once I get one of those done I will try to post a picture. On top of all that I also am making soup as part of lunch for Super (I should have called it Souper) Saturday. Lots to do, and lots to think about. So if I post less often this week, that is why. (I imagine I will post the same amount though).
How busy is your week?

More Christmas Music...

2007-10-11T14:30:00.001-07:00

Those of you who know me well know that I love Christmas music, that I sometimes start listening to it as early as August, and that I have quite a collection. I try to limit my Holiday music purchases to only one or two per year. This year I have started out with a newly released Christmas CD...It came out on Tuesday and I picked up my copy on Wednesday.
Its Noel, by Josh Groban...and yes...its good. Off to listen to it again now.

A Literary Meme...

2007-10-11T12:19:00.001-07:00

Novembrance has tagged me for a Meme of Literary Crushes. The exact quote was actually…
Ten Literary Characters I Would Totally Make Out With If I Were Single and They Were Real But I’m Not, Single I Mean, I Am Real, But I’m Also Happily Married and Want to Stay That Way So Maybe We Should Forget This

I have to say that I never really contemplated making out with any literary characters, but there were some that I had crushes on, and that is close enough, right? I was actually afraid that I wouldn’t be able to come up with a list of ten because although I read a lot, many of the books I read feature young characters, and I just can’t see myself having a crush on these young teenage boys. This is where I also have to admit, much to my own shame that I have not read very many classics. I have always been a fantasy fiction reader, and have only read a few classics. As much as I love all versions of Pride and Prejudice in movie form, I have never actually read a Jane Austen book (ducking and running…its on my list of things to get to, really).
So, in no particular order, here is a list of ten literary characters I have had a crush on.

Theodore "Laurie" Laurence of Little Women. I recently read Little Women as a part of my goal to start reading more classics. To my surprise I found that it wasn’t just in the movie version that I wished Jo had chosen to stay with Laurie.

King Corlath from The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. The Blue Sword is one of my all time favorite books. King Corlath is handsome, mysterious, and has cool powers. Not only that, he is polite and a gentleman, even when he kidnaps the heroine of the story.

Gwydion of the Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander. My fourth grade teacher read The Book of Three out loud to our class, and my love of fantasy fiction was born. Before that I had been all about The Black Stallion books. Taran the Assistant Pig Keeper was a great central character, but he had all those flaws to work through to become a real hero, whereas Prince Gwydion was noble and pretty much flawless from the start. I always had a little bit of a crush on him as a child.

Nat from the Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. I loved The Witch of Blackbird Pond as a child, and picked up a copy for my library once I was a grown up. In fact, I love it so much that I have two copies…I can’t pass up a good deal, and our local Library had a copy in good condition for ten cents! Nat is the son of a ship’s Captain who befriends Kit and helps out Hannah Tupper who the local townspeople think is a witch because of her Quaker ways. I distinctly remember the description of Nat’s sun browned, strong hands. He was definitely crush worthy.

John Carter of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs. My Dad had the entire Martian Chronicles by Edgar Rice Burroughs (yes, the guy that created Tarzan). I read them all as a child, and as a grown up, when my Dad decided to sell them at a garage sale, I bought them all. John Carter is tall, dark and handsome, and apparently immortal. He doesn’t age, and he is a heroic fighting man through all his years. Finding himself transported to Mars he has many adventures and becomes a hero, finding love with a Martian Princess. Burroughs published the first book in the series in 1912.

Major Joe Mack from Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour. My Dad got me to read this book when I was a teenager. Although L’Amour is well known for writing westerns he has written some great adventure books. The Last of the Breed details the adventures of a Native American Air Force Pilot named Joe Mack who is shot down over Soviet Air space. He is pursued across frigid Siberia and must use the skills handed down by his people to survive and make his escape.

Perrin from The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I started reading the Wheel of Time series when the first two books were out thinking it was going to be a typical trilogy. Much to my horror, the series turned into a monster, with eleven books published so far, and the Author passed away last month before he could complete the final book. The Series also went downhill as far as morality goes, which is one reason that I stopped reading a majority of Fantasy fiction and turned to Children’s Fantasy instead. Of the three main characters, I always found Perrin appealing. He was not a womanizer, he could talk to Wolves, and he found one woman to commit to…which is always attractive in a man.

