penny carnival

Tiny shoulders

Magpie had a hard time falling asleep tonight, so I cuddled up with her in her bed and let her talk herself to sleep.

She is one of those 4 year olds who says 100 things a day that leave you scrambling for a pencil and a scrap of paper. Tonight the subject was camping.

Over the weekend, we did a little spring preview of a state park where we've never camped before: Deception Pass, Wash.

This is J's spring ritual: load the family into the car, visit a campground within two hours of our house, dink around there with the kids while mom and dad jot down the best campsites (close to the bathroom but not too close ... flat roadway for good tricycle riding, etc.), and then somehow lose the paper where we took our notes before it's time to make the reservation.

The pace of work and school and life has been running us ragged lately, so I can't tell you how therapeutic it was to tromp around in the woods for a day. Here's Bo bonding with Mother Nature:

 

And Magpie on the world's best balance beam:

(Note J in the background in his phone. I know, I know, not exactly unplugged for the day, but I'm pretty sure he was either taking a picture or typing in another favorite campsite number. We finally wised up.)

So back to Magpie in bed tonight ... We were talking about how excited we are to go camping this summer, and I asked her, "What do you like about camping, anyway?" Her reply:

"You get to see things and hear different things."

Me: "You mean, things that are different than we see and hear at home?"

Magpie: "Yeah."

Me: "Like what?"

Magpie: "Like wind in the trees and raindrops on the tent."

Further proof that children were meant to run around willy nilly in the woods as often as possible.

As she drifted off to sleep tonight, curled up on her right side, I was struck by how small her shoulders are. How is it possible that this little miracle has only existed for four and a half years? How can so much happen in such a short amount of time? The wonder of childhood and motherhood and life was all wrapped up for me in those tiny shoulders.

Most of the Magpie quotes are more funny than enlightening. The other day she "read" this sign to J:

According to Magpie, that sign says: "No swimming, no diving and no trains."

Of course it does.

Easter here was good. I hope for you, too. Like I mentioned before, my sister threw a Hawaiian-themed party the night before Easter, complete with mai tais and muumuus, not to mention some yummy Easter grub.

The lady knows how to host a party, and, as one guest declared, "It was the best Easter Eve luau I've ever been to." 

The girls had been wanting me to sew them something lately, so I had Bo "design" Easter dresses. Here was her plan for me:

Here are the finished products, each complete with its own "ti" in back:

As always, there are some wonky parts if you look closely, but the girls were thrilled.

And I have to include this idyllic photo of Bo and her cousin taking part in an Easter egg hunt later that morning.

Kind of a perfect Easter image, right? Two sweet girls on a joyful search for treasures? I know there's a lot of criticism of blogs and Pinterest and whatnot for their glossy portrayal of day-to-day life, but let me assure you that one thing I will always be on this site is honest. So here goes ...

Within 10 seconds of snapping that shot, Bo was in a panic because she had only found two eggs. 15 seconds later she and her cousin got into a tug o' war over an egg they saw at the same time. 30 seconds after that (and after her cousin won the battle over the egg) Bo went ahead and just swiped it out of her cousin's basket and put it in her own. Who's got two eggs now?! Huh? Huh?

Ah, the spirit of Easter. We do much better finding God in the woods.

Happy gratitude

Remember how I left things last night ... all zen and whatnot? Well, I woke up to Miss Magpie in my bed with a tummy ache. And that led to morning cereal being upchucked on the rug about 30 minutes later.

Poor sweet thing.

I posted something about it on Facebook (because if you don't it might not have really happened) and was receiving a good dose of sympathy from my nice friends. And all of a sudden I thought, grrr ..., this is kind of a perfect follow-up to my garbage disposal spring break week, and now I'm mad again.

I started to post a little pitty party to myself in the comments. Something about a p.o.s. spring break. 

But, again, I'm watching Magpie, happy as a clam curled up on the couch with me, despite the morning's barforama. I say, "I'm sorry you're sick, Sweet Pea. It's no fun to throw up, is it?" 

And she says, because this is who she is, "Actually, it is kind of fun." Shrug of shoulders. A little more nausea later in the morning. And that was that.

