Lora

Just Another Evening

August 15, 2012 by LoraLynn

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We had planned an easy supper for tonight so that we could take the kids to the pool. But there was some sort of algae problem (or “allergy” problem, as Ellen calls it) and we decided to stay home. At the last minute we thought to throw together one of our Jamie Oliver “Meals in Minutes.”

Our choice was the “Cheat’s Pizza.”

I whipped up a quick dough in the food processor while the oven heated up to a broil and the cast iron skillet got hot on the stove. Andrew made a fresh pizza sauce with tomatoes and basil from our garden. Then we transferred the dough into the skillet, threw on some toppings, and tossed the whole thing into the oven for four minutes.

Sounds easy, right?

And it was.

Sort of.

The baby was jumping in his johnny-jump-up and whining. Adam was sweetly but LOUDLY blowing raspberries and squealing at him to try and keep him happy. Willa and Mira ran through the kitchen seemingly every time we were handling a hot skillet. The house filled with smoke with our first attempt at putting the dough in the pan. Someone decided it was time to practice piano at that exact moment. And everyone else was making as much inane noise and chatter as they possibly could.

I told Andrew that at one point, I felt certain I could hear calliope music playing in the background.

Somehow, we managed to get two of This on the table.

And it was DELICIOUS. The crust was crispy on the bottom and soft in the middle. And the pizza sauce and fresh mozzarella? YUM.

Silence reined around the table for, oh, I’d say a whole fifteen seconds!

After the pizza, we served everybody dessert. Some sort of mascarpone, cherry concoction. Also decidedly YUM.

Of course, I looked down and realized I was covered in flour. Isn’t every good chef?

(Please excuse my doughy jazz hands. Apparently I thought I was in a kitchen show choir.)

The evening was made perfect by our rousing family rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner before we left the table. The kids are learning the words this week as part of school and we needed to practice. We were about halfway through our mangled version before I realized the windows were still open to let the smoke out.

Neighbors: You are welcome.

It was just the sort of random, messy, LOUD (but fun) sort of evening that I love. Unplanned, off-key, and Magically Delicious…

*********

And because you all need a little more Finn in your lives:

You’re welcome.

Filed Under: Book Review, Family Stories, Food, Homeschooling
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How To Make A Shark Cake

August 7, 2012 by LoraLynn

My new method for picking cakes is to get on pinterest. When a child gives me his choice for type of party, I start pinning. Then I show him the pins and he picks a cake or gives me an idea of what he REALLY wants his cake to look like. Often I’ve discovered we have very different visions.

Which is why I was surprised (but I shouldn’t have been) when Adam picked a cake that allowed you to put your hand down a shark’s gullet. It wasn’t on my top five list, but whatevs.

I tell you all of this so you know that I totally stole this idea from the Pinterest. No original thinking occurred in the making of this cake.

Step One – Make teeth. I bought gum paste, rolled it out, and cut out diamonds. I didn’t stress too much about making them exactly the same size. Sharks aren’t big into orthodontics, I figured imperfection was more realistic. And easier. I did these a few days in advance so they were dried out and nice and sharp.

Step Two – Build a cake toilet bowl. That’s sort of what it started out as, anyway. Then I carved in some angles and it gave me the shape of the shark’s head. I have to tell you, this requires a lot of cake. I baked two 9 x 13 red velvet cakes. We made two more additional trips to the store to buy some loaf cakes of any flavor we could find. I think I used five extra loaves in all. Then I proceeded to carve most of the cake off, but in order to get the angles I needed, I had to start with tons of cake. You’ve been warned.

Just in case you need the details, the base of the cake is a board with a hole in it. I covered it with aluminum foil and stuck a long bag in the middle to make the shark’s throat. If we’re being honest here, it’s a hospital puke bag. The blue color was perfect and it was just the right size to hold lots and lots of “chum” or gummy worms, swedish fish, and sour octopi.

Step Three – Ice the red gums, then the white jaw, then the grey face. This requires a lot of cream cheese icing. I think I whipped up five batches of icing. Getting the right color was pretty easy, though. The trick to not mixing the icings was to do a crumb layer of each color and then put on a top layer with just a plastic knife. For some reason, that made the neatest covering.

