She said what?

I had a rough day yesterday--actually the night before yesterday. I felt horrible and didn't really sleep. So what did I do? First thing in the morning I called my Mom for help. She brought over some sudafed and afrin as well as her "doctor's bag". She looked in my ears and throat and listened to my lungs to see if there was  a need for me to go to the quick care. There wasn't. So she filled me full of over-the-counter meds and left. Did I mention that I love my mom? She's awesome. Well, not too long after that, while I was resting on the couch, my nephew (he's 12) called to invite the girls to a movie. My dad would take them, but the fact that my nephew, who doesn't always get a long with the girls (especially Lindsay) called to invite them really impressed my girls. They immediately went downstairs to craft thank you cards for him. I didn't get a look at Lindsay's, but Kera proudly showed me hers.....

"Thank you! Austin for in fiting ass."

translated from "spell as it sounds language" to English:

Thank you! Austin for inviting us.

I had to laugh at that. Of course, in her innocence, she had no idea what she had really spelled, so I let her give it him anyways. It's the heart that counts, right? Besides, she'll look at that in ten years and laugh.

Monday Randomness

• Got to see my grandma, and the girls' great-grandma, this weekend. I just love her and am so grateful we live somewhat near her and can see her several times a year. The fact that my kids have a relationship with her just fills my heart. I remember spending time with my great-grandma, and I'm so grateful the girls can have that too.
• I took Lindsay on a Mommy-Daughter date last week during her lunch time at school. We went to Pizza Hut and used her book-it certificate for the lunch buffet. It was so good to get that one-on-one time with her that is so rare. She was beaming when I picked her up and we had some great conversation time. I think I might make it a monthly "date".
• I took Kera on a Mommy-Daughter date today. She really wanted Subway and I was more than happy to grant that request. She was so cute. I picked her up and she said, "Now I get some alone time with you." Looks like I'll be making it happen with her once a month too!

• It is snowing and cold here today. I like the looks of the snow, but don't like being in it. I don't really enjoy any winter outdoor activities--I'm more of a hot cocoa and snuggle next to the fire with a book type girl. BUT, I will sled down our hill with the girls, I do enjoy that.
•  I had to hit Costco, the bank and grocery store today. I hated doing it in the snow, but it had to be done. I was thrilled to find 3 or 4 Christmas gifts at Costco. Woohoo! I have my Christmas budget, my gift idea and shopping plan list, so I'm ready do get this shopping part done ASAP. I'd like to be done within the next week so I can spend the rest of December baking and crafting. :-)
• I'm finally sporting my new glasses. Wearing them takes some getting use to, but I can definitely see better with them on. I think seeing myself with them on will take some getting use to, as well.

Don't look at my hair. I was wearing a snow hat all day so its flatter than flat!
• I opened a jar of my pickles today. A couple weeks early. They are Soooooo good. :-) Although they don't go so well with my egg nog latte....oh well!

Corn Mazes and Other Randomness

I took the girls to the local corn maze last week on their early out day. The weather was absolutely beautiful--perfect for an outing. The girls were kind of whiny when they first got home from school and I was kind of second guessing my plan to take them. I kept asking if they were up for it and they were, so we ventured out.

The maze started out in a bunch of hay bales, and we got lost immediately. Actually, Lindsay ran off ahead of us right away and as I hollered for her (I did not want to be looking for her in a corn maze!) Kera got kind of worried. She's my worry wart. She said something about wanting to go home. Lindsay finally came back to us and I made sure she knew we had to do the maze together. After that it was pretty fun, even if they argued once in a while about who was going to choose which way we would go. Eventually I just wanted to be done and take them home! It wasn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be when I imagined it.

After we got out of the maze, the girls went into the petting zoo area, I convinced them to let me take their picture in the pumpkin patch, and then they played on the playground equipment for a while. We were there about an hour total when I finally said it was time to go home. I had dinner to prep and homework to do and all the normal things. They whined and argued and complained all.the.way.home. It was soooo irritating. You'd think after going on a fun outing, on a school night even, they'd be happy and grateful. But, no. Ugh. Really makes me want to do more things like that with them. Not!

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I made chicken stock the other night according to recommendations in this wonderful cookbook that I got the other day. Instead of boiling the heck out of the bones & veggies, I was careful to keep it at a very gentle simmer for several hours.
 The next day I used that broth to make Sopa de Tortilla.
Oh.my.word.

It was hands down, the best soup I've ever made. Erik kept giving me compliments on it and I'm almost positive the difference was my homemade stock. I'm making stock that way from now on!

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My windows are clean. Like seriously. Both inside and outside.

They sparkle.

The screens and sills and everything is clean.

It took Erik and me several hours yesterday, but its sooo worth it. Our windows haven't been this clean since we moved in almost 10 years ago. A few of the taller ones still had paint specks from the original paint when it was built! Not because we're lazy, but the windows are like WAY tall. We've always just used that spray window cleaner stuff and called it good. Not this time. We used water and some vinegar for the hard water spots.

Yes, just water.

I invested in some awesome, wonderful cleaning cloths from a company called Norwex.

They are amazing. I can clean almost everything in my house with just their microfiber cloth and water! Cleaning has never been easier or cheaper. I'm totally not buying more of many of my cleaners. I've already been switching to more green ways to clean like baking soda and vinegar and these just help even more. I'm in love with my new Norwex cloths, but don't worry Erik loves them too! ;-)

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A sign of the humor in my home....
Yesterday I was trying to get the last little bit of ranch dressing out of the bottle, and so when I squeezed it it made that squirt splatter sound.

My eldest said, "Oh Mom, you might have a poop mark in your underwear from that one."

