a small part in the big story...

Forging a path in the snow

2012-01-12T12:44:00.001-08:00

This was all rain until 35 minutes ago. Good thing I have Asher around to help me!

Asher's Town

2012-01-09T11:00:00.001-08:00

We are taking advantage of another 55 degree day by building a town with our "outside blocks". Our buildings include "school", "high school", "playground", houses, and "where the dads work".

Making ornaments

2011-12-07T06:02:00.001-08:00

This morning we got out the glittler, pouf balls, googly eyes, paint, feathers, "sparklies" (like confetti), glue, and more. It's a good day at our house when we start out like this!

2011-12-02T11:36:00.001-08:00

He says it says " monster life". I'm not sure what it means, but it sure is lovely!

He's much better today after waking up sick in the middle of the night yesterday (ew). Joel has so far not gotten sick. We will keep the just-in-case buckets in the car.

Making ornaments, Advent day 2

2011-11-28T07:24:00.001-08:00

Remember these suncatchers? I remember making them as a kid. I found some polar bear ones for ornaments at Michael's. This is our activity for day two on our advent calendar. (Yesterday we played at Sharon Woods and went to their "How Animals Survive the Cold" program - very fun!)

The suncatchers are in the oven now!

First day success!

2011-09-13T12:41:00.001-07:00

He's playing, so I can't get a picture of Asher, but he told me every detail of his first day, and he loved it! He made a new friend named Benjamin, played on the playground, painted with yellow paint, and ate a "gingerman cookie" for snack.

Asher's first day of school!

2011-09-13T11:12:00.001-07:00

He is so proud!

First pile of leaves of the season!

2011-09-12T14:54:00.001-07:00

Well, it was more of a pile before this picture, before the jumping and running began!

In friendly company

2011-09-02T09:02:00.001-07:00

Here is Asher & his puppy, waiting for the bus to come by again so we can wave goodbye to Joel one last time.

A!

2011-08-30T10:09:00.001-07:00

Here is my little artist painting his letter! He is so proud to know it! (In the time I've written this, he's made three more in different colors.) I think that jealousy of Joel getting to go to school may be nearing its end, as Asher remembers how fun it is to be home alone with Mama catering to his (almost) every whim.

Friends.

2011-08-29T12:17:00.001-07:00

I love that my boys are such good friends.

This picture is at the playground at Asher's school. It's nice and close by, and Asher is thrilled to call it his after two years of it being Joel's. Today is the last day of three staggered start days for kindergarten, so Joel starts school again tomorrow. Asher's meet-the-teacher day is next week, and it's hard for him to wait!

First soccer game

2011-08-27T07:33:00.001-07:00

This morning we are at Weller Park for Joel's first soccer game. It is very cute. There is a mass of 5 year old boys running up and down the field.

We felt as though we were joining a club (cult?) of crazy soccer parents as we drove in. The parking lot is jam packed with about 500 minivans, many of them hawking spots.

Joel is so excited to be playing! Look closely at the picture for his name on the number 6 uniform.

It was a good day!

2011-08-26T13:46:00.001-07:00

As predicted, he loved it! Since I shed no tears today, I will save them for graduation.

First day of school!

2011-08-26T09:36:00.001-07:00

First day of school!

2011-08-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

Waiting for the bus...

2011-08-26T09:34:00.002-07:00

We just saw the bus coming!

2011-08-26T09:34:00.001-07:00

Here comes the bus!

2011-08-26T09:32:00.003-07:00

First day!

2011-08-26T09:32:00.001-07:00

Here's Joel getting on the bus! Such a big kid!

Super Chief

2011-08-26T08:10:00.001-07:00

Joel with his fire umbrella, fire rain hat, AND fire helmet on. He is patiently playing while asking, " Is it time for school yet? Can we eat lunch now?" every 5-10 minutes. I don't think he realizes that lunch and the arrival of the school bus are not cause and effect. At least by being a fire chief now, he can have an excuse to wear his backpack (as an air tank).

I have an underlying sense of nervousness that is completely irrational. I loved kindergarten, and he is excited, and I know he is ready and is going to love it. But my stomach is mildly fluttery (with one more hour to go). I guess mothers will be mothers, beyond all sense of reason and rationality.

Kindergarten meet-the-teacher night

2011-08-24T18:23:00.001-07:00

This is Joel in his kindergarten classroom! I asked him to go to his favorite part of the room so I could get a picture of him, and he chose "near the weather". Sweet little scientist! He is excited (and overwhelmed, I think - it was pretty chaotic in there tonight!) for Friday!

At the zoo

2011-08-09T11:32:00.001-07:00

Spending this gorgeous day at the zoo!

Salad people for lunch

2011-08-08T09:52:00.001-07:00

Today we made salad people for lunch. Here is Joel with his, an owl. As soon as he ate the first tomatoes "eye", he proclaimed it a pirate owl.

Asher fighting fires

2011-08-05T18:30:00.001-07:00

Here is Asher (minus the phantom flesh, thank goodness) fighting the "fires" at the Sharonville Touch a Truck.

