Breaking Bread

I love Andrew's bread baking. I like how methodical he is about it and I like watching him kneed and shape the dough. He pays careful attention to what went well and what he wants to do differently next time. And it tastes delicious. While visiting with my parents over Thanksgiving, Alec asked Andrew to teach him how to bake bread. I'm not sure what initiated that request, but it was fun to see them work together on a project. And we liked eating it.

Movin' & Groovin'

We love watching Scout learn something new. You can almost see her thinking and figuring something out. So much concentration and effort involved in each new skill.  Right now, she is learning to crawl. She can pop up on all fours, rock back and forth, get in a bear crawl position, and sometimes push herself forward. She also sometimes pushes herself backwards. We took these videos over three days, the week before Christmas. She has already improved since then. Everyday, she gets a little bit better. I'm torn between excited and proud...and dreading the constant chasing that I know is coming!

Today

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with anything I wrote about. I just think she is pretty adorable.

Picture from November 25, 2011-Taken by Grandma Bybee

We are home from our travels (as of Monday) and as delightful as they were, we are enjoying the daily routine of being home together as our little family.  We get in a good rhythm, the four of us, of lounging, playing, and working together.  I really think we could be happy forever, in our little routine.  Our time always goes to fast.

Christmas was wonderful.  We played for a little over two days with both mine and Andrew's family.  We ate too much, watched babies and cousins interact, played a good game of Risk, reenacted the Nativity (Scout was baby Jesus, Andrew was a shepherd, and I was the angel, like always), brought food to and visited with folks in downtown Seattle, listened to Christmas music, opened tons of presents, made and ate pizzas, pies, and bread, fit in some last minute shopping, got our teeth cleaned, and watched Scout practice crawling.  It was busy and crazy and fun.  Many memories were made and I really should take more pictures and write more about holiday celebrations.

Scout has two teeth (bottom) that are quite visible and is working on some top teeth, making her a little bit more irritable than usual.  She's still really pleasant most of the time, we just aren't used to any whining from her at all.  She is popping up on all fours all of the time now, rocking back and forth and occasionally moving a little bit.  It's amazing how she gets around just by spinning and rolling.  We are going to have a full-on crawler any day now.

I've got lots of work to do to get ready for my WWU classes and to go back to work next week.

Andrew is getting ready to do an elimination diet and we need to get on track with exercising.  Rain and darkness go away.

We have lots of home depot gift cards are busy planning projects.  Closet organization and chicken coop being high on our priority list. 

I have so many things that I want to do over break that I can never get them all done.  I have many things I want to write about:  our cloth diaper adventures, bread baking, recipes to share, our baby proofing attempts, pictures from family, how our wines have turned out (and been consumed), the list goes on.  I want to get some scrapbooking done and pictures and videos sorted from last year so we can start clean next week.  I have a few thank you cards to write and few last stacks of paper to sort through and file in our newly organized filing cabinet.  We need to rack wines and if the weather would cooperate, we need to rake some leaves and do some light weeding.  We are in the process of trying to sell our HE front loader washer and dryer and by a basic top loader set (long story).  Too many things to do, never enough time.

I have been productive in cleaning out my closet, organizing my clothes, doing a little bit of clothes shopping, and creating some outfits.  My wardrobe was in a bad state after 9 months of pregnancy and 6 months of post-baby.  Thanks to some help from Andrew, things are looking a bit better.  A few more purchases and I will be happy.

We also cleaned out and reorganized our kitchen.  As in pulled everything out of the shelves and put it all away again, where it actually makes sense.  Tackling this project was a necessity with all of the fun new kitchen gadgets we got.  But after living here for 7 or 8 months, we had a better feel for how things fit, or didn't fit.  A little reorganizing and cleaning out makes the kitchen feel much better.

Hungry?

