I'll take a side of squash with that...

I was at the grocery store the other night, picking up some salad fixings (that part kind of becomes relevant to my story later on, who knew?!) and I don't know what else for all the bible college boys coming to dinner. The cashier was very obviously new to the job, -envision long line and lots of questions thrown about.

At one point he held up a bag of squash into the air and asked the next cashier to tell him what it was. "squash". Minutes later he held up another bag and asked for help, the customer informed him it was "yellow squash".

It's not unheard of really, to think that one could grow up in the United States and not be able to identify many common vegetables. In a land where french fries make up our vegetable serving for the day and ketchup is considered a vegetable in school lunches, it's not too surprising.

*The Fall Y'all giveaway* wow, my cyber mailbox is groaning from under all these comments.
I think I am seeing more visits than from the last giveaway.

Now, go out there and win some free stuff!!

Jr. High girl's camp...you make up your own caption...

This weekend I went along with Meg for Jr. High girl's camp. We went to a place called Glen Oak, or Oak Glen...something like that. The trees were all changing, it was so beautiful- and this is apple country, lots of apple farms...just something we don't see any of in So. California. I drove my van, bringing along 4 other girls and one other chaperon. With traffic it took us about 3 hrs. on our way up, the way home is was a little over 1 hr. (lovely, lovely So. Ca traffic!)

Jr. High really is a rough age. I know that, and yet it caught me by surprise. The whole experience was one of shifting from one extreme to the other end of the spectrum. The girls would sometimes take my breath away with their brashness, rudeness and general lack of care that an adult was present....and then the next moment dazzle me as 5 girls in a van pull out their hymnals spontaneously and spend 40 minutes singing their favorite hymns. While I would sit pondering and marveling at the drastic extremes of light and shadow in them, smiling at the "light", I would have to roll my eyes heavenward as they launched into 20 minutes of "highschool musical" songs.

It was a good experience, I was very blessed to see more than 100 young girls lifting up song to the Lord, praying out loud and sharing their enjoyment of His word. I was blessed to see the teaching and testimony being poured out into these girls' hearts by the serving ones. I was blessed to pray for them, and blessed to see what hymns they loved to sing, blessed to ponder why- and to reflect on what I was like at that age. And yet it was very hard. My goodness, I don't like to be uncomfortable, and I hate being cold, and I like my routine and comfortable bed and shower...it was definitely an uncomfortable breaking of my soul-life.

One of the speakers stopped to talk to me at the dining hall, commenting on how good it was to see some of the "moms" at the camp. He asked if I would come again.

I think my face started twitching.

just thinking

As always, so much is happening around here.

On the drive back from Solvang, we listened to
Artemis Fowl on audio. My older girls were looking for a good series to get into, I had heard good things about it and heard that the audio was very engaging. (plus, it was an easy way for me to read it and make sure it would pass parental approval- the way they blaze through books these days it is hard to keep up!)

The Meg Cabot book I devoured on the trip is *this one*, and while I enjoyed it- I did figure out "who did it" fairly early on...and I am not sure how much I like the heroine. I liked her, and yet her obsession with food was starting to get to me. Not that I don't like food, I mention it often here on the blog- but looking forward to rare treats like a truffle or two once or twice a year and a filet mignon is not the same as thinking often about the kit-kats stuffed in your purse to tide you over, etc. I was having a hard time admiring her, I think is what I am trying to say.

I picked up Lies my teacher told me- everything your American History textbook got wrong tonight at Barnes & Nobles. It looks very, very interesting. History is my favorite subject.

I have been toying with the idea of dusting off my French and maybe taking a course to re-learn it, such as this one- which is on sale right now *here*, and with free shipping it is a good deal...
I find that when teaching Spanish to my kids, or er- rather, facilitating Spanish lessons with my kids- because I cannot speak it... My mind scurries to answer in French mostly, sometimes Spanish ( I know a very little) or even more often- my mind comes up with two words and cannot remember which is Spanish, which is French. I've decided that my brain is just not that elastic anymore...if I am going to learn a language, I think it will have to be one I had some success with in my youth. This all does spin into more questioning if I should add French to my younger's learning- since I am working on it...or just worry about Spanish since we live in So. Ca. (so little time, so many teaching possibilities!!) (Gracefulmom is laughing out her kidney right now- I am running amok again, aren't I??)

