Dairy Godmother

Fun Times at the Hoffman Haus

2012-02-10T23:36:00.000-05:00

Just a little peek into this past week...

Home made buns, mmmmmmmmm! We had egg salad sandwiches on these babies. Goodness gracious were they good. I made the mistake of reading the label on the fresh baked buns I bought last time from the bakery. I thought they would be decent since they were fresh baked. Nope, lots of stuff I couldn't identify, yuck. So I whipped up these bad boys. If you have a kitchenaid or food processor with a dough blade, you an whip up this dough in about 10 minutes with only water, honey, yeast, flour and salt.

BTW, Scaredy Squirrel books are HOT, HOT, HOT in our house right now!

I forgot to post our Punxatawney Phil cookies we had on Groundhog's day. This year I used my friend Reva's sugar cookie recipe and sandwiched them with some chocolate buttercream "shadows".

A cure for cabin fever-- the oatmeal box. My hoover hates me for it. Vlad loves it.

Speaking of keeping Vlad busy, let me introduce you to his mice. They are named Red Red, Blue Blue, Pink Pink...you get the picture. He has been playing with these for days! They were really easy to whip up, and a few are actually ninjas.

Wolf is loving being an Uncle. Luckily, Olivia is a sweetheart and a tough little cookie!

The weather here has been insanely warm for February in Cleveland. So, we hit the beach!

Swoon.

Well, let's see if snow hits this weekend. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would like to go sledding. Plus, my bulbs are starting to sprout already! We will see what Mother Nature has in store!

A Slice of Life in the Hoffman School for Wayward Boys...

2012-02-03T23:09:00.000-05:00

O.J. experiment--We squeezed oranges and gathered quantitative and qualitative data, comparing and contrasting with O.J. from concentrate.

A dino dig! I picked up these paleontology kits for a buck each from some clearance rack somewhere a long time ago. We finally "dug them up"

Naked paleontology? No! Just all that chiseling worked up a sweat!

The reward of all that digging? Incredible growing dino! Just add water! and wait... for like 2 days...for it to increase by at least 2% in size!

Vlad made a bowling alley, with a ball return!

Aunt Robyn and Dad instruct in checkers and chess.

Dad leaves a message to 2 anally retentive youngsters.

The youths angrily respond with their own statement.

The very warm weather brings tons of wildlife to the campus.

The new 2012 motto for the kitchen

A mustache magically appears!

Wolf decides to color my old Peanuts collection. It looks so nice!

The school mascots are thriving! Vermicomposting is fun!

Ninjago, of course! Legos have become omnipresent!

The year of the Dragon!

2012-01-27T19:43:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of celebrating this week here at the Hoffman School for Wayward Boys. Chinese New Year is here and it is the year of the dragon! We made our own Chinese meal on Monday with bean curd, egg drop soup and longevity noodles. The next night we had a great takeout meal from our local Chinese restaurant.
We made our own chinese lanterns to make things more festive. Then our wonderful neighbor stopped by and shared a book with us. Miss Ann brought Lao Lao of Dragon Mountain by Margaret Bateson-Hill. This was a wonderful Chinese folk tale about it a woman that has tremendous skills in making beautiful papercut treasures for all of her fellow villagers. Not only are they beautiful, but they are a great surprise, because it is not until you unfold them that you are able to appreciate what they are. The book is written in English and Chinese. It includes some information on how Chinese writing is different from English writing. It includes some templates and instructions for making your own papercuts. It seems impossible that you will be able to create them, but some are not very hard, like the snowflakes, which we did. The results are wonderful! I highly recommend this book and I am glad that our neighbor was kind enough to share this story.

Our Snowflakes!

Miss Ann, herself an accomplished artist,also sent us some links for making our own Chinese dragon. Here are a few:
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/dragon-puppet-973044/

http://familyfun.go.com/chinese-new-year/chinese-new-year-crafts/festive-ribbon-dragon-671681/

and the one that we used:
http://www.show.me.uk/site/news/STO971.html

The results were beautiful and it was a lot of fun!

Does Vlad ever look normal in an action shot?

Veggie dogs, now with video!

2012-01-19T15:44:00.000-05:00

A long way back I came up with a recipe for making your own vegetarian hot dogs. I finally got around to making a crude video for it. So, I am reposting my original recipe with a link to the video. Enjoy! Or at least compliment yourself on your far cleaner, more organized kitchen! By the way, my son was helping me cook, so he was wearing a bib as an apron. I swear, he doesn't still wear a bib! He wants me to stress this point :)

After several batches, I came up with a recipe for veggie hot dogs that suits my family's palate. The nice thing about this recipe is it is for a basic hot dog. It will accommodate many tastes as is, but could be reworked by adding favorite spices, such as red pepper flakes to become a specialty dog. There really aren't many recipes out there. I first tried the recipe on this site, thrifty living, which was really good, but too tofu-ish and soft for my taste. I also looked at vegan Dad's recipe, but did not try it. I combined this with my experience working with seitan and finally came up with this recipe after several tries. Here goes!

Veggie (Vegan) Hot Dogs

1/2 of a 15.5 oz. can of chickpeas (about 3/4 cup or so)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2/3 cup water

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup finely diced onion

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 cup + 3 Tbsp Vital Wheat Gluten

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1. Combine in blender all ingredients EXCEPT Vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast. Liquefy!!!!

2. Combine this with the vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast in a bowl by hand or in a mixer with a bread hook. If doing by hand, knead until it no longer sticks to the bowl and is well combined.

3. Dump out and pat into pizza shape. Cut into 8 equal slices, like cutting a pizza.

4. Roll each slice into a hot dog shape and place each on their own piece of foil, close like a candy wrapper.

If you like a very smooth lovely shape, first wrap with a small piece of parchment paper and then foil.

5. Place in a steamer with seams facing down and steam for 45 minutes.

6. You can now eat them or you can chill or freeze for later, dropping the unwrapped defrosted wieners (love that word ;p ) into boiling water for 2 minutes. They can also be pan fried if you want that sort of thing. I imagine these would be nice on the grill, but it is winter, so I'll wait to try that out.

7. Enjoy!!!!!!

Junk mail to super sweetness in no time flat!

2012-01-13T19:46:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite Holiday traditions occurs after the decorations come down. That's when I go through all the Christmas cards I received for the year and upcycle them into next year's gift tags. I love doing this because it is so nice to go through the cards one last time, I love beautiful tags and upcycling just feels good.

This leads me to my latest junk mail craft. For some time now I have been saving my junk mail that had security envelopes enclosed with it. Today I had to make one of those phone calls where you know you will be on hold for an eternity while waiting for a customer service tech. I decided to break out my stash of security envelopes and my tools from upcycling the Christmas cards. It helped to pass the time and make that "on hold" muzak tolerable!

I love these punches! When I had really good coupons, I would use them to pick one up. The kids can use them and we can punch all kinds of things with them.

I punched out lots of tag shapes, but also some flowers and circles which will make pretty decorations for greeting cards, kid's art, etc...

Who knew that security envelopes had such pretty patterns! I never noticed all the beautiful patterns used for these envelopes until I started collecting them. The mind reels at all the ways this paper could be reused! Please feel free to link any junk mail projects you have taken on, I can't wait to try some new ones now!

Knit along!

2012-01-13T19:05:00.002-05:00

I joined my first Knit along (KAL)! I love Luv in the mommyhood. First of all, it is written by someone named Shannon, which of course is my name. She is also a hairdresser, I am a barber. She loves to knit and sew, I love to knit and sew. She picks great projects, has a great weekly post of weekend wishes, and always has excellent pictures. I like nice pictures. Long story short, I recommend her blog highly.
Matt bought me some delicious yarn for Christmas. I just haven't been able to pick a pattern that seems good enough for it. So, I thought a hat KAL would push me to get going before winter is over! Plus, I have been moaning about never getting to join a knitting group because of my schedule conflicts and this will give me a little knitting company.

This is baby alpaca grande in the colorway dark cherry stripe (2691), purchased at River Colors Studio at the border of Lakewood and Rocky River.

I am torn between two patterns.

Capucine

Thorpe

So far I am leaning towards Capucine, but we shall see! Wish me good luck!

Twenty Twelve! Goals and our latest homeschool projects.

2012-01-12T12:21:00.000-05:00

The new year is officially upon us, I know, I know, we are halfway through January, but the year is still young. I really didn't feel like making any major resolutions this year, but I have spent the past few weeks reflecting and goal setting. I like to set small goals for myself. It challenges me and keeps me from getting in a rut. I don't care for winter, so it keeps my spirits up to look forward to things. Here are some of the things I am looking forward to in 2012:

Cooking Goals:
I finally conquered my fear of bread and yogurt making and now no longer rely on store bought. I make 4 loaves (at once), once a week and at least a gallon of yogurt a week and we are covered. Now what? I received a beautiful antique cast iron waffle iron. So, I need to get it cleaned up and ready for my old recipe from my youth (when I made waffles for the 10 people at home on the weekends, gotta get those waffle skills back!) I also received some springerle molds from my Mom a good while back (25 cents each at a church rummage sale! She is that darn good!) I need to try that out already. I think pierogis and homemade pasta and raviolis may be in order for this year too.

Look at these glorious molds! Why have I not made them yet?

Knitting/Sewing:
I finally met my sock goal and wrote my own pattern for a cowl, so I think it is time to try a bigger project like a sweater or something. Not sure yet. I would like to try knitting cable-knits too. Maybe some lace crochet.

The boys are enjoying their new hand-knit socks that were made with the yarn they selected. An unusual color, I think they released balloons after we left to celebrate finally selling that yarn!

Self-improvement:
I NEED to break this swearing habit which has reached f'ing big a$$ proportions! Nuff said. Less complaining is in order as well. I think the key word for the year should be "positive". Words, actions, attitude should reflect positiveness.

Homeschooling:
Staying the course, meaning not letting the day to day get in the way of my plans. I need to anticipate the week better. I want to add a new thing to our weeks, which is an animal project. I hope to focus on a different animal each week with a different type of project related to it. We have had 2 successes with this thus far. Our first week we went with an animal he loves and knows a ton about, the cuttlefish. We tried out google docs for making a power point presentation. This was fun. He learned how to fact check, organize his thoughts and dabbled with summarizing. Here is his report:

This week he focused on beavers. We were inspired by a new magazine, Click, that he received from Grandma Kathy for Christmas. They showed a diagram of a beaver's lodge which we recreated.

So far, I feel we are off to a good start with this. I hope to incorporate our new zoo passes into this project too.

This year should hold a lot of new and exciting challenges for me. Let me put a challenge out there to the people I love.... What was the last thing you tried for the very first time? If you can't remember, it has been too long! Try something new, a new recipe, different kind of book than you normally read, a puzzle, hobby, different type of exercise, unfamiliar cuisine, etc... As my Mom used to say, "Try it, you'll like it."

Yogurt!

2011-12-12T23:28:00.000-05:00

We started making our own yogurt a little while back. It is MY FAVORITE THING TO EAT ON THE PLANET (besides frosting)!

This is so easy to make, it is cheap and has nothing in it but milk! Seriously, this is it:

1. Heat milk up to 180 degrees.

2. Let it cool to 110 degrees.

3. mix in yogurt (from your last batch, or store-bought if this is your first time). I add about 1 1/2-2 cups if making a gallon. For a half gallon, of course, 1 cup would do fine.

4. Pour into clean jars, bowls, whatever.

5. Maintain at 110 degrees for 6-10 hrs. I place mine into my picnic cooler, add 2 closed mason jars of hot water beside them and place towels around those jars. Shut the cooler and go to sleep for the night. In the morning I put the yogurt in the fridge to chill.

You can strain the yogurt through a cheese cloth if you like greek-style yogurt. This stuff is great! For $2.50 I can have a gallon of yogurt without additives! You can add fruit, any sweetener you like or just eat it plain. But you may never want store-bought again!

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas

2011-12-12T23:11:00.000-05:00

I SWORE I wasn't going to decorate for Christmas except for our stockings and our little (2 foot) tree this year. "The kids don't care, no one joins in, I liked when I was little. We had everyone in on it, carols blaring, it was fun."

Then, the very next day, Wolf pushes away from the dinner table and announces, " What we need is some classic Christmas preparations. Chop, chop, let's get started." Next thing you know, I'm sucking on a candy cane, wearing a Santa costume and happily unwrapping the 17th nutcracker!

Olivia does NOT like Grandma Claus!

Our first gingerbread house! We cheated, we used graham crackers!

We all got into it, even Grandma Jo! The "battle scar" on Vladdie's cheek is his new thing. He markers fake battle damage onto various parts of his body pretty much daily now.

