The Great Adventure

A New Beginning...

2012-03-12T18:15:00.002-04:00

After blogging at The Great Adventure here on Blogger for nearly 4 years, I'm switching things up! What started out as a way to keep family and friends up-to-date with our lives when we moved from Texas to New York City has slowly morphed into rambling about craft projects, gardening, organizing our house, and the day-to-day adventures of raising 7 busy kids. While I still plan on blogging about our adventures, I plan on sharing more about home making, organizing, craft projects, cooking, and the other stuff that fills up our days.

So please head on over to Life, Kids, and the Pursuit of Sanity and check out my new home on the web! I can't wait to see you over there!

18 Clues That You Live in a House Full of Boys

2012-03-07T13:37:00.007-05:00

It's one of THOSE days. You know the kind--the kids are super hyped up after being down with colds for the past few days. The chaos of having chores fall by the wayside while everyone held down the couches has resulted in a crazy build up of mess. (How DO they make such messes while holding down the couches?!?!?) "Let's work together to get the house back in order" is met with blank looks as if you're speaking a foreign language.

On days like this I figure I can either throw up my hands in despair while sending everyone to their rooms for the rest of the day, or I can laugh and move on. I'm choosing to laugh! So here, in no particular order, are some of the things that I experience on a regular basis thanks to my house full of boys.

18 clues that you live in a house full of boys:

Dirty socks randomly appear in every room, and they are usually full of holes despite the fact that you Just. Replaced. Them. less than 2 months ago.
While you can certainly HEAR your children, usually all you can see is a blur as they run by.
Your family owns more toy guns, swords, and light sabers than silverware.
Part of the reason you have no silverware is because your spoons have become shovels, and your good forks get mysteriously thrown away with the paper plates when the boys clear the table.
You can call their names til you're blue in the face, and they can't hear you...until you walk out into the garage and turn on the 4-wheeler, then they show up from every corner of the house wanting to go for a ride. This holds true for any vehicle or power tool.
"Making their beds" is defined as picking up all pillows, sheets, blankets, and stuffed animals that were knocked onto the floor overnight and piling them on top of the mattress in one giant lump.
You have 4 bathrooms but the chances of finding a toilet that is both flushed AND has the seat down is slim to none.
You wash more clean clothes than dirty clothes because it is apparently easier to throw the clean clothes back in the hamper than to put them away.

It's not unusual to have at least one child dressed as a superhero at any given time.
Toothpaste is an acceptable medium for decorating the bathroom.
The kids' bathroom can be the site of more than a dozen showers/baths a week, yet the shampoo and soap never seem to run out...
...unless it's the 3-year-old's nap time and he sneaks into the bathroom...then the shampoo is likely to be poured down the drain.
Spontaneous wrestling matches can occur at any time, usually without warning.
You can't keep enough food in the house, and no matter how "full" they are after a meal, someone will be complaining that they are starving within 15 minutes of finishing a meal.
Even the most mundane, harmless object will be used as a projectile of some sort. Stuff is flying constantly!
At any given time, there is at least one jar laying around that contains a living creature with 6 or 8 legs.
Checking pockets before doing laundry is a hazardous endeavor.
If it's quiet, you KNOW someone is up to something they shouldn't be!

You know, raising 6 boys is a loud, messy, CRAZY job...but when I really stop and think about it, I wouldn't have it any other way!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go vacuum the playroom...assuming I can find the vacuum. And the playroom! ;)

St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Garland

2012-03-06T14:51:00.003-05:00

When it comes to holidays, I've always had the best intentions of decorating. I mean, I DO go all-out at Christmastime, but other than that I've been a pretty pitiful decorator. I'm not sure why...maybe it's a lack of time? Or maybe it's just too much work to scoot the kid-induced clutter out of the way to stick some cutesy holiday what-nots in its place.

So this is why it's somewhat amazing that it's only March and I've already decorated for 2 holidays this year. Granted, it's just my mantel so far, but it's a start, right? My Valentine's heart garland was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. I came up with this St. Patrick's Day shamrock garland because I so enjoyed having something there the whole month of February. Once the hearts came down, I just HAD to have something to go up in their place.

Plus, I'm over half Irish, so of course this is a holiday I have to celebrate!

I started by tracing a shamrock-shaped cookie cutter onto a piece of paper. Then I enlarged it by extending the outline free hand. I cut it out and traced it on fabric. Now, normally I would have used my disappearing fabric marker for this, but it had apparently been "borrowed" by Not Me, so I resorted to a ball-point pen.

I made a sandwich of my traced shamrock, a square of cotton batting, and another matching piece of fabric, right sides out.

Then I pinned them together and stitched about 1/4" inside my lines. If the shape wasn't so convoluted, I would have stitched ON the lines and then cut it out 1/4" outside the lines, but in this case I think it would have messed up the shamrock shape.

My stitching lines aren't perfect, but since they have a sort of scrappy look anyway with the unfinished edges, that's okay.

I thought they needed something else, so I stitched a button to the center of each shamrock. I then attached them to a piece of 1/4" green ribbon using a tiny dab of hot glue. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Now I just need some decor for the top of my mantel...and I really should figure out just WHAT the boys did with the piece of wood they broke off that scroll-y piece on the front of the fireplace!

Happy Birthday, Josiah!!

2012-03-05T15:11:00.002-05:00

Look who's FOUR!! It's hard to believe my little guy is getting so BIG!

His birthday was actually yesterday, but he wasn't feeling well so we put off celebrating until today. Poor baby. He was so excited about having cake and presents last night, but just couldn't keep his eyes open. He's feeling better today, although he still isn't at 100%. I think our plans to take him to our local bouncy/inflatables place will have to wait until later in the week.

Jonathan made his cake, from a mix that Josiah picked out himself. Joshua decorated it with red sugar and Spider-man figures. Yes, he put the Green Goblin up on Erector Set pieces so it would look like he's flying. I'm trying not to think about how unsanitary that probably was!

