Can we pull this off?

Blogging from the phone as things really get down to crunch time. Attempting to surprise Bennie and Tuesday with a new room tomorrow. Hoping to have it done in the afternoon before we leave for a family dinner…

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The dresser is painted. I found one handle I was missing since this photo, the other one will require me retracing Bennet’s steps. My grandfather made this and all the drawers are slightly different sizes. And somehow I never noticed one side is made from up cycled paneling. So good.

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In this picture you see Bj working hard on a bunk bed… Unfortunately we didn’t realize he was putting it together wrong. I hear him in the other room now trying to finish it up.

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I decided on white washing. So easy and it looks great, probably because of all the diligent sanding by Bj in the cold.
Of course I decided I absolutely must make a bunting, so that’s happening. And I might have a few most of my presents to wrap.
Did I mention we’re night weaning Bennet and not getting any sleep? Things are crazy. And I love it. Merry merry to you and yours!

Christmas crafty

Oh dear, my last post was a bit of downer… and I put my blog address on our holiday cards this year so I really must update! We still have been sorely lacking in the sleep department. But our super secret room re-do for the girls (from a Tuesday only bed on the floor room to a both girls with a bunk one) is in the works. Maybe that will help? Our dear friend helped me pick wood out today and brought it to my house. Yes I do realize it is only six days until Christmas. Hmm. I think it will get done though. It has to right? I also have a box to get ready to send to Alaska, and one to California. Those will be cutting it close as well. I set myself up for these things, but ah well I sure have fun attempting to get it all done!
I did finish the advent calendar I started two years ago. Carmen and I each made ornaments and swapped.

I do like how this turned out. And Tuesday got to put 11 ornaments on the first day, so win win!

I used all kinds of special buttons from our family. I think I need to make some kind of label on the back before we tuck it away next year.
I’ve been making with the girls. Trying to be in the moment and let go of certain things (i.e. the house is a mess, really).

Bennet. Oh Bennet. She’s totally find until she decides she’s done (with food, a project, anything) and then it all starts flying. I highly recommend this giant roll of paper. Amazon is the only way to go on this because of the free shipping, the thing is heavy! (affiliate links) And this is the holder we got. Seems flimsy but once the heavy roll is in there it’s pretty solid. We’ve been making our own wrapping paper. In the corner here you can see our attempt at the bubble style of painting.

Tuesday had a blast with this (Bennet would not have understood to just blow). This is not the pretty Pinterest approved way (you’re supposed to lay the paper on top), but it sure was a hit. Still experimenting with the right kind of paint to mix in with the dish soap and water. Tempera (poster) paint flakes off pretty bad after it’s dry, which is a bummer. And liquid water color gets too diluted. I’ll keep you posted.
My mom won’t get her present wrapped with those though:

Sciarrino actually gave me this paper for my birthday. It’s vintage. And man do I love it.
Hope your holiday gifting is wrapping up nicely! I found (and made) some super great presents this year I can’t wait to share!

1:51 AM, as good a time as any

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I found this photo of Bennie on my phone. She took it of herself while Bj was holding her. I was reading Big Susan to Tuesday.
Bennet has a been up for hours. Luckily this the first time in a week that Bj has been able to help in the middle of the night. He’s been sick and banished to the twin in Tuesday’s room (she’s on a makeshift bed on our floor). We’re doing the classic 30 minutes on 30 minutes off. It’s brutal.
Ugh this nasty cold/virus/whatever! First Bennet before thanksgiving. Then we traveled to Bj’s parents for the holiday. Came back and Tuesday was getting sick. Bj’s mom came to stay a few days later and she got really sick (like really, my father in law had to dive a truck down and take her home, towing her car). Then Bj. I can’t get sick, moms aren’t allowed right? Oh but I admit it doesn’t look so bad when I see them laying on the couch watching TV. “Bob the builder, can he fix it.” How I hate that show after three days non stop.
I’ve managed to get in little bits of holiday crafting here and there. We did a very limited decoration, there just wasn’t anytime. I did finally finish an advent I hope will be used for years.
This is where a picture would go, but my phone doesn’t want to cooperate. I also made my first paper pieced block, a pretty sort of star.
What have you been up to?
Now it’s 2:08, I think I’m going to attempt a lay down. If it works good, Bj’s snoring away (stupid cold is hanging on)… He just fell asleep, and I think that’s the worst time to be woken up.
Did I mention Bennet has taken to waking up between five and six in the morning?

