Warm Fuzzies

Something about this picture gives me warms the cockles of my heart.  Maybe because of the excitement that ensued when I placed this on the table of the younger girls' room.  Maybe because it has been an image that has been swimming around the left side of my brain for many months and is finally put together in all its simplistic glory.  Just as fabulous as I had imagined it.  The dish came from goodwill and was quite ugly in its raw form.  I had a little spray painting party the other night and gave it a new life.  The robin eggs and the acorns came from Casey's Wood (along with many other treats that I am sure you will see sooner or later on here) and were greeted by Elise, running for her chipmunk while squawking about the chipmunk's food.  I am not sure what the future has to hold for the robin eggs.  Will they become lunch in the girls' kitchen?  Will they be for the fairies to play with? (I was kind of hinting in that direction when I placed the fairy in there with them!)  We'll see where those creative minds take them.  Ah, the joys of creative play.

 

Kudos to Casey's Wood!  I finally called about my missing order the other day and it was sent to our town home, now MIA.  I tried tracking it down, but the transient nature of the town home didn't help much.  They immediately sent the package again and three days later our little bundle of joy arrived.  Thank you, Casey's Wood!  And thank you, blogger, for not letting me de-underline my post.  Ugh!

Adventures in bread making

As excited as I was when I came across sodium free bread in the frozen food aisle, I have still wanted to "conquer" my beast and learn how to make sodium free bread.  That wonderful visiting teacher of mine makes the meanest bread around without oil and with the salt being optional. (Although, quite honestly, I feel like the sodium free bread is awfully bland without honey, jam or something of the like)  Being the incredibly awesome visiting teacher that she is, when she made an appointment to come see me this month, she asked if I wanted her to teach me how to make bread.  Why, yes, I would love that!  She reads minds, too. 

We had a lovely afternoon with Carol teaching me the art of breadmaking.  The secret?  Proofing the yeast.  Every time I try to make bread, I never know if we will end up with a yummy loaf of goodness or a rock.  Proofing the yeast will prevent this unknown result factor as you know before adding the flour if your yeast is alive and kicking.  For those of you out there who are like me and not so experienced in the bread arts, proofing involves mixing the lukewarm water, yeast and sugar together and letting them sit for about 15 minutes to see if they get all foamy.  no foam=killed yeast.  If you don't want a rock, you don't want to be a yeast murderer.  Thou shall not kill thy yeast.  The other secrets she shared with me was the nice touch of putting corn meal under the loaf.  She said it was to make sure it doesn't stick, but I think it is to strut your fancy cooking skills.  And the last, most important thing (next to thou shall not kill thy yeast) is to make the slits in the top of the loaf with a knife to make it look nice and professional.  

Can I just say that the smell of homemade bread is intoxicating?  If you add to that fresh homemade bread a little bit of, oh, some lavender infused honey, everything else could go wrong and you would still be okay dokay.  (Thanks, Dad, for letting me steal the lavender infused honey that I gave you.  You know, since you hated it and all!) 

Side note #1: Does anyone know if babies can have honey if it is cooked? Like in bread?

Side note #2: After being instructed by my sister to take pictures of my bread for her, Autumn automatically started telling me how to pose the bread for the right "effect".  She is going to have quite the photography skills!

Edited with Recipe: 2 TBSP yeast

2 TBSP sugar

2 cups lukewarm water

You start by mixing the above ingredients with a whisk.  We then put them in the oven (at 100 degrees.  We just turned the oven on to 350 for a minute and then turned it off.) for 15 minutes with a towel over it.  When we took it out, it was nice and foamy, indicating that the yeast was alive and well.  Then we added in 6 cups of flour, 2 cups at a time.  We would mix in the 2 cups and then add in 2 more.  By the last 2 cups, you are kneading the bread instead of mixing.  You knead away for about 5 minutes and place it back in the bowl.  Cover it with a towel and put it back in your 100 degree oven (you might need to turn it on to 350 for a minute again) and let it rise for about 15 minutes.  It should double in size.  Now you take your cookie sheet and sprinkle cornmeal where you are going to put your loaf.  Cut the bread in half and begin shaping the loafs.  This includes some kneading, some "compressing" the bread of sorts to get out air bubbles and some shaping it into beautiful little loafs.  When you are happy with your shape, you put it on the cornmeal, cut those ever so important slits in the top and cook at 375 for 40 minutes.  (30 was enough in our oven)  

You can play with the flour, doing half white flour and half whole wheat.  You can also replace the sugar for honey for some extra healthy yumminess.