Her little flu bug--and her sweet self--made me grateful today for so many things ...

...That my kids are healthy and even when they battle the yucks, at least it's not a chronic or serious illness.
...That we have a cozy home that shelters us from the rain--and all else.
...That I happened to be home from work on the day Magpie got sick so that it was me holding her hair back and not one of her preschool teachers (as wonderful and loving as they are).
... And, despite how much I was aching to be somewhere sunny and fun yesterday, that this didn't happen on the Matterhorn at Disneyland.

I see all sorts of quotes on Pinterest these days--some of which I like; some of which make me roll my eyes.

I'm not one to put a lot of quotes around the house, but this one caught my eye tonight from Money Saving Mom:

"It is not happy people who are thankful. It is thankful people who are happy."

Perfect.

And to top it all off, my wonderful friend Sarah stopped by unexpectedly with a candle and some heavenly bath salts for me after she heard Magpie was sick. You know how you sometimes think, oh, my friend is blue, I should do something nice for her. Or, I wonder if the neighbor would like a slice of the pie I just baked. She actually does that stuff. For real. And she is the best person to bounce your craziness off of, to help you get outside your head, to make you see through the foginess of life and get some sense out of it.

For many reasons, I wish I could parachute little Sarahs out of airplanes so that everyone could have a friend like her.

Come to think of it, we do have one big word message that always hangs on our walls. This is an old photo of our old house, but it still rings true:

Can you see it? Life is beautiful.

Sure is.

Back in the saddle

It is Day Three of Spring Break and I'm losing my mind. I think, perhaps, that it's difficult to live your life at mach speed and then come to a screeching halt.

I'm battling an inner panic: I've been working so hard in my classroom all winter and it's finally spring break. I want to have fun! Lots of fun! Fun, fun, fun. Oh good golly, the pressure to have fun. The clock is ticking. Only four days left now? Am I having fun yet? Um, sort of not!

And then there's this: I have a whole week to get my lessons ready for the rest of the school year. I could finally re-sort the classroom library by genre. I could create the homework packets for the next 11 weeks, making the rest of spring that much easier. I could grade the stacks of papers that are sitting on the dining room table.

But, oh no, what about the fun?!

So I'm paralyzed. J asked if we should drive to a lovely park nearby today and I said no. I want to do something BIGGER than that. I want to hop on a train or a plane or strap myself to the roof of an automobile and scream down I-5 all to way to frickin' Disneyland.

But, wait. I broke the garbage disposal last week when I poured Bo's first grade science fair project down the drain. You know, which liquid makes a penny the shiniest? Well, the glass of water with purple food coloring in it disguised the fact that there were still coins inside. Despite my attempts to retrieve the change, one stubborn nickel managed to jam the grinder (not the technical term. You know, the turny pointy choppy thing).

$368 later ...

Ugh.

So, since that money went (forgive me) down the drain, we won't be strapping ourselves to the roof of anything this week. The battle between gettin' work done and having fun rages on. Did we go to that lovely park today? No. We shuffled around the house grumbling a grouchy grumble sound and ate rocky road fudge. (And by "we" I mean "I," as you might have guessed.)

But that's just me. If you were to listen to our daughters right now, you'd think we were in Wonderland. For the past three days, this house has been giggle central. It usually goes something like this:

Bo: "OK, so pretend you're a horse and I'm a teenager."

Magpie: "Yeah ..."

Bo: "And I'm going to use this string and you have to gallop. OK?"

Magpie: "Yeah ..." (voice steadily rising with excitement over the plot.)

Bo: "And then I see Justin Beaver (sic) and he says, 'Hey, nice horse.'"

Magpie: "Yeah ... and we then we say poopy poopity poop. I haven't changed my underwear since yesterday night!!!"

Both: "Giggle giggle giggle OH! That's hilarious. Ah ha ha ha!!!"

(Roll around the floor doubled over with laughter.)

Bo: "Hey, let's do handstands now."

So, once again, it takes a 4 and a 6 year old to remind me just how good life is. But I do think next year I'll book a trip somewhere warm, and use a mesh drain cover in the sink from now on.

What else is happening in Penny Carnival land? Let's see ...