This and that – happy things

I have apparently been absolutely terrible at taking pictures lately. I have to remember some things though, so here it goes.
-I’ve been trying to get Tuesday to wipe her own hiney. So I bought those flushable wipes. People they are not flushable. We had a water in the basement situation as a result. Ugh. But yay for Flor tiles that we could individually remove and dry out. Also for brothe’s who get up out of bed to bring us a dehumidifier very late at night. And neighbors who let us traipse in and out of their house all night so we could use their bathroom. Everything was resolved with much less expense than we anticipated and nothing was ruined. Phew. Lesson learned though, we’re getting an overflow alarm!
-November work out a day. My friend put a group together to motivate each other, and it’s working for me. I’ve done some form of exercise every day (save for the one we were dealing with cleaning carpets and drying things out). I go to Zumba one night a week, we’ve done family walks, and I’m doing the Jillian DVDs. The girls love it, they try to work out along with me (there was an unfortunate finger smashing with weights incident though). I wrote this a few weeks ago and fell off the exercise wagon, have to get back on it!
-This led to me biking the girls to dance… without stoping to walk the bike! First time people! I’m so happy about this, I still bike about as slow as someone walking, but it’s progress. Not to mention it was done in the rain.

-We got back out the beans. They haven’t been in this box the whole time. I put them in another plastic tub up in the garage for a few years. They saved great, and continue to be a big hit. Just like with Tuesday Bennet has tried a couple and doesn’t think they’re any good so I’m not worried about her choking on them. I think we are just about past the choking phase at 16 months. Thank goodness!
-We drove down to Eugene to see the visiting Harlem Ballet. It was fantastic. It was a Bj, Tuesday, mama date. Love, love, love. Some of her homeschool buddies were also there some rows ahead. Very cute to see her and Z sticking tongues out and waving at each other.
-I was driving and there was a piece of wood in the road I had to swerve around. I looked back in my rear view mirror and a guy I saw smoking a cigarette looking all shabby on the sidewalk jumped out and pulled it out of the street. So kind. I must watch myself with those stereotypes and quick judgements. A good reminder to always assume the best of everyone.
-Bj fixed my old fashioned telephone.
-Bj installed a 240 outlet (and cleaned up our breaker box) so we could put in a level two charger for the car. He told me, “I think I could be an electrician!” No doubt he could. He also did all our outdoor wiring. I do get a little nervous when he says stuff like, “I’m going to flip in on, stand there with the fire extinguisher in case something goes wrong!” But so far, so good.
-Bj put a new boot in our washing machine. The old one (and it was already the second) was all moldy and gross. Short of cleaning it out fastidiously between loads how do I stop this from happening? I never NEVER close the door when it’s not in use.  A side note it took the professionals THREE HOURS and THREE GUYS to do this last time (it was under warranty then). Bj did it alone with only a few minutes of my help to hold something. YouTube for the win.
-And the best thing. We had my dear friend and college roommate Taro to came to visit! This time with his lovely wife and baby.
Update soon!

Halloween

Oh these silly girls. And silly mama; I just can’t help myself sometimes. Halloween is one of those times!

I decided at the last minute (10 o’clock the night before) that Bennet needed a coat to complete her gnome costume (and make it a bit different from my god daughter’s, since I was recycling most of the outfit). And her hat turned out a little pope-esque. Oops. I blame it on the fact that I had no pattern and was knitting under the table at jury duty without looking (because apparently knitting needles are banned there. No way was I going to sit there all day without them).

