Moving our Blog

I am relocating my blogs, I am sad to leave blogger but since there is no import or export feature I was not going to be able to merge my 2 blogs into 1 without a lot of work on my part coping and pasting.  I have set up a new blog using Wordpress.  My new blog is a family blog that incorporates everything that I was writing about on my other two blogs.   The new blog is called Clan Grant.  For now I thought it best to just focus on one blog since most of the things I write about are about my life and my family.  Clan Grant is shiny and new I hope you stop by for a visit.

Crazy

I have not posted in awhile because life here has been a little bit crazy.  We took a vacation a few weeks ago and where gone for a week and then there was the pre-vacation week of packing and shopping for what we needed.  Since we have been home we have mostly been working on acclimating back to home life and adoption stuff.  We have been waiting for some much needed paperwork and I think that this week we will get some of it, we can't move forward without it:(. I have been pretty busy around here which has left little to no time to blog.  

Garden Update:

My small garden out back is actually doing really well, I have gotten several crops of lettuce and some small crops of carrots, beans and tomatoes.  My cucumber is not doing that much, I think the pot is too small.  My other garden which I don't think I have mentioned is at a public/private garden plot.  I am sharing the 14'x26' plot with a friend and it is growing really fast, both veggies and weeds:) We planted pumpkin, eggplant, beans, squash, zucchini, basil, tomatoes, lettuce, beets, radishes, some flowers and maybe cucumber.  The larger plants like pumpkin, zuc and squash are totally taking over the back half of the garden, maybe we will do a little less of that next year.  This year has been a really fun experiment, we are hoping to get the same plot next year or maybe even two plots and tweek things a little.  It is just nice to go out in the garden and dig in the dirt, and to pick something that we grew and eat it.  

Kids update:

Kid are doing great!!  Ewan is having fun doing parks stuff and playing with friends.  We are trying to do summer stuff while the season lasts but sometimes it is just too hot to go out side.  Ewan is going to be starting his second year of preschool in about a month and then next year we will start homeschooling.  Anwen is getting sooooo big, and she is talking a lot.  She is also starting to express her self and show a little sass.  At this age it is cute, but I am a little afraid for what it will be when she is older.  All is well with the Grant Clan!

Food update:

I have pretty successfully been off of gluten and dairy, and I have felt loads better.  I recently started trying cheese again because I was told that cheese does not have lactose in it so I thought I would try it, I am not sure if it is bothering me or not.  I am still not eating any other dairy though, only cheese rarely.  I have over the past few months gotten better at shopping for gluten free and dairy free food, though it is getting easier it is not any easier on the pocketbook. Buying these specialty foods is expensive,  it is throwing my whole food budget off.  I really miss things like beer and pizza, and ice cream and bread, but feeling good makes it all worth it. I feel like I am starting to know what myself feels like.  Before I started this diet everyday my body felt different and crappy, now my body feels pretty consistent from day to day, unless I am PMSing, then who now what I am going to feel like. I am thankful that this is all working out and I am seeing results.

So there you have it in three easy paragraphs, my life updated.  Hoping to blog more later.

Pizza anyone?

Since I have been unable to eat wheat or dairy I have been exploring ways to make healthy meals without those ingredient.  Here is a pizza wrap recipe that I came up with that turned out really good.

You will need:

Teff Flour Tortilla

Tofu cream cheese

Pizza sauce

Zucchini

Yellow squash

Eggplant

Onion

Salt and Pepper to taste

Olive oil

Here is what you do:

Preheat your oven to 350

Slice up the zucchini, eggplant, green pepper, onion and squash pretty thinly if you can.  

Put the sliced up veggies onto a baking sheet and coat with olive oil.  Sprinkle salt over them and put into the oven to roast for about 15 minutes, more or less, just check them every once and a while to make sure they are not burning.

Spread tofutti cream cheese onto wraps and then the pizza sauce.  Place roasted veggies onto wrap.  Place veggie on wrap the way you would with a pizza.  You can slice the pizza with a pizza cutter or you can just fold it and eat it.  

Enjoy!

