Move Over Duggers!!!!!

Here is our extremely effective and efficient way to unload groceries and stock the pantry! Whats gonna work? TEAM WORK!

Food Glorious Food

I just wanted to show off some of the food we have made recently. Besides what is shown here we also tried a new recipe for cheesy bean enchiladas that was phenomenal! I just forgot to take a photo!
Here is the Curried Spinach with Cheesy tofu Paneer. It really tasted like cheese...who knew! The Spinach was a nice bright green but it had to sit in the pan and wait for mike to get home. It was still delicious though!




Here is our yummy kale soup. An old favorite but we used purple potatoes from the farm so i took a pic.


Ok So here are the cinnamon buns. WOW! is all I can say. these could clearly make me fat! It makes exactly 12 so thats 6 for us on Heroes night and 6 to be warmed up in AM.



thats all for now. too hectic to blog! gotta get shit done!

Diapers and Safety

How do you keep your children safe on 186 acres of woods and fields plus make a fashion statement?????




Indigo sitting at our new changing area in the laundry room. It's actually a laundry room/giant pantry with a double stainless sink! AMAZING! the cabinets are rad. Stained different colors. I'm not feeling the faux brick finish but it's just a laundry room. It is working out awesome. dryer is the perfect height to change plus its right off the kitchen. The diaper pail is right next to washer, and when they come out of dryer they get folded right there. Its super!

Sunday, Hi ho hi ho, its back to work we go

7:00 OOOOOOOH slept in late! up to make breakfast, yes oatmeal again, no we don't get sick of it. Mike decides he is staying home again. Yipee! He decides he is going to clear out the back porch. now we will have a place for a bench and shoes and hats and coats! its a dream come true. but first, music and silly dancing!

7:30 diapers in wash, man we go through them fast. All this talk of too many poopy diapers has caused indigo to poop. Change poopy diaper #1 Decide to set up diaper station in laundry room. Put indigo on washer, he loves the jiggle jiggle and starts to giggle giggle.

8:00 assign areas for boys to work on. Setting up toy area is top on list. Forrest offers to clean kitchen sink. he knows me so well. I work on emptying and filling kitchen cabinets.

9:00 sun has defrosted yard, send harland and gaynor out to play, why don't we have our winter coats out of storage yet?, oh yeah, there are only 24 hrs in a day. dress them in multiple sweatshirts they look like staypuff marshmallow men. Change poopy diaper #2

9:30 indigo in bed for nap, brew second pot of coffee,Gaynor has been to door twice to tell me it is "FREEZING OUT!" lock door again. we notice man on quad with dog (on quad?) driving into our fields, we talk about the very real possibility of people hunting out there and what we can do about it. Mikes walks out to talk to guy.

10:00 older neighbor, not hunting, PHEW. we let him know our boys play there, he was nice talked to mike about the history of the farm and area. Mike lets him know he is welcome on property as long as he is not hunting.

11:30 its warming up in here, all ready 70" we still don't quite get it. Once that sun is coming in the temp goes up and up. it will be great in the dead of winter. meanwhile we start removing layers. Change poopy diaper #3 Indigo is up and outside with Forrest and Princess Fluffy Ireen Da Sea Kitten. whom figured out today that she can jump up through the open stairs. she does not like the upstairs but can now tell us she wants to go out.

12:30 lunch pb&j all around except me, i have indigo's leftover beans and rice from burrito joint. I warm chapatti on wood stove, it is now 72" down to t-shirt and jeans. make chai lattes with the boys, yumma!

1:30 Indigo is in trance sitting on floor watching elmo in grouchland. Mike and i discuss how we have a bubba baby. How did this happen? he is sucking back an 8 oz bottle of vanilla soymilk. he doesn't once remove it from his mouth. He is a breastfed baby! We plan our course of action. He clearly must be weaned from the very vanilla kids milk. it is far too yummy. We also decide to buy new sippy cups and ditch the bottles. The best I can figure, in my desperate attempt to get him to take a bottle.(this was only this past august!) i over did it. I realized if he didn't get up in the night time, he would not be nursing at all. Mike laughs at me.

