Just a LITTLE bragging...

Since having our stove finally attached at the chimney, I've done some experimenting. Baking type experimenting. This is my FIRST attempt at bread. Nice and brown on the outside, fully cooked on the inside - and the taste... well, it's divine. I will readily admit that I am NOT experiencing the same type of problems I fully anticipated when we first started cooking with wood heat. This oven is my new favorite appliance, and bakes wonderfully. We've even managed to figure out how to regulate the oven heat! Rarely does the oven get hotter than 375 - the perfect temperature to bake things, and because of the way it heats, our baked goods cook a lot faster than in a normal oven. (Cookies the other day took 6 minutes, instead of the 12 called for on the recipe card... I LOVE it!)

So this is what tired looks like...

Note the drool... I was getting his dinner ready. Apparently, he didn't want to wait.

Where to begin...

Let's just start at the very beginning of this month. It's the very best place to start, so they tell me...

September started off with relatively nothing spectacular to talk about. Except for the fact that we are canning again - 85 quarts of plum juice (really quite fabulous... add a quart of water and 1/2 cup of sugar and it's divine!), 60 quarts of pears and 8 quarts of pear juice, 12 pints of pear butter... Still have tomatoes to do, peaches to do, and apple cider to make... YUM! And we're doing grape juice again this year. If anyone knows of some spare quart jars that they're NOT using, we've already used all but three of ours... And that's saying a lot, considering the fact that we didn't even come close to using all of them last year.

Mid September I suffered through another birthday. I only use the word suffer because I was really NOT looking forward to this birthday. For some reason, 35 just SOUNDS old. Now that I'm two weeks into it, it's really NOT old. I don't even feel different than I did at this time last month. A little more round, but that's because of the new baby. The birthday itself was fabulous. They threw a party at the temple at midnight to welcome in the new day (and because my boss and I have the same birthday... and it wasn't really a party - after all, this is the temple we're talking about... but Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler and a hearty Scout Breakfast, and we were ALL in seventh heaven.). Perhaps the best birthday present actually came the Saturday BEFORE my birthday when Andrew finished hooking up the wood cookstove in the kitchen. I now have a fully functioning kitchen! And it's MARVELOUS!

Remember how I've said that there was going to be a HUGE learning curve with this wood cookstove? It seems that the learning curve is in which stove to use. The one that burns really hot, or the one that works perfectly. We've got the one that works perfectly in our kitchen, and I've been able to successfully make perfect pies, delicious bread, wonderful cookies, and the best brownies we've ever had at this house. The Roast Chicken is divine, the potatoes are smashing, and the oven is my new favorite appliance. It warms the "anti-sun room" to the perfect temperature, and we're all looking forward to some toasty winter meals. Call before you come for dinner to make sure we're actually cooking. Chances are, we will be.

School with Savannah started somewhere in the middle of all that... the first week she was fairly bored. In fact, she told me at the end of the week, "Mom, I really hope that the second week is a lot better than this week. Spelling and Journal writing just aren't going to do it for me. I NEED MORE!" I hastily assured her that we would be doing more math and other subjects, I just had to get the books back from the copiers and have them bound. She's doing much better. Next week we start an incentive to work harder program. And watch for more news on the School for the Stahr's on our new homeschool blog... I'll try to update it at least weekly, if not daily.

I'll apologize now for the lack of pictures, I just haven't downloaded them. So.... you'll get a barrage of photos later this week. Until then, I hope this has updated at least most of you on the things that you didn't already know!

Ta-Ta For Now, as they say...

So I'm sitting here in silence, listening to absolutely nothing but the click of the keys on the keyboard, and thinking that I really should be making the children lunch. Somehow, I don't have the energy to move from my chair. I'm absolutely certain though, that the telephone will ring and I'll be forced to move. So... I gather my energy.

This last month has been an interesting one.

We attended a fabulous family reunion where we did all sorts of fun things, and I didn't take a single picture with my camera. Took some of my Sister with HER camera, but didn't take a single one with mine. Perhaps having new batteries would have made a difference... I don't even think the camera made it out of the car. Yes, that's sad. However, I wait patiently for a disc with all the photos of the reunion on it. And then I will share the pictures.

Until then, you'll have to be satisfied with your wonderful imaginations.