There is a tiny smooshed marshmallow snowman made by Vlad. He has blue facial features. Can you see him?

A gummi bear is fishing for shark (crackers) in his pond!

Vladdie Claus!

So, I never mentioned T-giving this year. We had a lovely day that was very intimate by our standards. Mum and Mark helped us to celebrate and we had a really nice visit with good conversation, and of course great food! We were very casual and enjoyed not caring if the house was clean. Plus, can you say "elastic waistband" ?

I decided to try my bread recipe in a different shape for a change. They were cute! Everyone really enjoyed the roasted butternut squash and cauliflower, another new addition to the usual recipes.

The boys had fun learning about the first Thanksgiving and made Native American headdresses. They really got into "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving" so next year we might have toast, jelly beans, popcorn and pretzels!

What's up, November? There's a new kid in town named December!

2011-11-30T23:33:00.000-05:00

Right now, I am...

:: living as slowly as I can. Trying not to get caught up in my usual holiday expectations or the shopping insanity that has consumed all manner of media.

:: feeling a little dread about winter coming. It will be fine once it arrives, but I still long for summer. Time to put the icescraper back in the car.

:: thinking about what it would be like to never have to work weekends again, especially since both Christmas And the New Year And their eves are on my workdays this year.

:: looking at the haircut I gave myself, snipping off a few more pieces here and there.

:: letting the boys play video games on a "token" system. They get a set amount of tokens for 15 minutes each token, daily. They choose how to spend them once the "arcade" has opened for business.

:: holding hands with my little sweeties at the playground today. Such a sweet time together.

:: wondering what the heck to get certain people for Christmas!

:: eating a throw together meal at the Grand-Hoffs. I love them! They start with a phone call to or from myself or Jo. "I have soup and a loaf of fresh baked bread, what do you have?" "Salad, squash and home made applesauce." Then into the car and off we go! These are fast becoming a fabulous tradition!

:: writing a knitting pattern that I can't get right. Knitting= patience!

:: listening to Christmas music! Crooners and swooners, Curious George's Christmas Monkey, Star Wars Christmas ("What do you get a Wookie for Christmas when he already owns a comb?", Charlie Brown's soundtrack. Loving it!

:: treasuring the way Olivia gives her dolly "rock-a-bye-babies" and kisses!!

:: savoring squash, roasted with olive oil and parmesan cheese. And must not forget the homemade yogurt---so good it knocks my socks off every morning!

:: preparing for cookie making time! I want to cut back from my usual cookie insanity, but I love them all!

:: knitting up some Christmas goodies, I hope!

:: moving my butt in some serious ninja/samurai/anime girl-like ways as my sons present me with a lovely eye patch and ask me to channel the spirit of yagu jubei (sp?), the greatest swordsman in Japan.

:: wishing I had a little more energy :)

Happy Holidays from Frostville Museum

2011-11-12T22:20:00.000-05:00

Can I just say that we are blessed with so many great museums here, both big and small. Not to mention wonderful local historical societies. We were able to use the Lakewood Historical Society's Nicholson House for our daughter's wedding and my Mom-in-love and Aunt's retirement party.

But, today we attended the Frostville Museum's Holiday celebration. We toured 5 of the homes and the church today and got there early before it was crowded. The volunteers for the Olmsted Historical Society are wonderful. They dress the part and know their stuff. I love sharing local history with my kids. It is personal and accessible and priceless. Today's event was free and included cookies and coffee! I love seeing the ladies proudly sharing their bakery, willing to give Matt a recipe for one cookie that was just a little too good. More on that recipe when he makes me some!

Here's a few pictures of the day...

The boys learn about Father Christmas, as compared to Santa.

The boys were asked to hang a decoration on the tree

Wolfie was actually allowed to wind the Victrola this year!

Wolf takes in the fire with a volunteer. See his popcorn? He admired another volunteer's popcorn, so the Gentleman shared it with him!

Cookies!!!!!!!

Olivia will just eat the stroller, thanks.

face painting. Vladdie surprised the young lady when he requested a "Christmas tornado". She obliged.

wolf got a penguin that danced when he puffed up his cheek!

Checking out the local high school class of 1951

Tornado completed!

The finishing touch to the penguin. Vlad approves.

Such a wonderful day, so happy to have shared it with so many people I love!

I FINISHED THE SOCKS!!!!!!!!

2011-11-12T20:35:00.000-05:00

Look at that fine leg with an almost as lovely sock adorning it.

Yes, I am shouting it from the mountaintops! I finally finished knitting my first pair of socks! These are for Matt, which means they are huge and took longer than little socks, but that is no excuse for how long they took--7 months!!!!!! I learned so much making these, each time I ripped them out and started over. I can not give a higher recommendation to the author of the book I used, which was so much easier for me to follow than other patterns I tried. God bless you Ann Budd!

I beasted these socks, in a slow, drawn out over many months sort of beastly way.

Matt so loves to receive socks .

And So It Begins Again...

2011-11-11T15:34:00.000-05:00

Winter, it is coming. Today, we had some snow for the first time this year. Then some weird ice pellet type stuff.

What to do about it? Fire up the oven and bake some bread. The smell, warmth, taste. Sure to banish winter blues. For now that is.

BTW, Want to know how great I am at delegating? I outsource our pumpkin carving to the squirrels! Ok, we know I suck at delegating, but it sure is fun watching those little beasts have at it!

What's been goin' on 'round these parts

2011-11-10T20:49:00.002-05:00

We have been lucky to have a visit from Grandma Kathy!!!!!

Grandma Kathy visited and brought a number of beautiful hand-made goodies for Olivia, like this sweet kimono.

We met up with my Uncle for a trip to the orchard and a visit to Schoepfle Garden.

A fun fall sunset picnic of pickles, pumpkin donuts and cider slushies with Uncle Frank, Lilly, Abel, my Mom and the GrandHoffs.

walking through the gardens on a perfect Autumn evening, the cousins enjoyed being together

Wolfie and Abel

Silly pose!

Sweet pose?

Bangsy can't stay out of the water!

Grandpa Jay with the wind up and the pitch!

Vlad almost falls in!

peekaboo!

3 Hoffs

Me with My Mom and Uncle

We made a big old batch of applesauce to freeze for later in the year. We used the last of our pick-ur-own apples. The boys helped with the china cap and pestle. The sauce was sooooooo good!

Lots of leaves to rake!!!!!!!!

I am still diligently knitting Matt's socks and hope to be done soon! I have successfully made yogurt a few times now! The last batch I made was a gallon and it was the best yet! It is so much better than store bought. All I need is a gallon of milk and a cup of yogurt to use as the starter. easy peazy!! A great tutorial is at Soule Mama. I had been wanting try it for a long time. My first batch didn't set, but I worked it out by the next batch. Next up is finding a fast, low maintenance routine for making batches of soup stock to freeze. I'm on it!

Last day of October

2011-10-31T23:28:00.000-04:00

Right now, I am...

:: marveling that a whole year has gone by since my sweet little Grandbaby, Olivia was born.

I'm one!!!!!!!

Dad + Shan = Shananigans!

:: tired from a wild party-filled weekend. It was great fun to celebrate My Father-in-love's 70th birthday, Olivia's birthday, and Halloween. I'm glad that we will celebrate my sister Meghan's birthday after her trip, so we can savor it.

:: laughing at our ridiculous costumes that we cavorted around the neighborhood in!

Mother Gothel from Tangled, Chewlivia and Nate, the Got Milk? cowboy

My Mom is the one good witch

Astroboy

Super relaxed Ninja

:: overwhelmed by the amount of food that was prepared and consumed over the past few days.

:: pleasantly surprised that we had a million kids trick-or-treat at our house this year. It had been dwindling down to nothing over the years and we almost ran out of our candy (more than 8 bags?????)

:: wondering how fast Thanksgiving will get here!?

:: grateful for visits from my Mom and Bret. It is so nice to spend time with them and their visits are treasured and appreciated.

Bret and Dad having a special moment

My Mom and Jamie, looking gorgeous!

:: hearing super mario music stuck in my head.

:: going to try to stick to my tried and true way of eating after a lot of over-indulgence.

:: planning to seriously finish knitting the socks I started in April. Seriously.

:: digging my worms. I am in love with my slimy vermicomposting babies.

:: knitting myself a bandana cowl as soon as I finish those damn socks!

maybe something like this????

:: listening to kiddos snoring after an exciting day.

:: saying "good job!" to my Mom-in-love for putting together the birthday that my f-i-l wanted to have. Not easy to prepare for such an event, but it was a great day!

:: inspired to continue my yogurt making after my first successful half gallon. all for the price of the milk. Sweet.

:: happy birthday Olivia and Megs! Two of the best gals in the world sharing one Halloweenie birthday!

:: delighted by the depth of my Husband's love, patience and generosity.

Here he demonstrates his love of my homemade trifecta: cheatballs, sauce and bun.

:: waiting to hear all the details of my Sister's trip to visit my brother, Ian.

:: being thankful for a chance to hang out for a little while with my uber-talented Sister-in-love Wendy and some very special cousins (one which is a canine) and a tres magnifique Aunt.

Check out that cake!

:: wishing my Mom could stay longer! But, alas, snow is coming, so I know she won't stay! Damn beach bums!

Grandma Jo's birthday!

2011-10-23T00:31:00.000-04:00

I finally got to the business of uploading the pictures off my camera. I have to share with you now a little of the fun we had celebrating my Mom-in-love's birthday. We got to hang out with her all day and bask in her birthiness! We went out to our favorite orchard for apples. We "did lunch" at a fave restaurant where we ate things like "Taste of Nirvana", vegetarian squid rolls and gigantic "Crepe Fantasia". They have a sweet waitress there that we enjoy. Unfortunately for her, she has a condition that makes it very difficult to walk, she speaks only a little English and is possibly hard of hearing. These non-waitressy qualities make us do things like set our own tables up, meet her halfway so she doesn't have to walk so far and beg for our food. I swear, I could not convince her to give me some tea. It became an epic battle to trick her into giving me tea. I won because I did actually get some... for dessert. While this sounds terrible, it can be hilarious, especially when we are the only ones there. Plus, it is always funny when almost everyone at this big table orders the same dish.

Vlad tastes Nirvana with the birthday Grandma

Robs and Jas Nirvana it up too

Sweet Nirvana! Two more orders please! Surely they must be running out by now.

Olivia demands to crawl around the place. Maybe to get me some TEA!

These guys check out the Crepe Fantasia. It has tofu skin. How do they get skin from a tofu?

Then it was back home for naps, coffee and that perennial birthday favorite, the wrinkled cookie oval. I swear it was perfectly round prior to baking. But it was delish!

The lovely bday gal keeps Hermes from gobbling up the cookie

Wishing time!

I hope someone wished for ice cream, because that was next on the agenda for this group. We finished up the day at Sweet Moses with homemade ice cream!

Thank you Jo, for letting us make all kinds of merry with you on your day! It was the BEST!

Day 6 of the No Impact Week Challenge: Save the H2O

2011-10-21T23:38:00.000-04:00

This is my beloved rain barrel, we have a long and loving history

I love my rain barrel. So much so, I included this picture of her in our family year book a few years ago. She continues to trudge along, year after year. I now put her on a pedestal (literally, I made a pedestal for her out of old bricks) which gives her more water pressure. Soon I will retire her for the winter, allowing her to bask in the warmth of my garage until we finally thaw next year. But, I hope to add another rainbarrel come spring, to the other side of the house so I don't have to haul water as far and won't run out between rains. I can barely believe how full this barrel was this Summer since all it did was rain!

Over the past 2 years we have replaced all of our spigots in the house with water-saving aerators. The pressure is great and they use so much less water. We also repaired 2 leaky toilets during that time. We got a water-saving front loader (energy star, naturally) washing machine when our washer broke, and we try to run only full loads.

But today I finally took the plunge and carried a bucket up to my bathroom to start a new habit that I have meant to do for awhile. Now, when I need to run water to heat it up (in the winter it seems to take forever!), I will run it into the bucket, then put it aside until I need to use it to flush the toilet. I am happy to finally have found the motivation to start this.

Interesting Lake Erie info:

Sustainable Heights requests that we clean out the storm sewers on our street and reduce our water usage on rainy days because the storm sewers are heavily taxed during rainstorms and can combine with waste sewage that flows into Lake Erie along with the trash in our sewers. I love the Lake and hope we all can try these two simple things to keep Lake Erie beautiful and thriving.

Awesome.