Gluten free, Dairy free waffle recipe

This is a recipe for waffles that I modified to meet my fickle dietary needs.  It is Gluten free, and Dairy free, amazingly it is not taste free.  I use this Gluten free all purpose flour from Bob's Red Mill and it is really convenient, you can substitute it 1:1 for other flours.  The whole family thought they tasted great, one recipe down many many more to go.

Serves 4-6

2 eggs

1-2/3 cup rice milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups gluten free all purpose flour ( I use Bob's Red Mill)

1 tablespoon of baking powder

2 tablespoons of sugar (I use brown sugar)

1/2 teaspoon Xantham Gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

a few generous sprinkles of pumpkin pie spice, or when I have it available I use almond extract

Combine the wet ingredients, then combine the dry ingredients, then combine the two together.  Pour into waffle maker as instructions on machine direct you.

Food frustrations:(

Recently I embarked on a journey to what I hope is a life in which I feel healthier and physically better.  I have long suspected that I suffer from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and recently started trying to cut things out of my diet in an effort to feel better.  The list of things that I cannot eat seems to be longer then those things I can eat, WOW is that depressing!  The two really big things that I cannot seem to eat are dairy and wheat/gluten, at least those are the things that are making this transition difficult and expensive.  I have been mostly dairy free for almost a year now but only wheat/gluten free for about 2 weeks.  The wheat/gluten thing is truly challenging, and frustrating.  Today I made what I thought were gluten free carob chip cookies with Ewan and not only did 3/4 of them burn to a crisp but it turns out that carob chips have barley malt in them which has gluten in it.  So I had a huge mess on my hands, an upset stomach, and nothing to ease my craving for something sweet.  On the up side Ewan likes them, so I guess that is good.  In fact I just walked into the kitchen to see what he was doing and he was sitting on the counter next to the cookies eating them, he looked really cute.  So I guess I will be taking this one meal at a time and see how it goes, frustration and all

12 hours, 7 people, 1 car.

12 hours was the estimated time that map quest gave me to travel from Chicago to Arkansas City, Kansas. 7 people was how many we had on our trip and yes we were all in 1 car, thankfully it was a minivan. Our journey participants were, Brian 32, Shonah 31, Meghan 30, Theresa 16, Connor 8, Ewan 4, Anwen 1. We started our journey early on Thursday morning with a full tank of gas, lots of food, and empty bladders, at least we thought they were empty. 23 minutes into our trip, 8:23am Ewan called out from the back that he had to pee, we were starting to get concerned, would our whole trip be a series of pee breaks? With 11 hours and 37 minutes left in our trip we again set off from our pee break. At 8:39am we decide that we thought that it might be cool to document our trip so we started a log. At 8:40am as Meghan is reaching for the notebook to start documenting this trip she is somehow elbowed in the face by me, as I was driving by the way. It was a total accident but it sure did smart. At 9:07am Brian somehow got his finger stuck in the handi wipes container, it was pretty funny, at least for those of us who were not stuck. At 9:25am Brian is now free from the wipes container and trying to figure out how to suspend the DVD player for the kids, there were lots of straps. Around 10:00am The kids are quiet and watching a movie, aah technology! At 10:30am Connor shouts from the back that he needs to pee, so we stop again. We purchase candy, fill up the tank with gas, stretch our legs and switch drivers. With Meghan in the drivers seat who know what will happen. Seconds later we are wondering if it is a good idea to have Meghan drive as she seems to not be able to get out of the parking space, oh boy! 11:15 am, we are justing getting through Springfield, IL and Meghan and I decide that we would like to get to St. Louis before stopping for lunch. Meghan asks me if I can make the sandwiches in the car, I say yes and ask her if she got the bread, she answers no, oops, I guess we will be making another stop. 11:18am, Danica, I mean Meghan has a lead foot, I am a little afraid. And since we are on the topic of Meghan's special driving skills we also found out that she does not seem to feel the need to break while coming into a curve, instead it is just accelerate the whole way through. We were all a little afraid:) 12:20pm I am frantically trying to get pictures of the St. Louis Arch. I cannot for the life of me seem to get a clear shot. 12:28pm, we are sitting on a bridge right in front of the arch, had I known this was coming I would have waited to take all of my pictures, finally a good shot. We are finally in Missouri and soon we will be stopping for lunch. As you can see the first 4 hours of our trip were pretty exciting, thankfully that tapered off and we were able to go the rest of the 8 hours with few complications and three very well behaved children. About 20 miles outside of Arkansas city we encountered a severe thunderstorm. Just as it started to rain we found ourselves stuck behind a long over sized vehicle caravan, at first we were trying to pass them but in the end we were glad we had been unsuccessful, it rained so hard that had they not been in front of us we would not have been able to see the road. We arrived, in Arc City around 8:30pm, tired, hungry, and wet. It had been a long day but it was worth it to be at our destination a day early. The kids had been great, and the weather and traffic has also been great, all in all we could not have asked for a better trip.

