cranberry tea

One of our favorite holiday traditions,

generously shared by sweet friends, several years ago.

Cranberry Tea

In a small pot, pour

1 - 12 oz bag cranberries (fresh or frozen)

8 1/2 c. water

bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes.

Add

1/2 c. honey

1/4 c. sugar*

1/2 c. orange juice concentrate

1 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice

3 cinnamon sticks (or about 3 tsp cin.)

1 tsp whole cloves

Simmer another 10 minutes

strain

- or not -

and serve warm

*if you aren't used to regularly reducing sweetener

you'll probably want to add

either

another 1/4 c. honey or 1/2 c. sugar

~

we like to toss all the pulp that we strained out

into a small saucepan

and add some more spices

and simmer on the back of the stove for a few days.

just because.

two year-old plans

"My Papa's gonna get me married;

he's gonna get me a mom

and I'm gonna nurse my baby with momma milk

and

he's gonna get me some garlic oil."

all in a day

waiting for Gramma & Grampa to get here

Gramma Joyce told Ton' he looks like

one of those boys on the TV

5 generations

Josiah, taking Brandon for a ride

"Everyone in the house, get outside.

You have got to see something amazing!"

Jeremiah out in the kayak for the first time - by himself

Lily can't get enough of sweet baby Aiden

and neither can Mimi; the downside of a big family

is - we all have to share the baby

Thanks, Papa & Grampa

for fishin' fun!

the girl loves her kitties

Aiden is just about tired of all the excitement

Aunt Lexi taking care of her baby.

Who needs dolls when you have a nephew?

~

all in all - a great day

would've been perfect if TJ could have been with us, too

lunch with one of my buds

"Eunices?

I had a dream about going to Eunices!"

I'm not quite sure

how Josiah had dreamed of lunching

at a place he'd never heard of,

but there you have it.

While Lily was at Lana's to 'help take care of Aiden'

(we all miss her terribly!)

Josiah ran some errands with me.

He wanted to 'go to a store for lunch' while we were out.

We pulled up to the fabric store,

conveniently located right next to a small restaurant.

We'd never tried it, but I figured it'd be a good chance to;

we were pressed for time, had to get back to our Lexi soon,

but the lunch rush was over, so it seemed like a good option.

When I suggested it to Josiah,

well - we already know what he said.

I can't recommend the restaurant

but the company was awesome!

I love you, my Josiah

Lexi's new word

"UP!"

silly girl, she saw Ton' grab the carrier

and thought it was for her.

(good bub that he is, Alice was quickly replaced with Lex')

before I forget

We had some pretty tasty muffins this morning;

while I still remember how I made them

I figured I'd write up the recipe.

Get Her Goin' Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 1/2 c. freshly ground white wheat

1/2 c. bran

1/4 c. flax seed, ground

2 cups real milk

1 Tbs lemon juice

Mix well, cover with a towel and let this soak

anywhere from a half hour to over-night

(if you use 'bought flour' - you can skip the soak)

add

1 egg

1/2 c. olive oil

1/2 c. honey

1/4 c. sugar

1 Tbs b. soda

1 1/2-ish tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. or so chocolate chips

Stir 'till mixed and put in greased muffin tins

top with a bit of brown sugar & cinnamon mix

bake at 375 for 22 minutes

mmm, mm, good

(take a look at this)

~

completely unrelated...

I am totally in love with this little girl!

I fell asleep last night with a smile on my lips

and her precious little hand cupping my cheek.

Life is sweet.

growin' up

way too fast

it could help

We 're getting more than a little tired around here

of all the crying and whining.

The little patients

are taking a toll on our patience.

"Just a minute, Lily, I need to clean out your ears."

I wondered why on earth Ton' would think to do that.

She must have had some huge blob of earwax, I thought.

Then he said, "There. Now your ears are clean

and you can hear better

so you won't have to cry nearly so loud anymore."

our newest creation

well

not a creation, so much as a copy

I'm a much better copier than creator.

