Ladies retreat and baby updates!

Today I was able to go to our Ladies Retreat at church. It started at 8:30 (a bit early for a Saturday) with breakfast (I made egg bakes) and we had a great speaker, along with hand massages, a craft, a salad luncheon (Yum!) and door prizes-I won two! It was a nice getaway and got me thinking about how to figure out what my spiritual gifts are and how to best use them.

I took Aleah, Donovan, and Samantha swimming at the Y when I got home. Gerrit stayed home with Bruce and shot his bb gun. There's no public school on Monday since it's a teacher's inservice-Samantha does have preschool though and Aleah is going to be at a Super Sitters class at the Y that day.

Awhile back I wrote about some friends of mine that were having babies-some of them have been finding out what they're having. My friend from MOPS that has three girls is going to have a boy. My cousin is going to have her third daughter and my friend Pam that has four sons found out Wednesday that she is having TWIN girls!!! She had no idea she was having twins but she and her husband are very excited. I am so excited too. What a double blessing for them. I haven't heard what my friend Sonja is having or if they're even finding out. I had better start doing some serious baby shopping soon. I know of three other couples that are expecting this spring as well.

Jumping on the Tramp

Yes, I finally caved in. On September 6 Mr. Safety bought a trampoline. Menard's had a big sale on both the trampoline and the cage or net, so that the whole deal was $100 off. Kids - don't get your hopes up for a pool. That one isn't going to happen!

The assembly of the trampoline was actually the easy part. Of course, the galvanized steel frame was the first to be put together. Gerrit and I did that lickety-split. The mat wasn't too hard, either, but the order of spring assembly had some precise requirements in order to have the right tension on the mat at the end.

There are eighty springs. You start out by establishing a zero point for both the rail and the mat and attach a spring at that point. It varies for different diameters of mat, but for ours you then counted out to 21, 42, and 63 and attached springs at those points. In the photo above I had started out wrong by going right to 42. Anyway, then you attach springs at points 10 holes past the ones already installed so you add them at 10, 31, 52, and 73. Then you attach at every 5 points and after that every 3 points. Makes for a lot of counting. Now you go ahead and fill in the rest of the springs however you want. I only messed up and had to start over once, so I think it went well.

The kids tried it out after I had all the springs on.

This picture above was taken the next morning, after I had worked the previous evening to put on the frame pad and started on the net frame.

The completed project later in the day. The net was the most time consuming to put together because along the bottom the net is attached to the mat v-rings with a string the circumference of the mat - it had be strung and pulled through all the way around.

The kids are so happy to have the trampoline and they keep asking what finally made me get one. I use it almost every day, too, because not only is it a fun time but it also provides good exercise. I just wish they would stop saying they are going to go jump on the tramp!

Pizza Sauce Recipe

Here is a picture of the pizza sauce that took over eight hours of my Monday. This pot was full almost to the top when I started but you need to cook it until it thickens-and by the time that was done it was about half full. I still got 15 pints of pizza sauce so that should last us a little while. Our kids love pizza sauce on breadsticks, soft pretzels, and of course on homemade pizza.

Here is the recipe I got from my Aunt Loreen. I had mentioned to her that I had tried pizza sauce a long time ago-when I only had two kids-and we didn't like it at all. I recall it had a spice called Summer Savory-I guess that's the taste we didn't like plus it wasn't very thick. She found me this recipe. I love that it's such a healthy recipe

Canned Pizza Sauce

Chop in a blender or food processor:

16 quarts of peeled and chopped tomatoes

6 garlic cloves ( I used a couple more)

6 medium onions diced

Put in a large heavy kettle with:

1 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup brown sugar, or more (I used a little more)

1/4 c. canning salt

3 T. dried basil leaves

3 T. dried oregano leaves

1 t. black pepper

Simmer 4 hours (or more) until thick. Pour into hot pint jars and seal.

