Blogging thoughts... and our day

One of the frustrating things about blogging, for me, is that I feel like I need to have some profound thought in order to post, or a topic to cover, or a practical, helpful thing to share, or at least an event in our family life to write about.

The thing is: I rarely, if ever, have a profound thought.

And my brain- when I sit down to write- isn't organized by topic.

And most days I have nothing practical or helpful to share. We may be doing things that I think are fun and or helpful to us, but it feels a little presumptious to think that others will, too.

As for family events, we have lots of those happening, but by the time I sit down to write about them- it's been several days, I have no photos uploaded or just didn't take any photos and my motivation to blog about it has waned.

Often I open up the little "New Post" window to write something and then sit there with the cursor blinking and the blank screen before me and decide I have nothing to say.

But I do have lots to say, it just doesn't seem "polished" enough for a blog post.

For the time being, I'm throwing anything remotely resembling a "polished" blog post out the window and I'm going to try to simply be me. Conversational.

So, today:

It's 8:38.

Ella and Adelia are still sleeping (!)

Isaac and Isaias are awake and playing downstairs- so as not to wake the girls. This whole system is working out quite well, and I am so thankful.

Audra is sitting beside me in her bouncy seat, squealing and happy. But she will be much happier when the rest of the kids enter the room. She loves her brothers and sisters, because they are a constant source of entertainment.

I was up at 5:30, went walking with my mom and then came back for my quiet time. I adore quiet mornings. And quiet evenings, for that matter. My days are never quiet. And as much as I love my children and this fun (but a little crazy!) season in life, I do love a little solitude, too.

Today is a normal school day. I realize most of you are on summer break, but we did so little school this past year what with my pregnancy and the first few months of Audra's life that it is now going to take us two years to do all that I had intended to do in one year. Literally. So we're schooling through July and then will take the month of August off, and then head back into it September.

Ella will be anxious to get done with school today and begin her List. I'll tell you all about that another time, because Ella is up and Adelia needs to get up, and it's time to call the boys up so that's all I've got for today.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Audra outside, last week

Open House: Monday, July 6

I am wearing... jeans, olive green shirt, my hair in a ponytail.

I am listening to... Ella and Isaac whispering, playing Legos together for their quiet time. Also Audra's little noises as she watches them from her bouncy seat. And just now Adelia, murmuring from her crib, having just woken from her nap.

I am reading... The Hole in Our Gospel

I am looking forward to... Inspiration to hit for dinner tonight. (HA! It's 4:03. Perhaps a better use of my time right now would be to work on a dinner plan?)

I am thinking... I'll make pizza for dinner. I know we have ham and cheese. And olives. No pineapple, though. But pizza dough and sauce are easy to whip up. There. I feel better already.

In the yard/garden... Lots of lettuce! We have about eight varieties of lettuce happily growing in our garden, which means lots of salads for us of late!

Our rhubarb is still growing happily, my basil looks great, the corn was *just* knee-high by the Fourth of July, the cucumber plants hearty, the carrots and squash also coming up.

Praying for... my little brother who had a bike accident last night and broke his arm, our friends who are adopting from Ethiopia, and whoever we draw out of our prayer bowl.

Thankful for...
*a fun and family-filled fourth of July~ with Mark's side of the family
*lots of birthday love on Friday to celebrate my 34th birthday. (Which still feels young to me. Especially since a few days prior to my birthday, I was telling people I was turning 35. By the time Mark straightened me out on my actual age, I was feeling a whole year younger!)
*the fact that Mark should be home from work within the hour
*a cooler day
*progress on the laundry today
*children who happily do chores
*and helped with much of the laundry-folding today
*after-naptime snuggles
{Which means I'm signing off. I just got Adelia up and am not gonna miss these sweet cuddles. She'll be off and running in a few minutes!}

Catching up...

It seems that life is rushing by lately and I'm belated in posting some things, so here's my effort to catch up a bit in documenting it.

*Exactly one week ago today I had the privilege of being present at the birth of my dear friend Amy's fifth child, Justus. Head on over to their family blog to see pictures of their handsome boy!

*This past weekend Mark and I celebrated twelve years of marriage. And- can I just say?- I love this man more and more as each year passes. I am daily thankful for this husband God has given me. In a culture full of faithlessness and divorce, I do not take this man or the strength of our marriage for granted.

*We spent Father's Day with Mark's side of the family at his parents' place near the river.

Mark's dad is the best grandpa to our kids



Isaac making little sand trees with his cousin



Mark, with our oldest and youngest



Me with Audra, chatting with Mark's mom and sister (holding Adelia). Ella and her cousin are in the background.


*This week (and next) we're in the midst of swimming lessons. Ella, Isaac and Isaias are in the pool and Mark and I, each holding a little one, are keeping our eyes on them so as not to miss that brave jump or successful dive or face-into-the-water.

It cracks me up how true to their personalities our children are in this environment. Isaac is not too keen on getting his face wet, and half the time I'm pretty sure he has completely forgotten that he's in class because he's either trying to carry on a conversation with us (as we do our best to ignore him because we'd actually prefer he pay attention to what's going on in his class) or is sort of off in his own little world, having a grand time of it. Isaias is determined to do well, feels like such a big boy and is quite proud of himself for each achievement. Ella is completely focused. At every available opportunity, she is practicing holding her breath or the proper diving position. [Our ottoman has been used as a diving board several times this week. I'm sure you can all guess who has appointed herself "teacher" in her game of let's-play-swimming-lessons! :)]



*Lastly, I'd like to ask you to pray for some dear friends of ours who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. They are waiting for their little boy, Samuel, who is now 16 months old. They have been waiting for several months and have had nine court dates come and go, and each time have not "passed" court because of various paperwork issues. While we know God is in control, even in these delays, our hearts are heavy for them as we know how much they yearn to bring their son home. Will you join us in praying- even a quick prayer, before you click away?- for favor upon Samuel's file and case? (((Thank you!)))