On a totally unrelated subject, I'm at the 1-month mark on my weight-loss endeavor. I'm down exactly 6 lbs., out of a total 20 I want to lose by the end of May. I'm happy with my progress so far. Now I just need to keep it up! I'm sure birthday cake doesn't help much. :)

Inspired by Pinterest -- Cute Ribbon Flower!

2012-03-02T12:50:00.005-05:00

Who else is loving Pinterest?!! I love how visual it is...I used to bookmark sites I wanted to return to, but then when looking at a list of bookmarked sites, I never could remember why I had saved it to begin with. Now with Pinterest it's all visual, and categorized, and shareable...what's not to love?

Anyone else find themselves pinning, repinning, and liking tons of stuff but then never finding the time to actually DO the ideas you are pinning? Yep, that's me!! So many great ideas out there, so little time.

So I've decided if I'm going to play on Pinterest, I'm going to take the time to try out some of the recipes, crafts, school ideas, and decor ideas I am finding there. And, of course, I'm going to share them with YOU! :)

Yesterday I tried out a tutorial for a ribbon flower. The original tutorial can be found here. Here is the one I made:

The instructions called for using a wood burning tool and a washer to trace, cut, and seal the ribbon at the same time. While that sounds amazingly cool, I don't own such a tool. So I made do with a thread spool and a pen.

I used 1.5" grosgrain ribbon cut 2" long, and heat-sealed all cut ends with a cigarette lighter.

The instructions weren't specific on how to sew them together, so I ended up sewing it once, taking it apart, and then sewing it again. Turns out it worked better for me starting and ending with the needle on the right (printed) side of the ribbon, instead of coming up from underneath, which is how I did it the first time.

I stacked 3 buttons of different sizes and sewed them onto the middle of my flower.

Then I covered an alligator clip with matching pink ribbon and hot-glued it to the back of the flower.

And here it is in use by the resident girly-girl:

She, of course, loves it. She loves ALL things cute and girly!

Cute, silly girl!!

It was very quick to make, maybe 30 minutes or less. I do like her other bows better, so I don't think I'd make a bunch of these. But it did turn out cute, and was super easy. The site with the tutorial looks like it has a TON of bow-making info. I haven't explored the rest of the site yet, but I will!!

In other random news, did y'all know that March is National Frozen Food Month? I usually take advantage of the great sales on frozen foods and stock up my freezer. While I'll still do that to some degree, I'm also going to celebrate by doing some serious cooking of freezer meals this month.

Last October I made over 30 freezer meals over the course of a week, so that I could relax during the holiday season with about half our our dinners already made. It made life SO MUCH easier! Those meals are now long gone, so it's time to feed the freezer again.

I'm working out plans and menus right now, so that hopefully I can start shopping and cooking next week. Check back later as I'll be sure to share the process (and links to recipes) here!

What's Cookin', Jon? Snow Cream!

2012-03-01T11:14:00.005-05:00

Hi, everybody, and welcome to Jonathan's new video project! Jonathan has many interests, but two of his favorites are cooking and, um, hamming it up for anyone who will pay attention. He and Joshua have both become interested in taking and editing video since they got video cameras for Christmas, so we've downloaded a simple video editing program for them to play with. Here is the first installment of Jon's new blog series, "What's Cookin', Jon?"

(Yes, we're aware that there is no actual cooking in this recipe...we wanted to start simple!)

He wants to make this a weekly contribution to our blog. Please leave him a comment and let him know if you enjoyed it. I know he'll be asking!

Snow Cream
2 c. milk
1 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 gallon or so fresh snow

Mix milk, sugar, and vanilla together. Stir into snow. Spoon into bowls and enjoy!!

2012 Cross-Country Road Trip Part IV--McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, Scottsdale, AZ

2012-02-28T11:51:00.010-05:00

After our visit in Albuquerque, we visited with my Dad in Scottsdale. Every time we visit, we HAVE to take the boys to the Railroad Park. With a train to ride, a carousel, and a huge play scape, what's not to love?

Joshua, Josiah, and Jonathan. I don't know why they always insist on crowding into this little car, but they do. Every time.

See? It's teeny. I'm waaaay to claustrophobic to get in there!

The adults, along with Jeremiah and Joanna, rode on the open-air benches instead. Jeremiah looks thrilled, dontcha think?

Joanna was thrilled! She smiled and giggled the whole ride.

The boys waiting their turn on the carousel...

Jordan

Joanna and Peepah

Josiah loved the horses! I had so much fun watching him.

Joshua

Time for an ice cream break!

Then it was off to the play scape!

My little human bulldozer...

Joanna

Jonathan and Joshua liked this spinning thing.

Jordan having fun...

Even a princess must play in the dirt every now and again!

My cutie-pie Josiah!

Hope y'all enjoyed the pictures! I'm off to finish up school and do some sewing. I've got several projects calling! :)

Family Fun in Times Square

2012-02-27T11:46:00.003-05:00

Saturday we took the kids into NYC. I had a lunch date with a couple of girlfriends for a friend's birthday planned, but nothing to do afterward. So we decided to all go, so that after lunch we could do something in the city as a family. We don't get back to the city as often as we'd like lately.

After having lunch with my friends, I walked through Times Square to the pizza joint where Jeremy and the kids were eating. Along the way, a man advertising some show or other spun around and nearly ran into me.

I didn't expect him to say "Excuse me," or anything, after all this is the most tourist-y area in NYC, and the locals have that reputation of rudeness to maintain. But I certainly didn't expect what he DID say:

"Ooh, you look like a hot librarian!" Um, what? I gave him my most withering look, to which he replied, "No, really, that's a compliment!" Uh, okay then. I'm still puzzled over just whom that line might actually work for.

I made the mistake of telling Jeremy, who thought that was just the funniest thing he'd ever heard. He's used the same line on me at least 3 times now in the past 24 hours. Then he cracks up all over again. Niiiiiiiiiice.

