Good Samaritan?

Yesterday, as I was driving home from a quick errand at the store, I noticed a young girl trying to cross Center street. It was literally freezing outside. Across the street another young girl awaited her friend. Both girls were jumping up and down probably to stay warm. I glanced up & down Center wondering if there would be an adequate pause in traffic for the girl to cross safely. After my few minutes of deliberation & allowing my opportunities to merge onto Center fade away I decided to help the girl. I just went straight into the lane of oncoming traffic to give the girl time to run across. The first car in a long line did not slow down. In fact, I realized that it was going to attempt to swerve around me. Concerned about the young girl being hit by an impatient ignorant man, I honked my horn & signaled for him to stop while pointing to the girl. He briefly stopped for the girl and to shout obscenities at me. I was happy the girl crossed the street and let the man's anger roll off of me. However, to my surprise each & every car for the next 5 minutes sped past me, each one pausing briefly to yell and honk at me. I am certain most of them thought I was crazy, & perhaps I am, but I felt a bit like a heroin saving a child from a traffic disaster and the rest didn't matter a bit.

September Moments

September 1, 2009

I wasn't sure that our corn would be edible. It seemed to grow slowly. I had noticed that the stalks were shorter than any corn I'd ever seen. To my surprise, however, we enjoyed scrumptious corn. I love the white corn the best & Rilla seemed to agree as she munched on it raw:)
September 3, 2009

Tessa, Nathan, Rilla, & I went on a walk together. Actually, I was the only one who walked. Nate & Rilla rode in the stroller & Tessa rode her bike. She didn't want to leave Dash behind at home so he got a special ride in her basket. Tessa loved all the attention from friends whom we saw on our excursion.
Doesn't Dash seem to love it just as much as Tessa did?

September 9, 2009
Oh, love the baby!

September 11, 2009

As a farewell to summer we enjoyed a backyard camp-out complete with an outdoor cook-out:)
I enjoyed all the campfire fun with the bonus of being able to sleep in my own bed while everyone else slept outside in the tent. Having a baby is nice.

There is something magical about eating a hot dog that you've roasted yourself over a fire. Mmmm! And s'mores for dessert!
Emma accompanied us with her repertoire of two songs: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star & London Bridges.
And, cooking or playing in the fire is a nice time to meditate & reflect or unwind & bond.

September 13, 2009

Nathan was so excited to show me the "S" he made on the floor with his fruit roll-up trash :)

September 19, 2009/Garden Bounty

I am so happy my garden did well enough for me to can some spaghetti sauce. There is something so fulfilling in growing and preserving your own food. My children even boosted my spirits as they asked, "Mom, what stuff did you grow yourself to make the sauce?" I happily answered, "Everything." "Mom, what about the spices?" "OK, the onions, garlic, basil, oregano, peppers, tomatoes, & parsley came from our garden. The salt & pepper did not." :)
And, the jars are so pretty on my pantry shelf :)

We were blessed with three varieties of watermelons. Each one was scrumptious! My favorite was the seedless.

And we also grew some other yummy melons. Wish I could remember what kinds they were...
Ray was kind to make this garden tee-pee for me to grow gourds on. I ended up with pumpkins & cucumbers instead of gourds :) And, they were lovely!
September 22, 2009

Today at preschool, Rilla, proudly swiped an apple off of the table and began to eat it as quickly as possible. Apples are her favorite fruit.
September 24, 2009
The Fall Festival
Before Nathan & Rilla, my yearly commitment to the Elemenary School's Fall Festival was to run the Cake Decorating Contest. My first year out-of-commission the Cake Contest became the Pop Bottle Decorating Contest. This year I was recruited to run it. Having not seen it done I was a bit apprehensive and yet I agreed to run it since I'd been unable to help for the past 3 years. Guilt is a huge motivator in my life. Since I was in charge I felt obligated to have my 3 children participate. To our surprise 2 of them won prizes :) And, I was not a judge :) Now that it is over & the prizes all awarded, I feel a great sense of relief, but a bit curious to see if I'll be persuaded to head it up next year as well...I suppose it could be worse:)
Tessa's Pop Bottle Creation: She was feeling a bit blue since Minnie had fallen off on the way to school & she wasn't re-attaching easily...
Noah made his bottle a Darth Vader. He was quite pleased with it, but refused to be seen posing with it for a photograph.