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some things that are awesome:
1. snuggling with my guys.
2. Hearing my Grandbaby say "Mama"
3. Taking a break during homeschooling to start reading "Pippi Longstocking" and having your kids love it so much that they beg you to keep reading and after most of the morning cuddled up on the couch you realize you ended up reading the whole book!

The illustrations in this book are fabulous!

4. Fresh picked apples.

5. Hot cornbead with creamed honey.

6. Booberry, Frankenberry, Count Chocula. In no particular order.

7.Galoshes, especially after we just broke the record for most rainfall.

8.Listening to rain when you are in bed with lots of covers.

9. Patricia's cloth gift bags.

10. hematite.

11. Running late for an appointment, Wolf yells, "Drive like you mean it, girl!" I gun the engine and he responds, "Go, kiddo, go!"

12. Vlad yells out in his sleep, "Damn you!" What the heck is dreaming about?

13. Vlad now introduces himself as Spike. Jas reflects, "Which is weirder, Spike or Vlad?"

Day Five of No Impact week Challenge: ENERGY

2011-10-20T20:05:00.000-04:00

Today we attended a home school class at the Natural History Museum on the subjects of weather and climate. The kids did an interesting experiment that went like this:
They set up 2 thermometers, one out in the open and one in a plexiglass tank and aimed infrared lamps at them. Because of refraction and reflection, the thermometer in the plexiglass tank was warmer than the one out in the open. This was to show the greenhouse effect of our atmosphere in a very basic way. Then they decided to see the effect of increased CO2 emissions. So, they dumped baking soda into the open topped tank and then poured in vinegar and let it fizz away with the top open. The temperature went up by several degrees over the next few minutes. Then the instructor blew into the tank to disperse some of the CO2. Immediately the temperature dropped by about 3 degrees. I was floored by how easily and quickly the temperature was affected and how long the elevated temperature would have hung on if we hadn't cleared out the CO2. This was a good lesson for my kids (and me) today because now they are slightly better able to understand my nagging to "TURN OFF THOSE LIGHTS!"
We found it easy to make some very basic changes years ago in an effort to decrease our energy consumption. The wonderful thing about those changes were that we were rewarded financially for our efforts by lowering our electric, gas and water bills. But, we haven't made any further progress since that point. Even worse, we have done some backsliding recently.
We replaced all the lightbulbs that we could with CFL's. We were even able to find yellow anti-bug CFLs for our porch lights and a CFL spotlight for our security light. These things really do last as it has been years since I replaced one. The cost has gone down since then and there are so many more options available now including LEDs.
We kicked the habit of leaving phone, laptop, razor and toothbrush chargers plugged in. We also try to charge them when we are around to unplug them as soon as they are charged instead of leaving everything plugged in for a whole night or day.
We installed surge protectors at our TV/entertainment station and at our microwave. We hit the switch when we aren't using them to prevent the remote controlled appliances from draining phantom power. Who needs an extra clock on the microwave to beam on all day and all night when there is a wall clock, a wristwatch and a cellphone eager to give me the time?

When we updated our hot water tank we opted for an energy efficient model that was the proper size for our household. We switched to cold water laundry washing without any ill effects on our laundry.
But once again, I ask myself, "What else can we be doing?" I have really wanted to do an energy audit, but was worried that it might be too expensive. I see now that there are ones available for around $50 and that seems doable. I know we can do something about the cold floors in the addition part of our house and I think an audit could help me to track down the most efficient answer to the problem.
As for the backsliding and nagging... I am finding that now that it is getting darker earlier we are leaving lights on in areas of our house that we aren't in. So, I have been trying to go around and shut them off. I see my efforts paying off as I think everyone is getting sick of my pestering and have started paying attention again. Funny how it just takes only one person to notice something and with a little pushing a whole household can change their habits. That is why I am glad I took this challenge. Small changes can add up. One person can make a difference. Don't ever feel silly for doing the small things that it takes to lower your consumption. Of course, the big things are nice too. :)

Day 4 of the No Impact Week Challenge: FOOD!

2011-10-19T23:01:00.000-04:00

I started off today thinking I was doing really poorly in this challenge. But as I examined our habits, I discovered that we do better than I thought. I think my food inferiority complex came from feeling like a CSA failure. We have a great CSA opportunity in my neighborhood. You sign up and then show up every week on a certain day to pick up your goodies at the local library. I did it for one season and then I quit. I found that the plan for my family's size was just too expensive. I bought into a smaller plan, but it wasn't enough, plus the larger plan had a better selection. I suffered from veggie-envy as I watched people get to choose the stuff I really wanted but wasn't available on my plan. Also, I might get a bunch of something we didn't need as much of and almost nothing of another item I use a lot of. I was still having to buy a lot of produce outside of the CSA.
I have also been bad about using our farmer's market. The few times I went, there wasn't really any produce, just pies, ice cream and other things that were sweet and delicious and a little too tempting. I guess the season was just getting started when I went. But, it knocked the enthusiasm for Farmer's markets clean out of me.
Our biggest challenge is that as a household with 7 vegetarians under one roof, we go through a lot of produce. I don't have a huge food budget. In other words, I need max nutrition for the least amount of moolah.
So what are we doing right? I had been feeling so much food guilt, I hadn't noticed what we did right.
First of all, we are vegetarians.
"It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of cow flesh, whereas it takes about 180 gallons of water to make 1 pound of whole wheat flour." ( Marcia Kreith, “Water Inputs in California Food Production,” Water Education Foundation 27 Sept. 1991.)
We grow some of our food. I grow many herbs, tomatoes, lettuce,c hard, cherries, juneberries, mulberries and bell peppers. I am thinking of converting more of my yard next year into garden. Then I could plant trailing veggies too.
We visit local farms and orchards and "pick-our-own" food. This year we picked blackberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches and apples. We also bought corn and other goodies from farm stands. It is so much fun to pick your own food or at least meet the farmer or visit the farm where it grows. You experience food by smell, taste, sight and touch, but this adds a whole new way to connect to the rhythm of the food. It is so important to give children this experience as well.
We have noticed that Giant Eagle, Aldi, Heinens and WalMart all have local offerings as well, and I try to take advantage of that. Stores are starting to see the value in selling locally grown food. I hope this isn't a fad and it continues and grows.
I contact farms (stickers on produce may have a website listed) and comment positively or negatively on their choice of packaging so that they know it matters to consumers.
If produce isn't going to last, I try to freeze it so I don't waste it. I have read that 30% of U.S. food gets wasted. Just look in the garbage cans of a school cafeteria to believe it. Think about how much gets thrown out when you clean your own fridge. Add the waste from restaurants and grocers, etc... and 30% could be a low estimate. When my refrigerator died on me, I opted for a slightly larger energy star model and vowed to stop wasting food. We are darn good at eating leftovers around these parts. But I also stopped making so many spontaneous purchases, especially on fancy condiments and dressings because no one ever finishes them. Having a slightly larger fridge means I can see everything in it. Nothing hides anymore, ambushing me after it has turned fuzzy, green or slimy. The air circulates better so I no longer get frozen salads or apples.
Where do I feel like I can make improvements? I can give the farmer's markets another try next season. I can grow more food. I might even try an indoor lettuce garden or a cold frame. I can check for other CSA options that might suit us better. I put a "dirty dozen" list in my purse so I can start buying more of those pesticide-laden fruits and veggies as organic instead.

Fun food tidbit for Day 4:
I made a recipe and video for cooking "Cheatballs", or vegetarian meatballs. Check it out if you like, but remember that a very easy meat-free dish is spaghetti and Marinara sauce. You won't scare off veggiephobes with it. If you really feel devious, add half a can of pumpkin to the sauce. It makes it thick and creamy and yummy!
Click here for my recipe for "Cheatballs"

Click here for the video tutorial

Day Three--Getting From Point A to Point B

2011-10-18T23:02:00.000-04:00

Oh my gosh, this is the hardest day yet. I knew it would be hard because this has been a nagging issue for me all summer.
First, a little ancient history. I used to ride my bike to work about 11 miles each way. It was fabulous and I loved it. I got more than 100 miles a week while enjoying the ride with a friend that worked with me. My legs got strong and my endurance was better than ever. Until some unpatriotic hobo stole my bike on the fourth of July. I bought a granny bike and strapped a crate to the front of it, but it was never the same. Despite my love for biking, that was the end of my cycling career.
Fast forward to more recent history. Baby + stroller= walk anywhere. Sunshine, vitamin D, exercise, window shopping, talking to strangers. Two kiddos + tandem jogging stroller = more of the same, more or less. It is large and doesn't fit into the door of every store I needed to run errands to. I had to carry a bike pump because if the tires deflated at all it became very hard to push, especially as the kids got bigger. Now that the oldest is 6, he is really too big for a stroller. So, this Summer was a bummer. Where we used to walk places everyday-- the grocer, post office, other errands, we were relying more and more on driving. The trouble is, the kids just can't walk that far and they are as slow as molasses. I think what I really need is the no impact rickshaw that Colin tooled around N.Y. in.
BUT, this was custom made and I can't even fathom what it would cost or where I would find someone to give me a quote. I love to DIY, but this is way out of my league. So, I am still stumped because most "kiddie trailers" only go up to 100 lbs., which we already surpass.
This brings me to public transportation. I used it extensively when I was a kid and up to when I moved from Cleveland to a city without public transportation. It was economical, I was without a car and it ran to where I needed to go. But now, I find that it doesn't suit our family's needs at all. I am not ready to sell my car first of all. The price of riding the RTA has gone up so high that I can't maintain a car and take it. I recognize that it works for some people, especially if you recoup some savings by not having to pay to park downtown, but we don't work downtown. It would be an addition of multiple hours of transporting to/from work for my husband because of where he works related to where we live. Taking it to work on Saturdays and Sundays would take time away from the precious family time we have. I am not willing to make that sacrifice. Also, I was mugged once on Van Aken while waiting in early morning hours by myself to go to work. Working weekends where I work means walking alone in the dark under bridges and past supposedly abandoned buildings. Mugged once, twice shy.
I believe in public transportation and wish that the RTA was more streamlined, easier to use and cheaper. I understand why it costs what it costs (I think so anyway) and think it is a great and/or necessary choice for many people. I wish it worked better for me. I think it is important to introduce your kids to it so they won't be afraid to use it if they need to (how do you pay?, what is the procedure?,etc...). We took our kids downtown to the Soldiers and Sailors monument on the Rapid. It cost us waaaaaaaaay more than driving there and parking would have, so we won't do that very often. But it was exciting for them and a fun addition to the day.
Carpooling doesn't work for us as I work alone and fluctuating hours. My Husband works at multiple facilities and needs access to his car and doesn't always leave from the same place. So that doesn't help him either.
What are we doing regarding transportation? Well, I try to group my errands so we run to neighboring places together in the same trip. We keep our tires inflated properly and maintain our vehicles. We try not to keep big, heavy items in our car that aren't needed. We try to walk to local stores for things we need as much as possible. I am still trying to figure out how to get some type of trailer for my bike that will work so I can take two kids and haul some things all by myself. Sometimes, I just don't go places. Those days when you just want to do something, but don't have to. I opt for not going anywhere if it means by car.
This will continue to be a hard one for me, and an evolving problem as our needs change. I have a feeling this might be one of the hardest days for many people in this challenge. Let's face it, it is really scary to think about not having the security of your car. Oh, yeah, and snow sucks.

Fun tidbit for Transportation Day:

If you need to take the kids with you on walking errands and they are bored or don't like the stroller/wagon/wheelbarrow, try a scavenger hunt. Make a list (or use pictures) of things you might see on your trip and let them check them off as they find them. You can have them hunt for shapes (impress them with your ability to find an octagon (stop sign) or pentagon (school crossing sign)---fancy.) Colors, letters and numbers make good scavenger hunt themes too. Here's one we made:

Day Two-- Let's Do Some Trash Talking!

