Ordinary Life

Everyone had gone to the truck, except Riley and myself. We seem to always be the last two in the car. There are a host of reasons, from finding a lost shoe to re-packing an understocked diaper bag. We've recently added "Load Rye's purse" to that list. That was one of the reasons we were lagging on this day. We took the elevator down one whole flight...18 steps worth of space... to the parking lot ; not because it is faster, rather because it is a safer means of travel for those of us with both hands and a foot full. As we exited the elevator, Riley spied her shadow in a shaft of sunlight. She and her newfound friend commenced a dance promptly.

A short clip of Reagan & Riley dancing in the hotel lobby before Grandpaw's funeral. When she watched the clip, Rye said with a smile " There's my cousin!" In other recent news, Reagan was inviting another cousin to his make-believe party, even though...GASP... she's a girl! So cool to see these cousins learning about their family connection and develop a friendship around it.

Riley is a ' Sophia the First ' fan. One episode featured a Princess Test. The Princesses-In-Training were practicing proper fan technique in hopes of passing the test. That is where Rye came up with the steps: " First I fan, then I laugh... heeheehee " Enjoy our own little princess as she practices her fan technique...and excuse the background noise...it's bound to happen in this house :) 

We've been learning about minerals in Earth Science.  Yesterday, we learned about identifying minerals with the various tests that scientists use. For us, testing involved a hammer, a small pillow case and a handful of rock samples purchased in a kit for just this section of the book. Everyone was disappointed that mom refused to share the hammer. Identifying Minerals Project Today's lesson  was about Native Minerals and the way they are harvested~specifically mining.  (from MiddleEarth~ha! Yes, we did tie a small conversation about The Hobbit into our lesson...Snow White and her Dwarves too)   Our project was to 'harvest' chocolate chips and then clean up the environment behind our efforts.  (ie; lick the plate)  CLICK HERE for a Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe The 'Dwarves' adopted Hobbit Names in a fine Miner Mash-Up. Find your own Hobbit name HERE . "Bungo Burrows" "Myrtle Burrows" "Bulbo Burrows" Mining Mission Complete. 

Chocolate Chip  Cookies This recipe is adapted from the 1977  Betty Crocker cookbook my mom gave me when I married. It is older than I am and like many things with more age than me, it is full of wisdom to be gleaned. 2/3 cup Butter 1 cup Sugar 1 cup Brown Sugar 2 ts Vanilla extract 2 Eggs 3 cups All Purpose Flour 1 ts Salt 1 ts Baking Soda Chocolate Chips Other mix-ins as desired Cream together 2/3 cup of softened butter with 1 cup Sugar, 1 cup Brown Sugar and two eggs (I used half salted, half unsalted butter).  Add 2 ts Vanilla (I filled my second ts 2/3 full and filled the remaining space with almond extract). Blend in 3 cups All Purpose Flour (I used 1 cup White Whole Wheat/2 Cups regular ), Salt & Soda. Toss in Chocolate Chips & Stir. Lay out a long piece of plastic wrap and scoop dough onto wrap. Wrap dough into a long cylinder, seal well and refrigerate. (As you form the cylinder, think about the size of the cookies you are making... this should inform yo...

Sleepy Cat (needs a nap)  Start with a clean candy tin. We used a miniature one.   The pillow and blanket are made from ribbon.   Sleepy Cat is two pieces of felt, hand stitched together; wide awake wiggly eyes on one side, snoozy sleeping eyes on the other.  Snoozer is Sleepy Cat's teddy-mouse. Smaller felt scraps stitched together, again with differing eyes to denote asleep/alertness.  A small story book and a ball of yarn for playtime.  All put together...  ...and portable...

