The Long Weekend

 At Hickory Park with Kristin for Brittany's 20th birthday

 Finally - we were the last ones to get our garden in at the Carroll Community Gardens

 Our first trip to the Aquatic Center

 My pretty water ballerina

 Simon's "smile for the camera" smile

 Gracie loved the water - really, she did

 Esme loved the water too

Daddy shows Grace how to lick a lollipop

Favorite food from this weekend:

Homemade vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate chips and homemade buttercream frosting

The barbecue dinner at Hickory Park (turkey, pork, and beef with glazed carrots and baked beans)

Mesquite barbecued pork loin on the grill

Salmon with peppers, onions, and mushrooms on the grill

Oreo cheesecake from Hy-Vee

Blue Bunny Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate ice cream (and I don't even like cherry ice cream)

Snyder's honey mustard  pretzel bits

Tonight we're celebrating Esme's 4th birthday, and her gift from us is an 18 inch doll (not an American Girl, but close enough for a 4 year old) with a set of matching outfits and purses for her and the doll. Highly adorable. And a new knitting opportunity for her mother. The only ones they had were a brunette and one that looked part Eskimo/part Hispanic, and I still can't decide whether it was somewhat racist to not buy the one that looked "ethnic." It disturbs me a little bit that there were no blondes left, because I don't like it that everyone wants the blond, blue-eyed dolls. Even though that's what I wanted. At any rate, the brunette won out, because, frankly, it looks more like Esme than the other one did, and I feel like that's what you're going for when you get your child a doll...right or wrong. 

I think that, instead of cake, I'm going to make her a huge chocolate chip cookie, like those ones at the mall. In a moment of weakness yesterday, we bought an oreo cheesecake from Hy-Vee, and since the kids don't like cake, I can't really justify having two cakes in the house at one time for basically just me (and John, if I twist his arm).

What did we do to you, you dirty, dirty birds?

Simon "Green Day" Wood

Simon has had 13 green days in a row - every day since we started him on Concerta. His teacher, his stepdad, and I all agree that he's a totally different kid...in a good way. A very good way. It's not that he's not him anymore, it's more like the real him has a chance to shine through. Like a cloud of crazy bees has stopped buzzing around in his head and he can just relax and be Simon. Example: I don't think he's fallen off his chair at dinnertime once in the last two weeks, which is a small but wonderful thing. He's so proud of himself, and I can finally feel good about it because I finally told his dad about it this week. Whew. So, to anyone out there who has a child who has the symptoms of ADD but might be reluctant to admit it,  go NOW and talk to your doctor. There are so many treatment options available, and so many resources out there...you can and will find something that makes a big difference for your child.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I made some cinnamon raisin bread yesterday because I realized that we were down to our last piece of pumpkin pie, and I get nervous when we don't have any home-baked carbs on hand. It's pretty good, and it even has a little bit of a swirl in it, even though I just let the bread machine mix and bake it. There were a bunch of recipes that have you knead it in the bread machine, then take it out and add the cinnamon and raisins by hand and bake it in the oven. That way you get the really good swirls. But that seemed a little intense for a busy afternoon...we had hostas to plant, after all. So here is the recipe - it makes a 1.5 lb. loaf:

1 1/8 cup 80 degree water
1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 1/4 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tbsp. dry milk (yes, I actually had this on hand...I can't remember why)
3/4 cup oatmeal (I used the instant maple-flavored packets)
3 cups bread flour
2 5/8 tsp. active dry yeast
3/4 cup raisins

Put all ingredients except cinnamon and raisins in the bread machine. Bake on the sweet bread setting. Add the cinnamon and raisins at the first beep. We ate it last night with honey and peanut butter, along with cheesy corn and a grilled pork loin. Yum.

Speaking of cheesy corn, here's what I did. It was pretty good:
1 bag frozen corn
4 oz. light cream cheese
1/4 cup onion
salt, pepper, and sugar to taste
Mix it all together and simmer on med-med/low for 30 minutes. I think I may have used the corn that John used as an ice pack for his hernia. Don't tell the kids they ate hernia corn. If it were just me, I would have added something spicy, like green chiles, or salsa, or cayenne pepper, but no one else (including Grace) likes it when I make spicy stuff.

