Look what I made

It took three tries, but I finally made a successful loaf of sourdough bread. And it was so good! The kids loved it. And, now that I have the starter figured out, it is super easy to make.

A Ross Funny

Tonight while I was doing Reid's speech homework with him, Hannah took Ross into his room, tucked him in and read him a book. She is so good with the little ones and I thought it was super sweet that she wanted to help out. Now, Ross normally is a disaster to get to bed, though we've been working on it a lot lately and things are dramatically better than they were a month ago. Anyway, Hannah came out of the boys room, turned their light off and we didn't hear much of anything from Ross. Not wanting to mess a good thing up, I stayed out. After a bit, Reid was ready to go to bed, so we quietly tip-toed in. Ross was half sitting up in his bed with his finger firmly lodged in his nose. He didn't move when we came in, but announced loudly, "pick my nose". Yes, Ross, I can see that...

A few pictures from our Christmas

I, unfortunately, didn't get a lot of good photos of our Christmas celebrations this year. Here are just a few, however, showing some of the highlights.

We decorated Christmas cookies last Monday. Hannah & I made the cookies on Sunday. I tried to include the boys in the rolling and cutting out of the cookie dough, but that was a disaster. After I had re-rolled the same dough 5 times without so much as a single cookie to show for it, I booted them from the kitchen. We did, however, have a lot of fun decorating them on Monday. Reid and Ross thoroughly enjoyed the process. Ross was a hoot. He was mostly interested in eating the frosting. For whatever reason, he would put the frosting on a cookie, then set the cookie on the counter and lean over and lick the frosting off.

My Aunt Deb & Uncle Thomas sent this dinosaur costume for the boys. Isn't it cute? Ross wanted to wear it, but didn't want the hat on his head. Hence the reason Hannah is in the background of the photo, trying to keep it on. He kept nodding his head trying to get it off (not using his hands for whatever reason). The effect was quite comical -- he looked like a head banging dinosaur!

And here is little Lucy showing off her new Christmas outfit from Aunt Valerie & Uncle Steve.

Guess what is special about this bow?

Besides the little girl who is wearing it. I made this one. Isn't it cute?

It comes just the same...

This morning I woke up pondering how we could possibly celebrate Christmas without Jeremy here. I’ve been up since 4:00, so I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. And this quote, which is one of my favorites, came to mind:

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. " -- Dr. Seuss

I realized that, no matter how noble the thought, Christmas isn’t about family. Nor is it about parties, food, cards, gifts, or any of the other trappings of the season. It is about the birth of our Savior. And it will come, even if my husband is in Iraq. And it has just as much meaning, even if Jeremy does miss Lucy’s first Christmas. Yes, I wish Jeremy was here to share this with us, but he is not and it makes no difference to Christmas. It comes just the same. And what a blessing that is. Regardless of our personal struggles, Christmas will come each year, reminding us that hope came to us in the form of a little baby. So, this Christmas, I have hope that God will see me through this deployment and help me keep perspective on what Christmas is about. After all, this isn't our birthday (see, John & Betty, I was listening at church on Sunday) -- we are celebrating Christ's birthday. I can praise God for his gift here and Jeremy can praise God for his gift in Iraq. And all the other stuff really doesn't matter.

My latest knitting project and my pokey little puppy.

I'm impatiently waiting for my parents to arrive here tonight with Hannah. It has been too long since I've seen her and I just cannot wait for her to get here. So, to bide the time, I thought I would update here.

Last weekend I FINALLY finished the hat that I started knitting for Ross two months ago. I had to get it done, because his old hat just did not fit him anymore. (On a side note, it hasn't been cool enough for him to need it since I finished it -- go figure. It was in the 70's today.) He is too stinking cute in this thing! I love that the tassels sway back and forth when he runs around. And they are really easy to knit -- an excellent 1st hat for a beginning knitter. You just knit in the round enough stitches to fit around the head and until it is long enough and then do a double bind off. It is seriously simple, but oh so cute!

And what is Ross so intently playing with in these pictures? Scraps of the yarn from the hat. He and Reid repeatedly "decorated" the tree with the scraps. In fact, I think I got a good four hours (yes FOUR hours) of entertainment for the boys out of the scrap yarn over the course of about 2 days.

