Happiness is found in little things.

Megan spent the day at my house and we had such fun. We made things. First we made the pincushions, but blogger doesn't work same way my brain does, so the pictures are backwards.

We made 10 bags! Some Megan had started, but these beautiful 6 were from scratch. I love making bags. Megan showed me how and it's easy peasy. I will now be one of those girls in the grocery store who brings her own bags and saves the earth from plastic and earns 5 cents a pop. We figured that's at least $12.00 a year!! Imagine!

We made adorable pincushions, but I'm impatient and so the pictures are blurry. They're so cute! Watch out, you may all get these for Christmas. Here's the inspiration.

That last one is mine. I almost want to take the time to pin things now. (almost). It says "Happiness is found in little things". My favorite kind of motto is the kind that is cutesy and accompanied by a drawing of a cute little girl. I tend to surround myself with these. I have a little platter in the kitchen that says "Every day is a happyday", with a little girl; a little wooden sign in my craft room that says "The time to be thoughtful is now", with a little girl; and three books with drawings of little girls that are filled with the same sort of cutesy sayings. But they all make me happy, so, I guess it's true--Happiness is found in little things.

Happy Mother's Day to you, and may you find happiness in little things.

I *heart* Kansas

The Kansas Sampler Festival was here this weekend. I love the Kansas Sampler Festival, and Kansas, and Kansas Explorers, and Marci Penner, and living in Garden City. We spent the past two days at the festival, talking to people from all over the state, finding out fun things to do, learning about Kansas, and getting all excited about loving where we're from.

I love it that I'm from a place that raised $1200 in 6 hours, just by putting a jar in the Greensburg booth.

I love it that this morning at the Kansas Explorers meeting, we all sang "Home on the Range" together-and I wasn't the only one who was teary.

I love it that I live in a community where I can't walk around a festival for 30 minutes without seeing 5 people that I know. At least!

I love it that I got to eat Indian food today, and watch Indian dance, and that the community response to this first offering of Indian culture was so great that they ran out of food by 1:00, and there was an enormous crowd there to watch the dancing.

I love it that on Friday night, I got to see a delightfully funny and impressive GCCC show, that Matthew got to play drums for, and that lots of my former students were in. I get to see at least one play every year, and the Garden City Symphony, and at Easter, Handel's Messiah, and band concerts in the park in the summer. All of these things are made up of people in the community. They are always wonderful, and I don't think I would enjoy anything else as much as I enjoy seeing our people perform. Even if it were a big fancy symphony, how much better could it be?

I love it that we have a Strings Professor at the college who played with a big fancy symphony for 30 years, and is now here, to play with us and start the Southwest Kansas Music Academy . Abby gets to sing with a fantastic children's choir (accompanied by the big fancy violinist), and in 2 years, if we like, we can sign Anna up for "Violin for the young child" and she'll get ridiculously early exposure to playing music.

Honestly! What a wonderful place!

Something cheery

My dad said that I don't update my blog often enough, and he's always right so I'm updating twice today! ...and I thought we ought to move back to something cheery, as this is a cheery blog.

"Overheard in the Office" and others are websites that document how awful life in the city is. Today in 2nd grade I thought about "Overheard in the Spanish Room" and how much nicer it would be. The 2nd graders were coming up to the front of the room to read a story. As they came, a few were grumbling about not getting to stay in their seats.

Girl 1: "I like it because my eyesight is not that good."

Boy 1: "My eyesight is good, my eyesight is the best in the world."

Girl 1: "No it's not"

Boy 1: "Yes it is, it is the best in the world"

Girl 1: "Your eyesight is not better than God's eyesight, He has the best eyesight in the world" Boy 2: "Your eyesight is not that good, even if there was a wolf right in front of you you would not see it."

Boy 1: "Yes I would, and I would growl at it" Boy 1 proceeds to growl.

And then we read a story.

How about some excessively domestic thoughts?

I've decided to go ahead and switch from the generic detergent to this one. It's much nicer to pick up and pour in and even though it costs more I am getting it. I feel very luxurious and a little smug every time I do the laundry.

Tonight I made a very yummy dinner. I got a Rachael Ray cookbook for my birthday, and this is the first recipe attempt. It was delicious. I used regular pork sausage, and not as much, and part skim ricotta, and the extra good for you Barilla Penne pasta, and twice as much broccoli, and just a bit of Parmesan. I think it came out to be pretty good for you, and so tasty. Anna liked it, but she likes everything. She's nice that way.