This girl always is. She is nursing just as much as always, eating an ice cube of puree everyday, and has started munching on banana in this nifty little fresh food feeder from munchkin.  The other morning while I was trying to keep her occupied, she ate almost a half a banana before Andrew made me quit feeding her.  I wouldn't recommend letting her eat while you are though, not unless you aren't grossed out by baby slobber banana goo. It is so fun to introduce different tastes and textures to Scout, she is completely enthralled by food. We just got a tray for her bumbo seat and I'm excited to start giving her pieces of food for her to explore at her own rate.

Bybee Apple Pie

Loving this apple pie is an essential part of being a Bybee. This apple pie is a classic part of birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas...Carina even had it at her wedding. I know the recipe came from Wade's mom - Grandma Bybee - but I don't know where she got it from. It is so good that once make this, you will never want to have the old, traditional apple pie again.

Pie filling 

• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 5 to 7 apples peeled and sliced thin

Mix together sugar, cinnamon, and apples.  Let it sit while you make the pie crust and topping, then pile it high in the pie shell.  Tip:  Cut apples with an apple slicer or be very meticulous when cutting.  Thin even slices really do make a difference.  Also, if you are buying apples, get Granny Smiths.  They are excellent in this pie.

Pie Dough 

• 1 1/3 cup flour 
• 1/2 t salt 
• 1/2 cup Crisco 
• 3 T water 

Cut together Crisco, salt, and flour until crumbly and then add cold water until it holds together. Roll out for the bottom of the pie.  Put in ungreased pie dish and make the edges pretty.  Tip:  Use a pastry cutter.

Pie Topping

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown suger

Start with soft but not melted butter.  Cut together until crumbly. Heap over the top of the apples.  Tip:  Again, use a pastry cutter, it really makes a difference.

Bake pie at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then another 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  It's delicious hot out of the oven or if you need to make it ahead of time.  It's also great for breakfast the next morning.

Family & Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! As this post is going up, we will mostly likely be opening presents in the living room with my family. It is Scout's first Christmas! I am sure she is going to love the paper way more than she does the presents...but I'm excited just the same.  These pictures are from Thanksgiving weekend (that I stole from my mom because I didn't take any!).  I am so grateful to have family - mine and Andrew's - that we love, that love us, and that are so wonderful to spend time with.

Here's to holidays and time with those you love!

Granny, Emma, Rachelle, Levi, Scout, and Me

4 Generations:  Mom, Granny, Scout, and Me

Granny & Emma

What Christmas Means to Me

It's complicated.   But we are going to celebrate and I'm not going to stress about trying to get it all figured out, just right, today.  Christmas can mean different things to different people and our family's meaning can evolve as we create our own traditions.  However, in all of the conversations, emails, and comments that were shared (thank you, thank you!) a few thoughts have formulated that I want to put to "paper" so that I have a starting point for next year, and the year after, and the year after.

Celebrating together as a family is important to create a sense of family unity and togetherness, traditions bring us together and are something that we can all share.  Celebrating and having family traditions help create memories and strong family ties.

Christmas, and the whole month of December, is generally a time when people in the community come together to help others, give to those around them, and are generally cheery and happy.  I can get behind that.

I like lights and cheery, happy things to make us smile in the dark, gloomy time of the year.  Christmas lights, snowmen and snowflakes, evergreen trees, bright red bows, all of those beautiful symbols that remind of us of light and life are very welcome during the dark, hibernating season.

I want to focus on giving meaningful, handmade gifts to those in our lives.  To really try and stay away from the buying frenzy of always needing to spend more and give bigger, more expensive gifts.