We left Salem on Monday, August 10 after a short day at work; stopped at the credit union to take care of a little business, and then headed to Utah. It was a LONG drive. We pulled into my brother Justin's driveway well ahead of when they were expecting us, but no one seemed to mind too much! If they did, no one said anything... Thankfully, Mom and Dad were still there and hadn't left for the day to do other things. Otherwise, we would have found ourselves sleeping on the lawn instead of on the couches. That was 7:15 in the Morning of Tuesday. After sleeping A LOT, we drove a little farther north to visit with some old friends, the Sampsons. It was wonderful to visit with them, and I came home with a new pattern for some skirts that I am really excited to make.

Wednesday is when things really started to happen for us. While the Pierce Family Reunion hadn't started yet, we had a little of a miniature Stahr Family Reunion - minus most of the Stahr family. Our visit with Doug and Emily and Benjamin and Aunt Louise was one of the highlights of the trip. Emily stunned us with her incredibly accurate, "Linda, are you Pregnant?" question.

And that's the first of the announcements made this week.

Thursday, the fun started with the Pierce's. CAMPING! It's been a long time since I've been camping, it was a first for both Margaret and LeGrand, but it was good. I even got my feet wet in the frigid water of the stream. And yes, it was frigid. It was cold enough to have my feet go numb within about two minutes... But, I'm trying new things, and thought it might be kind of fun. Considering that we used the creek to keep the butter cold that night, I'm not entirely sure HOW fun it was, but I'm glad I did it.

Marshmallow guns aside (I'm going to have to get some of my OWN ammunition and stage an attack, I can tell...), it was good to be camping with family.

It was even better to go swimming on Friday and get all the dirt off. I even did the water slide! (Couldn't have LeGrand showing me up there...) and I loved it. This is saying a lot for a person who doesn't like water slides at all... Andrew and I enjoyed the game, Qwelf, (Wocka, Wocka, Wocka...), and just enjoyed spending time with family.

Saturday was more fun with a baby shower, necklace making, and more time with family. We were sad to have to leave a lot earlier than others...

Sunday morning found us pulling into the driveway at 9 in the AM to find that all of the animals we had when we left were still there... thankfully! And a short time later (10:30), we headed to the coast to see Andrew's sister and her Beau (whom we like greatly, by the way...) and the rest of the Stahr Family that was there. We did, however, miss seeing Rebecca and Matt and their family this last week and send them our love and best wishes in their new location... (Another new adventure, 'eh?). We spent the night at the coast (it was the most comfortable hide-a-bed I've ever slept on), and enjoyed the break from life...

And then... we came home. While it's good to be home, it's also taken me a week to really recover from the vacation. I'm still not there yet.

I was going to do laundry last night, until I found a dead mouse on the floor. Kittens, DO YOUR WORK!!! So now, it's laundry today. And since I've taken way too much of a break... I'll report back later!

Oh, and here's the picture I've been promising Andrew I'd put up.

(it's NOT loaded... don't anyone freak out.)

A Door Opens... At LAST!

Margaret is three and a half. I had hoped (and dreaded a little) that she would be able to open the front door on her own by this point in time. Instead - up until last week, I was summoned each and every time she wanted to go outside.

Last week, to both my joy and my dread, she figured out how to open the door from the inside. She still knocks when she wants to come back in, but she can get outside on her own. This is particularly useful when she is inside and I am outside needing the door opened because my arms are full with groceries or something like that. She's a wonderful door opener.

Not too long after figuring out (with a little help from Savannah) how to open the door, Margaret woke up a little earlier than I wanted to. (side note here: I work the night shift at the Portland Oregon Temple 4 nights a week; I don't get to bed before 4 in the AM on those nights, and greatly value the precious 4 hours of sleep that I get on average.) When Margaret got up, she got dressed and came into my bedroom only to find that at 6:30 AM, Mom was STILL asleep. I know. How DARE I sleep in. Well... to complicate things, Margaret has been blessed with an adventurous spirit and a great love for animals. Especially small fuzzy ones that say meow. We have seven of them.

So... as you can expect from the lead in, Margaret went outside to play with her little furry kitten friends. She shut the door behind her. And then, she couldn't get it opened again. I THINK she went outside sometime around 7 AM - she sat downstairs and read some books for a little bit (that much was evidenced by the books all over the floor when I woke up...). At 7:15, I was jolted from a deep sleep by Margaret SCREAMING my name. As if she were being tortured, screaming. I'm not sure that my feet touched the floor of my bedroom as I ran downstairs to see if she was being injured in some manner. She wasn't downstairs. I threw the door open and hollered her name... no answer. She was running around the house trying to find a way into the house again - screaming my name.