2:00 INdigo back in for nap. Forrest agrees to take Harland (cranky pants) exploring! They go into the back woods to find the old narrow gauge rail bed, SeaK follows them, She really likes the kids.
I sit down to read, Working on "Spiritual Midwifery", its required reading for any and all midwife, doula and or birth instructor courses, i found it in a cabinet here. It is good. But a little kooky some times. They say psychedelic and telepathic way too much. Silly Hippies (its a joke I really do appreciate all the book and "the farm" have to offer) Consider getting naked as it is now 75" in here. Decide it would probably freak the kids out so i don't.Put more deodorant on instead

3:30 I love feeling like things actually got done! Porch cleaned out, wood stacked, pantry set up, 3 kitchen boxes emptied. Toy area set up. I did cringe when mike mentioned he was going to start emptying the storage unit....where are we going to put this stuff? what ever, we'll deal.

4:30 Gaynor comes in, boys are in hay, he decides no hives for him today. Gaynor and I make dinner, Coconut pancakes with pineapple sauces. Gaynor is an awesome cook. He pays attention and counts out loud. How smart.

5:30 dinner is done, Harland has been doing that screeching whining thing for hours now. He was up late last night, actually he came to me at 9:15 and said " actually mom, i think i'll get to bed, i'm tired and cold" I found that very interesting. I recently read about not giving bed times to kids. so i thought wow, he really will go to bed, but his attitude and whining today clearly indicate that this does not work! An accidental experiment proves me right! HUH!!!

6:00 Change poopy diaper #4 Honestly! . the changing station is working out great except that i still have to walk across house to empty diapers into toilet. darn. Mike gives poopy boy a tubby Our new sink is so deep its like a giant tubby. He loves it. Fold laundry, all 5 loads boys distribute and put away, clean up and sit down play dinosaurs with Indigo. Watch indigo push laundry basket around(one of his favorite games)







Get ready to watch sunday night tv. AFV, Extreme Makeovers (all though it is starting to get real monotonous and it's aggravating watching them tear down houses that are perfectly fine. Harland out cold at8:00.

9:00 boys in bed desperate housewives, decide not to watch brother's and sisters, tv is so boring! I bring in wood and mike loads up stove.

10:00 bed,

10:05 indigo up, he seems to have this alarm that lets him know exactly when i close my eyes and just start to dose off. Thank goodness, i don't need sleep anyway.

Saturday.....BRRRRRRRR

6:00 Up..its 58' in the house and 30ish outside. Must light fire immediately. Forrest stands over me to let me know all that i am doing wrong. Thank goodness cause mike was getting dressed! I remind him that the technique hardly counts if the outcome is good. Plus it only takes me 10 minutes this time HA! I make oatmeal, coffee and heat left over cinnamon buns.
7:30 I use my sad puppy dog eyes to convince mike not to go to work and stay here and help me get this place under control. After all i have been very busy all week not doing the work. surprisingly he agrees. I am convinced it was my puppy dog eyes and not that he didn't want to go anyway.

8:00 Mike agrees to tackle cleaning the pantry/laundry room....MY HERO! I start the general cleaning and organizing w/ boys.

8:30 Indigo goes in willingly for a nap, huh?#!, don't worry i don't need one buddy.

12:00 I make lunch, left-overs and more fresh chapatis, Then immediately change poopy diaper #3 today. seriously, who poops this much?? its like 3-5 times a day? I think he needs more bananas!

1-4 more cleaning and singing along to Flight of the Conchords, so stinkin funny! Send the boys outside to play. Gaynor actually only comes up with two separate ploys to come back in. He must really like it here! I of course just lock him out, (must check all doors) and turn up the music. I watch Indigo running around with forrest out side. he would stay out all day!

