I have been keeping pretty busy with the kids and getting adjusted to the new house. The trick is trying to get the house set up while still watching/entertaining the kids. Not an easy task.
One thing I did with the kids was participating in "Seven for Sophie" - something that was organized to celebrate the life of one of two sisters that passed away in a house fire in the Frederick area at the beginning of her year. For her birthday, her Mother asked that everyone commit seven acts of kindness in her memory. Little Lady drew several pictures for people that we mailed or dropped off.
We baked brownies that she delivered to Papa's work for his coworkers. We delivered a picture and brownie to our Monsignor and we sent off a grocery store gift card to a family that could benefit from it. Tons of people took part in the "event" with many people then paying it forward. People hashtagged (that is when people use a # and then type a word - it is a way of "tagging" a post so it will show up when that phrase is searched) #sevenforsophie on Instagram and uploaded pictures on the facebook event page so Sophie's Mother could see everything being done in her daughter's memory. I can't think of a better way to celebrate the birthday of a passing child. I still tear up when I think of this family - or any family that has lost a child. I can't imagine - and then having two children gone. Their mother, Chrissi Lillard, is working on getting a park in their memory set up. You can donate here if you are interested in helping.
Sophie and Madigan Lillard. Photo from Sophie and Madigan Memorial Park Fund GiveForward page.
We also discovered that we had quite the aphid population in our new back yard. Did you know that aphids poop all over everything and make it sticky? It is call "honey dew". At first I thought it was sap, nope - it was poop. So, I went by our local Zamzows and picked up some lady bugs!
They are supposed to be a nice, natural way of getting rid of the aphids. They eat them.
Even Little Man found them interesting. There was supposed to be something like 1000 in the container. Of course, then we had tons of lady bugs in our backyard. And tons of BABY lady bugs too. Do you know what a baby lady bug looks like?
Photo courtesy of http://gardeningfromthegroundup.blogspot.com/2011/05/bugs-good.html
Yeah, I didn't know those were ladybugs either at first. So - great topic for our weekly homeschool preschool!
The kids really had a blast with this one. We did our normal song stuff and then looked at a book with the different stages of ladybugs. Then we went in the yard and found several baby ones and adult ones. We (temporarily) put some in the fun magnified bug container Little Lady got for her birthday and brought them inside to look at while the kids made their own ladybugs.
Some of the "lessons" are better than others - this was a great one. None of the parents knew those were baby lady bugs either - so now we all know and won't squish them anymore!
I still learn new things constantly too. For example:
The first house in the Nation that was heated by geothermal water was located in Boise! How cool is that?! Many of the Downtown buildings are also heated by the hot springs that run under Boise.
I've learned that our new neighborhood has the same ice cream truck that our old one had. The name of it? Scary Larry's. Yup. I'll just leave it at that. No, we have not bought anything from him.
I've learned about our new oven, and what does and doesn't work with it. It had a bottom "oven" which seems like a warming tray but has a dial you can select a temp, so I decided to see if cookies could bake in there. Didn't work out - maybe too long...
The oven is also convection. I had been a total traditionalist on that and was not into convection - except I had now discovered that convection is the absolute best way to cook bacon in the oven.
I'm sold.
I have also learned how to make my own mayonnaise. Best part? I made baconnaise.
We collect the bacon fat and keep it in the freezer. This was the perfect use for it. Now, of course this is not something you would want to do all the time. Well, maybe some people would, but I think mayonnaise is a "treat" item. Whole Foods had country ribs on sale so I had to come up with some sides to go with them.
Coleslaw. Perfect with the ribs and perfect for the baconnaise.
I like to bake. I already knew this, but had thought I would miss out on this with the whole paleo thing.
Scones. Yup - plenty of things to bake that are paleo. Papa even puts this on the "meal" list I try to make at the beginning of the week to help me stay organized. He'll add it on. I take that as a compliment. I tried putting in chocolate chips but that honestly didn't work out as well. Dried fruit is the way to go. Getting back to cooking and baking also shows I must be getting settled into the new place. Working on it.
Also learned that topping stuff off with an egg certainly makes it look more interesting. Good thing Papa is into sunny side up - I still prefer scrambled.
Learned that this guy likes spinach....for now.
And learned that cuddling with two kids in bed is even better than cuddling with one.
While I've worked on getting the rest of the house in order, we've also had to organize a work space for Papa. He had an awesome coworker that was moving and gave him this desk.
Things that were made in the 1950's are so much more solid and awesome. Such a deal.
Look at this Man. Doesn't he look professional? He is in the "assessment" phase of his classes, learning to do physical assessments of people. For this he needs to have a "patient" and do a video of specific assessments and then submit the video with written reports. So - I'm his patient. Our wild and crazy Friday nights involve me sitting on our dining room table in shorts, a sports bra and a patient gown and complaining of odd problems while he checks me out. We are up 'till midnight or 1 am getting them done. Sometimes the cat suddenly decides she wants to be in them. After we finished the first one (several takes later) we realized the cat was in the background batting at the sheet covering the "exam" table. This past week the dog suddenly decided she wanted to go out in the middle of the video - so we had to start the 20 minute assessment over. Geeez - having the kids in bed means nothing when you have pets!
Papa has also gotten some new tools to play with now.
So now he can tell me if Little Man has an ear infection and how bad it is, saving us a copay and trip to the doctor.
And since this dude is into everything, not having to head to the doc is a very good thing.
Yes, he is trying to flush the toilet.
Into.......Everything.
