My little Chef

Most kids like to watch cartoons. Mine like to watch cooking shows. Leah especially will beg me to turn on Paula Deen, or Rachel Ray (she knows them all by name)and then will put on her own apron and start making concoctions. Some of her creations have been surprisingly good, or at least not completely repulsive. Leah can read a recipe and follow the instructions. She even surprised me once and doubled a muffin recipe accurately. I think she's got a talent in the kitchen.

I have started putting Leah in charge of Sunday dinners, with my help if she needs it. Last night she made us "Spinach Carrot Muffins". She mixed up some corn muffins, chopped up spinach and carrots and layered them in the muffin tins. They were actually quite tasty.

These are just a few...

Yaya loves to dress herself. Personally I don't care what she wears as long as she's fully covered and has something on her feet. She chooses some pretty interesting outfits. So I have decided to keep a "photo journal" of what she wears. I am sure for several years Yaya will be mortified that I let her go out in public like this. But after the embarrassment wears off, I'm sure she'll thank me...when she has children of her own.

Dear Lofthouse,

Dear Lofthouse,

Please stop making your delicious sugar cookies. My will power dissolves at the mere sight of them. Our grocery store has strategically stocked them right next to the bread so I have no choice but to drool over them every week. This is a desperate plea from my waistline. Since I simply can't control my urges, I just need you to stop all production.

Sincerely,
Over-eating in Oregon

I have NO recollection

All of my children have decided it's a great idea to wake up at 6:30 every morning. Could be worse, I know, but I don't "do" 6 am. Too many late nights and early mornings have made me a wimp I guess. Anyway, yesterday I was laying on the couch dozing off...I mean, astutely observing my children's interactions. I must have really passed out because the next thing I know I heard Lars telling Leah to come inside and bring the shovel with her.

Apparently Leah had asked my permission to go outside and use the shovel from the fireplace to plant some potatoes. She was out there with my five pound bag of potatoes, digging holes and planting them whole...straight from the bag. Leah claimed she asked me and I said she could do it. The scary thing is she probably did ask and I probably DID agree.

The other day Naomi asked me something when I was in a similar state of unconsciousness and I answered "Cheese." She busted up laughing because my answer had NOTHING to do with what she had just asked me.

I just hope my kids don't figure out this would be the best opportunity to ask me for candy because apparently I will agree to anything. Then again, maybe they already have and I just don't remember! :)

The Good Fairy

I was struck with divine inspiration the other day. I was at the Dollar Tree and found these little coupons that say, "You were caught being good" then it has a place to write their name and what they did that was good. I just started randomly leaving a "ticket" as the girls call them, taped to their door at night, so they would find in in the morning.

It has worked magic. My girls have started doing all sorts of things to try and catch the attention of "The Good Fairy". (Apparently they didn't consider me clever enough to do something like this since they just assumed a secret fairy left them their tickets.) One day Naomi randomly cleaned her room, Leah made her sisters breakfast and Yaya actually responded when I asked her to do something.

I hope they don't become disenchanted with this idea too quickly. It's working like a charm!

7 year old perspective

Last night I had all the girls in the car when picked up our baby sitter. Leah asked why Hannah was in the car. I told her that Lars and I were going on a date, so Hannah was going to babysit. "Well why do you need to go on a date?" she asked, "You already went on a honeymoon."

Leah asked if she was ever going to get a baby brother. I told her probably not, and anyway, I wouldn't know what to do with a boy. "I do." Leah said. "You just beat 'em up."

Naomi and Leah were having a debate about how long summer vacation has been around. Leah won with this argument, "Summer vacation has been around for a million zillion years. It probably started in the 1980's."

Heidi was swinging a carrot around like a sword. Leah said, "She's Prince Lesbian!" "WHAT? Where did you hear that?" I asked her. "We were watching Narnia at our friend's house." "Ohhhhhhh. Prince Caspian." I said very relieved. "Yeah, that's what I meant."

Naomi lost her 1st tooth!

I'll just let her tell you the story!

I'm down with OCD (yeah, you know me)

For the past couple of weeks I have been in a funk. Not sure why, but to compensate for my lack of social interaction, I have developed Obsessive Compulsive tendencies. My house is immaculate. I scrubbed the bathroom ceiling to floor, including the ceiling. I did all my laundry and organized every drawer and got rid of three boxes of clothes and shoes and diapers. I scrubbed the carpet in my living room, on my hands and knees, with a bucket and scrub brush.

I knew I was in trouble when my friend stopped over and got the strangest look on her face. Later that night she called me and said, "My husband and I have been talking, and we're worried about you. On Sunday you didn't tease him and your house is SO clean. Are you OK?" :) That's a good friend.