And about my pokey little puppy...that would be Ross. I'm calling him this because the book The Pokey Little Puppy is the only place I have ever heard rice pudding referenced. On a whim a few weeks ago I made a batch of rice pudding. I've never had it in my life. It was really quite simple and oh so good. Ross LOVED it! He polished off two bowl fulls at dinner the night I made and managed to not get a single drop on his bib or face -- he wasn't about to waste this stuff. Grandma B. made some a week later and he was all over it again. So, tonight I made another batch for him. He'll be pleasantly surprised tomorrow when he finds out that is on the menu for dessert. Interestingly, Reid won't touch the stuff.

One down...

So, as of Wednesday, Jeremy was deployed for one month. Only 5 more to go until R&R (I can't bring myself to think of an entire year like this, so I'm choosing to focus on just making it to R&R). It has been, without a doubt, the longest month of my life. I will say, however, that in the last week things have gotten a bit easier. We're in a routine now. The weekends really suck, though. That was when Jeremy was home the most and we went and did things. Evenings really bothered me at first, too, but I seem to have adjusted to those. Hopefully the weekends will get easier as time goes by.

So, one of my coping mechanisms has been to work out a lot. I run my elliptical at least 6 days a week and try to do arms (push-ups and tricep dips) and abs every day. I'm planning on picking up a set of barbells soon so that I can start doing the weight lifting that I used to go to a class for. This works for me for two reasons:

1. I'm physically tired at the end of the day and fall asleep easier.
2. Makes me feel better physically and releases lots of those good endorphins, so I just feel better on a whole.

As a result, I have lost 7 pounds since Jeremy left. My pants are all getting baggy. My abdominals are in the best shape they have ever been in (now I just need to get rid of the little bit of padding left over from my pregnancy that is covering them up). When I get to 10 pounds lost I get to go sky diving (although, I'm don't want to go until it warms up a bit)! I'm definitely looking forward to that!

So, here I go, keeping on keeping busy!

It is so nice here right now!

I apologize to those of you in Ohio, but I must inform you that the weather here is really nice this week. Yesterday the temperature was about 70 degrees in the afternoon. Today is a repeat performance of that. It has been a little cloudy, but I can deal with that. We took advantage of the nice weather to play outside a bit yesterday. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again this afternoon when the kids wake up, though it appears it could drizzle on us, too.

Anyway...here are a few shots of the kids enjoying the nice weather! I just have to laugh at the one of Ross trying to get into the pool. It wasn't the pool he wanted...he kept throwing his ball over the fence. Silly boy!

I think I got my starter started.

Yesterday I decided that maybe the starter would be better off in the oven, just to protect it from drafts. So, yesterday morning I stuck it in the oven after warming just a bit (turned it on as low as it goes for about three minutes, then left the door open for a few minutes). It got a lot bubblier than it had in the previous week. So, after I fed it last night, I put it in the oven again. I put it in a larger bowl, just in case it bubbled up. This morning I opened the oven to check it and was greeted with a massive mess. The plastic wrap was ballooned up, the sides of the bowl were covered in dry gummy starter, my over racks were a mess and there was at least three cups of starter on the bottom of the oven. Yuck. I realized, too, as I was cleaning the mess up that my oven was way overdue for a cleaning. So that was my morning project. I'm making a loaf tomorrow...the bread better rise as much as the starter did last night!

Trying to get in the Christmas spirit.

I'm struggling to get in Christmas spirit this year. Normally I have the Christmas music turned on from Thanksgiving until they stop playing it (and Jeremy hates it). This year I'm finding myself turning it off quite frequently.

Last weekend, however, I did put up a few more decorations. The tree now has a bow on the top and the skirt is out (but no ornaments -- too many little fingers to pull them off). Betty B. got me a pointsetta, which adds a nice splash of color to our entertainment center. I also put our garland up on the mantle and hung the stockings. I think we're out of room.

After taking the picture, I did put some of my favorite ornaments (the Danberry Mint ones that come from my mom that a lot of you would recognize) up on the mantle. So, we have all of seven ornaments out this year. Maybe Hannah and I will decorate the tree on Christmas Eve and take the ornaments down on Christmas evening. We'll just have to see if I feel like being the mediator between the boys (and cat) and the tree for 24 hours.