Gilbert Blythe from the Anne of Green Gables series. Do I really need to explain that one?

Legolas from Lord of the Rings. I first attempted to read Lord of the Rings in the 4th grade. That is a big attempt for a ten year old. My crush on Legolas has nothing to do with Orlando Bloom but started way back in the 4th grade. I had a thing for Legolas from the very start.

Emilie Loring leading men. I don’t go for the descriptiveness of current Romance novels. They disgust me in fact. As a girl, I would read Emilie Loring Romances that were in my Mom’s collection. Most were written between 1914 and 1951, and typically followed a certain formula with the main characters either hating each other, being supicious of each other, and of course, eventually falling in love. The stories are almost all adventure stories with spies, political intrigue and etc. The characters dressed for dinner, went to formal parties and the last page was the crowning achievement…the kiss. Even though most of the books are a rehash of similar storylines, there is still something I enjoy about reading them. I couldn’t pick just one leading man, since in essence they are usually the same basic character redone.

Now, who to tag with this...I am not sure who reads and who doesn't...so feel free to take this meme if you want to, and let me know so I can read your answers.

Why do you blog?

2007-10-09T09:33:00.002-07:00

Most of the people that read this blog are bloggers themselves. I have been thinking lately about why people blog, and more specifically about why I blog.
When I started out blogging, I did it just for the fun of it. Writing has always been a great outlet for me, and I hadn't had any way to really express myself for a while. Blogging seemed like a perfect solution. Of course I had a couple of friends who were bloggers and I started out reading their blogs. Reading blogs led to following links to other blogs, and a monster of sorts was born. I suddenly found myself with a long list of favorites and every day seemed to bring more and more of them for me to read.
I had made a personal goal to write in my blog three times a week at least. It wasn't a goal for anyone but myself, since I didn't really have many readers at the beginning of my blogging career. At some point I noticed that other bloggers who hadn't been around much longer than I had were getting tons more comments. For a while I had the whole wishful thinking for 20 comments a day...heck, even getting ten comments when it happens can be a heady rush. All of a sudden I felt this pressure to write material that would be more for my readers than for me. I lost sight of why I started blogging in the first place. A couple of times I even contemplated quitting the whole thing.
I have noticed that burnout is common among bloggers. Many of the blogs I read have gone through times when the blogger was sorely tempted to quit and leave the whole thing behind. At other times people just have other things on their mind and don't have the time, the energy, or the emotional capacity to pour everything they have into blogging.
Sometimes blog readers are less than supportive when people experience a drop in their blog writing, and even worse, some bloggers only appear to be there for reciprocal purposes. They get upset if people whose blogs they read don't come and read their blog in return. I had a recent conversation with a blogger about that very thing, and how overwhelming it can feel to have so many people expect so much of you. Suddenly I felt like being somewhat below the radar in the blogging world is a good thing for me. I am already overwhelmed at my list of favorites and will pare it down every so often, just to end up reacquiring many of the blogs I tried to give up, and sometimes adding even more of them. I would hate to feel like I was only blogging for my readers, and I would hate even more to feel like it wasn't worth blogging if I had only one reader or if no one ever commented.
I will admit that it is sometimes motivating to me to sit down and write a blog post because I have gone several days without doing so, and there is that possibility that someone might be hoping for a post. It is also true that comments can be a great ego boost...I can see why some people get addicted to having a lot of comments. Generally, however, I am blogging for me. This also includes reading blogs. I read what I enjoy reading, and I try not to feel pressured to read blogs that are not my thing. There are certainly hundreds of great bloggers out there that I would probably connect with, but my family needs me and I don't have time for hundreds of blogs. So, while I read what I enjoy, I also limit the number of blogs on my list.
I blog because it makes me happy to do so. Its the best journal keeping I have ever done, and as far as posterity goes I think it shows a better view of the real me than my stale journal entries from my younger days. I hope that I can find joy in blogging for a long time to come.
So what keeps you blogging? Is it for the joy of it? Is it to please your fan club? To network with other people? To examine yourself? Or some combination of any of these reasons? Do you blog for your own unique reasons? I would love to hear about it, but don't worry, I am not going to quit if I don't get any comments on this post!

HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY!!!

2007-10-08T21:41:00.001-07:00

What? You didn't know that it was Columbus Day on October the 8th? You didn't CELEBRATE?!?!
Okay...I didn't celebrate either, but I remembered! And I wished people Happy Columbus Day! Isn't that enough?