My sister's having a Hawaiian-themed Easter party Saturday night. Of course she is. What theme does your Easter Eve party have this year? Oh, wait, you mean you don't ... never mind.

Easter brunch follows the next day. My belly feels full just thinking about that.

I sewed a dress for myself yesterday. I pretty much just copied a drop-waist dress I have from the Gap and used some dark red jersey knit I've had stashed away. It's a bit too big right now, so I'm going to adjust it and will show a photo later.

Other fun from our corner of the world ...

This is what you get when you ask the kids to wrap a gift with whatever we have around the house (I loved it!):

My ballerinas:

 

And tap (not my rear end, but I would take it ... and the pink shoes):

 

Bo, in a scarf, getting all grown up on me:

 

Holy crud. I think my grumpies are gone. Maybe I just needed to write a blog post. What a novel concept ... maybe I'll do this more often.

;)  

Good to see y'all here again.

It was a 7-onion day

Once. a. month. cooking.

I'm not sure if I have much more to say beyond that (but you know I always end up blabbing about something or another, so bear with me).

I'm pooped. I just spent the day grocery shopping and then making 10 meals to stock away in my freezer (four recipes, multiplied). Amazingly, the giant bag of onions I bought this morning is half gone, and the smell lingering in my house right now is proof.

But I do think this will all be worth it in the end. If all goes as planned, by the end of tomorrow there will be 29 dinners in my freezer, waiting for my hungry family to devour them at the end of each day.

There should also be enough for some lunch leftovers, too, but to convince Bo to eat anything other than the school's hot lunch is difficult these days. I think she likes the element of surprise--will it be corn dog day ... or chili and cheese with a giant cinnamon roll (my favorite)? Yes, I realize the school gives us a calendar each month that should take the surprise away, but I always forget to look at it.

Has anyone else done the freezer meals thing? As tired as I am right now, I might be hooked, especially since I just calculated the cost:

Our 29 dinners will end up costing us a total of $249.06. That's about $2.08 per serving, which, by the way, is cheaper than hot lunch at school.

I don't even want to tell you what we've been spending at restaurants over the last few months (read: ever since I got my teaching job). An embarrassing amount. I'll leave it at that.

So what's on the January menu?

1. Sausage and bean casserole. We ate one portion of this for dinner tonight--DELICIOUS. I know Martha Stewart has a reputation for complicated recipes that don't taste good, but I can honestly say that everything I've made from her has been very good. And I didn't take any pictures tonight, but I swear mine came out just as pretty as hers. I think we even used the same dish.

 

(image from Martha Stewart)

 

2. Deceptively Delicious' meatloaf, which is our favorite meatloaf recipe. Seriously. I know people have strong feelings about that book, but it's another source that I turn to a lot. I skip the deception, though. Like tonight, the girls were on their chairs at the kitchen counter and Bo asked if she could be the one to put the carrot puree in the bowl. She doesn't care ... as long as there's ketchup involved.

3. Manicotti.

4. Enchilada lasagna.

5. Risotto con pollo (you know, risotto, chicken and frozen peas. It doesn't get any easier, but it's more fun to give it a fancy name).

6. Spinach pie, which is what our family calls something that is really more like a spinach calzone with turkey pepperoni, olives and mozzarella cheese inside. Roll up, bake and slice like stromboli. The kids go nuts for it, spinach and all.

7. Chicken-tortellini soup. This is one of those semi-homemade things, where you toss in some pre-made tortellini from Costco.

Speaking of soup, we made this one from Sunset magazine last week.

(image from Sunset magazine)

We've made it before. I go crazy for it. What is better than bread and tomatoes? Oh, bread and chocolate. But still ...

8. Empanadas.

9. Baked penne with chicken.

10. Enchiladas.

And then we bought two ready-made things that looked really good:

11. Butternut squash ravioli.

12. Another pasta bake sort of thingamajig.

Do some doubling and tripling and you get 29 meals.

Will we get tired of repeating meals two or three times? Probably. But I will get through those moments by daydreaming about how to spend the money we're saving (hmm ... paying bills ... so sexy).

In other news ... how were the holidays for all of you? We had a lovely, quiet Christmas with the girls, thank you. I crafted up our Christmas breakfast table, but it was tough to get good shots of it. 