2011-10-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

Today's subject is trash, kind of appropriate as this is the night I take my trash to the curb. In the past, I used to look at my pile with a great pride, especially the trash night after a big holiday. I would see trash containers spilling out up and down my street and then give myself a big pat on my own back for our one can of trash with nothing spilling out and our HUGE pile of recycling. "Oh look at all that recycling, you are one recyclin' fool, you are!" I would say to myself. Until one day it hit me... I WAS a recycling fool. I was foolish to think that putting out a great big pile of recycling was something that should make me feel proud. Making very little trash AND very little recycling was something to really aspire to.
So I embarked on a wild and wonderful trash journey, which I continue on today. I started a compost bin, which in a household of vegetarians, turned into many compost bins! My garden thanks me for it every year. I started shopping differently. First of all, I vowed to never buy another bottled water. We bring water with us in mason jars in a soft-sided cooler when we are out and about and it works great. We try not to buy juice boxes (we did get weak while on a long car trip to Florida and one to Chicago, I'll admit it) and when we buy juice, we buy frozen juice in the little containers instead of the ones in the gigantic bottles. We do a lot of bulk shopping, and I found that most places will let you bring your own jars and weigh them before you fill them so you don't have to use those plastic bags. This is great because I buy the amount I want to store and don't have to repackage it when I get home. I also learned to bring my funnel with me because there was the "great couscous disaster of 2011" in aisle 8 that one time. Embarrassing.
I shifted to cooking from scratch more, including making our bread (not nearly as hard as I expected it to be), reusing jars and bags. I learned to make cool tote bags by cutting off a tshirt's sleeves and sewing the bottom shut. A kid's shirt takes up very little room in a purse, so I always have a bag handy and I get to appreciate old favorite tshirts long after they are outgrown by the kids. I shopped our house for all those free tote bags that I got over the years and put them in one place. They make great lunch bags.
We have become trash-free lunch black belts in our house. We start off with our tote bags. We put yogurt in a small jar, have glass containers for our salads and entrees. We *gasp* take real silverware and cloth napkins (made from an old worn out sheet, but hey, it was a Ralph Lauren sheet, and it was only 25 cents at a garage sale because it had a tear). My roundhouse kick to trashy lunches was discovering stainless steel straws for the kids! They came with a tiny little brush and are dishwasher safe and they. are. awesome. Any fruit rinds come home in the yogurt jar for composting--take that, trashy lunch!
I decided to take the plunge today, in honor of trash day, and start something new that I had been putting off... vermicomposting. Indoors. I know, worms. Sounds gross, stinky, way too granola. But while out at the discovery center at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, I saw that they were vermicomposting with a gadget called Can O'Worms. I put it on my birthday list and forgot about it. My supersweet Husband, Matt, actually got it for me! But, it sat, unopened from July until today (yes, my head hangs in shame). My generous and brilliant neighbor, Ann, offered me a herd of composting worms! I quickly prepared their future home.

Preparing the coconut coir bedding

Look at those glorious Red Wigglers

Ann, proud worm mama and my generous benefactor

Then I headed over and gratefully received my worms (funny, usually it is not a good thing to get worms). I am all set up and ready to begin my experiment with vermicomposting in my basement. Thank you NIW Challenge, Matt and Ann!

Where do I need to really look to making changes related to trash? I work weekends, and I notice that come Monday morning, there is usually some leftovers or produce gone bad that needs to be thrown out or composted. I need to pay careful attention Friday night to freeze large amounts of leftovers and prepare produce for the family or cut it up and freeze it for use later in the week. I would also like to learn to make our yogurt, which would cut down on a lot more packaging,

I hate to say it, but I am squeamish about switching to different, less wasteful types of feminine protection. I need to look into that with a more open mind. There are a lot of different options, even including ones with less packaging or even recyclable packaging, which wouldn't be as big a deal as switching to a Diva cup or the moon cup.

Fun trash tidbit for Day two:

What about too brown bananas? Just throw them in your freezer, right in their skins! Then defrost them and squish them into this delicious recipe. The best part? This recipe is also freezable, so you don't have to worry about eating the whole cake at once (ummmmm, I never have that problem.)

Granny Shanny Bananny Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup yogurt (I use lowfat vanilla, plain would work just as well)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour (even better, 1/4 cup of ground flax seed and 1 3/4 cups ww flour---yummy!)

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon

3 medium bananas smooshed (I freeze them in their peels when they go brown and just nuke them for 10 seconds when I need them. Then they squeeze out like tooth paste, already mashed for your pleasure)

Frosting:

1 package of cream cheese (8 oz.)

1/2 cup butter or margarine softened

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 3/4 - 4 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Mix 1/2 cup butter, softened and 1 1/2 cups sugar.

2. Add 2 eggs, 1 cup yogurt, and 1 tsp vanilla.

3. Mix in 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 Tbsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp salt

4.Mix in 3 medium bananas smooshed.

5. Pour into a greased 9" x 13" baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. A toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.

6. Let cool and proceed to frosting it in the pan.

7. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter or margarine softened and 2 tsp vanilla extract

8. mix in 3 3/4-4 cups confectioners' sugar until desired consistency

9. lick beater like no one is watching.

10. Spread over top and enjoy! (Refrigerate this cake as it has cream cheese frosting, and it is really good cold) Freeze it right in the pan if it has a lid, and enjoy it later! If you can resist it's temptation!

No Impact Week Challenge!

2011-10-17T10:07:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day of Sustainable Heights No Impact Week Challenge. Each day you are asked to make a specific change or examine the way you do things. I have accepted this challenge, mainly out of curiosity. My family works hard to lessen our impact in many ways. Every year we add new changes, resolutions and reassess what is going right or wrong with our efforts to be less of a burden on the environment/natural resources and to be less beholden to a consumer lifestyle. Over the past few years it has been harder to find new ways to meet those goals, so I thought this would be a good way to discover some missed opportunities. Also, with eight people now in the house, our consumption has gone up and I have less control on how much waste is generated and resources used. I figured this challenge could shake things up for me and get me motivated again.
Today's challenge deals with consumption. Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of Annie Leonard's "Story of Stuff". If you haven't watched this short film, please do so. It really inspired me in so many ways. I look at all my purchases differently now. I try to avoid cheap, convenient and disposable and look for quality, reusable and classic. I have been able to avoid buying cleaning products in general by using baking soda, vinegar, tea tree oil and castille soap.
My toiletry budget has significantly decreased since I started imposing certain restrictions. I look for things that are natural. I need to be able to look at the ingredients and easily recognize them. I look for toiletries that serve multiple uses. Lastly, I look for as little packaging as possible, and easily recycled containers (especially glass). So this has led me to create most of my own products. We use homemade deodorant made from coconut oil, baking soda, corn starch and a little essential oil. We use a bar of castile soap to wash our bodies and our hair. It rinses out so easily and lathers like a champ. I moisturize with coconut oil for my face and I made a lotion bar with coconut oil, beeswax and cocoa butter for the rest of me. When I started researching how to make my own hair pomade, I found that my lotion bar can double as pomade. Boo-yah! Yet another multi-use product. The cocoa butter also makes a great lip balm. The cool thing is that these items can be purchased fairly inexpensively, some from a regular grocery store and they are quick and easy to make. There were tons of recipes out there, some were complicated and needed a bunch of expensive hard-to-find ingredients. But with more research and a little experimentation, I figured out how to make the things we need cheaply, easily and more naturally.
Today's challenge was an easy one for me as I rarely look to buy new. I first "shop at home" for things I need, which is much more successful than I thought it would be, maybe because I am a pack rat?! If that doesn't work, then I hit the loop-- freecycle, Craig's list, thrift stores and garage/rummage sales. I will also admit to being unable to pass anything usable on a tree lawn. During my apartment years I did my share of dumpster diving.
Unfortunately, I have not written a blog on how my daughter and I created her wedding with almost nothing disposable, almost everything second-hand and found ways to keep the decorations out of the land fill. One day, I will finally write that one up. But, I did write about using old clothes and jewelry to create her bouquet. I invite you to check it out and I challenge you to find a way to use something old to create something new and exciting, I guarantee it will become addictive!

So, what can I take away from today's challenge? I am trying to buy more locally when I do buy new, if that is possible. I will try to get people to give me gift lists for birthdays and Christmas so I will give them something they want and will use. If not, I will try to gift "experiences" where they are appropriate. I will continue to maintain and mend things that I have so they last longer. I will continue to buy things with less plastic and mechanized parts that can break down (ie. a reel mower vs. a power mower, a percolator vs. a coffeemaker). Also, I will continue to try to use second hand supplies for my craft projects.

Day one was an easy one for me (but they won't all be): I don't shop often, I shop second hand when I do, I utilize the Heights public library as often as humanly possible rather than buy materials I may only want to use once, I make most of my cleaning and beauty supplies. Is there room to improve? Yes! We all probably tend to have weak moments when we use shopping as a way to provide retail therapy. Even shopping second hand can be problematic if you buy things you probably won't use (But it was SUCH a good deal!) and don't leave them for someone that will use them (and junk up your house, making you feel depressed which makes you want to shop for something new to cheer you up, etc... and so on). I anticipate that some of the other challenges are going to be much harder for me and I know I have some homework to complete before I start a few of them. Here's to the start of the challenge, I'm warmed up and ready to go!

Fun idea for Consumption Day:
Replace shopping with fun things like a family photo shoot at the local park! Get to know how to use the camera you have better while enjoying some fun time with friends or family in a beautiful, FREE setting.

Apple Picking 2011

2011-10-12T00:11:00.000-04:00

Apple picking is one of my favorite traditions for our family. I think I lke it better than Christmas even. There is no prep, no gift purchasing, just good old fun and delicious treats. We go to Burnham Orchards each year, which includes a visit to the bakery for apple fritters, slushies made from peach or apple cider, kettle corn popped in a gigantic kettle that looks like it should be filled with molten metal, not sweet and salty popcorn wonderfulness. We feed goats, admire bees and chat it up with the Grandfather-type guy that collects the money out in the orchard. We picnic and eat apples like it is our job. This year it was hot, in the 80's, which was strange, but nice because the sky was blue, blue, blue.

We participated in an ancient and mystical ritual devoted to the worship of Sugar.

the Hoffamily enjoy the orchard

Apparently eating apples can lead to glowing ears and other appendages.

A more serious tribute to the star of the day, the lowly apple.

we like to tease him about this by asking him why he was naked at the orchard. He accuses us of "mocking him", and he will not be mocked.

a short hike down to the river

Ole Farmer Bangsy

There were indeed donuts. With orange fosting.

Feeding of the goats, a family tradition continues

My keebler elves.

We always manage to smooch a little. the fresh air brings it out of us

Even my two girls got in on the apple action

We stopped off for a bite to eat and some ice cream, because at this point, why the hell not?!? We acted like idiots that had never been out in public before and managed to have a fine old time of it.

We managed to also fit in a whole "turning one" photoshoot with the Divine Miss O.

Ain't she the sweetest little Pumpkin in the patch?

All in all, it was a great outing this year. Now it is time for making applesauce and perhaps a pie. Such wonderful things, apples are.

10 good things

2011-10-05T22:30:00.000-04:00

1. Getting outside with my hands in the dirt because the sun is finally shining.
2. A crock pot of marinara sauce that made every room in the house smell good.
3. A kiss from my Husband that went on a little longer than the usual welcome home kiss.
4. Decent enough news from a Doctor's visit.
5. Rescuing a piece of furniture, selling it and parlaying it into funding for a visit to a rummage sale. I LOVE rummage sales.
6. Chocolate Rootbeer cake.
7. Squishy little kid butts and chubby baby thighs.
8. Birthday wish lists.
9. Creamed honey
10. This one is soooooo special to me: We were looking up pictures of Astroboy, because Wolf has picked that for his Halloween costume. But, you can't get an Astroboy wig anywhere, so we had to look at pics so we could fashion our own wig ("fashion your own wig", Why does that phrase please me so?) So, Matt and Wolf and I are scrolling through images when there is a picture of a very well-built gentleman wearing a speedo and a large cat's head. Wolf reaches over and gently, and silently, covers my eyes. He apparently felt that was not something that his Mommy should have to see. It was such a sweet gesture and the first time I have ever been protected by a son. I am in love. But, the next morning, Vlad woke me up with a question--" Do you have a foreskin?" "Not on me" I replied as I put the pillow over my head and tried to pretend to be asleep until a decent hour of the morning. Ah, life with little boys...

I'm thinking about stuff

2011-09-26T23:12:00.000-04:00

:: enjoying a few warm days still. I love rainy weather if it is warm rain.

:: ecstatic that my Mom will be in town in less than a month.

Mi Madre es su Madre, or something like that...

:: feeling a little overwhelmed as I try to adapt to all the scheduling changes in our household. I am completely a creature of habit. Would that make me Nunzilla? Creature of habit, Nunzilla, get it?

:: harvesting basil and green peppers still. And ants still. argggggh.

:: wanting to go bra shopping. La ti da. Fancy.

:: enjoying eating seeds, seeds, seeds. Can't get enough of them! Especially weird little chia seeds.

:: riding MLK Blvd. through the cultural gardens every Monday to get to Wolf's music class at the Cleveland Music School Settlement. I love that drive especially now that the gardens have been getting spruced up.

:: holding onto dreams of actually completing a pair of knitted socks. I started knitting a pair in April, I think, and after throwing away some early attempts, I am 1/6th of the way done. Ugh.

