Random Dozen

I have what seems like a dozen different posts swirling around in my head right now, but no time or energy to put them all together.  But I feel like posting something, so I am taking the easy way out and doing another Random Dozen.  Interesting questions this time, so here goes!  Oh, if you want to read more, head over to Linda's blog for some others!



1. Tell me something about your favorite teacher.
I have a few favorites.  My 5th grade teacher made everything we had to do fun for us.  I remember enjoying even the most mundane of tasks, like memorizing definitions, because she would make a song or a game. 

2. Tell me about one pivotal moment in your life.
The day I had my car accident 11 years ago.  I am still not fully recovered.  It really changed who I am physically, but also spiritually because I saw God miraculously restore feeling to my hands and feet that I was beginning to wonder if it would ever return.  It was a faith building moment that was so awesome it has been worth the lasting pain.

3. About favorite colors--a lot of people will ask you what it is, but I want to know why it is. What feeling or memory does it evoke?
My favorite color is red (clearly, since I'm using blue now, right?) because it is so bold and vibrant and bright.  It's what I want to be!

4. What's a sure sign that you're getting older?
The fact that I can predict a cold front or rain with amazing accuracy simply by the amount of pain in my hips and knees.  That makes me sound really, really old.

5. Please don't sermonize, but Halloween--is it a yes or no for you?
No.  But we do participate in our chruch's alternative, with costumes and all.

6. What's your favorite musical?
I'm not sure I've really seen enough musicals to have one.  I've seen Phantom of the Opera (I know that's not a musical, folks - work with me) and I love it.  I also love The Sound of Music.  Does that count?

7. Are you more of a city mouse or country mouse?
Country mouse.  I should have been born and raised on a farm.

8. Did you know that it is possible, for a small fee, to name a real star after someone? (It's true! Google it!) If someone were to name a star for you, would you appreciate it for its whimsy and romance, or would you say, "Are you kidding me? For $19.95 we could have gone to the movie and actually bought popcorn."
I'd love to have a star named after me.  That'd be cool.

This question comes from Paula at His Ways Are Not Our Ways.

9. What's the craziest thing you've ever been doing and texted during it? I only thought of this b/c I was about to try to text during my walking video but I didn't. (Paula, you do know that this blog is rated G, right?)
Um, I am soooo last millenium.  I don't text.

10. "It's not a party unless _______."
there's good food.  That's bad, huh?

11. When you're stuck in traffic or a waiting room, what do you do to pass the time? PS: There are no magazines available.
You know I'm spying on everyone, making up some background story about them in my head and imagining what their life is like. :)

12. If you weren't yourself, would you be friends with you?
I'd like to think so, but I don't know.  I can be a little bit self-absorbed and that's a quality I don't always appreciate in others...  Maybe my wit and charm would way overpower that yucky stuff and I'd be enamored with myself... :)

Some Little Girls

Look at this cute, fat little baby.  My goodness Anna!!  Look at those fabulously chubby thighs.

My stomach sinks when the kids hurt themselves.  She fell and hit her face on the tile and my stomach flipped and flopped all over the place as I saw her mouth fill with blood and the huge gash on her lip.  Poor Lily.

Sarah is getting her hair cut by my grandma today.  I can't wait to see what she looks like.

Mini Post Monday

Here are some more of my thoughts from this past week:

• The wheels are definitely turning in Andrew's head!  I was playing with him with a football, and I repeated the word "football" several times before handing him the ball.  Once he had the ball, he looked at it and then promptly put it on his foot!

What is it about the dishwasher that no kid on earth can resist?
• I now know why shoving a piece of wood under someone's fingernail is a form of torture.  Let's just say that I have a bleeding bruise extending 1/8 inch past the quick of my nail.  I think 1/8 inch doesn't sound like much until it is measuring how far a piece of wood shoved up under my fingernail.  Then it sounds really, really long.
• I'm going to go on a fast from TV.  I watch way, way too much TV and it gets in the way of doing things that are actually important.  Marie, do you still want to do it with me?  Anyone else want to join?  I know for sure I am going to do it for a week, but I think I will actually extend it until Thanksgiving.  I just went through and deleted shows from my DVR that I knew I could do without.  I may go insane.  Hopefully I won't.
• Ethan read his first real words this week: at, am, an, and ad.  He was so happy to be able to say he actually read something!