Why haven't I put this up before? Because it's taken me this long to recover from the shock and fear of what could have happened if I hadn't heard her.

Will Margaret go outside again when I'm sleeping? NOT ON YOUR LIFE. She's figured out that if I'm asleep (or downstairs doing laundry, for that matter) I can't hear her, and she is either going to have to find a way to open the door, or wait. (or scream my name in terror... that works too.) That and we've established a new family rule. Kittens are off limits unless Mom is alert and coherent. (try explaining THAT to a 3 year old...)

It was the BIG 0-1!!!

I can hardly believe it, but LeGrand is now officially one year old. We had a GRAND celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Stahr and Aunt Sheila (and, of course, Mom, Dad, Savannah and "Sweetie-Pie") in attendance. It was a day like no other this week, temperatures outside were in the upper (read: 88-90) 80's, we baked the cake in our wood cookstove outside (not an easy thing to do, but the cake was divine!), and canned cherry juice on the same stove. Savannah, Margaret and I all got a tad bit sunburnt, but a good time was had by all. I think LeGrand had the best time of all... after all, all the attention was on him.

Here's a mini-photo essay (sort of) of the birthday party.

This is the cake the the guests ate...

This is LeGrand's own personal cake. He didn't touch the candle, but he wanted to!

He had help (thanks, Dad!) blowing out the candle... oooh. Smoke...

The Joy of realizing that this cake was just for him!

The first tentative little nibble...

Hand over Fist - enjoying the cake...

Finding out that it's Finger Lickin' Good!

Must. Get. All. The. Frosting...

I think I'll just put my entire hand into my mouth... YAY! This is yummy cake!!!

Oh. I think I missed some. Shove more in.

The sheer joy of being one... and getting cake all to yourself.

Finished with cake... and pleased as punch that it turned out well.

Not, however, sure about these presents. Especially that battery shaped one.Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Pierce for the shirt I can wear for the next 3 years!!!

I LOVE IT!

So the birthday party was a success. We put cranky to bed in his OTHER new pajamas that fit divinely at 9 PM; said good-bye to all the guests (before 9 PM), and today, the day after, is clean up day. Oh yeah. And it's return the present that Mom and Dad gave LeGrand because it's kind of a dorky present and the other one was much cooler. We'll just exchange it for the cooler one...

Our Little Fireman

So I'm pretty sure that LeGrand is going to have a career as a pyromaniac. Every chance he gets he tries to eat the fire poker. Not the healthiest habit, I will admit, but doesn't he look adorable with all the ashes on his face??? No, this is NOT a habit that I'm encouraging, but he's a fast little booger, and I don't have eyes in the SIDE of my head (just the back); although I do need to develop them with him. I also need to develop better x-ray vision; since most of the things he does he waits until I am in another room to do. This is his look of "I know I got caught, but as soon as Mom turns around and leaves the room, I'm going to eat the poker again...".

Duckdate

It's an update on the ducks...

We're out of the duck business. No, they didn't ALL die... just two of them. I had no idea that a duck could drown. Aren't they supposed to be, like, the supreme swimmers??? At any rate... we lost one last week, and then yesterday, woke up to another one "sleeping" (and not waking up...) and I have no idea what happened. Soooooooooo... in an effort to let the remaining ones survive, I stopped at the neighbor's house down the hill (they're in our ward and have somewhere around 75 chickens and ducks) and asked them if they would please adopt 9 little ducknapped ducks. And so, they did. Margaret sobbed for a good 5 minutes, I'm just glad to get them out of the house. It was starting to really stink.

We're back to being chicken and cat farmers. One of these days, I'll get a picture of the kittens posted. They're awfully cute. All seven of them.

And now, I'm off to get the kitchen cleaned and the remaining strawberries frozen and the living room clean. I have one hour, and then I promised the girls (LeGrand doesn't care) that we could go to the free summer movie... The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - Another Veggie Tales Movie. Next week they're showing Kit Kittredge, American Girl... (And another too, I just can't remember what it is. Our movie attendance is based solely on completion of chores during the week...)

Look for a movie review soon!