:: thinking I would love to soak in a hot spring, which I have never done. Preferably in Japan, but that might be pushing it!

:: grateful for my husband. He is my #1 partner in crime.

Not literally my partner in crime, maybe my partner in well-meaning, spirited hijinx.

:: anticipating the astronomical doctor and dentist bills in our near future. Totally worth it to go in for a tune-up though. Just wish it was more like other businesses where you could get an estimate and compare costs and service before committing to things. It always amazes me that it is all so confusing, even though I work in the industry. It must be terrible for people that really have no understanding of what their bills say.

:: itching to get creative. If I could find an extra few hours somewhere, I could really get sewing and like hide my house under a giant slipcover! With ric-rac!

:: wishing for a supremely cute vintage tear drop trailer. I can barely control myself when I see one.

I want to eat some weird jello mold and deviled eggs and then pop in for a little seista!

:: wondering if I will get my freezer emptied out to make room for home-made applesauce galore!!! Apple-picking with the Hoffbros is one of my favorite things all year. Would you believe it ranks higher than Christmas for me?!

Burnham Orchard photo circa 2010

:: hoping for more fun days spent with my daughter and grand-pumpkin! It is almost time for a first birthday which means bearing witness to a first tasting of buttercream. It's like a tribal rite of passage. Will she like it, adore it, GASP, hate it?!?!

Here is the dynamic duo!

:: remembering when Jassy was on t.v. when she was little, maybe 7 yrs.old. She was on "Brain Drain" and she was sooooooo cute.

::Imagining what it would have been like to meet my Gma-in-love, Edna. Whenever I spend time at the home of my Mom-in-love, which I was lucky enough to do today, I can't help but feel like I know her just a little bit because her memory is so lovingly kept alive by her daughter.

My sweet little pixie husband with Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Edna

what's up in our house...

2011-09-21T12:44:00.000-04:00

****It is the 9th anniversary for Ma and Pa Hoff! We are amazed by how fast the time has gone and how much our love has grown! I was sooooooooo in love on our wedding day, I surely never imagined that I could actually fall more deeply in love, but yet here we are, still making googly eyes at each other.

Well, actually we are imitating carp, but very lovingly. We do those sorts of things. Publicly, apparently.

*****I got this great new toy at Educator's Market and Toy store. I am using it as a fun way to get Wolf to make some basic math worksheets, as he loathes math facts. This has helped take some of the "BORRRR-ing!" out of it. It was only a buck!

A die in a die!

******I can not get enough of this...

p.s. my food photog is the worst. Not even '70's cookbook bad, just fugly.

Homemade wheat and flax bread toasted with half peanut-half almond butter with sunflower seeds and chia seeds. That sounds as stupid as one of those complicated Starbuck's orders, but I swear I am just not that fancy. But this is crunchy and creamy and sweet and salty and...o.k., it is a tad complex.

*****We went to the Early Settler's Music Celebration at the Rocky River Nature Center with a short hike to the Frostville Museum. They had all kinds of activities and displays related to Pioneer and Native american ways of life. The boys got to see a cannon fire, saw a log with a two-man saw, make clay pinch pots, write with a quill, dye yarn, taste honey and cornbread baked over an open fire.

The sawing took forever, so the 'rents had to assist

They watched apple butter being made and cider being pressed and sampled it more times than they probably should have. They listened to music and tried out square dancing. It was a great tie-in for the pioneer education we have been doing in homeschooling. BTW, I am loving the series from Little House for kiddos of the younger variety, My First Little House. The kids love the short stories and have a better time absorbing them than from the regular Little House books. The illustrations are nice too. I cried reading the one where they leave the Big Woods of Wisconsin for the prairie. I am total moosh inside.

**** Tonight we will attempt a "date" for our anniversary. Nothing too far-fetched, just dinner. We will see how it goes, as our track record is not good. Past events include restaurants being closed, shoes that hobbled me, getting too drunk to drive on ONE margarita and having to spend too long in a drug store searching for products with names that made us giggle and then sobering up on ice cream... well that actually was pretty good, so you never know!

Hoffman Family Vacation 2011!

2011-08-29T23:05:00.001-04:00

The "Caviest Cave in the USA"

We had a week of glorious gallivanting-- crossing the borders of 5 different states. We started with a trip out to see my brother Cameron's troupe, Barely Balanced perform at the Bristol Ren Faire in Wisconsin. We stayed in a suburb of Chicago, and unfortunately, my brother in Chi-town, Ian, was out on tour with his band, Voice of Addiction. We must get back out there to visit him, which seems doable as the boys did pretty well on the ride. We stopped at Seneca Caverns, "the caviest cave in the USA", or as we like to call it, Hell. The caverns were great, don't get me wrong, the staff was wonderful, and the slogan is the best ever, BUT... I had on a dress and flip flops and a big old purse and it was treacherous, and I was responsible for Vladdie and apparently for cutting off any circulation to his hands as I held onto him for dear life.
Here's the pics of that leg of our travels:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoffmanhaus/sets/72157627539516908/

Cameron, on stilts

Nothing says "Ren Faire" like food on a stick and giant pickles. So a giant pickle on a stick should merit at least one "Huzzah!"

Next up was camping out at Mohican. We stayed at our traditional campground, Camp Toodik. We first stopped at a great Amish restaurant, Des Dutch Essenhaus where even the vegetarians left full and happy. The boys loved the toy train that runs through it and Wolfie enjoys interviewing any Amish people that he meets and especially enjoys informing them over and over that they are Amish. After refueling at the restaurant, we worked a wee bit of it off on the boys first long hike-- 4 miles of hilly terrain in Mohican State Park-- with almost no complaints from the boys. Jas and Nate on the other hand... just kidding! We camped out, the only campers that night...maybe because the gorgeous weather of the day turned into a 5 hour torrential thunderstorm that flooded most of the campsites and all of our tents. Somehow, after it stopped, clad in a garbage bag, I managed to get the fire started and bake blueberry pies with my toast-tite. So what I mean to say is, I had completely lost my mind. The day turned into gorgeous 70 degree weather with a light breeze and we took the boys on a 10 mile canoe trip where we had the whole lake fork branch of the river to ourselves and a heron that we seemed to be following. Alas, the weather was set to have more thunderstorms plus hail and damaging winds, so we packed up and headed home.
Here's the Mohican pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoffmanhaus/sets/72157627416368853/

We survived our hike!

I am a twisted firestarter. In a trash bag.

Next up, a day trip to Pennsylvania's Pymatuning State Park. We visited the Pymatuning Deer Park for a picnic where we ate like animals (yeah, we stopped by an Amish girl selling little pies and cinnamon rolls on the side of the road. We bought one of each flavor of pie. We ate it all. and yes, Wolfie interrogated her and her Amishness) and then fed the park's animals. Then we stopped by the Linesville Spillway, "Where the ducks walk on the fish" where Wolf fell in love with "squishy mouthed fish" and longed to hug a carp. Photographic evidence of our journey:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoffmanhaus/sets/72157627417090231/

My heroes

A flurry of Carp

We were able to celebrate my littlest baby, Vladdie turning 4 during a short break at home. He requested a "Rainbow tornado snake cake". We obliged.

Vlad and his cake

Vlad's annual Birthday sign

Lastly, we decided to head back after I got off work on Saturday and revisit the spillway, at the Hoffbros' request. Then we finished off with a trip to Conneaut Lake Park. Mind you, this park had fallen on very hard times. It is not the park of my youth, but there are still so many things to recommend if you like nostalgia.

A little glimpse into what is left of Conneaut lake and even some of the old houses there in the park:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoffmanhaus/sets/72157627539711464/

Devil's Den

The Hotel Conneaut

Many of my favorites from yesteryear were still plugging away, like Devil's Den (with the infamous wall of chewed gum), the jolly caterpillar, the bumper cars, the tumble bugs and the old hotel. After dark, we sat on the boardwalk and enjoyed fireworks. It was chilly and everything had that summer fading into autumn quality. It sort of felt like you knew everyone there and were bidding them goodbye, and for me, all the memories of having been there with my Dad. A good way to end an end-of-summer vacation.

Matt swoops me up in a whip, ala Indiana Jones, and plants one on me, right in front of the whole world. Swoon.

Wolfieisms

2011-08-29T22:42:00.000-04:00

Some recent Wolfieisms:
--"Timing is everything." This was his comment during our dash to get to the aquarium building at the zoo before the rain hit.

--"This is my third finest hour." This was his comment when we got to the aquarium before the rain hit and he was finely viewing his beloved stingray, Dot.

--Wolfie was speaking to a woman at the park. As he bid her adieu, he reached up and tipped an invisible hat to her!!! Swoon!

Something Old, Something New...

2011-08-22T23:57:00.000-04:00

My daughter just got married this Summer in a beautiful, eco-frugal, vintage, DIY wedding. Whew. The wedding day was so much fun, but so was all the preparation. One of the questions we had to answer was how do you come up with a bouquet that doesn't involve fresh or silk flowers, that can be made ahead of time and has personal meaning? Our answer was to fashion fabric flowers from clothing that belonged to some of the Bride's Grandmothers.
We took silk scarves, a fancy nightie, old brooches, feathers and the jewlery that the Bride wore to prom with the Groom, and turned it into a vintage chic bouquet.

Some of the flowers were made from a Grandmother's "fancy" nightie that was also worn in the Father of the Bride's "first" wedding!

The bouquet ended up being a really fun project that brought a lot of memories with it. We learned a lot about making a bouquet. One of the best tips I learned was to create individual picks for the jewelry and flower combos and then it was a lot easier to arrange the larger bouquet. We also learned that tea staining and coffee staining are cool eco- friendly tips to help blend newer materials with antiques. Also, you can blow-dry feathers, and they stink when you do so, but not once they dry, thank goodness!

a sad little feather after a brief coffee soak, tea just didn't do it.

Post fluffing with a blow dryer

Much better and stink-free!!

Things I am loving right now...

2011-08-15T21:21:00.000-04:00

Flax seeds Just like that sweet little Granny in the hot sauce commercials-- I put that $^!# on everything! In my yogurt, oatmeal, bread dough, baked goods, everywhere. Matt got me a little coffee grinder so I can grind them up and I am a happy flax-grindin' fool.

Cocoa butter I just use this like a big old lip smacker lip gloss. Only 100 % cocoa butter and it is somewhere around $2. Awesome.

Skin Deep Database I love that I can easily research the risks associated with cosmetics and toiletries and make a decision whether or not I want to take those risks. Known carcinogens are in so many products it is sickening (literally) and overwhelming. I challenge you to look up a few of the products you buy for your family. If the risk is too great, you can easily find products listed that are safer.

Cleveland Metro parks We use them so much! Whether it is one of the many excellent nature centers, the zoo or just some cool little spot, you will find us there a couple of days a week. We started going back to one of my favorite childhood haunts, Tinker's creek/ Hemlock creek.

Edgewater, a beach on Lake Erie

At one of the Nature Centers during Super Pollinator Weekend

That's me, kickin' it after a rainstorm in Hemlock creek

Bananagrams We have been playing this game like crazy! A fun, portable game that is good even with only 2 players. I looooooove word games!

Pick-ur-own So far this summer we have hit local farms for cherries, blackberries, and peaches. Soon will be raspberries and apples. Last night we had peaches and "cream" (skim milk, stevia and a squirt of light whipped cream,but one of my fave treats anyway!) Tonight was the mother of all calories, peach cobbler with ice cream. Amazeballs.

Actin' a fool I had a date night the other day which included a margarita. one. Which left us "tipsy" enough (Yes, we have become panty-waists) that we didn't want to drive. So we tormented a nearby drugstore, taking pics of things that titillated us. Somehow we did not get kicked out.

Attention: No animals were injured, or even mildly humiliated during filming of this date night. O.k., Maybe just a little.

Grown-upVisitors Yeah, visitors that drink coffee without a straw. That are old enough to drive. It is so nice to get company that can talk to you without needing to be put in time-out for slapping or standing on the table. It was extra nice to receive such a visitor today AND they came bearing soup, which made for an excellent dinner. Thanks Mama Jo!

What are you loving right now?

Christmas in July...

2011-07-06T00:07:00.000-04:00

Around these parts, it sure feels like Christmas every July as most of us celebrate birthdays. My family usually gets together around the fourth to throw our "Birthday Bonanza", where we celebrate all our summer birthdays. This year it was actually on the fourth so we had fireworks too! This year's display was ridiculous! The Grand finale was utterly insane, I don't think they can ever top it.

For years I have wanted to put bunting up on my porch for summer. I cringe every time I price them out and never end up buying them. This year I decided to make something instead. I came up with a pennant style bunting made from bandanas (I tea-stained the white ones). Not as good as traditional bunting, but it made me feel festive.