It is funny how a little thing like blogging can start out as mild interest and then, in time, somehow turn into an obligation of sorts. Funnier still, I am only obligated to me; it is I alone dissapointed by my inability to speak these days. I don't think it is so much a need for attention, the blogging. I mean, sure it is swell when "Aunt Suzie" (not her real name) lauds me as a talented scribe but I could take up professional plate spinning and I am pretty certain she'd still have kind words to lavish upon me. In fact, I rather despise the "look at me! look at me!" aspect associated with blogging. Neither does blogging solve loneliness or provide anymore solace than that of a paper journal, at least not for me. Less hand cramps, maybe. I have no delusions of joining the ranks of today's super women BlogHer s. I am pretty certain I wouldn't want that many eyes on me anyway. I think, instead, my desire to have a public conversation amongst myself is...

She said she was hungry.  Clever what they stock those lower shelves with, no?

Watched this video on BuzzFeed awhile back.  Decided to gave it a go.  In fact, I bought apples just to try it. It works.  (and I did eat the seeds too... because someone once told me too...they're kind of ' almond-y ')

DIY Laundry Detergent "It's better, cheaper & smells fantastic...MAYBE"  Basically, one of everything pictured ( below) : Washing Soda Borax Baking Soda Grated Pink Zote Soap (or FelzNaptha) Epsom Salts & Scent (or scented softening crystals) (2 boxes equals proper amount) Oxygenated Stain Remover DIY Laundry Detergent Ingredients I will start by saying that my results may be different than the glowing review of the recipe I followed because I used varied ingredients. I am not convinced that any one substitution made would change my overall experience with the results. The substitutions are as follows:  1 Bar of Zote Soap instead of 2. The package looked like 2 bars in one wrapper, so we didn't bring enough home. I don't believe there would be a major difference even if the second bar was added because it seems that this soap doesn't dissolve very well before the washer has started- there are always chunks of it still floating about.  Epsom Salts &...

Betty Crocker Marzipan Cookie Recipe  Once upon a time, in the far away Land of Kentucky, under the floor beams of a Wesleyan church, in a magical place called the Night Kitchen (of Fellowship Hall),   Brother Ben  and I worked long into the wee hours making miniature marzipan vegetables.  Sir Chandler was turning 3 and had requested a "LarryBoy" cake... I'll leave the remaining dots for you to connect :)  Marzipan VeggieTales & Larry Boy Cake Marzipan candies call for Almond Paste, but Barren County, KY was barren of this ingredient...amongst many other things.  So we bought almonds and made a rustic paste of our own.  In a blender . Hours of buzzing and blending and mulching and molding later... we had crafted several marzipan VeggieTales.  It was a LOT of work for little vegetables.  Sometimes, the experience of making an item is as much the reason for undertaking an endeavor as the anticipated joy of using or eating the it...

No one in the stands last night bothered with the whole bleacher. We only required the edge of our seats to keep a sharp eye on the field, the coaches, and especially those umps. Each team had scored  dramatic wins in the previous week, bringing them to this third, tie-breaking match for the season championship. Those of us holding our breath were blue by the time a score finally blinked onto the scoreboard in the fifth inning. As we neared the end of seventh inning, the score had climbed in such a way (6-1) that the fans for the opposing team began to quietly celebrate their (inevitable) win behind me. In all fairness, their optimism was understandable. At this age, they only get seven regular innings. It was all but over. Only the technicality of one last  'at-bat' for our team remained before the other team could get on with celebrating their win. With gloves of resignation on their heads and the threat of tears in some eyes, our boys made the switch. I'm not very keen o...

General Jackson Carnes There has always been a small, unofficial tradition that accompanied visits to my grandparents' home. Whenever it was time to leave, generally after many, many false starts that resulted in visiting just a little longer,  they would walk us out, give one last round of good bye hugs and kisses, and then they would stand in the drive way, smiling and waving until our car was out of sight. I have noticed this tradition spill over into visits with my parents. And on those rare but wonderful mornings where Clay and I are able to steal a little porch time together before he heads out to work, I find myself remaining on the porch, where I see him off in much the same way...even when he is past the point of seeing me, I stand waving (or flicking the porch light), watching until he fades from view. It is really a way of saying "I love you so, I hate to see you go..." During my grandfather's funeral, I remarked to a few people that I saw a similarity in t...