For my birthday I got new knives, and they are so fun to use, but I need to learn how to use them well. Maybe the next time Sarah comes home she can teach me a little.

I also got a beautiful bag from Matthew. He did such a nice job on my Birthday. I got new knives-something practical that I wanted. A beautiful bag-something frivolous and pretty. And he fixed the bathtub-a chore done! Perfection.

Things that break my heart

Megan and Travis and Jonas and Lucy drive away on May 25, 2007.

From hand-me-down boys overalls that are too small, with snaps that don't snap anymore, into...

An adorable dress I made myself. It only took about an hour all together, with three phone calls to my Mom. It's not perfect, but it's cute! Please comment with effusive praise. I'm so proud. I feel almost like a legitimate mother. She looks so cute in it. What fun. I want to make lots of clothes now.

VoteJez.com

Jez Luckett's gonna be on TV tomorrow morning! Go to his website for details and to find out how to vote for him.

Go Buffs!

www.votejez.com

It looks like I have a new cleaning rag

I guess Susan was right. He's just not K-State.

I'd like to call him names, but that's not K-State.

Musical productivity

Matthew and I both got MP3 players for Valentine's Day, and I've been putting music into my computer ever since, and I'm almost done. Since I was touching all of the CD's anyway, I also reorganized them today and I'm happier with the system. Instead of alphabetical, they're organized by category. 2 of the categories that I like best are "Betsy music" and "Matthew music". No more searching through the rock to get to the Carole King. Of course Johnny has his own category. In doing the organization, I realized that I have LOTS of Spanish music. It's virtually the only current thing I've purchased in the last few years. Other than Spanish music, it's a lot of Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc. I suppose I ought to get current somehow. What have I missed that's great?

Tomorrow's a 1/2 day workday at school! I love workdays.

Lake of Shining Waters

It's melting! All of the snow and ice is melting and it's warm and lovely. On Saturday I sat outside for a few minutes and listened to the water running over the road. It was kind of like having my own babbling brook. Today when I got home from school I couldn't help but go over and look at my little lake, with it's pretty reflections and relaxing ripples. Amazingly enough, it made me want to get in a boat (not as a coxswain, just in a scull by myself) The lake was pretty in the morning. So I'm enjoying our temporary lake, and all of the moisture of this winter, and the snow days, but also the warm weather.

I am a K-Stater and I support my team no matter what. I support my coaches because they know much better than I do how to coach a team. I am glad that we have Huggins as our coach and that we are getting attention and winning games. (But our team color is purple-not black) I understand the point and the video is cool...but we're purple! The important thing though is to support the team and the coach so I will. But I'm glad I'm here and I can wear a purple shirt.

I had a startling thought today while getting ready to do the laundry. I was picking up Matthew's clothes and I wondered if there was a point in marriage when you just realize that he's never going to pick up his clothes and you start doing it cheerily instead of crankily. And then I was cheery about it! (Surely I was just in a good mood, right?)

Now for two cooking questions. (And a sad note--the chopping class was canceled, low interest and bad weather. They're going to try again in the Fall.) (Ooh, and another sad note-Cynthia's Pizza closed and it was my very very favorite)

1. I made chocolate chip cookies the other night and they didn't flatten out like normal and tasted sort of cake-like instead of cooky-like. (fluffy not chewy) Of course, there were a number of strange things that I did-which one or combination caused the non flattening? I didn't have any eggs so I just used egg whites, I probably beat the whole thing for too long (sometimes I just like to turn up the mixer because it's fun) and I used a new air bake pan, with and without parchment paper. Whaddya think?

2. For our new vegetable this week I bought fresh green beans. Now what do I do with them?

Last week I had a spaghetti squash with tomato and garlic and Parmesan. Super yummy.

All week I've been putting music onto my computer in anticipation of the installation of my new car stereo. MJL gave it to me for Christmas, but it's been too darn cold to install it. He's working on it now and I'm super excited. It has a place to just plug in my MP3 player. No more CD switching! Lots of books on tape! (which aren't on tape anymore...audio books?) No more lots of wires everywhere!

Along with the installation he's going to vacuum and set traps for the mice who either live in or visit my car. I'm so well taken care of.

