{Farmer's Market}

We have fallen in love with our new Saturday morning routine of trying our best to get out the door early, piling into the car with snacks and coffee, and hitting the road to our local(ish) farmer's market. We have a pretty good drive {45 minutes each way} so we have plenty of time to fully wake up, point out every single cow/truck/motorcycle/bird/cool thing, and talk about what each child wants to spend their dollar on this week. Honestly more often it's $2.50 for a bear claw, but they are so darn good I can't really tell them no. 

My sister often comes with us, and pushes Nomi around in the stroller while Jenny browses to her heart's content and dances to the live music...whenever she finds some must-have produce they come to collect Bobby and I or to tell me how many "dollars" it is for the most amazing "fill in the blank with produce" so that she can go make her purchases. She carries a tote bag around and is just outrageously cute. Seven is so big. {I wasn't prepared for that At.All.} Meanwhile, Bobby and I make our way to our favorite stand and get most of our veggies for the week. Getting to choose his own veggies has really {REALLY} worked miracles on his willingness to try them, and he often strikes up conversations with the sellers about his favorite way to cook cauliflower. Be still my heart. A bit of wandering around always yields some other goodies {this week it was purple potatoes and raddishes.}This weekend everything seemed to have tripled...all of the produce was bigger, there was more of everything, and far more variety. Summer is here...and I think I love it.

Dinner Time

{A note on this cookbook, I love love LOVE it! So many wonderful recipes and ideas, plus tons of information...I have already made two pies and have ingredients for another! Also, if you are someone who could be defined as my mother-in-law, do not buy yourself this book! *wink*}

Next week we start school. This marks a big shift for us as a family, the shift from a family of only very little ones to a family with bigger ones and younger ones. I'm not sure I'm anywhere close to being ready, but they are excited and that's helping me get to where we need to be. With this shift we are working on "cleaning up" several aspects of our family life. The chaos of the actual move is behind us (although there are still seemingly endless boxes and piles to be sorted through, and still a remarkably large amount to be donated), and it's time to find a little lot more rhythm and routine in our days. 

We've gotten back to reading bedtime stories, they're playing outside longer every day, the laundry is actually (mostly) getting put away before it's worn and dirty again...the baby has (mostly) stopped playing in the dog's water...and this week we have added family dinners. It made sense while we were moving to feed the kids something very child friendly quick and then the grownups ate later once we were too tired to do anything else. That's just how that works. However, we aren't there anymore and I was in desperate need (to say nothing of my children) of a better evening routine. No more wondering what I would eat after I had tucked the kids in (and was too tired to cook anything very stellar) and no more coming down in the mornings to a kitchen full of dirty dishes. {I'm the dishwasher here!} 

With that in mind I have begun finding simple ways to make this happen. Certainly our days our still mostly chaotic, with no hint of a weekly rhythm in site (yet!)...but the last two nights have been wonderful and I am determined to keep up with it! Last night we had our first "Meatball Monday", and tonight we tried this new recipe for chicken pot pie. I added salt and pepper, and used a puff pastry we had in the freezer (not very gluten free, but the baby didn't get any so it's all good). Otherwise, it was simple and fairly quick, and very easy to clean up from. Major points in my book!! The kids like the family meal idea...it's cozy with my sister and brother-in-law living with us this summer. Certainly most of our conversation consists of whether or not someone has to eat that particular piece of vegetable, but the point is that we are bringing our day to a happy close. And that feels good. 

They tidy up the yard while I finish cooking (I love seeing them out my many kitchen windows), then they wash up while I get everything on the table. Afterwords, they get ready for bed and I do dishes and sing with the baby while he finishes up his meal...every one gets hugged and kissed and sung to and snuggled into their respective beds (although by morning most of them are in mine)....and then this mama gets to curl up with her before-school-starts reading, some knitting, maybe a little wine and chocolate...and just *breathe* 

xoxo ~M~

Birdie Friends

We hung it up yesterday...they have checked 4 times to see if it still has enough food... I think the trick will be keeping them away from it long enough for the birdies to find it... ;)

Me, my four amazing sisters and my perfectly splendid Mommy

(Left to right) Me, Elaine, Mommy, Eliza, Zelie, Olivia....I think we're a pretty cute bunch. ;-)

Sisters

This is a picture my mom took of my sister Eliza and I...it might be my most favorite picture ever. Well...at least top ten. :)

Our May Crowning

Before we lit the candles (there are twelve for the stars in Our Lady's crown)

Jenny crowning Our Lady

I'm not sure if I have ever seen a May crowning that didn't first have the crown backwards ;)

One side...

And the other...

A Random Collage of Recent Pictures

My sweet boy, with his funny new teeth. He loves the yarn winder that I got for Christmas, you see,what could be better than something that makes balls?? The yarn is Malabrigo and oh so yummy. I will be using it to make myself these gloves, and this cowl. I joined a Ravelry group that's theme is knitting something for yourself every month. It looks like I'm not the only knitter who is always putting off our own projects. :) I'm so excited! I'm starting small, with just a few days worth of actual knitting, because I'm also working on some birthday gifts for Joseph. :)

There's also sewing in my future! I will be making the green and black prints into skirts, and I'm still deciding about the pink, it's so pale I might save it for Easter. I have a length of white on white print for a petticoat too...I'm in such bad need of skirts, I'm so excited to finally be getting some! :)

These next few are of our tree and of some of the ornaments I made this and last year... the cinnamon and applesauce ones are from this year, and the stained glass ones I made last year. The other stars I've gotten from Ten Thousand Villages.