We took the kids to their favorite places in Times Square--M&Ms World, the Hershey Store (see a theme, here?) and Toys R Us. We also went to the new (to us) Disney Store which replaced the old World of Disney on 5th Avenue. (For the record, I liked the 5th Avenue location better! Oh, well!) Joanna spent the whole time at The Disney Store running from princess dress to princess dress and exclaiming, "I YIKE dat one! I YIKE dat one!" Over and over again. And she picked up and kissed the plush dolls. Such a girly girl!

Josiah and Joanna in M&Ms World

What usually happens when we try to get a group picture...seriously, this was the BEST one.

Joey

Help! I'm being eaten by a giant M&M!!!

This is baby girl after getting her M&Ms, but being told she couldn't have any until we paid for them.

This is her newest reaction to Things Of Which She Does NOT Approve, which are basically any activities that were not her idea to begin with. We're working on it. Going limp and flopping down on the ground makes any activity difficult, especially in a crowded store in Times Square.

The boys found their "color mood." I think Jon was hoping for a more bold, masculine color.

Josiah in the Hershey Store. We went there next, since we needed more chocolate.

Daddy and Joanna checking out the animatronic dinosaur in Toys R Us. The boys LOVE this thing. Joanna was unimpressed.

At this point the little kid meltdowns were outpacing the big kid fun, so we called it a day and headed home.

Two days later, I think we are FINALLY over the sugar rush!

Less Of Me To Go Around...

2012-02-24T16:57:00.002-05:00

...or that's what I'm hoping for, anyway!

(And no, that doesn't mean there's another J-kid on the way!)

I'm literally going for less, as in 20 lbs. less. I set a goal at the beginning of February to lose 20 lbs. by the end of May. I'm hoping that will be enough to get me back into my collection of size 8/10 summer clothes. Due to 2 pregnancies and the shorter summer season here, I haven't worn them since we left Texas. Nearly 4 years ago. Yikes!

I'm also hoping that this change will help with another goal: to actually get dressed in cute clothes every day. Yes, my usual uniform if we're not leaving the house is a pair of sweat pants and a long-sleeved tee, covered by a hoodie. Not exactly cute or attractive, lol. The primary challenge to this goal is that I have NO fashion sense. AT ALL.

So I'm going to need some help...but first I'm going to drop this 20 lbs. of baby weight!

I pulled out my Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds DVD today and did the first 2 miles. I thought *pant* I was *wheeze* going to *gasp* DIE!! And this is the same program that I used to do all 5 miles of while hardly breaking a sweat! I have my work cut out for me. Baby steps, right?

In other exciting news, I'm changing my name and moving...

to Wordpress! (He he he, had you going for just a second, didn't I? *grin*)

More on that later, since I still have to pick a host and then transfer everything. I'll keep y'all posted! :)

Awwwwwww!!

2012-02-23T12:46:00.003-05:00

A certain little scrumptiously-dimpled cutie pie...

Is now sporting 2 cute little teeth!!

Isn't he adorable?!?! *grin*

Minute To Win It -- J-Boys Edition

2012-02-21T16:54:00.000-05:00

What do you get when you combine a tray full of random craft supplies and household objects, 4 very active boys, and a little bit of imagination? Well, you get "Minute to Win It," J-boys style!

We took most of the day off on Valentine's Day. Even Jeremy took time off since he had a business engagement in the city that evening, so wanted to take time during the day to hang out with the kids. We played a few board games, but I could tell the boys needed something to do that was fun and ACTIVE!

So I ran around the house and started gathering items, many from our extensive collection of kids' craft supplies. I put instructions on index cards for each activity, then we all sat in the living room while the little ones napped and did silly things like:

Transferring pom poms from one bowl to another one a couple feet away using spoons held in our mouths...

Stringing colored noodles onto yarn using only one hand...

Stacking paper cup towers...

Using rubber bands to "shoot" down toilet paper tubes...

Flipping pennies from a craft stick onto a plate below...

Sorting foam shapes into bowls--blindfolded...

Throwing marshmallows into the air and catching them in our mouths...

Balancing a bunch of pennies on the end of a craft stick...

Catching giant pom poms in styrofoam bowls tied to our heads...

Keeping a feather in the air by blowing on it...

And rolling little styrofoam balls through a paper towel tube into a container on the floor.

We didn't play by the official TV show rules. Instead we divided into teams and did face-offs, with the winner being the one to stack/string/catch/sort/shoot the most in 1 minute's time. We pulled out our iPhones to use as timers. (Yes, I use my apps far FAR more often than I actually use the phone part, ha ha!)

The J-boys best events? Here's the recap:

Joshua could keep a feather aloft with only his breath longer than anyone else.
Jonathan sorted shapes blindfolded in record time.
Jordan was a pro at catching pom poms in a bowl on his head.
Joseph could stack cups higher than any of the other boys...

I emphasize boys because the overall champion cup-stacker was Jeremy. And I was the best at throwing marshmallows up into the air and catching them in my mouth--I only missed twice in 1 minute...I think I caught 10. Bet ya didn't know I was so talented!! :)

2012 Cross-Country Road Trip Part III--Hot Air Ballooning!

2012-02-20T11:55:00.001-05:00

One of the biggest highlights of our visit with Jeremy's parents in Albuquerque was the 4 bigger boys' first hot air balloon ride. They were sooo excited!

Not only did they get to ride, but they also got to crew. This means they helped set up the balloon, and then helped take it apart and put it away when we were done. Here they are helping with the tarp that the basket lies on while the balloon is being inflated.

Joanna watching from her stroller

Here Granddaddy is showing Joshua and Jonathan how to hold the cables so the neck of the envelope (what the actual balloon is called) will stay open so the air from the fan can blow in. I was manning the fan. (And the camera! Multi-tasking again, lol!)

Jordan

Jonathan

Joshua

Jonathan is working hard!

All set up and ready to go! Just had to snap a quick pic before the camera lady jumped in the basket.

Joey, being a good big brother, covered Josiah's ears as we were taking off. The noise from the burners can be pretty loud!