Hats for Haiti (just slightly tardy)

I am the queen of planning, but not always the queen of carrying out those plans.  This is why an executive decision was made to cancel school today for a service project. (one that we have been planning on doing for quite a while!)  We took all of our old shirts and turned them into cute little baby hats for premature babies in Haiti.  39 hats later, we are out of shirts. If any of you have some t-shirts laying around, we would love to transform them.  They can have holes or stains, as we cut the pattern out around those.    This was a great project for kids of all ages that can be kept busy with cutting, trimming thread, knotting the hats, etc. (Except 2 year olds, who tend to take cutting t-shirts as an invite to cut up their own, non-stained t-shirts.  Just warning you.  We caught Elise before she cut up her cute panda shirt, but you might not be so lucky!)

Lessons learned instead of the typical school: 1. To serve others (most important) 2. Where Haiti is and a little bit more about it 3. How to cut out a pattern 4. How to operate Mom's serger 5. How to recycle something that looks like it is destine for the trash into something very sweet and adorable 6. Service projects are fun! 7. Sometimes, school isn't all that important

After explaining to the girls that although Haiti is pretty hot, they still need these knit hats for the premature babies to keep their body temperature up.  I continued to tell them that this increases their chance for survival.  This is when Autumn started counting.  Every hat that she cut out came with the announcement that she had now saved ___ babies.  Next are baby quilts made out of (cute) old sheets.  Sounds trashy, but I swear that they are stinking cute.  We only do cute.  Pinky promise.

A new week.

Sigh.  Today Chris and I spoke in church.  In itself, this is not a bad thing.  For those of you who aren't familiar with LDSness, when you are asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting, it is normally for about 15 minutes, you are assigned a topic and then you are off.  It is quite normal to be asked to speak when you are new in a ward because they would like to get to know you better and it is quite a spiritual experience because of the growth that you experience normally while preparing your talk.  

Besides the fact that I am, in general, a very shy person who would prefer to sit behind my blog and type, talks are a blessing.  I get so stinking nervous, talking in front of all of those people.  Once I get past the knocking knees and sweaty palms, I am always glad that I didn't continue to dodge the Bishop in fear of the inevitable. :)  Today, Chris and I spoke about the things that we learned from the past 5 months.  It was a great time for reflection about the things that we took away from this trial and the things that we SHOULD have taken away from this trial.  The great things that came from this are that A. Our kids got to hear about some things that we had neglected to tell them about (I think just from us being really busy or really bad parents?) B. I feel like we know our ward a little better now and C. We ended up getting hooked up with the man that we ran into in the parking lot a few months ago.  Dinner this Sunday at our place. 

With all of the good things said, I am still glad that it is over.  I just stress a little too much about public speaking to not be glad that it is over. 

Side note:  See my new profile picture?  Thank you, Rachel!  Yes, my sweet little baby (who is growing up WAY to fast for me) took my picture in the middle of the chaos of bed time.  It doesn't look like kids were running around in the pre bedtime festivities, does it?  My budding photographer, Rachie Roo.  Can I call her that when she turns 11?

Healthy Mommas Unite

It is that time again.  You know, the whole "I can't use the postpartum excuse anymore because my baby is almost a year old" time.  It is time to start reducing the size of my empty baby house.  Because I am one who truly gets pleasure from checking off any box on my to -do list (and I even add things that I have already accomplished just for the free check off!), I had to make myself a healthy momma checklist.  In addition to having to have a checklist, if it is really going to inspire me, it better be cute.  AND because it is so stinking cute (and despite the fact that Chris looked at it and said "What is this for?  What do those lips mean?  A moment on the?"), I am going to share it with you.   Because it is late, I am still a little sick and to top it off,  my computer technician is sleeping, I can't figure out how to post these so they actually make a good print.  (how is that for a run on sentence?) If you would like a copy, let me know in the comment section and I will e-mail you the version of your choice.  I have the weight watcher's version, the spiritual version (complete with a check box for reading your scriptures and saying your prayers) and the plain jane version.  Maybe if I can feed Chris enough sushi tomorrow, he will help me upload these files successfully.   Let's cross our fingers. 