Esme decided to end her day with sunglasses on - how cute is this?

Today is the last day of school, and I found Simon in Isaac's bed at 6 a.m. trying to reach a toy on Isaac's shelves. I'm just as excited as he is - no more school means summer is really coming! Where's the pause button? This is one of my favorite days of the year, and it'll be over way before I have time to properly enjoy it. 

General Grievous

I finished making General Grievous finger puppets for the kids yesterday while it rained (that's an evil guy from Star Wars, if you're so lucky as to be unfamiliar with him). Esme was playing with all three and had them being mommy, brother, and sister. They mainly said I love you to each other and kissed. General Grievous would have been so upset to see his likeness abused like this.

Our other big project for the day was moving the recliner upstairs for John. We decided he deserved a treat to look forward to at the end of a long day at work. That is, other than four noisy kids and a frazzled wife. Here's Grace warming it up for him.

The caramel corn was a hit last night, but we didn't take any of it home. That stuff is dangerous, and I'm trying to honor my pact with John to encourage health and weight loss. Plus we still have pumpkin pie in the fridge. That's allowed because it's a vegetable. And I always give myself a bigger slice than I give him...this is the kind of sacrifice I make ALL the time around here.

Caramel Corn

Conversation with Esme yesterday:
Esme: I want to be a mailman when I grow up.
Me: You do? Why do you want to be a mailman?
Esme: No, not a mailman. An ice cream man.
Me: Oh, that does sound better, doesn't it? Then you can eat ice cream all day.
Esme: No, not an ice cream man. A gingerbread man!
Hee hee!
It's my turn to bring treats to class tonight, so Esme and I are going to make caramel corn. This stuff is made with puff corn, and it's even better than normal popcorn. Puff corn is that stuff that looks like Styrofoam peanuts; you should be able to find it in the potato chip aisle. It doesn't have any seeds or hulls or anything and it melts in your mouth like salty cotton candy. It's awesome, and this recipe makes it even awesomer. Here it is:
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup white syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 bags puff corn
1 jar roasted peanuts (I haven't tried adding these before, but I thought it sounded a little more sophisticated than just plain puff corn)
Instructions:
Put the butter, sugar, and syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add baking soda and stir until foamy. Pour over puff corn and peanuts (I put it all in a big roasting pan). Stir. Bake in 250 degree oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Pour onto wax paper to cool. Break into chunks and store in Ziploc bags. If you make it to the storage phase, which you might not.

Respect for Authority

Our lesson this week in our parenting class is on respect for authority. The book says that as parents, we are our kids' first governing authority, and we have to show them (explicitly - in word and in deed) how to respect us - and by respecting us, they are honoring God, and they learn to respect all forms of authority. I've had so many conversations with my friends about why it seems like we respected our parents so much more than our kids respect us. Hours worth of "I would never have..." followed by all the many things that our kids say and do to us that we wouldn't have dared to do to our parents. One thing that really struck me during the reading for this week is this: as in anything, our kids learn more by our example than by our words. How do we treat figures of authority in our own lives? What is our attitude toward authority at work, in the community, in our family? Do we complain about our bosses? The president? The speed limit? Their grandparents? How do we treat our spouse? How do we treat the people who work at the grocery store, the Rec center, McDonald's, the library? Do we use polite language with them? Do we complain about the way they do their jobs? Do we treat their place of work with honor and respect? Maybe the reason we don't see respect from our kids is that we have a problem showing it ourselves. The example they used in the book was a gum wrapper. Do you let it drop to the ground or toss it out the window of the car? If you do, you're showing your kids that you don't respect the laws against littering - at least, not when no one's looking, or when it's inconvenient. Little stuff like that has big implications for a child. What about television? I know I let my kids watch shows that are blatantly anti-authority. By letting them watch those shows, aren't I really endorsing the attitudes they're portraying? If I let them watch I-Carly, and Sam gets a laugh every time she says something disrespectful (which is nearly every time she says anything), aren't I saying that I think it's funny too? Or, at the very least, normal, expected, tolerable? And what do I do when I'm treated disrespectfully? Do I treat disrespect from my kids as a serious offense, or do I brush it off as "normal" childish behavior? One thing I'm trying very hard to implement around here is that when I ask a question or request help with something, the kids need to respond the FIRST time, and I need to hear, not "okay," or "sure," or "do I have to," but "yes, mom." If I were really good, I'd be asking for a "yes, ma'am," but we're taking baby steps. I guess the main message I got from this week is that it is our responsibility to actively teach our kids how to treat authority, and how they treat authority is a direct reflection of how well we taught them...and how they respond to authority has a far-reaching effect on their success in the spiritual and natural worlds. Yikes. I'd better go and delete I-Carly from our Netflix instant queue, huh?