It's not hard to do but very time consuming. I'm glad I did it. We'll be enjoying wholesome canned pizza sauce throughout the next few months.

I also managed to do some stewed tomatoes (tomatoes with onions, green peppers, and celery) that day too. I got about 8 pints of that. I sometimes put that in macaroni hotdishes. I got that recipe from my friend Vicki a long time ago. Everything in it came from our garden-even the celery!

I'm only planning to make another batch of salsa (Bruce always helps with that and he's going to give it an extra kick) and another double batch of spaghetti sauce. I hope to can just some tomatoes this year too and we have to save some tomatoes for both sets of our parents but if there's any tomatoes left after that I'll be giving them away. I am happy that there's not enough red ones for me to do anything with right now since I'm pretty busy for the next nine days.

Bruce took a picture of Sadie-I guess she was watching me work.

Leash Love

Because it takes her on walks, Sadie just loves her leash. Early one morning a few weeks ago, after a long night of sleep, she carried her leash around for a while before plopping down with it for another nap. I couldn't resist getting a picture. Have a good day, y'all!

All Powdered Up

No, pumpkin leaves are not supposed to be greenish-white. What you see here is a very bad case of powdery mildew on our poor pumpkins. It started about a week ago and progressed rapidly. Conditions to include high humidity and lots of dew in the morning were just perfect, I guess. It was very impressive to see. The stuff really stinks, too.

As the picture shows, the pumpkins are all ripe so I wasn't too concerned. If it had been earlier in the year I would have had to do something. In fact, for next year I probably should take preventive action.

I read that a weekly application of some baking soda in water along with some vegetable oil and dishwashing soap will help to prevent powdery mildew. Also a 9:1 ratio of water and milk supposedly does the job. I think a small tank sprayer would work well to get either solution on the leaves.

The top picture was taken on Saturday. This afternoon I picked the pumpkins and pulled the plants. The fungus can overwinter on plant matter so the internet tells me I should dispose of the plants. I wonder if burning them suffices? We have eighteen pumpkins.

This evening I harvested our three celery plants. They look beautiful to me - so lush and green. Nancy plans to can some of them tomorrow in stewed tomatoes. While you can blanch celery by covering them up in the garden, it will also blanch while in the refrigerator. Celery has no calories.

This weekend we purchased a ride-along bike trailer. Samantha has a little bike with training wheels but it is just not possible for her to keep up with the rest of us. We took her on a ride after supper and she loved it!

Fall Schedules

The kids are now fully into their fall schedules and we're all adjusting well. I've actually subbed two full days-last Thursday and yesterday and I'm subbing in the afternoon tomorrow. I've had Aleah's class twice and will have Donovan's second grade class tomorrow. He's excited. I was surprised how easy it was to get back into teaching-it doesn't seem like I've been gone as long as I have been. I'm glad I'm able to sub at the kids' school since I'm so familiar with it and I know almost all the staff there. It's definitely keeping me busy and I'm happy that Samantha loves going to Tricia's house. Tomorrow she's going to go to Barb's after preschool though-I don't want Tricia to get tired of having Samantha.

Other fall activities include Aleah in basketball, piano, band, and Girl Scouts, Gerrit in photography club, orchestra, youth group and he's starting confirmation at church, Donovan has speech and Cub Scouts, and Samantha has dance. That plus church activities keeps us going.

Tomorrow is going to be very busy and I'm hoping that Thursday I'll only have a Girl Scout meeting-we're touring KFYR-TV and working on a communications badge. Friday's plan after a busy morning is to can spaghetti sauce and/or salsa!

9/11 Phone Calls

This video is very long, at well over one hour, but I couldn't stop watching. You might want to grab a tissue.

Link:

Hi-O..It's off to work I go

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I will make my return to the school classroom to do some substitute teaching. The last time I subbed, 911 had not yet occurred, and Aleah was my baby who had just turned two. It was April 2001 and I just subbed for a day in the class I had in Regan the 1995-1996 school year. I stopped doing full-time subbing in November 1998, when we only had one child, so it's been almost 10 years! The time has flown by and there's been many changes but I feel confident that I'll pick up right where I left off and I'm looking forward to it.