The water effect around the shark was easily done with a thin layer of icing. I mixed some blue coloring into the white icing, but I didn’t stir it very well. This gave me different shades of blue, which worked nicely. And some blue sugar sprinkles are always in order.

Step Four – Add the teeth.

Step Four and a half – Fill the shark’s gullet with lots of gummy candy. We also untwirled twizzlers to make stringy wiggly bits mixed in with all the gummy fishes. Maybe they were algae, maybe they were tapeworms. Nobody cared.

We had a ridiculous amount of candy in the shark’s belly and it was ENTIRELY gone at the end of the party. I haven’t had a count from any parents on how many kids threw up when they got home, but I was very nervous that somebody was gonna need that puke bag before the end of the night.

We used a blue sheet and some paper clips to cover up the shark gullet. It was important to keep it weighted properly since part of the cake board had to hang off the table and we knew kids would be touching and pulling on the cake. We put two 8 pound weights on the back of the board and that did the trick.

And that’s really it. It wasn’t the most difficult cake I’ve ever made, but it was certainly the most fun. So far…

Filed Under: Family Pictures, We Like Cake
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Epic Shark Party

August 6, 2012 by LoraLynn

Epic shark party? Check.

I’ll tell you how I made the cake in another post, but here it is, my magnum opus.

That was pretty much my contribution to the party. Andrew did the rest of the heavy lifting. He carved two watermelon sharks.

Which then photobombed Adam. Or maybe he photobombed the watermelon? I can’t really tell.

Andrew also made shark fins to stick in the bushes and some nifty “Shark Zone” signs when didn’t get photographed. Just trust me. It was cool.

We filled the neighborhood pool with loved ones. Nobody was ever holding their own child. I love how our people love everybody else’s people.

Best decision I made was to hire some extra eyeballs to hang out around the pool and monitor the drowning. This made the evening much more relaxing for everyone. Thanks Misses M and D!

The birthday boy told us it was the “best party ever.” I think that means he liked it.

Am so tired today my eyes are crossed. How was your weekend?

Filed Under: Family Stories, We Like Cake
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Friday Fun

August 2, 2012 by LoraLynn

Two fun things to play around with this weekend:

1 – Last weekend, I downloaded Alli Worthington’s ebook IPhone Photography: The Visual Guide. Alli knows how to break things down for those of us who don’t understand photography and don’t have time to care. She shows you, in short words and with pictures, all the cool tricks to make that iPhone camera work WELL to capture the moments that matter.

Because, let’s face it, even if I did have a nice fancy camera, I would never have a free hand to carry it around.

I spent the weekend downloading new apps and playing around with different cameras, effects, uploaders and just plain fun stuff.

It only took me a Finn feeding or two to skim through it and figure out what apps I wanted to explore further. It’s an easy read and insanely useful. If you’re like me and know that if you’re gonna capture life as it passes it will have to be on your iPhone, or if you’re a photography guru but don’t always want to lug your gear, this book will help. Go get it.

(p.s. Alli does have an affiliate program, but I’m not a member. I’m just telling you about her book because I like it.)

2 – Do you have Amazon Prime yet? We bought the membership a few months ago and it’s been great. Two day shipping is a Game-Changer for us, people.

Look at it this way: it takes Herculean efforts and a careful schedule to get an errand or two taken care of with our crew. If we run out of just an item or two, I order them via Prime. They’re on my doorstep before I could have managed to leave the house to get to a store. Plus, I only buy what I need because I’m not wandering the aisles and seeing that thing I forgot I wanted but I really need it so I’ll just throw it in the cart no big deal.

We use it to purchase vitamins, supplements, baby supplies, anything really. That alone makes Prime worth the investment.

But better than that, there’s the instant videos. (Like Netflix but not quite as big.) They’re still adding videos, but they announced yesterday that there is now an app to watch videos on the iPad. Yay!! The fact that they added the entire West Wing series free for Prime viewers? Gold.

I’ve gotta hurry and finish up this post so I can get another episode in before bedtime.

Huh?

No, I don’t have a problem. I can quit any time I want.

I think.

So – what’s your plan for the weekend? I’ll be making a shark cake for Adam and sneaking in West Wing episodes where I can. Or I may just goof around with my new iPhone apps.

How about you?

Filed Under: Family Pictures, Random
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No Pity Parties Allowed

August 1, 2012 by LoraLynn

As if ballet camp wasn’t enough, Ellen is having a ball this week at gymnastics camp. She grins the entire hour. Seriously. Watch.