Ethan displaying the page in our reading book that he read for me.  Don't you love that look of accomplishment on his face?  Now that's why I homeschool.
• This past Thursday, we marked one full year since our dossier was logged in at the CCAA (China's Central Adoption Agency).  It seems that we are no closer to actually getting our baby girl than we were a year ago.  Our immigration approval expires in December and we are just going to let it lapse because we need a new home study since we had another baby since our last one and there just isn't time.  We'll renew again when we're closer to actually getting our baby.  Right now, our best estimate is another two years, but there is no way to truly know.  I try not to think about it, because honestly, thinking about how far away that is makes me want to cry sometimes.

One of the things that keeps me from crying when I think about the long wait for Hannah, and what keeps me praying for those people who are adopting as their only means of growing their families.  May your wait be shorter than short.
• I found a great recipe for chocolate icing this week.  I'm serious when I tell you that this icing will make you roll your eyes into the back of you head while whispering the words, "Oh, mama!"  It may also cause you to eat large quantities of icing right out of a bowl, for which I will claim no responsibility!  Oh, and it's really cool that this recipe doesn't use powdered sugar for those times that you are out of powdered sugar and for the fact that powdered sugar has cornstarch added and we are allergic to corn.

Okay, so this picture has nothing to do with the posts above or below it, but really, who doesn't want to see a picture of a six year old in a playpen?
• Wanna take a guess at what I'm doing right now while adding the finishing touches to this post?  Nope.  Nuh-uh.  Ooh, you in the back - did you just say making pancakes?  You're right!  I'm making my pancakes for tomorrow morning's breakfast now, at 9:23 PM so that I can go to the gym tomorrow morning rather than stand over a griddle and still have breakfast on the table by 6:45 AM.  You heard it here first, folks.

A Book

I just (like 2 minutes ago) finished reading Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford.

As a person very interested in the WHY of food, it was an interesting read.  Very enlightening in that it includes some history of and "real life" Mario Batali (he always seems so nice on Molto Mario and Iron Chef, who knew he was a big jerk?) and what life is like in a professional kitchen - Batali's famous restaurant, Babbo.  My biggest beef (no pun intended) is the swearing.  I didn't count but he used "the F word" at least three dozen times.  I don't mind reading books with swearing in it but these guys use that word in place of words like "things" and "stuff".  I mean every other word out of their mouths is "the F word".  For the love of Pearl, GET A THESAURUS.

Mini Post Monday

I think Mini Post Monday may become a regular feature for me.  I've been saving up these little nuggets of information for you all week, so enjoy this collection of mini posts!

• I saw a recipe for Apricot Chocolate Bars today. Why ruin perfectly good chocolate with apricots, of all things?
• Andrew started to walk a couple weeks ago - a full four months earlier than either of his brothers. Now he is a walking fiend!

Andrew walking with his other new passion - trucks.

• Andrew waves at Jerry every time he walks into a room. It is really cute to see him start to identify more with Daddy, even if it is a little bit sad to know that his whole world no longer revolves around loving Mommy. 

Andrew and his Daddy.
• It seems that no matter how often I sweep my kitchen/eating area floor, it is covered in crumbs. What is the trick??
• Aaron likes taking pictures, and he is getting better at it! At age six, I don't think I had ever even held a camera. I certainly didn't know how to zoom and center my subjects in the frame.

A shot Aaron took of me and Andrew first thing in the morning.  So ignore the lack of make up and the pj's, okay?

• Pancakes are the ultimate allergy friendly food, because amazingly they turn out well without many ingredients that seem to be necessary to pancakes (like eggs and milk) and work with almost any type of flour at all. But really? When I get up at 6:00 and stand in front of a hot griddle from 6:10 AM to 6:45 AM and only get one meal worth of pancakes out of it, I feel a little bit cheated. Why is it that boys eat so much?