Our fearless leader

In my family on my Mothers side our fearless leader has always been my Grandfather James McLeod.  A man with an adventurous spirit, and a strong will, he has lead our family on many adventures.  From the highlands of Scotland to the mountains of Arizona my grandfather has fearlessly lead us.  This morning my Grandfather left us for his eternal home with the Lord, and we are left to continue on with the adventure.  For several months my grandfather's health had been failing, so we all knew that this was coming but some how it was still a surprise.  I guess I had been holding out hope that he would return to health and lead us on one more adventure, but it was not to be.  The last time I visited with Grandpa was in mid April with my mom and my sister.  Grandpa was in a rehab place and he was ill but by the grace of God he was still the Grandpa my sister and I remembered.  He looked a little bit thinner and more tired but his spirit was still strong, we had hope.  We were able to sit with him and reminisce, hear stories from the past and talk about the future, his and ours.  Anwen was with me and I was able to watch as she interacted with Grandpa and was able to witness the joy that she brought to him.  My sister and I were able to help care for him, it was an honor to be able to do so.  We joked, and laughed and cried and prayed, it was amazing, it was a blessing.  A few weeks later after our visit had ended Grandpa really started going down hill, his body was tired and weakening and his mind was confused, his lucid moments were becoming fewer and fewer, he was slipping away.  As grandpa's health deteriorated my sister and I came to realize that we had been blessed with a visit that's timing was perfect, we were able to be with him and him with us while he remembered.  We were able to make a few more memories for him and for ourselves, and those will have to last the rest of our lives.  His stories will live inside of us, as will our memories of him.  Tonight I will raise a glass of Tamnavulin single malt scotch to my Grandpa, and savor the smell that reminds me of him.

Garden update

How is my garden growing, well that is a very good question.  The weather got cold after I transplanted my plants and many of them died:(.  Some of the plants did hold on and are still growing, others had to be started all over again.  The next logical step was to start the new plants from seed again but this time I started them in the large containers.  I did this so that I would not have to transplant them.  So I have waited and nothing is peeking its head from the soil,  I scratch my head and wonder why, then I see it, a bush bean seed that started to put down a root.  The only problem is that the seed is sitting on top of the soil and not in it.  Now I understand what is happening, the urban wildlife have figured out what I am doing, and are treating themselves to lunch at Shonah's garden cafe.  Now what is the next logical step, that is what I ask myself.  A few day later I am out putting poultry wire around and over my containers.  I guess we will see if that works.  So that is where I am with the garden.

Gas Buddy

For those of us with cars, the price of gas is on our minds.  Whether you are commuting or just running errands, $4 bucks a gallon is a lot.  I used to be able to fill my Toyota Echo up on $2o bucks, now it is $40.  Needless to say I am not filling up very often, but I am riding my bike more and trying to cut down on errand running. For the times that I do use the car and need to get gas I try to go to the station with the best price, here is a link to Gasbuddy.com, a website where you can search your area for gas stations according to price.  You never know you may just save a few cents.

What a Ham!