 Technical Notes: I printed mine with 4 on each side of paper and plan on cutting it in half and making a quick little book out of it. (As in, fold in half with a cover and staple)  The other option would be to cut them in rectangles and glue them into a spiral bound index card book.  Whatever the style, the concept is still there.  Hey!  Being the realist that I am, I even included a confession part to write the things that you ate when you fell off of the wagon.  Realist or pessimist?  In the fiber section, I am going to tally all of my fiber. (likewise if you use the points version for those of you doing weight watchers.)  The nike shoe is next to the check box for exercise and I think the rest is fairly self explanatory.  Enjoy!

Sick....Whiny....Tired....

Sorry, guys.  I don't even have the brain power to blog.  I just want to be able to breath again so I can sleep.  Or not be nursing so I can drink up some NyQuil.  Do you know how long it has been since I could take NyQuil?  I am either nursing or pregnant.  

I will say this much: I am very upset at the people at the inauguration yesterday that boo-ed Bush.  Shame on them for lacking some major class.  I will disagree with any president of any party when necessary, but I will not disrespect the office of the president.  Very disappointed.  (And for those of you not here, I am making my very disappointed motherly look that I have become very good at for instances just like this...although I don't think my kids, who happen to be 10 and under, would be that disrespectful.  And I have made it clear to them that they can treat someone with respect even when they disagree with them.)  And now I will sniff myself through the night, making my big pile of tissues even bigger.  

Shaking up the bedtime routine

Bedtime has been a little bit interesting as of late at the Kang house.  Elise, Hannah and Chloe share a room and appropriate to the ratios of age and naughtiness, Elise and Hannah sure do give us a run for our money at times.  Yes, they are normally asleep by 9.  Maybe 9:30 at the latest.  But this comes at a great cost to our electricity bill. :)  Elise loves playing with the lights.  Off and on.  Off and on.  Flicker, flicker.  Jumping from bed to bed.  Giggling .  Jumping.  Keeping Chloe awake.  (Not Hannah.  Hannah is playing with her.)  

Today Chloe mentioned to Miss Jill (our angel of a piano teacher) that she was tired because all of that light flickering had kept her awake.  I must say that I start to giggle everytime I imagine my neighbors watching our house from 8:30-9.  Flicker, flicker.  Silhouettes of little girls jumping from bed to bed.  Peering out of their window.  If they have ever caught it, I would think it would provide quite the entertainment.  I have always just let it work its way through until they are sleeping because I am normally nursing away, but tonight we shook things up a little.  

I gave the girls their "back pack rides" to bed.  We tucked them in and said goodnight.  I turned off the light and shut the door, BUT I did not leave before I shut the door.  I stood in the darkness while I waited for the little hooligans to start their mischief.  It was a long wait.  (I am going to guesstimate 10 seconds?)  Hannah hops out of bed to open her blinds as Elise starts jumping.  From the dark corner, I simply say "Go to bed, Hannah."  You should have seen her jump!  It was absolutely hilarious and it almost ruined the whole plan because I was laughing hysterically.  And there I stood, waiting.  I put Elise back to bed about 6 times and listened to her whisper over and over, "Get out of my room, mommy."  Pretty soon, the two older ones were fast asleep and Elise was close enough to dream land that her shenanigans did not tempt her anymore.  I figure I will do this for the next week or so, but I doubt it will be quite as fun as tonight.  It is always nice for kids to think their moms have eyes on the back of their heads.  I am reminded of the father in Meet the Parents, reminding Gaylord Focker that he was being watched.  That's me.  The ex-CIA mom, waiting in dark bedrooms, spying on her 2 and 5 year old.  Yep, that's me.

My green little market bag

Over the past year, I have been trying to use my reusable bags more and the little plastic "triangle bags" less.  I must confess that I haven't been overly successful because I tend to either be out shopping and realize they are at home or I get to the check out line and realize they are in the car.  And when you are out shopping with your six kids in tow, going out to the car is not even an option.  The most successful thing that I have done in my effort to just be a little bit more conscience of my waste is just not using a bag.  Normally, I can get away without a bag at all if I am purchasing things that aren't super itty bitty.  