The Touch a Truck in Sharonville is our favorite one, I think. Today there was a rescue helicopter, at least 4 fire trucks, two ambulances, all manner of city vehicles (snow plow, backhoe loader, street sweeper, baseball field-smoother-outer, etc), two hazmat trucks, the Ohio Cat people (who, along with their backhoe loader brought a huge cooler filled with bottled water - they are super high on our awesome list!), 2 SWAT vehicles, the mounted division of the county parks, a few police cars and other police vehicles, a Hummer limo, the Metro bus, a school bus, 4 or 5 Air National Guard vehicles, a tow truck... I know I'm missing a few. It was huge.

The kids also came home with a giant pile of swag that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. (A wooden airplane kit, rulers, stickers, pencils, folders, coloring pages and books, new badges, and more - yikes!)

We had such a lovely time - we were there for three hours. This is the third year we've been to it, and we come away looking forward to next year!

Fighting fires at Touch a Truck

2011-08-05T18:16:00.001-07:00

This is Joel (and my hand - sorry about that!) today at the Sharonville Touch a Truck event. The fire department has a wooden board that is cut and painted into a house, with little cut-out fires on hinges. They get out a fire hose and let the kids "fight" the hinged fires.

Asher's large mouth bass

2011-07-28T13:21:00.001-07:00

Joel's blue gill

2011-07-28T13:20:00.001-07:00

Fishing

2011-07-28T13:19:00.001-07:00

At Parky's Farm - we did a special fishing program today. This is a blue gill

Inside fun

2011-07-28T07:33:00.001-07:00

Another miserably hot and humid day when we can barely even breathe outside? Bring it. (Check out the giant stack of construction paper our dad brought home for us the other day! Woo!)

Library puppet show

2011-07-27T07:39:00.001-07:00

We headed to the Madeira Library this morning for a puppet show. Joel and Asher are two of about 100 kids here! They are having a great time watching the shows! This is our favorite library in the Hamilton County system, with such a good children's area and lots of neat programs like this one.

Launch

2011-07-08T09:47:00.001-07:00

Papa Mike set the kids up in real, astronaut-like chairs for launch. They are jealous of Grandma C and Aunt Cheryl in Cape Canaveral. Thank goodness for NASA TV!

Sandbox

2011-07-08T06:00:00.001-07:00

Grandma C came up with a great idea for a sandbox! This is where we are spending our morning.

Collecting rain with every recepticle they can find.

2011-06-15T12:12:00.001-07:00

Fun, even on a rainy day!

2011-06-15T11:44:00.001-07:00

So much fun!

2011-06-01T11:44:00.001-07:00

Splash park

2011-06-01T11:07:00.001-07:00

We are at Winton Woods today! It's a beautiful day, and we are having such fun!

Butterfly Show

2011-05-19T11:32:00.001-07:00

We are at the annual butterfly show at the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park. The kids are trying earnestly to hold the butterflies - Joel put a lot of time and patient energy into getting this one!

Joel's Bike Parade

2011-05-19T08:38:00.001-07:00

Joel's school had their bike parade today! They rode around the front drive for about 15 minutes. It was so fun! (And cute!)

Neil's flight!

2011-05-07T07:21:00.001-07:00

Here is Neil parking his plane after his flight!

Fire pole

2011-03-18T09:24:00.001-07:00

Another fun feature we discovered!

Cincinnati Fire Museum

2011-03-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

The kids are off on a fire-fighting adventure! We are visiting the Cincinnati Fire Museum this morning. There are lots of antique fire trucks and equipment, and a fire engine cab that the kids are playing in - you can press the buttons to make the lights turn on, but you have to make your own siren noise (which Joel and Asher are happily up for). After this, we are planning on getting hot dogs from a street vendor. Life is good for these little guys!

Making wrapping paper

2010-12-09T13:11:00.001-08:00

Craft time

2010-12-03T15:59:00.001-08:00

My kids love making things. It's super great when I get out all the poof balls, googly eyes, and other wonderful things.

2010-11-18T08:12:00.001-08:00

Nursery school is absolutely adorable. Here's a video of their Thanksgiving program. Not great quality, but full of adorableness.

Joel loves writing!

2010-10-30T09:37:00.001-07:00

Who knew?

2010-10-20T14:49:00.001-07:00

The Zamboni has the same effect on my boys as construction vehicles.

Cyclones open house

2010-10-20T14:35:00.001-07:00

On the ice in the big arena! Wow!

Joel's first written word!

2010-10-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

He saw it on a house across the street, read it, and then decided to spell it. Wow! What a big kid we have!

Fixing at the fairy garden

2010-10-07T11:33:00.001-07:00

The boys found a basket of pinecones (or, as Asher calls them, "pine seeds") in the little tea house here at Highfield Discovery Garden, and immediately started a home improvement project using the pinecones as tools. (The pinecones are in the yellow basket in front of Asher in the picture.)

Picnic with cheese

2010-10-07T10:24:00.001-07:00

We are enjoying an absolutely perfect October day with a picnic at Highfield Discovery Garden, one of our favorite places. The boys love string cheese, and it always tastes better outside!

Rough days are made better with...

2010-10-06T16:09:00.001-07:00

Trying for a non-convertible model...

2010-10-05T07:00:00.001-07:00

Asher loves cleaning-out-the-closet day. So many new toys are found!

Playing pumpkin patch

2010-10-02T08:26:00.001-07:00

This is one of my favorite games to watch Joel and Asher play. Starting in late September, I let them each choose a small pumpkin to take home whenever we see them (grocery, farmers market, pumpkin patch, etc). This gets their collection going, and then they start arranging them in the front yard. They drive tricycles or the wagon out to their "pumpkin patch", choose pumpkins, and drive them home. Rinse & repeat. I love seeing how their imaginations have developed this game into something they look forward to so much.