Maybe there's actually nothing new to say

I sat down to blog, but it occurs to me that I don't really have anything in mind to talk about. I wanted to note that there was a furious battle between Braeburn and Fuji. I changed my mind several times, and finally decided that they are tied. Initially I prefer the Braeburn, for it's tartness, but the fuji is nice and sweet. They're both crisp and juicy, which is very important for me. This week we'll have to get some more and fill in the gaps. It's been a great food week. We ate lots of produce, and I have the menu and list all ready (and in store order!) for today's errands. Being organized makes me happy.

I've had a visitor at school a couple of times in the last week. Bible Christian Academy is going to have a Spanish teacher to replace their music teacher, and she has no teaching experience, so she's been coming out to watch see what Elementary Spanish looks like. I like it, because it helps me to see the kids and the classroom from an outsider's perspective, and it is really impressive. I should probably be all proactive and be inviting parents and other teachers and administrators and school board people to come and watch my classes, but I'm not. I do have enough other stuff to deal with, right? I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to do my best.

Our principal sent us a link to a website called Sparkpeople, which I am addicted to. It's lots of fun and actually very motivational for me. We're doing "The Biggest Loser" as a school. We weigh in with the nurse on Wednesdays, and if you gain weight, you have to put a dollar in the jar, and the winner at the end gets the money. It's kind of a nice thing, and since everyone is doing it, we have lots of healthy snacks in the lounge now instead of just doughnuts. I do miss baking for the teachers though. I used to make lots of cookies and cupcakes and muffins and etc. and now I can't really do that. I made banana bread for the women's retreat at the church, that was a small baking fix, and a lemon cake for the ladies at Joan's store, but I want to bake more! It's one of my favorite things to do.

Oh! I remember. I posted awhile back about wanting a class to teach me how to cut things up and now GCCC is offering that very class. I'm excited. Does anyone want to go with me? 2/13 and 2/20 6:30-8:30. I would like a buddy. I'd be willing to go to a class with you, if you want to trade. I'm also considering the seafood class and the herb class, but how much time do I really have?

And in other good news, our insurance will reimburse us for all the food we had to throw out after we lost power. So now I have to make a list and price it, but that should be a nice brain exercise....with money at the end!

Keeping busy

Yesterday was a nice day. It snowed all day, and we didn't leave the house. Anna was a little cranky and is not napping well, but she was still pretty fun to be around.

I've been going through my recipes and cooking magazines and finally getting them all organized into one place with one uniform system. It makes me really happy. It's been on my list to do forever. And I made a floral arrangement for the January mantel, but I'm not sure about it. I think next year we'll have to do it differently. And Matthew and I played a ping pong match (he won), which always means it's a nice day. And I made a really good dinner and everyone liked it.

I have a zillion new years resolutions this year. One of them is to try a new vegetable every week, as we have been firmly settled into a carrot, green beans, yellow beans pattern forever. So far we've had butternut squash, sweet potato, shallots, yellow pepper, and red pepper. It's been lots of fun.

The apple testing continues... Ambrosia lost yesterday to Fuji, but it wasn't a very good ambrosia, not very crisp. And Fuji beat a Cameo today. A few days ago Cameo lost to Ambrosia. So... we have 1. Fuji, 2. Ambrosia, 3. Cameo for those three. There are so many combinations. I'm having a great time with this.

apples to apples

Lots has happened since Matthew's birthday, but I don't feel like catching all up. I'll leave that to Matthew. Suffice it to say we all had nice Christmases and the ice storm was a big deal and the trip to Oregon was fun and now school has started and I'm getting over the flu.

I've been eating lots of apples lately. At Jeanette's house I taste-tested Jonagold versus Braeburn and the Braeburn was clearly my favorite. It was so much fun, the blind apple taste-test, that we've been doing it lots at home. It's sad that Matthew doesn't like apples, but he does administer the tests for me, and Anna loves apples, and it's a great way to make sure we eat two a day. So far we know that Fuji beats Pink Lady, that Pink Lady beats Gala, and that Fuji beats Gala. The pink lady has a very grape-y flavor I think. It's interesting, and I don't know that I would have noticed it if I hadn't been focusing so hard on the flavors of the apples. I really recommend it. Who knew that apples tasted so different? This week we're going to buy some more different apples so we can add to the list.

1. Fuji
2. Pink Lady
3. Gala
(I can't put Braeburn or Jonagold in yet, as they've not been tested against these three) I think this will keep be busy for a long time, and it's such fun!