This all brings me to my market bag that I am in the process of knitting.  I haven't gotten too far simply because I don't get a whole lot of knitting time, but I am working on it.  It is a simple pattern with a square base that I came across on ravelry and I am knitting it with cotton yarn.  I plan on working up to a cuter base at some point, but I figured I would start simple.  My rose colored plan is to wander blissfully through the Forest Grove farmer's market with my girls (who are behaving perfectly), with my market bag on my shoulder.  I can see it perfectly, yet I do realize, from 11 years of expecting only the unexpected, that it probably won't end up quite the way I imagine.  Yet I knit away in hopes that, maybe, one summer day will find us blissfully wandering.  Please?  And I owe you a rain check for the picture.  Blogger is being super slow (although I am sure Chris will tell me that it isn't blogger at all that is being slow) and I want to knit instead of waiting on them.

By the way....can you guys tell by my writing style when I am blogging and nursing at the same time?  I think my brain doesn't operate quite right when I am typing with one hand, versus two.  That and I am always shortening my sentences since typing with one hand is quite a bit more effort.  Chris, I feel your pain.  

Slaving away on dinner

When Elise saw this picture, she got so excited!  "Daddy squishy!  Mommy squishy, too?" (As she squished my face.  Normally when she squeezes your cheeks, she says "I find Nemo!", not understanding the irony of her statement.)


Today was a day full of slaving away in the kitchen, planning and carrying out the perfect gourmet dinner for our family and some friends.  Okay, so there wasn't any slaving away, but there was enjoying dinner with friends. (dinner that they brought over, I might add!)  An old friend of Chris' from work wanted to bring over pizza and let the kids all play together, but our little dinner has been delayed between our last minute trip to Las Vegas and being snowed in for the Christmas holidays.  Finally, no emergencies or acts of God prevented our get together tonight and it was so much fun!   I still feel a little wrong about having someone come to my house and have them bring me dinner instead of the other way around, but I must admit that it was pretty nice.  I am so grateful for good friends.  They are such a blessing to us to be surrounded by such a great support system of family and friends.  What would we do without all of you?

I included some pictures of my sweet husband because he NEVER lets me take pictures of him.  He only let his guard down this time because I was playing with my camera.  So I basically tricked him into thinking they would all be deleted at a later date. (which they will.  At a much later date.)  I look at Chris and am so overwhelmed with respect for how he has handled life the last few months.  I am not sure that I would be up to the task and that I would have shown the determination that he has through it all.  Sometimes we will "reminesce" through the hospital stay and talk about the events simply because it is still a little foggy to him.  Everytime we  start talking about all of the different things that took place during those very crazy 3 weeks, I find myself very overwhelmed.  It kind of amazes me that we made it through something that, even now, seems so distant.  I find myself just thinking again about how grateful I am that we felt so bouyed up by all of the prayers that were being said in our behalf because I remember not feeling nearly as stressed out as I should have.  I am thankful for that peace that we felt and the ability that we were given to carry on and adapt to this trial as it came at us.  I am so grateful for this man who has risen to the occasion and has definitely made quite a few gallons of lemonade out of his lemons.  (And to top that all off, he kicked me out of the house today and cleaned the house with the kids!)  

All the yumminess of a smoothie with all of the goodness of a salad

A few weeks ago, I ran across this smoothie (if you can call it that) idea on Paige's blog.  Imagine a salad, in a blender....but good.  

The first time I tried it out, Chris had asked what was for lunch.  I happily pulled out the blender and I am sure he was thinking of one of my famous smoothies.  Then I skipped over to the fridge and pulled out the spinach.   I think the rest was a blur to him because he was a little concerned at idea of spinach in a blender.  When I brought him my new concoction, he simply replied "Fine.  I won't ask for food anymore."  All of the kids tried it and everyone yucked to no end. (except Elise, who quickly returned for 2nds) 

Fast forward to the next day.  I made the green goddess again, but only enough for me, of course.  Why would I make it for kids who hated it?  One by one, each girly came in asking for some, to which I replied, "I didn't make any for you because you thought it was gross!"  Each girly replied with what I had secretly suspected. "It wasn't that bad, I guess."  