The Garden of Schoonover

I was just telling John that every time I think about opening up the computer, I get this feeling of dread. I don't know why. I think it's because I haven't been on it a lot lately and I don't want to have to catch up on emails and homeschool tracking. Ugh. But here I am, braving the blog, which I've also neglected, and I have exciting garden photos. I've also decided to go crazy planting hostas around the sides of the house, so I have photos of those too. They were $25 at Earl May, so I was going to just wait until next year, but then we went to a sale in Coon Rapids at this really sweet couple's house, and I got them for $3 each! The guy told me that some hostas can cost $100 each, because they have named breeds that hosta lovers just have to have. He had over 100 varieties in his yard, all of which looked pretty much the same to me. There's green, there's yellow and green, and there's white and green.
So, in the garden, we have tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions, garlic, and a lone chive plant that survived the winter. We also have something else coming up from last year, and I'm really hoping that it's not the cantaloupe, because it was disgusting. But I think that's what it is. Notice the bricks and the fencing...they aren't exactly straight, because I was in charge of them, but I think they make it look more official. Bunny rabbits, beware.

 

 

I went grocery shopping over at my parents' house this weekend, and I got a whole bunch of random food, like marshmallow creme and white chocolate chips and sparkling grape juice. I think I have all of the ingredients for a pumpkin pie, so I'm going to make one this afternoon. It's one of John's favorites, and today is his first day back at work after surgery, so he deserves a treat, don't you think? Never mind that his new resolve is to lose weight and get in shape. We will start that tomorrow. Will someone please check my email for me? And delete everything that starts with "FW:" or "Hurry! This deal won't last forever..." That would take care of about 95% of my messages, and I would feel so relieved.

What we're making this week

First, let me tell you about my adoration for the Tastefully Simple Absolutely Almond Pound Cake. It is the most delicious, moist, soft, almondy cake I've ever had. I could eat a whole loaf in one sitting. After a meal. With ice cream. However, it's about $7 for a box of the mix, which makes just a little tiny loaf. I made some of my own almond pound cake this weekend, and while I seem to be the only one in the family eating it, I think it's nearly as good as the Tastefully Simple one.

Here's the recipe:
1 1/2 cups of butter, softened
3 3/4 cups of powdered sugar
6 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Cream the butter and powdered sugar. I used an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the extracts. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and salt and add it to the butter mixture. Stir gently, folding in the flour mixture. Add the toasted almonds. Pour into a greased and floured tube or bundt pan. Bake for 60-65 minutes.  Don't be fooled by the brown top or the fact that a toothpick comes out clean at about 40 minutes. It is NOT done.
I like to eat this with caramel sauce and whipped cream. I'm drooling just thinking about it. Here's a shot of it on my Care Bears plate. I've been cleaning out the basement and found a bunch of party stuff, so we're eating off of Care Bears and Dora plates for the next week or so. May they decompose quickly.