Megan bought some awhile back,

so I've had 'em in the back of my mind for several weeks.

Today was the day.

With help

one only took 12 - 15 minutes;

without

it'd have taken 8 - 10

a quick fix

I've said it far too many times,

"Stupid people should be shot."

And yet

more and more often

I'm finding that

I

am one of the stupid people.

~

My entire life

I have been plagued with a problem,

Lana has, too - a lovely gift from my mother:

a waist to hip ratio that few clothing manufacturers recognize.

That is to say

-with rare exception-

if something fits in the rear

the waist is huge.

Given that we three also share a

comfort over fashion

mentality

a cute belt just doesn't do the trick.

~

I found a pair of like-new Lee jeans at a yardsale for a dollar.

One of the few brands that sometimes fits decently.

Seeing that I'm pretty desperate for jeans right now

-owning all of 1 pair that fits anywhere-

I bought them.

(and another pair - Crazy Horse. fit perfectly. who knew?)

When I tried the Lees on after I got home

ugh

the waist was about 3 inches too big.

Bummer.

"But they fit great in the butt," Tyler generously pointed out.

I didn't mind too much, though;

I figured the one pair that did fit well was worth $2

so I didn't really waste any money.

But now I had this pair of jeans that almost fit

but didn't.

In the semi-quiet

(this house is never completely quiet)

when everyone else was sleeping

I realized how easy it would be to solve my problem.

and I wondered why on earth

I'd never thought of it before!

~
After taking off the little leather label,

I simply cut thru the inside layer only of the waistband

on both sides of the pants

right behind the first and last belt loops.

Ran some elastic in one hole I'd created

and out the other.

Stitched one side

tried 'em on

adjusted the elastic

and stitched the other

~

Clothes shopping just got a whole lot easier

Now

if only there were a simple fix

for our shoulder to bust problems....

who's your daddy?

Tyler has made numerous pairs of 'slippers' over the years;

looks like Josiah's going to follow in his footsteps.

(stupid pun completely intended)

perspective

"One of the great things about this house

is we have great art-hanging spots!"

exuberantly shared Jeremiah the other day.

Funny.

I'd just been thinking,

"We don't even have a dectent place in this stupid house

to hang our art projects;

I have to hang them in this nasty window."

baby's breakfast

gotta love the eco-packaging

next time - La Fiesta

I really wanted to go out to eat tonight.

I'd left some of the dishes and pans from last night

(I know - always leave the sink shiny...)

add in all the dishes and pans of today

and I was still cleaning the kitchen at 6:30 tonight.

I really didn't want to go messing up the kitchen again.

But

we'd already blown

our eating-out budget (and then some) Saturday.

The envelope was beyond empty.

Grocery money's been going fast,

I didn't figure I could squeeze out an extra $30.

Gas - how could I finagle this as a 'gas' purchase?

(I was pining for Mexican...)

I almost talked myself into using some of the 'blessing money'

but blessing myself just seemed a bit wrong.

So

I dutifully put away the dishes I'd just washed

so I could get to the mill & mixer

and set about making dinner -

meximelts on homemade tortillas

with rice and Nate's fabulous green salsa.

Somewhere in the making of dinner

Brandon stepped on a fork

in just the right(?) way

that it punctured his toe.

To make matters worse,

some of the skin was pushed up into the wound.

I called my momma.

I cried.

He cried.

He soaked his foot all through dinner.

We both quit crying.

Mom said we probably needed to take him to the ER

grr.

We've been to the ER

once already this past month.

It wasn't a pleasant experience.

We haven't even paid for that visit yet.

I knew it would hurt like the dickens to get that skin out, though.

I was going to try numbing it with clove oil.

Tyler said I may have to cut the skin

then pull the piece out.

Do you people think I am made of steel?

(Lana thought I might do an at-home circumcision for Aiden;

no worries - she had a book I could use detailing the procedure)

We sterilized the needle and tweezers

and placed the clove oil soaked cotton ball on his foot.