I also went ahead and tried Martha's firework cookies out. They looked great, but my royal frosting would not dry! I didn't care for the taste of the icing either, but the cookie was good. Next time, I will use my usual recipe for royal icing, given to me 20 years ago by my friend Reva.

We also made Wolfie's birthday cake! His favorite animal at the zoo is a yellow dotted stingray, so the cake is featuring a dotted ray.

Olivia seemed to like her first parade and fireworks. She was really enjoying herself!

We all enjoyed having my brothers in town, but Wolf and Vlad REALLY enjoyed it!

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

A slice of my life...

2011-06-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

A slice of my life...

:: remembering what a wonderful time we had at Jas and Nate's wedding!

:: telling myself I will eventually get my house back to normal!

:: wearing a super comfy knit t-shirt dress

:: planting zinnias, marigolds, petunias, sweet potato vine, licorice plant, coleus, many types of basil, dill, marjoram, rosemary, lavender, begonias, cherry tomatoes and green peppers.

:: thinking about how much more I love my husband today compared to yesterday, but not as much as I will tomorrow.

:: knowing I am one lucky gal

:: loving having my Mom here visiting!

:: wanting her to feel better :(

:: debating what to do for Father's day.

:: thinking about the socks I started knitting before the wedding and wondering how badly I screwed them up when I picked them up today and did one row on them.

:: giggling over my sons pretending to be anthropomorphic sea creatures and meteorological phenomena, which is wonderfully strange.

:: wondering if I would regularly use an elliptical if I had one, or just hang clothes off it?

:: hanging up my clotheslines finally. I am seriously tardy! Also need to get out the solar water fountain.

:: taking everything in stride

:: enjoying time with my family

:: wishing to go soaking in Hemlock creek!

trash-free challenge

2011-04-19T00:07:00.000-04:00

My sister-in-luv, Elizabeth, has a great blog, castironconsomme. She is posing a challenge to go trash-free with your eating for a week. No paper napkins, individually packaged snacks, etc... I am up for the challenge, but I must confess, I am a veteran of trash-free eating out. For a few years now we have been doing our brand of healthy, frugal, trash-free eating. My husband and I pack our breakfasts and lunches every work day. When out with the family running errands, I almost always try to pack what amounts to a car picnic. This prevents hungry kids from making me miserable or bankrupting me with a convenient drive-thru stop.
   We have been using an assortment of silverware, glass storage containers and re-used jars and take-out containers. We carry our lunches in small easily laundered tote bags I have picked up for a quarter or so at thrift stores and garage sales. We have cloth napkins that I made a few years ago from a thrifted sheet that just keep going and going and going. I really like glass for anything that needs microwaved. Yes, people comment when I nuke up my salsa jar full of home-brewed coffee, but I just smile and take another sip of my piping hot coffee made just the way I like it. My tall salsa jars make great containers for other drinks and soup too because the lids are really leak-proof.
   Today we went to the Zoo because it is free every Monday. I packed a picnic for 7people and fit it in a very manageable soft-sided cooler that I easily carried throughout the zoo. Here's what it held, but keep in mind that I REALLY need to go grocery shopping, so I had little to work with:
-- pb and j sammies on home-made wholewheat bread. I can fit 2 sandwiches into a rectangular plastic to-go box from the local Chinese restaurant. These are great because each container holds 2 sandwiches and one person uses the lid for their plate and the other person uses the container for a plate. No need for plates to be packed!
--yogurt parfait made by adding frozen berries to vanilla yogurt. Everyone got a little glass jar full with a metal spoon, no waste there!
--apples, packed whole and cut with a paring knife when ready to eat. Apple cores brought home in the glass jars so they could go in the compost bin.
-- Dried cranberries
--Sun tea for the grown ups, apple juice for the kids, brought in salsa jars, naturally. I poured the kids juice into some cups we got when we went out to eat at Red Robin awhile back. They serve their kid's drinks in plastic cups with lids, so I always bring them home instead of throwing them out and reuse them many times over.
--Matt brought hot tea in a steel thermos, a STEAL of a deal, as I got it for less than $2 at a local thrift store. It had never been used! It was exactly like the $25+ ones I had been debating buying. It ended up being freezing (in the 30's) and rainy today so having a sip of something hot was so wonderful!

   This was a fruit heavy lunch, but I was running out of many staples and worked with what I had in hand. It worked out though, because you spend the day looking at all the concession stand goodies and having a sweet lunch helped ease the cravings for all the treats they were selling.
   Other easy lunch items that work well for kids on the go are cheese cubes and crackers, sunflower seeds, peanuts, popcorn, grapes, cubed watermelon, fruit leather, edamame, cucumber slices and hard-boiled eggs.
   Thanks Elizabeth for posting your challenge! Keep up the good work! And be sure to check out her blog (castironconsomme.blogspot.com/) to see the beautiful and delish stuff she is whipping up!

These are a few of my favorite things...

2011-04-08T00:18:00.000-04:00

It is time to give a shout-out to some of my "old faithfuls"-- stuff I use every day and don't want to live without. This list is just a quick jot, the first few things that came to mind.

1. My Farberware Percolator

Life wouldn't be the same without it! I love her looks, her gurgly sounds and her "perc"-y attitude. She will hopefully last forever, sitting nearby on my stovetop.

This soap has been around since 1839, is hypoallergenic (a plus with my extraordinarily fussy skin), biodegradable, has no synthetic detergents, has no animal by-products and has never been tested on animals. Almost no packaging to waste. I think it is about $2 a bar. My family uses it for showering and hair washing. It lathers like crazy and rinses easily. We have replaced soap, body wash, and shampoo with one bar.

3. Spectrum Organics Coconut Oil

Versatile must be it's middle name! Safe enough to eat, this is my go-to beauty product. I use it as a facial and body moisturizer, lip balm, massage oil, scalp conditioner AND I use this to make my own all-natural deodorant! I can buy it at the grocery store for less than $10. I love products that replace several others. Less packaging is thrown out, especially since this comes in a reusable/recyclable glass jar.

The Handy House Stainless Steel Drinking Straws with Cleaner

My newest find, These are reusable drinking straws. They work great and the brush lets you get them clean, then run them through the dishwasher for good measure. I have been searching for a reusable straw for the kids, but Matt was afraid to try the glass straws that I found. These are perfect! I heart them a lot! Another disposable plastic product booted out of my life!

5. My shredding scissors

When I had a big old shredder, I always let the shredding pile up, then inevitably when I started to shred the heap it would jam over and over again. I have a "thing" for manual tools. I love to use human power as much as possible. These are small (much smaller carbon footprint) and don't jam or need to be replaced because I burned the motor out by constantly jamming it. I shred things as I read the mail now, so no more heap!

6. My reel mower

Why pay to workout when there is grass to be mown? It is so quiet you can hear the birds sing while you push along. No bags to empty, it self mulches which means no fertilizing. No gas cans to fill, no oil except for the squirt of wd-40 I give it every fall. Wonderful!

What are your "old-faithfuls"?

What's going on?

2011-03-30T22:20:00.000-04:00

Making : Wedding stuff galore!
Cooking : whipping up an egg bake thingy and some banana muffins to take to the east-side Hoffs for a breakfast visit tomorrow.
Drinking : I pretty much survive on half-caf coffee anymore, oh and brewed iced tea.
Reading: my cousin's blog http://notacrazycatlady.com/ which is hilarious
Wanting: a day off. Playdate with my husband! We haven't seen much of each other lately and I miss him!
Looking: at the GIGANTIC mess which I call home.
Playing: mahjong solitaire! Like every night (there, I said it) without fail
Wasting: as little as possible----- "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
Sewing: does crocheting count? If so, I whipped up a little pattern for covers for my vintage open top glass pitchers. Recycled cotton yarn in cheery-citrusy variegated colors for the o.j. pitcher and red cotton for the other one. Should wash up like a dream. Little scalloped border on them, which I love!
Wishing:for more hours in the day!
Enjoying: a quick visit from Jamie, Lilly and Abel today. Such a treat!
Waiting: for Jas and Nate's wedding!
Liking: today's round of thrifting! I have become a thrifting ninja. I am that person that bitches in a thrift store, "Who's pricing this? I refuse to pay these prices! Robbery, I tell you. C'mon, you got this shite for free!" I talked someone into selling me something for 5 cents--that has to be a record!
Wondering: How I will paint the bathroom later this summer. So many decisions, this is a colorful world people!
Loving:Wolfie's sense of humor. He yelled at a very dangerous driver on the road today, calling the guy a "snorter". Then laughed himself silly over what he perceived as his own witty brilliance. I love watching him grow and develop.
Hoping: Today's snow is the last one!
Marvelling: at how Vlad is learning by Wolfie homeschooling. At dinner he was discussing if he was nocturnal or diurnal!
Needing:Not much. Things are satisfying as is.
Smelling: My hyacinths in major bloom. Thank you for the beautiful hyacinths Matty!
Wearing: Flannel nightie. I mentioned THE SNOW, right?
Following: Spiderman, in the comics page of the PD. He is battling Morbius, the vampire right now. The hoffbros are into it too.
Noticing: Olivia fattening up and paying attention to everything around her. What a sweet baby!
Knowing: Littles don't stay little long
Thinking: about how exciting it is to be in love with someone sooooooo much, and then find that the next day, some how, I have found a way to love him even more! <3Bookmarking:A lot of creative as hell blogs. People are coming up with amazing ideas and I find that so inspiring!
Opening: an antiques store by the look of my dining room-- wedding stuff is everywhere!
Giggling: over Vladdie---
   me: "What do animals with pointy teeth eat?"
   Vlad:" meat."
   me: "What do animals with flat teeth eat?"
   Vlad: "plants."
   me: "How about animals with both pointy AND flat teeth?"
   Vlad:" Scrambled eggs!"Feeling: the location of every sinus in my head! ouch!

Senses...

2011-03-23T23:25:00.000-04:00

Hearing: Birds tweeting outside my window reeeeeeaaallllllly early in the morning, when it is still very dark out. Sounds like it would be irritating, but it is delightful. I snuggle in and listen to them and dream of warm weather coming.

Smelling: Two different things. First, bread baking, today was baking day at the Hoffman Homestead and it smelled particularly wonderful and yeasty today. Second, every year Matt treats me to hyacinths. They smell up the house in the most amazing way and then I plant them outside and enjoy them year after year. This year he bought me 2 gorgeous tin planters full of them from the little garden shop on Detroit Ave. They are so exciting, as they are blossoming before my eyes. Every time I walk past them, I notice that they have opened more. The scent is fantastic-- forget about stopping and smelling the roses, give me hyacinths!

Tasting: Giant fluffy home made whole wheat pancakes (with blueberry syrup) and made from scratch veggie sausages. A cup of good hot coffee thrown in. I love breakfast for dinner!

Seeing: My forsythia bush has that yellow blush that hints that spring is here. Soon it will open up in full bloom in a glorious burst of color. Then we will hold the little blooms under our chins and ask if we like butter while checking for a yellow reflection to confirm that YES we love butter!

Touching: Nostalgia. I finished creating Jassy's bouquet from bits of clothing and jewelry that belonged to some of her Grandmas. Also some of the jewelry she wore to Prom (escorted by her Groom <3 ). A lot of loving energy in that thing!

May as well add another one,not truly a sense...
Feeling: Very happy with our decision to homeschool Wolfie. That started in January. We are seeing so many positive changes in him. It is very exciting and has had a powerful (in a good way) impact on the whole family. His hunger for learning has returned. Our boy is back!

Oy Vey! another Recipe! This time it is Kolacky!

2011-03-03T11:44:00.001-05:00

This is Grandma Terry's Kolacky (Can be spelled many ways: Kolache, Kolach or kolace) recipe. These can be made with many different fillings. My family likes apricot, prune and passion fruit/mango. Nut and poppyseed filling are also quite popular. You can use any commecial filling, jelly, preserves, jam or make your own from scratch. When you make these, you must imagine Gram Terry yelling, "Roll them thinner! Here let me do that!" or they simply won't taste as good.

The Official Tomele Ancestral Kolacky Recipe

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy

2. Beat in flour. Knead dough lightly.

3. Divide dough into 2-3 balls, wrap and chill at least one hour.

4. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a circle 1/16th of an inch thick

5. Using a biscuit cutter or small floured glass, cut into circles.

6. Spread about 1/2 Tbsp. filling down the center, then fold each side into the middle overlapping each other. secure with a toothpick.

7. Bake at 350 degrees until golden, about 20-25 minutes.

8. When cooled, dust with powdered sugar.

9. Put on some Frankie Yankovic, put your feet up and enjoy!

Recipe time!