Yes, that's actually two slices, but they were SMALL. They don't even cover up the Care Bears' heads. I modified this from the original recipe, which called for just vanilla extract, as well as 1 cup coconut and 2/3 cup chopped pecans, which also sounds yummy. John said I have to help him lose weight, so I'm either going to have to start hiding my desserts or stop making them...or maybe we could start eating desserts instead of meals? Anyway, this may be the last recipe of its kind for a while. Maybe I should start making "healthy" desserts with whole grains and mashed peas and stuff in them.
I'm in the middle of a scarf/shawl I'm knitting for my sister as a belated birthday present, and I think I like it. I wanted something she could wear this summer over a dress or tank top, and I think this will work. If it ends up looking weird, I'll just keep it and try something else for her. What do you think?

And lastly, a blurry sideways picture of the sun tea we made yesterday. Isn't that container hideous? It's the only one I could find. My friend Heather would be happy to know that there's a matching set of rooster dishes that go with this at K-Mart.

Random Questions

In our parenting class the other week, John and I had to complete a questionnaire to determine our love "touchpoints." I love filling out questionnaires like that, so I'm writing one of my own. There is absolutely no science involved in this whatsoever, but I'm going to give it to my husband just to see how well I can predict his answers. There's no answer key to unlock the secrets of his personality, because that would be a whole lot more work, and it would be wrong if I wrote it anyway. I took Psychology more than 10 years ago and slept through most of it, and that's pretty much the extent of my insight into the male (or anyone's) brain.

Each of these questions gives two alternatives. Choose the one that you like best and/or do most often.

1. White bread or wheat?
2. Expensive cheese or expensive shampoo?
3. SPF 4 or SPF 50?
4. Bean burrito with onions or without?
5. Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox?
6. Hardwood floors in the bedrooms or carpet?
7. A good book or a good movie?
8. Good coffee or good beer?
9. Mow the law in rows or in squares?
10. Sweatpants or flannel pants?
11. Kill the spider or run away?
12. Feed the dog table scraps or not?
13. Pray about it or worry about it?
14. Yell or count to ten?
15. Skittles or M&Ms?
16. Save it or toss it?
17. Recycle it or toss it?
18. Garage sale or Goodwill?
19. Tylenol or Advil?
20. Expensive jeans or expensive underwear?
21. Ceiling fan or chandelier?
22. Ribeye or pork steak?
23. Call or text?
24. Apples or oranges?
25. Diet Coke or regular?
26. Fall or spring?
27. Tent or camper?
28. Grand Canyon or Cancun?
29. Pick at it or leave it alone?
30. Public speaking or flying?
31. Long fingernails or short?
32. Shovel or snowblower?
33. Minivan or SUV?
34. Wal-Mart or Fareway?
35. Floss or skip it?
36. Work from home or go to work somewhere else?
37. Great Clips or salon?
38. Alaskan Malamute or Shih-Tzu?
39. Corn on the cob or wild asparagus?
40. Black or brown?
41. Digital camera or film?
42. From scratch or from the box?
43. Homemade pie or homemade bread?
44. Big screen TV or new couch?
45. New couch or new recliner?
46. Lasagna or chicken alfredo?
47. Adventureland or the zoo?
48. Memorial Day or Labor Day?
49. Jump in or wade in?
50. Rock her to sleep or let her cry?

Let me know if you learn anything interesting. Let me end with a question that Simon asked me this morning: If you saw a tarantula, would you let Oliver (the dog) chase it, or would you throw a bunch of heavy pumpkins on it? I went with the pumpkins.