Our shadow on the ground...cool, huh?

Aerial view of the field where we set up. There was another balloon setting up there as well, they were just a little bit behind us. You can barely see our van, and the truck pulling the bright yellow balloon trailer.

Little houses! I commented to Jeremy's dad that this would be a great way to get new landscaping ideas. :)

Jordan

Jonathan

After flying for 45 minutes or so, we landed so that Jordan and I could get out and let Jeremy and Joseph have a turn.

The boys "flapping their wings" to help get the balloon off the ground. Silly boys!

There they go! That's Joshua waving and Jeremy taking pictures with his iPhone.

Uh oh! Looks like they're landing on top of that house!

Look at Joey's face! That's the look of a boy having FUN!

Everybody helped take the balloon apart and put it all away.

The boys kept having to flop down on the bag that holds the envelope to squish everything down so there would be enough room.

I think they liked that job!

Helping Uncle Mike (Jeremy's uncle) take the burners off the top of the basket

Josh and Jon helping Granddaddy get the last of the envelope into the bag

The boys learning to tie the knot that holds the bag closed

Joshua

After everything was packed into the trailer, the boys got to participate in the fun little activity Granddaddy always does with his 1st-time crew helpers. He tells them a story about ballooning history (sorry, I don't remember the story!) and then they have a contest to see who can down a cup of sparkling cider first...without using their hands!

Ready...

Go!

And Jonathan wins!!

Joey came in second! :)

The boys all had a fabulous time both flying and helping. Now we really have to get out to Albuquerque for Balloon Fiesta. That's what Jordan is asking to do for his birthday, which is around the same time. Grandmommy and Granddaddy, can we come visit again in October, please? :)

Boys' Room Repair and Makeover -- Step One!

2012-02-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

While we were on our trip, we had a pipe burst in the big boys' bedroom. This is, of course, not a fun thing to deal with, especially from 2000 miles away! Thankfully our neighbors who were feeding our chickens noticed the garage ceiling leaking and knew how to patch the leak, or we more than likely would have come home to a completely destroyed house!

The one bright spot in all this, at least for me, is that the room has to be repainted and the flooring replaced. I wanted to do both of those things anyway, but I probably wouldn't have gotten to the painting for awhile, and we probably wouldn't have bothered with the expense of replacing the flooring, which was a boring but perfectly decent Berber carpet.

The room was repainted this past week. The best part? It was painted by professional painters, NOT me! :) The room is full of narrow trim and funky angles--I was NOT looking forward to trying to paint it myself!

I can't believe it, but I don't have any "before" pictures of the room in it's original state. And I didn't think to pull out the camera until the painting was already underway. So here are the "sort-of before" pictures:

They had painted the ceiling by this point. It used to be red as well. This was a very dark room, in spite of having 2 dormers and a large window at one end. You can see how much trim there is to paint around!

From the window end of the room looking back toward the door. Please excuse all the mixed up bed parts laying about! The 3 boys who usually sleep in this room are bunking with Joanna right now...2 in the queen-sized guest bed and 1 on a mattress on the floor. It's a big party every night at bedtime, I tell ya!

The back corner

And now the after pictures:

This looks lighter than it is...it has darkened some now that it is dry. It's a light denim blue, and the ceiling is called Sea Salt, I think. We left the trim a glossy white.

Isn't this just so much nicer than that dark, dark red? I love it!

The second dormer window. This one has a built-in computer desk, the same color as the upper cabinets around the window. The desk had to come out to remove the carpet and dry everything out. It will go back when the floor is done. The other dormer has a built-in toy box under the window.

And here's the back corner and the big window.

I'm thrilled with how well it has turned out so far. It took the painters less than 6 hours to finish it. It would have taken me weeks! We're going to put in laminate flooring ourselves to keep costs down. We have experience with that, so hopefully it won't take too long! I already have a long list of things I plan on doing to decorate this room once the flooring is done. I can't wait to get started!! Let's just say there will be a lot of sewing and crafting in my future! Yay!

Snow Day!

2012-02-17T12:22:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I made the comment that we hadn't had any snow to speak of, at least not enough to stick on the ground and play in. Well, I obviously spoke too soon. By yesterday afternoon, we had gone from nothing on the ground to this:

Jonathan and Jordan finally getting to use the snow brick makers they got for Christmas

I'm reminded of the old adage that if you wash your car, it is likely to rain. You don't suppose there's any correlation here, do you? Haha!

It snowed hard most of the afternoon. Since the boys had already finished most of their school work, we took the afternoon off so they could play in it. Home schoolers should get snow days, too, right?!

Someone opened the front door on the chicken coop. Silly birds will NOT touch the snow, so they took turns crowding into the 6-inch strip left snowless by the overhang of the roof.

Joey shoveling the driveway. For fun. :)

Joshua even shoveled the front sidewalk without being asked!!!

Of course, he did come to me later and ask if he could be paid for it! That's my little opportunist! Yes, he did get the "you live here too so you can help out for free" response. I figure stuff like that fits under the umbrella of stuff they do to earn their allowance anyway.

Sadly for the boys, the snow was short-lived. It's all melted now, and we're back to our boring old dead grass. They're already looking forward to the next snow day!

2012 Cross-Country Road Trip Part II--Sledding in New Mexico

2012-02-16T12:40:00.001-05:00

Ready for some more pictures from our cross-country trip? I'm slowly getting all my pictures re-sized and uploaded. I didn't realize how snap-happy I am...I took so many pictures!

So here they are, sledding in the Jemez Mountains outside Albuquerque.

Jordan in his cool shades

This is where we go sledding...a nice bowl-like area that we've gone to on 3 or 4 different visits now. It's big enough for the bigger boys to have fun, while not being too dangerous for the little guys. Win-win!

Joey

Joshua

Jonathan, tired of waiting for his turn with one of the 3 sleds, decided to go down one of the steeper sides on his rear end.

I just love the expression on Jordan's face here!