Make Way... for DUCKLINGS!

No, this isn't a book review, although that's an excellent book if you have time to read it to your children. This is, in fact, about real, live, in our house ducklings.

Last night, while working at the temple, we were informed that sometime during the night we might need to do some "duck relocation". A mother duck and her 11 ducklings had decided to make the reflecting pool at the temple her home. There are just a couple of things wrong with that:

1. Coyotes. They live around the temple and, because the city won't do anything about them (something about "habitat"), they aren't afraid of people anymore. AND, they're fond of duck. Since the reflecting pool is a favorite photography spot for brides and grooms, it was determined that they need to move.


2. Chemicals. I'm not a fan of chemicals in my water, and I don't imagine that the ducklings were either...


3. Lack of food... another of those essentials. Mommy Duck might have been able to find food, but babies were not doing as well in that department.


4. Add in there the little fountains that are inside the reflecting pool that the little ducklings couldn't get past, and all the little places for them to get stuck, and it just adds up to not a good place for ducks. Not to mention the poo factor. Who wants to have poo on their wedding dress?????

So... it was determined that they needed to be relocated. Since we have a farm (no, we have no pond), and there are other people in this area that have ponds that would LOVE to have ducks (no, I didn't ask, but if you're floating fake ducks in your pond to attract the real ones, that's a pretty good indicator), I volunteered to take them home. That also meant being part of the capture team.

At 2:30 this morning, we went outside to capture the ducks. We'd already put the ducklings into a box (no, they weren't quackers in the box for the coyotes...) hoping that Mom would just join them... no such luck. Instead, she was sitting on the ledge waiting. And the sprinklers were giving all of the ducks a cold little shower. Ducklings moved to a smaller, drier box, and the hunt for the Mom was on. An HOUR AND A HALF later... Ducklings said goodbye to Mom (yes, I know it's sad. But it would be much sadder to have the coyotes eat them...), and our girls woke up to 11 new pets. They're having a grand time swimming in the bathtub (we shower anyway), and all of the children are loving seeing them. Some more than others. (They started out by swimming in the sink, but when I needed to sanitize it to do the dishes, I moved them to a larger location.)

In our house...

Licking your plate is a sign of a fabulous dinner. One that ranks a #10 on a scale of 1-10... I, personally, don't like to get food on my face so I'm not a plate licker. Andrew has taught our children how to show their appreciation of food... I will readily admit that this type of behavior is NOT a frequent thing at our table (maybe that's a bad thing, if it's an indication of how good the food is...), but Margaret was thrilled at the raspberry sauce that went on her French Toast (and pancakes this morning as well...). Her plate was almost clean enough to put back in the cupboard.

Plate Lickin' Raspberry Sauce

Enough frozen raspberries to fill a small
saucepan (about 3 cups)

Sugar to taste (about 1/2 c.)

1 c. water to help with the cooking

2 T cornstarch

1/4 c. white sugar

1/2 c. water

Put raspberries and first sugar measurement and
first 1 c. water into saucepan. Heat slowly so that the raspberries melt
and mix with the sugar and water. In separate measuring cup, combine sugar
and cornstarch. Add cold water and blend well. Add to hot
mixture. Heat and stir until thickened. Can add 1 T lime juice
before serving. This is divine on pancakes with whipped cream
too...

Updated Cute Kids

It's been a while since I had all of the children playing at the same time when I had my camera out... (Timing is, in fact, everything). However - I took the camera outside the other day and caught a few really good ones. Savannah was hunting for flowers that had fallen off of the tree; Margaret was getting ready to go "shopping", and LeGrand was crawling as fast as he could towards the camera. The picture of Savannah will be her school photo - as soon as I get copies of it back from the printer... (which could, in fact, take a while since I haven't taken them to be printed... those of you who still haven't gotten last year's picture can understand the time frame here...). But... here they are on the BLOG... so you'll at least get to see them, even if you don't have them in your hand.

Feats of Daring

There are some things a mother should never catch her children doing... This is one of them:

This is what I walked in on after trying to get some photos ready for the website and for the actual clients to see. He's now confined to his high chair with the belt on... tightly. So far, it's working. A little about this particular photo... My flash didn't go off when I took the picture, so I had to add a little backlighting to it just to bring out the kiddo. Then, because it changed the color of the picture, I made it a Sepia colored picture and vintaged it. I kind of like the way it turned out... He kind of pops off the page - in my opinion.

