Spring 2015

I miss blogging!  But I keep telling myself that it will come back, all things in good time and all that.
I remember that life levels out again at around 9 months.  We'll see if that holds true with four...

But I've got to make a Spring list because I feel like my wheels aren't on the ground without one.

Winter 2015

1.  Clean out and organize:

• Junk Drawer
• Basket
• Round Tin
• CD's  A very good start
• Pantry
• Charging Station
• Linen Closet
• ENTIRE BASEMENT More trash for the dumpster and a few more loads to Salvation Army, but mostly done.  
• Pocket Jar
• Craft Room   Yes-ish?
• MJL Drum Stuff  Also Yes-ish

2.  Put up new towel hooks

3.  Fix Chair Thank you to my Daddy!

4.  Make Mixer Cover

5.  Filing

6.  TEDDY ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!

7.  Make something for Kitchen window sill.

8.  Go back to work

9.  Spring Break Fun Trip
10.  Hall Photos 2014
11.  8x10's 2014
12.  Katie Birthday

13.  Relax, Breathe, Enjoy.

Not so bad!

Spring 2015

• Kathryn Quilt
• Baby gifts (so many-don't even count, just make as many as you can and it won't be enough)
• Put down Weed Barrier Fabric around new trees.
• Install Drip system around new trees.
• Pull up old weed fabric around lilacs.
• Porch Flowers
• Keep weeding the yard.
• Redo lawn chair
• Spring Semester Reading Party "The B!"
• One Anna sewing project.
• Family Pictures for Church
• That big green box you keep avoiding full of drawings and stuff.
• Anna's Birthday
• Susan's Baby Shower
• Continue CD project.

That's 15, I have to stop there.  I miss you all, hope to be back someday...

Bits

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Hutchinson and back with my Dad and all four kiddos.  We did Regional 4H days and then had Streit Christmas, which was fun, but is never enough time to visit with everyone-especially with four little ones.  Matthew's putting everyone to bed tonight while I tried to hide out in my office for a little snippet of quiet.  Katie already found me, but after she showed me the "letter" she wrote for her teacher complete with a picture of the two of them playing dress up, she happily went back upstairs.  Having an hour in here feels so foreign, I'm not sure what to do!  There's the filing, and all of the baby gifts, and that stack of boxes to go through-so I'm starting here.  I miss all of you!

But I spent all of my time catching up on filing.  :(

Before I close the computer down, I'm taking five more minutes to share a couple of links.  Poor, I know.

***Turn your handwriting into a font for free!  Wouldn't this be fun?

***I'm printing out this prayer from St. Thomas Aquinas.  I think it's lovely.  I want to pick a part to quote here but I can't choose!  I'm going to make myself pick out one little bit.

O Lord my God, make me submissive without protest, poor without discouragement, chaste without regret, patient without complaint, humble without posturing, cheerful without frivolity, mature without gloom, and quick-witted without flippancy.

  I'm thinking for mornings?  So far nothing has been successful for me in that part of the day.

*** I love this list of good art supplies!  I put those trays on my wish list.  There's so much art to do with children, and so little time.  :)  I do want to spend (always) more time creatively and less time tidying-but I feel so crazy when it's messy!  How do I get over that?  It's not even cleaning-the house isn't a bit clean-I just want it to be tidy, and that's madness at this time in my life.

***Oh-this story about the school that sent home a letter because a child was "approached" by a man in a van (gasp!) while walking to school.  So it's 9:00 am and a child is walking alone to school.  Is it not LIKELY that the man driving a van is a nice man-who maybe has enough children of his own that he needs a van-who sees a child walking alone well after the school day has begun and pulls to the curb to ask him if he needs anything?  This society!  We lament the state of it-and bemoan the future of fat, lazy, dependent kids-but we allow them no autonomy, no chance to be outside without our rules, without our control, and we teach them to distrust everyone.  How is that going to help anyone ever?  We teach them all sorts of things about "tolerance" while simultaneously saying "every stranger wants to hurt you".