I cut some branches from trees in the yard (is that bad? are you not supposed to do that during winter?), stuck them in clear vases and hung birdie ornaments that I made from brown paper grocery sacks and glitter.

 

I used burlap coffee bean sacks from a local roaster (Doma Coffee--great coffee!) as a table runner.

Next to them there cinnamon rolls is maple frosting, a little trick I saw on the Pioneer Woman website. Amazeballs. J and I were dying. I think I'm going to put maple frosting on everything from now on (including on my hips, which is where the maple frosting from Christmas now resides). 

Magpie contemplates whether to eat the whole cinnamon roll or just lick off the frosting. She's 3. I'll let you guess which option she chose.

Red and green fruit for Christmas (I have serious guilt over how many miles those strawberries and kiwi had to travel to reach me in the middle of winter, but I couldn't resist the color scheme):

 

I did manage to give the girls a couple of handmade gifts, but I haven't taken pictures yet. In the meantime, here are a few other shots from our holiday vacation:

Paint-a-Nutcracker kit was one of the favorite Christmas gifts ...

 

Out for breakfast at (a fantastic restaurant here in Spokane called) Sante before seeing the Nutcracker ...

Magpie ...

Bo ...

 

Remember my old rants about Disney princesses? Um, yeah, I'm responsible for this ...

 

Happy holidays from the Penny Carnival crew! Here's to a happy and healthy new year. 

 

First day of school

I'm bursting with excitement for Bo this morning. She rode the bus to kindergarten all by herself, met us on the other end and then led us to her classroom.

Magpie was excited to be back at preschool, too.

Here they are last night, with their outfits chosen and waiting (although there was some last minute changing of minds this morning):

 

Does anyone know where I saw this idea to hold signs in first-day-of-school photos? I can't find it anywhere. The idea for the signs came from Inchmark. (Thanks, Brandie!) I made these by painting chalkboard paint on some small boards we had:

 

I was worried she would freak out once she realized she was on the bus. Alone. But she did great.

 

J shocked us by sneaking out of his own first day of school across town and meeting us at Bo's school. He was the first face Bo saw as she got off the bus and she said, "Daddy, what are you doing here?" 

At her desk, finally:

And then it was a mad scramble to get Magpie off to preschool. We were only 40 minutes late, which means I should probably get back in the car right now to go get her.

Happy back to school, everyone!

Cake, camping and crafting

I have nothing profound to say. I'm only here to report that I love summer.

Who doesn't, right? I love it so much I want to make out with it in the back seat of a car. I want to tattoo the word "summer" on my right bicep (the left bicep is reserved for the imaginary tattoo I have designed in my head but will never get). I want it to last for-ev-uh.

Here are some reasons why:

1. The new bakery at Chaps called Cake, and eating lunch with my girls in the grassy outdoor seating area. 

I believe we were there for almost three hours the other day. That place is heaven on earth for a mom because the kids can just play in the sandbox while I read the paper and drink delicious coffee (Bumper Crop, of Coeur d'Alene).

Inside Cake, you can see how owner Celeste Shaw found amazing new uses for old objects. Can you tell what this round blue thing is?

Yep, an old display case from a hardware store that formerly held nails and screws. She has two of them in the space, and if I remember right the plan is to load them with to-go bread.

Celeste's creativity never ceases to amaze me. Here's some eye candy (or should I say "eye cake"?):

My pictures don't do it justice. You must see it in person. Perfect opportunity: The Latah Summer Market, organized by Celeste and happening July 10 and 11 in the parking lot in front of Chaps and Cake. Artisans, antiques, produce, baked goods, flowers, more. 4241 S. Cheney-Spokane Road off Highway 195.

By the way, Cake pastry chef Gina Garcia made my birthday cake this year. Lemon chiffon. Delish. 

2. Backyard camping.

You know we're getting ready to go camping bananas around here. Well, J and his close friends decided to celebrate the Great American Backyard Campout with a night of practice camping with the kids. (OK, they had no idea there was a national effort to promote backyard camping yesterday, but we were pretty impressed by their good timing.)

Hot dogs, s'mores, an outdoor movie and nine kids with their dads in tents. Does it get any cuter? 