Emma fashioned her version of Miss Piggy complete with jewelry she made herself. Emma was a bit frustrated with me that I wouldn't purchase false eyelashes to enhance Piggy's look. Both she and Tessa were so attached to their bottles, I caved and bought them back from the school.

September 28, 2009--Our last "Summer Night"

We had a family Harvest Event. The cold was coming and I wanted to pick as many things as possible before a frost. Tessa was hilarious as she helped me pick pumpkins & tomatoes. She would hold each one up in the air exclaiming, "Look! Another prize winner!" What makes it funnier is that her prize winners were the small grape tomatoes and mini pumpkins. I am glad that she felt as much love towards our garden as I do though :)

While some of us worked, others played...

Emma's "Prize Winner": it has to be the smallest pumpkin I've ever seen & so cute.
My prize winner: My Big Max pumpkin proudly weighed in at 55 pounds and courageously hung on from a rope on my 8 foot tepee. Tessa was given a coupon for a free pumpkin at the grocery store and so we picked out the biggest one we could find: It only weighed 30 pounds :)

More canning...Yummy Pears!
A rare sight:
Nathan crashing at the dinner table at the end of a hard day's work :)

September was also the month I finished a quilt for a friend. Thank you Grandma for your expertise stitching assistance! Thank you Kara, Annie, & Kim for help with the embroidering! My only hope is that is somehow conveys all the love we feel for our sweet sister & friend.

Our 4th October Birthday

We celebrate four birthdays in October; Ray's being the last. I made his favorite cinnamon rolls for a late breakfast. Everyone stayed home from church because everyone except for me was very sick with Swine Flu. I am ready for it to fly away. Rilla was feeling a bit better today and Ray was kind enough to share his festivities with her. They each blew out a candle in their cinnamon rolls. However, Rilla wasn't interested in eating it at all. She only wanted the grapes:) Ray ate his & hers. Both had a lovely day.I am happy that Rilla prefers fruit to treats. I just wish I did too. I want both.

Rilla is One Year Old!

It is a terrible thing to be sick on a holiday. I know. I have been sick on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and Halloween. All of that pales in comparison to seeing my darling baby so ill on her celebration of her first year of life. My poor princess had swine flu for her birthday. And all she wanted was to be held. Of course her wish was granted. We chose not to do a cake because she wasn't wanting to eat. The other children were disappointed as they were looking forward to the celebration. I decided to let her open one present & a card from Grandma. She loved the card! She seemed concerned we would take it away and was happy that she was allowed to hold it and read it herself.

The one gift was a Teddy Bear. She really didn't want to open anything so she received lots of help :) When the bear was unveiled she drew it near & snuggled with it and went to sleep. That was as good as it got.
Rilla has brought an immense amount of joy & love into our home. She is loved and cherished. When she is feeling well she constantly shares a contagious laugh about everything. She is eager to explore and communicate. She loves to be outside. She loves to eat everything & hopefully will continue to eat well after she learns the dislikes of her siblings. Rilla is a pleasant baby and fun to have around. Happy Birthday my sweet angel!

Emma's Birthday

My little Emma Rose is Ten! Emma is a sweetheart. She cares about others' feelings and does her best to make others happy. She never wants to hurt or offend. She is bright & talented. She is naturally good with all babies (which is a huge help to me). She loves being a girl & loves her hair. She has so much love in her & still plans to home all the homeless when she grows up. I love you Emma!

Just one week after Tessa's birthday comes Emma's. Emma was pleasantly surprised that I allowed her one present to open before school. It was a new outfit and she looked darling in it. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and Emma was delighted. She expressed a concern that no one would come to her party...but 16 out of the 20 showed up right after school ready for fun.