Traditions (big and small) that I like:

• Having books, about many different holiday traditions and stories.  Christmas, Hanukkah, religious, traditional, Solstice, all of it.  We love reading books in our house.  Lots of books fits us well.
• Having a countdown calendar for the whole month of December, with a new activity to do on everyday.  Visits to Santa, delivering goodies to the neighbors, buying a gift for a toy drive, making gifts for family, looking at Christmas lights, something to celebrate everyday.
• Writing a letter - even if it only ever stays on this blog! - to sum up the year and all that is happening in our lives.
• Baking :)   It's terrible for you, but it's so much fun to bake traditional goodies and share them with everyone around you.
• Holiday music and holiday movies, to be gotten out with the holiday books.  There is something fun about books, movies, and music that is only available during a certain time of the year.  Especially when all of it is so happy and focused on the good in life.  We have a lot of good.
• Creating a sense of magic around anonymous gift giving for my children.  Santa is really about the magic of a surprise and getting a gift from someone you don't know...I like the tradition that other magical creatures can leave gifts too.  Maybe elves?  The Grinch?  A nutcracker?  Rudolph? I think it would be fun to help Scout play the role of the "anonymous gift giver", both at our house by leaving gifts from magical people under the tree, and by anonymously giving to our neighbors and families in our community.   Giving without expecting thanks is magic itself.
• Wrapping presents in brown paper bags and brown wrapping paper leftover from packaging and decorating it ourselves.  I hate the amount of money that is spent on paper and wrappings that just goes in the garbage.  I think this will be especially fun with little kids who might like to help color and decorate packages!

I'm sure this list will grow and change over the years, but I'm excited to celebrate with our little family and create traditions that fit with us and our values!

I Miss You

I miss you. I miss you all of the time, but these happy times when family and friends gather make me think about you even more and make your absence feel even larger.

I miss you when I look at Scout (and Levi) and am reminded of you when you were a little babe. I think of how you would have teased Emma & Alec that both Scout & Levi look like you.  You would have loved being an uncle, I'm so sorry you never got to meet them.

I miss you when I'm making lists of what to give people for Christmas and I don't get to think of something that will make you smile.

I missed you when we got a white elephant gift that you would have loved. 

This will be our first Christmas, where all of us will be celebrating together, at Mom and Dad's, without you.  The first Christmas without you, we ran away to Mexico.  Last Christmas, we were at the Bybee's.  Even though we are a large crowd when we all get together, we still feel like someone is missing.

I miss you when I read Mom's Christmas letter and there is no update on what you did this year.

I miss you when I hear about your friend's going off to college, coming home for their first Christmas as adults, and I think about all of the things that aren't experiencing.

I miss you when I see Spiderman stuff and remember how much you loved it.  It made you act like a little kid...we couldn't get enough of giving you Spiderman gadgets.

I miss you when I look at Alec & Emma and see how much they have changed.  But you are just staying the same in my head.

I miss you when I look at our family picture hanging above the fireplace.  And it feels wrong to replace it with a current one, that includes Levi & Scout and lets Alec & Emma grow up a little...but I know that someday it will happen.

I wish that you could come for a visit.  Just to say hi, catch up, and make a few new, fresh memories.

Dark Days

Today is the darkest day of the year.  The day when we get the least amount of sunshine.  Tomorrow we will start to see the return of the daylight.

A sunrise in September

I have been especially cognizant of the loss of daylight in the past month.  We discuss this frequently among staff at school.  We see the sun rising during first period, and it is completely dark by the time I am nursing Scout before bed at 530pm.

A sunrise in October

I miss the sun.  My body tries to adjust to the extended hours of darkness, wanting more sleep and hibernation.  I have a hard time getting going in the morning darkness, feeling sluggish and lethargic.   6pm feels late, like I should be getting ready for bed.  By the time 9pm rolls around, I feel as if I have pushed myself to stay up for a late night party.  I am looking forward to the return of daylight.  To waking up with the sunrise.  I am looking forward to evening walks and working in the yard.  I am looking forward to more energy in the evenings and the morning, to feeling that pull to get outside and soak up the daylight.  The change from light to dark and back to light is gradual, but the difference between today and June 21 is drastic.  I am looking forward to the return of the sun.

Today

Today I'm writing this post while laying in the sunshine on my living room floor, watching Scout wiggle around and flash me smiles and listening to Andrew play Beatles songs on the guitar.  Vacation is wonderful.