Waiting his turn

Josh tried sledding on his backside as well

Joanna's first run, from the safety of Daddy's lap

She wasn't sure about it at first, but she was smiling by the end.

Josiah trying to decide if this whole sledding-without-a-sled thing is worth the risk

Jon about to take off

Once Joanna discovered how much fun it was to sled, she pulled her princess status and got her brothers to pull her back up the hill in the sled. She sledded at least a couple dozen times, and I don't believe she ever had to walk back up the hill!

Another intense expression!

Little miss princess

Josiah

Joanna sledding with Granddaddy...look at that expression of pure excitement on her face!

Josiah getting ready to brave a steep slope on his bottom

And he's off!

Jordan

Daddy couldn't be shown up by Jonathan and Jordan, who were going down the steeper side slopes repeatedly. Here he is about to give it a try...

And he's off!

Yes, he was airborne a couple of times!

Jonathan

Jordan helping Josiah get on the sled

I'm really glad we got in some snow play while we were in the southwest...now that we're back home in the northeast, there isn't any snow around here. We get a bit now and then, but not enough to stick around. It's a far cry from our record season for snow last year! Oh, well...I can be thankful we aren't having to shovel any!!

My Sweet Valentines

2012-02-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

I have not 1, but 8 Valentines to spoil on Valentine's Day! Some years I get more creative with their treats than others...namely the years I'm NOT pregnant, haha! This year I made my sweeties sugar cookies. I was trying to make them look like conversation hearts.

This was my first time to try royal icing on cookies. I've made it before, but only to use as cement for gingerbread houses at Christmas. I colored it with Wilton gel colors. I think they turned out pretty cute, although the icing dried funny on some of them. They look wet around the edges, but they're not. Hmmmm.....

My lettering skills need some practice!

I also followed our tradition of giving everyone a box of actual conversation hearts. Candy always goes over well around here! It's okay to eat cookies and candy for breakfast if it's a holiday, right?? (We did follow up with scrambled eggs about an hour later!)

A little darling (with a bad case of bed head!) inspects her candy.

Mmmmm.....yummy!

Joseph enjoying a cookie.

Jordan

Just in case this helps someone else...

I cut out my cookie dough with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, but they spread out just enough to look kind of weird and misshapen in the oven. I just re-cut them out with the cookie cutter while they were still warm, and voila!--perfect heart shapes again! Now, those of you who bake a lot have probably already figured that out, but it was new to me, so I'm sharing. :) I had lots of eager tasters waiting around to eat the edges that were cut off, so nothing was wasted. (As if cookies could EVER go to waste in a house with 7 kiddos!)

The cookies were enjoyed by all. And I got a sweet card AND a box of chocolates from my honey...Yum!!

2012-02-13T16:27:00.005-05:00

Valentine's Day totally sneaked up on me this year! I mean, I knew it was coming and all, but not so quickly. I'm not ready! This is not a holiday that I make a huge deal out of, but I have several things I've been working on for the loves in my life, and they're not done yet! I still have this evening, right?

This is my lone Valentine's Day decoration this year:

A heart garland made out of red and white felt. It was inspired by something I saw posted on Pinterest, which is my new internet obsession. Like I have time for any more internet obsessions. Anyway, the original is here. I thought hers was cute, but since I didn't have the bead-looking things to put between them, I thought I'd add dimension by making the individual hearts multi-layered. I started with 3, but my sewing machine totally balked at that. Two it is, then.

We had a super-cold weekend, so we spent lots of time sitting around playing games and drinking hot chocolate. Jeremy found us a new Mille Bornes game, since our old one had too many cards missing to really play it.

It is.....Cars themed! The little boys were thrilled.

The draw/discard decks sit in a plastic Lightning McQueen. How cute is that?

And the cards all feature characters from the Cars 2 movie.

For some reason, several of my children weren't allowing me to take their pictures...

It might have something to do with the iPhone app I downloaded recently that makes the subjects of your photos have cool facial hair or bald heads. I thought they would find that amusing. You never can tell with these guys, though. Apparently Josh, Jordan, and Joseph don't trust me with a camera at the moment.

But Jon let me take his picture:

And so did Josiah:

Well, I've got Valentines to prepare and very little time left. Got to get to work!!

2012 Cross-Country Road Trip Part I--Hiking in Albuquerque

2012-02-11T22:15:00.001-05:00

Our first destination on our cross-country trip was Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sure, it took us 4 days to get there and we stayed in many a Wal-Mart parking lot along the way, but it was worth the drive...we had tons of fun spending time with Jeremy's parents, or Granddaddy and Grandmommy to the J-kids. One of our first outings was hiking at the base of the Sandia Mountains, right where the tram leaves to carry passengers to the peak.

First we had to go purchase gloves and hats for several children. After living in the northeast for 4 winters now, I still don't understand how one family can own 30 gloves and not have more than 2 complete pairs among them. Maybe the gloves are hanging out with all the missing socks. I don't know.

Anyway, while glove shopping I couldn't resist this adorable hat for Joanna! Or the matching gloves that she was constantly asking someone to help her put back on.

The boys all had to search for the perfect walking stick.

Joanna and her Granddaddy

Jon

Jon with his walking stick, which is really some sort of dried cactus

Joshua

Here's Joey trudging up a hill. He has a special talent for looking like he isn't having any fun at all--until it's time to go home, and then he doesn't want to leave. Ever.

The younger children got bored quickly, and had to be placated with snacks. We do much more snacking on the road than we do at home, which I think is one of the primary reasons our kids put up with all the traveling that we do. I'm quite confident that they ate more sugar in the last 5 weeks than they will in the next 5 months here at home.

Gather 'round the snacks, boys!

Nothing like kickin' back in a hole in the ground to enjoy a graham cracker. That's my Josiah!

Jeremiah enjoyed watching his brothers from the snuggli.

Joshua

Jeremy and Jeremiah

Jonathan sliding down a very rough boulder. Yet another reason why I'm glad I never pay full price for boys' jeans.