Fall is in the air...

2007-09-30T21:37:00.002-07:00

I have been thinking about writing a post about fall for a while now. I started thinking about it when the air in the evenings started to get crisper, and visions of hot apple cider started haunting me.
The heat came on this morning, almost an entire month earlier than it did last year. I find this disturbing because it means that I will be having to pay those high heating bills for an extra month this year. I am hoping this isn't foreshadowing for a really cold winter.
Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I love the colors, I love the air, I love the cocoa. Nothing says Fall like a nice fluffy sweatshirt and a polar fleece vest.
Unfortunately my favorite parts of fall are short lived here. The leaves are great, but the rain has started and soggy leaves don't crunch, they squish. This is the beginning of wet shoe season. Our boys walk to school, and this means slogging through grass and mud, and usually their shoes don't dry overnight. Even when I drive them to school they manage to get their shoes wet somehow in between the back door and the driveway, or at recess. Eventually I will give up and make them all wear boots to school, but for now its too early for that.
Fall is like the entrance to a magical time of year. Its colorful, it brings people closer together, if only to stay warm, and it just makes me feel like baking. Once the weather is cooler baking can serve a dual purpose because residual heat from the oven takes some of the edge off of the chill. This week things like stew, cheeseburger soup and clam chowder have made their way onto the dinner menu. My mind is already turning beyond Halloween and thinking thoughts of Thanksgiving Turkeys and of family visiting. Fall is the beginning of the pathway to the Holidays.
There are times that I think I hate Fall. I would much rather it stay light outside. The darkness Fall brings has always been something I struggle with. Once it gets cold enough to leave a constant edge of chill in the house, I start to yearn towards Springtime. But in between Fall and the new birth of Spring, there are so many things to look forward to. The stress of the Holidays is there, but always there is the magic with it. After missing two Holiday seasons in a row when I was a working Mom, I cherish the opportunities to just think about my little family during this time of the year.
What are your favorite things about Fall?

One Bathroom Woes

2007-09-24T10:42:00.001-07:00

We only have one bathroom. In fact, thinking back we have only had one bathroom in each place we have lived since we got married. You would think I would be used to it by now.
In the beginning it wasn't so bad. Just me and D, sharing everything including our one bathroom. Then along came #1. He was four before he was potty trained, so it still wasn't too bad. By the time D and I had been married for seven years and a couple of months, we had five children. As they have each gotten potty trained, our little bathroom has seemed to get smaller and smaller.
Now we have seven bathroom using people at our house, and still only one toilet to go around. Oh how I dream of having a master bedroom suite with a bathroom of its own. Then it would be back to D and me, sharing one bathroom, and the boys could fight it out over the other one.
Some of the woes associated with sharing my bathroom with 6 males...
1. Drippage aka over spray: D either has pretty good aim, or knows how to clean up after himself. The other boys, however, have a tendency to overshoot, ricochet, or just drip and the end result is pee on the toilet seat (even though they put the seat up to pee). One nice note is that they always put the seat down. The only time I have to worry about the seat being left up is when males from the extended family visit.
A wet toilet seat is the bane of my bathroom activities. Sometimes...you just really have to go, and having to pause to make sure the seat is dry is always a hassle. Thank goodness for disinfecting wipes!
2. Toothpaste trauma: There is a tendency by the boys to either get too much toothpaste on their toothbrush, or to just be unable to resist the urge to squirt toothpaste on the counter. I am not sure which, but I am very tired of cleaning up the globs of toothpaste all over the sink, and the toothpaste spray on the mirror.
3. Hang it up already!: Unfortunately the boys are too short to reach the towel rack. We really need to get another one. Our shower curtain rod has a towel rod attached to it. It works fine for me and for D to hang our towels on, but there is not a towel rod for the boys. Their wet towels end up on the floor after they shower. I think we need to remedy this problem, but even so, there is not going to be room in our bathroom for five towels worth of rods.
4. A basketball team, we are not: We frequently get comments from people that with our five boys we have enough to make our own basketball team. While that is true, none of our boys has really mastered the art of making it into the basket. The laundry basket. There is a laundry basket right there in the bathroom, yet they still can't seem to get their dirty clothes into it. I regularly find their little underwear and other clothes strewn about the place. This is one that just takes the proper training...so I will work on them.
5. strangled soap: I like my shower, and I like it to look nice. D already knows to extract any chest hairs from the soap before exiting the shower. I like the soap to look nice even if I am the only one that will see it. Today I went to take my shower and the soap looked like it had been chewed up by a dog. I already knew that at least a couple of the big boys had taken showers that morning. They can't help but squeeze the soap, or poke holes in it...its funner than playdoh! If I had my own bathroom...I could have nice pristine soap in it. Such a nice dream to have.
6. Get in line: Of course there is the usual problem of seven people using one bathroom. People often hear nature calling at the same time. I could normally get over this quickly, but one of my boys is notorious for taking an extra long time because he wants to make sure his bum is extra clean. I suppose I shouldn't complain. Cleanliness is next to...oh...you know what I mean. Then there is #5 who has recently become pretty serious about his potty training. He gets nervous that he will have an accident though, so he will sit in the bathroom waiting to go for 45 minutes at a time...sometimes even longer. While I am thrilled that he hasn't had any accidents for a long time...45 minutes of waiting is putting a damper on my day.
7. Interruptions: This goes along with #6. The thing is, I can't even take a shower without someone needing to use the bathroom. The shower curtain is my friend, but there its not much fun to be taking a shower and find the sudden urge to get out early because the bouquet of the room has suddenly changed. Sometimes the hot water will also run out before the interrupter is done doing their business, and I end up shivering in the shower, with a towel wrapped around me, waiting for them to get out so I can come out of the shower.