Learning young

2010-10-02T07:59:00.001-07:00

Joel and Asher were "helping" Neil change the brake pad with apples in hand. Joel actually got to Jack the car up, and talked about helping Dad all throughout breakfast.

And what a.parade it was...

2010-10-01T13:48:00.001-07:00

This bucket, which is the huge, is completely full. Wow. Kids throw a lot more candy than adults!

Waiting for the parade

2010-10-01T13:30:00.001-07:00

Tonight is the homecoming game and parade! It goes right past our house.

The joy of forgotten toys

2010-09-29T11:58:00.001-07:00

We had put these away while Asher was likely to chew on them. They resurfaced just now as I was cleaning out the garage, and boy are they a hit! (So again four years later, thanks Grandma C and Papa Mike!)

Day at the Cincinnati Nature Center

2010-09-26T09:56:00.001-07:00

We spent most of Saturday at the Cincinnati Nature Center, at their programs as part of the Great Outdoor Weekend. When we were eating our lunch, we discovered that were sitting under a buckeye tree, and the boys took to collecting buckeyes.

Day at the zoo with Grandma and Papa

2010-09-24T09:10:00.001-07:00

Off to school!

2010-09-14T06:56:00.001-07:00

Joel's first day of school

2010-09-14T06:53:00.001-07:00

Going down the slide

2010-09-09T10:18:00.001-07:00

Here we are at the playground a Sharon Woods.

At the park

2010-09-09T09:33:00.001-07:00

Big boy bike

2010-09-08T15:23:00.001-07:00

Yes, that is Asher on a 12" bike. I cannot believe how big he's getting! I never dreamed he'd be on a bike at age 2.

Hockey Players

2010-09-05T09:04:00.001-07:00

Enjoying this gorgeous late summer/early fall day! It's s incredibly fun that these two are starting to play together like this!

Silly Mama...

2010-09-03T08:38:00.001-07:00

I thought we were coming to Home Depot for plants!

Climbing at the zoo

2010-09-02T09:51:00.001-07:00

The children's section of the zoo has different structures for kids to pretend they are different animals. My kids are being spiders.

2009-12-10T20:05:00.001-08:00

I miss writing here... I guess it's very quick and easy to update Facebook and feel that my work of updating the world is complete.

I have lots of pictures I'd love to upload sometime soon.

Today we made peanut butter pinecones for the birds outside. (Spreading pb on pinecones and rolling them in birdseed.) The kids had a great time, and I *think* I got all of the birdseed out of the peanut butter afterward...

Joel is loving nursery school. I am sad, though, that school takes up so much of our time from here on out. We went to the Children's Museum the other day and I got a little misty about not being able to do that very much anymore. And it just gets more and more hectic from here on out. (And we're an incredibly unscheduled family... I usually try to get to the grocery store on Sunday or Monday, and we always hit the library on Monday. That's about it.) Soul-searching abounds...

Our Advent is very happily moving along. The Advent calendar I made is up, the right candles are being lit each morning, we've had one of three rounds of ornament-making to make our tree lovely, and Joel can point out the Roman Empire on the map. Good times.

I haven't cooked much this week as Joel and Asher have chosen our dinners at the last minute twice now this week. Both times they've chosen roasted kale, broccoli-cucumber-red peppers with dip, cheese, and hot dogs. I need to get making some hummus this weekend for variety!

I'm making a few Christmas presents this week. I'm making some lacing cards for Joel, knitting a bear for Asher (Joel chose bright blue yarn for him), and making something for each one of us that cannot be mentioned yet, since Neil can read. But it rocks. Trust me.

Hopefully pictures soon. The fall has been a lovely time to be in the Berg home.

Oh, and I've started running. I ran a 5K last weekend at 35:41. I'm feeling pretty good about that!

2009-07-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

A great use of a blog - I want to remember this recipe, and my mom wanted it, too. Here we go!

No Crust Pumpkin Pie (in the microwave!)

2 c. pumpkin (or 1 16 oz. can)
1/2 c. evaporated milk or heavy cream
1/2 c. sugar (could be less)
3 lg egg whites, slightly beaten
2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 T. flour

Combine all ingredients, beat until smooth. Place into microwave safe dish (I used a glass 9x9 pan).

Microwave uncovered 5 minutes on high, stirring often.

Cook on medium 12-15 minutes, or until almost set in the middle.

Let stand 10 minutes to set.

2009-07-11T19:46:00.001-07:00

Our house is under contract! Yay! We will be closing no later than mid-August. It is so, so, so wonderful to have it off of our collective minds. We are ready to move on!

The other big thing happening right now is our next move. We decided that our current place isn't working too well for us. It's on the 2nd floor, doesn't have much room or yard for the boys to play in, is pretty small for all of our stuff, and not terribly conducive to having guests. We have found a lovely new place - a four bedroom house with a garage, a dishwasher, a yard, and sidewalks, about two blocks from three city parks, and in a lovely town. We are incredibly excited to be moving there in two weeks!