I bought Ewan some new shorts and shirts today and this evening I ask him to try them on.  I showed him the clothes and he said he would try them on and show us how they looked.  This is what he looked like when he came out to show us his clothes. Not only has he done the obvious but he also did not try on the clothes.  What a ham:)

Urban gardener??

Living in Chicago, in a condo, with a concrete courtyard out back does not really lend itself to gardening at least not in the traditional way.  To garden in an urban setting you have to be a little more creative and perhaps a little more diligent.  For as long as I have lived in my condo I have been growing flowers in pots and window boxes and last year I tried my hand at some veggies.  I grew a tomato plant, zucchini, peppers, and I think something else that I cannot remember.  I grew then in these large galvanized tin tubs that I have and put them in the place that gets the most sun, which is not really full sun.  My tomato produced some very small fruit as did my zucchini, as did my peppers.  I was not disappointed at my rather small crop though, I was happy that anything grew at all.  I had set pretty low expectations and that worked out well for me last season.  This season is different, I have set my expectations a little higher and have planted  more then last year.  This year I have planted tomato, lettuce, string beans, bush beans, cucumber and will be planting carrots as well.  I have also expanded into more containers and moved the location to one that I think will get more sun for a little longer, still not full sun but more then last year.  This year I started my seeds inside and so I am hoping that will help too.  I have also been more aggressive with my porch garden this year.  This year I have a strawberry plant and two hanging baskets of herbs.   I decided that this year I really needed to embrace my surroundings and embrace what it means to be an urban gardener, thus the bigger garden.  I try to be as green as I can and so it just seemed like a logical step to garden and try to have less of an impact of the earth.  I have also tried to look at urban gardening as a challenge to myself, the city can throw concrete at me and what will I do with it, I will grow thing on top of it in containers, I will garden and hopefully each year will be better then the last.

Here are some pics of my garden and so you can see what I am doing.  You can see the containers and some of the plants.  Here is a close up of my cucumber plants, aren't they cute!And this picture I really love it is a picture of my garden with a backdrop of my neighbors beautiful yard that is full of dirt and grass and space to grow things in the ground. Last but not least is my porch, I have basil, dill, coriander, and mint in the hanging baskets.So there you have it, my little piece of earth and what i am doing with it.  I will keep you updated as the growing season progresses.  Wish me Luck!

One more day!

So this week has actually gone pretty well despite Brian being gone at the Java One conference.  The days have been pretty good with a few exceptions, but that is to be expected.  Ewan's behavior has been so so, but hopefully it is because he misses his dad.  My nights are really the only thing that have made this week challenging.  Sleep, that is the big thing that has been missing this week, and it is really starting to have an effect on me.  Having patience with a 4-1/2 year old is a challenge on a good day but throw in bad sleep and it is darn near impossible.  Today I don't think I have actually woken up yet and it is 9:45pm.  In fact writing this post has been a chore, I cannot spell for the life of me and I keep closing my eyes for very long blinks.  So take away the bad sleep and I have had a pretty good week.  I now know that If I have to do this again I will survive, I say that now but tomorrow is still a few hours away;)  Signing off to get some sleep.

Java One

Java One, a title that I have heard quite enough of the past few weeks.  It is a conference that Brian is at with some work mates and you guessed, it is about Java.  Brian left on Sunday late in the afternoon and I was dreading it.  This is the first time that I am going at parenting alone for a whole week.  For weeks I have been trying to prepare myself and fill up the week with things to do.  Today was my first full day and so far it is going pretty well, despite a few problems this morning.  I am trying to keep a positive attitude and not let the small stuff stress me.  I rented some movies and bought easy things to make for dinner in hopes that this will give us more relaxed evenings.  I think that I planned pretty well but we will see, it is only the end of the first day.  I am looking forward to Brian getting home but I am glad he is having fun learning and doing the geek thing.  More as the week progresses, until then wish me luck!