The coat is just made out of felt, so it’s not lined or anything, but I did pick a pattern out and started cutting out pieces before realizing it had facings. Oops, a little more complicated than I needed it to be, but so cute!

I thought the hair was a good touch. I was going to go beard, but glad I went with the hair, she kept this hat on all night.

Tuesday had a change of heart about the mail carrier outfit. When I asked her why she didn’t want to wear it on Halloween she said, “because I’ll get cold”. Well that was easily solved with a phone call to Nana.

The next week were were unwrapping new long pants, I stuck a shirt under the tee and boom, winter mail carrier! And look her shoes have laces. I don’t think anything says, “I’m a big kid” like shoes with laces. Halloween was magical this year. The weather was PERFECT. It had rained earlier in the day, but cleared up and was not that cold. I can’t remember another dry Halloween. There were kids everywhere, it was so festive and happy and had such a good community air about the whole thing. We decided to walk up to grandma’s new (old) house, which is quite the trek. Tuesday didn’t mind in the least. She was happy to hit every possible house, even one with a smoke machine! A far cry from last year’s, “oh not that house, I think they have a dog. No, not that house, my wings might get bent.” I also want to remember that she was so please and I think surprised at how much people loved her costume. After one house she told me, “They loved my outfit. Everyone really likes my outfit!”

Bennet happily sat like this the whole time, staring at everything and wondering what the heck was going on.

My attempt at the three of us.

Fall at the Oregon Coast

My dad lives in the desert in the winter, and before he left this year he decided he wanted to go to the coast. Lucky for the girls and I he decided we should come on his impromptu day trip… OK!

First we went to a fantastic restaurant, on the “banks” of the world’s shortest river: Kyllo’s. Yummy, yummy, yummy. And the girls loved sitting looking right over to the beach.

Bennet wasn’t 100% sure about the beach. Check out these adorable mini boots Tuesday fished out of a bin at the used kids store. I couldn’t find anything small enough for miss shoe size 6-9 months. She wears a size three which is so tiny. I am in love with these boots! They have no manufacture on them so I can’t get more. And she’s starting to grow out of them, but she still brings them over for me to put on her.

Tuesday could play on the beach in just about anything. She loves playing in the sand. My dad was a good sport too, helping her make different things, drawing paths and cows for her to milk.

Nice cow dad 🙂 (Tuesday got this idea for an sweet little book called Sand Cake that we love).

I got to sit on a blanket and watch my two lovelies play. They really do play together now, it’s amazing and I am loving it.

Such a great day. Thankful that we got to experience this before the wet and gloomy weather sets in!

Wait, was that an electric car?

So this weekend I got an electric car. But that’s not what this story is about.
This evening as I was all set to do my last big batch of canning (really, truly, I mean it this time!) Bj was being helpful and took a basket of rags down to the basement to put with the dirty clothes and things. I heard him groan and he told me the washer had over flowed. I came downstairs and there was an inch of water around that area, and it had spread under the dividing wall and into the pretty side of our basement. Remember when we did all that super annoying basement work, laid down dimpled plastic, and had to clean all those FLOR tiles? Well they totally saved our bacon. We started cleaning up thinking we were dealing with washer water. Turns out it wasn’t washer water. It was the other kind of water. The dirty kind. Ew.
My brother was called (and woken up because of course it was late). He and Kat brought over a heater and dehumidifier and were basically wonderful. He took a bite of Tuesday’s jam and toast (because of course she was up) and loved it so I gave him a jar of his own jam in return for his kindness. It was the least I could do! How handy is a pantry full of canned goods? Very! So once we realized we could not use any water or flush anything I knocked on a neighbor’s door. They let us use their bathroom and said we could whenever we wanted.
After we got things sorted out as best we could tonight I grabbed all our toothbrushes and we headed back over to the neighbor’s. I heard a sort of whirring sound and saw headlights. Then I heard a car beep. I didn’t have my glasses on, but I asked Bj, “Wait, was that an electric car?” He said yes, “Actually, I think that’s your car.” He was right. I have never even seen a Leaf around town so it was very strange to see one pull up outside my house at eleven o’clock at night. I started to walk over and say hello to the driver, you know, I was going to high five them or whatever. And it was my other neighbor (for reference he drives a gas guzzling muscle car usually).
I was all, “hey, what’s up?” Turns out he had just driven from a nearby town because he went with his daughter to get the car, then lost his keys and had to drive home and get his spare set. Once he got here the car said it had 17 miles left of charge (it probably had less because they are more like “guess o meters” – seriously that’s what people call it). He still had to drive 45 miles. So he wasn’t going to make it back to his daughters and he had no idea how or where to charge. I pulled up the PlugShare app on my phone and showed him where the nearest quick charge is (charges the car in 20-30 minutes) plus a few other things about the car. How the dealership they went to let them leave without knowing how to charge and how long it would take is a mystery, but good thing we happened to be outside.
So yes, our basement had water in it. We went outside to use a neighbor’s bathroom and my other neighbor just so happened to pull up in the same electric car we had just bought three days ago… at 11 o’clock at night. Strange times over here for sure.

