Winter Greens

For the first time, we tried a winter garden this year.  I got excited about the idea of being able to grow our own fresh produce even when the cooler temperatures hit.  I also cheered about permission to be a somewhat lazy gardener as the skies would provide all the watering I thought the winter garden needed.  We were warmer and drier than normal this year, so the garden didn't do great, but we still got to pick and try almost everything we attempted, except carrots, they were a complete no-show.

We got just little tiny heads of broccoli-- in fact putting the yield of the four plants together made not-quite-enough for one broccoli salad.  But the girls did have some of their nicest words ever for this dreaded veggie on their plates when they became fond of the baby broccolis and enjoyed taking care of them in the garden.

 The red leaf lettuce did the best.  It's been really handy to just hop outside and snip a few leaves whenever we need them.  Just got to wash it thoroughly and watch out for snails!

The sugar-snap peas look the prettiest and will give us a number of servings.  Again, this is a veggie the girls just tolerate, but they have found it interesting to watch the flowers turn to baby pea pods.  Since it's kinda wild, Delia has the easiest time tending to this section of the garden with her watering can, so I think she's kind of adopted these plants as her own.

And this shows what happens to your winter garden when it gets too warm-- things start flowering! ("Bolting", I learned, is the correct gardener's term.)  Did you know broccoli could be such a pretty plant?  Or that when you eat it, you're eating flower buds?  We did not!  Oh the things growing our own fruit and veggies teach us!

Muppet Fever!

Last Friday night we rented The Muppets for our family movie night.  Dave grew up watching The Muppet Show and the original Muppet Movie was one of the few my sister and I had on VHS, so it got watched over and over.  This new Muppet movie was awesome!  It had a perfect mix of sentimentality to please old, nostalgic parents who grew up on the Muppets and enough goofy Muppet-ness to obsess a new generation with their antics!

Here were some of our laugh-out-loud moments during the movie and in the days following:

1.  Delia cannot pronounce the words "Muppets" or "Kermit".  She refers to the movie as "The Muffets" and its star as "Hermit."

2.  She also gets confused about Scooter and calls him Roller Skate!

3.  Phrases like, "Let's not be Animal right before bed" or "Please don't act like Animal in church...the post office...Target...etc." or "Remember, the babysitter is here to play with you, not Animal" have actually come out of my mouth in the past few days.  (Can you guess which girl I've had to direct these sayings at?)

4.  Dave showed the girls a bunch of old Muppet clips on YouTube and then took off for a night meeting, leaving me alone to listen to 2 hours of "Manamana" and Beaker "Mememe" impersonations! (Still trying to think of a way to get him back, any ideas? :)

5.  Ella and Delia put these costumes together all by themselves to present us with their own Muppet Show:

(Hermit and 80's Robot)

School Chapel Reflections

At the chapel the first graders led at Ella's school today, the students recited Deuteronomy 6:6-9.  "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."  As I listened to my own child say these verses for memory, it really hit me how short I fall in this command as a parent.  Some days are just so full of stuff on the daily to-do list that mealtime devotions are skipped so homework can get done and bedtime prayers are rushed so precious sleep is not missed. 

It makes me feel grateful again for Christian education.  What a relief that Dave and I are not the only ones responsible for impressing God's commands on our children!  We get to sit with Delia's preschool teachers at a wedding and talk for hours about our faith, sharing God stories.  We get invited to chapel to watch Ella's class, just young first graders, lead the school in worship through song, scripture and drama about God's Guidance.  We get to hear the girls constantly singing the songs, like Ella's "Morning Prayer Song" or Delia's "The Lord is My Joy", that they're learning at school.  What a blessing both of the girls' schools have been to our family in encouraging and deepening our children's knowledge, love and passion for Jesus!     

A Girl and Her Dog

Of course, we all love Lily, but no one more than Delia.  They're truly best buddies!

Another Amazing Anna Movie!

Don't you love it when the people in your family have a gift, talent or trade that benefits you in some way?  My sister, who's a nurse, can answer my random medical questions.  My father-in-law, who's a printer, was awesome at getting our invitations and programs made during our wedding planning.  Even my brother-in-law, who does fire and flood restoration, lent a huge hand in getting my mom's old house cleaned up and ready to sell.  And then there's our church family, who's constantly blessing us with their carpentry, plumbing, accounting, photography and farming skills! 

But, I bet you never really wished you had a movie-maker in your family until you started seeing what my cousin Anna does for us after each visit.  Time with Anna and Heather is gift enough, but when Anna takes the hours of clips she captures of our fun times together and creates one of these fantastic movies, I literally beam and cry with happiness when I get to view it a month later.  Hope you enjoy it too!

(Click here to see last year's move from Anna...)

St. Patrick's Day

When you come from a city that is so into a particular holiday, it dyes its river green, the spirit of St. Patrick's Day kinda rubs off on you.  Though we don't do the whole drinking or corned beef and cabbage thing, we are into any excuse to try new milkshake recipes, wear fun clothes, celebrate rainbows and sneaky leprechauns and learn about a pretty cool missionary.  So that was what we did this St. Patrick's Day, which was fun to have on a Saturday since it give me a whole day of at-home activities to plan!  (Plan, or steal from Pinterest, same difference...)

We did treat ourselves to the real thing on Monday's day off and that served well to compare how this homemade Shamrock Shake recipe stood up to the real thing (anything to help the cause of research!).  It was really really close!  And we even made ours with frozen yogurt and skim milk, so it was actually good for us! (Right? :)

I also put together this little treasure hunt  using rainbow colored shamrock clues.  The girls loved searching around the house for clues hidden by items of matching color and were able to replay it over and over throughout the day.  A pot (small jar) of gold (gold wrapped butter toffee candies) waited for them at the end.