The Collection

A few months ago I was cleaning Ewan's room and cleared off a bunch of toys from one of the book shelves.  I thought that they were random toys that Ewan had just put there for no particular reason.  So off they went and into the bins where they belonged.  Later that afternoon Ewan came to me and asked what happened to all of this toys on the bookshelf.  I told him that I had put them away.  He told me he was mad at me and then said, " Momma I don't want to see you touch that stuff again".  Ok, ok, I guess I should not have touched the toys, or should I say The Collection, that is what it has become know as nowadays.  The middle shelf of the bookcase that has books on it also has little toys and things placed on it that I guess are special to Ewan.  I took some pictures so you can get the full effect of what The Collection looks like.  It is pretty interesting when you think about what kinds of things are special to kids, some times it is a new toys but sometimes it is a candy wrapper or broken car, or pen. So a word of warning, if you find a random collection of toys in your child's room , you may want to think twice about cleaning it up, it may mean more to them then you think.

Homeschooling

For a long time Brian and I have been mulling over the question of whether or not to homeschool our children or to send them to public school.  For some this question may have a easy answer but that was not the case for us.  It has literally been years that we have been in conversation about this.  Ewan is only 4-1/2 which tells you that we started the conversation when he was young.  Ewan is about to finish up his first year of preschool and then next year he will do his 2nd year of preschool.  Before Ewan is done with preschool though we will have to have applied to schools for kindergarten, that has to be done by this Dec.  With Dec. now a matter of months away and not years I felt the need to really figure out what we wanted to do.  So this is what has been on my brian for a few months, homeschool or not?  In an effort to help make a decision I started teaching Ewan to read.  This was two fold, I want Ewan to learn how to read and he has a wonderful love of books, and I wanted to start a routine for myself that might help me get an idea of what home schooling might be like.  What I have found is that I love being apart of Ewan's learning, and I love that I am a part of that in an environment that is relaxed for him and for me.  I have found myself thinking about how fast time goes by when you have children and how one minute they are in your arms for the first time and the next they are going to college.  I want to spend as much time with my children as I can before they are ready to leave the nest and am hoping that homeschooling will be a way to facilitate that.  I am also hoping that homeschooling will alleviate what I see many parents goes through with their kids after school, battles over homework.  I don't want to be away from my children all day and then when I do get to be with them they are tired and crabby and frustrated with homework.  I would rather see us do our school work during the day and then have the evening to do other things and not more school work.  So I guess that is what I have come to in my thinking over these past few years.  I have decided to give homeschooling a try and more then anything am hoping that it becomes a blessing to our family and that we look back on it and cherish the time we had together as a family.

Here comes the herd

Ewan has a ton of toys or at least it feels like it when I am cleaning, but he only has a few kinds of toys that he really plays with.  He has a huge bin of cars and he has the herd.The herd is quite diverse as you can see and they are quite traveled as well.  The herd goes all over the place with us, in the car, to the beach, to Grandmas, the North Woods of WI, church. They are also accomplished swimmers, they swim regularly in the sink, tub, lake, pool.  If there is water available and the herd is around they will probably be taking a swim.  The herd are also faithful companions, they are always willing to play.  You might think it weird to write so fondly of plastic molded animals but when your child can use his imagination for hours with those plastic molded animals they become like plastic molded friends.  The herd are probably the best money I have spent so far on toys and I highly recommend to anyone with children that does not have a herd to get one.  

Wise and Hysterical words from a 16 year old.

My sister Theresa is 16 years young and she has quite a good sense of humor, she also has a wise old soul, in my opinion.  These are her thoughts on premarital sex.

"It's like a bathing suit, you try it on at the store but until you buy it and take it home you don't take your under ware off."  

Is that not hysterical,  my sister is so funny.  It's a new take on- Why buy the cow when the milk is free.  A lesson to us all, don't have premarital sex and don't try a bathing suit on with your under ware off.