I really hadn't planned on starting back to subbing until next year when Samantha is in Kindergarten but I want to be ready to go next year whether just subbing all over Bismarck or even finding a part time teaching job-they should be hiring lots of teachers next year since Bismarck is opening a new elementary school next fall but I don't think I'd be ready for a full time job. I don't even want to sub that much this year since Samantha is still around all but three mornings a week but I think it'll will be good for our family in lots of ways. My friend Tricia is going to watch Samantha which I appreciate so much. I also would only like to sub in the kids schools. I actually have quite a few days set up and ideally would like to sub a couple times a week or about 8-10 times a month.

I'm actually subbing in Aleah's classroom tomorrow and Monday. I love that the teachers at the kids' elementary school are excited to have me sub there as well. It's a nice small school and it feels like I'll be working with friends.

Samantha

Samantha had a big week! She started preschool on Wednesday. She was very excited about it and had a great first day. I didn't get at all weepy dropping my baby off at preschool but she sure did look like a big girl when I came to pick her up and she was standing with the other kids in line wearing her backpack. She said she had a good time but a couple of the kids cried for their mommies. Sydney had told Barb the same thing and Barb asked her if it made her sad and miss her. Sydney replied that it made her sick since the girls nose was running-Sydney has a weak stomach like Gerrit does. I told Samantha later on in the day that she would get to go to school on Friday again and she must have thought it was a one time deal because she replied, "I get to go again?!" She was happy about that.

Barb and I did go out for breakfast and walked around the Tom O'Leary Golf Course while the girls were at school. When Samantha was at school on Friday I walked it again with Tricia and then went and had my haircut. This is the first time in 12 years that all the kids are in school. I am glad that Samantha is only gone three mornings a week though, I'm not ready for her to be gone full time.

I've always noticed Samantha has extremely large tonsils-the doctor has said so as well but she's not a sick child and so we didn't think much of it until lately. Samantha almost always wakes up a few times during the night and quite often ends up in bed with us. Bruce and I are starting to think she might have sleep apnea and that's what is causing her to wake up so much. Aleah use to be like that too until she had her tonsils removed. She's going to see her pediatrician this month to see what he thinks. I'm guessing he'll refer us to an ENT doctor.

Today we were watching a show where the little girl went to bed so nice (Samantha has always been the hardest of the kids to get to stay in bed) and I commented to her that the little girl sure goes to bed nice and she said, "That's because she doesn't have big tonsils." Funny girl.

Saturday Morning Musical Interlude

First Day of School Year 2009-2010

The kids had their first day of school today. The morning routine went off without a hitch. I made them banana muffins last night and this morning heated up some bacon to go with the muffins. They all ate well. We took pictures outside in the same spot we always have and off we drove to school.

We all took Gerrit to school and there were easily 100 kids waiting to get in the school when we got there-we figured they were probably the eighth and ninth graders since we saw some kids going inside and the seventh graders started 10 minutes earlier than the rest of the kids today. Bruce had taken Gerrit there the night before to get a picture since we didn't think he would appreciate us taking pictures of him with all the other kids around-he would have let us though. He's a good kid-very laid back. It was strange just to drop him off since we'd always brought him to Prairie Rose the past seven years but a seventh grader doesn't need you holding their hand to go to class.

Gerrit said he did have problems getting his locker open today-he said tons of kids had problems-even though on Monday he did it over and over again. He also has a different locker for gym and orchestra-three lockers-three different combinations! That's a lot for anyone to remember. He said he had a good day. There was a problem with the bus though. I had read the bus sheet wrong and told him the wrong number bus so he never got on a bus and called me to pick him up otherwise his day went alright. Day one of middle school-over!

