We took up a new hobby this weekend! Have you heard of geocaching? It's a world-wide treasure-hunt that uses GPS and lots of participants. You get coordinates off of a site and use your GPS to get close to the cache. Then the real hunt begins. We searched for four local caches yesterday and found two of them. There is a log book which you sign in every cache. Many times, there is a small collection of trinkets. You take one out and put in a new one. You can save all the things you collect, or trade them back into another cache. Within ten miles of us, there are 409 caches registered with the site we are using. It's a family-friendly free hobby!
My husband and I tease each other about our various OCD tendencies. He has more than I do, really! I tell him that his OCD is showing when he's being bothered by something.
What's on your OCD spectrum? What's mildly important, but important nonetheless? What HAS to be done just right or it's just GOT to be done over?
I have been making cat food lately. Someone asked me how I do it, so here is a quick tutorial.
First, roast a chicken or two. Pick off the meat and save the bones. Use the meat for a meal. Make chicken broth with the chicken carcass. I have full instructions how to do this here. When the broth is strained you are left with a strainer filled with this:
Now put all that, plus extra meat, cooked rice, appropriate leftovers, etc if you wish, and put it in your blender with some liquid. You can use broth, water or milk. Blend it all into paste and serve as wet food.
Store extra in the refrigerator for up to two weeks! My cats love it, and it's so much better for them than store bought 'food'.
If you don't care for potty talk, skip this entry!
The Background: My three year old son, Troubles, is lactose intolerant. He gets diarrhea badly when he drinks pasteurized milk or eats regular ice cream. We buy him raw milk and special ice cream. He calls store-bought milk and ice cream "diarrhea milk and diarrhea ice cream" since that what he gets.
Last night we allowed the children to have ice cream, forgetting that he was out. We said that he could try some of the regular ice cream if he wanted and he happily ran into the kitchen bellowing "I GET DIARRHEA!! I GET DIARRHEA!!!!
I like this meme...so I'm going to do it and tag a few other folks to do it, too! What I was doing 10 yrs ago:May of 1998...EmBlem was 2.3 yo, GirlofGod was just 10 months old. I was newly pregnant with Trixie, not even having any symptoms. I wouldn't discover her presence for another three months. She was a sneaky little thing :)
My Honey and I had just become foster parents, and were adjusting to having twin four year old boys, who were born and raised in a garbage dump. They lived in a school bus there. They were birthmoms 12th and 13th children, and my first exposure to RAD. It was a hard month! Five things on my to do list for today:Grocery shopping, a stop at the bank, finish up school for the week, have the children clean the chinchilla habitats, continue The Great Clothes Swap.
Things I would do if I were a billionaire:Build a building for my little church, adopt a few children from Liberia, or Haiti, or wherever the Lord directed, move to the mountains and surround myself with forest. Three of my bad habits:letting the yard get way too long before tending it, starting projects and not finishing them, not getting my kitties fixed (that one is for you, Grandmaofmany!) Five places I have lived:a beautiful island in Washington State; a lovely, but rainy town very near both the ocean and the forest in Oregon; suburban Sacramento, and currently, a rapidly growing, small town feeling, hotter-than-hot half the year town near enough to the forest to keep me from going too crazy in the summer. Five jobs I have had: (from most current back...) sign language interpreter, classroom aide for mentally and physically disabled people of all ages, waitress, dishwasher, babysitter.
I was blessed to be able to watch my friends children. Each of her children has a best friend among my children. A day spent together is a good thing. My girls had a baby to carry around and play with all day, and friends to imagine with.
And we all finished school, as well! What could be better than that?
My son is nearly three. One day, as we were getting out of the van to go to the bookstore, he announced, "I'm the Boogeyman!" I asked him what he meant.
"I had a big boogey in my nose." he replied.
"Where did it go?" I asked after checking his nose and finding it clean.
"I put it on Brother's yellow shirt....very gently." he said with a smile.
Do you enjoy moving the furniture around to get a fresh, new feel to your room? I do. Yesterday the Lambies and I moved things around in the living room. When he came home, my Honey helped, too.
We discovered that there is but one way our furniture will fit in our room.
My neighbor called at about 8:45 this evening with an offer I couldn't refuse. She had some leftover dry ice and was willing to give it to us. I have never shown the Lambies any, so I happily accepted. That led to an unexpected experiment at bedtime. My eldest thought to grab and pour some of the fog (the pouring shot was blurry, though).
We will learn about dry ice tomorrow during school time. I needed to get them to bed, since I am planning on painting tomorrow and need to get taping! I got much less done today than I had hoped!
I haven't posted many pictures of the Lambies lately...I'll remedy that this week, Grandmaofmany. I'll begin by recounting my encounter with a Spartan. This evening, I was doing laundry, and not paying attention to the battlecries coming from the hall. Until, that is, a Spartan came running into the room, yelling "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" at the top of his lungs, jumped into the air, and came down in a crouch, stabbing the floor mightily with his sword. I made the Spartan pose for a few shots before releasing him again.
I have been enjoying Jeff and Katie Bettendorf's new forum, The Conservative Life. I thought I'd share the link to this great list of children's chore ideas and at what age the chores are suggested for.
We recently celebrated the birth of our eldest! She has turned an amazing TWELVE years old and is such a joy! In a blink she has gone from babe to young lady. I'm so blessed to have had twelve years with my darling EmBlem.
Daddy loves playing with baby faces!
She has always been motivated to do unusual feats.