Family time

This Sunday Brian and I decided that since it was such a beautiful day we would take the kids to the Botanic Gardens.  Once we started walking around Ewan declared that he wanted to go over to the bell tower, so that is what we did.  We walked over to Evening island and sat on the grassy hill that was covered with crocuses and ate our picnic lunch. The kids were wondering around and when Anwen would go too far he would go and kindly take her hand and lead her back to our picnic spot.  For once I actually had my camera so of course I was snapping shots of my children getting along and looking so cute.  At one point they were walking hand in hand and I thought what a great picture, maybe even the Christmas card picture, so I started snapping shots.  This first picture was what I saw when I had the thought about the Christmas picture.  This second picture is actually more reflective of my every day life with the kids, Ewan in the midst of pushing Anwen to the ground.At least I was able to get a glimpse of what it might be like to have angelic children that always get along.  I guess kids will be kids, and we did have a very wonderful time at the gardens despite the little pushing event.

Economic stimulus checks

I often go to this website called Simple Living to get ideas on how I might be able to live more simply, save some money and make my life a bit more peaceful.  On the home page of this site was this banner, which I really like.  I have been thinking a lot about the economic stimulus checks that are going out in the beginning of May, and actually looking forward to getting mine. We are absolutely not putting our check into the economy though, we are putting our check into a child, actually our adoption fund so that we can adopt a child.  I do believe very strongly though that even if we were not adopting we would put that money somewhere other then into the economy.  I know that this economy needs people to purchase goods and services but how much and at what cost?  The environment, our financial futures, our retirement,  I wonder sometimes how much we have to hurt ourselves before we realize that what we are doing is not working the way we thought it would or wanted it to. It is sad that consumerism is so rampant in our society and that we look to things to make us happy.  I wish that we could find happiness in the ordinary wonders of life, the quiet moments with our families and friends and just be happy with what we have instead of always looking for more.  I certainly share the struggle against buying and wanting things, but strive for the good simple life as I fight against the consumer in me.  If you are interested in ways that you can spend your government check you can check out the website above and click on the banner that looks the one I have posted.  They will give you ideas on what you can do with your money. Be strong and fight the good fight:)

A word picture

Picture this:

It is a sunny day and the temp outside is hovering around 50.  You have just had a good walk with your friend, some lunch and a stop at the local bookstore.  You are feeling good and things seems to be going just perfectly.  You leave the bookstore to head back home and there in the middle of the parking lot is a single male mallard duck just sitting and relaxing.  About 10 feet away from the relaxing male duck is a small elderly Asian woman that is crouched down and chattering to the duck.  Between the two of them is a piece of fried chicken, a leg to be exact.  Does the woman think that duck is interested in some fried chicken?  Is it a total fluke that the fried chicken leg is there on the pavement between them?  Perhaps it is none of the above, what ever the case it served to provide a great laugh between two friends walking home on a perfect afternoon.

Earth Hour 2008

The Ewan quote of the day

"I love pooping"

Voila

I finished my first hat and I think that it looks pretty good.  I realized at the end that I had not decreased the way it said to in the instructions but it worked out ok.  I already have plans to start a new hat for a neighbor that is having a baby.  I can now officially mark making a hat off my list of things to learn how to do.  Yeah!!!!

Hat update

So as you can see I successfully got my hat onto double pointed needles. Thankfully it was not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  The challenging part is making sure I keep the right count as I am now decreasing.  I figure if it comes out a little wonky that is ok, it is my first hat after all.

Watermelon Girl!

Thankfully we are right on the cusp of watermelon season officially starting.  We started the season in my family a little early and Anwen absolutely loves it.  The second she sees the watermelon she is enthusiastically pointing and grunting at it.  I love how kids could not care less about having food all over their face, neck, chest and not to mention all in their hair.  As long as what they are eating is good they are all over it.

My first hat

I have been a knitter for about 4 years and in that time I have never made a hat.  I have always wanted to but something about knitting in the round and with double pointed needles has kept me at bay.  Well I have finally decided to tackle the project of a hat for Anwen.  I belong to this great knitting circle and so in preparation for this new task I went armed with questions.  The first thing that they pointed out was that my circular needles were not the right size.  Then they gave me a pair that were the right size to practice with.  They showed me how to take my gauge and how to join the round.  The night had been just what I needed to get prepared to start the hat.  The next day I ordered circular needles on Ebay and anxiously awaited their arrival.  Once my needles came I picked out my yarn, and made a few stitch markers and then was ready to start working.  I think I pulled out my stitches a few times before I felt that I had joined the round tight enough.  Once I had joined my round to my satisfaction I was free to just knit.  Knitting in the round is quite relaxing I think.  So far I am really enjoying it, we will see how much I like knitting with the double pointed needles:)  Here is a picture of my progress, I think it looks kind-of cute right now.  I will continue to post pics as I get further along, hopefully the hat will still look cute when it is finished!