When Ella told me about the havoc a sneaky leprechaun wreaked on her classroom yesterday (chairs turned over, papers strewn about, a note on the board), we had the idea to make little leprechaun traps to prevent the same thing from happening to their bedroom.  You know these girls, Ella especially, an invitation to unload glitter, cans and boxes, popsicle sticks and other random supplies from the craft closet was met with enthusiasm!

We spent a little time reminding ourselves about a boy named Maywin Socket, who grew up to be a persistent missionary named St. Patrick, teaching others about the Trinity.  And then we ended the day's celebration of the Irish with a grand Italian feast at the youth group's spaghetti supper fundraiser!   

Now THAT'S a Good Day Off:

Donuts * kids' painting project * petting zoo * picnic lunch * holding baby chicks at the feed store * wooden park * Shamrock Shakes * car wash * yard work * bike rides * early bedtime! :)

(Thanks for the super cool tandem bike, Auntie Heather.  Soooo much fun for the whole family!)

Little Cabin in the (Snowless) Woods

Though Dave continues to hold his annual Winter Retreat for the youth group, insane blizzard weather has kept us from visiting "Daddy's Cabin" the past two years.  We were excited that the roads were finally safe enough for us to make the trip up to higher elevations to enjoy a day with him and the youth group.

And yes, it was nice to have such completely clear roads, but the lack of snow accumulation was actually a tad disappointing.  I've written about our dry winter and I know you are all experiencing your own mild version of this season, but this was crazy!  If you remember, here are what the woods behind the cabin normally look like.  The girls haven't played in real snow in over a year, though, so they were still quick to get on their booties and slide down this tiny, icy slope (screaming and with their hands in air, of course).

Then we just hiked around the woods a bit, loving that fresh pine air and finding the biggest pine cones we could.  All the while, dodging the snow balls Delia would fire off at point blank range!

Dave was actually out hiking with the youth group when we first arrived, so we had a few hours to explore on our own.  We drove just a bit to try and find some real snow.  On the way, we saw this snow measuring stick along the side of the road.  I asked everyone about it and no one has ever seen it before.  We think this means it's always been covered by snow that's fallen and been plowed!  Again, pretty different this year. 

We found a great clump of fields connected to one another with snow that went up to the girls' knees in places.  They squealed when they got stuck in it, made some snow angels, attempted a snow man and, of course, nailed me with some more snow balls.  You know, the typical stuff for kids who see snow once every other year!

Back at the cabin, we met up with the youth group and spent the afternoon laying around in the sunshine that was pouring through the wall of windows in the cabin's great room.  Lunch, laughter, games and movies were some of the activities.  Highlights were the girls learning to play fuse ball and helping Mr. Phil build his annual snow sculpture.  Though the snow supply was limited, he still put together a pretty impressive snow bridge on the deck's railing.

When the drive that normally takes about an hour took six last year and when the whole youth group had to pitch in for several more hours just to unearth cars and push them out of the cabin's twisty, steep driveway, Dave was more than happy to have a snowless Winter Retreat this time.  Here's hoping we can find some sort of snow happy medium next year!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Or, more accurately, when friends who you've just shared a play date with give you lemons (and give you more than you know what to do with)...make lemonade! 

On Friday we enjoyed getting to know some new friends when twin girls from Ella's class invited her, Delia and I over for a few hours after school.  When the twins' dad started pruning his fruit trees, the 4 little girls got right in on the action, helping collect hundreds of lemons and creating a pretend lemonade-making business.  So, Ella begged us to try the real thing this Saturday with the bulging bag of lemons they sent us home with.

First, our business started with production.  There is the hard work of squeezing the juice out of all the lemons.  Good thing this is such a fun job!  The mere drops of juice each lemon half yields sure makes it a time-consuming one!

Then we turned our cup and a half of fresh squeezed juice into a delicious jug of lemonade.  Those of us on quality control (Delia) thought this recipe was a pretty good one.  While making the lemonade, I kept thinking of something funny I recently read: "Unless life also gives you water and sugar, your lemonade is going to suck." 

The marketing end of the business (Ella) got busy making signs.  I was shocked how effective this was.  We actually sold lemonade to people who were just passing by! I figured all our sales would be from calling people and begging them to come.  Pastor Bruce, Mrs. P. and a friend working at church were kind enough to patronize the stand also.

We went for some product appeal when we set up the stand.  Ella thought it was important to bring the yellow chair, wear a yellow shirt and use yellow cups and paper.

We also took our stand to a more high-traffic area on the church lawn, which really worked to sell all of...8 glasses!  Yep, that's a whole two bucks we made today! 

This business endeavor was gallons of fun and actually kind of successful.  Everyone has to attempt a lemonade stand once in their life, right?  We had a great experience turning our lemons into lemonade this weekend!

Abloom

To our family and friends:

Whether you're in need of a new screen saver or you're simply in need of the sight of blue skies and sunshine, enjoy this year's batch of Almond Blossom pictures. 

 

With our annual blossom pics, I think it's fun to note some new pronounciation this year. Delia is finally starting to pronounce the sound of "L" and no longer calls them "bwooms", meanwhile Ella, without even realizing it, has dropped the "L" and switched to calling them "aaamond blossoms", thus making her the first true California member of our family! I still refuse to give in. :)