2011-02-25T15:19:00.002-05:00

Being winter and all, baking has been a frequently occurring event for the Hoffman homestead. Besides goodies ( mmmmm, goodies) there has been bread baking as well! I never in a million years thought I would be able to bake all of our family's bread, but for more than a month now I have been doing just that! Prior to this, we had been eating Giant eagle's light wheat bread, which lists an insane amount of fiber in its nutrition data (more than all those super chunky grainy breads even, which always made me think it must be a typo). It was fairly healthy compared to many products, especially since two slices were a serving size and other breads are one slice = one serving. Still, I found ingredients listed that I couldn't pick out in a crowd and knew that many were probably preservatives as that bread stayed fresh for a long time. So, I embarked on a quest to find a recipe that met my general recipe criteria: very few ingredients, healthy ingredients, inexpensive ingredients, easy to make, will actually be eaten by my family.
I fiddled around with different concoctions, tweaking as I went and this is what I have come up with so far. Here's the thing with making big changes, it is best done incrementally for me. So, at first I baked bread for a treat, still using store bought bread for sandwiches until I found a recipe that met my demands. I started off with a mostly white bread and substituted whole wheat more and more until I got to a point where the bread still sliced well for children's sandwiches and didn't weigh 12 pounds. Now, I know I could go more wheaty, and most likely will as time goes on, but currently I am satisfied with this ratio because it allows me to make a bread without added oils (although I typically add a mist of olive oil to the crust) and 1/2 tsp. sugar per loaf. That is great. We eat all whole grain pasta, brown rice, oats, etc... so we do routinely get other whole grains in our diet. I may try using honey instead of sugar next time and see how that goes but 1/2 tsp. is really minute. I bought an inexpensive food processor with a big bowl and dough blade and it takes about 5 minutes to make this. I still knead it for a short time because this is a sticky loaf and then I can add just enough flour at the end, telling by feel when it is right. I have made this with my ancient kitchen aid mixer and it works up similarly with just longer kneading time in the machine. It can be made by hand, but that is a labor of love and would not allow me the time to make the 4 or more loaves we need every week. I make two batches individually, but then put it together when I knead and do the first two risings. I freeze one of the baked loaves until we need it and it defrosts easily on the counter. I make the dough about 9:30 in the morning and it bakes around 3 pm, but my house has been about 62 degrees, so maybe this will be faster in the summer. So here it is:

Hoffman Homestead Bread

(Makes one loaf, directions for food processor)

1 1/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 TBSP active dry yeast

1/2 TBSP salt

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1. put 1/2 tsp sugar and add 1 1/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees, which is my tap water when run to its hottest).

2. Sprinkle 1/2 TBSP active dry yeast over the water and wait for one minute before mixing gently (I use a chopstick so less surface for the yeast to stick to). This should proof for at least 5 minutes and be frothy and yeasty smelling. Here is a link to an article on proofing yeast.

3. Put about 2/3 of the flour and the yeast-water into the processor and pulse for about 30 sec. I let it sit while I gather my trusty old cookie sheet with a little flour sprinkled on it and a large bowl greased with olive oil.

4. I add 1/2 TBSP salt and pulse for about 15 seconds.

5. Add the remaining flour and pulse for about 45 seconds. Then I dump it onto my floured cookie sheet .

6. I knead it, adding a little flour here and there if I stick to it. I knead it until it is "as smooth as a bambino's behind" which is how one recipe author described it and I find it a rather accurate description. The cookie sheet keeps the flour in one spot and makes for fast clean up. Here is a link to an article on kneading bread dough.

7. Put the dough into the oiled bowl. I wet a tea towel and cover the top of the bowl with it. Since it is cold here, I put it in the oven (oven is off!!!!!!!) with just the light bulb on, as it creates some heat and helps it rise faster. Wait until it doubles in size, depending on the temperature and barometer (rises faster during stormy weather) it will be an hour +.

8. Punch the dough down, recover (moisten towel if dried out) and rise again as before.

9. Punch down and shape into a loaf. Here is a video on shaping dough. Put into an oiled loaf pan and recover with the tea towel. Let rise again until it is an inch above the pan.

10. Heat oven to 450 degrees and bake for 15 minutes. Lower temp to 350 and finish up for 15 more minutes. The top should be golden and the crust should have a hollow sound when tapped (especially after you turn the loaf out and tap the bottom. Before I turn it out, I give a light spritz with my olive oil mister to the top of the bread, but that is just my preference as it keeps the top sort of soft. I turn the bread out onto a cooling rack and try to let it cool on its side without eating it all!

This next recipe is modified from a recipe my Grandmother had. I suspect that it would work well substituting most of the butter with applesauce, but haven't yet tried it. This is a great recipe because, if you only want a little, it freezes really well. It reminds me of sara lee frozen banana cake from my youth, which we ate frozen and right out of the carton.

Granny Shanny Bananny Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup yogurt (I use lowfat vanilla, plain would work just as well)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cinnamon

Frosting:

1 package of cream cheese (8 oz.)

1/2 cup butter or margarine softened

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 3/4 - 4 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Mix 1/2 cup butter, softened and 1 1/2 cups sugar.

2. Add 2 eggs, 1 cup yogurt, and 1 tsp vanilla.

3. Mix in 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 Tbsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp salt

4.Mix in 3 medium bananas smooshed.

5. Pour into a greased 9" x 13" baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. A toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.

6. Let cool and proceed to frosting it in the pan.

7. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter or margarine softened and 2 tsp vanilla extract

8. mix in 3 3/4-4 cups confectioners' sugar until desired consistency

9. lick beater like no one is watching.

10. Spread over top and enjoy! (Refrigerate this cake as it has cream cheese frosting, and it is really good cold)

Old School Kettle Corn

1/4 cup veg oil

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

Put 1/4 cup veg oil in a large pot with cover and drop 3 corn kernels in it. When all 3 have popped, pour in 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup popcorn kernels. Cover and shake the pan in a jiffy pop style until the popping stops. Quickly (the sugar will very quickly burn once the popping stops) and carefully (ever get hot melted sugar on your skin? You won't soon forget the experience!) pour the contents into a clean paper grocery bag and salt as desired, close bag and shake. Enjoy!!!

Now I have to make veggie swedish meatballs again so I can write down a rough estimate of what I did. I totally winged it last time and will have to try hard to recreate it!

Right now

2011-02-19T23:10:00.000-05:00

This was originally posted by Amanda Soule at her amazing blog, Soulemama. I was inspired to try it too.

right now, I am ...

:: marveling at how utterly overdosed on garlic I am. Courtesy of Niko's greek restaurant.

:: revisiting being a barber :) I have slacked majorly this month. I promised my patients haircuts tomorrow and I bet they are already lined up and waiting!

:: plotting a June wedding on a zero budget. Must use all super powers.

:: finishing the first sock I have ever knitted. It will be for Matty. He has 2 feet. They are roughly alike. This means I must finish and then duplicate this sock. Alas.

:: stopping and smelling the roses.

:: wondering how fab my Mom-in-love's kitchen will be post-makeover!

:: listening to nothing. I heart silence. Yes, I am old. Now get off my lawn.

:: queing amazing free knit and crochet patterns at www.ravelry.com My sister started crocheting during her visit. Jas, Robs, Matt and I were all crocheting together. Sew much fun!

:: feeling sad that my Sister Robs is headed back to Cali. I petition we move it closer.

:: loving that my sweetie, Matt has tried his hand at yet another craft and rocked it's sox off.

:: hoping to cut 45 hairdos tomorrow, but I doubt I have the stamina. The wheelchairs are so low, my back will give up first I think. My garlic breath could scare some off though.

:: wanting my breath to not be fiery hot with garlic. How much did I eat!? Geiger counters are going off.

:: thinking about paper dolls. They were cool.

:: reminding myself to be positive even though today had a lot of challenges, particularly with dealing with logic-impaired individuals and "timesaving" devices that complicate things and make them take longer.

:: making all our bread now! Haven't bought any in about a month! I did not think I could do that. Nice surprise!

:: planning on playing a few rounds of mah johng solitaire.

:: wishing Jas would find a wedding dress she likes and feels pretty in!

potpourri

2011-02-01T22:29:00.000-05:00

Just a smattering of goings-on:
The invisibility cloak was a big hit! Lots of Harry Potter and Doogie the Dugong games have been played since it was owl-delivered.

I found a wonderful sled for Olivia on a tree lawn, on it's way to being landfill fodder when there was nothing wrong with it and it was simply darling. I hate that idea. She can sled in her very own bluebird next winter!

I had fun decorating a gift for a special sis-in-love with some recycled items (not the spoons, they were new, gosh)

I decided to embroider the tag I found

Let me tell you something... A LOT OF FUN can be had with some dollar store googly eyes if you are a big enough donkey!

A very special episode of Dairy Godmother...

2011-02-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

I must confess that I have a very specific disorder. If one must choose to have a handicap, I will recommend it to you, as it really isn't all that disabling, especially if you are hobotic. My condition is facialvisuaspatialcookie-cutter blindness. I am completely unable to visualize cookie cutters as decorated cookies if the have a face involved.
I made groundhog cookies today with a sweet little cookie cutter that I couldn't wait to get my hands on. I frosted them with chocobrown icing and they looked nice enough. But then things got ugly. I decided to embellish them. "I'll just put some features on them" I thought. I studied the cookies and determined that it was sort of a side-view of the little whistlepig, ergo, there would only need to be one eye. Lord. That was when all hell broke loose. The eyes looked like cyclops' eyes if potatoes could be cyclopses. So I tried a mouth, which aggravated the condition. Finally, I said, "Screw it" and gave them all handlebar moustaches, which seemed to help a bit.
Moral of the story: Moustaches make everything better.

An Army of whistlepig mutants

No, he isn't pooping, simply oozing.

I call him Three-mile Island Thaddius.

Wolfie "entertains" at the Dentist's office today

2011-01-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

I took the boys for their appt. with the hygienist today. Wolfie didn't stop talking, even while he was having his teeth polished. When he entered the waiting room, he removed his coat and loudly stated, "I'm Wolfgang, I'm 5 1/2 years old and I'm about to shed my skin." Then when he was sitting down in the hygienist's chair, he admired all of the gadgetry and announced, "That's quite an operation you've got here."
What a weird and wonderful kid!

Some celebratory randomness

2011-01-18T23:08:00.000-05:00

We have been celebrating some random holidays around here, in addition to real holidays, like MLK day. I used The Sneetches to help explain the idea of equality/bigotry for MLK day,as well as some basic intro to who MLK was. Unfortunately, the book I wanted from the library did not come in on time, so we will learn even more about him when the book arrives.
We also celebrated the birthday of Rubber Ducky, Ernie's bath time pal (Sesame street, Of course). Here was our centerpiece.

Today was Winnie the Pooh day, so we read all our Pooh books, snuggled our Eeyore and Piglet dolls, baked a honey cake and set a trap for a Heffalump. Wolfie was very disappointed that he did not catch a Heffalump. He is determined that "Heffalumps are non-fiction, NOT fiction!"

Tonight we wrapped up an "invisibility cloak" (an old sheer curtain) and left it for the boys to find.

I anticipate crying when Wolfie realizes people can still see him, but we will hope for the best. He has been reading Harry Potter with Dad, and loves it. He makes up stories about being "Doogie the Dugong" and being discovered by McGonagle and Dumbledore while lost at sea. They rescued him,brought him to Hogwart's where he is cared for by Hagrid. He is learning to "swoosh and flick" his wand in his little flipper so he can make spells for creating sea grass to eat and fill his "squishy little belly". He has advanced past Manatees into dugongs. This is a Dugong for the uninitiated.

In other news, I made some really excellent Chinese noodle soup when we were watching Kung Fu Panda. The noodles were 5 kinds of awesome, so pure.

Tomorrow is "Popcorn Day" which may or may not be an international holiday. I wonder how we will celebrate that? Performance art???????

Holiday craft cavalcade!

2011-01-14T20:01:00.002-05:00

Now that gifts have been given, I can post some of my family's Christmas crafts that were given as gifts without spoiling any surprises. Matt, Grandpa Jay and Jas did some crafting this year, which made it even more fun. Unfortunately, not all of the crafts were photographed, but this will give you a taste. I loved that some of my friends responded to my homemade gift post last year with posts of their own, chock full of new ideas ~~for me to steal~~ to inspire me! I hope they do it again!
I got acquainted with crochet via this little baby Cthulu doll I made for my bro-in-luv. I later modified this into a Cthulu cup cozy for my sweet Lovecraft-lovin' husband too.