The boys are incredibly fun right now, too. Asher has learned how to blow kisses (which, if you've never seen a one year old blow kisses, it is quite possibly the cutest thing on the planet), he's a crazy climber, stops to meet every animal we encounter, and waves to strangers everywhere. He's starting to plop down in laps to read books and is actually starting to sleep fairly well! Joel is over halfway through the Magic Tree House books (we started reading them at the beginning of June), is close to filling up TWO library summer reading club cards, is turning into an excellent chef, loves tumbling class (he can do headstands against a wall completely by himself now!), and has recently begun to love playing dress up. (Thank you, garage sales, for helping me with outfitting him!) The boys love each other, and spend a good part of their day giggling with each other.

The harvest season seems to really kick in when blueberries are ripe. Blueberries really signal summer to my mind. I've just finished freezing 4.5 gallons of them, and the whole time I was smiling whilst thinking of peaches, tomatoes, and corn in August, and apples and pumpkins in September and October. I think blueberry season really kicks off my favorite five months of the year - the summer to autumn transition is absolutely magical to me. And this year I have TWO kidlets to share it all with! What a lovely and blessed life we lead.

2009-07-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

Checking out what's in there!

2009-07-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

Joel in the Air Force jeep, wearing the serviceman's hat.

2009-07-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Joel at the Sharonville "Touch a Truck" event. The kid loves anything with a helmet!

2009-07-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

Asher at the petting zoo (Cinci Zoo). He is such an animal lover! He's the one who's going to come home with frogs in his pockets... (or goats in his pockets, which would be decidedly worse.)

2009-07-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Joel's new favorite thing to do at Grandma Louise and Papa Tom's house is to climb the tree in their front yard.

2009-07-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

Joel, Gage, and Max doing serious construction work at the Children's Museum.

2009-07-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

We spend large portions of our days out on the front porch in this dirt pile, raking, digging, building zoos, constructing buildings, and watching the bigger vehicles on their way to construcing real buildings.

2009-07-01T18:55:00.001-07:00

Asher chasing a bird at the zoo.

2009-07-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Joel feeding a bird at the zoo.

2009-06-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough couple of months here in the Berg House. We've done lots of soul-searching, decision-making, decision-unmaking, and questioning. Our house, still not sold, is a burden on us - but "Turn That Frown Upside Down!" is just not working for us.

Neither is our current rental. It's on busy streets with loud and huge vehicles - not so great with a one year old who loves running directly toward them. There's also not really a place to play or run around. Just not a great place to be.

We're also trying to look for a community down here, a church or similar. We've checked out traditional, contemporary, very different, etc. I think our problem was best said by our friend Ryan a few years ago: "I just think I don't like church." It seems like a good place to meet people and have community, but we just don't like them.

So, it's a time of change. And a good one! We're trying a couple of super-alternative church sort of things. We're hopefully soon moving to a new rental, only a house in a neighborhood (like home!). We're just going to accept that our house will sell... sometime. (I'm hoping that, in perfect cosmic justice, it will sell as soon as we sign a one-year-lease...)

Kids are huge and growing. Pictures next time. Joel is in a tumbling class and T-3 months from starting nursery school. Asher is now one, and doing incredible things. Neil and I are continuing the contemplation, continuing on learning about where we can be more mindful and becoming more content.

Happiness and humor and cute kid stories next time. I promise. There is so much to tell on that front, as well.

2009-04-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

We spent this afternoon at the park, and there was a little boy just about Joel's age there. I could see the two boys talking, and Joel trying to avoid the other little boy (very strange for Joel, who loves making friends!). Joel ran up to me:

Joel: That boy is saying, "Flrushbly fishleramy"!

Me: What is he saying?

Joel: "Flrushbly Fishleramy!"

Me: Okay...

Joel runs back to the little boy.

A few minutes later I could see that Joel was really avoiding the little boy, going the other way when he saw him coming, that sort of thing. So I called him over:

Me: I think that little boy wants to be friends with you! Let's try to be his friend and play with him, okay?

Joel: But I can't understand what he's saying!

2009-04-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

This morning for April Fool's Day, Neil, Joel, and Asher came in to wake me up:

Neil: Tell Mama what happened, Joel!

Joel: Mama, the kitchen is full of balloons, not really!

Three is a fantastic age. I love it.

2009-03-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

A conversation from this morning as Neil and I were getting ready and the kids were playing on the bed:

Joel: I'm having a slumber party!

(Neil and I look at each other quizzically, wondering where he's heard that term.)

Me: What's a slumber party?

Joel (whilst jumping): It's a party on a big old, uh... (jump), a big old, uh... (jump), a big old, uh... (jump), a big old boat! (said with feeling)

2009-03-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Loud Motorists on Humphrey Road,

I realize that the sound of your sports car or motorcycle revving up is probably one of the reasons you purchased it in the first place. I can sympathize. I, too, once made a large purchase because of a sound I fell in love with - my lovely Muramatsu flute. Ah, to hear it glide through pieces, up, down, and around... it makes my heart fly.

I have found, however, when I make use of my purchase when others are sleeping, it causes far less joy for all involved.

You see, when you give in to the temptation to accelerate as much as possible along the 600 feet that is Humphrey Road, your purchase in turn wakes up my darling little boy who has just dropped off to sleep. Getting him to this point is quite a feat for me, and I become incredibly unimpressed by the amount of noise your motor makes.