The past week has been jam packed with excitement and holiday cheer.  I've been taking pictures, but I'm too lazy to organize them right now, so you just get the teaser update for today.

We took Scout to a holiday party that was past her bedtime - scary right?  This girl was a rockstar, smiling and socializing, then taking a little nap in her pea pod until we were ready to go home.  Despite us messing up her sleep schedule she went right to sleep when we got home and slept great all night.  We very much appreciated the chance to visit with friends, devour tons of delicious food, and the always exciting white elephant exchange.

We baked all of our favorite goodies and delivered plates to our neighbors and friends.  Baking is delightful.  It makes the house smell amazing and I love the excuse to pop over and say hello to people.

We used the online class that I will be teaching next quarter as an excuse to get a faster internet connection (we had been stealing from our phones) and we love it!  Videos and music are enjoyable now!

We've been browsing Christmas music on Spotify.    My favorites are the She and Him Christmas album and a Motown Christmas channel that Andrew found.

Andrew's napsack arrived.  It's lovely. 

Scout and I went shopping at the mall for 3 hours and she did amazing.  Hanging out in her ergo, nursing in a fitting room, snoozing a little, flirting with strangers, I am loving this age - she is so much fun.

Scout's on an great nap schedule.  Two naps a day, one around 9 and one around 12, both for an hour or more.  Then we can go visiting in the evening or run errands until bedtime at 6.  Sometimes she snoozes a little while we are out and about in the evening, but we try not to make it a big deal.

Time to feed this girl and get her down for her second nap!  Enjoy the Holidays!

Happy Holidays

Environmentally friendly?  Cheap?  Lazy?  Efficient?  Call it what you want, here is your Christmas card for the year!

This year has been an eventful one for us, with many exciting changes.

Here is the short list, in time order:
We bought our first house
Andrew finished his student teaching and graduated with a Music Performance and Music Education degree.
Isla Scout joins our family! 
Lauriel finishes her Master's in Education
Lauriel starting teaching two classes at Western Washington University

We are busy, every day, living a life that seems too good to be true. We have been lucky enough to have Andrew stay home with Scout during the day while Lauriel continues to teach middle school special education. One evening a week she teaches up at WWU, with an additional online class that she works on from home. Two evenings a week, Andrew teaches private trumpet lessons, his studio is growing almost weekly! In spite of our crazy schedules, we find time to soak up each others company and indulge in a ridiculous amount of fun projects.  We are enjoying owning our own home, watching Lucy romp around our acre lot, and admiring the beautiful view our of our windows. Scout is growing and changing on a daily basis, today she is smiling big smiles with her two front teeth (bottom), rocking back and forth on all fours, and buzzing her lips to make us laugh. This may be out of date by the time you are reading this post!  We are thoroughly enjoying our happy, funny baby!

We hope you are doing well this holiday season and would love to hear from you!

(That means if you are reading this blog post, leave us a comment or a link to your blog, send us an email, let me know how we can catch up with you!)

Holiday Q & A

Still working on that whole idea of what Christmas means for us and putting into words exactly what we are celebrating.  I've been collecting ideas for holiday traditions that I like and I came across this Q & A that was fun to think about.


1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate-with egg nog.  And maybe a little bit of something extra.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrap them!  But I heard of a fun idea that I would love to try out in the future.  Not only does Santa bring presents, so does the Easter Bunny, Christmas Elves, the Grinch, and many other wonderful magical people.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Andrew and I were just discussing this, either all white or white and one other color, like white and red.  Haven't decided for sure yet.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but I think we should!

