Life & Death - Memorial Day

 We were sitting in Satura Bakery in Los Altos on Sunday, for our annual brioche donuts.

(We had been to Alta Mesa in memory of Gabriel's birthday.  
One of the saddest things about going to the cemetery is not just remembering our own boy.
It is all of the stories surrounding us that we don't know.

We see a young dad with three children visiting a grave.
We see an elderly gentleman carrying flowers & his walking cane, searching for a particular grave.
And, we cry.  Death is so sad.)

While we were eating our donuts, the kids were begging for a cake.
A beautiful white cake topped with berries.
Scott had just brought home a couple flats of berries.
So, I said, "okay!"
We'll make one ourselves at home.
I had wanted to try a recipe that Andrea shared last month.
Honey & Jam has it all typed out for you here.
It's a Dorie Greenspan recipe.  She can be trusted.  It had to be good.
It is.  Go bake one.  You will be glad you are alive.

Speaking of enjoying life,

I went to visit my 96 year old neighbor yesterday.

Gillian came with me & brought her some flowers.

She is so sharp & full of life. 

When I hear someone talk about how they don't want to get old;

how they think people get grouchy & difficult & depressed when they are old;

I think of Udell & how that does not describe her at all.

She can talk & talk & talk about how great life is.

I love it.  She loved life.  And she loves life.

She loves her good memories of all she did in life.

But, she is happy in her life right now, too.

She is a woman who has purposed to embrace life for what is.

She finds fun where she can.

Like how funny it was that the elastic had gotten too loose in her pants,

so yesterday, they were completely falling off.  

That didn't discourage her.  

That made her laugh.

(And I offered to sew new elastic in there, because it may not remain funny if it keeps happening!)

We have a choice.  We CAN see the lovely in life, at any age.

Linking up at Heather's for Life Made Lovely

Snack Cart

Play idea by Gillian.

She was a snack cart vendor.

So cute.

She only sold healthy, nourishing food.

No garbage.

Someday, I'm going to run a quality food cart, too, for reals.

Peyton had the idea to make popcorn for the cart.

It ended in a rather messy situation.  

I still haven't vacuumed it all up from the floor.

Maybe I'll do it tomorrow.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

Being back home is so nice.

That was almost 3 weeks of planting in Butte Valley. 

Once we hit the 2 week mark of being away from home,

it starts to get old; for all of us.

Scott is still working, & more than a normal work week.

So, it is not a vacation.

But, there is a lot we like about going to Macdoel.

It is a break in routine for the kids, but still familiar.

So, they feel comfortable since we go twice a year.

We like having country time.

The kids gave the horses their own names – Star, Paint & Ahmaria.

The big sky.  The bald eagles.  The tractors.

I like when the smell coming through my car vents is fresh dirt.

That happens here. 

Husband’s truck always smells like fresh dirt.  But here, my car does too.

(I usually take tons of picturew when we are there.
But, I didn't this time.
Look at old posts for Macdoel images.
I even missed an excellent bald eagle photo op on a misty morning.)

The internet at the house in Macdoel has always been spotty.

But, this time it was non-existent.

I am pretty dependent on the web.  So, that was a bit of a bummer.

I had to go sit in the office & try to keep all the kids in good behavior,

while I tried to do anything in the internet. 

It was a challenge. 

And I didn’t get to read many blogs.  Boo.

Here’s something big that I missed in the blog world. 

Little Anika found a family!

Thank you to all my friends who took part in the Love for Anika party.

You know something I love about the blog world?

It really helps people come to together,

throwing in their own little gift, & make a big impact.

Not only what Love is doing in gathering funds for Anika.

There is Heather & her Joyful Library.

There is Jeanett & her fundraising at Life Rearranged.

And so much more that I don’t know about. 

Tell us if you know of a blog project,

gathering up everyone’s effort to make a big impact.

"l" is for lollipop

Alrighty, ya’ll. 

I haven’t been working much on our letter unit studies.

We finally did the letter l.

“l” is for lollipop

Craft card idea from Totally Tots.

Lollipop was a little tricky, for coming up with study ideas.

From lollipops, we decided to learn a little about sugar, too.

I couldn’t find any good books with the lollipop theme.

We did read Many Luscious Lollipops by Ruth Keller.

It is not particularly about lollipops, though. 

It is a book about adjectives.

Speaking of parts of speech,

we did start doing a little word/action game, while on the letter “l”.

Listen, Look & Learn

This game is a variation on the Simon Says game.

When I say a doing word, they do the action.

If I say a thing word, they need to just stand still.

While doing “l”, I tried to think of verbs that started with that letter.

Listen* Lick * Look * Laugh * Lounge * Love * Leap

But, the main point is just learning about verbs/doing words. 

So, we usually use words that start with any letter.

We played a Lollipop Ring Toss game.

I stuck little lollipops into a cereal box covered in foil.

I taped a number onto each lollipop.

I gave the kids 2 rings & they tried to drop them onto the lollipops.

They had to try to identify the number on the lollipops that they got.

Then we added the two numbers together.

We read Aesop’s Fable, The Fox & The Crow.

We learned about the false sweetness of flattery.

We talked about the sweet truth of God’s Words

& learned this verse –

Psalm 19:10

“{Your Words} are more desirable than gold, yes than much fine gold.

Sweeter also than honey & the drippings of the honeycomb.”

I tried to find books about how sugar is grown & processed with no luck.

I was bummed. 

And, the librarian was a little confused as to why I would want such a thing.

I showed the kids pictures of sugar cane growing & harvested, found on the internet.