Andrew and I keep telling LeGrand to sit in his chair... he was - at the time - sitting... On his tray. I guess this means the buckle from now on. At least he can't get out of it... yet.

Little Stinker.

What I like about our House...

A newly remodeled Kitchen! Of course, it's not finished yet - we want to eventually put in a new countertop and paint the kitchen, and there are the unfinished pieces that you can see... but doesn't the floor look WONDERFUL???!!! (Andrew did that... :) He's so handy with a hammer...)If you look closely, you'll see that the stove isn't attached to the wall... yet, but it will be... eventually.

a little behind... a Margaret Story.

And no, I'm not talking about an actual "Be-Hind..." Although - and this is a total sidebar here: yesterday as I'm in the kitchen doing the dishes and Savannah and Margaret are outside, I hear a tap-tap-tapping on the window, and Savannah summons me to come see what Margaret is doing. What Margaret was doing, ended her outside time. Little girls (and this goes for big girls too...) DO NOT pull their britches down and drop their skirts to the ground and squat to water the flowers! It's just not acceptable. All the way in the house, Margaret was wailing, "I won't pee outshide adain! I pwomishe!" Once in the house, the tune changed a little to "wemember when you let me pee outshide lasht shunday yeshterday?..." Um... No. Not a memory that I have.

Needless to say... I hope that she has learned that little girls use the toilet. I'm not ready to explain about little boys.

I'm just a little behind on my posting. Pictures will follow. As soon as I download them. In five minutes.

Margaret... Asleep.

I don't know HOW shes remotely comfortable, or WHAT she's doing, but when I was a teenager, I would do my hair at night and then try to sleep like this so that I could get the most sleep possible and not have to worry about my hair in the morning. It NEVER worked, but it was a phase I went through anyway... I think Margaret just fell asleep, and there wasn't room on her pillow for her head...

Family Photo Shoot

My mom is putting together a Family Photo Thing for my Grandma Jensen, and asked for a picture of us. Since we didn't have one, we had to create one. Here is the result, and one of the kids too...
Margaret is 3 (she'll tell you she's 7); Savannah is 7 (she won't tell you she's three); and LeGrand is 10 months old. Andrew and I are much older than that...

Kitchen Remodel

So we took all the floor out of the kitchen - down to the subfloor (and when I say "WE", I mean "Andrew". I certainly didn't do anything...I'm not as "handy with a hammer" as Andrew is.) and had a bricklayer come to put our new hearth in. The wood cook stove will sit on top of it sometime later this week...There is no longer a screaming hunk of metal that likes to call itself a dishwasher, the island is now in the basement for laundry and those supplies, and we'll be putting the rest of the floor in later this week. (Again... "we" means "Andrew"...) Looking forward to posting a final photo!!!

The View the other day...

This rainbow was so large that I couldn't get it all in one shot... no matter how I tried. So... sorry, but you'll have to imagine the other 3/4 of this rainbow!

Margaret's Quote for Today

MOM! My Mouth is Leaking! I need a napkin!!! Hurry! It's leaking out the top!!!

Remodeling the House

Our time lately has been taken up with destruction... and rebuilding. Over spring break, Andrew and I had a few days by ourselves (well... we had LeGrand with us, but he's not the talker that the girls are... it was really quiet around here...), and during that time, we decided to take the Pergo out of the main living area. When I say "WE", I really mean "ANDREW" - I was just here for moral support.

In taking the floor out of one room, we discovered that there had been a wall there. SO... We put the wall back in. The plan with this wall is to build a bookshelf with a cupboard in. We'll do the same thing on the other side of the wall - making one room a study, and the other the Music room. We're excited to be able to really use the room, and to have a spot for visitors to sleep where they can close the door...

Currently, I'm listening to the sound of the Brick Mason as he builds a wall and Hearth in the Kitchen for our Wood Cook Stove. As soon as he's finished, Andrew will put the floor back in, and we'll start Barbecuing. (What?! Did you REALLY think that we were going to cook with wood in the middle of the summer in the HOUSE????) If we want to bake something, we'll use the wood cook stove that's going in the canning kitchen. At least that one's portable... and outside!

So... I'll post some pictures of the inside of the house - when I've had a chance to get all the dust off the floor and the floor looking somewhat normal again.