It's a Small World

This weekend, we went down to St. Joe to visit Ben's Mom and Breanne.  We also saw Kate and Adam and their Kaleb and Joel and Laura.  We were hoping to see Ben's Grandma, as we haven't seen her since around the 4th of July, I think, but, unfortunately, she was not home.  It was a good visit nonetheless, and we spent some time on the beach this morning too, and that was lovely.

As Dad may remember, Ben's mom  has a good friend who has a husband who just retired from Whirlpool.  He had a boat constructed so that he can sail around the world.  He is currently doing trial runs off the East Coast, I guess, but we were talking about his plans, when Ben's Mom (I'm just going to give that all caps, because that's what I call her, LOL) mentioned that his trip is being logged on a blog titled, "Twas Brillig Here."  Ben and I both looked at her, and said, "Like Jabberwocky?  (Maybe she can give us a link???)

"Yes," she told us. "He wanted to name the boat Jabberwock, but it was already taken."  

ROFL.   Guess who has a boat named Jabberwock out of St. Joseph, MI???? Pffft.

Pictures!

These are crappy pics from my camera, but fun nonetheless.  Here's Liam and his missing tooth. My "Witch's Kitchen" jars, candles and grapevine basket with pinecones and leaves, kitchen cabinet, a pic of the whole  shelf in the kitchen, (don't mind the pink and blue wallpaper-ugh), my tomato sauce can re-do, our pumpkin jars, and last night's dinner!

The basic 5-Minutes a day bread recipe is great for pizza dough! I also learned a new trick.  I've been struggling with getting the pizza on the stone.  So, make the pizza on parchment paper on a cookie sheet with no edges.  Slide the pizza, parchment and all, onto the pizza stone.  In about 5 minutes, the pizza will be done on the bottom, and you can just pull the parchment out so that the pizza is directly on the stone.  Why go to all this trouble instead of just baking in on a cookie sheet?  I am telling you--the stone makes all the difference!  YUM!  It looks like the picture of the shelf is covered up, but you should be able to click on it and see it.

The Post that is going to get me banned from the computer...

No, I haven't been on here since my last post, just popping back in.  I've been coloring with Molly and trying unsuccessfully to get Reagan down for a nap.  I pulled out some bread dough to sit and warm up to make pizza crust from tonight for dinner (so, I'm not totally slacking today).  Anyway, Ben has been threatening to ban me from the computer because I read too much crazy stuff.  ANYWAY, I popped in to a blog (Casaubon's Book)  I read a lot.   I haven't read it at all this week until today, and I've only read her first post from this week.  

Basically, if you didn't already know, the financial world is going to Hell in a handbasket.  At the same time, there are other things to be concerned about, that, in a number of people's estimations, mean that the world is going to change.  A lot.  I post this here because I know some of you whom I care deeply about read this.  You may think me a nut, but I think a little forethought rather than wishing we had done something after we no longer can is in order here.  If everything works out well, the market gets all fixed up, the housing market booms again, we move seamlessly from ever-decreasingly available, ever-increasingly expensive forms of energy to unlimited sources like solar and wind power, prices don't go out of control, and well-paying jobs are forever abundant here in the US, then, well, it wasn't necessary.  But if not, don't ya think we should do what we can to make things as easy as possible for ourselves?

Anyway, enough ranting.  Feel free to email me if you would like to discuss this with me further...I'm likely to be cut off from internet access from now on, LOL.

More links (in addition to the above):

Justice Desserts

The Oil Drum

Will add more as I can.

Soo, I've been doing some research, and with some reviews in hand (gotta love the internet), I have revised my initial list.  I think I will be requesting these films from the library or watching out for them on the tube:

Witches

Nightmare Before Christmas

Corpse Bride

ET (remember, this took place on Halloween???)

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Wallace and Grommet)

Monsters, Inc.

Harry Potter (the first one)

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

Escape to Witch Mountain

Adding:

Ghost Dad

GhostBusters (1) (fast-forwarding the weirdness at the end?)

You'll note I've dropped:

Addams Family

Twitches

HalloweenTown

Beetlejuice

Hocus-Pocus

Young Frankenstein

I dunno....what do you think?

October Film Festival

I decided this year, as the kids are getting old enough, to have an "October Film Festival." I have been thinking hard about family-friendly movies for us to watch a couple times a week in the Halloween spirit.  I will be doing the same with Christmas movies in November and December (if I can find some to go along with Thanksgiving somewhere in there, I will). This will be on the cheap, as I am assuming I can get most of these from our library, so, as long as I return them on time, it will be free.  

Here are the titles I'm considering.  I'm looking for stuff that's not *too* scary (we have someone who's very sensitive to the idea of ghosties at our house...).  I'd also like to avoid anything with too much cheesy budding teen romance too, as it is still a bit much for us.  

Hocus Pocus

Witches

Disney's Haunted Mansion

Nightmare Before Christmas

Corpse Bride

ET (remember, this took place on Halloween???)

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Wallace and Grommet)

Addams Family movies

Monsters, Inc.

Harry Potter (the first one)

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Others to consider, but I haven't seen them (anyone?)

Young Frankenstein

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

Escape to Witch Mountain

Twitches

HalloweenTown

Any I've missed?  

Disney has pronounced October "Wiz-tober" and is showing a Halloween movie every night, and ABC family has 13 days of Halloween.  I don't know what's on their playlists.  I imagine

a few on our list will be there. Beetlejuice is in there, and the boys have watched it before, but I'm not really crazy about it...It gets kind of weird in places.  I don't know.