We did a sugar cooking craft, making Lifesaver Light Catchers.

There may be a better way to do this. 

But, I didn’t have the world wide web available to me, to find directions.

We smashed the lifesavers & arranged them on wax paper.

We baked them at 325 degrees for about 3 minutes.

Bake them just until the sugars are all melted down.

Too long & you’ll burn the bright colors out & it will start to brown.

While we did this, we talked a little bit about the stages of cooking sugar –

The soft ball & hard crack & such.

Our Light Catchers were cooked to hard crack.

And, they did fall down from the window & crack, before the day was over.

We had a little dance party exercise time to the Lollipop song by the Chordettes.

We practiced painting & drawing lollipops. 

Gillian got the swirling rainbow circle action down pretty well. 

She was loving it.

Our Table + Five

Just for fun.

If you could have 5 famous people to your house for dinner,

who would you invite?

I have a table planned.

Well, the guests, anyway. 

I’ll have to think about the menu some more.

Source: prettystuff.tumblr.com via Lani on Pinterest

Keith Green

I love how crazy passionate he was for Jesus.

The fact that he seemed to always speak his mind.

would have made for exciting dinner conversation.

Plus he had crazy hair.

Julia Child

She had such a zest for life. 

She was such a genuine person.

She enjoyed good food.

I love reading her writings.

So, I think I would love to have her at my dinner table, too.

George Grant

I like to watch him talk.  (The way he moves his mouth is interesting.)

He’s really smart & knows a lot of cool stuff.

Plus he likes good food & he would wear a bow tie.

Elisabeth Elliot

I totally admire her & think she is pretty amazing.

Her books are great.

She is a wise woman.
 She knows how to get her point across well.

She has a lot of amazing stories to tell.

She would be more than welcome at my table.

Nigella Lawson

Because I was just watching her on the cooking channel

& she is so classy.

I love listening to her talk.

And, she would probably bring a fabulous hostess gift.

Alright.  Now you go blog about your table + five & link here in the comments.

Or, if you don’t want to blog it out on your own spot, just give us you list of 5 here.

Semi-Homemade Tagalong Taste-Alikes

I am not a Sandra Lee fan. 

I believe in the superiority of baked-from-scratch goods.

But a couple weeks ago, I was busting out the semi-homemade goods.

I don’t know.  The stuff just sounded good for some reason.

I made these Peanut Butter Sandwiches.

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Erin on Pinterest

They look fabulous, no?

They did not meet my expectations.

They tasted totally artificial.

Hmmmm…  I wonder why?

Then I made rice krispies treats on sticks. 

Those were good.  Just cuz, I love rice krispie treats. 

They are amazing to me.

And I made Jello Poke cupcakes.

I was so curious.  I wanted to try it & see what it was like.

Once done, I didn’t understand what the Jello added.

I could hardly taste it & it didn't add a neat-o texture, either.

They would’ve been better without it, I think.

I felt like I was a failure as Sandra Lee. 

It just wasn’t working for me.

So, when Moira’s birthday came around, I made the cupcakes from scratch.

I used my faithful Perfect Cakes cookbook.

Fudge Layer Cake & Butter Cream.

(Although, I always make the Butter Cream.  I detest frosting in a tub.) 

Anyway.  I made a semi-homemade item the other day, again.

I wanted to make treats. 

But there was close to no flour left in the pantry.

I spotted a box of Ritz crackers.

I knew what the treat would be.

This isn’t a Sandra Lee recipe.

My friend Kim made them for us & I fell in love with ‘em.

(Just for the record, she is a great from-scratch baker.  She is not a semi-homemade gal.)

They taste totally like the Girl Scout’s Tagalongs.

Here’s the way to make the Semi Homemade Tagalongs

Open a package of Ritz Crackers.

Slop about 1 cup of Creamy Peanut Butter into a bowl.

Gradually add about ¾ cup of Powdered Sugar, stirring all the while.

Stir in 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract.

Stir this until it’s nice and smooth.

Spread a spoonful onto the bottom of a Ritz & top it with another Ritz.

Refrigerate your sandwiches for a while.

Now melt about 1 cup of Chocolate Chips.

The best way to melt the chocolate is in a heat safe bowl,

sitting over the top of a pot of simmering water.

Stir, stir, stir until smooth.

Dip the sandwiches into the chocolate.

Don’t be tempted to eat them while warm.

Or else…

They are best cold, from the fridge.

Just like real Tagalong.

Swinging at the Lakeshore

It’s MacDoel planting season again

You know you are in the boonies when –

-          You are happy to drive 5 hours (round trip) for a great meal.

Last Saturday, Scott had to end the planting early, due to very high winds.

That was a bummer for his work. 

But the good news was it gave us enough time to get to our favorite restaurant around here.

By around here, I mean in Ashland (2 ½ hours away).

-          The most exciting thing to do on Sunday night is watch River Monsters.

Scott’s new favorite show.  He can’t wait for the next show.

Next Sunday 7pm can’t come soon enough.

-          You leave 1 ½ hours early for church, 
so that you have a few minutes to stop at Starbucks.

We were a few minutes early to church though.  Not a bad thing.

-          You come home from the market with the best choice for an evening drink – Coors

Really.  I had a Coors.  For the first time ever.

I wondered the very small mart for a long time.  I wanted a red wine.

The choices were all a label called Wild Vines, or something like that.

The varietals of wine all included an “extra” fruit.

e.g Strawberry Zinfandel, Blackberry Merlot.

No thanks.

-          You don’t hesitate to walk past the floor to ceiling windows in just your birthday suit.

There’s no one out there anyway.