Now they are all open about their green smoothie loving and we make it just about every day.  We are going through the costco bag of spinach in no time and I figure we are definitely getting our greens in for the day.  We added blueberries for the first time yesterday, but it turned it from green goddess to mud.  Good mud, but still mud in color.  This is definitely a recipe for those who don't judge a book by its cover, eh?

Green Goddess

1 ladle full of unsweetened pineapple/pineapple juice

1 yogurt container (I like vanilla or any berry)

1 banana

2 very full handfuls of spinach, if not more

Blend away and slurp it up for an easy way to get all of those servings of veggies in.

Operation Organization begins tonight

Today I received a much anticipated little package from Amazon that held the secret to my new, more organized life.  I ordered Project: Organization in an attempt to get control over the somewhat crazy house that I am supposed to be domestic engineer over.   I really had no experience when I started this job, but I think it is time now for some serious training.  Right now?  I am working on our room, which in the aftermath of Chris' stroke never truly got unpacked.  Whenever there wasn't a designated home for something we unpacked, I think it just got sent up to our bedroom or my soon to be craft room.  For all of you organized, fly lady sort of people, this is very new to me.  I am hoping I will come out on top and conquer this once and for all.  And so the war begins.  

Toothfairy Update:  After threatening Chloe with a trip to the dentist to pull out her tooth (that was now behind her front tooth and just getting gross), she let me tie a string to it and give it a yank.  Chloe has always been a little bit of a wimp since she takes after her mama, so after holding a paper towel in her bloody mouth about 10 minutes, we discovered that there were TWO teeth missing from her mouth.  We still have no idea what happen to the 1st tooth's neighbor, but it apparently wanted to fall out too?  I only pulled out one tooth, I swear.  I had to go look back at Christmas pictures to be 100% sure that she hadn't already lost the missing tooth, which she swore she had.  A toy from Target and an extended bedtime later, Chloe no longer has her crazy tooth situation.  Something just isn't very cute about 2 teeth in one spot. Yuck.  (especially when one is hanging down below the other. Double yuck.)  I will try to get a picture of my toothless cutie tomorrow for all to see.  (Try being the operative word.)

Organization Update: Sitting room and most of bedroom done.  Laundry tackled.  Chris now has clean socks. Lots of clean, nicely matched socks.  I think I need to  sleep now so my six little sweeties don't undo everything while I sleep tomorrow morning.  (Ok, probably just two of those six sweeties will do the majority of the undoing.)

Bibliophiles unite

Yes, I am a bibliophile.  I love my books and I think that I have successfully passed that love of books (or obsession?) onto my daughters.  (Although, when we moved, I realized that it is a lot harder for bibliophiles to pack.)  I know that an appreciation of good books was always encouraged while I was growing up (but don't ask me why they didn't burn my SVH books that I read for all of my middle school years) and my parents are still doing their part to pass that on to their grandchildren.  

Every Christmas, my parents give each of the grand kids a gift card to Barnes and Noble.  I think this tradition stems from my dad's many hours spent exploring the shelves of this store.  This is quite the treat for the girls because, although we own a lot of books, they rarely get to go into a bookstore and choose whatever they dang well please.  In preparation for the much anticipated trip to spend their gift cards (which normally lasts at least two hours), I talked to the girls about choosing books that could be a treasure in their library.  Not just a paperback that they would read once and finish in 30 minutes.  A classic?  I book that was part of a series that they enjoy?  Preferably a hardback? (I am a little bit of a hardback snob.  If they make it in hardback and I know I like the book, hardback it is.)  And NO toys this year.  I figure if Grandma and Grandpa wanted us to get toys, they would get us Target gift cards, right?  

      