We had a Halloween themed birthday party which was fun & simple. We already had decorations up so we just needed some food & games. One of the favorite decorations were floor stickers that were glow-in-the-dark green gooey footprints leading down our front hallway. As the kids came in they were concerned about the footprints & wondered who had made them:)

Spooky treats were fun to eat! We had homemade root beer with dry ice. [I made the mistake of adding the dry ice to the pot that still was hot. I was mopping up root beer in a panic ten minutes before the party started.] We ate Mummy Dogs, Ghostly Cheesy Fingers, Mud Cups, & Monster Jaws.
My main concern about this party was trying to find enough entertainment for a wild mix of boys & girls. I hoped that Everyone would have fun. We played some fun games including the "Skittle" game. Watching a few of the kids try not to chew the skittles was hilarious! Foam pumpkin shapes & straws turned out to be a huge success! We played boys against girls. One from each team would take a straw and try to get as many pumpkins as they could into a bowl in 30 seconds. Emma didn't want me to play one of the same games that we'd played at Tessa's party, but it ended up being the favorite. The kids kept playing it even after we'd stopped.
The best thing about this party for me was that we'd already eaten dinner and when the guests left we could clean up and go to bed :) Those boys and girls were quite a fun and loud bunch! Emma loved all of the attention: from us and her friends. She always has commanded the attention of a princess and received it well this day.

Tessa's Birthday

Tessa is such a fun girl. She is eager to tell you a joke or something funny she saw at school. She is the one in our family who quietly observes situations and has great commentary on them. She makes me laugh when she tries to use big words. The surprising thing is she usually says them in correct context but has no idea what the meaning of the word is. Tessa is a cuddle bug. She tends to shy away from big groups and sometimes goes unnoticed. However, she loves one on one time and will chat till your eyes droop. I love my Tessa! Happy Seven Years!

We started Tessa's special day off right with her favorite breakfast of waffles and raspberry buttermilk syrup. YUM! She had a new pumpkin shirt that she was excited to wear to school. I ended up going to the school at lunch time and decided to say hi to her. I asked her teacher if she'd passed out the birthday treats. The teacher was horrified that she'd not even realized it was Tessa's birthday and Tessa hadn't passed out the treats. I felt horrible. Tessa had been telling me that her name wasn't on the Birthday calendar at school. I had suggested that perhaps the teacher only wrote the names of the "Birthday Kids" as their birthdays happen. Tessa seemed like that was a reasonable possibility...The teacher kindly informed me that she would hurry and do some birthday celebrating after lunch....She must have done a good job because Tessa came home with a new book that all of her classmates had signed for her. She was happy and even thought it was funny that her teacher had forgotten at first. I am so glad I followed my feeling to check with the teacher & say hello to my sweet girl :)

Two days later at church I asked Tessa if they sang happy birthday to her. When she replied, "No," my heart sank. Tessa is so sweet and good and quiet that she does get forgotten. I called the Primary President the following week to see if they would sing to her since they'd missed her birthday. Tessa thought it was wonderful that they'd forgotten because they gave her two treats to apologize for forgetting :)

After school we had 20 of her friends come over for a super Pumpkin Birthday Party. We had lots of pumpkin games and pumpkin decorations. I think my favorite game was our mini pumpkin relay. I recounted the Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin (by Joe Troiano), to the kids as they ate their pumpkin cupcakes. We then painted square pumpkins for them to take home. I think the highlight for the kids was the pumpkin pinata. I was surprised and pleased that each child had a turn hitting it before it burst open. :)



My favorite part of the day was seeing Tessa loved by friends and family. Elizabeth had written her a special birthday note and left it on the fridge before school. Emma & Elizabeth were super helpers at the party. Noah was kind and helpful with her homework. He also offered up his homemade beeswax candle to light for this special occasion. We had a yummy dinner with all of Tessa's favorites: jello, coconut, cherries, & pineapple. (I made Hawaiian Haystacks)
She went to bed feeling like a princess and indeed she is.
The next day was Saturday. Tessa & I went out to lunch together. All she wanted was Shrimp. She ate Shrimp on her salad and large shrimp for her entree. She expressed her disappointment with the waiter that her idea of large shrimp was different than theirs :) (especially when she had ordered from the "adult" menu to insure that she'd get the most shrimp possible). I was surprised that she ate her entire lunch and savored every bite. So, apparently, while the shrimp weren't giant, they were tasty. We had a lovely time just the two of us.