4:30 load em up in van for trip to Big Mouth Burritos! Yahoo! But first have to strip down boys to shake hay off, oh forget it hay doesn't come off fleece! it makes its own special velcro like bond. have to go back in to change some clothes. ok. Yummy fresh burritos with marinated tofu and brown rice plus fresh salsa, cabbage, lettuce, peppers,carrots, onions and black beans, all on a whole wheat tortilla. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM i will never eat taco belle or even Q'doba again! I hope chuck stays in business.

5:30 run into store to pick up basics, Its not really economical to make 40 trips to store a week when it's 30 mins away! oh well, maybe i'll be back on track next week.
5:45 go to walmart ( I know, but it is literally the only clothing/shoe store for kids less than 1 hour away) buy harland shoes, all man made materials and for $9 bargain! get socks too, aren't i sweet. hang out like true trash and watch kids play Rock Band.

7:30 home, WOW the stars are amazing here!!! it must be because we are more north and so, closer to the stars.... um, that was just a joke! But seriously even the moon is brighter. It honestly looks light day time when the moon is full. its chilly out!
when we get inside it is still 68"...we lit only one fire burned maybe 5 pieces of wood. we get so much sun and are almost completely south facing. plus the insulation here is great. should be no problem heating this place this winter. RELIEF!
9:00 light small fire for night,it cooling of in here, tubs and jammies, it's a late night for us. off to bed

Friday.....SUN IS OUT!

6:00am up 67" no fire yeah. Sun is out!!!! The mountains are lighting up with all that fall color! make oatmeal for six, toast for one (impatient baby) and coffee for 2, all at once! I ROCK!

Mike leaves, I look around to consider how the house actually looks as though it has been ransacked! decide to get on computer and once again ignore how much i have to do. Hey, its working for me.

9:00 Shower, I even dry and flat iorn my hair!! WOW!

9:30 Indigo in for nap, should clean now.....but no!

11:00 Indigo is up and i litterally did nothing. Decide to send boys out to find leaves for leaf rubbings, send indigo out too, spend 30 mins cleaning like a tornado while listening to strictly Britney and Christina. (don't tell anyone my secret. i love BRIT!)

2:00 send three boys out across the street to collect leaves for leaf rubbing, indigo in bed, start my super fast cleaning method. Boys are gone for a long time....they come in and announce forrest has lost his phone, somewhere in the acres of fields across the street.....YEAH! the boys go back to look.



3:30 Mike comes home and relieves gaynor in the search for phone. Meanwhile, Indigo falls and bashes his face.....Gaynor drops bowl of rice for dinner on floor, breaking bowl (down to 3) and loosing all rice.

4:00 Would you believe they found the phone??? Sit down to dinner, blackbean burritos with home made chipaatis, no rice.

6:00 freaking out cause everyone is kookoo!! realize we are in the middle of a full moon.
6:30 decide all this craziness calls for some home made cinnamon buns...yum! worth all the work and mess

9:00-morning. Indigo has decided this is a "no sleeping and no way i'm stayin in my crib" night. I spend the night getting scratched, kicked and having my hair pulled.

A week in the life..............

OK, so I notice my SIL posted a week (all though it seems to be incomplete???) as well as some other friends so i'll try. I won't promise and i wouldn't really consider this a typical week as we are in the middle of moving. That being said I should also mention that, um, we seem to always be moving, so maybe it is typical. I am also starting mid week but will try for a full 7 days.


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Up at 6:00 check thermostat 63" made oatmeal in crockpot, mikes says its not good....It's not great but edible. Get kids fed and dressed. Its raining, inside and out (leak in roof first thing on mike's list to fix) check on Ireen sea kitten princess fluffy-SEA K for short (the new cat with the longest name)

10:00 mike calls to say he is coming home. can't frame in the rain and forgot paint for other job. look down to realize i forgot to dress me and i have been on the computer all morning avoiding house work, figure i better at least appear to have done something, start running around like a crazy lady.