Stuck in a bad situation

I woke up this morning and blurry eyed walked over to the window to gaze out at the birds.  I saw plenty of birds and then I spotted this guy stuck in a bad situation.

He must have been chased up the pole and was curled up trying to make the best of it.  He is pretty cute at a distance:)

More veggies, fruits and donuts!

My last post started me thinking about what other vegetables were being knit and were they as wonderful as the beet.  Thus began my search for more knit veggies.  I found an assortment of wonderful edibles in knit form.  You can purchase these at Yellow Label Kids.

Eat Up!!!!

Knit a beet?

You betcha, apparently you can knit anything.  I found this on a website called You Grow Girl. I just thought this pattern was so beautiful that I had to share it.  I never thought a beet could look so appetizing:)

Library Thing

I came across this really cool widget for your blog and so I thought I would share my find.  It is called Library Thing and it is a way to catalog your book collection and share what is in your library with your friends.  You can also join groups or chat with other people on the website that have the same interests as you.  You can see my widget towards the bottom on my blog on the right side, you can't miss it!  

Spring forward

Spring forward, finally we are springing forward.  It does kind of stink losing an hour of sleep that first night, but for me that pales in comparison to the wonderful feeling of having an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day.  This evening I took advantage of the extra sunlight and took my son Ewan for a walk to the park.  The park is only a block away and the walk goes quickly but it was a walk we had not taken for months.  This winter we have seen very little outside action and somehow we managed, but boy was it nice to see the park.  I even took my bird book and binoculars with, ok I know that was a bit premature but I could not help myself.  The park was snowy and cold and there were only a few squirrels running around, but I could just imagine the days when it will be warm and buzzing with life.  Ewan went to the swings and even the squeaky sound of the swing going back and forth was welcome.  After our little swinging session we walked over to the still frozen pond to see if any ducks were sitting on the ice, there were none but that was ok, they will be there soon.  Our walk was not too long but it was just long enough for me to appreciate that the winter is coming to an end and soon we will be bounding around outside in the warmth of spring.

Whatever works for you...

I was looking for a prayer picture and came across this.  It is called the Prayer Antenna, I don't think I need to say much more then WHOA, and giggle a little or a lot.

Taken for a ride:<

Brian and I pretty faithfully take our car in for regular maintenance to keep it in good shape and this year we have noticed a very unappealing trend when ever go in for our oil change.  We go in for something that costs us about $30 and are told we need anywhere from $400-$900 in work done.  The first two time it happened I was really pissed off but thought what can we do our car is getting older and once we get this work done we should be fine.  But then when it happened again and then again, I was really mad.  I asked one day while I was in the shop if we should trade our car in because we keep having to pay these large amounts of money to get it "fixed".  The guy said your car (our car is a Toyota) will run for a long time you have done a lot to this car you should not have to do anything for a while, that conversation happened a few months ago!  Today Brian went in to have the brakes done in the front and they told us that we should do the 85000 mile work on the car and the cheapest thing they could do would only be an extra $400 on top of the $250 for the brakes.  What the ----!!!  I will let you add your own word.  Brian called me and told me we were not going to use this place anymore, and I thought to myself, FINALLY!   It just seems ridiculous that every few months we should be putting that much money into a car, it feels like we have been taken for a ride.  I thought we would be able to trust these people too, they are a huge dealer in Chicago.  I guess the big man is all about the big bucks!

 

The sweet sound of Thom Yorke

Indeed it is quite sweet listening to Thom Yorke of Radiohead.  Check out their new album, "In Rainbows".

Reading!