And then we got him ready to go to the hospital;

there was no way

either Tyler or I would be able to inflict the pain

pulling that piece of skin out would cause.

Clove oil is good, but I don't know that it's that good.

~

Next time,

we're going to La Fiesta;

it'd a been a whole lot cheaper

and a bunch more fun

than a trip to the ER

one tiny thing

A few weeks ago

I ordered The Messies Manual

after reading that Jen was excitedly waiting for her copy

after she ordered one

cause one of her readers highly recommended it.

So desperate to get this house in order,

I seriously considered paying the extra 4 bucks

to have it overnighted.

As soon as it arrived, I hightailed it to my room;

I didn't even make a cup of - well - anything first.

This book was going to solve all of my problems.

You can see that this doesn't bode well

for the poor book.

Rather than being hasty,

I should have at least checked the profile

of Jen's commenter who did the recommending.

She has two dogs.

no children.

While reading the first half of the book,

I discovered

that I am not

what one would call

a messie.

I simply have a larger than average sized family

housed

in a

smaller than average sized

house.

and some of them are messy.

Tucked into the second half of the book

along with some elaborate systems

that I certainly don't have time for

was one little jewel.

The 30 second rule.

Which states

'if it will only take 30 seconds to do - do it now'

or something along those lines.

I haven't gotten anybody else to abide by the rule yet

but I have found myself

many times

going to set something down, to put away later

and thought, "30 seconds - that's all it'd take. 30 seconds".

Even when I'm super rushed

I can probably spare 30 seconds.

It's revolutionized my house.

No - not really.

But

it has helped my mindset.

And that's a good thing.

open mouth, insert foot

"You shouldn't say that;

it sounds like you're tempting God," Tyler told me last week

when I told him I could not get sick right now.

That it would put me over the edge.

~

I spent about a third of the summer sick

- which is totally unlike me -

and that

coupled with some other stressful issues

and

being home - alone - (while sick...) with the little ones

while Tyler, Tony and Brandon

put in a collective 500+hours on Luke & Lana's house

'bout did me in.

I'm still in recovery mode;

one step forward

and three steps back

lots of days.

So

it makes perfect sense

that I do not want to get sick.

So far this week

I've got 3 sick kiddos.

As my friend Susie would say, they're droppin' like flies.

To say I'm hoping I'm not next

would be an understatement.

~

I really didn't mean to test God!

under the sea

thanks (again) to teachkidsart

we went from whining

"I can't draw a fish"

over and over and over

to

"Thank-you, Momma, for doing this with us!"

multiple times

Lily had difficulty with the 'paint the entire page' concept;

she much prefers to thoroughly saturate a spot with color.

If you look closely on the right side of her paper,

under one of her baby fishies

you'll see her very first person!

Josiah's lionfish (and baby)

Jeremiah added babies, a turtle, and a jellyfish

(fabulous scissoring, Bud!)

Brandon and I

wished we would have been more generous with the salt

(love this guy's eye & mouth!)

This could certainly have been a two day project;

I think we spent about an hour and a half painting.

It was fun to do it all together

but the boys want to do it again

and make sea turtles instead of fish

and I think we'll paint & salt the background one day

and make the turtles the next

then come back later and cut & paste.

beauty in the rough

Tyler and I have talked

about how important beauty is to our well-being

but we'd never really realized it before.

Spending my days in this ugly (really ugly!) house

has made me even more aware of my need

to be surrounded by beauty.

I wouldn't have considered that a need before

but I sure do now.

(I still argue with myself over this - I shouldn't need to look at lovely things

sure, I like to - but to need to? It almost feels like a character flaw to me.

but, alas, that is where I am right now.)

That's probably why I've been more diligent

to 'do art' even though I don't feel competent in that area.

In learning about art and artists

we are bringing more beauty into our home.

~

Ann writes often about beauty

and recently concluded that

because

God is everywhere

beauty

is everywhere.

We need only to look for it.

~

What can you find that is beautiful today?

budding artist