Olympics 2024? We’re all over it.

She mastered the hula hoop quickly.

At the end of every class, Ellen gets a popsicle. Because I’m brave/stupid, I let her eat it in the car on the way home.

It’s a bit of a drive back to our house along a two-lane country road. Ellen sometimes struggles with car sickness, so I made sure to put her closer to the front of the van for this ride.

Now here’s where I am gonna have a moment of honesty with you: I was having a tough day for reasons not at all pertinent to this story. And I was thinking and praying through it while I was driving. I might have even been crying a bit.

The children were listening to music and utterly oblivious. Until Ellen piped up: “Mommy! I need you to pull over RIGHT NOW.”

Uh, uh, uh… Hang on, honey!

I went a few yards before finding a ditch to pull the van into. There was a lot of squealing and stuttering and such while I safely got us off the road. I urged Ellen, “Open the door! Open the door! Hurry, go throw up OUT of the van!”

She sat still.

“Ellen! Go!”

Meanwhile, I’m wiping my face and trying to unbuckle my seatbelt so I can hold her hair back or whatever it is you do when someone needs to puke from a van at an awkward angle.

She said quietly, “Mommy. My popsicle is dripping.”

*Pause*

“Ellen? Is that why I pulled the van into a ditch?”

“Yes ma’am.”

I floundered around for a minute until I located a diaper. “Here, drip into this.”

I pulled the van back onto the road and stifled a hysterical giggle while I wiped my last tears. I can’t even have a proper Come-Apart with this gang!

And, honestly, it was probably God’s merciful way of helping me pull it together. On the way home, we talked about “proportionate response” and what events require Immediate Evacuation. Drippy popsicles were not on the list.

So- Lesson learned:

Pity parties are not allowed with this crowd. There simply isn’t time between crises.

And I’m probably gonna need to outlaw traveling popsicles, too.

Filed Under: Family Pictures, Family Stories, Mothering Thoughts
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Arms Up

July 29, 2012 by LoraLynn

So Friday…

We saw it on the calendar and realized it would be a logistical nightmare.

Ellen did ballet camp all week and had a recital mid-morning. We had to have her at camp by 9 am sharp. But before that, we discovered that Adam would need another trip to the pediatrician to check out his nasty cough. So we threw out our carefully crafted plan from the night before and Andrew jumped in the car to speed Ellen to church on time and Adam to the doctor.

We scored a win when Andrew arrived at camp precisely 15 minutes before 9 am. I scored a fail because I forgot to send her with her ballet shoes.

Once Ellen was safely delivered, Andrew took Adam on to the doctor while I sent the baby-sitter pleading texts to stop by Starbucks on her way to the house. Horrors, we were out of coffee. Even worse, I’d checked my email only to discover I was responsible for bringing some sort of finger food to Ellen’s recital.

It’s a good thing my morning protein bar was loaded with chocolate.

Once the baby-sitter arrived (Willa was potty training so she needed to stay close to a bathroom) and Finn was topped off, the twins and I went running, literally, through the grocery store in search of donut holes (at one end of the store) and baby formula (at the other end, as you would expect).

We paid and ran back to the van through the parking lot dropping receipts, bags, and loose change behind us.

As we went careening down the road to find Ellen, I took a deep breath.

I had a sudden desire to just raise both arms overhead and let the roller coaster scream on. I kept my hands at ten and two, I swear. But I felt that heady exhilaration you feel when you know you’re just barely in control and there’s nothing but a single bar keeping you from hurling into outer space.

Andrew called me to report that Adam would need a chest x-ray but the doctor said it was probably just asthma, as we suspected. They went in search of coffee and breakfast before heading to the recital to meet us. Once Andrew and I had exchanged all of the practicalities and had revamped our plan B to make it a plan B.2, we took a breath and started to giggle.

“Are you okay?”

“Yup, I’m okay.”

“I wouldn’t do this with anybody but you.”

“Exactly.”

It was nice to know he was in the seat beside me for this crazy ride. (Keep in mind, while he was doing all his chauffering, he was taking work calls and holding down a job.)

We arrived at the ballet camp in time for me to deliver Ellen’s shoes and then slather my much-neglected toes with nail polish before the recital.