10:30 make fire in stove with Forrest before mike comes home and tells me its not cold enough!!! note to self: need to learn better fire building skills, it should not take 30 mins!




11:00 mike home, kids thrilled! make a big lunch knowing that this will cause me to not want to cook dinner. chipatis, dahl, and roasted potaotes, yum!

12:00 Indigo in for nap, diapers into wash, look out the window to see a ladder on porch with no one on it. Try not to picture mike walking on a metal roof in the pouring rain.

2:00 Notice I have gotten really good at walking around in circles pretending to do very important things. A skill I learned from my wonderful husband. Also notice laundry and rest of the house shows clearly what happens when i continue to do this.



3:00 Mike comes down from attic gets out bag of clay for everyone to use at the table. kids make pottery, one sits and highchair and yells, one cries because he can't make anything good. I finally start cleaning and cooking now that everyone is in one place

5:00 dinner, chili and cornbread.

5:30 get everyone to work for 30 mins cleaning. looks better at least for now.

6:30 Indigo to bed everyone in jammies, harland in at 7:00....me in bed at 7:05!!! I hope tomorrow will be better!

So Much to do.......so i'll blog instead.

All right, we have moved! We are in the new house. Among the piles of stuff and boxes and more piles. It's a process people! Especially when six people are moving into a furnished house. We have to move the owners stuff out to put our stuff in. I think it is interesting how much happier the kids seem here. Even Indigo. He loves how much room to run he has. We took two breaks, One to go up Sugarloaf. WOW! We rode the super quad up and hiked down. The view from the top was breathtaking, want to see pictures? Ya me too. Too bad I forgot my camera! Dir, in my defense its a little crazy here right now. So hiking down a mountain, should be easy right, I mean its down hill the whole way. Ya, straight down hill. I am so sore! MY butt and legs kill! Half way down my legs were like jello! I didn't feel as sill as all the people who forgot it was going to be FREEZING at the top. We had extra coats and hats and gloves and were still cold. Most other people had light weight coats and that was it. Harland had a hard time. you have to zig zag back and forth, just like skiing. I also twisted my ankle towards the bottom and now i keep twisting it! All in all though i am so glad we went. I'll dare say i will do it again next year.
We also took a long walk on the property here. There is a mile frontage on the Sandy river so we went and skipped rocks for a while. We also met a neighbor and her two Chihuahuas on the way back. Speaking of animals, i seem to have a cat living in my basement. Its a weird story. We noticed when we first got here there had been mice. The house has been empty for months now, so i'm sure that is part of the problem. but still, i had a bad experience! So mike and i talked about the best way to handle it and a pet came up. I was thinking dog from shelter. Then as we were moving, a cat showed up at our old place. it was there at our door for 5 days, even when we weren't. so yesterday we were there cleaning and when we got home, i turned to look at mike as he pulled up next to me and he had the damn cat on his lap! So she is in our basement.( Its actually an apartment, huge!) Very friendly, and happy to be there. We are making posters to put up and see where it goes. The kids are trying to name her......you know what that means! Oh well, at least i won't have mice!
We are learning all about heating a house with a wood stove. It's harder than you think. Like when you wake up in pjs with a down-equivalent comforter on and its over 75' in the house! I guess its a learning process. But, I'd rather be roasty toasty than cold!
We have also discovered that Gaynor's body doesn't like hay. they have been playing in the hay barn and every time, gaynor gets hives or red eyes or a stuffy nose. He keeps going back for more though.
We still have soooo much work to do. We still have to empty the storage unit as well. Unpacking actually takes way longer than packing, but its more fun! As soon as I find my camera and get new batteries i'll take some more pics. The view out our front window right now is so awesome! I'm out now, Indigo is getting restless!

Bad Day..........GOOD DAY!