***And back to something nice.  Once again from Pat Gohn, whose podcast I enjoy but never have time to listen to anymore.  (Once she spoke to a woman with 8 children and a PhD in something, who had a lovely family and was a professor and writing interesting books and I thought "See, you can do it all!  You just have to dive in."  Her very existence encourages me) Anyhoo-I've been thinking about humility lately (a year or so?) and I liked this very much.

To be wanting in confidence in God’s mercy, even after a grave fall, is never a sign of true humility but of insidious pride and diabolical temptation. If Judas had been humble he would have asked pardon and wept for his sins like Peter, instead of despairing. Humility is the virtue which keeps us in our place; and our place in God’s sight is that of children who are weak and miserable, yes, but confident children.


Best go upstairs and survey the damage!  Hope to "see" you again soon with something more fun.  :)   

Bossy Betsy: Yummiest Pizza Ever

I have so many things I want to talk about!  No time yet.  But here is the tastiest pizza we've ever made at home and it's easy!

Use Your Cast Iron Pan and a Tortilla to Make World Class Bar-Style Pizza in Under 12 Minutes

I found out about it via  A Cup of Jo which is one of my favorite stranger blogs.  She's a mom in New York and she posts about all sorts of things.  

See you soon!  I hope.  Make that pizza.  

Happy Kansas Day!

Winter List 2015!

I know you want a post with picture of cute babies, but I don't have time yet.  But my winter list keeps showing up on scraps of paper that I then try to keep track of and it's driving me crazy.  So I'm stealing 5 minutes to get it all in one place.

Fall 2014

1.  Make big batch meatballs to freeze. MJL thought both of these were sketchy ideas, and he's the only reason to cook, so there you go!  Easily knocked off the list.  :)
2.  Make breaded chicken cutlets to freeze.
3.  Kids art binders.
4.  Have a baby!
5.  Get out stuff for baby.
6.  Make Christmas Gift list and organize/make as much as possible.
7.  Halloween Costumes
8.  Put in the Miss Honey stuff in the weekly email book.
9.  Baby announcements!
10.  Thank you gifts to neighbors.
11.  Mending basket
12.  Cut squares for Kathryn's Quilt.  35 sets of 4 5" squares.  Different pinks.
13.  Keep working on Bible Project.  Christmas??  It just said "keep working" which we did.  Not done yet though.  
14.  Go to Manhattan!
15.  Sub Plans for Maternity Leave.
16.  Make Grazie Stocking.
17.  Clean out the toy bucket on the front porch.
18.  Fix the spice drawer.  It was only kind of fixed, and is unfixed again.  

Lots of things undone on the fall list, but #4 is a biggie so I'll try to give myself a break.  :)

Winter 2015

1.  Clean out and organize:

• Junk Drawer
• Basket
• Round Tin
• CD's  A very good start
• Pantry
• Charging Station
• Linen Closet
• ENTIRE BASEMENT More trash for the dumpster and a few more loads to Salvation Army, but mostly done.  
• Pocket Jar
• Craft Room   Yes-ish?
• MJL Drum Stuff  Also Yes-ish

2.  Put up new towel hooks

3.  Fix Chair Thank you to my Daddy!

4.  Make Mixer Cover

5.  Filing

6.  TEDDY ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!

7.  Make something for Kitchen window sill.

8.  Go back to work

9.  Spring Break Fun Trip
10.  Hall Photos 2014
11.  8x10's 2014
12.  Katie Birthday

13.  Relax, Breathe, Enjoy.

There.  That eliminates 4 slips of paper and helps me a lot with #10.  :)  Happy Winter!

Ready Teddy (repost from MJL)

Matthew wrote a bit about Teddy's arrival--to tide you over in case you didn't see this yet.

Ready Teddy

Another Katie Video

More pre-recorded posting...

No school on Halloween, which meant we had time for life as it should be lived.  Katie made Baby a Halloween costume.  Here she is to tell you about it.

Ingleside 10/28/14

I took these pictures a while ago but haven't had a chance to put together a post.  Here's what life was like last month.  

Katie really wanted to wear this shirt as pants.  

I did the Pinterest thing and got a big drip pan from Amazon to use as a magnet board.  Then I was grouchy about magnets on the floor.   We started with letter magnets, but they were all over the floor and in a frustrated fit I took them all away.  Then they took all the magnets off the fridge and left them on the floor.  The past few weeks have been better, and I think I'll be less grouchy about it (everything) when it's a bit easier to bend over.  :)

Baby diapers are so impossibly tiny!