I respectfully register my request that you stop showing off and obey the posted 35 mph speed limit. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Anne

P.S. - Fire department, I realize that letting off all those sirens is part of your job, but try to keep it down as much as you can during nap time, alright?

2009-03-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

Year 31, Day 2:

Today we spent the afternoon at Symmes Township Park, a really lovely place a couple miles from here. There are three playground sets, courts for baseball, basketball, sand volleyball, and soccer, a duck pond, a dog run, and some nice trails. We took a picnic and had a great time.

Year 31, Day 3:
Lovely pork chops for dinner. Joel as a sweet looking firefighter (the vacuum attachments are the hose, and Baby Sam is along for the ride, I guess). Asher and Joel tearing apart Joel's room and Joel taking a rest on his headboard with the schnauzer.

Good times.

For Day 4, I refer you to Neil's blog, which shows us playing at the park. Such a lovely day!

2009-03-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Mmmmmmmmmmm... my birthday dessert! It's called grilled pineapple milhojas, and it's very trendy in Argentina, apparently. More on that later.

31 year old me!

Asher and Neil on the train at the Zoo.

Joel, Neil, and Asher on the carousel at the Zoo. The two smaller ones LOVED the ride!

Ah, the library. The other place I spent an hour of my birthday, in silence and solitude. (Or, rather, as there were other library patrons there, simply without the kids.)

Today I am 31! 30 was quite a year and, honestly, if you had told me on my 30th birthday where I'd be on my 31st birthday, I may have kindly tuned you out. Since 14th March last, we've had another baby, Neil finished his dissertation, I decided to put nursing/midwifery on hold until the kids are older, and we moved to Cincinnati. Wow. That's a lot for one year! So, cheers to year 31!

To start out, this week I'm listening to Sinead O'Connor - Theology and The Verve - Forth. They caught my eye at the library. This week I'll be reading "Bend the Rules Sewing" by Amy Karol, "Grave Matters" by Mark Harris, and "Childbirth Wisdom From the World's Oldest Societies" by Judith Goldsmith. Well, maybe I won't read them ALL this week, but I just got them out of the library, so I'll be looking them over at least.

The other neat thing we're doing as a family for the next four and a half years or so: The Berg Family World Tour. We're taking a country each week and learning about it's history, culture, food, people, everything we can. We'll be starting a little blog on that pretty soon, with things we find interesting about the countries, good recipes, and that sort. So far, we've done Algeria and Argentina, and tomorrow we'll be starting Anguilla. We're looking forward to bonus weeks when we actually get to travel to a few of the places, but we'll see how that goes. Neil and I figure that we live in this world and it's frightful how little we seem to know about it. Between the two of us we've travelled to Mexico (both), Honduras (N), Bahamas (A), Canada (both), Japan (A), Indonesia (A), Ghana (N), Spain (A), and the UK (both), so we have just a very small taste of our big and wonderful world. Hopefully soon we'll get to know a bit more as a family. Joel can already find Algeria and Argentina on the world map on his wall, and both Joel and Asher are enjoying the food!

2009-02-15T12:43:00.000-08:00

Finally! Another update! Well, I've begun sewing again. I haven't sewn anything significant or fun for a few years. I made these pants for Asher a few days ago. I'm always tickled when something I've sewn makes it successfully through the washer and dryer for the first time, and I'm happy to say that these have passed the test.

Asher loves food. He certainly doesn't limit it to his mouth, though. Here he is after applying peas to his face and hair. (Lovely blue eyes!)

Here is another sewing machine creation. Joel wanted an apron to wear when he makes soup so it won't get him messy. (That was his reasoning.) So, we went to Hobby Lobby and found this construction vehicle fabric. I used a pair of old pants of Neil's to make the straps. Joel loves it. Sometimes he wears it to cook, sometimes to race cars, sometimes to build... it really is a versatile piece.

When Joel is playing at the Cinicinnati Children's Museum, there is sometimes not much for Asher to do. He really loves this, though!

The JoAnn's down the street here is now closed. It is moving, so they had a moving sale. This lovely fabric was 80% off. Such happiness. I have so many things I'm itching to make now!

A few weeks ago we had lots of snow and ice. Neil and Joel went outside one with the intention of making a snowman, but the conditions weren't great for that. So, they made "Ice Henge" as an alternative. Then they came inside to have hot chocolate. (Asher and I visited briefly.)

Joel and I have been sculpting and painting a lot lately. We were making a park with trees and sandboxes and sidewalks and the like. It's been fun.

We're enjoying Cincinnati, and longing for our house in Perrysburg to sell. Asher is now 8 months old, Joel just turned 3, and there is so much great stuff going on. Life is good.

2008-12-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, an update finally after several people have asked me about it! We are in Cincinnati! There are lots of great things and lots of not-as-great things/things we miss about Perrysburg. But, we've only been here three weeks, and we're slowly getting to know our surroundings.

This picture is of Asher is on his first Christmas last week. He didn't really seem to care much about it, except he loved finding all the new things to chew on. (Come on, upper teeth!) Here he is taking a break from chewing on the box to my most-useful-gift-EVAR, a TomTom XL. It's totally rockin, and I use it everyday. I was convinced I could find my way around here, and told Neil to just get me a map. Then, on the 23rd during a bunch of sleet at dusk, my mom and I decided we needed to go shopping. The highways were crazy and we got lost trying an alternate route that a woman at Once Upon a Child told us about. When we got home I told Neil I'd prefer the GPS.