My big eaters at Multnomah Falls this summer.

• So I am loving the updated editor on Blogger, but why doesn't it have a spell check option?  Is it still there and I am just missing it?  I guess I'll need to start adding some sort of disclaimer to each post in which I say I am sorry for all the misspelled words.
• Mustard freezes solid in a few hours in the freezer, but honey doesn't change consistency at all. You can blame homeschooling for that tiny gem of information.

Ethan and Aaron with a tray of various things we tested to see if they would freeze after a few hours in the freezer.  First, we made a hypothesis about each one, and later tested it to see if we were right.  Speaking of hypothesis...

• Do you want proof that the 4 year old is learning almost as much as the 6 year old during school, even though he doesn't actively participate in everything?  Yesterday, Jerry and Ethan were talking and Ethan made a guess about something Jerry was going to do and was right.  When Jerry told him he was right, Ethan's response was, "Well, that's because I had a good hypothesis!"

Ethan being, well, Ethan.

A New Habit

Andrew has developed a new habit of late: he is walking around with something stuck in his mouth, saying "Mmmmm, mmmmm." over and over, and generally being pleased with himself and his new trick!  It is so funny, and he knows he is being funny with it!

Here he is with a napkin in his mouth.

Here he is with a crumpled up paper airplane one of his brothers carelessly left on the floor.

And now with the washcloth I used to wash him up after dinner.  I really think the shirt says it all!

Joanna's Random Dozen

1. I've always wondered why we were taught both printing and cursive. Do you prefer to print or write cursive? (Keyboard is not a choice.)

My script is a mixture of both. Straight cursive is out the window. Now that I’m teaching Ella cursive I’ve been practicing and it is NOT pretty.

2. Are you a dreamer or a realist?

realist

3. Billy Joel or Elton John?

Really? I mean if you have to pick then Billy Joel but can I just go completely off and say someone rational like Scribblepotemus.

4. What is the scariest movie you've ever seen? Not just horror flicks but also ones where the tension or suspense is killer, for example, Flightplan (2005): A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plan.

Misery was pretty darn freaky, probably because of its realism. Movies that have aliens, scary monsters, blobs and stuff like that I find completely out of the realm of reality and I don’t watch them. I can watch some sci-fi and fantasy stuff as long as it’s not meant to be a horror flick.

5. Now what is the scariest real-life moment you've had?

The day Lily was lost. We found her asleep under Ella’s bed but for many minutes we searched the house and yelled for her and she never answered. I thought she has escaped outside and was lost or dead or kidnapped or something equally horrible.

6. What word do you misspell without fail?

I’m a pretty good speller. I make mistakes like: it’s vs. its. Even though some very intelligent people have explained this dynamic to me before I still have to stop and think and often erase and re-write when it comes to its/it’s. I don’t know why I can’t get it.

7. Name something you like to do but are not really talented or good at?

Photography, piano (not good at at all)

8. Do you get your emotional/mental batteries recharged by being around people or by having alone time?

Neither. Well, maybe the first. Mainly being with Del recharges my emotional/mental batteries.

9. Have you ever been on TV?

Nope and I will die happy if I never make it on TV.

10. Apple or pumpkin pie? (Don't be greedy.)

Brownies. Seriously, if you have to eat the calories then why not make it worth it?

11. How many magazine subscriptions do you have?

One – Everyday Food

12. What lesson do you have to keep re-learning?

That absolutely nothing in this world satisfies like Jesus (No change needed here. Why can’t I learn this and keep it in my heart?)

Also, you know the whole aperture/f-stop thing in photography. Well no matter how many people explain it to me or how many books I read or how many lessons I take, when I pick up my very high speed camera to take pictures I am still at a loss for how to fix the stop to make the kind of photo I want. It’s very frustrating. I understand it totally when I read it but I can’t recall it when I’m actually taking pictures. I can't understand why I can memorize the map of any town/city and make my way around like I've lived there all my life in a matter of days, but study photography for years and still futz around like a beginner. I think if I could just understand what the learning curve or style is then I could work around it but I'm still clueless.