5. When do you put your decorations up?  I think the lights should be put up on Thanksgiving weekend, starting on Friday or Saturday.  Helps get rid of the post-Thanksgiving blues.  We can get down the boxes with the rest of the stuff at that time.  Then we can spend all of December creating and decorating.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? It's not one specific thing..it's the overall decadence of all of the special dishes combined.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? acting out the nativity story, until we were way too old.  That's the benefit of having younger siblings.  I was always the angel...probably because I was a brat about it.  I have always loved how we open gifts in our family, one a time and who ever opened the last gift goes and picks one out to give to someone else.  It's fun to get a gift but it's also fun to go pick one out to hand to someone else and see their excitement.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I honestly don't know when or how.  But, when I was older, I always loved when my mom and dad would let me help play Santa for the little kids.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes.  Mom always got to help decide what it was, so that it would be something you could actually enjoy and that it wasn't your "big" present.  I like the idea of getting new jammies on Christmas Eve.  You can always use a new pair of jammies.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I like having a mismatch of ornaments, all of them meaningful.  Get a new ornament every year?  It makes decorating the tree a good conversation about memories and where each ornament came from.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? I love it.  Probably because it never lasts long around here.

12. Can you ice skate? Haven't tried in over 10 years.  And I wasn't very good at it then.  So probably not.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? No.  Sorry to everyone who has given me amazing gifts, one isn't standing out for me right now.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with family, taking those moments to sit and just enjoy life and how wonderful it is.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Fudge, Hello Dollies, chocolate crinkles, caramels, almond roca.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Hmm, that's a hard one.  I like making goodie plates and bringing them to friends.  It's a good excuse to bake lots of deliciousness and it's fun to drop by and make people smile.

17. What tops your tree? We have a light up glittery star.  But our tree is too scrawny to hold it up.  Maybe next year our tree will be a little bit stronger.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Definitely the giving, although it's way more stressful.  I never feel like I can think of a good enough present for those amazing people in my life.  The more important they are to me, the harder it gets.  I'm the worse at buying presents for Andrew. 

19. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Delicious.  Especially the cinnamon ones.

20. Favorite Christmas show? Classic Rudolph and Frosty...although Andrew has got me liking A Christmas Story and Charlie Brown's Christmas as well.

21. Saddest Christmas song? Why would you want a sad Christmas song?

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? We love the Vince Guaraldi Christmas cd at our house.  The whole thing is classic.  But I also love playing the Christmas Mix cds that Wade used to make every year.  I wish he still did that (hint, hint).  It's like getting a best of playlist.

The Spout

This girl's hair is pretty amazing (as are her bright blue eyes!). Since birth, she seems to have lost some around the sides and back. She's not bald, but it is definitely just short peach fuzz.  On top though, she has that original "thick" mop of hair, it never fell out and just keeps growing - getting longer and thicker.  The uneven growth creates a lovely comb over look.  It's so long on top now that I've been tempted to put it up more and more often.  It's almost hanging in her eyes.  Problem is that it is so thin that even small rubber bands don't stay in great.  And clips just seem hard and hurty when she is rubbing her head on the ground while rolling around.  I need to get creative with hair accessories that are actually functional.

Anyways....this post is dedicated to Scout's spout.  I'm sure there will be many more to come.

Split Pea Soup

We got this recipe at the suggestion from Brittany who originally found it here.  I adjusted a few things, just because I have a hard time following directions. I always like to add more veggies where I can.  I love getting recipe suggestions that are cheap, easy, and tasty.  If you've got a good one, send it our way!

Vegan Split Pea Soup
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dried split peas
1/2 cup barley
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
7 1/2 cups water (can replace some of this with chicken broth if you don't care about the vegan aspect)
5 carrots, chopped
5 stalks celery, chopped
5 potatoes, diced
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Throw everything into the crockpot first thing in the morning if you want to eat it around 6pm.  Stir occasionally and add extra water (or broth) if it is getting thicker than you want.  You can't really over cook it.  If you don't want to, or don't have time to cook it in the crockpot, it takes about 2 hours on the stove top at a low simmer.  Stir it fairly frequently or it will start to stick to the bottom.  Delicious with a thick slice of homemade bread. We eat about half of a batch at a time and freeze the other half for quick, no-food-in-the-house meals.

Thanks Brittany!  Send me any other favorites you have, we love this one!

