Best Dinner Ever!

Ok, maybe not the best dinner ever, but best in a long time.  The food was good, but the best part was that I was happy.  I have been pretty uninspired about dinner lately.  Today my Visiting Teachers had made an appointment to visit at 7.  I remembered that I had a meeting at that time.  Instead of just saying "Oh that's ok.We will call you next month."  She said "Well we could come over right after church and help you get dinner ready or set the table."  It has been so long since I had visiting teachers who really wanted to come, I had forgotten that it is a good thing. They came over and we ad a nice chat while they cut up fruit and diced potatoes for me.  I felt happy making dinner and the food tasted extra good to me!
Tender Mercies.

Eating Purple!

We had 2 purple things for dinner this week.

This is the broccoli and cauliflower that I cut in my garden.  The Cauliflower is the purple sprig.  The broccoli is growing well and the cauliflower is a bit slow this year.  The seed package said that it would be fuchsia,  maybe it has to do with our crazy rebel soil.

 These are the mashed purple sweet potatoes that I bought at the chinese market.  They were pretty but dry.  I needed some sour cream to add to them.

What kind of vitamins do you get from eating purple.

I was only gone for a minute.

I don't remember which very important errand I went on, maybe it was the trip to get pizza at Little Caesars.  Anyway, when I got home Hazel had a few pale pink lines around her mouth where she had tried to wash off some marker.  I reminded her not to color on herself.  Of course she said "Oh, I didn't.  Abby did it."  We had a good discussion about fleeing evil's presence.  Today I found this picture on my camera.  I would agree that Hazel did not draw on herself, that is Abby's signature panda on the forehead.   I think I might need to hire a babysitter next time to keep an eye on Abby :)

The Big Four-Oh

 We hade a double celebration.  Kenneth's Birthday and Chinese New Year!  Kenneth went on a campout with the Boy Scouts on his actual birthday.  So we planned a fancy Chinese dinner for his return.  I think he was surprised.  We had steamed buns with roast pork filling, mongolian fire pot (think chinese fondue), lemon chicken, stir fried vegies, and white rabbit candies.

 Nate and Rebekah baked an awesome orange cake. 

  Hazel decorated it.

 Christian and Truman put 2 packs of candles (48 in all) on the little cake.

 The fire was a big one.

 There was a lot of smoke!

We also bought some chinese ice cream.  We almost bought the avocado flavor but we thought that Kenneth might appreciate lychee fruit more.

Calcium Update

It appears to be working.  No one has broken any bones (knock on wood) for almost 2 weeks.

Nate's Knightly Read

Nate is practicing reading in an effort to increase his fluency.  Hopefully, his reading files will be appearing on the blog more often, and improving in quality. My fingers are crossed.

He is really hoping that maybe some of his younger cousins who can't read yet might enjoy the stories!

You can listen at NateReads.

The Casted Twins

We have made it a whole week without any broken bones, and the children are enjoying their calcium supplements!

Passing of an Era

This is "The Nursery", or it used to be.  I painted the walls when I was pregnant with Rebekah.  I would put the other kids down for a nap and then paint as fast as I could then lock the door so no one touched the wet paint.  My friend came and we painted the walls to match some curtains I had made.  It was a happy peaceful place.  We even painted the hungry caterpillar on the edge of the window.

I know this may come as a shock, but we don't need a nursery anymore.  The room has been inhabited by musical instruments and junk.  When Christian got a drum set last year, most of the junk moved on and the music moved in.  It has been used as the music room.

Over the holidays we moved out the instruments to make room for guests and discovered the room to be empty.  There is no better time to clean off the popcorn ceiling and repaint.

Now our nursery is "The Music Room".  (Complete with British invasion)  We have a few more details to work on. 

Maybe we aren't getting enough.... Calcium

Last week I tried to write this but I was a little overwhelmed.  I promised myself that I would write it this week.  Luckily, I am feeling surreal instead of overwhelmed.
Here is the timeline:
New years eve 2011
Fridge not cold
Kenneth puts all food in coolers & totally disassembles fridge
Megan starts load of laundry #1 and takes Christian to the mall to pick up shoes
Kenneth gets part for fridge
Megan tries to put wash into dryer only to find that the washer is still full of water and has error code F-28 (communication error)
Kenneth starts putting fridge back together
Nate is bored so he washes all the light switches in the house
Christian is making chex mix
Truman makes berry pie
Nate goes out to "swing for 10 minutes"
Megan begins emptying water from washer to clean out trap
Abby makes fudge
Kenneth puts fridge back in place and is mopping up
Megan can't get the trap closed due to an otter pop wrapper and a ziplock baggie and water begins flodding the laundry room
Kenneth comes to help and gets the trap closed
Nate flies out of the swing, bloodies his face, has his wind knocked out, and can't move his arms
Megan picks the grass out of his teeth and helps him to bed to rest for a minute.
Nate sleeps for 2 hours
Megan mops up the water in the laundry room
Kenneth mops up the rest of the water that seeped into the garage
Megan puts the washer back together and mops the laundry room again
Nate wakes up and Megan takes him to urgent care.
Nate gets x rays and a splint
Hazel makes mac and cheese with hot dogs
We have a potluck dinner, play games and light the fireworks we bought for the 4th of July
Bed at last!

Fast forward to Friday night
Megan leaves Kenneth and the kids playing "Tickle Monster"
Megan pulls into the Target parking lot 2.2 miles away
Kenneth ends game and asks Rebekah to practice her french horn
Rebekah says she doesn't want to
Kenneth "swipes" Rebekah's feet, she looses her balance and falls down
Megan receives phone call "I'm not kidding.  I think I just broke Rebekah's arm"
Kenneth takes Rebekah to urgent care where he doesn't admit to knowing Nate or I
Megan shops for the shower gift at target
Rebekah gets Xrays and a splint
Megan arrives home to all the other kids faces pressed to the living room window
The neighborhood surely hears the chorus of "Dad broke Rebekah's arm"
Kenneth and Rebekah arrive home and everyone is sent to bed

Saturday Morning
Am official moratorium is in effect on running, jumping, playing, swinging, falling, tickling, and moving

Tomorrow, I am going to buy calcium supplements and straight jackets!

Ringing in the New Year

On New Years Eve we traditionally have a potluck dinner.  You bring whatever you most wish to eat.  This year's menu included: Root beer & Cherry 7up, strawberries, Chex mix, Triple berry pie, Chinese steamed dumplings, fudge, cheese and crackers, tapioca pudding, and Kraft Mac&Cheese with hot dogs in it.  It was delicious and Hazel made these awesome hats too.

 Nate was the hungriest. 

(He is also a bit more docile than normal because he broke his arm earlier that day.)

 Here is everyone except the mom (who is taking the pic) and the Dadd (who is checking the dumplings).

Here is Dadd.