And then, oh, my baby girl. She just glowed with joy and pride.

She didn’t care in the slightest if she was dancing the right move or how well she did. Once she realized she was the center of attention, she determined to revel in it all she could. I sat in the front row, faithfully videoing for the grandparents, and tried not to look weepy.

We all tossed back a few donut holes and lemonade and sprinted for our cars. Andrew went off in search of prescriptions for Adam and I went to hunt down my baby at home for a feeding.

Then everybody swapped places, the babysitter put a sandwich in Adam’s hand, a brownie in mine, and off Adam and I went to the children’s hospital for a chest x-ray.

When we walked out of the x-ray room, I saw the thunderclouds billowing and realized we had to make a run for it. We sprinted through the deluge to the car, where I sat in traffic and storms for half an hour.

As I parked my “roller coaster” in the driveway, the clock on the dashboard read 1 pm.

Seemed impossible we’d done all that racing around in such a short amount of time. But there it was. The two hour nap I took later said I was tired, but it felt… it felt good. It was good stuff. Life stuff. Ordinary. Out of the ordinary. And all the stuff in between.

With a slice of insanity for good measure.

This week looks to be like a repeat of last week: Crazy topped with nuts. I’ve got my Plan A all typed up, double spaced, and printed.

It’ll be out the window by 9 am tomorrow, I guarantee it.

But I’m strapped down. And I can hear the click, click, click as the coaster climbs that first big hill. My heart races just a little with anticipation. And I feel my arms start to rise…

Filed Under: Family Pictures, Family Stories, Homeschooling, Mothering Thoughts
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Here, There, and Yonder

July 18, 2012 by LoraLynn

I have no idea where this week is going but I blinked and it’s Wednesday. Fortunately, I wrote something last week for Simple Homeschool that published today, so I get to pretend that I’m finding time to write.

Although, I guess since I just told you, nobody’s pretending anything any more.

Anyway, my post isn’t really about homeschooling at all (further proof that my editor is a patient woman.) We’ve survived three different weeks of camp for each boy (Ellen’s gymnastics camp is still to come) and I’ve learned a thing or two. Mostly what NOT to do. Go check out my cute little pirate and maybe give me some advice?

Last night, we put the kids in their pj’s and took them to meet Miss Mila Mae and eat celebratory frozen yogurt in her honor. One of the best reasons to keep the kids up ever. And since I’m sending you to other places today, I can’t resist sharing her mama’s Gotcha Day celebration with you. If that doesn’t put a tear in your eye…

Well, you’re probably getting more sleep than I am.

Speaking of, Finn continues to deny us sleep. But then he throws me a little eye candy and all is forgiven.

How’s your week going? Anybody getting any uninterrupted shut-eye?

What’s it like?

Filed Under: Family Pictures, Homeschooling
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Slammin’ Pints

July 9, 2012 by LoraLynn

I’m putting down my pint of Haagen-Dazs just long enough to write a bit. This should be a good indicator of my state of mind. I’m overwhelmed, I’m sinking, I’m drowning, but my heart is so full of all the good things, funny things, amazing things that fill my time.

Like Willa. See those sweet little silver sandals on her feet?

Those are her church sandals. Sassy, yes?

The other day, in the mad rush to get to church on time, I noticed Willa had on her clunky red tennis shoes. “Go put on your sandals.”

“No. I wan’ wear these. These will be fine, Mommy.”

Because I still couldn’t figure out which shoes I would be wearing, I caved and let the child wear what she wanted. Her little victory appeared to go unnoticed until later, during communion, Willa turned to the girl sitting behind her, stuck out her foot and gloated, “Look at the shoes I’m wearing!”

Cheeky thing.

And then there’s the time when I was so mentally unbalanced as to allow my three boys to bake brownies. I got out all of the ingredients, handed them the recipe, and walked away. They got a lesson in fractions, spilled an entire bottle of vanilla, smeared brownie batter on the floor (I think they had some help from their sisters with that one), Adam added ingredients all willy-nilly without measuring and may have overdone it with the baking powder, and they didn’t properly stir things so there were chunks of flour in the finished product.

But, oh, look how proud they were.

Worth every single grey hair it caused.

Let us not forget my baby.