Last Day

 It's the last day before the holiday break, we've made it!  My brain is definitely in crazy random mode, trying to finish some things up before I leave today.  Looking forward to 17 days straight of time with my little family, nursing on demand (goodbye pump!), visiting friends & family, wrapping gifts, baking goodies, and working on projects.

Life at middle school is very festive today with a holiday music assembly, plates of treats to share throughout the building, Santa hats, reindeer antlers, caroling from the Spanish students, and gifts being exchanged.  I've received several thoughtful gifts from students and staff, both for me and for Scout.  I am so supported by my peers in this building, I feel very lucky.  Teachers in our building pooled our cash to buy gifts for several of our students, sweatshirts and books and gloves, things they might really be needing.  Lucky me got to be part of the giving, the best part.  It was definitely worth my money to see the huge smiles, teary eyes, and wonder at getting something that was all their own.  Middle schoolers in general are pretty amazing, the resiliency of some our students astounds me.

Lucy playing in the snow at Hovander-November 2010

Think we can get a little snow around here for the holidays?

I am tempted to try this recipe, something I've never had before, but I love those chocolate oranges!

Today

Thank you for all of the wonderful feedback about celebrating Christmas and what it means to you.  It's creating great conversation, really getting my brain thinking.  Which was my intent in posting it.  Thank you to everyone who has been willing to discuss and share on a very personal level, that can always be a little bit scary!

I'm not ready to write or commit to my thoughts yet because I feel like they are still forming.  But in 1 sentence (ish), here where I'm at today:
Celebrating holidays is important to create tradition and shared family memories; something that you can get excited about with your kids and use as a tool to teach them your family values.  What that might look like is still forming in my mind :)

Me, at this time last year.  I was 10 weeks pregnant with Scout.  Crazy what has changed...and what is still the same

Very briefly, what else has been happening in our lives:
My parents visited this weekend while they were on a little get-a-way with just the two of them.  We fed them lunch and visited Saturday afternoon.  On Sunday we met up again and they attended at holiday performance that Andrew was a part of with the Whatcom Chorale.  It was wonderful to get a chance to spend time with my parents, just Andrew and I, in a quiet, calm setting.  No big rush, not a lot going on, not having to share them with everyone else (I love you my wonderful siblings!) just quiet visiting as adults.  That doesn't happen very often!

Scout is loving eating.  She has added bananas to her repertoire (just today!) and Andrew reports that she loves them, much to his disappointment.

I am counting down the days until break, two more wake-ups!  There are so many things that I want to do over break!  Kicking off the holiday with a massage - I have a free voucher - on Wednesday.  Woohoo!

Andrew ordered his napsack...and it shipped today.  Such a fun splurge, I'm excited myself!

Reading that I've loved this week:
This made me laugh:  Good Day Pregnancy Scale
I want to try this: Homemade Chai
My goal for our next pregnancy...I supposed that means I should start now right? Running While Pregnant

Christmas?

I haven't posted a single peep about Christmas.  Well, except for the Birthankmas post, does that count?  As a daily blogger, has that absence become obvious yet?  To put it bluntly, it's because we are having a little bit of a dilemma around here.  Maybe it's just me having the dilemma, I don't think Andrew is too overly stressed about it.  But if you've got input, help me out (really, throw your opinions this way).

Andrew and I aren't Christian.  We were raised that way, and we definitely believe in the good qualities that Christianity promotes, but that's not the same as really being Christian.  We don't attend church, and we aren't people who believe in going once a year (or twice if you go at Easter).   Both of us (strongly) feel that if you believe something is true at Christmas you should practice it all year long.  No halfway commitments or doing it just when it's fun and easy.

Before Scout, we half-halfheartedly decorated for Christmas.  We gave presents to our friends and family because we care about them and giving is fun.  I could usually convince Andrew to drive around and look at lights once or twice. We got a tree a few times.  Last year, we didn't do anything on our own for Christmas.  We celebrated with our families, but I was way too sick and we were both too busy that it just seemed like extra work.