Bits and Pieces

I don't know why I haven't blogged for the last couple of days. We haven't been particularly busy, although John did have surgery today (which went well - he's a very good patient). Whenever I think of a good blog idea, I'm too lazy to get the computer, and whenever I'm at the computer, I forget all of my good blog ideas. I'm watching Ally McBeal and wondering why all of the scenes with her at home show her eating ice cream out of the container. Can't they just let her be skinny and stop trying to make her more normal with ice cream? I'm not that gullible anyway. If Ally McBeal were an emotional eater, she'd weigh like 500 pounds.
Simon had 5 green days this week, which earned him several trips to the super surprise bucket, a trip to McDonald's with Grandma and Grandpa, and a Lego set. I'm soooo proud of him, but part of me just wishes the school year was over so we could stop worrying about green days. I don't want him (or me) to be disappointed if he gets an orange or red. We're working on establishing our family identity as part of our Growing Kids God's Way homework, so I've decided to try to do a little bible study/devotional with the kids every night. I have a good link for kids' devotionals but am looking for more...I'll share some links tomorrowish.
Oliver the dog is adjusting to his new (temporary, TEMPORARY) home, Esme is getting whinier by the day, and I finished Barbie's coat this morning in the waiting room. Isaac and I are extremely sick of school, and we didn't do a whole lot this week. He had a couple of those days where everything made him sob (fake or real, I can't really tell, but either way, there's no recovering from a sobbing fit), so we didn't make much progress.
I walked this week instead of running, because I'm old and I can't handle the running as often as I thought I could. Walking takes longer, though, which is kind of annoying.
I promise to have something more useful and/or insightful tomorrow...maybe a picture of the dog, too.

The history of Simon

Simon has a project due today for which he needed some baby photos and some recent photos, so I just finished printing some for him. Amazingly, it was easy to find them on my computer. It's hard to believe he's almost seven years old, although when I look at these pictures, it seems like they're from another lifetime. Here he is, my chubby little large-headed eczema-ridden baby Simon...

Mother's Day

When I was little, I remember asking my parents why there was a mother's day and a father's day and not a kids' day. Isaac asked me the same thing yesterday, and I gave the same response that I got: Every day is kids' day! But really, every day is mother's day too. It's a full time job, whether you have another full time job or not, and it was wonderful celebrate motherhood (and daughterhood) and to be treated like a princess for the day. We went out for lunch after church and no one misbehaved (which is practically miraculous), and I got to eat my favorite meal, which I will describe, but you cannot laugh. It's the Texas grilled chicken melt sandwich with a baked potato from the Family Table. The chicken is seasoned with something salty, and the bread is garlicky, and the cheese is really smooth and gooey. It's the most buttery, salty, tender, yummy sandwich ever, and when you eat it with a baked potato that's also sopping with butter, your heart nearly stops...because of the love, and secondly because of the cholesterol. Then we went fishing (I caught two or three tiny croppies and a tiny bass), then we had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I got several very lovely and thoughtful gifts, which are pictured below, along with another "gift" we got this weekend: the long-awaited canine visitor from Denison.

From Simon:

From Isaac:

Oliver!

From Esme:

From John - a gift certificate to the Yarn Basket:

So, happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there EVERY day this week. I'm going to try to pay special attention to all of the things that happen this week that make me love being a mom, so I'll post at least one of them every day to keep the good mommy vibes flowing.

Cinco De Mayo Stuffed Peppers

We celebrated Cinco De Mayo yesterday as promised. Did you know that it's NOT Mexico's independence day? It's a celebration of Mexico's freedom and culture in a general sense, and it's mainly ignored in Mexico. The state of Puebla celebrates it because it marks the day they won victory over France in 1862, but otherwise, it's a United States thing. So anyway, we learned about Mexico, and Cinco De Mayo, and the Chihuahua (small, yippy Mexican dog), and then we made stuffed peppers for dinner. Best of all, my sneaky trick worked, and after helping to make the peppers, all of the kids actually ate them! Well, the insides, anyway. No one was brave enough to eat the pepper part. Here's the recipe...I modified it a little bit to make it "healthy."
Ingredients:
8 large green bell peppers
3 cups cooked brown rice (I have no idea how much this is uncooked - I made three cups of uncooked rice and it was enough to feed about 20 people. I'd make 1 cup uncooked and it should end up being about 3 cups cooked)
1 egg, beaten
1 lb. ground turkey
1 packet Chi Chi's taco seasoning (this is important - Chi Chi's is way better than any other taco seasoning and it doesn't make the meat that weird glowing brown color)
1/2 red onion, grated (use a cheese grate)
Lots of roasted or minced garlic - I used 5 cloves or so
1/2 cup wheat bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
Tabasco sauce to taste
1 pint tomato sauce
4 slices of bacon

Cook the rice. Beware...regular rice takes about 45 minutes to cook, so you really have to start this early. Brown the turkey. Mix the rice, egg, turkey, bread crumbs, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper.