Canning Craziness

Last year I didn’t can at all. Not a single thing. I can’t even remember if I thought about canning. Probably not. At this point in the year I was still like, “whoa two kids, holy shit this is no joke.” Luckily I had many preserves still left from my 2011 can-a-thon. But by the time things were getting ripe this year I was itching to get more put up. I froze lots of berries, and some veggies, but I really wanted to can. And my first big batch was the corn. My friend and I made roasted corn salsa, corn relish, creamed corn, and plain old corn. Because of the corn I was introduced to pressure canning and it was not scary! Water bath is still easier though and it’s what I do most.
This year there was a perfect storm that caused me to go a little crazy in the canning department. First of all I got so much wonderful produce for free or super cheap. The 90 lbs of tomatoes were 40¢ a pound, for example. My mother in law came to stay with me one week while Bj was out of town and I got so much more done with her around.

(a small amount of my “new” jar stash all clean)
So when I found a listing for a bunch of canning jars in Yakima I asked my mother in law if she would drive the hour from her place to get them. She said yes and last week we drive to Hood River so we could meet at about halfway between our towns and I could pick them up (well some… They wouldn’t all fit in my car since I had the girls! I believe she still have 7 dozen quarts at her house for me!).

We had a blast in Hood River, making some stops along the “fruit loop” (and getting more things to can, oops!).
When I got home I realized that there was no way to organize my hundreds of jars. So this weekend Bj built me a few new shelves and I sat down with my new label maker to organize.

Oh how I love it! All my jars are down here right now, and there are some extra empty boxes too. The cardboard box not on shelves holds squash and pumpkins (I also have potatoes, apples, peppers and tomatoes in the cooler garage). I debated on where to put the things I had left from 2011. Integrate with like preserves or separate shelves? I decided to have a separate area for my older things. They should still be good for a while (I store them in a cool dark area), but flavor and nutrients decline over time so I’d like to use them sooner rather than later.

I kept other like things together. And I kept all the canning jar boxes. I like them not only for storing empty jars, but also transporting my finished products.
I love to can for a lot of reasons. Savoring the wonderful bounty of summer is the biggest one for me. I like to try and eat seasonally, so buying tomatoes in December is not my favorite thing to do. I prefer to use my own canned or frozen. And of course making food with less preservatives and chemicals.

I haven’t been the best at using the canned goods (see above and things from 2011!), but I’m getting a lot better now that I meal plan. I’m hoping this newly organized storage area encourages Bj to use some of this as well. I made a tomato cocktail that seems to bring him down here enough to get him familiar with the goods 🙂
Do you can? What do you like to make? I still have tons of apples and was just gifted a bag of jalapeños, so I’d love ideas for those!
Supplies Used