I must say, I'm glad I forced myself to get the stuff out. It has helped my mood a little. And yesterday I went and spent the day shopping in Raleigh with a friend (and had a lovely time, by the way). I finished almost all of my shopping (especially since I came home and stayed up ordering everything I couldn't find in store). I got three things wrapped today while Lucy laid on the floor next to me cooing. Then I ran out of steam. They'll still be there later.

Maybe I'll have to break out White Christmas and see if that helps put me in the right frame of mind for Christmas. How can you not be in the Christmas spirit if Bing is singing to you?

Laugh with me, ya'll!

So, last weekend I tried out my sourdough starter. This is what I got:

It appears that just possibly -- maybe, just maybe -- something is not right with my starter. What do you think? The good news is that it had the faintest taste of sourdough. The bad news is that it had the consistency of the wad of dried play dough I found under my buffet last week. So, I'm still feeding my starter and plan to try it again this weekend. I think my house may be a little too cool and it is taking longer for the starter to get started. It's either that or I am a completely hopeless baker!

Good grief!

I think the boys are trying to see exactly how far they have to push me before I snap.

This morning, we went to a friends house to visit. I was so looking forward to this. Lucy was in rare form -- she was very grumpy pretty much the entire time we were there. Lucy is usually pretty easy going, so I'm not exactly sure what caused this. However, I noticed a huge swollen knot on the back of her head while we were there. My friend & I came to the conclusion that it looked like a spider bite. I'm hoping that is the cause of both the grumpiness and the knot (not that I'm glad she got bit, but that is better than if she got thumped by one of her brothers). Reid & Ross took advantage of the fact that Lucy was being high maintenance to get into all sorts of trouble. They were totally rowdy and disobedient. We finally just had to leave because they were so out of control. Reid even left the house on his own after I got his shoes on him. He just went out and shut the door, like he is normally allowed to go outside by himself. Needless to say, both boys spent an ample amount of time in time-out when we got home -- mostly so that I could cool down. Luckily Grandma came down and fed them lunch so that I could blow some steam off on my elliptical. Thank goodness Grandma is just down the street!!!

Now the boys are napping peacefully and Lucy is fussing. I think she is still tired, but resisting going back to sleep. So, off I go to see if I can rock her to sleep...

My beauties!

Sleepy Ross.

Lucy learning to sit in her bumbo.

Sleepy Reid.

Random things

So, it appears that my sourdough starter is actually working. I need to give it a few more days and then I can give baking with it a shot. I was sure when I started it that it wasn't going to work...guess I should have more confidence in my baking skills!

Today on the way home from preschool, Reid announced that he wanted to move our house. When I asked him why, his answer was "so that it is closer to school". It takes us about 20 minutes to drive from home to school. Apparently that is too far for him. And apparently he can't understand why we can't just pick up and move the house (and the pool for that matter).

And here is a little fact for you: I did 3 loads of laundry on Monday, 10 loads on Tuesday, 3 loads yesterday and, so far, 2 today. Laundry used to be my favorite household chore. I swear the kids are working hard at killing my washing machine.

Keeping myself busy with baking.

Tonight I decided to start a sourdough starter. How hard can it be? I only have to remember to feed it twice a day until I get it going. (Betty B. reminded me, however, that I often forget to feed my cat on a daily basis.) It is only flour and water, so I'm not out much if I forget to maintain it (which I probably will). The next challenge will be making the bread. I'm a pretty good baker, but I'm kind of hit or miss with breads. I have figured out how to make my Great Aunt Marilyn's refrigerator rolls (which rock, by the way). Hopefully I've learned something from the 5 or 6 years it took me to master those...

I'm itching to bake in general. It's just something about the holidays. I really want to make a carrot cake -- with cream cheese frosting (yum!). Jeremy hates cream cheese, so I normally abstain from cooking/baking with it. I think I'll take advantage of the fact that he isn't here to complain about it, though. And I have a ton of pecans left over from my Thanksgiving pecan pie that I need to find a use for. And Ina Garten made a fabulous looking cheesecake on the Food Network the other day that I'm dying to try. And I want to try making pralines (oh good, a use for some of the pecans). And I want to make a batch of truffles. And, well, I'll stop there because that should keep me busy for a good long while.

Okay, so I better step up my workout routine (which I've been doing really well with) if I'm going to make all of this.