In other apple-y news, Matthew got the game Apples to Apples for his Birthday and we had a fantastic time playing with the Lobmeyer clan. Two thumbs up.

And now for a cryptic post-script...The other one is still there, just hidden. If you know where to look, you can still find it. Questions? email me.

Happy Birthday Matthew!!

Today is Matthew's Birthday! I feel really happy this morning. He loved his presents, and we have friends coming over this afternoon for pizza and custard, and it's going to be lots of fun.

But mostly I'm thankful for Matthew. Since he's 29-here are 29 things I like about him:

1. He drums on everything.
2. He likes to cook fancy things with lots of instructions.
3. He works hard.
4. He thinks things through.
5. He doesn't get angry very often.
6. He's a funny writer.
7. He makes me laugh.
8. He always wears his sweatband when he plays ping pong.
9. He laughs at my jokes.
10. He plays with Anna.
11. He is willing to take Anna on long trips.
12. He's a great daddy.
13. He loves his brothers and sisters and parents.
14. He is generous.
15. He is dedicated to music.
16. He loves my family too.
17. He's a great big brother to Abby and Susan.
18. He takes wonderful pictures of Anna.
19. He's a good dancer.
20. He watches movies and TV that I like and doesn't make me watch his.
21. He loves to shop for Anna.
22. He sings along to the radio loudly.
23. He misses me when he's gone.
24. He loves K-State.
25. He let me choose the rocks for the fireplace.
26. He likes foreign movies.
27. He's gotten much better at giving presents.
28. He's a member of NARP.
29. He vacuums.

Now, I would really like it if we could get 29 comments from those reading. What do you like about Matthew?

Matthew's Birthday

We'll celebrate Matthew's Birthday after Church on Sunday at our house, with make-your-own-pizzas and custard. Can you please comment and let me know if you think you can make it or not?

Thanks

Here's what's happening

Ok

Thursday, December 21, 7:00ish

I haven't heard from some of you, but we can always try to get together another time if some people can't do this (ie Katrina, maybe stuck in Denver)

Just come out to our house around 7:00 (after you've had dinner) and we'll talk and play games, etc. You can bring a snack or a drink to share if you'd like.

A Christmas get-together

Hello.

Chelsea wants to be sure that we all hang out sometime while she's here, so we can hang out at our house some evening if we can work it out. Katrina gets home on the 21st, sometime after that would be good. K and C are both leaving on the 1st, sometime before that would be good. Matthew's playing at Henk's Upholstery on the 31st, all are invited, but that night's out. So what are your schedules? Can we find a time?

Also-all friends are invited to Matthew's Birthday celebration on the 24th at around 12:30, lunch provided, at our house.

My kind of day

A few quick notes before I forget them again. I meant to tell this story from school this morning--2nd grade. I'll use fake names just in case. Alan had a little wooden cross that he got at church last night in his pocket, but he kept taking it out and playing with it. When they were standing in line to go out to recess after my class, Carlos said to the teacher "Look what Alan has". Alan showed it to the teacher and she said "I see". Carlos said "It's a cross, it's for killing vampire bats" The teacher, with amazing self control, said that she didn't think that's why they gave it to him at church. There was a heated debate for a minute or so about whether or not vampire bats were real, and then they went to recess. It made me laugh.

We had a great afternoon, all three being productive. Matthew worked on a Christmas gift for me, I worked on one, and Anna made some gifts too! Tonight Anna and I might relax, or we might work more. I haven't decided.

Slicing and dicing

This weekend, at Daniel and Sarah's house, I got to watch Sarah cut up an apple. It was like art. I want to learn how to be in the kitchen with that much confidence. There is a local chef who sometimes offers little classes through the college, but they're always things like "slow cooker magic" or "easy weeknight dinners". I wish that she would offer a class on the little kitchen prep things that chefs do so well. That would be super fun for me.

I've been working on a big Christmas gift, so I won't be able to post pictures until after the holiday, but I do think that it is coming along nicely. I'm trying to be careful and not skip steps like I usually do.

I made my first pot holder, but I didn't put enough stuff in the middle, so I think it's actually pretty dangerous to have hanging around the kitchen, masquerading as a pot holder, but actually not protecting you from heat. Like a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I also made Shannon a little cover for her table, but I didn't take a picture of it.