We drove Aleah and Donovan to school after that and we took pictures of them outside since we got pictures of them with their teachers at the open house. They were happy to be off to find their friends and we left for home.

Samantha and I met a bunch of other moms at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Some moms were sad to see their first child start Kindergarten and some were happy to see their last start. It was nice to chat with the others. Samantha and I went grocery shopping after that and then we were home the rest of the afternoon until I had to get Gerrit and take Donovan to the eye doctor for his different lenses.

I'm glad it's a short week of school. I'm already tired out from filling out paperwork!

Am I Ready??

The kids start school tomorrow. I'm sad to see that summer is coming to an end. We've had a really nice summer and done a lot of stuff but we've also had time to just be lazy. Throughout the summer many people have asked me if I'm ready for Gerrit to be in middle school. My general answer was to shrug my shoulders and say, "It doesn't matter if I am ready or not because it's going to happen."

Can I be ready for my firstborn to start this new chapter in his life when it seems to me he just started Kindergarten? I can't believe how fast time goes-he was just a baby and a toddler and now he's almost a teenager that has bigger feet than me and is only about four inches away from being taller than me. Can we slow time down a little because it's just going way too fast. The next few years are going to fly by and I don't imagine I'll be ready for that either but I do look forward to watching him continue to grow and mature and become the young man that God wants him to be.

I'm guess I am ready for the new adventure of middle school this year-as ready as I can be anyway. I'm always looking ahead to the future and although I'm sure I'll shed a few tears tomorrow I know in my heart that Gerrit will be just fine and that changes are good and a part of life. Now if I could just get time to slow down a little!

Camping at Abe's Place

After work on Friday we packed the minivan to the gills and headed over to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park for a one night stay in one of their camping cabins. We had been meaning to do this all summer and finally decided to just pick a night and get it done. I made the online reservation a little over a week ago.

We stayed at the Sheheke cabin, which is the west one. There is one other camping cabin, Goodboy, located just east of Sheheke. I think each ND state park with a campground has at least one camping cabin.

These cabins are in a really nice location nestled among the trees. Sheheke is set a little further back from the road than Goodboy. The cabins are about 300' from the confluence of the Heart River with the Missouri. There are nice places to fish right here, both from rocks next to the river and from a sidewalk running along the beach with benches and rod holders in the concrete. We didn't do any fishing this time.

Hamburgers and hot dogs are cooking on the old Smokey Joe. I've had that charcoal grill for about fifteen years. I prefer cooking with charcoal but use a gas grill at home for the convenience.

After supper our friends Barb and Jason (and family) visited us at the cabin. We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. They took their new puppy, a cocker spaniel, and Sadie and he enjoyed meeting and playing together.

Barb and Jason (and family) left at 9:30 or so. Nancy and Gerrit are more the "indoorsy" type and spent most of the rest of the evening in the cabin reading. I was out playing with the fire and the other kids kind of went back and forth between the cabin and the fire.

The cabin accommodations - bunk beds with three singles and one double. There is also a loft area. These cabins are super nice. They are air conditioned and have electric baseboard heat. There is a mini-refrigerator and a small corner table with benches. I wonder if the camping cabins of the other state parks are this nice.

Samantha and Nancy had the double bed and Aleah had the single bunk above.

Donovan slept on a sleeping bag in the loft.

Gerrit had the top single bed on the west side and I was on the bottom one. Most everyone went to bed at around 11:00 but I sat by the fire for another hour.

After we left the cabin on Saturday morning, we went up to the Fort Lincoln visitor center. Upon deciding that a tour of the On-A-Slant Village and earth lodges was too expensive, we drove up for a self-guided tour of the Fort McKeen Infantry Post and the blockhouses.

The kids had a good time climbing to the upper level. Aleah even carried Sadie up each one.