Most of So. California seems to be on fire. We are not affected at our house, but one of our parkday friends was waiting to see if they would be evacuated. It's all very eerie and scary and makes you think about what it would feel like to lose your home. We are praying tonight for all those in peril, for all of those displaced. Tonight has been very windy, we will go to bed tonight wondering what we will find tomorrow morning.

Even without horrible, awful wildfires, we don't enjoy the windy season here. It plays havoc with our allergies (the box of lotion tissue is suddenly the most coveted item in the house, drat!- I forgot to go out and buy more...!!)

And, you have not seen anything as grouchy as a wind-swept hen! My-o-my, the girls waxed eloquent this morning when let out of the coop- much "fowlish" language bandied about. They were not happy and let us all know it! It is actually a sorry sight right now, since 4 of them are molting- they look pretty rakish already, without being so disheveled!

Amy over at Amy's humble musings has been writing lately about 'being there' for your kids.
I liked this post *here*-"All needing something"

I really liked how she said this;

"I fill up their cups so that they are free to pour themselves into one another: my olders reading to the babies, my athletic nine-year-old content with a wild toddler as an afternoon playmate, my five-year-old singing the alphabet to the three-year-old. I give as much as I can and then trust God for the rest."


sometimes in the midst of all the schooling, driving to an fro', the cleaning and care taking,
it's good to stop and remember the uncomplicated calling we have to simply fill them up, and trust God.

around the house


These interesting fruits are Tiger Melons from our garden. Hubby planted them from seed. They are small, about the size of a large pomegranate and are sweet like a honeydew, but yet different. Meg says they have a pear texture.

We took down the netting from around the garden, the hens are blissfully happy..in a hen-ish sort of way. They love, love, love scratching around in the garden area that was before this very off limits to them.

Conversation at our house late Saturday night:

Me: "o.k., put another disk in..."

Sky: " what time is it?"

Me: "you really don't want to know, ...start the next episode... oh, o.k. it's 12:30 a.m."

Sky: " you know, we have to serve tomorrow morning in the children's meeting..."

Me: "alright, alright...be the sensible one".

we were discussing our Heroes addiction (clip here). We have to know what is going to happen next, it's hard to stop watching. It is on the gory side, just past my comfort zone, really- I wish they would tone that down some..we have to wait till the kids are in bed to watch it, as a result we have been pulling some late nights.

Fall rambles

This weekend I went to a scrapbook retreat up in Big Bear, Ca. The photo above is of the fall turning of leaves- which we missed in Boston, but I found here on the mountain. Scrapbooking has been my only hobby really since having children- even then it is hard to fit in, I hadn't done any scrapbooking this year since going to the same retreat last fall. This weekend I relaxed, enjoyed the company of Sky's mom and sisters, and worked on our Boston trip photos- very satisfying to get it all down.

Amie brought home the class 'buddy' from her reading corner class at the learning center. When I picked them up last week, Amie was so very excited- she very animatedly told me as soon as I walked in that she had " wuuffy"- at least that was what I thought she might have said. What followed was 3 minutes of me trying to repeat back to her the correct word, Amie getting increasingly frustrated, and Demi-Sly jumping in to "help out". I guess the lisp didn't really go away! I finally apologized and admitted I just didn't know what they were saying. The whole exchange was a wet blanket on Amie's enthusiasm... Finally inspiration hit me and I said, " you have Lucky?!" Yes, the stuffed dog's name is Lucky.
They couldn't name him spot or something...

Amie brought him home for the week and also his special notebook to record special things they did together this week. I looked through the instructions and saw that she needed to complete one page with drawings for her week. Amie has already done 10 pages of drawings. Not real sure how to handle that.