Overlooking part of Albuquerque

The bigger boys were determined to make it all the way to the first tram tower, so they ran ahead. They didn't make it quite that far, but they did manage to be right underneath the path of the tram as it returned back down the mountain.

They are barely visible in the lower left of this photo, just behind a bush.

Jordan

Joey, Josiah, and Jon heading back down

Joshua found this footprint in the snow and was sure it was some fierce wild cat or bear. I thought it was just a large dog print, but he was having none of that! It doesn't look like it from the angle of this picture, but the print was about the same size as his hand.

My sweet Josiah, giving me his I'm-too-cool-to-smile look

Heading back to the parking lot

We didn't make it very far up the mountain, but we had fun and got some good exercise, too. Jeremy and I keep saying that on one of our visits to Albuquerque we're going to hike all the way to the top. Maybe when the kids are a little older (and I'm, uh, back in shape) we'll actually try it!

My Organized Kitchen...In Pictures!

2012-02-10T16:30:00.001-05:00

This is my kitchen. It needs some decorating in a big way...all in due time! But for now it's organized! :)

Back in September I shared that I was reorganizing my kitchen. I also promised that I would share the results of that endeavor when I was done. Oops! So I guess this is one of those better-late-than-never posts, hehe.

When we moved into our house, I did a quick stashing of stuff in cabinets as I was unpacking, fully intending to organize shortly thereafter. Well, we found out I was pregnant with Jeremiah just a few short weeks later, and with morning sickness, etc. not only did organizing not happen--it got even MORE disarrayed.

So when I started this project, my primary goals were:

Get anything that I don't use in the kitchen out of the kitchen,
Put anything that is used very rarely in the hardest-to-get-to spots, saving the easy-to-reach spots for everyday stuff,
Find a way to fit some kitchen appliances that I was storing in the basement back in the kitchen so I would actually use them,
and finally put everything as close to where I use it as possible

So on to the before and after pictures...

My kitchen is quite large, but I have a very small pantry for a family of 9. I solved this problem primarily by converting a larger closet in our basement into a pantry for canned goods, etc. But I still had all sorts of half-used packages of random stuff in my pantry, plus the basic staples like sugar, flour, and the like.

Here it is today. Now, it doesn't look all that different, but I moved most of my staples and made room for my rice cooker and big stock pot that wouldn't fit in any of my other cabinets. The white bin on the bottom right holds our rather substantial tea collection. (Yes, I have a bunch of kids who are big tea drinkers. Must be that little bit of English blood in our family line.)

This cabinet is over a desk area, next to the fridge, and faces the island. It had become a catch-all for all sorts of random stuff, and was the home for all those tea boxes.

Here it is today. I moved my pantry staples and baking supplies into appropriately-sized Rubbermaid containers, and labeled them. I LOVE this set up, as I can find everything quickly and easily, nothing gets hidden behind anything else, and it's accessible to the island, where I do most of my prep work for baking.

(Side note: I drooled over those Tupperware Modular Mates for YEARS but could never bring myself to pay $20-$30 each for containers, especially considering how many I would need. The Rubbermaid ones above are the same idea, and were purchased at Wal-Mart for about $3 to $6 each depending on the size. LOVE them!)

This is the cabinet next to the previous one...it also collected random stuff, and held all my cookbooks.

Today, this cabinet holds my larger bins of stuff like wheat berries, flour, cornmeal, powdered milk, etc. The middle shelf currently holds ziplock bags, although I want to put more of the Rubbermaid bins there eventually.

This is my spice cabinet. It is above and to the left of my stove.

The front section swings out on hinges and has storage on the back side and then shelves in the cabinet behind it as well. I love my spice cabinet!! It didn't need much work--just moving some of the stuff that was making it a bit overcrowded.

This cabinet is above and to the right of my stove. It held overflow spices, as well as other random things that come in bottles and jars.

Today it houses the cookbook collection, and a few things I don't need often that don't fit in the next cabinet since they are too tall.

Moving one more cabinet to the right is my corner cabinet. I don't have a before picture of this one, but that bottom shelf held all my china--which I use maybe 2-3 times a YEAR right now. I have a harder-to-reach cabinet above my fridge that was full of silver serving pieces that I use even more rarely (read: never) so I put all of those in the attic and moved my china to the cabinet above the fridge. Then I moved all those extra spices and bottles into the bottom shelf of the corner cabinet, right above the counter where I typically prepare stuff that's being cooked on the stove.

Here it is closer-up. It's not a perfect solution since it's deep and I sometimes have to dig for things, but it works.

I have other cabinets for dishes, etc., but since I didn't need to reorganize those I don't have pictures. Overall, I love my new set-up and find that it is not only tons easier to prep meals now, but it's also easier to have my boys help me in the kitchen or even cook stuff themselves, since everything has a definite place and is easy to find!

$1 Ribbon Spool to Adorable Korker Bow

2012-02-09T10:04:00.002-05:00

I love the dollar bins at Target. I'm always picking up little things for the kids, either for holiday goodies or for school activities. Sometimes I have a specific use in mind; other times I'm just "collecting" until the fancy strikes to actually use these things!

For the past few holidays and seasons, they have had these little spools of ribbon. I've picked them up each time, mostly because they're so darn cute, but I've never actually USED them for anything...until yesterday, when I made a sweet little korker bow for my girly-girl. I took pictures of the process, so y'all could follow along and maybe even make some for the princesses in your life.

Cute Target Valentine's Day ribbon--6 different prints, 18" each.

Wrap ribbons on 1/4" diameter wooden dowels and secure with oven-safe clips.

Bake at 275 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes until you can handle them comfortably, then remove clips and slide ribbons off dowels.

Cut ribbons--I cut mine every 5th curl, which ends up being about 3" long. You will want to seal the ends to prevent fraying. While I heat-seal the ribbons for the other bows I make, I find that it is easier to use Fray-Check on korkers.

Thread a needle (I used 2 strands of embroidery floss) and thread the ribbons through the center onto the needle, keeping them all on the needle as you go.

Pinch the ribbons together at the center, then pull the needle through. I sewed through the whole stack a few times, then secured with a couple small knots at the back (or bottom) of the stack.

Glue onto a lined clip.

And get ready for uber-cuteness!

Miss Joanna modeling HER bow. She immediately lays claim to all bows and other girly things as I make them, lol!

Enjoy!

Here We Go Again!

2012-02-06T23:42:00.006-05:00

Hey folks, guess what!?! I'm baaa-aaaak! Did'ya miss me? *grin*

Not only am I back from my 5-month blogging hiatus (has it really been THAT long??), but we're also back from our 5-week nearly sea-to-shining-sea road trip. It's only nearly sea-to-shining-sea because I can't convince Jeremy to drive all the way to California. So Arizona was as far west as we made it from New York. Our farthest north stop was Lansing, Michigan; and our farthest south was Corpus Christi, Texas.

This was our first major road trip spent living out of our travel trailer. The verdict is in: living out of a travel trailer is SO MUCH BETTER than stopping at hotels every night and lugging all our stuff in and out, eating way too much fast food, and getting the kids out of any semblance of routine. The best part, though? Pulling your very own porta-potty! Seriously.

I never dreamed I would ever have an opinion on such things, but I have a favorite truck stop now. And they have good coffee. Almost as good as Starbucks. And MUCH cheaper, which makes it even better than Starbucks, since I love a bargain, lol!

We had quite the adventure! There were highlights, and there were complete disasters! These included, in no particular order:

trains, race cars, and bumper boats
a hot air balloon
becoming quite familiar with truck stops and Wal-mart parking lots
roasting marshmallows over a fire pit
the nastiest tummy bug of all time--which all 9 of us managed to contract at the same time
meeting our sweet new niece/cousin
Joey stealing the spotlight at a sweet 16 party
our house flooding while we were 2000 miles away
feeding a zonkey and a zorse
hiking and sledding
accidentally frying most of the electrical components in our trailer
and lots of (fake) groundhogs!

A few pictures, also in no particular order:

I've almost dug my way out of the chaos created when we unloaded an entire 36' trailer and 12-passenger van into my kitchen and dining room. The washer and dryer have been working overtime! Then I'll find the time to sit down and tell y'all about all our adventures. :)

Hooray for Labor Day! Now Please Pass the Advil...

2011-09-06T23:30:00.007-04:00

We spent a beautiful Labor Day weekend up at Mohonk Mountain House with friends from our church in Manhattan. This was our 4th Labor Day spent here, and the boys absolutely LOVE it. Between miles and miles of hiking trails, and daily afternoon tea complete with all-your-parents-will-allow-you-to-eat cookies, it's a veritable kids' paradise.

We started out at the lake. The pedal boats were all checked out, so we tried a row boat. Jon and Jordan, who insisted on being the rowers, couldn't do anything but go in circles, so I took over. I am just barely more skilled at rowing, but let's face it--struggling to row in a straight line while 2 of your boys whine about not being able to row is not exactly fun holiday fare.

We abandoned the row boat and waited our turn for a pedal boat. And I didn't have to pedal at all. Nice.

While we boated, Josiah fed the fish.

...while Joanna ate the fish food.

Then we were off to The Labyrinth.

The Labyrinth is a rock scramble that is a big favorite of the bigger boys. Joseph, who had never been allowed to try it, got to go for the first time this year. And since I didn't want him falling off any cliffs without an adult present to call 911, I had the privilege of going along as well. Jeremy had already graciously offered to watch the littles, so off we went.

Yes, I stopped to take a photo of the entrance sign, but apparently didn't bother to heed it. Somehow or another I confused being no longer pregnant and miserable with "excellent physical condition." Ha! Well, at least I qualify for the "not afraid of heights" part.

Here are the boys at "Pancake Rock," after patiently waiting for me to hoist myself over, under, and through countless rock formations, which, by the way, were also very wet and slippery. The boys, of course, scrambled nimbly over all of them with hardly a pause, except when they had to stop and wait for the 40-year-old, 8 weeks postpartum lady who thought she was in "excellent physical condition" to gingerly pick out the safest route.

I wouldn't let Joey on Pancake Rock, since it's pretty cliff-like all the way around, and I really didn't want to have to make that 911 call.

Here's a snapshot of what he thought of that decision:

Towards the end of the hike we had to navigate "The Crevice," which is a tall, narrow fissure in the rock navigable by narrow wooden ladders. Here are some of the boys waiting to get on the bottom ladder. It's a one-at-a-time-type thing.

Courtesy of all the rain generously brought to us by Irene, the bottom of The Crevice was several inches deep in mud, and the rock walls were slick.

And the air was full of the lovely aroma of wet bat poo. I was, of course, at the back of the line. Those boys couldn't get up those ladders fast enough for me. And I spent the rest of the day and evening trying not to think about what was all over my clothes.

(Note to self: Next year, bring a change of clothing. And perhaps some soap.)

When we finally emerged on top, I tortured the poor boys by making them pose for photos.

By this point we were late for dinner, but fortunately the way back down the mountain is easier (and faster!) than the trip up.

Jeremy and the little guys were waiting for us at the playground further down the mountain. And since I happened to have my camera...

Sunday, it was Jeremy's turn to go boating. Unfortunately for him, the big boys were off on another hike, so HE had to do all the pedaling himself. Ha!

I think Josiah really wanted to go in for a swim--he couldn't keep his hands out of the water.

And I just relaxed in a rocking chair on the porch and visited with friends, while a content Jeremiah was passed around and doted on.

A good time was had by all...

Which is why I am currently sitting here so sore I can barely move.

In other extremely exciting news, Jeremiah has slept 7-8 hours at night for the past 5 nights now. Woo hoo!! Sleep for Mommy is a wonderful thing! I'd almost forgotten how much I enjoy it.

Since I'm all rested now (Ha!) I'm taking any extra time I have during the day to completely reorganize my kitchen. Stay tuned...the big reveal will be coming soon! Aren't you just completely overcome with anticipation?