Apparently the picture below was taken during a hilarious game of hide and seek. Our friend H was "hiding" behind a tree, and it took Bo forever and a day to find him. It's not even an old oak tree or anything. It's more like a cluster of thin branches with a big dude behind them.

Is she rocking the pajama bottoms + 2T T-shirt or what?

For breakfast, they grilled French toast kebabs.

 

So much fun I almost wish I'd been there instead of out to dinner/drinks with the wives and then on a long run in the morning with one of them. Darn. Maybe next year. (But probably not.)

3. Nature crafts.

I'm working on those eco kid crafts I mentioned the other day (prepping for the make-and-take craft booth at the county fair).

Here's our take on Maya Made's nature crown:

Bo opted to draw pictures of nature objects instead of taping them to the crown, (although I was not aware that Sleeping Beauty counted as an object of nature):

I also made a bird mobile from newspapers, inspired by projects from the Queen of Tarte, Kayte Terry and myself a couple years ago:

 

Do they look more like rubber duckies than birds? Oh, dear.

 

A bit of advice if you're doing newspaper crafts with kids. Do your best to use articles with nice words. This little bird snuck in somehow:

Damn media. (Wink, wink.)

Tidbits

Poor Penny. She's been pushed aside again. I've been hustling to get a bunch of work done before camp-a-palooza 2010, and this little blog has suffered as a result.

I do have a bit of stuff to say, though, so please accept this random wrap up of thoughts and experiences. There's no theme here, unless you care to find one?

1. First, congratulations to Spokane seamstress and Etsy seller Cherie Killilea, who recently landed a licensing deal with Simplicity patterns. Simplicity will begin selling her patterns for duffel bags (remember mine?), clutches and luggage tags next year under the name Studio Cherie. What a thrill, huh? You can read my blog post about it (including some comments from the designer at Simplicity who discovered Cherie) over on Dwell Well.  

2. Also on Dwell Well, I posted a roundup today of links to several eco crafts for kids. I'm gearing up for this year's make-and-take craft booth at the North Idaho Fair, which you might remember from last year. There are some neat projects there from Kayte Terry, Maya Made and others. Check it out if you're looking for something fun to do with the kids.

And by calling them "eco crafts," I'm generally talking about projects you can make from stuff around your house or stuff headed for the trash bin. In other words, they're the best, most creative kinds of crafts.

3. Speaking of all things eco, have you seen this video yet? It's excellent. It's 20 minutes long, so grab a cup of coffee, and the start is a little slow, so hang in there. 

4. We are going on four different camping trips this summer, one of which involves visiting three different campgrounds within one week. In other words, we will be living out my mother's worst nightmare. 

A few weeks ago, in a moment of irritation, Bo turned to her little sister and snapped, "Get out of my campsite!" instead of "Get out of my sight!" Hilarious.

A big part of planning a camping trip is preparing the menu. I'm sure I'll post photos of our camp-food successes and failures when that time comes, but putting all this thought into meal planning has reminded me that I never wrote about some of the wonderful meals we ate this spring. 

For the last few months, we've been spending two weeks with a particular cookbook (like Almost Meatless), a stack of magazines (like Sunset) or a blog (like my friend Sarah's, called In Praise of Leftovers). We pick two weeks' worth of meals from each, grocery shop for the main ingredients on one day and leave a few last-minute items on the calendar so we can pick them up fresh, as needed. The system has worked beautifully, and here's a sampling of what we've been enjoying:

Broccoli Fried Rice with a Poached Egg:

or two.

Squash-Walnut Galette:

Moroccan Grains & Greens:

Some of our other favorite dishes were:

Potato Taco Salad with Creamy Lime Dressing

Bruschetta Steak Salad (uh-mazin')

Eggplant and Chicken Stacks

Almond Gnocchi with Lamb Ragu (although I must admit we used plain, store-bought gnocchi instead of making it from scratch, which--when you have two young "helpers"--can get quite messy)

5. Besides love, family, children and sex, running is the key to happiness. You don't have to go fast. Just go. 

6. I turned 36.

My plan was to do 36 random acts of kindness, like Robyn of Mix Mingle and Glow did on her birthday. I even had appointments scheduled at the blood bank and a nursing home (we were going to help with an ice cream social). But Magpie woke up sick, so I only got to squeeze in a few things, like buying coffee for the person behind me and bringing grocery carts inside from a parking lot.