After much deliberating in the children's section, the girls made their decisions.  Hannah needed a mini story time to decide which book she would choose.  Chloe, my especially indecisive child, just didn't know where to start.  Elise wanted....a Thomas train. (I actually would have let her get it, but she did get distracted by some lovely books)  I thought I would share their choices, as I was pretty impressed with their choices.  Rachel got the most recent installment of the Leven Thumps books.  (which I don't really get but I think they are the closest thing she can get to Harry Potter, so she goes for it)  It is a hardback and a series she likes, so kudos for Rachie!  Autumn got a book about fairies.  Good: Hardback  Bad: Disney fairies instead of the more whimsical and less commercialized Cecily Mary Barker fairies that are all over her room.   Still, she loves it and spends hours pouring over it, so all is great.  Chloe got Strawberry Girl, which is a classic and a hardback so "Yeah!" for Chloe. Hannah ended up with Fairy Foals, which for a horse lover that has a great imagination, is perfect.  The real fun comes with Elise and Lilly because....I get a little more say.  Elise actually ended up choosing a playful picture book, The Little Blue Truck, instead of a Thomas book that she liked.  I was a little shocked, but the book she chose is a quick read with great pictures and a nice ring to it.  Lilly chose (yes, she did!  I swear I had nothing to do with her decisions. wink, wink) a Richard Scarry book that I grew up reading (and have already read over and over to the girls.) and Skippy Jon Jones. We discovered Skippy Jon Jones during piano lessons, trying not to laugh out loud as we read it for the first time.  It is hilarious and is not for the faint of heart. Warning, though: You have to be ready with your fake Spanish accent to pull this one off.  

These are all books that will be much loved as they grace our bookshelves. (and our floor.  and our couch.)  Every year I struggle with just letting them redeem their gift cards online to save money, but there is something rather priceless in perusing a bookstore.  You normally come out with something completely different that you came in for and it is kind of like trying on a dress before you buy it.  I've never been able to get into buying my clothes online for this very reason and I guess I haven't totally accepted always shopping online for my books yet. Amazon does  have its place, but I hope bookstores are always around.

The Keeper of Bees

"There always had been lips that should have spoken up and told the Creator how wonderful was the mystery of the earth and the majesty of the sea and the beneficence of the sunshine and the healing hours of moonlit darkness. "

"...when he thought Life, he thought merely of that one thing he might possibly do and what it might possibly be that would give him some justification, when he faced his Maker, for the spending of his latter days."

Too busy reading to blog.  Here is a sampling of Miss Gene Stratton Porter, wonderful authoress of my all time favorite book, Laddie and of my current read, The Keeper of Bees.  

Girl Scout Cookie Time.....

Well, tomorrow marks the start of girl scout cookie season.  I have to admit, I am not incredibly enthused about it, but the girls are dragging my along for the ride. (kicking and screaming, I might add)  So here is my contribution to cookie season.  If any of you are wanting to buy cookies from someone (in the Portland area), let us know and we will hook you up.  We have three very enthusiastic girls that are ready to sell cookies to anyone and everyone. (After 9 am tomorrow, of course)  My favorite?  Samoas, hands down.  The big problem?  Chris and Autumn (dang those braces) can't touch them and I....shouldn't.   Here is our e-mail if anyone is hunkering for some yummy girl scout cookie goodness. mylittlewomenandme@verizon.net

I love my visiting teacher!

In our church, there is a system in place that assigns all of the women a visiting teacher who is supposed to come once a month to visit and basically be there when you need someone.  (spiritually, physically, etc...)  Having said that....I have the best visiting teacher ever and I am not sure why because it isn't like I deserve one.  I am not so good at getting to see all of my chickies once a month, but I do try.  Really.  And anybody that I have visit taught in the past that is reading this should get comfort in knowing that I feel much guilt over being a bad visiting teacher.  Major guilt.  

Ok.  Back to why I love my visiting teacher.  

A.  Her husband and her came over as soon as they heard about Chris in church and offered to bring over a very delicious meal.  

B.  They randomly stop in to see if we are okay and it is normally when we really need it. 

C.  Her husband introduced us to Forest Grove's Gingko tree. Not super useful, but cool.  

D. She came to visit and said "Why don't I do your dishes while we talk?"  Wow!  Do people really say that?  She could have told me that I won a million bucks and I don't think I would have been as excited.  

E. They sat with us in church to help with the girls while I ran out to take care of Lilly  

F.  They have a great big dog that they let the girls ride (however briefly) 

G.  Her husband just stopped by and took our very dead tree out and is burning it right now. (at his place, not mine)  

H.  They brought over fresh baked sodium free bread on top of it all  

I. She is a mother of a ton of kids (7? Oh, I guess that is only one more than me.  Scary.) and she homeschooled most of them. 

 J. They came and snow plowed our street so we could get to church.  

Down to earth and fabulous.  Now I just need her to teach me how to make her bread so delicious.      I was at the sink tonight thinking about how I needed to get my tree out when the door bell rang.  Yep.  My visiting teacher's husband and sons, sent at her behest.  

