brimming over

Addressing household issues

I stopped by our pharmacy the other day to fill a prescription and took a few minutes to browse while I waited.  Over the last few years, the pharmacy has shifted to being largely a gift shop/prescription pharmacy with very little over-the-counter drug store stuff available.

I usually see lots of really cute stuff but almost never buy anything extra (just the refills, please!).  After all, we don't need many more knick knacks as appealing as all the cute holiday things are to me. 

But this time, I just couldn't resist buying these great magnets that speak so directly to the problems in my home.

For that eternal supper time question:

My new philosophy for handling sibling arguments:

I had a really hard time choosing which ones to get.  Other favorites were:

"No" is a complete sentence.

I don't care who started it.

Do I look like a maid?

I brought them home and stuck them on the fridge without comment.  One by one, the kids spotted them and literally laughed out loud.  They thought they were hilarious!  Hopefully they'll remind us all to be slightly more tolerant of family life?  Maybe?  I can hope, right?

I can't find them online right now but they're made by Our Name is Mud.  If I find a better link later, I'll be sure to update.
  

Beautiful art

A few years ago my mother started taking a watercolor class at her church.  I don't think she had ever done much painting or drawing before but she always thought it would be something she'd like to learn.  The teacher is a wonderful artist and the class has faithfully met for years now. 

I am in awe of the beautiful paintings that Mama has made.  There are so many and you'd never suspect that they were painted by an "amateur".  :) 

Almost two years ago, she painted one for my birthday.  And it's really customized...down to the littlest details.

Not only does the painting feature my name, the dresses in the window are fashioned after actual favorite dresses that Amy Grace has worn.  And the two teddy bears are her little Care Bears that she loved so much.  Isn't it amazing?

Unfortunately, we all learned a hard lesson: paintings that are gifted should be framed before being handed over to the giftee.    I have had the matted painting waiting around for nearly two years for me to frame it.  At least other family members have benefited from this lesson learned!  Subsequent gifts of gorgeous paintings have been framed and ready for hanging.  You are all quite welcome.  :)

I finally got off my rear a week or so ago and took the painting to Michael's, armed with the knowledge that their custom framing was 50% off at the time.  Amy Grace (and the fine store assistant) helped me sort through the options and we made a decision, crossed our fingers, and placed the order.

I received the call yesterday that it was ready to be picked up so I went by today and got it.  Yippee!  I think it looks wonderful!

Here it is hanging between the windows (a place of honor!) in our guest room.

I don't think photos taken in this room ever turn out quite right with the colors but you get the idea.

Thank you, Mama!  I love my painting. 

When can I have another?  :) 

What are you?

She...

thinks she is one of these...

It all started when we started giving her...

when we'd cut them up for the piggies.  Lucy loves carrots.  And they're healthy for her.

Then she decided that she might also like...

Huh?  Lettuce?  Dogs don't eat lettuce.  Very odd.

But now she has decided she likes...

That's it.  Now I know she thinks she is a guinea pig. 

A HUGE overgrown guinea pig.  One that wags her tail when she's happy.  :)

Line up for salad!
  
  

Yeah, yeah

I know.  I'm behind.  I stink.  I don't keep up here very well.  Hey, I'm busy! 

(Sorry, got a little defensive there.) 

Really, though, every day I mean to post something.  And at the end of the day, time has slipped past me without it getting done.  Sigh.  My apologies.

I do have lots of things to update.  Probably not that much of it interesting to most of you.  Oh, well.  C'est la vie! 

Taking an idea from The Pioneer Woman, here are some recent pictures with titles by way of explanation.

"Can I come inside now?"
Alternate title: "I could tolerate this a lot better if SOMEONE would buy me a doggie jacket!"

"Still Coming Down"
Alternate title: "It looks pretty but we had snow last year.  So.done.with.snow." 

"All about odd and even"
Alternate title: "Look! I can make ANOTHER pattern!"

"Giant drawings for sale!"
Alternate title: "This is a great way for me to scam the spare change off everyone!"

Well, that's not much but at least it's something.  Not too much camera activity around here lately. 

