Big Kid Storytime

As usual, my sister Alison is way better about putting thorough posts on her blog than I am.  Jack went with her (and his two cousins, Caiden and Rebecca) to the big kids' storytime at the library.  Visit my sister's blog for the news and cute pics!  :)

Chickens!

I'm getting quite excited at the prospect of keeping a few chickens in our yard.  Our lot is big enough to allow us a few and between Jack's love of finding eggs and Evie's love of anything bird-related, I'm sure they will be a welcome teaching and growing-up aid too.

I have no interest in starting a flock when the weather is still cold and wet, though (unless I happen upon some free chickens or another noteworthy enticement to get going right away)!  So I'll be waiting until spring to get the actual birds.  That way I can get through my learning curve while the weather is pleasant, and then be ready for next winter when it rolls around.  For now I'm reading up on chicken books from the library and eying the yard to decide on the best place for a coop!

alphabet!

Jack and I have been working on a big project: tracing all the letters of the alphabet! Here's the culmination of our efforts:

summer projects

Living in Oregon gives one a fine appreciation for summer weather. The days have been hovering around 80 degrees, usually with clear skies and a gentle, cooling breeze. Perfect for just about any summer activity one could imagine.

There are so many things to do, from picking berries, to playing in the river at a park nearby, to taking beach trips, to having playdates with our friends who will be back at work when school rolls around again... and special summer activities like the county fair this week!

We've been having a very busy time of it, and I'm still turning down activities here and there. "Stressed" is not the right word, but sometimes the kids just have enough of activities and it's time to stay at home and mellow out.

Or, you know, the "mellow out" that you can do with two little ones, which is usually pretty busy in its own right. ;) At home one of our big activities is the garden, which is going gangbusters. This leads me to my first picture:


That's fifteen cups of basil right there! I picked it yesterday from my four basil plants. Today I used 2 cups of olive oil, 2 1/2 of Parmesan, 1 1/2 of walnuts and pine nuts, and all that beautiful basil to make an enormous batch of pesto. The end tally was 5 1/2 cups! That went into the freezer tonight as Alex fed dinner to the kids. Pesto is one of my food passions, and I'm so glad we'll have plenty for the winter. The basil plants are growing so well that I'll be able to make another big batch in just a few weeks.

The garden is also ramping up production on the veggies. (At last, more than just lettuce and herbs!) Here's Jack showing off one of the carrots. He's been waiting and waiting to pull one out of the ground! We kept digging one up just a tiny bit and seeing that it still wasn't ready. He finally got to gobble this one up without any more prep than just washing the dirt off.


We also have peppers and all our tomatoes finally showing signs of ripening, along with a few eggplants that are SLOWLY getting bigger. Add our few cucumbers to that mix and we're in business! We also have chard, lettuce, winter squash, more carrots (a later planting), summer squash, zucchini.... In about two weeks I'll be complaining that we have more produce than we can eat, I'm sure. ;)

We also have projects going indoors. Jack is being a wonderful helper these days. There are a lot of projects related to the fact that the people who lived here before us were... not of the same mindset as I am.

Painting is one big thing. Scrubbing is the other. If/when we ever move again, I'm hiring professional cleaners before we take occupancy! Today I finally got back to my project of scrubbing the kitchen floor. I don't think the previous tenants ever mopped -- literally. I've been hand-scrubbing one tile at a time to actually find the floor under all the grunge.

Well, I scrubbed for a while and then took a quick break. What do you know, Jack scampered over, grabbed my sponge and cloth and took up right where I left off! He did a wonderful job, getting 20 squares clean before he was distracted by Daddy returning from work.

The best was what he told me as he scrubbed: "Mommy, I making your day! I making your day! By scrubbing the floor!!!!" Boy, does he know when he has figured out a good way to help me. :)

As if that weren't enough, there is one more project we worked on today. It's nearly time to plant the winter garden, which means I am in need of more garden space. Jack and I tag-teamed this one. (I mentioned he's been a great helper recently, right?) I dug up big clods of the dense clay, and Jack beat the stuffing out of them with his hoe. His mission was to break them up small enough that we could blend in some of our homemade compost.

Here's the completed hole, with loosened clay down to 12 inches deep. We ultimately had to call it quits for bedtime, so tomorrow we'll be mixing in the compost, filling up the hole, and planting a little more lettuce and lots more chard.

Why all the chard, you may ask? Well, Evie LOVES chard cooked up with a little onion and garlic, so we have to keep her well-supplied! She can literally eat an adult portion in a day, and I'm more than happy to indulge her.


You may also notice a few cars parked by the side of the hole. Jack got tired after a while of swinging the hoe (the whole thing so far has taken at least two hours) so he drove his cars over the bumpy, dirty landscape while I finished digging. I can really appreciate that he wants to spend time with me. He was right there by my side until I dragged him in for his bath and bedtime!