We talked about how once Scout was here, we wouldn't celebrate Christmas.  Well, we would celebrate with our families, but then we would do something different with our own little family.  Celebrate Winter Solstice or the start of the New Year or something like that.  Because what are you celebrating at Christmas if you aren't Christian?  We see too many people get caught up in all of the buying and wanting and spending ridiculous amounts of money and we definitely don't want that.  We had a plan.

Plan fail. On my part.  I realized that it made me sad to think of not celebrating with Scout.  Not having a sparkly tree in our house for a month.  Not having cheery lights on the darkest days of the year.   Not listening to Christmas songs (who can be cranky with those on?).  Not having special Christmas books and movies that you only watch once a year, but you do it ever year, so you get excited for them.  Not making tons of goodies and homemade gifts.  Not taking that time to think about the people that you love and what you could get them that would make them happy (although we still do that !).  Not having something cheery and happy and all about giving during the dreariest time of the year.

Photo from here

This year, we got a tree.  A little Norfolk pine, an indoor evergreen tree, that we decorated.  After Christmas, the decorations will go back in the box and the tree will keep on living in it's pot in our living room.  It's cute, but not the same.  We put up a few nutcrackers and simple decorations that we had.  And it's nice, but not quite the same.  We are listening to Christmas music, but I'm hesitant to buy any more Christmas CDs.  She's not going to know for this year, but we have no plan for the future.  What are we celebrating?  What are our traditions?  How will we explain what Christmas is to our kids?  We've got no plan; right now we are halfway celebrating, not committing one way or the other.  Which is unusual for us.

And that, people, is why you have seen no posts about Christmas.  Because we (or maybe just I) haven't quite come to terms with where we are on this issue.  We know we don't feel comfortable with treating Christmas as a Christian holiday, but really, that's what it is.  And without that, I don't want it to evolve into a massive spending/wanting/greedy/corporate thing...because that is just the opposite of everything that is good and worthwhile about Christmas.  Sigh.  I've got a few posts planned, but not many.

I do know that I want to buy lights after Christmas so that next year, when it gets dark so early and stays dark so late, there are bright twinkly lights on my house.

Nothing Much

Absolutely nothing happens in these videos.  But this is how Scout and I spend some of our evening time - lying around watching each other.  Just soaking up my time at home and each other.  I have to remember to do this more.  Taking time to enjoy the calm moments where nothing is "getting done" does not come naturally to me...but I'm always glad when I do.

Balancing Act

Scout & Andrew are working on a new trick. She loves it I promise. This video was taken on the first or second day of trying this; the other night they were demonstrating their improvement and she was smiling and giggling while doing it. She thought she was pretty hot stuff.

Scout Eating

This is an incredibly long post for such a little bit of food. But I find feeding Scout fascinating and entertaining.

We are making her baby food at home, mostly because we are cheap, and why not? It's been really easy. We cooked up a sugar pumpkin a few weeks ago and froze it in ice cube trays. Last week I did the same with an acorn squash. And we have a ton of applesauce from our trees that we can mix in with her food or feed her plain. We plan on trying to make a batch of something big once a week to store in the freezer, pull out the frozen cubes as we need them, and mix that up with fresh things like avacado and bananas.

Now on to the fun part, Scout's first meals - her eating over the first week.

First day-obsessed with the bib

Why'd you get the camera out Dad?  You know I can't focus with that thing looking at me.

Pumpkin Puree in action

Day two of pumpkin puree...we ditched the bib, it was too distracting for now.

Day Two of Pumpkin Puree

Trying to figure out celery...it's supposed to help with teething?

Ahh!! That's how it goes!

Avacado yum!

Trying new foods requires concentration

Hey!  What are you doing?

What's that?

I'll eat it!!!!

Avocado in action And again

This American Life: Middle School

A month ago (? maybe more) a good friend and fellow middle school teacher sent me the link to an episode of This American Life that was all about Middle School.  Andrew listens to This American Life regularly and had mentioned this episode, so with a second recommendation, and the subject matter, I knew I would have to make time to catch this episode.