Today started out crazy and hectic. We are having a new water heater put in and our furnace was being cleaned. In a mobile home your furnace is in the super narrow hallway. So I decided we should leave for the day. We had to get up, clean the house and get out of here. So normally rushing equals chaos and today was no exception. The kids were great. Forrest offered to call in to work to help out. We got everyone ready, house cleaned, bag packed, etc. Then my land lord called to say the burner guy was not coming. UUUUGGGGHHHHH! i know its not a big deal but now the boys were expecting to go out and we will have to do it all again next week.
Any way, we decided to go to the farmington library. Then I couldn't find my wallet. Seriously!!! nothing can send me over the edge like my own giant lack of any organizational skills what so ever! Forrest had allready put everyone in the car. I looked and looked. NO WALLET! Now, I'm cranky! I got out to the car and one was crying and two were fighting. So, I yelled. I was sure it was going to be a rotten trip/day.
So, we got a snack, put the diapers in the dryer at the laundromat, and headed to a cool store called Outskirts. its a totally punk-rock vintagey place. its rad. Then i ran next door to a pottery place Forest Rhythms to look at pestal/mortar sets. Here is where it all changed. The owner, Steve, was throwing some pottery on his wheel. The boys were fascinated, we started talking, he started teaching, my boys asked great questions. He got some clay out for them to try pinch-pots. As a bonus, josh the glass guy was there. Its funny we noticed him when we first moved here because he has a mercedes disel wagon, and we want one. Then we started seeing him everywhere! Turns out he's a glass blower. So he was there to put some of his work in the store. So forrest picked his brain for a while. Learning learning learning! I love it! We asked about lessons, he said maybe in the future. Turns out he has 4 boys! Any way he is firing the bowls the boys made and he sent us home with a huge bag of clay to make more. What an amazing adventure. So cool. This all came the day after i read everything i could find on unschooling! is this a sign? Forrest thought so. Then we went to the library, and home. Forrest is currently doing science experiments with harland at the sink. What could be more fun than baking soda and vinegar??? Today is a great day!

Spelling/Vocabulary Lesson spelled.....S C R A B B L E

So I get so excited when things like this happen. The older boys discovered Scrabble 2 days ago. All by themselves. We have owned the game for years but they have never wanted to play it. Well during our days of rain I found them on their bedroom floor with the game and a dictionary playing Scrabble. I think they played for like two hours! I heard giggling and joking and...and...no fighting!!! Harland was in his room playing (he plays so darn good by himself) and Indigo was watching the Backyardigans....AGAIN. It was weird! So...Quiet...So Peaceful. I made dinner and talked with mike, no interruptions. So when I mentioned to them it counted as school work, well, they played again yesterday! CRAZY!
I found out that Farmington (where my kids would go to public school) has full day kindergarten. At first I had a fleeting moment of HE's SO THERE! (its just a joke) But then i was thinking how sad i would be to send my little fresh hyper spazomatic buddy away all day. Besides they would probably throw him out any way! Like maybe the first time he blurted out "Voldermort't NIPPLES" (thanks boys and your goofy you-tube videos) or when he tells the teacher...(MRS. SIPPI) very calmly and plainly that he is not going to sit in his chair right now because he is going to play. Ya, I'm glad he's staying home with me. Harland is actually just about reading. He was online playing games at pbskids, like super why and word world. They are spelling games. i honestly didn't think he would be able to do it but he did. he knows all the letters and their sounds. he does get a few confused but this is so much earlier than the other two. I'd like to take the credit but, well, i think it's the TV.
I just read about a new education theory called "Thomas Jefferson Education" it seems like a pretty cool theory, I only read it briefly but I'm going to check it out more today.I really love the idea of unschooling but my public school brain is having a hard time letting go of "traditional education ideas" I'm getting there. I also wanted to brag. we went to the library yesterday, I took Gaynor and Harland and Indigo. Usually the bigs go by themselves. Any way Sandy, Our librarian, told me people are constantly making comments about how wonderful my boys are. I love IT!! That makes me so happy! All right three silly and loud boys are going to wake little boy blue. bye now