I had fun shopping the Apple itunes store before leaving for my trip to Big Bear. I remarked to Sky that the kids really loved the Christian country music by Paul Overstreet I had on my ipod. I thought we should add some really country music to my ipod for the kids to enjoy. Way, way back in the early 90's, we had been in a country music stage. We were trying to come up with the creme de la creme of country that was, um...sanitized? um, more sanctified? um, safe for little minds? We agreed the top examples of the genre would have to include, hands-down- "I've got friends in low places", "All my exes live in Texas" and "I like my women a little on the trashy side.." and yet we cringe to imagine our offspring singing along to those with zeal.
I guess we have to think longer on our greatest hits list.

My sister-in-law, "D" was at the scrapbook getaway. She is the baby of the family and quite a bit younger than all the rest. I have to say that she is such a lovely young woman. She spent much of her time this trip on her laptop working on a project for a Christian writing course she signed up for. She has always wanted to be a writer and so she has jumped in feet first into doing just that. I watched her, so happily busy- and thought of how proud her Dad would be of her. I know he was already proud of how lovely she is, inside and out- you could see it on his face when he looked at her. She is truly Emma Woodhouse, without the flaws. I hope my girls grow up to be like her.

Heroes. Anybody know what I am talking about? My word. Sky found the series on free download last month and was immersed in it. I waited to order it from netflix, wanting to enjoy it on our big monitor. We watched two episodes last night and I think I am addicted now. We don't watch t.v. - one of the reasons is because we are really too busy to watch stuff. I can see that I am going to be spending lots of time watching this series....it's really, really a good show. I guess something to keep us busy until the new Monk season is out can't be such a bad thing? Did I mention it is available for instant view on netflix? ...we just figured that out last night. Yes, like I have lots of free time anyways....

Last, I am reading this book. I knew I would find more fiction to add to my
fall into reading challenge. Have to say that this is really, really good. Again, not that I have lots of free time...!

Food Matters

Portrait, peanut butter & jelly in pastel

Conversation with my 5 year-old;

Mom: "Would you like a whole sandwich, or half a sandwich for lunch?"

Amie: "a half, mom...two of them."

mom: "!!!"
-wonders to self if the math curriculum in the mail will cover halves and wholes...

Barb's wonderful chicken divan recipe ;
-rave reviews here!

Tonight I tried my hand at the recipe Barb shared on her blog, and I have to say that it changed our lives.

First, Husband liked it-and he didn't pour hot sauce over it, or curry, or anything like that...a really, really good sign. The kids liked it. It has broccoli in it, so I felt very sublime and responsible regarding my parental duties..and best of all, the croutons were to die for.
I thought about skipping the croutons, we like casseroles, but croutons not so much...I am so glad I went ahead and did them, they made the dish.

Second way this experience changed our lives , I never imagined trying to boil chicken for a recipe. Wow. Usually if a recipe calls for cooked chicken, I either - walk away, -slow cook it in a crock pot early in the day, -bake it, -cook it in a skillet (which is messy and always comes out dry) -used canned.
I am so thankful the information on how to boil the chicken was included in the post, I am probably the last mom in America who didn't know how to do that. (blush).

It took a little longer than I imagined, cooking the dish up...I kept thinking I was doing good and then I would remember a detail I forgot,

...the bread cubes! I'm supposed to do something more to them than letting them sit there drying out till ready! I'm supposed to cook them! In butter!
And then I was scurrying around trying to do that, and then I would remember

...oh! the mayonaise! that's supposed to go somewhere!
and so it went...

With all my scurrying, I did not manage to keep my kitchen clean and my pots washed as Barb lead by great example in her post.

I thought of including a photo of the mess (think kitchen explosion) but I decided I wasn't that humble, and I didn't want to make Barb cry.

I did, however, clean up my mess and pots while the dish baked in the oven. Yeah!

Internets, it was a really yummy dish and from now on a regular dish here at our house. Thanks for sharing it Barb!


Weekend link fun

This video had us all rolling in laughter, check it out: Man vs. kids

Found this very cute, imaginative and educational site for exploring art,
*here*. Famous paintings your child can investigate and click, move objects around. I really can see the possibilities if you are doing artist studies or art genres. Amie had a blast playing with the "Dutch dollhouse".

Lakeshore learning is having a good back to school sale, go *here* to look.

Finally, to see part 2 of the above you tube movie, go *here*. And remember, "Fighting is bad.."