All in all, even though I am complaining...I am very grateful for the bathroom I have. I can always take comfort in the memory of those weeks and months when we were remodeling the bathroom, and had to use a portable toilet off and on, and had to use a hose in the laundry room sink for bathing. My bathroom seems like heaven in comparison.

Does your deodorant say anything about you?

2007-09-20T14:16:00.001-07:00

I am just curious as to how many people are devoted to a certain brand of deodorant/ antipersperant. I have been a secret user for years...and YEARS. My sister always liked using Old Spice for deodorant when we were teens, but I found it to be too slimy.

I have noticed that there are many newer scents of Secret out on the market lately. I am personally still pretty devoted to the Spring Breeze and Shower Fresh scents. I decided to compile a list of available scents just out of curiosity.

Powder Fresh

Sheer Clean

Shower Fresh

Spring Breeze

Unscented

Glacier Mist

Mystic Rain (okay, now who comes up with these names?)

Ocean Breeze

Arctic Apple

Brazillian Cherry

Eastern Lily

English Bloom

French Lavender

Southern Peach

Vanilla Chai

Tropical Tango

Jasmine Orient

KuKu Cocoa Butter

Spanish Rose

Passion Flower

Botanical Silk

Tropical Satin

Velvet Powder

Afrikan Violet (their spelling, not mine)

Asian Pear

Why so many choices I wonder! What if I switch scents and then they discontinue it? A while back I bought some secret that was on clearance...it was called Optimism...now doesn't that make you want to buy it? Actually I might be more inclined to buy one called Pessimism because that is more my personality

That time of the year again...

2007-09-17T08:57:00.001-07:00

I love Christmas music. Most people who know me well also know that I am prone to pulling out the Christmas music at a time some people might call insanely early in the year. Typically that would be in August. We have over 20 Christmas Albums...most on CD, but quite a few on cassette as well. I didn't want to take the time to count every single Album, but I would say we have close to 30 of them, and I am always in the market for more.
This year, I waited until September 15th to listen to some Christmas music...that means I am a whole month behind in my listening! No wonder I have been feeling so crabby...
I am not saying I am ready for stores to be displaying their Christmas wares. I was pleasantly surprised that Costco only just started putting out their decorative items for sale. They are behind schedule too! Last year they had Holiday merchandise out in August.
So, now that I am in the Christmas spirit (at least musically) I am wondering, what is your favorite Christmas album? Song? Version of a song? When do you start listening to Christmas music? I would love to hear about it, even if it seems early in the year for it. (My take on that is that Christmas music is good for all year round, its about the Savior's birth! Why should I only think about that once a year?) You can keep your Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree to yourself...as well as your Jingle Bell Rock. I don't mind most of the secular Holiday music, but those two in particular drive me CRAZY!