Jimmy's first day home

We woke up on the first morning as a family of five in our own house, and Daddy had to go to work.  :(  Luckily we had time for some breakfast together first.

Then we all got to work.  Anna helped unload the dishwasher.

Katie went around sitting in things that Jimmy was using and re-claiming them as her own.

Jimmy took naps and was cute.

I was super thankful for my pregnancy splurges-soft sweatpants and new flip flops (with arch support!) and pretty toes.

Jimmy did more important work.  

Katie kept an eye on things.

It took her less than one hour to think to go get her stool so she could see better.
  

Jimmy was worn out from all of that cuteness and eating.

So he slept.  My goal was to try and be realistic about what I could accomplish.  I was probably too tired at the end of the day, but there were things left undone on my list, so I count that as a victory.

Anna's Macaroni and Cheese

Anna was excited to learn to make Mac 'n' Cheese.  

She measured the milk and butter VERY carefully.  I explained that the nice thing about Macaroni and Cheese is that nothing has to be precise.  She may have believed me.  

Using the stove was very exciting, and she also liked that there were a few minutes during the cooking of the noodles where she could go read.  I tried to explain that wasn't the best idea while cooking. 

She was very proud to serve Daddy and Poppa Marion their lunch.  

Fusible applique flower

Chelsea's wedding quilt involves some fusible applique, and it occurred to me that I ought to try it out on something smaller rather than begin with a queen size quilt for my oldest friend's wedding.  

So I made this little flower using the leaf shapes from the quilt pattern.  

It was REALLY fun and easy.  You just draw shapes and cut them out and pick little bits of fabric and make a picture and iron them on and then sew around them-so much potential.  Here's a tutorial I found-I didn't use it or anything-but in case you're curious.  

So much fun to learn new things!  

Sugar Cookies

**I know, you want Jimmy pictures!  We'll get there.  In the meantime, I have posts scheduled for a week or two.  (I had to find things to do while I was waiting!)

 

On Election Day Anna and I made some Sugar Cookies.  

Mrs. Hope's recipe in Mom's handwriting, a card chock full of happy associations.  I've got to add "scan all of Mom's recipes" to my list sometime.  Susan and Abby need to have these too.  

Katie happily measured ice and scooped it from one container to the next while Anna and I were baking.  

You can see we're not totally used to the glasses yet-I think she was up for a couple of hours before we noticed.  She's getting the hang of leveling flour, and definitely loves using the mixer.  

 I didn't roll them out, we just made a log and cut circles.  I was thankful Anna was up for that.  I think having this cake plate out is great inspiration!  We've been keeping it mostly full of tasty treats.  

Peaches!

One of the things I look forward to all year is getting a box of peaches.  

 A local church drives to Colorado and brings back a truckload and sells them for a fundraiser.  Mom and I used to split a box, I'm so thankful that Dixie called me the August after she died and asked if I wanted one.  

They're heavenly delicious.  

I start the morning with two peaches and vanilla yogurt.

And often eat one over the sink sometime during the day.

And have two more with ice cream just before bed. 

It's probably gluttonous-but it's just once a year.  :) 

Paper Crafts Day

 Last Friday Anna and I had a ball in the afternoon working on paper crafts.  She made cards for Abby and Madelyn.

 I finally got to play with the calendar Susan gave me in 2011-each month had instructions on the back to turn the paper into folders and boxes and notecards.

 Here's the bounty-all from that one calendar that I enjoyed for a full year.  I love using things more than once.

And I had a stack of other post-consumer waste that I wanted to turn into things-notebooks and bookmarks.

It was a really fun afternoon.

Fun Pod

I have been coveting a fun pod since Anna was a toddler.  But they're ridiculous!  Kids can stand on chairs!

With all this baking, Katie kept wanting to help and kept falling out of chairs.  Matthew, having heard me talk about these learning towers and kitchen helpers and fun pods for five years, kept telling me to get one already!