Wash the peppers and cut off the tops. Scoop out the seeds and ribs. Place in greased 9x13 pan.

Fill peppers with rice mixture. Cut bacon in half and make X's over the top of each pepper.

Mix Tabasco with tomato sauce and pour around the peppers. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Remove foil and reduce heat to 325. Bake for about 1 hour, until peppers look a little bit wrinkly and the bacon is crisp.

Eat, enjoy, and do a little Mexican dancing when you're done.

 Yes, we even let the kids have some pop with dinner. What's a holiday without pop?

Cinco De Mayo

We're using Cinco De Mayo as our excuse today to study the following things:

1. Chihuahuas (isn't it clever how this fits in with our Dogs unit study? I should have been a teacher.)
2. How to draw a chihuahua in 6 easy steps
3. Chihuahua, Mexico
4. A kid's life in Mexico
5. Mexican food - we're going to make stuffed peppers for dinner. Maybe the kids will at least try them if they helped make them? I think this theory has been proven wrong in the past, but I'm trying again.

I think we're skipping Math today. Isaac had a horrible time with it yesterday, and I don't know about him, but I don't think I can live through that again today. It's supposed to be nice out, we have toddler time at the library, and Barbie now has panties, socks, and a hat to go with her dress (pictures will be coming soon).  Life is good - why risk a great day on long division??

Barbie's new dress

Next up: matching panties. Tee hee!
It's a 2-hour late start today, which I remembered BEFORE making Simon get ready and wait for the bus (just barely, but still). Here he is watching Grace for me.

On the menu for tonight: hamburgers on the grill with German potato salad. Also on the menu for tonight: Growing Kids God's Way class. Our lesson for this week was on the five touchpoints of love, which are discussed in the book, The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman. Pretty interesting stuff. I'm a "quality time" and John is a "receiving gifts." You can take the assessment by clicking the button at the bottom of the page I linked to in the book title.
Simon is looking over my shoulder and it's making me nervous, so I'm going to have to stop now. He keeps asking me to see what his picture would look like upside down. What a weird, sweet kid.