There were a couple of log benches on a trail down the hill to the south from the blockhouses. It was here the kids and the dog posed for this fine photo. After this posing event we walked over to the cemetery and then stopped at a picnic area for a lunch of sandwiches and chips. Hunger was momentarily defeated.

After lunch we took the 30 minute drive home. We had a great time and will try to do it again - possibly with a two night stay so we have more time to do some other things such as hiking and/or fishing.

At the end of the day Sadie was completely sacked out. Lately she has been finding blankets and covering herself up while she sleeps. It is so cute.

To Medora and Back

This past Wednesday we packed up and headed over to Medora for the musical. Kids are free on Wednesdays, so that was our motivation. We left Bismarck at about 4:00 pm, stopped in Dickinson for supper, drove on to Medora, walked around town for a bit, took the kids to the Medora play area, and then headed up to the amphitheater.

The unmolested hills around Medora are beautiful. Oh well, at least we had five bars all over town!

If you remember, all day Wednesday we were getting spotty rain. We had a few drops as the show started at 8:30 but that was all. The rest of the musical was dry. Here Buffalo Dale, the "host," is introducing the Coal Diggers. The steel guitar player is from London, England.

Dale and the Burning Hills Singers performing the opening number. None of them are from North Dakota, although four are from Minnesota and one is from South Dakota. If I remember right, the remainder were from FL, CT, or TN.

Clogging!

The featured act is The Peking Acrobats. The ladies are spinning plates and the men are at the sides in the animal costumes.

Very impressive considering there are four people involved. They walked the ball all the way across.

When they were setting this up Donovan said, "There is no way anyone can do that!"

We thought this was scary.

We were amazed by this.

The crowd gasped for this one. Note the bottom chair is on four bottles.

The show is over, folks. Here the guys in our family were waiting for the ladies to finish in the bathroom, so I pulled out the camera for a picture.

We drove all the way back to Bismarck and pulled up to the house at just before 2:00 a.m. It sure was a rough day at work on Thursday!

Homegrown Tomatoes

What would life be without homegrown tomatoes? Indeed, but I don't like raw tomatoes unless they are sliced or diced and inserted in a tasty sandwich. Now, onions are a different story - I think I could eat one like an apple.

I don't know what happened to this poor tomato plant. It is definitely a runt and definitely not thriving. The leaves are even of a smaller size. It is the only one of eight plants like this and the situation is puzzling because I haven't treated that plant any differently. All have had the same sustenance in the form of fertilizer and water but although it is producing some smaller fruit this one just has not been able to grow like the others. There must be a life lesson somewhere in that statement.

Contrast it with one of the other plants. Where the "cage" on the runt is between two and three feet tall, this one is four feet tall and this tomato plant is coming out of the top.

10 days and counting

There are only 10 days until the kids start school. I wish they didn't have to start until after Labor Day but I'm happy they aren't starting this week like a lot of schools around here are doing. We've had another good summer and I've really enjoyed the kids-except I will be happy to only have to make lunch for Samantha-she's easy to please.

We're cramming a lot into these last days. We are going to the Medora Musical on Wednesday night (kids are free on Wednesdays) and we are going camping at Fort Lincoln (they have cabins to rent) on Friday night. We also have to make a trip to the zoo and the Gateway to Science center before school starts. We've seem to run out of time to get together with friends more-swim days have been canceled because it's hardly been warm enough to swim this summer and vacations make people unavailable. Bruce has set up the pool three times this summer for the kids. This is probably the coolest (I'm talking temperature wise) summer I can ever remember. I'm not complaining. I don't care for the weather when it's in the 90's and humid.

Gerrit has been at Bruce's parents since Saturday (strange how just having one kid gone changes things) and is coming home on Tuesday. I took the other three swimming at the Y on Sunday. Samantha has really started to improve her swimming skills but does not like to put her face in the water yet-she needs to work on that.

Aleah got her glasses today-she looks so grown-up. Donovan's aren't ready yet-weird when they were ordered the same time and they have the same prescription. Hers have been ready since Thursday but I had only wanted to make one trip there-I thought Donovan's would surely be ready today.

