Down Time

The kids are finally in bed and asleep. After getting the the lessons together for tomorrow, Dennis and I are actually enjoying a little down time. I usually either scrapbook, read, or blog. Right now Dennis is doing his usual, playing love songs for me on the piano. That's what you get to enjoy when you have a husband as talented as I have! I love that he gets to play like this at night. I hope that it's something that our children will remember forever, that their dad would play the piano for them after their night time stories. I'm so lucky!

Khora's Little Green Friend

I have to share this one with you. The other day we were at our local fruit stand buying some fresh picked local peaches, yummy by the way, and while I was getting our fruit Khora found a little friend to play with. When I looked, over there she was with a big praying mantis on her finger. Well all was good until she wanted it off and she started shaking her hand and that guy must have just hunkered down good because he was not coming off. She was getting very frantic at this point and big brother Isaac was there trying to help her out of the pradicament by first trying to kick it off her hand, but luckily he caught himself and thought that his hand was probably the better choice. Khora was very shaken up over it but gratful to have it off. He didn't bite her or anything just clamped down with those praying hands and it just scared her good. I don't know if she'll be as willing to befriend the next one she sees though. We have seen them all over our yard this year. They are still our friends!

Berry Picking

Last week Grandma Sorensen came up and we all went out berry picking. The kids had so much fun! Khora looked like a berry when we were done. We're so excited to have them because raspberries are delicious!! We even picked a few blackberries. Right now Grandma has them stored in her freezer just waiting for us to do something with them. I have my mind set on some raspberry/peach jam. And I the peaches are on right now also!!! Yummy!

Our Labor Day Labors

We went to my parents house for Labor Day. Phase one, after the early corn, is full on in their garden so we all pitched in and helped to bag some of it while we were there. Here is a little documentation of the process.

1. Picking the corn was hazardous at times as you didn't know when the corn would come flying out of the rows. (Heads up!)
2. Husking the corn.
3. Transportation from the garden to the house, Afton brought some corn with her in the wheelbarrow.
4. Cleaning the corn was the grunt work in this process especially for someone who hates the feel of the little hairs all wet on your hands and you can't seem to get them off.
5. Transportation from the back sink to the stove. Not everyone is cut out for this job you know!
6. The corn cobs were steamed then placed in ice water to cool
7. Cutting the corn off the cob. It took great skill to work with such a delicate instrument as this electric knife. Dad's fish filleting skills paid off though.
8. The corn was then measured and put into freezer bags, but not before it went through some degree of quality control. The girls often made sure it met the highest standard of sweetness before it went on to be labeled.
9. Khora was amazing at taking the ziplock bags out of the box for us!

All told we did over 50 Quarts of corn that afternoon. Not too bad! Now you know what kind of effort it takes to enjoy that home grown goodness all winter long!

Pediatric Dentist

I reciently took our children to their 6 month cleaning at the dentist. Not just any dentist mind you the funnest pediatric dentist anywhere! Just to give you an idea of what the atmosphere is like at this place. You walk into the waiting room to see a train set in the center of the room for the children to play with, there is an animated cow head mounted on the wall, which honestly does kind of scare a few of the tiny ones once in a while. A train goes around the shelf along the top of the room and off to one side is a game room with video games. When kids are done they get a grab bag of dental products. Your typical toothpast and floss with the coolest toothbrushes I've ever seen. They also get tokens for the toy machine or if they choose they can use it to ride the mechanical horse out front. It all kind of makes me laugh when I sit here and write it all down, but this place is always busy. Oh, the things we'll come up with for our children to have good teeth!!!

I snapped a few pictures of the occation. Thought I would share some of them.

Jacob is totally in the zone as soon as they stick those headphones on. There is a screen on the ceiling that they can either watch a movie or play games on as they're cleaning their teeth. It was difficult for him to give the hygenist an answer of which flavor of polish he wanted, never mind that there were about 10 choices!!

The whole process probably took less time than they would have liked. Oh well there is always the waiting room games. (Honestly!)

Although Khora does have two new molars and 8 teeth she's not quite old enough to enjoy the whole experience although they did give her a new toothbrush like the others. She made the best of her time there by simply making herself at home. If she didn't get to sit in the big fun blue seat then she would take the next best thing and go through the cupboards!

I saved this one till last because I just can't stop laughing. Afton has a very sensitive mouth and just hates toothpaste and barely tollerates a wet toothbrush in her mouth for the amount of time it takes me to brush them. So when they pulled out the pollishing brush I sat there ready with my camara for what I knew would come. She just sat there and gagged the whole time. It was probably the fastest cleaning in history, but she got it done. Well done Afton!!! You lived!

The Dreaded Floride Treatment: Do you remember those horrid trays with the thick floride treatment in them that had the consistency of playdo? The whole time they were in your mouth you had to breath through your nose while holding the spit sucker in one hand and the egg timer in the other. You sat there for the longest minute in history and then tried not to hack as they took them out! Next some brilliant soul thought of using a foam that came in a can like hair moose which was almost as bad on the gag scale. Then they simply went to swishing liquid form like mouthwash which no one could last the entire minute doing. So what do they have now? They simply brush on this floride gloss type stuff with a cotton swab to their teeth. That's it! They can eat and drink right after and they simply brush it off at night before bed. Can it get any easier!!! Boy they sure have come a long way!!! See all our torture treatments we went through have paid off for the next generation!

Baking Powder Biscuits

I finally got a really good recipe for baking powder biscuits so I thought that I would post it here. I haven't quite mastered them yet. I'm hoping for KFC quality though so may take a while.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Combine the following in a bowl:
2 C Flour
1TBSP Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1TBSP + 1 tsp sugar

cut in 1/2 C shortning with pastry cutter or fork

in separate bowl mix 1 egg and 1/2 C milk

Stir in liquid mixture to other ingredients unil it forms a ball then kneed about 20 times. Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness and cut.

Cook 10-12 min. until golden.

Blue Crabs

On Saturday we went to a swapmeet type place to buy some local produce and kind of check things out. It reminded me of a big yardsale. One of the vendors there was selling these blue crabs. The "large" ones, about the size of your hand, were going for $25. They sure smelled bad, but they were kind of pretty.