I finally just did.  And we love it.  Katie's contained and happy and helping and safe and CONTAINED!  I'm a lucky Mama.  Now I just have to NOT go to Sonic the next 100 times I want to and it'll be paid for.  4 so far!  :/

Insomnia

One day during that week that I wasn't sleeping (that's all over-thanks to Spencer's prayers and warm baths) I came downstairs to find water around the air conditioner.  I bent down to look at the brand new Condensate pump and saw this strangely Alice in Wonderland piece of cardboard sticking out.  I thought about it for a minute, and then removed it.  The pump whirred on.  It felt like just the sort of thing that happens at 2:00 AM.

Pretzels!

One day last week Anna and I made these pretzels from Pinterest.   They were tasty and relatively easy.

We made some with salt and butter, some cinnamon sugar dipped in melted frosting, and some parmesan with spaghetti sauce.  They were a fun Olympics snack.

Levi's quilt

Levi asked for black and grey and green.  I made this up myself, just using jelly roll strips with squares of green in between in a gradient.  I like how the green is a little wavy.  I wasn't sure how that would come out, I just liked the idea.  I think it looks like a quilt for an engineer.

Wonder Fritzie

Last winter when Father Wesley came to visit he brought a yummy pudding dessert that I couldn't stop thinking about.  He sent me the recipe-it has the most wonderful name:  Wonder Fritzie

Wonder Fritzie

½ cup butter

¼ cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

½ cup nuts

Mix together with hands. Spread in a 9 X 13 pan. Bake 15 minutes in 400 degree oven.

Take from oven and stir with a spoon. Save ¾ cup for topping. Fill with 2 boxes of pudding, then cool whip, then the topping.

Anna wasn't sure about mixing it together with her hands.  

She mixed the pudding without taking her eye off of the clock-I told her to mix for two minutes.

We forgot to buy whipped cream but it was tasty anyway-all gone after lunch!  I'm looking forward to making it again with lots of different pudding combinations.  

Apple Pie!

 I've been craving Apple Pie all summer long-and since we're crazy bakers these days, I thought Anna should make one for Poppa Marion's 81st birthday.

She loved peeling and coring the apples.  Once, back in our old apartment, I made an apple pie the way my Mom did-peeling and slicing by hand.  It took FOREVER!  I love my goodwill peeler/corer/slicer.

Anna's other favorite part was saving some of the filling to eat.  I love that too-when I was expecting her I made myself apple pie filling just to eat.  

And I think the whole gang enjoyed the pie.  Happy Birthday Poppa!

Freezer nesting

I didn't take any pictures, but in the last 24 hours I've made:

5.5 lbs of pulled pork
4 lbs of BBQ beef  (no recipe-we just throw this in the crock pot and add sauce in the morning)(easy suggestions welcome)
1 lb of sausage cooked and portioned in the freezer
1 lb of chicken cleaned and in the freezer (from a rotisserie chicken)
1 quart of chicken stock (home made!)
4 pints of refried beans (I used the water left over from the pork-these beans are TASTY!)
20+ bottles of Gatorade

Matthew came in last night and asked if all of this didn't seem a little crazy.  Then he patted my belly and said he supposed it was.  But it's been fun!

MATL

Master of Arts in the Teaching of Languages (Spanish) 

Here's what I read-along with hundreds of pages of articles.  

In this stack the top four are books that I picked for my Independent Study this summer.  Pretty fun.   

In this stack-some impressively boring titles.   New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching...?  

Actually interesting.  

 I think Principles of Language Learning and Teaching was my first book.  

You can see my portfolio here:  Watch out for self-aggrandizing educational mumbo jumbo.  

My friend Jenny edited THIS ENTIRE THING.  Amazing.  

For my independent study this summer I made this website:  apracticar.net  It's a place to collect resources for maintaining my Spanish-or for anyone else who wants to practice and doesn't have a formal class.  

My friend Heath was a huge enormous gigantic help with this.   

Hard to believe I'm done!  Now it's time to plan a trip to Hattiesburg for graduation in December.

Oh, and start my new Library classes at Fort Hays August 20.  

More baking

We still had the pretty cake plate out from the yogurt cake (and putting it away involves bending over, which is hard!)  So I thought Anna should do a little more baking.  

I've been really trying to let her do all this herself-which is hard.  

I have to keep myself very busy in the kitchen to avoid rushing in.  

We made these simple cake mix candy bars found via a quick pinterest search.  

                                          Everyone enjoyed them, especially Katie and Daddy.