Joel loved Christmas. He loved having his Grandmas and Papas here, he loved seeing his uncles, he loved giving everyone the ornaments he's made for them... oh yeah, and he loved opening presents. Here we see two of the big winners: a fireman costume and a play kitchen. The other big winners are a Tinkertoy set and a transporter. (The tub crayons are pretty loved, too.) He even dressed up in his fireman outfit and went down to the fire station with Neil and my dad.

So many presents to chew on!

We celebrated my dad's birthday while everyone was here. I made him a really yummy chocolate cake and frosting from scratch. They were loved by all. (Except Asher and myself, since we cannot have dairy... boo...) And yes, that is his age at the bottom of the cake in binary. Thank you for asking.

Whoa! Check out Joel's bottoms! He's wearing underpants!!! I told Joel that if he wanted to, he could start using the potty and get underpants in his stocking. Well, we started on Thursday afternoon, one week before Christmas... and 4 or 5 days later he was accident-free (for the most part - of course we have one every few days because we're playing too hard or something). So, underpants in the stocking is was! As you can see, though, he likes using them as a toolbelt.

Here are the sweet brothers playing. These two are amazing. It is awesome watching the sibling relationship grow. No one can get Asher to laugh like Joel can, and they just absolutely love each other. It's so fun to see them play!

We've been checking out Cinci little by little over the past 2.5 weeks, and there are good points and less desirable points. First, I don't think grocery store baggers are very well trained around here. They just kind of throw stuff into bags, and by "stuff" I mean four items tops into my giant reusable bags. Sigh...

As far as places of business, the most notable have been Jungle Jims and Trader Joes. Trader Joe's peanut butter is quite possibly the most amazing thing I've ever placed into my mouth. Apples and celery are simply incomplete without it. I actually took a picture of it, which I will share later. Jungle Jim's is huge, tiring, and a foodie dreamworld. The alcohol section is as big as some grocery stores, I've never seen so much cheese ever (and they have raw cheese! *swoon*), and the international section is amazing. Wow, wow, wow. We got all kinds of rockin stuff. (I'm making coconut flour pancakes for breakfast tomorrow - yum!) The only disappointing thing is the amount of food there from China. We all know that we shouldn't eat food from China (go check your frozen foods), and some of the fruit and some of the meat was from China. We were going to get some frozen rabbit (we've never had it before), but, alas, the sticker said it was from China. So, our diets remain rabbit free...

Joel and Asher and I went to the zoo the other day, and it is HUGE. I only have Toledo to compare it to, but really. It's huge. The train ride is fantastic, and I made sure to buy the membership that has unlimited train-carousel-tram rides (because that's what you do when you have little boys!). The lights were kinda lame (it was the "Festival of Lights" for the holidays), but I can't wait to go during the day and see more of the actual zoo.

The libraries... well, I've been to two of them and... I miss Way. But, there's 30-some in the Cinci Public Library system, so I'm just going to keep checking out the others around me. Storytime starts again next week, so we'll be heading over for that. But, really, the Loveland one is in a strip mall. And, as Joel will tell you, it has no train table. The great thing, though, is that you can check out magazines, and they carry a decent number of kids' magazines. I was able to check out a couple issues of Babybug, which Asher loves.

The towns here are pretty fun to explore, too. My favorite so far is Madeira. There's a great coffeeshop, all kinds of fun little shops to go in, a couple of fun restaurants, and a Kroger right in the downtown! We are kind of leaning toward Madeira as a place to settle. I'm pretty in love with it. But, there are zillions of little towns around here to check out. Stay tuned.

Please come visit us in Cinci. There's lots of nifty stuff to do, and we'd love to see you. (We have an extra bedroom in our apartment!)

2008-11-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

This is my beautiful Joel in the pumpkin hat I made for him.

2008-11-12T21:03:00.000-08:00

Mmmmmm... pumpkin. I spent a couple of days preserving squash. After much baking, scooping, and mashing, I ended up with lots of butternut squash (Neil's favorite), acorn squash (my favorite), and pumpkin (good and wholesome for many uses). I made butternut-sweet potato-apple soup the other day, which was lovely. Lovelier than lovely, really. And now I've twice made pumpkin ravioli. I got the recipe at Itty Bitty Bistro, a website by an online friend whose kids are the same ages as mine (literally, within days). If you cook for a small person who is sometime picky and often hungry, check this site out. It will give you tons of ideas that go beyond the whole hot-dogs-and-Kraft-dinner thing. It's totally fab.

2008-11-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

Another great thing about pumpkins! I love*love*love pumpkin seeds, especially with a little cup of apple cider. Seeds are a pain to acquire (all the goo-sorting), but totally worth it. Joel got some manufactured pumpkin seeds in his halloween bucket, but they were terrible - completely white and coated in three layers of salt. Ew. Neither of us were impressed. (I was, however, impressed that someone gave out something other than candy, though... A for effort!)

2008-11-12T21:01:00.001-08:00

These two really, really miss each other. Joel hasn't gotten to see Neil in three days. Joel was treating our friend Todd like a Dad Superstar tonight. I guess being with Mama ALLTHETIME just doesn't cut it...