My wonderful friends on Facebook picked up the slack, though, and completed their own acts of kindness as a birthday gift to me. It was so fun to read throughout the day about the things they did, like my friend JoNelle, who was buying a candy bar for her son and decided to buy one for the cashier, too, because the woman mentioned it was her favorite treat. 

Facebook gets a bad reputation as a time waster and all, but how else could I spend my day at home with a sick kid and see friends I've known since grade school and friends I've made just recently spreading joy to other people in my honor?  

7. Like any family, we get caught up in the go-go-go-ness of life. Rush to preschool so we can rush to work so we can rush back to preschool and rush to get dinner on the table. Every once in a while, we have a day that stops me in my tracks and reminds me of who I am and what is important to me. 

It's never any big, major deal. Tonight, for example, we decided to go out for ice cream. As we passed the market near our house, we realized they were hosting one of their outdoor music nights. Very low key--just a bunch of neighbors sitting in the parking lot drinking beer and eating cookies.

There, we ran into the parent of one of J's former students. She (the parent) is running for office, so we got to catch up with her and talk about that.

Then, we saw a teacher J knows and his wife, who just had a baby. Had a wonderful conversation with them as the girls ran around in circles to the music.

By that time it was 8:30--way past bedtime for us, but J decided pizza sounded good, so we drove to another neighborhood we love and ate a pie on the patio, struck up a conversation with the sweetest 4-year-old boy you can imagine, and then got to talking with his parents, who we hope to bump into again.

Yes, the girls were tired, but happy, like us. They won't remember this night, but maybe somewhere deep down they'll make a connection. Meeting new people + building relationships with neighbors and old friends = happiness + love.  

8. Thunder and lightning out my window right now. Life is good.

   

The privilege of motherhood

Today was as perfect as it gets. I woke up with Bo shoving a handmade card in my face with a sweet drawing of our family surrounded by hearts and dinosaur scales. Not sure about the significance of the latter, but she was proud all the same.

Then breakfast at Chaps. Grocery shopping (I'm sure some people wouldn't think of that as a treat, but when I get to do it alone, it's a pleasure). Gardening. Dinner at home--burgers and champagne. The smell of lighter fluid in the neighborhood. And a long run in the evening sunshine listening to P!nk.

(I'm a few months behind on pop culture--at least. Did you all see her performance at the Grammies this year? It just came to my attention the other day. Holy sha-zam! That woman makes me want to run a marathon.)

When I wasn't making plans to become a rock star and get tattoos, I kept thinking about what a privilege it is to be a mom. 

I watched this video from Stephanie Nielson the other day. I'm sure you all know Stephanie, her blog and her story. If I try to re-tell it here, I'll just crumple up into a puddle of tears. Tears of sadness for what she has endured. Tears of joy for the inspiration she provides.

Stephanie's video is about her faith. She's Mormon, and she draws on her faith for strength. 

(FYI, I'm not Mormon. You can read more about my difficult-to-label religion here.)

Stephanie's message about motherhood being a privilege really touched me. At one point in the video, she talked about how it's difficult sometimes to cope with wanting to look and feel beautiful again. But then later she concludes that motherhood and beauty are one in the same. Waking up each day, making her kids' lunches for school and watching them ride bikes down the street are all privileges she almost lost. My heart breaks that she has had to sacrifice so much to teach me that. 

I thought a lot today about friends who aren't celebrating Mother's Day today or are celebrating it differently. Friends who haven't been able to conceive. Friends--fantastic, wonderful friends--who have yet to find love. Friends who have one child but have been longing to have another, and their bodies won't cooperate. Two family members--both of whom have four wonderful children each--but who I'm sure thought today about the babies they delivered and never got to take home from the hospital.

What I would do to fix all of that for my friends who are and would be amazing moms. 

Motherhood is hard work. It's messy and loud and I screw it up all the time. But it is a privilege. And it is beautiful.

2005:

2007: