Over Dinner

Kate: "I'm glad you married Mama, 'cause I'm glad she's my Mama."

* * * * *

Gabby: "Do you like people?"

Me: "Yes, do you like people?"

Gabby: "No"

Nate says...

Our little man is getting bossy. Every morning as I get him from his room I shut the door to the hall bathroom, to remove temptation. The past two weeks we've been hearing, "Shu' i'" or "Shu' doe.'"

I also hear, "Uh, uh!" several times a day, which means, "Up!

"Ow!" and, "Oh," (for Uh-oh) are becoming common too.

Gabby on Public Speaking

When discussing how old everyone will be at their next birthday...

"Gabriella, maybe when you're four you'll like to talk to people."

"No, I'll like to talk to people when I'm five. I'll be schooled and then I'll talk to people."

Go Away February

February has just not been my month. First a rotten cold, then an eye infection, then on Sunday I had the audacity to help in the church nursery. My back revolted. Seriously on the floor almost can't get up pain.

I am thankful for the chiropractor that they pulled out of worship to help me so that I could get home. I made another trip to the doctor who helped with my eye--that's two trips in less than 2 weeks--I don't remember having done that before, aside from midwife appointments.

I've spent a good bit of time on the floor. And my mom has made two trips down to help. I felt so well on Monday that I sent her home, just to wind up having back spasms that night that rendered me on the floor and unable to stand, again. Nate was the biggest reason for needing help, since he still needs to be picked up several times a day--to get in and out of the crib and the highchair.

Thankfully my back seems to be on the mend again, and I've sent her home once more, knowing that Justin doesn't have to teach classes tomorrow, if I were to get absolutely desperate. For now, though, I am grateful to be sitting in a chair again!

Thanks for the help Mama and Justin (and back doctor)!

Messy Bessy

Gabriella tends to be fairly neat, but this was her plan as her Daddy mentioned that he would help her clean up her room:

"You can walk around the bed. I kicked a couple of things out of the way."

When Mom is Sick

I've always stayed fairly healthy. I didn't miss a day of school from fifth grade until I graduated college, save one day after I broke my foot in college. Seriously. I get the normal colds, but nothing that I can't keep going through.

The kiddos had mild colds about two weeks ago. Minor sniffles. Their temperatures reached between 99 and 100 degrees, but the girls didn't slow down at all, and Nate was just slightly slowed, you know to some where near the normal pace of a 15 month old boy, just below turbo speed!

Then I got it. Good stinkin' grief. I was completely knocked out. It was all I could do to make it through our days. I had already planned out our home school week, the folders were ready, so we went ahead, I figured routine was our friend right now. After two nights of barely sleeping, I bought NyQuil. Then I took it...in the afternoon. Wow. I fought all afternoon to stay awake. Usually medicine doesn't effect me too much, but I suppose on top of the lack of sleep it was just too much. By Thursday, I'm starting to feel a bit better, but by mid morning my left eye was stinging. I took out my contact lenses and went about my day. It still burned, and was getting worse. Justin was working late and by the time he got home I was sure something was scratching my eye. He called off classes for the next day, and I went to the doctor because I was sick for the first time in a very long time. Actually, I was taken to the doctor because it felt like the sun was stabbing me in the eye. She told me that I have an eye infection, joy.

I am grateful to be improving slowly, but I have come to the determination that moms need super duper immune systems, kids need to slow down more when they are sick (not be miserable, just want to sit quietly and look at books instead of climb on top of tables while we're all ill), and there really should be substitutes available!

Happy Valentine's Day to my Valentines,

big


and small.

I'm thankful for my husband who remembered to get me a card and have it waiting for me this morning. His family always celebrated things at dinner, but in my family birthday things and other special gifts were waiting at the breakfast table, so we could enjoy them all day, so even when he remembered I thought he forgot. I'm glad that he accommodates his silly wife now.

I got the girls pretty pencils for Vanetine's Day. I had intended to do more, but I've been miserably ill. I cut out little heart shaped notes and left those with the pencils at the table for them. They were so excited. I said I had intended to do more, but Kate looked at me and said, "Oh Mama, this is plenty!" Proud Mama moment.

For lunch, I cut out little hearts in their sandwiches

and we made a black forest dump cake for dessert for dinner tonight, which I hardly tinkered with at all. Except that I left out the nuts. And I baked it in two round pans instead of one 9x13. And I shortened the time to 50 minutes. And I didn't serve it in the pans, but flipped it upside down in a trifle bowl (which is actually an inverted cake plate) to serve it. But other than that I think it's exactly the same. ahem.

So on this Valentine's Day, may your cards be early, your sandwiches heart shaped and your desserts chocolate and gooey!

Kate on Economics

Justin made a passing comment about the projections of gasoline prices for the summer.

Kate looked him square in the eye and said, "Daddy you better make some more money FAST!"

You Create: Povitica

I have seen loaves of Povitica several times, but they are quite costly and I've never been willing to part with that much money to purchase a loaf. This week I decided I'd see what it would take to bake a loaf.

It turns out it isn't quite as hard as I thought it would be. It is time consuming only in that you have to be available to punch it down or work with it every 60-90 minutes for several hours. There is some more cost over many types of bread in the amount of nuts it requires.

I took the recipe from here, but I altered it. What fun is baking if you don't make it your own? (Changes--more water* and flour in the dough, heated the milk and butter together for the dough), changed the amount of nuts and added brown sugar in place of some of the granulated in the filling, and baked in loaf pans.)

Here's my version:
dough:
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter
4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water*
9 cups of flour (divided)

filling:
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 lb. of finely ground pecans
4 eggs, beaten
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Heat the milk and butter for 60 seconds in the microwave. Mix that together with the sugar, salt, and eggs. Add 4 cups of flour and mix. Work in enough of the rest of the flour to keep it from being sticky. Knead the bread for a few minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and allow to double in a warm area (about 60-90 minutes.)

Punch the dough down and cover again to double.

During this time, make the filling. Mix the sugars, evaporated milk and butter in a large pan and heat until the butter melts. Add in the ground walnuts and stir. Then mix in the 4 beaten eggs, stirring constantly as the mixture comes to a boil, allow to boil for 1 minute and then remove from the heat. Mix in the spices. Allow to cool.

Divide the dough by three. Roll them out one at a time, into thin sheets and cover with 1/3 of the filling. Roll up and place in grease loaf pans.

Cover and allow to rise another hour in pans.

Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 40 minutes.

* Honestly the change in the water amount (the original recipe called of only 1/2 cup) was an unintentional change, I made a copying error, so I simply made up for that with extra flour and it turned out very well this way.

The movement of the sun?

Hey Kate, where did the sun go?

It went down, like through the ground, but not. The sun, it turned and faced the other earth, like a globe.

I think we may just have a little work to do on our study of astronomy...

Of Course...

I've been under the weather. All three kiddos had low grade fevers last night, so we stayed home from church. I was starting to feeling icky yesterday, so I put together chicken noodle soup last night so I wouldn't have to cook tonight. Perfect, or so I thought.

I put the soup on the back burner on low after lunch. Then I went and took a nap, played with the baby, and did basically nothing. Then I went to check on our soup. The burner evidently wasn't working. That particular burner had given us trouble a couple of times, but had been working fine. But at that point the soup had been sitting out for more than 2 hours. We had to toss it.

Such is life...

Visiting

The kiddos and I drove up to get my Grannie (my Daddy's mom) and brought her to visit us for the weekend. It was lovely to have her here. The kids got to show off and we didn't have to worry about them getting into any of her beakables. She got to read some books, listen to songs, and play with dolls. We got to sit and chat.

Then we drove her home. Unfortunately, Miss Gabby got hot about an hour in to our 90 minute drive.

The ca' seat is makin' me sweaty! Stop it ca' seat!

We're sorry Gabby, we'll stop soon and take off your jacket.

I not ta'kin' to you! I TA'KIN' to my CA' SEAT!

Okey Dokey then.