More updates soon.   
 

Countdown to Halloween

Because today is the first day of the beginning of Halloween week...
And because my children love Halloween...
And because Amy Grace has been dreaming up possible Halloween costumes (even to the point of drawing instructions for me to make them!) for at least a month...

I bring you a blast from the past:

Emily and Amy Grace on Halloween 2006.  Aren't they too cute?  Note that Amy Grace is wearing her dress backwards for some unknown reason. 

And while the picture above is the cuter one because they are both smiling and happy, I have to share this one so that you can get the full scope of Emily's "costume" created by Amy Grace, complete with wand:

Em, you're such a good sport!  Amy Grace would dearly love to dress up with you this week!  We miss you. 
  

Three months off

Well, I never really meant to take a 3 month break from blogging.  Whoops.  Sometimes these things just happen and life gets in the way.  I hope I can still convince some of you to come back here and read again. 

In the time I've been absent...

• Craig turned 38
• we celebrated our 15th anniversary
• Parker turned 12
• we grew a garden; its most prolific crop has been banana peppers and jalapenos but we managed to cross-polinate some squash and cucumber resulting in a rather odd veggie
• I was elected Treasurer of our local homeschooling group
• Parker moved up into the youth group at our church...yikes!
• we started back to school...Amy Grace in 1st grade, Wesley in 4th grade, and Parker in 7th grade
• the boys played Upward flag football and had a blast!
• all 3 kids are playing tennis and Parker has declared it "his thing"...he is playing on a middle school team again this year and loving it; he is taking a more advanced class that meets twice a week which puts us at the tennis courts 4 or 5 times a week with matches, lessons, and practices!
• also, all 3 kids started piano lessons; they're really enjoying them and progressing nicely
• we have started the process of re-working our dining room to make it a homeschool room...I finally faced the facts that the table was always covered with schoolwork and otherwise the room was only being used as a pet bedroom; more on this to come!
• we've had short (and wonderful!) visits from Craig's parents and my parents but our guest room is feeling lonely...doesn't anyone else want to come?

I'm sure there's much more but those are the highlights.  I've missed writing here and I'll do my best to be more intentional about keeping things up to date.

Curse of the strays

I don't know what it is about us but somehow we seem to attract stray dogs. 

Well, I know that part of it is that we're one of the only families in our neighborhood that spends any time outdoors at all.  That means we're the only ones who actually notice that there's an odd dog coming around.

I think another possibility is that we live near the border of our county, which does have leash laws, and the neighboring county, which has no leash laws at all.

In the last few months, we have probably called Animal Control to our house to pick up a dog no fewer than 6 times.

One repeat offender is a large black lab who is rather aggressive.  He loves to run around our yard, marking all our shrubs, rolling in the flower beds, and generally harassing us.  He's a real nuisance.  We call to have him picked up and a few days or weeks later, he's back again.  He somehow manages to escape his electric fence over and over.  I'm pretty sure he's immune to the shock collar he's wearing. 

Poor guy.  I feel bad for him.  He's hot and miserable.  But I don't feel bad enough to let him hang out terrorizing us.

And then there was this little gal.

 

She hung around the neighborhood for more than a week.

At first she had a collar but it had no identification on it.  After a bit, the collar was gone, lost in the woods we think.

She was so sweet and precious.  She loved to be petted and the children adored her.  But she wouldn't come when you called to her and wouldn't stay put for even a short time without a leash. 

She spent days and days roaming the woods behind our house.  And running up and down along the treeline, howling. 

Howling at dusk.  Howling at 10 p.m.  And worst of all, howling at dawn.  Argh!  We started calling her "Rooster".

Finally one day she came back up to the house and right up onto the deck where Amy Grace and I were reading a book.  So we got the collar and leash and I called Animal Control.

In the meantime, we gave her food and water.  And Amy Grace went from calling her "the Beagle" to giving her names. 

Sarah.

 

Sparkle.

 

The kids all begged for us to keep her.  And she was such a sweet pup.  But without a fenced backyard, there was no way we could keep a wandering beagle.