Ewan and I have been spending about 2 hours each morning doing home schooling.  We started a few weeks ago in an effort to see if home schooling is something that might be a good fit for our family.  We are sort of doing a trial run, for myself and for Ewan.  This helps me to have discipline, routine and follow through, and for Ewan it just gives me an idea of how he might do in a home school setting.  So far he seems to be enjoying him self as am I.  We start off our time with a craft time and then do a reading lesson and then a reading time.  Ewan has been really excited most days to do his reading lesson which just makes me feel giddy.  It has been really amazing to see him learning right in front of me, to see his ability to retain information and recall it.  He is doing really well.  So now that you have a little back ground on our reading situation I will now share my exciting news.  Ewan read his first sentence today!!!!!!!!!

See me eat.

That was the sentence that Ewan read this morning!  He did an awesome job sounding out each letter and then putting all of the sounds together.  I am very proud of him, as if it is not obvious!  So that is my big news for today, Ewan is on his way to becoming a reader:)

The quilt

For Christmas this year my sister totally out did her self, she gave me a quilt that she made herself.  This is why Meghan totally out did her self; she is in school full time, she works full time, she has 2 children, two cats, one dog and a house.  If that is not enough, she had never made a quilt before!  Whoa!  When Meghan gave me the quilt I was in total shock, I could not believe that she had made this beautiful heart felt quilt that represented our lives together as sisters.  It is truly amazing.  The center block is a celtic knot design that says The clan of two. That is the name of a poem I wrote for her over 10 years ago that spoke of our relationship as sisters.  The history, and sentiment go really deep with this quilt.  So I know you are just dying to see what this qulit looks like, well here you go.

The whistling bird

Yesterday morning my son Ewan got up before dawn and I along with him.  We were sitting at the table and he was eating cereal and I was trying to stay awake when we heard what Ewan described as a whistle sound.  I told him that it was a bird singing and he gave me a strange look and then told me he thought in not so many words that it was cool that the bird was singing.  I wondered for a moment if it had just been that the long winter had caused Ewan to forget about singing birds, which I think is the case.  You see I am a birder and I take Ewan with me sometimes, though he is reluctant to go most of the time.  So I know he can recognize a bird singing.  I guess that I take for granted that I know the sound of a bird singing and that to a 4 year old child if they go many months without hearing it they may forget what it sounds like.  I decided to take this bird singing as a sign of hope that the long cold winter is almost at its end, and soon we will be hearing the birds sing every morning.

False advertising

I am lactose intolerant and to make things worse I am allergic to lactaid pills.  So I have to stay away from dairy unless I want to feel like crap.  I try really hard to not eat dairy but it is a struggle from time to time because I know the glories of milk, cheese, ice cream, etc.  This Lent I decided to give up all dairy for 6 weeks to see if really cutting dairy completely from my diet made me feel better.  In an effort to stick with my lenten fast I have sought out alternatives to cheese.  One of the alternatives that I have tried is call Veggie Shreds.  It is a soy product that is flavored like cheddar or mozzarella cheese.  The flavor is there but as for it acting like cheese not so much.  I don't feel like it is asking a lot to want your cheese to melt, or your cheese alternative to melt, especially when it says right on the package Melts Great!  Well apparently there must be some stipulations to the Melts Great claim.  Like here are some, Melts Great unless you use it on pizza, or on lasagna, or on top of any food, or maybe they could substitute Melts Great for Gets Hard and Tough to Chew.  So apparently Veggie Shred only Melts Great if you put in into your food not on top of your food.  So I suffered one bad night of pizza, and one bad night of lasagna, lesson learned.  Here is a picture so you can see how Veggie Shreds Melts Great!

A whole new world

Blogging is pretty new to me, I have only been a blogger for a few months and in that time I have grow to love it.  I have this blog and another that is dedicated to my adoption process.  Doing my adoption blog helped me to get my feet wet in the blogging world and lead me to want more.  I wanted to be able to write about life, love, kids, the environment, you name it and maybe I will want to write about it.  I try to keep my adoption blog entries focused on adoption things so I am excited to be spreading my wings with this blog.  Who know what I may write about next:)