I crocheted a winter headband with a flower for my big haired daughter (must be nice to have too much hair for a hat)

She, in turn made a cute headband for herself by following some tutorials online during a sleepless new baby night.

I got my knitting going too and made a sock monkey cup cozy for my other brother-in-love. I was able to use some yarn given to me by a super-knitter that I work with, you should see the stuff she knits!

For their wives, i made up some glass pendants, upcycling some glass marbles I had and photos from magazines

I made my Mom some embroidered napkins for her to use when she is hosting Mahjong. These were actually a birthday gift, but it falls during the holiday season, so it is fair game!

I used some recycled denim to make a little bib for Olivia.

Matt made Olivia some Onesies using freezer paper stencils of some drawings he did. She looks soooo cute in them!

He also painted a canvas playmat for the boys. I love the concession stand and car wash!

Even my Father-in-luv joined in, making Vladdie a double rainbow for his train set!

Lastly, all of us chipped in to make "Treecycle", a 3-d tree about 3 feet tall made from recycled boxes and magazines. It has ornaments made from the handles of chinese take-out boxes. Wolfie sewed the packing peanut garland all on his own! Vladdie put the popsicle stick star on top. The little tree is made out of one folded magazine.

That's all the crafting that I took pics of. We had a lot of fun making things together. It is so nice to think of the people you are making them for and remember fun times you had together. It is as if the supply lists should include "love" in them!

2011...

2011-01-02T22:38:00.000-05:00

   I know resolutions get a bad rap, but I love them. I love taking stock, setting new goals and trying to meet them. Not that I meet all of them, mind you (still don't know how to juggle after several resolutions to learn to do so). However, this year, I don't have any major ones to declare. I suppose that is a good sign and it does fit in with my recent trend of just not doing a lot of things I normally do, simply because I don't feel like it. Is that a sign that I am getting old? or maybe wiser, godforbid.
   I am going to keep going with a few things that I have been doing, but feel I can continue to improve in. First there is my commitment to reducing the amount of plastic in our lives, especially in our kitchen. I have made really good progress, using mostly glass, stainless steel and cast iron. I recently replaced my aging coffee maker (Thanks to a xmas present!) with a metal percolator and love it! It has been slow going, as I try to get things used, repurpose them or wait and request them as gifts, but progress has been made.
   I want to keep up with reducing my family's exposure to known carcinogens in cosmetics ( Please watch the story of cosmetics by clicking here, you'll be glad you did ). We have made great strides in this, but have room to improve-- perhaps a challenge to me to craft a natural old-school barber type aftershave???? Our family now uses castile bar soap for shampooing and body washing, eliminating a lot of products/packaging. Coconut oil from the grocery store is our go-to moisturizer. I even made a nice deodorant from coconut oil, baking soda, cornstarch and a few drops of clove and rosemary oils. Having such weird skin issues this year really prompted these changes, but learning more about what is in so many products has made me glad to do it.
   I hope to improve my knitting and aim to knit Matt a pair of socks. I hope to make my crafting and d.i.y.'ing even more ecologically sound by using second-hand supplies (anyone got any yarn they don't want :)? ) or repurposing supplies.
   I plan to step up my debt reduction/saving and continue to be frugal despite my desire to spoil everyone rotten.
   I will try not to buy anything I don't actually need, or can get used, etc...
   I aim to be easier on myself, take things a little more slowly (by my standards) and to say "no" a lot. I hope to create situations for our family that result in less punishing and more redirection and praise. I plan to continue to let my husband know that he is "sooooo my boyfriend" and my partner in crime. I hope to be a good example and source of support to my daughter in raising her daughter, not a critic or kidnapper. I will continue my role as household clown for the amusement of my tenants, and our northern neighbors as the drapes are rather sheer on those windows.
   I will learn to juggle. :)

The stockings were hung...

2010-12-17T22:49:00.001-05:00

For years we haven't put out our Christmas stockings, because there just wasn't a good place to do so. Then the other day i'm driving down the street and what should appear-- a shelf with exactly the right number of pegs for everyone's stockings! It was "country" to say the least. Matt took it down to the basement and gave it a few coats of paint and hung it in the dining room . Now our stockings are finally joining in on the Christmas fun again!

Before

After!

I would like to "shabby" it up when I get time so it matches with the mirror better. I don't think I will leave it up all year, just at the Holidays. Right now I have some Christmas trinkets from my past on it. Stuff I wouldn't get a chance to put out otherwise, so I am enjoying looking at it and savoring all the memories that go with those items. However, I think I can put together a nicer display in the future. At any rate, something was saved from a landfill that fills a need I had , and cost next to nothing! Booya!

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

2010-12-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

This is Jassy's nutcracker collection in all its holiday finery.

Our wee tree trying to look big and glorious! Note my Mother's wall hanging, which is actually big and glorious!

Matt does freezer paper stencils quite well

2010-11-26T20:13:00.000-05:00

Matt has been messing around with some freezer paper stencil designs. He has some put away for the boys for Christmas but also has done a few here that I can post.

A really cool Moguera shirt that was crazy complex!

Then, some undies for his Dad...

He is having a lot of fun with this, especially with stuff for the boys. There are a lot of good tutorials out there, like this one from a great blog named http://www.dana-made-it.com/

while Mom's away, the boys will play

2010-11-26T19:54:00.001-05:00

This is the kind of stuff that goes on when I'm at work. Add a camping play set made by my Mom with some figures from He-man and throw in some marshmallows and you get this...

Or maybe you'd like some gum?

And reason 1,000,001 of why i love my husband is... He leaves love notes for all of us!

Appreciating the vintage...

2010-11-24T11:02:00.000-05:00

Just looking at some of my favorite vintage kitchen stuff makes me feel like I ate a big bowl of mac-n-cheese with stewed tomatoes and cornbread. Comforted.

milk glass, a star-bottomed pitcher, trivets and a favorite tablecloth.

Grandma's old measuring cups, icepicks (which is one of my most useful kitchen tools), a juicer, ice cream spade and a double boiler that I received for my birthday.

A special tablecloth I got on my last day of living in Washington at a local thrift store and a new-to-me cake carrier in amazing condition from the thrifty peddler in Lakewood. I got that baby for just a couple bucks!

What things do you use all the time that bring you comfort and joy? A favorite mug? a special blanket? There is something about making the mundane into something special that makes life immensely enjoyable for me.

Something for Winter, Something for Spring

2010-11-17T19:40:00.000-05:00

I whipped myself up a couple of things lately that have made me happy. First of all, I know it is almost Thanksgiving, but I made a skirt for Spring. I found 2 pristine vintage pillowcases and couldn't keep my hands off them! So what if it was practically snowing when I sat down at Hazel (my sewing machine, yeah, I also name my cars!) Those pillowcases demanded to be reworked into something more fabulous!

Then, reality set in and the knitting needles came out! Time for something warm! I had picked up a cute vintage swing coat for a steal at $10 and needed a hat to go with it. I used a pattern I found on Ravelry by Rachel Iufer . I of course, screwed up and knitted too many rows but salvaged it by flipping the brim. On the bright side-- my ears will be even toastier!

I have fallen in love with the color!!!!!!!!

While I was busy making this stuff, my daughter was busy making my grand baby! She was a little early, but her Mom tried her very best to keep the little bun baking as long as possible! I have had the chance to finally hold her now that she is out of the NICU and it was heavenly!!!!!!!!!

What a dolly!!!!!!!!! Olivia Jean!!!

Time to be appreciative..

2010-10-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

I need a big dose of counting my blessings right now, so here's a few...
***Amazingly warm, gorgeously golden Autumn day!

***Sweet husband that gave me a super hairdo!

***Awesome friends and family that helped celebrate the hopefully-still-month-away birth of my Granddaughter at Jassy's shower. I love a gathering of women of all ages and experience levels. I always learn something, laugh at something, hug somebody and become energized by everyone's company.
***The Tooth Fairy. As described by Wolfie, "She has wings and a wand. She has a beautiful dress and a pretty nice looking face. She has good hair, like green or something." Vlad thinks she will ride in on a purple motorcycle and wake him up.

***cupcakes!

***apple picking in the countryside, by yourselves. Quiet, except for apple crunching!

***Colorful flowers in the yard, at the end of October.

***Perfect french toast.
***"Madeline" episodes on Hulu.com

***Dog cousins lovingly being fed lollipops. Complete with requests not to chew it, only lick it. Don't want to hurt the teeth.

***A nice boss.
***A daughter that is still excited about being pregnant, even though she is having a hellified pregnancy.

How do you hide Giant cupcakes?

2010-10-18T22:29:00.000-04:00

Put them in a pot and the boys will think they are dinner and avoid them at all costs!

And the sad little cake that was frosting repellent, but was eaten anyways...

This was all in the name of Birthday Joy for My Mom-in-Love, Jo! She requested a Christmas tree skirt as a gift, which I attempted to sew.

It was quite an endeavor, as my fabric shrunk. a lot. Like 6 inches of project gone. I went to the fabric store at least twice a day for enough days in a row that I was afraid they might think I was a stalker and take out a restraining order. I just couldn't get my head around this project. I am easily distracted-- oh! colorful pins!! Sewing madness ensued...

At any rate, I finished it and got to spend a great day with a great lady (a lady that receives some really good birthday cards, ahem, Momma K, Bettye and David!)

P.s. Matt left the boys this drawing the other day and I think it is really sweet, because the boys LOVE Manatees!

Isn't he the best?!?!

I heart Hedgehogs!

2010-10-18T21:28:00.001-04:00

My sweet husband made his Mom a super-cute tote bag for going to the library with the Hoffbros. It is just one of the things the boys love to do with Grandma! The tote has a pic of a hedgehog on it.

It made me think about these little old ladies that used to visit the nursing home I worked at in Washington every week. Sometimes they had a basket on their arms covered with a tea towel, like it should be filled with warm cookies or some such treat. But no! it was filled with little sweetie-pie hedgehogs! Rolled into balls and busy being darling! Then just a few weeks ago, i was at the zoo with my Mom and a lady had some little HH's too! They get me all fired up. So I went looking for more of them and found that they make me smile...

Poor little guy has a boo boo!

A Girl!

Madonna and child

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

Nyaaaaah!

5 senses time!

2010-10-08T23:19:00.000-04:00

tasting :: Mac -n-cheese from hot sauce williams!

hearing :: Yet another tantrum by Wolfie as he figures out how far he can push the boundaries. bliss. joy.

smelling :: all manner of lovely food smells wafting around in the autumn air while we ran errands tonight.

seeing :: Pictures of Vlad we had taken tonight in a little jumpsuit that was Matt's as a tot. We now have photos of Matt, Wolf and Vlad in it. Vlad just barely squeezed into it (Wolf's pic was taken at 1 1/2 years old, Vlad is 3!) He looks like a child living on the USS Enterprise!

feeling:: tired. Not wanting to work this weekend. I'm just not in the mood to do all the convincing, motivating, coercing, etc... that it will require of me.

What are your 5 senses, um, well,sensing today?

A little Q & A...

2010-10-03T23:24:00.000-04:00

Making : goo-goo eyes at my sweetheart!
Cooking : an awesome last minute casserole, using leftover rice, homemade pesto,
broccoli/onions/'shrooms and a little cheese. Turned out much more delish than expected. Plus,
bonus points for using up the leftover rice.
Drinking : had a peach cider slushie today at the orchard. mmmmmmmmm!
Reading: "Simply sublime gifts : high-style, low-sew projects to make in a snap" by jodi kahn
Wanting: Less crap in my house.
Looking: rough around the edges
Playing: Not much today, it was very busy!
Wasting: "waisting"-- I have been eating too many goodies lately.
Sewing: baby stuff!
Wishing: for an extra couple hours each day!
Enjoying: Apples, fresh picked.
Waiting: to have my fridge fixed.
Liking: My husband's artistic side.
Wondering: when Olivia will be born
Loving: Getting to spend extra time with Jas
Hoping: Vladdie will get back to normal pooping. Currently holding it in, ever since potty training. Making himself miserable.
Marveling: at Wolfie's first loose tooth
Needing: motivation
Smelling: Matt's old-timey cologne, lilac vegetal :)
Wearing: a chewbacca shirt that says "let the Wookie win"
Following: not much. Behind on the news. Not watching any tv. Not interested in sports, movies,
etc...
Noticing: I got out of work on time today, for a change
Knowing: "This too shall pass" is a good mantra
Thinking: about Jassy's baby shower
Opening: my mind to positive thoughts
Giggling: at something Matt said in the car, wish I could remember what it was.
Feeling: aggravated that Wolfie has another stuffy nose.