Rhubarb pound cake

In an effort to use up some of our rhubarb, I've been baking a lot. I tried two different pound cake recipes and morphed the two recipes with my own ideas to come up with this one. It's delicious. So get yourself some rhubarb and make this cake!

Rhubarb Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

8 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

the zest of one lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

3 cups rhubarb


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 9 by 5 inch loaf pan. (Don't skip the flouring part, here. This cake is a bit sticky due to the fruit and sour cream, so butter and flour well and you won't have a problem.)

First, slice the rhubarb into 1/2-inch pieces until you have 3 cups worth. Place rhubarb into a sauce pan over medium heat. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar over the top and cover, stirring frequently. Cook until the rhubarb begins to be softened- you don't want it mushy and saucy, but you do want it soft. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

Beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the lemon zest and then the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and then add the flour in two additions, alternating with the sour cream. Stir in the rhubarb.

Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean, about 50-55 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack, and then unmold it.

You can glaze this with a mixture of powdered sugar and lemon juice, or eat it as is!

How we entertain ourselves

Odds and ends and links

After two failed department store purchases for a swimsuit for Ella this year, I finally conceded to paying a little extra money and buying this one from Lands End. The perks? This swimsuit comes in a slim size and it's modest. I'm glad we bought it.

I think this is the cutest blanket I've ever laid eyes on. [Click on that link and then scroll all the way down to see the finished product.]

I've been itching to make one of these tea towel aprons ever since Cutzi made some.

Also on my list of things to make:
Randi's laundry sack, for the girls' room.

Little match-y dresses for my girls made from this pattern by Sandi Henderson of Portabellopixie.

But since I don't have time to sew all of those things, I'll bookmark those for a later date and choose something even better to do: nurse and cuddle my sweet nearly four-month old Audra (and kiss those smooshy cheeks again and again!), tickle Adelia and giggle at all of her antics, be silly with my boys and encourage them to do right, and pull Ella into my arms just as often as I can before she gets any bigger.

Oh, I am *thankful* for the joy of being mama to these five. I am trying to cherish these moments; these days.

More than you ever wanted to know about our dry erase board

One of my favorite tools for this stage in our homeschooling is our dry erase board. It covers the wall directly behind our kitchen table, and we use it every day, if not several times a day. I happen to be a very visual learner, so usually when I'm explaining something I reach for a pen and paper- or, if it's handier- the dry erase marker.

Some things we've done on the dry erase board:

:: Play hangman!

:: Word lists
For the past few weeks, we've had two running lists on our board:

One list was for palindromes, which are words that read the same in both directions, such as madam, toot, Ava, pop and tot.

Our other list was for homophones, words that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, such as:

clause/claws
bale/bail
whale/wail
tale/tail
chilly/chili
to/too/two
flour/flower
heel/heal, etc.

I am amazed at how many times our children, on their own, have added to our lists! They are constantly alert to words that could fit into one of those two lists. Isaias, at 4, even tries- but mostly he comes up with rhyming words ("Billy and silly, mama! Those can go on our list!"), so we're simply going to have to start a new list for rhyming words.

:: Geography quizzes (And this is where Mark comes in handy, since I would never, ever think of this as fun, but somehow he's tricked the kids into thinking this is really exciting stuff.)


:: The Where-Was-it-Made? game (A game that Mark made up but I have just-this-very-second named.)

A few days ago Mark picked something up and noted, aloud- where that particular object was made. Once our children discovered this fun fact (most items list where they are made on them!), they were off- running around, finding things, and asking (Isaac and Isaias) or reading (Ella) where it had come from. Mark began listing the countries on the dry erase board. A world map hangs on the opposite wall, so each time they have added a country, they find it on the map, too.

Other ways we've used our dry erase board:

:: Several times we have drawn a calendar on the board, especially when it's a particularly busy month or we are looking forward to something and want to count down the days (this month: swimming lessons!)

:: When I was pregnant with Audra, each time I read in my pregnancy book that the baby had grown (for example, "your baby is now 5 inches, from head to rump"), I would measure out five inches and draw a baby on the board. We kept sizing it up as the baby grew.

:: The morning after Mark and I had watched a documentary on Darfur, we were discussing it together at the table. The kids wanted to know what we were talking about, so we picked up the marker, and drew it out for them. We wrote up the names of the places involved, drew a map of the area, and showed where the people were fleeing from and to. They were completely intrigued, and still remember what we talked about that morning.

:: We have done math problems, drawn the face of a clock and talked about how to tell time, and colored goofy pictures (Like the morning we were eating muffins for breakfast and I was singing the "Oh, do you know the Muffin Man?" song. Isaac asked if there really WAS a Muffin Man. I replied, "Of course! Haven't you seen this guy?" And I promptly drew a muffin on the board with arms, legs and a face. The kids all still giggle about that silly picture.)

I think my favorite part is that it fully engages us all. We're all talking; adding thoughts, words and drawings. We can all see it and refer to it and use it.

Oh. Mark would like to add that he has also used the dry erase board to write up the NFL playoff bracket, so that -and I quote: "we could all see the glorious road taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Superbowl." Yes, sweetheart. That, too.