mopping feet

I'm not good at lists or chore charts, but what does seem to work for us is writing a whole bunch of chores that need to be done on a sheet of paper and letting the kids sign off on them on Saturday morning. When everything is signed off or initialed, the work is done and they can spend the rest of the day doing activities of their choosing. The favorite chore is "mopping feet." And it actually works and the floor gets really clean! Music is a must.

fun with gourds

After pumpkin carving, we started on a project that kept us up way too late. We were all, myself included, having so much fun making these gourd people...or gourd monsters if your name is Rollin.

We had so many gourds this year that I thought it might be fun for Rollin to bring these rather than candy to his preschool Halloween party to share with his friends. It's been a fun activity for him to continue working on in the mornings before school.


Introducing the gourd family...new members added daily!


Rollin and I made this guy.

Would it surprise you to know that this is Nina's gourd? Notice the pearl earrings, bracelets, purse and skirt.


One of Rollin's not-so-scary monster gourds.

Sela's baby gourd with purse

hidden talents

I keep hearing bits and pieces from Sela about arm wrestling at school and finally my interest was piqued enough to probe a little bit. She brought it up during dinner as we were discussing the day's events. When Sela mentioned how she beats everyone in her class at arm wrestling, Zig and I were like, "huh, what?? You arm wrestle in class?" She said she even beats the boys. And there are some big boys in there. We were both thoroughly confused but then Sela asked me to arm wrestle her so she could show me her skills. I couldn't believe it, I honestly struggled to beat her. It took us about 15 seconds. This fact horrified Zig! He kept asking if I was really trying and I said "Yes, honey, Sela is very strong!" I think he was seeing Depends diapers on the horizon or something. Apparently they arm wrestle during PE and she said no, the boys aren't mad when they get beat by a girl. We kept saying, "really, are you sure? they don't mind?" I kind of think of arm wrestling as a macho man thing. She said they actually keep coming back for more. We didn't quite understand that and can't even really picture Sela as an arm wrestling champ, but oh well. Sela has certainly discovered some hidden and very unexpected talents at school!!



I'm laughing in these pictures because Zig is cheering me on and mocking me at the same time.

falling for fall (some days are better than others)

Fall is in full swing. We've had some absolutely gorgeous days, but I still haven't fully moved on from summer. Usually I embrace fall with open arms, but I'm feeling strangely ambivalent about it this year. Maybe it's just today. It's rainy and cold and I'd like some sun real bad. I'm planning a month long escape to the most southern state in the U.S. in February. Tickets are booked. Zig says it's cold in California too this week so we're all feeling the pain. I shouldn't blog when I sound like such a whiner, so I will change my tune now. One thing I love about fall is the food! And we have been enjoying some serious fall comfort food. We've had lots of cider and even some homemade cider doughnuts which were heavenly. Butternut squash soup and my favorite Bastyr recipe (well, second behind Portobello Reubens) Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas. Ooh I love those! Chilis and stews and lots of pumpkin muffins. And we're just gearing up. It's supposed to be a cold winter and we're all hoping for tons of snow. I love getting socked in during the holidays! Snow sure beats rain.

We carved our pumpkins for family night on Monday. Thank goodness for the greenhouse and easy cleanup. The kids really got into carving this year, especially Rollin. I love the moment when you turn the lights off and light up the pumpkins. It's so magical. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make some owl cupcakes  I saw on this blog. I knew the kids would flip and they did! They love owls. And you can't mess these up. We made them with Jo'Jo's and those Sunspire candies so it goes without saying they were YUMMY!


fall flowers

Butternut Squash Soup with Cider Cream (thank you Lisa Sharp!)




Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Owl Cupcakes

pumpkin carving in the greenhouse




gosh I love that smile!

fun posing in the dark

Nina's freckle face


And the first round of pumpkin carving is complete. It was a school night so we had to stop at 1 each, but we have lots more to go.

why moms don't nap

Friday morning I played tennis and when I came home at noon, our sitter asked if Rollin could go play at her house for the afternoon. They live on a Christmas tree farm and I knew Rollin would enjoy playing over there, so off they went. Once they left I toyed with either running some errands or taking a nap. I was just dragging because Zig and I have been burning the midnight oil lately working on some stuff. Anyway, I went for the nap. I know, shocking that I chose a nap over taking Evan, the shrieker, grocery shopping :)

Unfortunately, Evan had his nice long nap while I was playing tennis so we went to he and Rollin's room and I just closed the door hoping he'd be content to play for 20 minutes. I got the blocks down and a few other toys and laid down on the bed. Evan was, not surprisingly, totally uninterested in the toys, but very interested in mauling me. Climbing on me, sitting on my head and trying to pry open my eyelids made my attempted nap quite the event for him. Finally he became focused on something on the floor and I started to drift off. Then I was jarred back to reality with a big thunk followed by screaming and tears. I think he got on the bed and fell off and hit the train table somehow. Just from the sound of the impact followed by the hurt cry I knew there would either be a huge bump or blood.

There was blood. There are only three pieces of furniture in the boys' room. A train table, a crib and a bed. No lamps, dressers, sharp edges, etc. This is for a reason. I picked Evan up and blood was coming out of his mouth, and lots of it. I could tell he cut his lip inside so I began nursing him which usually helps the bleeding stop. I couldn't tell how bad his cut was because his mouth was full of blood, however, when he stopped nursing and spit out a part of his lip, I became squeamish. And concerned. And mildly freaked out. I am horrible with this kind of stuff. Heaven forbid something really serious ever happens. We moved our party to the bathtub which I knew would calm him down and fortunately the bleeding quickly slowed down. I saw the gash inside his front lip and felt relief that it didn't need stitches and was already coming together. But it was big. Now he is sporting an Angelina Jolie lip, at least half of one. A not so subtle reminder of what a stellar mom I am.




I guess I get why people say "nap when the baby naps" rather than "nap when you have a crazy monkey on the loose." I'm thinking those playpens of yesteryear aren't such a bad idea. And I still need a nap.

pumpkin harvest

We won't need to visit the local pumpkin patch this year. Our pumpkins must have liked the odd weather we had this summer. Zig went to town on his pumpkin planting this year, thank goodness. I LOVE pumpkins. And I got my Cinderella pumpkins with the warts all over. I think those are my favorite. Here is a sampling of the pumpkins from the patch in the very front of our yard.

A perfect little seat for Evan.

roasted pepper and tomato soup

Just before we left for Hawaii, I had tons of tomatoes and not a lot of time to do anything with them so I made a roasted vegetable soup. So quick and so tasty. After tossing the veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasting, I just added broth, herbs and pureed. I also strained the soup at the end because it was quicker than taking the seeds out ahead of time. I added a bit of cream, but not much.