She loves new experiences and the outdoors, even if she looks like the little brother on "A Christmas Story".
She has always loved animals, and I know this is Grandmaofmany's favorite picture! We still have this cat!
She has a smile that melts your heart.
She loves to cook, whether for real or with the EZ Bake.
I was enjoying my evening read of CheeseSlave and she shared the link to Raisin's story. It's a tale that is worth telling and sharing. I enjoyed CheeseSlaves list of things each of us can do to help the situation. Pick one and do it until it becomes a habit, then pick another!
In other news, we have been very busy in the backyard! We weeded a very weedy area and covered the ground in plastic. I also cleared around the pool and covered it. I need to buy a little more plastic to finish the job, but it's almost ready for the rock! Why not add a lovely little groundcover instead of rock, you ask? Here's why...
We bought a lovely trellis and a jasmine plant to train up it. They should be planted Sunday afternoon. When the rock is all down, I'll plant some daylilies and wallflower bushes. Anyone have any more ideas of good sun-hardy no-work plants?
I planted an herb garden in a strawberry pot. It's very cute, and I hope it grows well for us! I have nine heads of romaine lettuce growing and providing us with yummy leaves for our smoothies. I have also planted some bush beans that mature in 58 days. I hope they can bear before it gets too hot!
My Honey and I went on a date today (thanks for watching the Lambies, M!). We had a wonderful and fun time. I have the bruise to prove it!
I saw this clip at this blog, and was intrigued. The children were excited to try, too, and almost all have mastered it. What a fun way to spend an hour!
I was tagged by CheeseSlave for the "7 things about me" tag. Here are the rules of the game:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog
2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Here are my 7 things:
1. I am double jointed, and have passed my strange abilities onto most of my children. I can bend some of my fingers back completely and touch the back of my hand. I can take my shoulders out of socket at will {and put them back in...that's a helpful skill!). When I was young and flexible, I could put my legs behind my head and walk on my knees.
I was a CHAMPION at Mercy in grade school!
2. I love to collect books. I have many antique books including a book in Latin from 1743, centuries old Bibles (one with a lock of hair from a baby that had passed away), old school books, like a McGuffey's Speller from 1846, a Noah Webster spelling book from 1857 and former Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield's school books, with a letter from the Senate confirming they are his. One of the books I have is actually now reprinted as a Lamplighter book! It's "Amy and Her Brothers" from 1864.
3. My husband built me an entire room for my library. The antique books don't fit in there. It's filled with children's books.
4. I have had many kinds of unusual pets. As a child I had red-legged tarantulas. I brought them to school and made a presentation in each grade level. I was in third grade and was very intimidated to be in the sixth grade classrooms. Everyone gasped when I held one of the spiders.
In addition to cats, dogs,and fish, I've also had snakes, turtles, bearded dragons, mice, ferrets, anoles, rabbits, a pygmy goat and ducks. We currently have a hermit crab (3 others have passed), and three chinchillas. We are expecting kits in the next week or so, we think!
5. When I met my husband, I was 15 and he had just turned 16. When we later spoke of having children, I told him that I wanted 22. We compromised at ten. We have ten now, eight here with us and two waiting in Heaven. I wish I had stuck it out for 22, or at least 12.
6. I enjoy shooting and asked for a Glock 27 for Christmas. I got it with the tax-return! I'm going to use it for the first time tomorrow!
7. I love lush flower gardens and beautiful yards, but have one of the blackest thumbs ever. I always seem to begin gardening projects and fail miserably. I am working on my backyard again right now. It's looking as pretty as it has for a couple of years.
I have done the backyard twice now, and we have added to the house twice and destroyed it. I foresee no new construction this time. When I am done, I'll post pictures.
I believe that all good things come to an end, so I am not tagging 7 more people. Only motherofblessings will receive this tag from me.
My lovely little twins turned an amazing SIX years old recently! I am late doing a photo tribute, but late is better than never! I still can't get my scanner to work, so older pictures are pictures of pictures, and a bit blurry.
Here's our family in Aug 2003. We are at the zoo. Every time we go I take a picture in front of the flamingos. Missy and Jack are 18 months old.
Here are Polly and Missy. Polly is six months older than Missy.
Here's Missy at age 20 months, exploring a piece of grass. She still only crawled at this age.
Here's Jack with his ever-loving Daddy.
And Missy and Momma in the Sequoia National Forest at the Indian Bathtubs in Balch Park.
And currently, six years old and growing like weeds! Please excuse the background, as we had the telescope out for viewing the lunar eclipse, and I didn't think about their hair blending in so well! Happy Birthday, my Dears! I'm so glad that Jesus allowed you to come to be with our family!! We love you!!
I'm the blessed wife of My Honey of 12+ years, and Momma to eight wonderful Lambies aged 12 and under. We live in Central CA, and use Ambleside Online for our curriculum. I'd love to meet you , so browse a while and feel free to leave a comment!
My eldest thought to grab and pour some of the fog (the pouring shot was blurry, though).
Daddy loves playing with baby faces!
She has always been motivated to do unusual feats.
She loves new experiences and the outdoors, even if she looks like the little brother on "A Christmas Story".
She has always loved animals, and I know this is Grandmaofmany's favorite picture! We still have this cat!
She has a smile that melts your heart.
She loves to cook, whether for real or with the EZ Bake.
She's my beautiful young lady.
Happy Birthday, my Dears! I'm so glad that Jesus allowed you to come to be with our family!! We love you!!