I have my gifting almost all done, which is nice. Once I finish this project I'm working on, I'm looking forward to trying to bake some new things. I talked with Sarah about truffles, I think I'm going to try those, and I need to get started baking bread. I haven't ever, but I think once I do it, I'll be able to incorporate it into my regular baking life. Mom bakes bread ALL the time. I should be able to do that too. And there' nothing better than fresh bread, right out of the oven, making the house smell like home.

At school, I'm teaching the kids El Burrito Sabanero. (Does anyone know the meaning of the word "sabanero"? I can't figure it out) It's a carol about a donkey going to Bethlehem, a very common Mexican carol theme. During Kindergarten today, as we were all singing, I looked around at the kids, singing happily in Spanish, and remembered again that I have the very best job in the entire world.

Hope your day is also great.

Christmas music must haves

I should be doing my Monday chores (Tidy, Laundry, Dust, Water plants, Kitchen) while Anna is napping, or working on Christmas gifts, but I have been thinking about helping all of you who don't have 52 Christmas CD's to know which ones are really very important and good. I am going to try to make the list all linky.

These are not in order of importance. They are all important.

1. Over the Rhine "The Darkest Night of the Year" (Oh! When I made this linky, I discovered they came out with a new Christmas CD!!! This one is my very favorite, so I'm so excited, my heart is beating fast, I know I'm not supposed to, but, I bought it. I'll let you know if it's also wonderful.)

2. Chris Rice "The Living Room Sessions Christmas" It's all piano music, very simple and calm and nice. I like to play it during dinner.

3. Martina McBride "White Christmas" She doesn't fuss with the songs too much, and has such a nice voice. I love her "O Holy Night".

4. Johnny Cash "Christmas with Johnny Cash" So many nice Johnny songs, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", "The Gifts They Gave", and some nice spoken word bits too.

5. Johnny Cash "Country Christmas" This one's with the Carter Family, and there's a hilarious rendition of "Figgy Pudding".

6. Martha's Trouble "Christmas Lights" I got this one new this year, and I love it. It's soft and very pretty, acoustic with interesting vocals.

7. Vince Guaraldi Trio "A Charlie Brown Christmas" Happy, especially good for baking cookies.

8. "Elf Soundtrack" It has some songs that no one else does, and is very peppy. Also it's a little longer, which is nice because most Christmas Albums are very short.

9. John Jonethis "The Ultimate Lounge Christmas" I bought this because it was cheap, but I love this CD. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's just a really nice, normal Christmas Album, with regular versions of everything, easy to sing with. I couldn't find a link to buy it, but there were several ways to download it.

10. Burl Ives "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" It's so good and happy and classic. You'll love it.

11. Bing Crosby "White Christmas" Surely you all have this, but if you don't, you must. If I had to take only one Christmas album with me to a desert island, it would be this one.

12. Jaci Velasquez "Navidad" It's in Spanish (The first half) and I really like it. Linda thinks it's overly emotional, and the second half (in English) I don't like so much, but I love the first part.

***And now two that I think Matthew would pick.***

13. VeggieTales "A Very Veggie Christmas" It's silly and fun.

14. Various Artists "Happy Christmas Volume 3" It's a little more rock-y, I do like it. We haven't heard the other volumes. Maybe we should get those too...


There--Only 14 must haves. What would you add?

How was school today?

A few quick notes before I'm off to bed in the freezing bedroom. (New energy efficient heating procedures = flannel jammies and frozen breath) We're going to Salina tomorrow for a farmer meeting. Anna and I will be girls about town, shopping and lunching and having fun together. I really like hanging out with her. I didn't expect that out of mama-hood. I didn't know she'd be my friend.

And then we get to see Daniel and Sarah and baby Phinn, who I am growing more and more attached to. And then Susan has all day Saturday!! Lots of food and TV will ensue.

Today at school several nice things happened.
1. In 1st grade, I called on David, but David wasn't there today. The kids said "David no está" That's natural, impromptu language use!!!!

2. In 3rd, 4th, and Kindergarten, they were so excited about the lesson I had to try to calm them down. Not "naughty noise", just genuine enthusiasm for learning!

3. In 1st and 2nd grade, the kids read books they wrote themselves. In Spanish.

4. I think I found a curriculum I want to use and the district offered to pay for it, so I don't have to worry about taking money from the school. No more making EVERYTHING up myself!

5. When talking to my principal, she mentioned that one of the parents who was very anti-Spanish when we started went to the Superintendent this week to urge him to continue and expand the program because she was so happy with it.

Yay for Elementary Foreign Language!