And I'm glad I did (even if it took me a month before I found time to listen to it and 2 more weeks before I found time to write about it).  It was perfect.  It was moving and funny and insightful.  I saw so many of my students in the students interviewed and followed in the episode.  If you come in contact with middle schoolers in anyway, you should have a listen.

Listen below or download the original podcast.

Amazing Sweet Potato Recipe

I got this recipe here, last Thanksgiving.  After some time searching and digging, I found it again.  We shared them at our Birthanksmas celebration and they completely reaffirmed the wonderful memories I had from last year.  This recipe is probably awful for you (I don't want to check), but it is absolutely amazing and ridiculously easy.  You will never want to eat Sweet Potatoes any other way, ever again.  By the way, what's the difference between Sweet Potatoes and Yams...I'm totally confused.  

Picture also borrowed from Little Birdie Secrets

Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes
4 c. mashed sweet potatoes (about 4-5 large sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered, and boiled until tender)
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. melted butter
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg

Put ingredients in a large bowl. Blend together with a mixer or beaters and put in a greased casserole dish (approx. 9" x 13").

Topping:
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. melted butter
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Mix and drop spoonfuls on top of sweet potatoes. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Time for Today

Don't worry...this doesn't happen often.  That glow on Scout's face scares me too much to let it.

Life is busy, but good.

Scout's eating a little bit of pureed food once a day. She loved pumpkin, especially by the third day. She's on day two of applesauce and Andrew reports that she doesn't seem to like it as much as pumpkin. Post started about baby feeding!

Andrew spent some time at home depot and pieced together a sprayer that attaches to our toilet so we can rinse our cloth diapers. Also have a post started about cloth diapers :)

Hopefully everything I think of to share about life right now doesn't end in "I have a post started about this."

Thinking about Christmas presents and trying to find just the right present for all of those special people in our lives. Thinking about baking and cooking and all of the wonderful holiday food. Lots of recipes lined up to share. Dang it...did it again!

Looking forward to seeing my parents this weekend and going to a holiday performance that Andrew is playing in.

Andrew got the last two Harry Potter movies for his birthday and we had a little marathon to finish them all.  It was amazing.  I'm always left wanting more Harry Potter.  Such a nerd.

Life is busy, but busy good. Lots of time spent with our little girl and each other. We both have work that we love, more of it than we can handle but we are very lucky to have work. Our life is good.

A few of my favorite reads from this week:
All about gender neutral clothes for baby, my thoughts exactly.  Read it here.
Pumping everyday is filled with so many emotions, why is that?  Love this post.
Check out this splurge that Andrew wants.  He's debating spending his birthday money on it.

Quick Takes With The Kimballs

I love when I check my google reader account and I see that my sister has posted something on her family's blog, Quick Takes With The Kimballs.  Aren't they the cutest little family?  I love seeing the pictures that she posts and reading about what they are doing.  Even though, chances are, we've already talked about it!  I just wished we lived closer and got to spend more time together!

Favorite post - because it made me laugh even though I was completely grossed out.  And I could totally see it happening:  True

Birthanksmas

Yesterday we gathered with old friends for a Birthanksmas celebration, where we feasted in honor of Zach's & Andrew's special days of birth, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

We had a delicious, traditional Thanksgiving feast (potluck style) with turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, butter rolls, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn salad, cranberry sauce, and apple pie.   Recipes from our portions coming soon.

It was a delicious spread...truly amazing!  We even took an after feast walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the sunshine.  It really did feel like a holiday - makes the reality of coming back to work today especially difficult!

These celebrations used to be more common and for some reason we quit doing them. Definitely time to bring them back to our holiday traditions!

Our family

The Kenagy-Katz family

The Scherrs

The Smighs

The Boys

The girls

A bad self timer photo

Thanks for convincing us to indulge you in your photo taking Laura...I'm glad to have a few photos of a wonderful afternoon!