Sometimes it gets very quiet

And I wonder what kind of shenanigans is under way, especially when Sophie and Isaac are quiet at the same time!  Sometimes, I find a wonderful scene that I can add Daniel to.  Like today:

Isaac tries very hard to retell the story, but Sophie's pictures must have been more interesting to Daniel. 

Here's that apple sauce!!! 

 

5 quarts!!!  Plus a cup leftover and juice for breakfast!  Chris is a chronic optimist, so when he told me he thought there would be a gallon of apple sauce, I chalked it up to his good nature but didn't put much stock in it.  Sure enough, he was close!   

Apples - a debate

How many cups of applesauce will this little pile of apples make?  Any wagers?  In cups.

I have absolutely no idea.  This is my first time canning applesauce, and I've done enough canning recently to know that what you start with is nothing close to what you end with. 

Chris has a bet, but I believe he is far too high.  He would rather I use these apples for a higher cause, making crisp or pie. 

I found my kitchen!

My kitchen has a bad habit of succumbing to entropy.  I clean off the island, and about 7 seconds later it's coated in a random mix of things - kindergarten worksheets, books, bills, crayons, and really anything else that just happens to be floating around the house, homeless. I'm trying to devise a plan to keep the counters cleaned off.  Not an easy task, as this is certainly not the first time I've tried.  Any workable plans are welcome.  Now onto the rest of the house.

Oh, while I was cleaning my kitchen, I did not unearth that personal chef I'm pretty sure should be there.  If you find him, send him my way - tell him we want steaks tonight with asparagus and stuffed mushrooms.  Thanks. 

Big Boy

Look at this big boy!  I put him in the Bumbo yesterday for the first time and he loved it!  He likes to be up where he can look around and watch the other kids.  It will be several months before he can sit up on his own, so this provides him with the fake backbone to allow him to pretend to be a big boy. 

Boo!

Each Friday, Eli's class has snack day.  Snack day is a HUGE big deal to my little kindergartner.  Which is funny if you know him, because you'd know that he's not a terribly great eater.  Except, apparently, when Jaden's mom bakes muffins - then he eats them.  Sigh.  My turn on the rotation is this Friday.  I will never be the cool mom, rest assured, but my treats will be cool.  So, I came up with these cuties for him to take:

He was pretty excited when I showed them to him today.  Hopefully his teacher will wait until the last possible moment to hand them out so she doesn't have to deal with the sugar high.  

Stationery card

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I learned a few things today

Every day, when Eli gets off of the bus, I say, "Elijah, what did you learn at school today?"  I'm really excited and ready to hear, and usually the question is met by, "I don't remember."   He's quick to talk about snack time and recess.  Today I was wondering when we stop asking that question.  Certainly there are an endless number of things to learn, see, and do, but it seems that the question is only ever asked of school aged children.  Well, here's what I learned today:

1) There is a gender neutral term to define nieces and nephews!  The word is NIBLING.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Nibling.  My nieces and nephews are super cute, so calling them niblings sounds fitting.  :) 

2) It is possible to MAKE powdered sugar.  All you do is put granulated sugar in the food processor and blitz it until it becomes powdered.  I had no idea. 

3) My migraines are not gone.  Being pregnant and having babies may have slowed them up considerably, but I can't control the weather, and as long as that's true I'm bound to be dealing with them in the fall and spring when the weather is super wonky.  Another related thing I learned today - Sophia has it in her to be a true leader.  She took control of this house today, trying her best to help me.  She played with Isaac and kept him quiet, helped pick up without my asking, sat with Daniel and giggled with him, and was just generally a good little helper.  And I am finally feeling better, thank God!

Gardening Accidents

I have a very bad habit of buying plants on clearance, sticking them in the flower beds, and then forgetting about them.  Sometimes I don't even know what they are, how big they will get, or anything about them.  I was able to uproot 3 very well established Juniper plants last summer, so I should be able to get just about anything out after that experience.  I rarely water - I figure if you're going to survive in my flower beds you better be hardy enough to fend for yourself.  Wimpy plants die out, while hardy ones survive and thrive. 

I picked up a rose bush on clearance for $3 at Giant Eagle a few months ago.  Chris planted it in one of the beds behind the house.  Once in a while I'd look at it to see if it were still alive, and it would be green.  Today I was out trying to start cleaning up for the fall, and here's what I found:

 

Now I know that I planted a pink rose bush.  :)  Sophia will be thrilled.  

When Comics Match Life

 My brother sent me this really funny comic strip yesterday:

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson:

Sometimes I wonder about the jumbled mess the part of my brain is that keeps track of kid's stories.  It must be an absolute disaster in there.  "In a great green room, there was a telephone...I love your inside and outside...one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish...Gossie is a gossling.  A small yellow gosling who likes to wear bright red boots.  EVERY DAY...for I have never been afraid of anything, not very...and when the moon is on the rise, they all go up to exercise...go by scooter, go by skis, bundle up so you don't freeze...hey you, want to fight?..."  I imagine myself as a very old woman, sitting in a chair, babbling about pale green pants. 

I've never taken this route with books, but sometimes I do hide a book or two to change the focus for a while.  Isaac loves The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carl right now.  He's starting to move out of this phase though, just as Daniel will enter it.  My mom tells my that she read me The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown Ad nauseam when I was young.  We've certainly been through that one here too.  I can't figure out what it is about certain books that makes them so appealing, but my kids certainly have a way of picking a favorite and sticking with it - for a looooooong time.