In this one you can see a bit of the fabric strips I tied to the tree, I love how it turned out, so cute and cozy!

The cuties. :) Their great-grandmother got them both rain coats and rain boots, which will be perfect as soon as the snow switches to rain in a few months! We are making a major effort this year to spend between 30 minutes and an hour, at least, outside everyday...These will let us go out and play even when it's wet. :) I'm excited because I was even able to find a source (Land's End) that doesn't line their raincoats with fleece, so I don't have to worry about little Anthony's face. :) And aren't they just too cute?? :-D

This was taken on Christmas Eve, after they got their special Mama-made pj's. The pants are made from the flannel that is on their shirts. I am so pleased with how the appliqués turned out! I used a double sided iron on adhesive, and then zig-zaged around the edges. I LOVE this picture of them, especially because it captures Anthony's "Cheese" face. ;) As does this one, lol...

We put Jenny's hair in rag curls for Christmas. They worked so beautifully, but on our way to dinner it was raining so heavily that between the car and my in-law's porch her incredible curls completely deflated. It was fun though, and I think we're going to do it again soon-ish.

Then on the crafting front, this is the hat I made for my dad's birthday gift. The men in my family have um, rather large heads, so finding ready made hats can be a bit tricky. This was a fun, quick knit with bulky yarn on size 10-1/2 needles. And it fits and is loved! :-D

And these are just two silly pictures taken during desert tonight. :) I made vegetable soup for dinner, with brownies for desert. Anthony ate two bowls (and every last bean!) of the soup, and devoured his brownie. :-D I love it when he likes what I make! Jenny is rather harder to please. She is so good, and tries everything, but she has a very strong gag reflex, so if I make her eat more than a taste of something she doesn't like she throws up....SO NOT WORTH IT! She did try everything though, (*ahem* and only threw up a little bit...sigh, she just can't do chunky soups or potatoes of any kind. Odd isn't it?) and she loved her brownie. :)

She's so silly, it's absurdly hard to get a picture of her these days, since she's so eager to see the picture that she moves before the shutter closes. ;) The knot on her head was the prize for nose diving down the stairs at my parent's house...one more reason I'm grateful for a one level house!!

Family Night

So coming up with brilliant things to blog about today proved to be somewhat difficult. Joe spent the day working on a rather huge project (more on that in another post soon), so the kids and I had the day free to go play. We spent a few hours at my mom's; now that everyone is healthy again we can finally start visiting again. :) After that we went down to WalMart to look at fabric. I'm working on a fall/winter wardrobe "collection" (again, more on that soon!) and I was looking for some pretty fabrics...you see the only problem is that WalMart has several lines of fabric that they stock and rarely do they get anything new. So, since I've been buying fabric from them for the last oh, 10 years, I feel like at some point I have worn every version of calico they sell. :) So in order to not completely let the kids down, I started talking about the new and exciting concept of "Family Night" that we were going to start this evening. Of course Jenny wanted to know all about it, so I told her that she and Daddy would be making pizza and that after we could watch a special movie or play a game or something else fun. She really liked the game idea and asked what we would play...at that point I quickly realized that I had miscalculated one thing... we only had big people games. So after a quick browsing of of the game isle, we found that there is a line of games by one of their favorite illustrators, Eric Carle. They just had one of them (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), but it looks like Target has several more that I think we might start "collecting"...maybe a few as family Christmas gifts? We really had fun with the Caterpillar game, Jenny especially. :)

Here are links for anyone interested...

Brown Bear-Panda Bear

Animals Bingo

The Very Busy Spider

The Grouchy Ladybug

Other Games (not Eric Carle)

Goodnight Moon Game

I Never Forget A Face

And this pizza dough is really good, really easy, and doesn't need any time to rise!

Pizza Crust

1 cup of warm water

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast (one package)

2 1/2-3 cups of flour

Preheat oven to 425*. Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Pat out onto a greased pizza pan and add your toppings of choice. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Yield 1 large pizza. Enjoy!!

ps) A blog I love, Sew Liberated (side bar link) will be hosting an exchange that looks like lots of fun, so go over and take a look!

A Few Finished Projects...

October is my favorite month. I just love it! So, why is it almost gone? I have been knitting up a storm lately, which does eat up a good bit of time. :) This hat was made *very*quickly* right before this little man's birthday. His age might be 7 (gasp!!), but his head is man sized...big man sized! He is big into everything outdoors, so I thought a nice wool hat would be just the thing. I used cascade 22o, and this pattern. It is "raveled" HERE. I made the BIGGEST size and it fits him perfectly. :) And as a synesthete, being able to make my "red" brother the perfect shade of red hat makes me very happy!

Next off the needles were these gloves for Bitty (the photo was her way of saying thank-you). I modified this pattern, and you can see them on ravelry here. I used Knit Picks' City Tweed yarn, I really love everything I've gotten from them! (I'm actually working on a cardigan for each of my kids in their Wool of the Andes bulky yarn!)

Then just for good measure, here is Mr. Anthony with my sister Eliza (visiting home from college)

And my Jenny and my sister Zelie...or as they prefer, "Dora and Diego" respectively. ;)

The dinner timer just beeped, so that's all for today!