2008-11-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

Such lovely boys! Times are a little rough right now, due in part to a tired mama, a
potty-learning kid, and a super-teething baby. We'll figure it out, but it's rough in the meantime. Darn it, though, they don't ever stop being the joy of my life. It's hard to get too frustrated with a kid who says to our friends (as they were leaving after having dinner with us tonight),"Thank you for meeting us and eating dinner!", or with a baby who, upon waking me for the fourth time in three hours, looks up and gives me the biggest, happiest smile I've ever seen. *sigh* They are both so loving and so lovable!

Our house is officially on the market, with signs and everything! You know you've always wanted a house in Three Meadows...

2008-10-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Halloween has begun...

Yesterday the boys and I went to our first Halloween event - Little Boo at the Zoo. It was okay... but the boys were cute. Joel chose to be a dragon, and the dinosaur costume was too cute for Asher, who has yet to voice an opinion about it.

And now, the news: it's official! We're moving to Cincinnati! Neil made all the paperwork official today, and we are continuing on the quest of making our house more sellable. (So, more painting, cabinet work, and general sprucing.) We're nearly there, and it feels great. So, if you are aware of anyone wanting a well-repaired and painted 4 bed/2.5 bath home in Perrysburg at a very reasonable price, please forward them on to me.

2008-10-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was pumpkin picking day! We went with our neighbors. Here are Joel and their daughter playing before we left.

Here are my three boys getting ready to go on the tractor hay ride out to the pumpkin field. I made those pumpkin hats while I was pregnant, just waiting for this day... so I definitely made a photo opp out of our wait time.

Joel picked out a pumpkin for himself and a pumpkin for Asher. This is Asher's pumpkin. Joel couldn't lift the one he chose for himself.

The pumpkin patch had lots of different decorative squash, and Joel liked trying them all out as noses. This one was his favorite, and he accompanied it with lots of elephant noises.

Asher was along for the ride, but seemed to really enjoy the weather and the colors. He's absolutely beautiful. (Even if he isn't wearing the hat I made for him...)

About the hats: my dear friend Judy got a knitting book for me for Christmas this past year. (She is the one who taught me how to knit.) It is called "Itsy Bitsy Hats" and is full of wonderful children's hats. Since autumn is my absolute hands-down favorite time of year, I chose to make my kids matching pumpkin hats. I think they turned out very well, and I get lots of compliments on them. It makes me feel all fuzzy inside...

We've been super busy in the past few weeks. I've been really enjoying the outside with the boys, and Joel even convinced me that we needed to go to the zoo twice this week, even though we're going again next week for a Halloween event. When we went on Tuesday he claimed the monkeys were sad because we didn't have a chance to see them that time. And we simply cannot allow the monkeys to be sad... so we went again today. The monkeys were thrilled that we came back.

I'm currently doing an experiment based on what I do during the day. Full-time moms pretty much spend the entire 24 hours in a day doing things for their family, and it's easy to get to the end of another day and feel that she was lost, personally, in the midst of it. (At least, I often feel that way...) Not to say that I don't enjoy it - my goodness, I can't think of anything I'd love doing more! However, with one on the leg and one on the boob, one's identity can seem to be on hold for an indefinite amount of time. So I made two lists. (Well, 5 really, but 2 matter at the moment.) One list is things I love to do, the second list is of things I'd like to do or try *someday*. Yesterday I went through to see how many things I did on each list, and I did 6 things on the first list! It may seem a little lame, but it certainly helped me to reflect on my day in a different light. I'm interested to see how many I managed today.

This week marks the end of our CSA and the Perrysburg Farmer's Market. *sigh...* It's been lots of fun... We really loved the CSA, and I love the concept, but I kind of prefer to go to the market and choose things myself. I guess we'll decide on it over the winter if it's something we want to do again. (We discovered that we love making greens through the CSA, but through careful exploration of the Farmer's Market we discovered locally grown peanuts, which warmed our little locavore hearts...) They don't have to be mutually exclusive, but I'm still deciding.

Weekend plans: hopefully my brother is visiting, and there is a pumpkiny (that is to say, pumpkin-like) event at the local funeral home. (!) I'm looking forward to more of the wonderful autumnness!

2008-08-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

I think bunches of garlic are so beautiful. Here's one of my two that I got at the Toledo Farmers Market hanging up near our kitchen sink. We have gotten the big jars of minced garlic for a few years now, but I recently used regular garlic with a press and Neil could hardly pick himself up from his swooning. I'm thinking these two bunches will get us through until next summer.

All of our ripe grapes - every single one of them - were eaten by birds this weekend. Here is our aluminum foil addition to the arbor. It's supposed to keep the birds away. I hope so - the grapes are really tasty!

Here is sweet Joel, the world's best 2.5 year old dad. He wanted a sling "like Mama's", so I made him a mini Moby out of some fabric I had in a cabinet. He carried Ella the Elephant in it for hours that day. Joel now has a trumpet and a cornet and he's really not too bad! He played his trumpet and his "neck drum" for everyone at our block party this past Sunday.

Here is wonderful Asher! He is a super smiley guy. He's grabbing at things (now he holds onto my hair... uh oh...), he really likes playing "so big", he watches his brother play, and woke up on his back yesterday after I'd put him down for a nap on his belly. We went to a wedding at Marblehead last weekend, and he cooed at the water for minutes on end - I think he liked the waves and the sound while we were standing next to the lake. He is absolutely amazing!