By the time they came to pick her up, Amy Grace was a puddle of tears and misery.  "But Sparkle needs me, Mama!  I won't ever see her again!"

Geez, talk about ripping my heart out.  Sweet pup, we hope and pray your real owners got you back and you are happy at home now.

My "You're Not 40 YET" party

It must be stated up front:  I have the most wonderful husband in the world!

Okay, now I can tell the rest of this story.  :)  Although I'm not completely sure where to begin.

A week or two ago, my mother emailed that they wanted to come visit us on April 3rd, just overnight, and my grandmother was going to come, too.  Was that okay with us?  "Sure, why not?" I thought.  I let her know that we had pottery and Parker had a tennis match but they were welcome to come.  Of course, I thought it was a bit odd that Grandmother was coming, too, but I was happy to have her so I didn't ask any questions.  Man, I am gullible.

The day before they were coming, I was fretting over what to cook for Friday night and I got an email from my mother saying, "Don't you think it'd be easier if we just went out to dinner when we're there?  I'm in the mood for Italian." 

"Yippee!" I thought.  I ran to tell Craig, "I'm off the hook!"  I called Mama and told her that our options were pretty much Carrabba's, Olive Garden, and Johnny Carino's.  She told me that Daddy likes Johhny Carino's so let's go there.  Fine with me!  Again, gullible.

On Friday, the kids and I cleaned the house, went to pottery, and came home, arriving just before my parents and Grandmother got there.  We made lunch for them, chatted, and rushed off to the tennis match.  Parker played one of the first matches and almost played a second but the coach ended up using someone else for that match.  We were hanging around, goofing off and watching the other matches, but everyone kept harping about "Why are we staying?  When are we leaving?", so we left.  See?  Gullible.

While we waited for Craig to get home, we played board games.  He got home and changed clothes.  And he told us that the restaurant said they could seat us at 7 p.m.  So around 6:30, we wrapped up our game and started getting ready to go.  I was still wearing my clothes from earlier (jeans and a black shirt) and my grandmother said, "Aren't you going to change?"  Hmmm, no?  Wasn't planning to.  She said that she'd changed for dinner and I was still wearing what I'd had on all day and she thought I should change.  Huh?  I could tell she wasn't going to drop it so I went and changed.  Different jeans (but not as faded), brown sweater.  Still, totally gullible.

We headed out to Johnny Carino's in two cars.  Parker rode with me and Craig, and everyone else rode together.  When we got there, they all snuck in a back door and we couldn't find them.  We kept waiting for them to show up and they were no where to be seen.  Finally, Craig decided they must already be at our table so the hostesses showed Parker, Craig and me to the table.  Then...

as we rounded the corner into the room (where I'm thinking all along I'll see our table), a room full of people shouted, "SURPRISE!!!"  And I think I practically passed out from the shock! 

The room was full of family and friends who were waiting there for us to arrive.  My brain was going crazy trying to figure it all out...who planned this?  was Craig in on it?  where were my parents?  who made those signs?  On and on and on.  Finally it dawned on me that Craig had planned it.  And that they'd all engineered the whole thing to get me there!  Wow!  It was so amazing! 

Right away Craig started talking to the daughter of our friends who often babysits for us.  He was handing her money and told me he had to move Amy Grace's car seat to her car.  She took the kids back to our house, stopping for food along the way, for the evening so that we were able to have a kid-free party.

 

On the far right is my friend, Melissa, who flew in from Houston just for me!

  

  

My father, my grandmother, and my mother...

  

  

  

Craig really thought of everything.  He got a wonderful cake from my favorite bakery.  It says, "Happy 39 361/365 Birthday, Denise!  You're not 40 yet!"

  

He got my parents to make photo boards with pictures of me from birth on up.  And he did a Power Point show with more recent pictures.

 

He had our homeschool friends that we spend so much time with make signs.

  

  

My parents brought the beautiful flowers for the tables.

