mathmom's blog

One of the commentators said in my last garden post something like "I want to be a gardener." Well, that's where I am. I was in despair for a while about the gardens. The wildflower garden had zilch coming up. My dwarf sunflower was half eaten by a deer. The pumpkins were attacked by little silver bugs. I watched them wilt in front of me, the wilting moving out from the center of the plant until they were all gone. One little gourd had started to grow---the parent in me found this very disturbing somehow. The rose had stopped blooming. The tomatoes had stopped progressing. Here what has developed since. I've purchased an anti-fungal spray called "SAFE" for the tomato, which I have diagnosed with "Early Blight." All the anti-fungal, anti-insect sprays on the market are called some variation of safe, which ironically doesn't make me feel any safer. I actually recognized the bug that killed our pumpkins (a whitefly) from the picture on ...

Last Sunday is a perfect example of why I hate allergies. It started in Sunday school, when we had a monthly "feast" that involved Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I brought round crackers for Amanda---pretty good, but no substitute for doughnuts. Then after church we had a celebration of the end of setting up and tearing down chairs every week (we meet in a school, and are soon going to move to our own building). There was a skit, a folding chair throwing contest (Amanda did pretty well) and...a cake. Of course made with milk and eggs, because who would serve a vegan cake at a general celebration (to include everyone, it would have to be gluten free as well). Amanda separated herself from the cake by going out to the playground by herself. We went out to lunch after the celebration to our great Greek restaurant. While we were deciding where to go, Amanda voted for the Greek restaurant, saying something like, "Gyros is sooooo yummy." She ate an entire grown up serv...

I've gotten to put Amanda to sleep quite a lot lately while Michael gets Luke into his crib. Here's what we do: We have a written "check list" of things to do to put Amanda to sleep. She's starting to be able to read, and it is great to ask her what comes next on the list instead of having me continually nag her about it. The list also helps when Michael is putting Amanda to bed. It involves things like putting on heavy duty lotion ( Theraplex emollient , for those who are interested), brushing teeth and hair, finding clothes for the next day, and so on. We go through the check list while Luke is having stories read to him "In Mana's oom !" I guess stories are more fun in your sister's room, I don't know. This means that I usually don't read stories separately to Amanda anymore. After Luke goes off to bed and we have finished our list, we get into bed to "play fairies." This is something special for Mama, since Daddy fl...

I told Eleanor that today was the anniversary of the lunar landing. After hearing a few news items about it, she decided to celebrate by making "Moon shaped pretzels". Ok , I thought, this doesn't sound dangerous even though I had no idea what she had in mind. She made them almost all by herself using her grandma's recipe for buns. I was quite impressed by her measuring and mixing---the yeast/sugar mix overflowing the bowl it was in caused a bit of a commotion, but otherwise it was all under her own steam. I wouldn't let her measure for a cake, but bread recipes are notoriously forgiving.* She kneaded (" knedded ") the dough, made it into small "moons" (balls) and put them on a cookie sheet. She really really didn't want to let them rise, so I neglected to turn on the oven until after the moons were complete. Moms are allowed to help that way. After baking them she melted the margarine (she thought 2 minutes was about right---I had he...

The other day Eleanor was trying to be funny, and when Michael mentioned "hamburgers," she came back with "Yummy yamburgers !?!?" Michael thought about it and decided that it would be a good idea to grill sweet potatoes. After consulting The Joy of Cooking , I peeled and sliced some sweet potatoes lengthwise into about 3/4 inch thick slices. I steamed them (always put the steamer into a pot of water that is already boiling) for 6 minutes, until the fork went in, but the slices weren't falling apart. We cooled them a little (the JOC recommends until room temperature) and Michael coated them in oil. They actually absorbed a good bit. We then very unscientifically grilled them until they were done---I think we would have been better off setting a timer, since some were a bit blackened. The JOC recommends 5-6 minutes (I don't remember if that is each side or total time). The verdict: Michael and I liked them very much. Eleanor liked them since we le...

Today after church we held a folding chair throwing contest.* There were 2 categories: under 16 and everyone else. Amanda obviously figured out that she was under 16, so she walked right up to the line. A 12 year old boy had gotten there first, so we shooed Amanda out of the way, but as soon as he finished, Amanda walked right back up and stood, ready to receive her chair. The person who was running the contest was a bit perplexed, and asked if she needed help. She didn't think so, but I stood next to her. Unfortunately, Luke took that as a sign that he should help out too. I think I was most concerned that Amanda and Luke not get hurt, since the contest involved throwing the chair backwards over your head, but it wasn't a problem since the contest organizer gave the chair a little extra "boost". Not a bad throw for a 4 year old! Eleanor followed quickly and gave her chair a good throw---she didn't quite reach the 12 year old's mark, but it was defini...

The other day Luke was having a temper tantrum about something (maybe me not giving him a lollipop for breakfast) and after he calmed down, he touched his face. "Water! In my eyes!" It was a revelation. The next day it started raining. "Water! From the sky!" I told him it was called rain. He got down off his chair and tried to lead me out the door. "Come on mama! Turn off the rain!" I wouldn't have done it if I could---we needed the rain. Soon after that we all went outside to play in the puddles. It went well except for the lightning and thunder, which sent Amanda and Eleanor screaming into the house for fun, and which seemed to actually scare poor Luke... When he asks for a book to be read, he says "read the book," but it comes out sounding like "eat the boot!" His favorite words these days are "I did it!" which are pronounced "I deed eet !" One thing I don't want to hear when he is doing som...

Amanda and Eleanor are having a sleep over---in Eleanor's closet. Eleanor is sleeping on the thermarest, Amanda is sleeping on the beanbag (it doesn't even look comfortable!). They've been wanting to do this for quite some time, and I finally couldn't put it off any longer. We'll see how they sleep---good so far =)

It is very frustrating to be 2. Michael and I have been teaching Luke about closing doors and turning off lights---both good habits. He really enjoys opening the refrigerator door. He knows how to turn out the light. But when I try to get him to shut the refrigerator door, he screams, "Turn out the light!" He keeps getting in the way of the door so that he can push the little button. As far as I know, he's trying to turn off the light before we shut the door, and the fact that it keeps coming back on when we move him out of the way so we can shut the door drives him crazy. He doesn't believe us that the light goes out when the door is shut, and after all, how do we know ourselves? We've never seen it, we use logic. But this makes any attempt to shut the door a battle, unless I sneak over there without him seeing.