But here's what I came up with. For the past thirteen years of my life, since I moved away from home, I have moved to a new house or apartment 19 different times. We have lived in this same house for 18 months and i'm getting antsy! My body and brain feel like it's time to move! But we're not moving for at least another six months. So I guess i'll just act like I am going to move and clean out the closets and get rid of junk and obsessively scrub my kitchen floor until I get it all out of my system. Hopefully I'll still have friends when I'm done with this bout of rash behavior. :)

True...True

I made dinner last night and as usual it was met with the usual chorus of, "EWWWW! That looks disgusting!" Naomi (age 5) is generally the most outspoken one regarding her dislike of 89% of everything I cook. (And Lars wonders why I don't enjoy cooking as much as I used to...It's a mystery.) Heidi (16 months), who is the least picky, started shoveling the food into her mouth. So I said to Naomi, "Look. Heidi is eating her food. It can't be that bad." Naomi just looked at me and said, "Mom. Heidi will eat ANYTHING. She eats dirt."

I couldn't even argue with that. She was absolutely right!

"Clean up on Aisle 3"

This morning I ventured to the grocery store with Yaya and Heidi. Just for a visual, Yaya's outfit today was pink and white striped flannel p.j. pants with a red, white and black plaid skirt on top. She put on a red long sleeved shirt with a pink t-shirt on top that said, "Jersey Chicks Rock". She completed the outfit with pink suede Mary Janes and was ready to go!

At the store the girls were out of the cart helping me pick out produce. Yaya had a bag of her own and was ever so carefully manhandling the bananas and throwing them into her bag. Then she picked out some grapes and smashed half of them as she crammed them into the bottom of her bag. I was picking out some tomatoes when Heidi spotted the bulk bins.

Even though Heidi is only one, she already has developed a precise ability to spot sugar anywhere. If there is any candy anywhere, she'll find it. She ran straight to the bin with M&M's in it and started doing her "gimme" dance. Any time she really wants something, she starts bouncing, pointing and squealing. So I tried to distract her and turned back around to finish getting my produce.

The next time I looked over, Heidi had a gummy worm in her mouth and one in each fist. Yaya was on the floor cleaning out all the candy that had dropped beneath the bulk bins and cramming the candy, and probably a few dust bunnies, in her mouth.

At this point, most mothers would freak out and rip the nasty candy away from their kids and out of their mouth. (I happen to be hoping for a mother of the year nomination here)...I didn't do anything at all. Secretly I was happy they found it so they would quit whining and begging me for candy. So far, no one has developed a mysterious rash, so aside from it being just gross...all's well that ends well. :)

Old School

This morning I started my dishwasher and left to go to the grocery store. When I got back home, I immediately smelled the delicious aroma of melting plastic. I opened the dishwasher to check if a sippy cup lid had fallen down onto the heating coil. Apparently the coil, itself, had slipped out and was sitting directly on the plastic. By the time I saw it, the coil had already melted a hole all the way through the floor of the dishwasher.

Replacement doesn't come until Monday which means, I am the dishwasher this weekend. I foresee a couple days of corn dogs and pizza.

a weekend away..WITHOUT THE KIDS

Lars on Newport dock


Shar-the only Oregonian to carry an umbrella


some super cool seaweed on driftwood


Lars saving a fish by throwing him back out to sea


beautiful Ona Beach

Lars and I had our 9th anniversary on December 2nd. We finally got around to celebrating this past weekend...after finals and all the holiday festivities were over. Grandma Ingrid came down from Hillsboro and stayed with the girls so we could get away. My friend owns a beach house in Waldport, OR. It's about a two hour drive from here and considering my amazing talent of falling asleep within the first three minutes of any trip, the drive went extremely fast! When we arrived it was a lovely rainy January 1st. We walked around the bay front in Newport and tried a new restaurant there, Rogue Public House. I got an amazing quinoa, black bean salad and Lars ate a delicious Reuben Sandwich. Well, I'm assuming it was delicious since I didn't even get to sneak a bite before it was gone.

I had brought a bunch of projects with me to finish up on Saturday because I was sure I would wake up at 7 am out of habit and have a few hours to kill before Lars got up. I was wrong. I woke up Saturday at noon! It was amazing. I don't think I've EVER slept that late in my whole life. We spent the remaining daylight hours exploring the beaches in between Waldport and Newport. There were so many beautiful and amazing things to see. We even got some sunshine! That evening we found another great place to eat called Nana's Irish Pub, in Newport. We shared some fish 'n chips (the best I have ever eaten) and a delicious mushroom and steak pie. We had to roll each other out the door, we were so full...but it was SO worth it! We walked up to the beach one last time before we went back to the house.

Late Sunday morning we woke up, packed up and headed home. We missed our girls, but we can't wait to go back!