We got out the baby stuff.  

I took the girls shopping for some dress shoes for Anna and found glitter shoes for both girls on clearance.  I haven't done something spontaneous like that with Anna and Katie for a long time and it made me really happy.  

One night at bath time I kept picking up books around the house that I was in the middle of, and the three of them together made me laugh-Siblings Without Rivalry, Introduction to the Devout Life, and Donna Parker at Cherrydale.  I enjoyed all three!

I'm glad these days are behind us.  This is what time I gave up on waiting for MJL to get home and went to bed one night.  

Surely some day we'll have a baby post, right?  :)

L's!

Here's the end!  I was so happy to finish this before my leave.  And I got all the books processed and in the library-so this week is just pretty relaxed!  I've got my classes to teach, and books to pull for teachers, and last minute notes to write up for my sub, but compared to the last month of working as hard as I can, this is easy.  :)

L is another big letter.  This was a clever story about a cat and a mouse trying to outwit each other. 

I like the Froggy books, they're especially good for kids who are reading at a higher level, but don't need to dive into chapter books full time.  

Arnold Lobel is one of my favorites.  I always read Mouse Tales aloud to 1st graders and then they check out like crazy.  This is one from the picture book section which has nice stories and is a Caldecott winner.  

A sweet story, appealing to boys and girls. 

Funny historical fiction tall tale.

Another good dog book!  About noticing the good that is in front of you. 

A town works together to solve a big problem. 

A really fun read aloud.  The kids have to find what the letters are for.  

The title is hard to see- Ellis Island Christmas.  You know I can't resist an immigrant story.

More historical fiction, from the point of view of a Chinese family. 

I just got this one last year.  There are many stories about lost things making the rounds and finding their way back again-someday I'd like to gather them together somehow and do some comparing and contrasting with the kids.  There's something very appealing about them.  This one circulates all year round, the kids really like it.  

I love this song, and this version is a Caldecott winner.  

An animal book!  And I don't even like animals very much.  This story about two pets that survive Hurricane Katrina was surprisingly touching.  

That's it for picture books this semester!  If you read any, let me know what you think!

K's!

All of Ezra Jack Keats is fun, but I really liked this one and I'd never heard of it before.

A true story from Pioneer days!  I'm going to have to read it aloud to the kids because even though it was on my featured shelf, STILL no one checked it out.  And it is great.  

When we were in Las Vegas at the ALA convention, Jon Klassen walked by in the exhibit hall and I felt like I was seeing a celebrity.  I told MJL "Do you know who that is?  'This is not My Hat'?  'I Want My Hat Back'?"  and he laughed at me.  

But these are great books.  Fun for kids and grownups alike, and nice and simple.  A great 1st/2nd grade level book is so important!  How else are we going to hook them on reading?

I like to read this one at the beginning of the year, though sometimes it almost makes me cry.  A sweet story inspired by the lions at the New York City Public Library.  

This is one of my all time favorite Halloween Stories.  It has a little witch in it, but it is a great story and not a bit scary.  

These are all pre-scheduled posts.  We're past 40 weeks now, so hopefully there'll be a baby soon!

J's!

I finished!  All of the "Everybody" books with authors F-L!!!  Here are my favorite J's.

A new book I bought last year.  What a relief that it is good!  It's about  a little girl who feels bad that her family is not eating turkey for Thanksgiving, but she finds out there are lots of different ways to celebrate.  

A really fun take on the "Princess and the Pea" story.  

Simple pictures, simple story, but this boy trying to convince his mother he should have a pet snake was charming.  

Another great farm book, I think 4H kids, kids who love animals, farm kids would all love this one.  

I like Simon James.  I like his pictures and his stories, and this one was my favorite of his.  And it's always nice for kids to read about something completely different from Kansas.  

Books from Penguin Random House!

We got our $5000 in books from Penguin Random House in late September.  8 boxes.  342 books.

It took me a couple of weeks to quit being overwhelmed and start the giant project of getting them processed and into the library.  