Who is four months old. And absolutely positively THE most difficult baby we’ve ever begged to sleep through the night. But then he falls asleep on my chest and I regret the push for time to pass as I picture him at 16 driving a car and texting and I have a panic attack and beg him to stay a baby forever.

And that’s how I end up clutching the frozen milk fat so closely. Because motherhood makes you certifiable with all the crazy deep love that wells up inside you, even when you sigh and cry a lot over lesson plans, someone stealing the candy out of daddy’s desk, and settling a battle between the baby and the 3 year old over a rabbit.

These people. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they give me anxiety, and they drive me to Haagen-Dazs. But oh, I wouldn’t trade them for the world. Not even for a lifetime supply of mint chocolate chip…

Filed Under: Family Stories, Mothering Thoughts
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Still laughing

June 28, 2012 by LoraLynn

Oh.

Hi.

You still here?

For a week now, I’ve struggled with the headache that never ends and am usually incoherent after 8 pm. I mean, even more incoherent than normal, hence, no writing. But I’ve finally got some meds that are s l o w l y bringing relief, so let’s try this writing thing out again.

I felt like I was learning to function through the headache, but after day 5 or 6, I just couldn’t quite “keep up.” Which is why I called Andrew from the gas station to ask him our zip code to authenticate the credit card.

We’ve only lived here FIVE YEARS, so of course it’s natural that I would forget my ZIP CODE.

Fortunately, all the children are surviving my stupidity rather well. Ian had cooking camp last week and Sam did art camp this week. They think they’re pretty big stuff. And I suspect they are.

And somehow the week has slipped through my fingers. My fingers which are still sporting that alien tattoo hand puppet I modeled for the kids and then never found time to remove. I was wearing my cross necklace Sam made for me at art camp, but he took it back so he could sleep with it.

I haven’t washed my hair in days and I laughed when the doctor suggested that I really should get a good night’s sleep. Come to think of it, the doctor laughed, too.

I’m a walking joke right now with my tattoo and glass beads around my neck. But I’m laughing. And that’s a good thing.

So tell me: How was your week?

Filed Under: Mothering Thoughts, Random
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When A Moby Wrap (And Low Expectations) Saved The Day

June 19, 2012 by LoraLynn

Finn has caught a cold. His solution, and it’s a good one, is to be held constantly. And since he can’t breathe very well in his bed, this prescription is a full-time job.

Since he gave us a stuffy early morning wake-up call, I knew we were in for a long day. Which honestly made it more bearable. Sometimes I think just beginning the day with lowered expectations is the key to handling hard days. So with my expectations below sea level, we began the morning.

My issue, however, is that Finn has outgrown my pocket sling. And while he can go in the Ergo (which is my favorite), I knew that for as much as I would be holding him, he would prefer to face out and see the world. But he’s too small to go on my back. So I had a Moby Wrap someone gave me in the closet that I pulled out. After viewing a dozen or so YouTube videos, I settled on a hold that suited me and we went through the morning like this:

And like this:

And we spent the afternoon like this:

Despite his nasal woes, Finn was fairly content as long as I held him. He even managed a few naps. Huzzah! There are still some things I’m not crazy about when it comes to the Moby wrap, but it certainly came in handy today. I even wore him in the restaurant tonight at dinner and he slept through me eating tacos over his head and dropping cheese in his ear.

Though we didn’t start school until 10 am, we finished what we needed to AND I had extra time to read to my little girls, always a treat. Finn was wrapped up on my chest and Mira and Willa sat on either side of me for some Mommy time. They know all their favorite books by heart. Strangely enough, Willa’s most favorite book is an I Spy book. She can find just about anything you ask her to find, even the hard stuff. And she’s downright cocky about it, too.

Hilarious little pixie. I could eat her with a spoon.

Unless Finn is miraculously cured by tomorrow morning, we’re in for much of the same. So we will plug along with our low expectations and celebrate ANY accomplishment as a major one.

How about you? How are your days running along this week?

p.s. There’s a video in this post. If you’re having trouble viewing it, try a browser other than Chrome. Chrome hates me. And I love it so dearly… *sad face*

Filed Under: Family Stories
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Just Another Evening

How To Make A Shark Cake

Epic Shark Party

Friday Fun

No Pity Parties Allowed

Arms Up

Here, There, and Yonder

Slammin’ Pints

Still laughing

When A Moby Wrap (And Low Expectations) Saved The Day

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