Happy happy Spring!

Happy Spring or Easter or Sunday - whichever suits you! Enjoy these pictures; the first few are from last week at the park and the rest are from this weekend. The little people sure are growing, aren't they?

Just click on any picture to enlarge it, if you are so inclined.

Earthquake!

Recently, we got a new camera - a nice digital SLR that Brandon has been having a lot of fun with. We have some great new pictures of the kids to post...but not tonight. Tonight, instead, you can hear about the earthquake we just experienced.

Well, technically, no one else even knows about it yet. It's 1 a.m., and I'm up working while everyone else is sleeping upstairs. I was sitting at my desk typing, when I suddenly heard a very low grumble. The room felt like it was shaking for a few brief seconds that honestly seemed like much longer. The shaking wasn't bad - just like the dizziness that you feel after a few drinks or after standing up too quickly. I couldn't even believe it was happening at first (I thought I had imagined it somehow), but I confirmed it with a friend who lives nearby - it was definitely an earthquake!

I have always been afraid to go to the West coast because I find the idea of earthquakes terrifying. While this one wasn't bad, it totally confirmed my suspicion that I would not do well in earthquake country! I have lived through really scary and dangerous tornadoes many times, which many people say they would hate to experience, but I'd honestly prefer tornadoes to earthquakes. At least you usually get some warning with tornadoes!

It's back to work for me now, with a new goal to get done and to sleep as soon as possible so I'm not awake for any further potential tremors.

Holidazed: Part Two

As promised, here are lots of pictures of the kids opening gifts! We let them open some early (because we're big softies), but most of them had to wait for Tuesday morning. Thanks to Santa, Mom and Dad, and lots of relatives back home, there were lots and lots of surprises.

Please ignore the baskets of laundry. At least it's clean laundry.






















I think this one is my favorite. It's Caelum in mid-jump after getting a really cool toy.






We'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who sent gifts and cards for the kids - and for the grownups, too! Though we still miss our families very much, it's nice to know that you're all still thinking of us. The kids enjoyed their gifts very much! Happy new year to everyone, and we hope your days are filled with peace and love.

Holidazed: Part One

Happy holidays! We hope you all had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, or any other wintery holiday (or, if you don't celebrate one, we hope you just had a happy week). We have been having a great time getting ready for presents and guests, then enjoying the results of all of those preparations. I cooked and baked for three days in order to give out some candy/cookie plates and make special dinners for the 24th and the 25th. The first night, of course, we did our traditional lentils and fish (this year we ate real fish, but I think I prefer the faux fish cakes from last year), and the next night we hosted some friends for a large vegan dinner. We had an interesting group here that night: our family is non-religious, the family who joined us are Wiccan, and the single friend we had over is Catholic. It was neat to share a meal together despite the different things that the day meant to all of us.

So on the 23rd, we started working on all of the delicious treats to deliver to friends and neighbors. I was sensible and only planned to make a few things, but when it was all done it looked like a lot more than I'd intended! Casey the Kinderbot was my scarecrow, protecting the treats from kids' hands.



I think the kids had the most fun decorating the gingerbread men. See that one in the back that's absolutely covered in red-hots? Olivia was very proud of that one.



This was our very simple lentils and fish dinner. I also made some French bread (because I always manage to ruin rye bread or we would have had that), and we (of course) had white wine for the grownups and "kid wine" for the kids. Those candles are our new LED flameless candles, which are not only more environmentally friendly (er, well, as long as you use rechargeable batteries) but safer around the kids as well.



For some reason, I didn't take any pictures of the dinner I made for the 25th! I think I was too tired to worry about it by the time it was all ready. We had roasted vegetables (potatoes, parsnips, carrots, butternut squash, onions and garlic), yeast rolls, brussels sprouts, garlic-infused green beans (thanks to Miss Teph), veg gravy, and stuffed peppers. I also made some spinach dip and served it in a bread bowl, which was lots of fun and looked awesome.

Now, the desserts I DID take pictures of, mostly because I'd made them a day ahead. I decided to try a traditional English trifle, and I must say I'm still baffled by this dessert. Why so many desserts all crammed into one dish? There's cake on the bottom (sponge cake with a layer of raspberry jam in the middle), then gelatin (actually, a vegetarian gelatin substitute for us) poured on top (which I was later told was not right - it should have been just juice), then a layer of fresh raspberries, a layer of custard, and finally a layer of whipped cream and some more fresh raspberries on top. And voila! You end up with a gigantic dessert that weighs as much as one of the kids. Even with all of the non-dairy and egg-free substitutions, it was well received and everyone seemed to enjoy it.



That dish, by the way, is seriously the size of a punch bowl. That is a HUGE dessert.

I also made coconut pie with fresh coconuts. Pounding open the coconuts and prying the flesh out of the shells was so fun! Like everything else, this was vegan but no one seemed to notice a difference. Look at the mommy pie and the cute little baby pies!



The most fun part of the holidays, according to the kids, is the presents! We decided to let them each open up a few gifts Monday evening. Then they woke up early on Tuesday morning to a living room chock full of bright packages. Pictures of the gift-opening madness is soon to follow!

Parenting Lessons

The kids are always teaching me. It doesn't matter how long I've been a parent - they never fail to come up with something new and fascinating every day. They think in a different way than I do, and I love that they are so inquisitive and eager to try new things. This comes to mind because of a dinnertime experience I had with Olivia a couple of days ago. Most people know (or can guess) how difficult it is to get a three-year-old to eat vegetables. You'd think it would be easier for my kids, being very nearly vegetarian, but they're all about the bread, fruit, and potatoes. Caelum is old enough to eat whatever we ask him to (such a good boy) and Ruby eats enough of the healthy stuff to get by, but Livi...ah, Livi has a very strong mind. She won't do what she doesn't want to do, no matter what.

So we're in the middle of dinner, and Liv is having trouble with her veggies. She doesn't want to eat them, but she knows that she won't get a crescent roll until she does. What a dilemma.

I pulled her onto my lap, hoping to convince her to eat some broccoli. On her way from her chair to mine, she caught sight of her reflection in the glass patio door. She loves to look at the reflections in the doors when it's dark outside and light inside - she calls the girl in the reflection "Ghost Lala," and of course the rest of us have "ghost" versions as well. She treats Ghost Lala like an entirely different person, talks to her and plays games with her. That sounds a little creepy now that I type it but it's really very cute. So I decided to use this quirk of hers to my Mommy advantage: I told her that Ghost Lala really likes crescent rolls, but she can't have one until she eats her bowl of vegetables. I said that Olivia could help Ghost Lala by showing her how to eat her vegetables, and then Ghost Lala could have a nice roll. And to my amazement, it worked. That little girl ate every bite of her vegetables, looking at her reflection the whole time. She then shared a crescent roll with Ghost Lala, and spent the rest of the evening looking very proud of herself for helping her friend earn a yummy treat.

Random picture goodness

Some recent photos for your viewing enjoyment...

Caelum on Thanksgiving, drinking "kid wine" in the way that he thinks grownups drink real wine. And corrupting our friends' daughter in the process.


My birthday present from Brandon, wrapped entirely in recycled materials.


Decorating our tree...
















I think she's a poker whiz in the making.


Ruby is acting very tough.


Livi eating "worms" (string cheese).


Shocking!


Even shockinger!

On the farm

I haven't gotten any new pictures of the kids yet (cars and cameras: two things that seem unable to function reliably around us), but I just got this in my inbox from my mom. It made me smile with a little tear in my eye. This is me with mom's new husband, Phil, in front of their new house in the country.