 They're all in the computer, all stamped, all have call numbers on the spines, all have "donated by" labels inside, and all the books for regular checkout have clear plastic dust jacket protectors on, but I'm still working on finishing up the novel sets.  But they're ready for checkout today!    

  

Is there anything better than kids and books?  What a blessing for our little school.  

Bossy Betsy:Halloween Clearance

I apologize if you all already know about this--I thought everyone in the world did, but this Halloween season I saw several references to pumpkin carving being dangerous--even one from one of those giant parenting blogs with zillions of followers--so I just have to make sure.

If you are still trying to carve pumpkins with sharp knives-STOP!  Your life is about to get awesome.  The little pumpkin carving kits are amazing and wonderful and totally safe and about a katrillion times easier to use than knives.  AND they will go to at least 75% off, probably 90% off if you're patient, now that Halloween is past.



You just need to wait as long as you feel comfortable, then buy a kit for each one of your children, because the knives are a bit flimsy.  I broke two this year because I was being impatient.  But you can afford that because each kit has multiple knives and they're 75% off.

Now--throw away the instruction book that comes with the kit!  It will just give your children grandiose ideas about what pumpkins should look like, steal their creativity, and frustrate them.  Plus it's much easier to store a little baggie full of knives.  Just throw it inside your Halloween box or in one of your trick or treating pumpkins.

I think it's OK to keep all of the other little tools because they're fun to experiment with and don't cause too much trouble.

Last year I bought a couple of these scoops-and they were great.  They really got the guts out quickly.

Don't we look happy?  All of these kids carved pumpkins with very little supervision.  No injuries, all fun.  

Bossy Betsy out.

Jimmy works

Katie sings.

I asked Katie to clean up the play-doh.  She told me "There's a song for that."

Anna plays piano

This week- just some video snapshots of what life is like these days.  Anna first.

 

Watching stuff

That weekend when I was sick we found some fun things to watch together as a family.  Or at least things that I like watching and Anna likes watching and Matthew tolerates and Katie likes anything on TV and Jimmy likes to snuggle so he's happy.

House Hunters International is on Netflix now and has fun insights into what daily life is like in different countries.  Language teachers refer to that as "small 'c' culture", and it's one of my favorite things.  Did you know that in Germany, people move with their kitchens?  So it was hard for the girl teaching English to find an apartment to rent that came with a fridge and oven!  And in Denmark, you bring your own light fixtures to a house!  We all enjoyed it.

The day I was home sick I watched hours and hours of Flea Market Flip.  Anna loves it too.  Teams buy things at flea markets, and then work with a team of craftsmen in a big shop to make them over into wonderful things, and then they sell them at another flea market to see who can make the biggest profit.  It's really fun and inspiring.

We've been having "Movie Night" on Friday nights, but I need some recommendations for movies.  We really can't tolerate scary things around here-last week we watched the first 3 minutes of "Tarzan" and then switched it off and tried "The Great Mouse Detective" and then happily landed on "The Tigger Movie".  We like clean and happy and easy and funny.  We are, apparently, not the general market.  Any tips?  I have free Redbox codes from McDonalds right now so it could even be a newer movie!  But really, we need some help.

Food Success

I've been thinking on my meal success in September, and trying to figure it out so I can replicate it and here's what I've come up with so far:

• In September MJL is busy, but he's cleaning seed and stuff and so he can come in for dinner.  I am about a zillion times more likely to make food for him if he can come in and eat it with us.  
•  I didn't have ANYTHING on the list that required a recipe really, or anything new, or anything on any level that is fancy or different.  Only "regular" food that is easy to make and quick.  
• Sometimes I let the kiddos watch a show while I was fixing dinner.  

• I made my menu weekly, and made the shopping list, and one of us actually went to the store.  

• I cleaned and reorganized the fridge, pantry, and freezers in a nesting frenzy, so I actually know what we have and can find it.  

Now we're into October, and it's totally different, but I'm figuring that out too (I've only been married to a farmer for 15 years, so it makes sense that I'm JUST NOW figuring out how to eat during the different seasons, right?)