A typical day

Sometimes I wonder what it is that we do all day. The time goes so fast, and usually, at the end of the day, I have a hard time remembering the details. So, yesterday I kept a record of everything that happened, and here it is:
4:15: Fed Grace, changed her diaper, watched Ally McBeal (I'm 9 episodes in and I'm still not sure whether I like this show).
5:00: John got up and made coffee. We ate our breakfast, drank coffee, and talked about the day ahead.
6:10: John left for work. I checked email, downloaded some pictures from the camera, blogged, and checked out a friend's Website.
6:45: Woke up Simon and got him fed and dressed. Special treat today - mini donuts for breakfast. Checked his homework folder and reminded him of a field trip today that actually didn't happen until Tuesday. Oops.
7:15: Simon left for school. Started on a Barbie dress for Esme's doll.
7:45: Got dressed, made beds.
8:00: Got Isaac up and fed.
8:15: Got Esme up and fed. Gave Grace a bath. Made more beds.
8:30: Fed Grace. Looked up dog crafts on the internet. Got Esme dressed.
9:00: Isaac started on Math. Did laundry. Changed Scentsy to "Shades of Green". Esme did a puppet show for Grace.
9:45: Left for church to do bookwork. Got to see Pastor Dave. Kids behaved very well - Esme even swung Grace in the swing for me.
11:00: Left church. Stopped at the bread store, Carroll Cleaning Supply, and the post office.
11:20: Picked up John for lunch.
11:30: Made lunch, ate lunch, cleaned up from lunch. More ham & bean soup. Mmmm. Had ice cream with it instead of salad.
11:50: Helped Isaac with Math, restarted the Barbie dress.
12:00: No Fiber Therapy today because Maura's sick. Poor Maura.
12:30: Gave up on Barbie dress temporarily to help Isaac with Math. Esme still entertained by puppets.
1:00: Isaac finally finished Math. Started Dogs unit study for the day by looking up jobs that dogs can do. Isaac wrote about them in his journal. Esme played with her "Are You My Mother" lapbook.
1:30: Isaac looked up Millie Bush on Wikipedia and wrote about her in his journal. I worked on some vocabulary word flash cards (for Isaac, not me...although there were quite a few words that I could use some practice on. Who knew that demesne means - and sounds like - domain??).
1:45: Looked up the categories of dog breeds on the AKC site. Isaac wrote about them in his journal. Esme and I did some laundry.
2:00: Read chapter 2 of The Call of the Wild to Isaac (and Esme, but she didn't really listen).
2:30: Fed Grace and read to Esme while Isaac read a Captain Underpants book.
3:00: Turned on Diego for Esme. Isaac still reading. Started cleaning up the homeschool room (a total disaster) and did some more laundry.
3:20: Simon arrived. Gave everyone a snack and sent them outside to play. Checked Simon's bookbag - an orange day.
3:30: Got a call from Em. Yay!
4:00: Kids came inside. Simon started drawing, Esme went back to Diego, and Isaac cleaned the hamster's cage.
4:30: John arrived, then left again to go to Walgreens. Did some more laundry and cleaning up. Walked around the house with Grace in search of messes to straighten.
5:00: John came back and we had couch time. Esme and Simon played with puppets. Isaac played Club Penguin on the computer.
5:30: Made "dinner": cereal, corn muffins, bacon, and strawberries.
5:45: Ate dinner.
6:00: Cleaned up from dinner. Planted my herb garden/pot.
6:15: John and Isaac went to the store to pick up a prescription (and a mini-cheesecake - my favorite!! What a good surprise. I do love that husband of mine.)
Took out the trash and and did more laundry and mess-straightening.
6:50: John and Isaac returned. Sent Simon to the bathtub. Esme and Isaac played cards at the kitchen table. I made another stab at the Barbie dress. Couch time/refereeing fights/coaxing Simon out of the tub until 8:00.
8:00: Pajamas and bed for Esme and Simon. Isaac watched some of "Look Who's Talking" while John and I did our best to stay awake. Fed Grace at some point...lost track of time. Crawled in to bed tired but happy.

Recipes from this weekend

The kids and I are getting ready to host their dog-cousin Oliver next week as part of our "Dogs" unit study, so we made him some "Nice Spice" dog biscuits on Friday. I tried one, and it was very nice and spicy. They're sugar-free, though, so I was not tempted to try another. You can get the recipe here.

Eat it, Esme, eat it!

I had to clean the oven after seeing this picture. Focus on the cute treats, not the grime. The triangles are doggie pizza.

We finally used up the last of the Easter ham yesterday - I made ham and bean soup from this recipe, only I used a bag of 15 mixed beans, substituted reduced-sodium chicken broth for half the water, and added leeks. And a couple of bay leaves. I watched Paula Deen yesterday, and she made something with leeks and a bay leaf, so I was inspired. We will now be eating soup for the next 10 meals until it finally runs out. Maybe next time, I'll make it from a dried pig's head a la Andrew Zimmern. I would LOVE to trick my kids into eating pig's head.
On our to-do list this week:

• Knit my first Barbie outfit & finish The Ugly Scarf
• Switch out the kids' winter & summer clothes (big, huge groan)
• Water the garden
• Bring all of the grass from the garden to the landfill
• Finish planting the herb garden (okay, it's an herb pot)
• Make shortening bread with Esme in honor of one of her favorite kids' songs
• Figure out when the last day of school is
• Figure out what to do on Mother's Day
• Get Isaac back on track with his Math work
•  I know there's more, but that's enough for now.