Fun After the Storm!

2011-08-31T00:37:00.011-04:00

When we moved to New York 3 years ago, we knew it was going to be an adventure. I never dreamed, however, that our adventures here would include a major hurricane! We were extremely blessed not to have any damage on our property. I kept peering out into the darkness throughout the night to see if our travel trailer and chicken coop were still standing--they were. Even our garden, which I was sure would either be uprooted or drowned, survived! We lost power twice, once for about 7 hours and later for about 2 hours, but that was it.

After all our preparing, it was almost anti-climatic. But I'm good with that. The boys, however, were extremely disappointed when the power came back on. I guess they were looking forward to "roughing it!"

We did have all sorts of fun playing in the wind Sunday afternoon, once the rain stopped and the sun came out. And of course I took pictures!

Jordan trying to make a sail out of a kite

The sun finally peeking through the storm clouds

Daddy swinging the little ones

Looking towards the northeast, the sky still looks pretty ominous!

Josiah is just happy to be outside!

Sweet brothers...

Walking with Daddy

Jordan gave up on the kite and used our Longhorns flag to make a sail.

I thought it was funny that the first thing the older 3 boys did when they got outside was to try to harness the wind to pull/push their scooters. I remember when I was a kid and hurricane Gilbert just missed us in Corpus Christi. We stood in our front yard in rain ponchos, holding the sides out to catch the wind. I think we were trying to see how far we could lean into the wind without falling over. Maybe we were trying to fly.

Joshua hypothesized that he could jump off the master bedroom balcony (basically 3 stories up) and the wind would help him "fly" down instead of just falling like a rock. He wanted to try it.

I vetoed that idea. I'm such a spoil-sport.

Josiah

The boys soon moved from creating wind sails to an impromptu football game.

Joanna just ran around checking everything out.

Busy girl

Taking a break to lie in the grass

Joshua's broom/trash bag sail. He ended up successfully using this to "power" Josiah's Little Tykes car down the driveway.

Now we are back to business as usual--school, chores, the daily routine. The boys want to know when the next hurricane is coming. Ha!

Preserving the Harvest

2011-08-25T10:43:00.002-04:00

I am so proud of myself...I made my first actual canned pickles! We've been making refrigerator pickles for a few weeks now, but I was a bit intimidated to try canning. However, between running low on room in the fridge, as well as wanting to have pickles that will last beyond the next few weeks, I finally decided it was time to take the plunge!

Here they are...6 pint jars of home-canned pickles:

I have to give credit where credit is due and tell you that Jordan cut up all those cukes for me. He now considers all cucumber cutting HIS job...just so he can use the sharp knife!

Jordan and Joseph have been doing the harvesting this week. They really enjoy going out there and searching for veggies. And yes, I DO mean searching--the weeds really have about taken over. I'm conceding defeat this season and admitting that I just don't. have. the. time. to keep it weeded. Next year I will be on top of that.

Today's harvest:

We're doing our best, but we just can't eat this stuff fast enough! In addition to making pickles, I've been freezing tons of squash, making dozens of zucchini muffins, and filling bags with tomatoes and tomatillos and sticking them in the fridge. I need to buy some cilantro, then I can make salsa verde and tomato salsa. I'm thinking I'll just freeze the salsa verde in meal-sized quantities, but I'm hoping to be able to make enough regular salsa to be worth canning. The tomatoes are still only trickling in, so I'm peeling, bagging, and freezing them for now:

Same with the peppers:

When I have enough, I'll make stuff with them to can or freeze. With the peppers, I plan on keeping some in the freezer anyway, to pop into chili or spaghetti sauce this winter.

One of the reasons the boys enjoy harvesting is that there's no telling when you'll discover a missed giant:

Jordan is awfully proud of that giant cucumber! It'll probably be inedible at that size, but he has laid claim to it and wants to eat it all himself. Joseph, on the other hand, is just posing with the cool humongous "alien squashes." He thinks they're nasty and says he won't be eating them! :)

Silly boys!

I bought lots of seeds to try for fun this year, but the only unique variety that actually made it into the garden was the purple bush beans. I put some in a pan for dinner and told the boys to watch them...they're magic!!

Of course they got bored long before this happened (a whole 5 minutes later), but here's what they looked like cooked:

There were many oohs and aahs when they peeked back into the pan, and I have to admit that even I was quite impressed with the color change.

Who knew beans could be so fun?!!

Park Fun!

2011-08-24T09:30:00.002-04:00

Yesterday around lunch time, I told the boys to get their shoes on and go get in the van. I didn't tell them what we were doing(mostly because I was winging it and wasn't totally sure myself!) except that we were going to eat lunch out. Jordan was immediately very excited.

"You mean we're going to eat lunch out again?!? Wow, this is going to be the funnest week EVER!!"

I must usually be the most boring mom around, if fast food twice in the same week makes it the "funnest" week ever. Hmmm, maybe I should work on changing that...

Anyway, we drove through McDonald's and then went to our local park--our local park that though we've lived here almost 11 months, we had not visited yet. (See above reference to my "boring mom" status.)

Joanna with her Sprite from Mickey D's...a rare treat for her!

Joseph and Joanna

It's easier to climb up than it is to climb down!

About to try the slide...

Josiah is a blur! (and PLEASE ignore those knees!!)

Jordan

Jordan wanted me to be sure to capture the precarious nature of his perch here, and therefore prove his extreme bravery. These tires are stacked on a platform 5 feet or so off the ground, so the kids can just drop through them to the ground below. Next time any of you see Jordan, be sure to tell him how brave he is, okay?

Just don't make the mistake of telling him how cute he is, like the lady behind us in line at the grocery store did. He'll get embarrassed and stare at his shoes.

Jordan on the fireman's pole

Followed by Joseph...love his funny faces!

Big slide pile up!

Joanna playing with pebbles on a concrete picnic table

Fun on the tire swing!

We will definitely have to come back here again. The boys and Joanna had so much fun!