adam walking the balance see-saw thing in the obstacle course kenny made the kids. we couldn't keep him off!


uncle andrew (my younger brother) and his daughter ramona, and sawyer:


uncle dan (my youngest brother) and sawyer:


sawyer, ramona, and adam in one of the many forts they built (with aunt laura's help!):


grammy and grampy, the morning they left:


me, planting jalepenos and pimentos plants with sawyer:


grampy holding astrid:

we are very possessive of our sunny days here in western pennsylvania. we squeeze in as much outside time as we possibly can, until that last bit of daylight slips under the horizon. and it's been sunny for 8 or 9 days straight!

we were also having too much fun with two of my brothers and their families AND my grandparents in town (we missed you GR guys!). so i collapsed into bed each night and my laptop was unopened all week long. we were far too busy, cooking, birdwatching, tree identifying, tree planting, vegetable garden planting, tractor riding, fort building, bike riding, eating, museum going, icecream eating, hockey watching, beer drinking, more eating, wading pool swimming (the littles, not the adults), plant buying, pie baking, more hockey watching, more bird watching, obstacle course building (kenny) and running (the littles), treasure hunting (the littles), cookie-baking, more eating and we found time to sleep in between.

pictures to follow. some day. i'm still recuperating!

kenny got in a fight with a honeybee yesterday. here he is with his eye open:

 

i think the honeybee won.

would somebody please tell the atmosphere that it's the END of MAY? these cooler temperatures and rainy days are supposed to come in April, and May is the month of flowers. i guess the current atmosphere wasn't taught the "april showers bring may flowers" rhyme? geez.

we've got two more days of rain and highs in the 50s to go until we can experience warm sunshine again (starting friday!). it's been like this for about two weeks now.

we already put away our winter wardrobe, so i've been washing and rewashing sweatpants and sweatshirts and socks for this family of five.

i'm so ready for summer!!!!

this past week has been a bit of a challenge in the eating department. i struggle with getting food (any food!) into their mouths on most days, or getting quality food, even if it's not much of it on others. it's a new challenge every morning. but it's a learning process, and all of our food choices won't change overnight, i'm well-aware of that fact!

some things that we did this past week:

• after my mom read this waldorf eating entry last week, she showed up at the door with bags of veggies and a bottle of Trader Joes Goddess salad dressing, and that has been the boys' snack of choice for the past week: raw carrots, broccoli, and grape tomatoes in the salad dressing.
• i made homemade granola with dried cherries. mmm. but it wasn't my favorite recipe. if you have a favorite recipe for granola, please share. i've yet to be blown away by my homemade granola. and i do like granola! fortunately the boys loved it. and ate it with milk and over yogurt, or by the handful.
• i made millet bars, from the waldorf kindergarten snack book and it was a total flop. i can't even bring myself to eat it, even smothered with honey! blech. i'm "x-ing" that one out in the book.

here's another recipe i can share with you that was a total hit. whenever we are out at a restaurant, the only thing the boys ask to eat is "macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers with dipping sauce." they're palates have yet to move beyond that. but it's quick and easy and fills their bellies. good thing we rarely eat out any more. so, i brought their favorite restaurant food home, and found a great recipe for it that doesn't include frying in oil! the best part is that all our plates were clean - even Adam's (which is rare!)

Seasame Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
(I served it with sticky rice and steamed endameme)

1/3 cup stone ground mustard
1/3 cup honey
2 T lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 black pepper
1 lb skinned, boned chicken breast cut into strips
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix together mustard and honey and set aside.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Combine sesame seeds and breadcrumbs in a shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg whites, and dredge in sesame seed mixture.
Arrange chicken in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray (or lightly coated with veg. oil). Bake 350 for 15 minutes.

*I also added some grated parmesan cheese and garlic powder to the sesame seed/bread crumb mixture.

Kenny: "Make it again!"
Liz: mmmmm.
Rowan: Empty plate with no bribing needed!
Sawyer: "Can I have some more please?"
Adam: He ate everything but the endameme. Because it was green.

despite it being a frigid 50 this past week, we've had little outside work to do as nothing is blooming or growing. not even the weeds. fortunately so, as we've had our hands tied up with the wildlife.

this is what a perfectly good, never-before-used bee frame looks like. this is what you put into a hive box when you start a bee colony:

i missed yesterday's t-ball festivities, since i was at home waiting for the game commission to drop off a big old bear trap, but more on that later...

sawyer's three-year-old t-ball team meets indoors. thank goodness for that as it was cold and rainy again yesterday. i sent kenny and dad away with camera in hand and told him not return without a good set of pictures. i look at these pictures and want to just squeeze the little guy. how cute is he????
the three-year-olds did a lot of obstacle courses and running around. and of course sitting in circles and waiting. he learned to step with his left foot and throw with the right arm. they didn't do any catching or even hitting the ball off the tee. and he still came home saying how much fun he had.


i'm excited to join him next week. so far it's been too cold to hang out outside and "practice" with them. but i'm sure the weather is bound to break eventually and we'll be outside throwing grounders, pop-ups and hitting off our target-bought t soon enough. and...in a week, two of the boys' uncles and aunts and cousins will be in town for a week. there's bound to be lots of "uncle daniel! uncle andrew! aunt laura! aunt kara! please can you play tball with me?" 

i might even get their great grampy to throw a ball or two with them. :)

when rowan was born, kenny and i sat up at night staring at our sleeping newborn dreaming about all the adventures we'd get to take with him. we dreamed of his baptism, his first steps, meeting his future sibling, "going off to kindergarten," and all the fun sports, or arts teams he'd be a part of (his parents are of the artsy persuasion but we do know the importance and fun of being involved in sports. i was a cheerleader, afterall, so i know all about team S-P-I-R-I-T!).