Remember that quote by Spencer W. Kimball about how God answers our prayers through other people?  So many prayers answered by one family.  Thank you, Heavenly Father.  Thank you, Matiako family.  

The drama unfolds....

I know that you are all going to be very disappointed, but you missed out on "quite the drama" tonight at the Kang residence.  I will set the stage first.  Chris has returned to work this week, working full days all week so far.  We've been packing his little low sodium/ low cholesterol lunch and trying to make sure that there was a nice low sodium/low cholesterol dinner awaiting his return home.  All has been well until last night and since last night was Tuesday, all was really only well for one night.  Ugh.  I've really tried.  Really.  Which leads me to the drama.  Last night, Chris comes home to a dead car battery (Thank you, dear sweet Hannah, for loving to turn your light on in the back!) and his dinner that I had set aside on a nice little plate on the counter had been all eaten up.  (minus ONE ravioli....gee, thanks, girls.)  I had a nice talk with the girls about how eating his dinner was very inconsiderate, especially since he is at work all day providing for our family and extra super duper especially since they knew it was his dinner.  Fast forward to tonight.  I had to feed the kids before they left for church, so we had to eat dinner without Chris again.  The girls ate a gigantic dinner and all I can figure is that they worked up a major appetite running around Out of This World.  I set aside a nice plate for Chris and made it very clear that nobody should touch it.  Very clear.   Nurse Lilly.  Read a book.  Come back to the kitchen and voila!  His plate had a tiny bit of hash browns left.  (breakfast for dinner)  I got to put my very frustrated detective hat on to figure out which very inconsiderate children had done this very thoughtless thing.   I felt like I was an interrogation officer.  Should have called my dad for some tips.  Instead it was the same old threatening an early bedtime for everyone if the dirty rotten scoundrels didn't confess.  Is it just me or is that incredibly wrong?  It isn't like they didn't get a big dinner.  And here is Chris, at work all day, very limited on what he can eat and I have a dinner for him that is sodium free, potassium chalked, with all of the food groups in correct proportion....and they eat it?  Sigh....just when I thought my girls were practically perfect in every way.  

Funny part of the whole thing?  Hannah asked me how I knew who did it. (I guess she missed the confession)  She said, while patting Chloe's tummy "Is it because she looks pregnant?  And Rachel's tummy is flat, flat, flat?  You knew she ate it all, huh Mommy? "  Thank you for making us laugh, Hannah.  And Hannah really was a very pleasant child for the rest of the night.  I think it was because she really enjoyed not being the kid in trouble.  Shaking things up at the Kang House.   I should have taken a picture of the girls in a line up for tonight.  Next time, okay?

Tooth Fairy Update:  Hannah lost her 2nd tooth last night!  The tooth fairy, like always, was a little late.  Luckily, she (or maybe her tooth fairy assistant) came by the time Hannah went to recheck her pillow.  Chloe, on the other hand, still has hers hanging, waiting for a gust of wind to blow it out.  

In with the new and out with the old

Happy Late New Years to all! We have been enjoying a mellow New Year's with family, just hanging around enjoying our loved ones. As the New Year came, I started reflecting over the past year, which I feel has been a whirling mess of craziness mixed in with wonderfulness. (How is that for a description?) I feel like, considering how many things have happened this last year, we have come out ahead of it all. We have not only survived, but I feel like we are in a better place than we were a year ago. And, of course, as soon as I start thinking about our survival of the past year, I start thinking about all of the many people that made that possible. All of our wonderful friends and family out there that played such a large part in keeping me sane and helping us get through pretty tough times. We have been so blessed by our Heavenly Father throughout all of this, doing everything possible to help us keep our heads above water during the thick of it and sending us many people that have blessed us with kindness. There is a quote by Spencer W. Kimball that I love and that I feel completely applies to our last year. "God does notice us, and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs." That quote IS the past year. Thank you, all of you wonderful people out there and may I return the favor in 2009.

Camera hospitalization update: Camera Works rocks. They fixed up my camera like new (a loose screw on the main board? Sounds like my problem in life.) for a mere $45. I love you, Camera Works. Now can you ship my camera to me so I can still take family pictures for everyone? Please?)