•  In October there is a lot of driving meals around and driving farmers around and I should NOT try to eat dinners at the table.  I should plan to feed everyone things they can eat on the go.  
• Hot sandwiches are easy!  I can fix a bunch at once, and then heat them all up together while I'm filling up the rest of the stuff in the bags, and then each kiddo gets a bag and there are bags for the farmers and we're off.  

• My meal planning should reflect the reality of life for whatever season we're in.  I should only plan portable meals during Fall Harvest, instead of planning regular meals and then getting frustrated.  

• Check the day old bread for rolls for sandwiches and sometimes the lunch meat gets marked down too!   

•  Wrap hot sandwiches in foil.

So now I need some more hot sandwich ideas!  Anyone have anything good?

Snowball

I took the kiddos to Wal-Mart on Friday and as I walked back to the van I noticed that I was parked funny.  I guessed that the person next to me had been parked funny when I got there and now they were gone and that was the problem.  We had actually had a pretty good trip to the store and I got everyone buckled and drove away smiling and then on the road I noticed this sign under my windshield wiper.

It actually made me laugh, and then I felt a little bad because clearly that wasn't the reaction the writer was going for, and then I felt really bad because that is a LOT of effort to go to for negativity!  I can't imagine actually getting a pen and a bit of paper and writing on it, and putting it under the wiper, and then how yicky the person must feel for the rest of the day.  Very sad.  It reminded me that it's so so true that we find what we look for, and that it is important to be careful what I am investing my energy in.  Anyway-I'm sorry, person who was having a bad day.  I probably am a terrible parker.  I'll try to do better.  Or at least return to parking far away soon when walking is a bit easier.  :P

We've had our van Snowball for almost three months now, and I've discovered that the reason people have those little families on the back of their vans is that there are SO. MANY. VANS.  I'm not good at picking ours out of the crowd.

Matthew can make me a sticker to put in the back window, whatever I want.  That's daunting.  I keep thinking words-because I like words, but it's hard to think of a quote that I will love forever, and that will be short enough not to cause anyone to be distracted, and that will make me smile when I see it.

At first I thought "Peace begins with a smile"  but I've changed my mind about that one already and it's not even on the van.

So-any help?

Meandering Thoughts

A month or so ago, on one of those buzz feed quizzes I got sucked into in a moment of weakness, I was asked the question "Do you look at the sky when you feel happy or sad?"  I suppose it was just the sort of question to find out what you default to if you don't know the answer-I chose happy- but I've been thinking and thinking about it.  I haven't come to any sort of answer-but I did notice that I can't help looking at the sky without taking a deep breath. (I also tend to wonder if this is the day that something will happen that will change everything forever-not in a worried way, just a curious one-I've noticed I think that when looking at the sky.  That's normal, right?)

That led me into thinking about what else there is in the world that has the same lovely deep breath effect.  What things are there in the world that can't help but relax me?  (I think I had 20 minutes alone in the car or something-generally seems to be the only time I have time to think along rabbit trails).

I've tried to think of something for each of the five senses.

Sight:  The sky-clear or stormy, blue or gray, it's so nice and big and naturally calming and I would say "centering" except that sounds so blegh and barfy.  But the sky reminds you that you are so very small, which is as it should be.

Sound:  Arvo Part-Spiegel im Spiegel



I play it in the kitchen when things threaten to overwhelm me, and it always helps.  I know it's strange and so minimalist, but I love it.  It helps me to breathe just like the sky.

Taste:  I feel silly-but I honestly think a grape sno cone!  I think about eating a grape sno cone, and I know with the first bite there's a nice deep relaxing breath.  I don't think I could be stressed while eating that.

Touch:  I had a hard time thinking of this one at first-for the kiddos I think their blankies do the trick, and I do love my bear Zaca, but it didn't seem quite right.  Then I thought of water.  Swimming in the summer and baths in the winter.  When I can get myself into water everything gets better.

Smell: This one was the hardest, perhaps because I don't smell so well.  But I think rain, or lilacs in the Spring, or when the corn is pollinating.  I think it's the corn.  I know there's a farm smell sometime that makes me feel very happy and alive.

So what about you?  I really enjoyed this little game-and I'm so curious about what other people think!