And, while I'm on the topic of movies, the Dove Family Film Festival is running again.  If you have kids, you should check it out!  There are some good movies showing in the next few weeks.  Kids are free, and adults are $2.50.  I think Mom and Dad and Jenny and Willis saw Madagascar with us one year during this.  Hopefully, we will catch one or two of these between now and the beginning of November (How can we pass up $5 for a movie in the theater??) I may have to convince everyone we can pack snacks in the diaper bag (no body really likes to do this, but, yes, I'm cheap when it comes to stuff like that).  Too bad Jenny's not around to go to movies with me.  I'll bet she'd do it without blinking. ;) 

Liam

Liam lost his first tooth today.

 Molly and Reagan and I spent a couple hours at the library for library story time.  

Reagan missed her nap today, and is probably about to take it now. 

I made some Halloween decorations today.  It's kind of goofy because we never seem to have visitors at our house these days, but we're (at least I) am enjoying them.  Maybe I'll take some pictures for everybody to see.

Reagan and the Gecko...

Reagan is quite enamored of the geckos in the boys' room.  She climbs the dresser drawers so that she can sit and watch them in their tanks.  She also calls any insects she sees "geckos."  There was a fly in the house this weekend.  Whenever she saw it, she would say, "Gecko!" Then when it flew away, she would hold up her hands and ask, "Go?"  (That's "Where did he go?")

When a cricket jumped into the house through the sliding glass door, Reagan was ecstatic about the "gecko," and quickly nabbed it.  When we made her put him outside, she was very distraught, calling, "Gecko," through the window.

Today, we could hear another renegade cricket in our living room.  When she heard it chirping, she looked up, and said, "Gecko!"  She then tracked it behind the couch.  I pulled the couch out a bit for her, but it got away.  A bit later, she had him.  I haven't been able to convince her to put it outside.  She cries and fusses.  She is carrying it around, looking lovingly at it, and showing it to us, telling us, "Gecko."

Kelly the Kitchen Kop: The Oiling of America - Sally Fallon talks about Saturated Fats

Here's some really interesting info on cholesterol.  Please read.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop: The Oiling of America - Sally Fallon talks about Saturated Fats

I'm still here...

I'm sitting here on hold with Blackboard Tech Support.  I talked to them yesterday too, about different issues.  About two-thirds of my students are also unable to log into our new great resource that came with the textbook creating lots of unhappiness.  Of course, as soon as I finally get to talk to someone, I click on the item I'm getting a database error with, and it works.  After about 6 tries.  Ugh.

So, I'm a bit frustrated right now, and I can't even fathom how my students are feeling at the moment.

The kids are doing well.  Molly has been demonstrating lately that she is a bit of a type-A personality with regard to some things.  She has organized our entertainment center and my pyrex shelf.  Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get her to organize her toys....

Reagan cracks us up daily with her infectious smile and love of dance.

Killian is working hard at school.  He seems to be enjoying it.  He is a very loving and sensitive kid.

Liam seems to be enjoying himself.  He is so sweet.  He always looks for me to give him a hug right as the bus arrives. 

The first week of school...

Well, here we are, Friday, September 5.  How did that happen?  We have faired the first week of school.  I didn't get as much done as I had hoped.  I can see that it is going to take some time for me to get settled into new routines.  

Killian loves his new teacher.  He is enjoying seeing kids he has not seen in awhile.  He tells me, though, that school is stressful.  On Wednesday night, when I was helping him with his homework, "Everyone keeps pushing me and pushing me to do the best that I can do, and it's not fair!"  That one made me laugh.

Liam is enjoying himself too, but he is a bit stressed too.  He has a wonderful teacher who is very helpful and has updated us daily on what's going on, which is nice, because getting any info about Liam's day from him is like pulling teeth.  Mrs. Hoogerland taught before being moved to 2nd grade, and she was Killian's teacher.  We like her a lot.  She is rather a liberal, and Ben was concerned a couple of years ago when Killian came home singing Hilary Clinton's praises, but we both agree that she is so good with the kids that we have to let that slide...

Molly and I had a great first day of homeschool preschool.  We had circle time.  We made a nature notebook and went for a walk.  We will be doing that again today.  The last two days have not gone as I had planned, but I think we'll get the hang of it soon.  On Wednesday, Molly spent most of the day with the neighbor girl, Kendra, first here, and then at her house.  

Interfering with our getting into the proper swing of things has been some canning.  I made peach jam on Tuesday afternoon, and some chunky peach preserves which had to be refrigerated overnight twice during the rest of the week, finishing them up yesterday just in time for Ben to come home early and make some pickles and pickled peppers.  The peppers were beautiful.  Sadly, one of the jars broke in the water bath.  It was kind of funny because we were all coughing because boiling vinegar and hot peppers is a bit hard on the respiratory tract.

Ben only did 1/2 a bushel of pickles and a couple jars of peppers.  He was going to get a bushel of pickles, but they didn't look that great.  It was really a good thing because 1/2 a bushel was really all that was doable by bedtime.

The new school year has started for me, too.  I am teaching a class I haven't taught in awhile--the 2nd freshman comp course (Advanced Composition).  Things aren't really rolling yet, but they will be soon.  I've been answering emails and trying to make sure everything is in order.  

I killed the broccoli and basil starts I had.  I started trying to get them out in the sun.  They weren't growing, despite vigilant watering and getting them in the sun.  I suppose I should have just put them in the ground.  Maybe that would have made the difference.  I dunno.  But, anyway, since they weren't in my sight several times a day, I neglected to water them.  And they fried.

Well, I'm off.  I have much to do.  I spend way too much time floundering in the morning because I have so much that I need to do that I struggle with where to start.  I need to just dive in!