By the time the end of the day rolls around, I spend a little time loading up the dishwasher, tidying toys out of the kitchen or putting away laundry that we've folded earlier. I keep a notebook handy so that as it occurs to me, I can write down what's happening tomorrow.

I try not to forget anything too important -- like the fact that I told Jack we'll make blueberry muffins together tomorrow. Or that Evie needs more diapers. Or that I haven't talked to my sister Amy in a few weeks now.

And I trust that whatever I am forgetting, I am forgetting it in favor of something worthwhile like spending time planting seeds one by one with Jack, or blowing raspberries on Evie's belly, or having a quiet moment with Alex after we get the kids to bed.

In closing (since I can't say "in short" after such a post...) it's a busy, busy life right now. But that's part of the flavor of summer, and part of the joy of it is that I know winter will come again. It will bring the rain and the slower pace, and we will all take a deep breath for a few months until it all ramps up again in the spring.

Yes, I'll admit it. Part of the glory of gorgeous, hot crazy summer days is that they make me think of how I can't wait for the winter season.

BUT there is just so darn much good stuff to do right now, and I'm thankful for the sunshine and the long days, and the many friends and family who are accompanying us on our wild ride. And now -- good heavens! -- it's almost midnight and I have to get to bed! I know a very happy baby who will be up with the sun, waking me with her latest words: "Hi maaaaaama!"

It really is a beautiful life. :)

Corned Beef

This St. Patrick's Day, I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe to make corned beef at home. It essentially consists of rubbing a brisket with some herbs and spices, and a LOT of salt.

Seriously, I think it was a half-cup of salt alone....

Note my lovely assistant, and the monstrous pile of fat I had to trim from the backside of the brisket. The tricksy butcher hid it on the underside! Next time I know to ask him to trim the fat before packaging it up.

I bought this gorgeous piece of brisket and couldn't wait to try out the recipe. After five days of brining in the fridge, it was ready. I boiled it up with some cabbage and carrots. It smelled so good!

We dug in, and -- yuck! Too much salt. WAY too much salt. I had rinsed the meat thoroughly before adding it to the pot, but I guess that wasn't enough. Next time I think I'll cut it down by half, and maybe give the meat a preliminary boil, then swap the water out for fresh stuff before adding any veggies.

Conclusion: Better luck next year!

Back with a bang?

I don't know what possessed me to think I could do daily blog posts when I had a new baby arriving. I will now attempt to return to a semi-normal blogging schedule!

19/365: Parade of Socks

I recently (this month) knitted my first sock. It went so well, I knitted another! And another, and another.... Socks have got to be the easiest, most rewarding knitting project I've found yet.

Here's the biggest one, made for me. The rest are toddler/baby socks and will get their own post with pictures all together as soon as I finish the second sock of the baby pair I'm working on right now!

14/365: Baby coming!

There is SO much left to do! I can't believe there are only eight more days until December. I wouldn't say I'm starting to panic or worry, but I've definitely noticed how much I want to get done before I have the baby! For now I'm going to bed. No matter how reasonable it seems at the time, staying up past 11:00 is never a good idea.

10/365: Help!!

I am way too disorganized right now to take and post pictures properly, but I finished Jack's first pair of hand-knitted socks! I have never felt so admired and awe-inspiring as when I showed him the final product. He definitely thinks I'm magical for having created socks from string, and wore them happily all day. I hope they last until Christmas, when he gets his next pair(s)!

7/365: NaNoWriMo

I'm halfway through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), in which I write 50,000 words during the month of November. They don't have to be good words, thankfully. Just 50,000 words which come together to form some kind of a novel. The motto is "quantity, not quality," which is really liberating.

Today I hit the 25,000 mark, which means I'm a whole day ahead of schedule! The story is surprisingly coherent, too. :) In addition to writing my own novel, I am the "Municipal Liason" for McMinnville. This basically means I'm the group coordinator, which can be a bigger job than you'd think, especially when 8 1/2 months pregnant! But so far so good. We've been holding regular meetings and the McMinnville group is averaging about 50,000 words per DAY!

Because I'm slightly ahead of the game, I took most of the night off from writing to work on knitting the second sock in a pair I'm making for Jack. He is soooo excited about them! But more on that tomorrow, when Alex can show me another way to get photos off the camera....

4/365: Slow Day

Some days we run all over the place, doing story time, projects, swimming, etc., etc., etc.

This was NOT one of those days. Jack didn't sleep well last night so we had a quiet day of groceries and a few other errands, and spent the afternoon napping and then playing with blocks. Jack built this awesome street of houses, all by himself!


That about covers it for the Bowling household today. We're going to continue doing not-much-of-anything until bedtime!

365

A few nights ago, it was almost time for Jack to go to bed. Of course, he didn't want to, and he chose a very sweet way to express that. He climbed up onto the couch with me and snuggled at my side, insisting we read a stream of books, tickle, snuggle, and so on.