tonight, rowan had his first t-ball practice. (sawyer's first practice is this saturday - stay tuned!) i thought for sure it would be canceled because it was cold and rainy. and his team is comprised of 4-5-year olds. we showed up, the rained slowed to a steady spit, and the wind kicked up a bit. the kids were all split up into teams (rowan is a marlin!) and practice started. the rain got heavier and steadier and the wind got stronger, so sawyer, adam, my mom and i headed to the car only after 10 minutes. kenny stayed with rowan who was oblivious to the rain and the cold:

...and i don't mean the salad, but i love me a good waldorf salad (even though i take all the walnuts out as i'm not a big fan).

a few months ago, i was reading a blog of a woman who had sent her girls to an in-home daycare/preschool that used the waldorf style of childraising in their daily schedule. if you don't know anything about the steiner waldorf schooling or childraising philosophy, a quick read here will fill you in. i don't subscribe to many of the teachings, but i love the overall, general feel of its earthy and earth-cycle centered approach to living.

while reading this particular blog, i was fascinated at the daily routine she described her preschooler experienced at this daycare: play with wooden toys, a bowl of steaming hot porridge for snack, outside play for 20 minutes each and every day (no matter what the weather), naptime with comfy blankets and pillows (not mats!), wholesome and hearty lunches all handmade by the daycare provider, and a full hand-written report of her child's schedule sent home each day. now that's a busy daycare provider! she had one assistant and a house-full of busy kids. and no television!

i am the first to admit that i've bought and continue to buy packaged, processed snacks to give to my kids throughout the day to keep them from "starving" or to keep the ever-present "i'm hungry!" statement to a minimum. fortunately, all three of the boys love fruit so we get a substantial amount of fruit into them on a daily basis. unfortunately, they also love sugar. white sugar and brown sugar: the two "evils" that actually can do more harm to their growing bodies than good. but i know full-well that a better and richer diet would aid in their hunger and keep them healthier than ever.

so....i'm giving them only nuts and grains for the rest of their lives.

no. i think they'd starve because i know their tastes! so i began my search for "better snacks" although if you google that you'd get nothing. i had no idea when to start because really, it's so much easier to just give them a granola bar than to make them yummy granola. i found this lovely little book:

it came in the mail this week and I already have big plans to incorporate better foods into the boys' daily routines.

this morning I made baked oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon for their mid-morning snack. it was a big hit...with Adam. it was "iffy" with Sawyer (he ate half his serving) and Rowan barely ate two bites. the recipe was from another cookbook. i will have to work up to the sugarless recipes in the waldorf snack book (the recipes are sweetened with honey, molasses and syrup).

i'm glad we're coming up on fresh fruit season. they can eat berries and melons all day long if we let them. we'll be eating a lot more local and fresh foods over the summer and i'd love to keep that up throughout the fall and winter. we'll see how well i keep to the DAILY baking and cooking regimen (i have homemade chicken stock simmering on the stovetop now!), and how well their already spoiled taste buds accept a healthier approach to fueling their (and our!) bodies.

the boys have been asking about visiting their grandma and grandpa lately. so a few weeks ago, rowan called them up and told them that they were on their way. fortunately, he made the plans to visit on the same weekend that our state's homeschooling convention was taking place just half an hour away from grandma and grandpa's house, so we all drove out there last week, dropped the kids off with grandma and grandpa and had ourselves a mini-vacation!

the morning we left for the convention, the weather turned cold and raining. we got lost on the way, but eventually made our way into the exhibit hall, only 20 minutes later than we had intended. we were wet and cold, but excited to get our hands on the curriculum we've been looking at online for the past several months, and find some more fun gadgets to use as teaching tools. for the two days we were there, we walked up and down the aisles several times, chatted to countless moms and dads who are currently home-educating their children, found some really great stuff, walked out of some really bad presentations, but were overall encouraged, overwhelmed, and excited. we've toured a local montessori school and will look into the public kindergarten, and another private one for comparison. so far, homeschooling has been our favorite option (it's FUN!), but we're exhausting all our options while we still can.

here we are filling out the evaluation form:

ten points to those who can correctly identify that quote. (and some major props from kenny.)

we've tilled 3 1/2 rows and are trying to figure out which plants and seeds to put where. i'm planning on making salsa a lot this summer. because i've come to realize i just don't like store-bought, jarred salsa. the fresh stuff is definitely the way to go. the only problem is...i don't have a recipe for homemade salsa. i can look up recipes in books and online, but first i'd like to check with friends and family and even strangers who have made salsa before and love their salsa recipes. even if you didn't love your recipe, we all have different tastes...so send it any way. for instance, you may like your salsa hot and spicy while i like mine with a lot of juice and cilantro. send 'em on over, please!

now onto more bees!  i was the one to don the bee-suit today. our good friend buzz came over to mark our queen...in other words, paint her red so we can spot her right away next time we go open the hive and play with the bees.

kenny took out the empty queen cage from the hives yesterday!



when the bees are shipped to you, they separate the queen from the workers by sending her in her own cage. she and the worker bees eat their way through a sugar cork at the end of the cage. this way, the workerbees have time to accept her without harming her. once she is free, the workers do their thing to feed her and produce more workers with her.

the following picture shows the beginnings of some comb that the bees made since they arrived last week (this was on the side of the queen cage). the orange and brown bits are pure pollen (different colors from different plants!) and smell like a big fat bouquet of flowers (strong!). you may even notice a bit of raw honey between the pollen.