Here is last week's CSA. We ate the cherry tomatoes, cucmbers, and peppers plain, had a picnic at Sidecut making tomato basil salad with the big tomatoes and roasting the kale (yum!!!), made chips out of the potatoes, yellow squash, and zucchini, grilled the corn, and baked the eggplant to make babaganoush.

Here is this week's CSA. We have tomatoes, green peppers, an acorn squash, a leek, two eggplants, corn, a yellow squash, and a zucchini. We'll eat the tomatoes and peppers, grill the corn, make babaganoush with the eggplant, grill the zucchini and yellow squash, bake the acorn squash (I have a pastured turkey in the basement freezer from Mr. Luginbill - maybe I'll make that with it!), and maybe I'll make some leek soup. Robin, our CSA farmer, said that next week we'll kind of be right between summer and fall vegetables. Being in a CSA is one of the most fun things we've done!

Also in that picture you can see a vase of flowers on the table and a little orange cup right behind the vegetables. The flowers are from my brother, who sent them for our anniversary. We've been married for 7 years! Yay! The cup is Joel's milk cup. Just last week we started getting milk directly from a farmer. It is the the most delicious milk I've ever had! I've only tasted little bits, as I'm not sure Asher will tolerate it quite yet. It tastes like the milk we had in the UK, which was lovely and tasty. I have a cookbook out from the library that has recipes for non homogenized milk - you can do all kinds of things with the whey! I'm excited to try some out.

2008-08-01T13:22:00.001-07:00

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks

Another fun way to spend an hour.

2008-08-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... you want pictures of my boys... I'll get to that soon.

But first, check this out. You will laugh. Make sure you get to the plaid wedding cake. And the fireman "Good Luck in China" cake.

I'll get those pictures up soon. Really.

2008-07-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hooray for this week's CSA box! We have little tomatoes, a cucumber, a hot pepper, green beans, wax beans, eggplant, green onions, beets, broccoli, and Swiss chard. The tomatoes, cucumber, and broccoli we'll eat raw, Neil will enjoy the hot pepper with something, I'm sure, the beet greens and Swiss chard I'll make into southern style greens (we like the greens and Joel likes the bacon...). Green onions we chop up into pretty much everything (I put them into egg salad last week and kasha a few days ago - yum) and I'll probably steam the beans (hopefully not too much this time... last week Neil happily ate them, but to me they tasted like canned green beans, something I have happily avoided throughout my life - Neil assured me they tasted much different, though). I'm still looking for a way to eat beets, and I've never been an eggplant fan, though I've tried to be. I'll be on the lookout for a tasty eggplant recipe in the next couple of days. If you have ideas, let me know.

2008-07-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

This soup is my new creation after receiving lots and lots of kale in our past few CSA boxes. It is really delicious! I've made it twice now, and tweaked it a bit, and it is really super tasty. So, if you've ever thought, "Hey, I've got a bunch of kale. What should I do with it?!", I recommend this:

Kale Sausage Soup

2 rings smoked kielbasa, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, minced
some chopped or sliced onion
4-ish stalks sliced celery
4-ish carrots
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
a shake of dried parsley
two small handfuls of lentils (I used brown)
6 c. water + 6 cubes chicken bouillon, or 6 c. chicken broth
1 bunch kale, stems and center ribs discarded, sliced thin
2 T. balsamic vinegar

In stock pot, brown sausage; remove and drain on paper towels.
Use fat left from browning sausage to cook garlic until golden.
Add onion, celery, and carrots, stirring until onions are soft.
Add lentils, tomatoes, parsley, broth, and sausage. Simmer, covered, 30-40 minutes.
Add kale and simmer uncovered for 5-10 mins.
Stir in vinegar and pepper to taste.

Yum.

Here is sweet Asher after a bath. He is growing like crazy - 11 lbs. 11 oz. today! He doesn't like my consuming cow's milk, though, so no more of that for me. He is smiling a lot now, and likes checking himself out in the mirror. He was 5 weeks old on Monday! Yay! Last night during his bath he reached out for the rubber ducky I was showing him, and today he reached out (with each hand!) for the rattle I was showing him! It is so exciting to watch him develop!

My brother studied in China back in May, and was all excited to show us his mad chopsticking skills while he was here this past weekend. This is Joel trying it out, too.

The boys and I met Neil at Anderson's for lunch today. After we ate, we grabbed a cart and walked around. Joel was in the front of our cart (shaped like a truck... coolest thing EVAR), telling us where he was driving us to. At one point he said he was going to the doctor. I asked him if he was hurt ("yes"), and what was hurting. He said his feelings were hurt. I asked why, and he answered (in his best scary monster voice), "A monster ate my feelings!" I love two-year-olds.

Here is this week's CSA box! We have cucumbers, green onions, Swiss chard, beets (including one massive one), kale, green tomatoes, radishes, and green beans. We had one of the cucumbers and some green onions last night with our egg salad. I'm looking forward to all the rest of it, too, except the beets. I made some last week, and I really didn't like them. I have no clue what will become of this week's poor beets. (We will, however, eat the greens - yum!)

Whenever my mom comes to visit during farmers market season, she buys me flowers. I love my mom! These are from last Thursday.

We went to a Weird Al concert on Sunday night. It was really fantastic! I knew probably less than half of the songs, but it was so incredibly enjoyable. Go see him if you haven't ever. It's a really great two hours of life!