  

I am really so amazed at all the trouble and effort that Craig went to in planning this party for me.  It was so amazing and I was SO surprised!  I had no idea at all that he was up to this!  I had such a terrific time and it was so lovely being with our friends and family. 

It was really the nicest, most wonderful thing anyone has done for me in a long, long time.  Maybe ever.  I love you, Craig.  Thank you.

 

  

Just plain yummy

A couple of months ago I decided that we needed to be more proactive about trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup in the things we eat and drink.  Despite the best attempts of the Corn Refiners Association, the recent studies showing probable mercury contamination in HCFS have me a bit on edge.  Conclusive or not, those studies on top of the mounting evidence from recent years made me decide we should avoid HFCS as much as possible.

I knew that might be a hard goal to achieve in our backwards little city.  Our main grocery is just getting on board with a good variety of organic products.  We have no Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.  And there's one itty, bitty, hardly-worth-mentioning natural foods store quite a ways from my house.  I've never been too impressed with them when I've been there.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the variety of products I've been able to find without HFCS at our local grocery.  We've found a large variety of the cereals we already love are in the clear.  And we're good on pastas, ice cream, juice, and many other products. 

The one thing we have had a hard time finding is cookies.  The very few kinds our store carries that are HFCS-free come in tiny packages that cost a fortune. 

One day while we were making a quick trip through the store, the kids were bemoaning the fact that they would never have cookies again.  So I said, "Fine.  I'll make cookies."  And I had in mind making chocolate chip cookies from a recipe passed along to me from my friend Sarah.  We ran around picking up the essential ingredients that I knew I didn't have at home (shortening and chocolate chips) and the kids started drooling.  Sarah promised that the cookies are really easy to make so I figured, "Why not?"

To say the cookies were a runaway hit would be the understatement of the year. 

I made them again yesterday. 

 

Mixing aftermath.  Sarah, I don't remember your kitchen having flour everywhere.  Is this the reason that the flour amount is so variable?  :)

  

Cookies, ready to be baked.  Or dough eaten right off the cookie sheet.  Either way, yummy.  This was much easier this time now that I got one of those cookie scoop things.  I'll never make cookies without one again!

 

Cookies!  A few already removed.  Somewhere between the last picture and this one, the kids came in one at a time, every other minute to ask, "Are the cookies almost ready?"  And they left a trail of slimey drool on their way out of the kitchen.

  

C is for cookie! 

  

That's good enough for me!

  

Oh!  Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!

So now the kids won't die a slow HFCS-free but also cookie-free death.  Sarah, my three kids thank you.  My husband thanks you.  The dog, the guinea pigs, and the fish thank you.  Or they would except they aren't allowed to eat cookies.

 

Unique

I've always thought names were fascinating.  I guess because so much of a person's identity is wrapped up in their name. 

When we named each of our children, I felt a great responsibility to choose wisely.  We wanted to give each of them a name that they would feel was a blessing.  A name that they would grow up loving and not be embarrassed to have. 

And, of course, surnames are their own kind of heritage.  They carry a history that is handed down from one generation to the next.  They show connections with family.

So I was curious when I saw this site that Emily linked to recently.  You type in your last name and it tells you the distribution of people with your name in the United States.  How cool! 

I figured there would be a good bit of disparity between my maiden name and my married name. And oh yes, there is! 

I spent my first twenty-five years as a Parker:

• In the US, there are 109,626 phone book entries with the surname Parker and approximately 395,048 persons with this name.
• The surname Parkeris the 42nd most frequent name in the US.
• People with this surname live in 51 states (includes Washington, DC). Most occurrences are in Texas: 9,592.

When we look at the name Rhinehart, however, it's a whole different ballgame:

 

• In the US, there are 1,551 phone book entries with the surname Rhinehart and approximately 5,589 persons with this name.
• The surname Rhinehart is the 6,543rd most frequent name in the US.
• People with this surname live in 42 states. Most occurrences are in North Carolina: 152.

How weird is that?  Not a single person with the last name Rhinehart lives west of the Continental Divide.  Freaky.

 

I guess my husband's forefathers didn't follow the Gold Rush or hop on a wagon train.  :)