Jack and I ended up being very silly and playing while Alex was a good Daddy and made bedtime happen despite our best efforts. (And without tears, I might add!)

After Jack was finally asleep, I realized again how totally sweet he is, and how much I love spending time with him. And that I'm not going to have much more time where it's just the two of us playing all day!

In other (obvious) news, I've had trouble updating the blog regularly, and I have probably lost my mind, but I think the answer to this problem, and a way to appreciate and share my time with Jack even with a new baby coming to add mayhem and distraction, might be to commit to a project where I post something every day for a year. Crazy, right? But it just might work!

So, that's the plan. 1 post per day, preferably with photos, every day for 365 days. When the baby arrives, she'll be tucked into the project too. :) And yes, I will admit I'm stealing inspiration for this from my friend Chris's blog, www.oregonnaturalfoods.com!

knitting season

The knitting store on 3rd Street had a sale recently so I grabbed a bundle of nice, soft yarns. I usually get non-wool yarns but I'm trying some merino wool. Chris says it's different enough from normal wool (which makes me itchy) that it will probably be fine.

First project is a hat for Jack; then a hat and bootie socks for the baby, and a new hat for Alex.

I'm really liking the hat for Jack so far. I'm doing a loop stitch, which is very simple but knits up nicely. I got the stitch directions from some magical books of Chris's that have photos of each pattern so you can really tell what they look like. I'd love to post pictures and will as soon as our camera's new memory stick arrives!

baking cookies, testing Flickr

Jack and I recently made a batch of cookies to send to Nonnie. Since Alex showed me what a great tool Flickr was with the Japanese Garden photos, I thought I'd try my hand at using it. Here goes nothing....

Click here for the photos!

bedroom for Jack

Jack's big present this year was his very own bedroom. When we originally got this apartment, the second bedroom was going to be an office for Alex. However, Alex found a really exciting office job and didn't need to work from home anymore. We decided it would be perfect to reduce the office down a lot, put it in a corner of our (huge) living room, and make the office into a bedroom for Jack.

Lucky for Jack, he was right in on all the action as I built a bookshelf and bed for him. The bed was much more of an involved process, so I didn't get any pictures of him helping with that, but this is a series of him helping to build the bookshelf. This really showcases his observation and mimicry skills, since he was watching me use the tools and then copying what I did very closely and carefully.

Here he is coming along after me, tightening screws.

So excited to be helping!

Tightening more screws -- aka screwdriver-ing the holes where the shelf support pegs would end up.

You have to make sure the tip of the screwdriver is in there nice and tight so it doesn't fall out while you are working!

There was also this other tool, a kind of curvy allen wrench, that was for tightening up certain bolts. He thought that was also very exciting.

Here it is at work:

When it was done we loaded it up with toys. This looks a bit odd, but is Jack backing up to sit on the pumpkin. (He loves sitting on balls and round things.)

Choosing a toy from his inventory:

And settling in for some serious play time. :)

stockings!

I made us some Christmas stockings this year. Jack helped to pick out the colors and I have been working on them off and on for weeks during his nap times and stuff. Now they are finally done, and just in time for Christmas Eve!

paper top hat

We are getting a little bit into paper-and-tape crafts these days. One of the things we made was an awesome top hat!

NaNoWriMo

The race is on! Every November for four years now, I have signed up to write a 50,000 word novel by November 30th at midnight. It is an exhilarating, crazy, madcap dash to the finish line with over 150,000 other writers. We kicked off at midnight and I'm 1,192 words in. Wish me luck! (And send me motivational goodies!)

harvest production!

Here's my latest creation: ketchup! The big jar is some strawberry jam that I made with Chris back in June. But there you have it, seven cups of ketchup! I'm very excited to now be preserving non-jam items. :) Next stop, spaghetti sauce!

working the fields

Jack and I got to go pick some yummy peppers and tomatoes with Chris and Daphne. We went to Bernard's Farm, which is pretty darn close.

Daphne was showing Jack how it's done: Hold the bucket and toss the food in! Here's Jack trying the "toss the food" part. (I don't think he really got that peppers were food. He would much rather sit and eat cherry tomatoes from a few rows over.)

With a little more coaching, he picked one right off the plant!

....along with about half the bush. :)

He did much better when it came to tomato time. He knew what that was about, since we already went tomato picking once. He did a lovely job of picking yummy red tomatoes and putting them into the bucket. I was really quite impressed -- not even a year old and he knows which tomatoes are the good ones! It goes to show that kids are frequently a lot more capable than we give them credit for.

He had to stop and see whether they were as yummy as they looked. (They were!)

With Jack's help, we picked 12 lbs of tomatoes. (And that's not mentioning the MOUNTAINS of tomatoes that Chris and Daphne picked!) We are going to cook and can some ketchup! Chris is really being my wilderness guide with all this preserving and canning of a non-jelly variety. It's very interesting! I think maybe I'll try some spaghetti sauce next. :)