Nice. Real nice.

Maybe things like this will keep me from having to deal with them dating when they get into high school...lol

Family Adventure

Last week we had it planned to go camping Thursday through Saturday at this place that Erik keeps talking about, Cliff Lake. So when Thursday dawned grey and wet, we figured we'd still go (we have a pop-up for goodness sake, what can rain do?!) and call it a family adventure. And I'm so glad we went.

We drove out I-90 to Superior and then followed a dirt road for about 20-30 minutes up the hillside. As we got higher and higher up the mountain the wildflowers got prettier and prettier, and the greenery lusher. It's amazing how in the middle of summer there can still be lush, beautiful areas like that. We got to the top and found the quaintest little camping area and a beautiful lake.

By this time it had stopped raining, although everything was still pretty wet. We popped up the camper and got situated while the kiddos played in the trees. Then Erik got his fishing stuff set up and we trekked around the lake to find a good spot to throw in a few lines. It took a couple tries, but we finally found an area with some room for the girls to play while we fished. It only took me a couple of casts and BOOM I caught a little brook trout. I was ecstatic! It was little, but Erik assured me they were the best eaters, so we kept at it. He caught a few more and then we had a long dry spell. I really wanted to catch more though, so we gave ourselves 10 more minutes before we had to pack up and head back to make dinner. Guess what? I caught the last fish! :-) It was exciting and so much fun fishing that little mountain lake. And guess what else? We cooked those fish in some butter and season-all in some aluminum foil over the fire and they tasted awesome!

The sun even came out for a while during our fishing and it felt wonderful. We were at Diamond Lake and I guess there is a little hike (a mile or so) up to another lake, Cliff Lake which is bigger and even more beautiful according to Erik. So when the sun came out Erik wanted to hike up there, but I wasn't sure how the girls would do so close to dinner, so we decided we'd go the next day and spend the day up there.

We had dinner and s'mores and sat around the fire, and as I watched my family interact, I felt this huge, warm feeling of peace and calm in my heart. It took me a moment to place, how could I feel so good and yet have tears threatening? I think it was contentment--I was so happy with where I was right there and then--spending great, fun time with my family in a beautiful place.

We woke in the morning to rain---pouring down rain. So we took our time in with making coffee and breakfast and lounging around the camper. But that doesn't last long with two kids--there just isn't that much room in the pop-up, so we got our act together and headed outside. The rain had stopped (mostly) but it was so grey and wet and sprinkling here and there, so we thought we'd wait around a bit. It wouldn't have been smart to hike--the girls clothes would've been wet within moments of starting to brush against all the brush (ha ha) and if we got out there with a rainstorm it would have gotten really cold, really fast. But we really wanted to get up to Cliff lake, so we waited. And waited. And waited. To make it worse, all the firewood was wet and so making a fire was pretty impossible.

After a bit we were all kind of cold and decided to eat lunch in the camper and maybe play a card game to wait a bit more. So we did, and it was a hoot playing Uno with the girls, but after about 5 rounds and the sky was still grey as ever, Erik and I decided to pack it up and head home. The girls were disappointed, and we were too, but they were much more whiny about it.

As we gathered our gear up, Kera said something really cute, like "goodbye kecret hideout" and I got that feeling again. As I felt my eyes tear up I smiled because I knew, even though our family adventure had been cut short, it was a good time and I was totally content with what we got because I have my family.

Made in China

A little background on this tidbit....Remember last year when there was all that stuff in the news about the lead paint on things made in Chin? Well at some point the girls ended up with some cheapo plastic toys made in China and when my sister saw Lindsay chewing/sucking on one of them, she sort of freaked out saying something about it being "cheap junk from China". She was kind of paranoid about the whole thing. Well its kind of turned out that anytime the girls have a toy that falls apart it kind of gets classified as "cheap junk from China."

Fast forward to Monday....Kera is arriving at Preschool and showing off her new Groovy Girl that she got on SUnday as a reward for filling up a "dry in the morning potty chart". I explained to her teacher why she had the doll and then Kera said, plain as day, "Yeah, I got another toy too, but it broke because its cheap junk from China." Her teacher just laughed and laughed. She was referring to the cheap plastic junky toy that the haircut place in the mall gives to the kiddos for kids cuts. I thought it was hilarious.

Bon Anniversaire

October is THE month for birthdays. Starting today it will be one after another. I try to be really good about sending birthday cards--I wrote on all the ones for this month the other day while I sat at gymnastics so that I could try to be on time this month. I really need to start doing it every month, but for some reason this is the month that folks usually get a real card and not just an e-card. It might have something to do with the fact that my own birthday is this month and it feels kind of selfish to focus only on myself, which I suppose is even more reason to aim for improvement the other months. Anyway, Happy Birthday this month to My Mom, Hattie, Grandma, Lindsay, Deana, Staci, Andranel, Me, Uncle Bill, and Sacha and thanks to my handy, dandy perpetual calendar for helping me remember every year. :-) I hope I didn't miss anyone....

In honor of my Moms birthday, which is today, we (as in, the adults) are going out to dinner at the new Cafe Dolce and leaving the kiddos at my folks' house with a babysitter. So its sort of a date, yay! It should be fun.

A couple of funny anecdotes...

You know you are a parent of little girls when you can rock out in the car to Barbie soundtrack, singing along with almost every word and enjoying yourself.

The other day on the way to preschool, this is a conversation Kera and I had...

Kera: You remember Jack? I miss him.

Me: Oh, because you guys are in different classes at church now?

Kera: Yah. I like him. When I grow up I want to marry him.

Me: Oh, why is that?

Kera: Because he has a nice haircut.

:-) LOL