I'm done school shopping. That's a relief! Also Gerrit had his seventh grade orientation on Thursday. He was able to get his locker open and see where his classrooms are located. I'll take him back there a couple more times before school starts so he can practice opening his locker and going from class to class. It's nice they let the kids do that. It's a totally new experience for them and it's a big school. It'll be weird for us just to drop him off the first day and not go with him to his class but this is middle school and I'm pretty sure the kids' there won't be having their parents walk them to class.

Next week will be busy getting a schedule established around here again. Monday there is a parent open house at the middle school so we can go through Gerrit's classes and meet the teachers. Aleah and Donovan's school has a back to school picnic on Tuesday and Wednesday Samantha has her preschool open house so this is really our last week of no school related activities! I also have a Girl Scout leader rally right after the back to school picnic on Tuesday.

Is It Winter Yet?

Here are some pictures from last winter to help us cool down after our week long hot spell. Just remember -- winter is really not that far away. Same for Christmas, people. Are you done with your "holiday" shopping yet?

In looking for snow pictures I realized I didn't take all that many of the winter of 2008/2009. The above ones certainly do not show the highest amount of snow cover and neither do any others I have. I suppose I got jaded or used to it and didn't feel motivated to document with photos. Either that, or I just got sick of looking at snow!

Williston weekend

The kids and I went to Williston this past weekend. Bruce stayed home to work, can beets, fix the dishwasher, tend the garden, purchase and assemble a new grill, and a bunch of other things. The kids and I participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Williston. This was mom's second year that she participated in it and we walked with her and all the other cancer survivors and their families. It was really great. Mom's friend that she walked with last year passed away a few weeks ago after battling bone cancer for many years.

I also saw a classmate of mine there. He was not at the high school reunion. He was at the Mayo Clinic with his son at the time. His son has a brain tumor. I'd say he's about Donovan's age. Stuart said he's doing okay and they will be glad when this year is over. I hope and pray Jayce beats it. Stuart's mom was also my piano teacher and she was also there. I know she' really getting up in age-she was well over 40 when Stuart was born as he's the youngest of seven. I asked Stuart if she'd remember me and he brought me over and she did. She asked me if I still played piano and I told her I did for fun. She told me she still plays for church-she's in her early 80's.

Saturday, mom, the kids, and I went to some rummage sales. We have not done that all summer so it was nice. We spent the afternoon cleaning stuff out of the garage after dad's mishap a couple weeks ago. Speaking of dad, he had some fluid drained from his brain today. Mom said they got there at eight and were home by ten so he didn't miss his favorite show "The Price is Right." He'll have to have it done again in a few weeks and then maybe see a neurologist.

Sunday we went to church in Williston and after lunch the kids and I headed for home. We stopped in Minot to see my Aunt Loreen. We missed my Uncle Donald-he was working in his gardens. We had lunch with my friend Marsha on the way to Williston on Friday. We arrived home at 5:30 and Bruce grilled hamburgers on our new grill-the old one fell apart.

Just Beet It

Late last evening or rather early this morning I did finish canning our beets. I think it was about 2:30 am before I was done with cleanup. It was the first time I had canned table beets but with instruction from my Mom I think everything went off without a hitch. I say "I think" because I haven't tasted them yet. For supper tonight I plan to give some a try.

Following is a photo essay of the process.

In a post from yesterday I had a picture of the beets in a five gallon pail in the garden. At this point they are washed off and in the sink.

Boiling in two pots. They have to boil for 20 minutes or so - until they are cooked and the skin peels off easily.

The first cooking/boiling step is complete and the water is drained. They need to cool off so I can handle them for peeling and chopping.

Meanwhile, a vinegar and sugar mixture is heating in the pan. I'll bring it to boiling before adding the beets.

All skinned and chopped and ready to hit the pot again.

Once the pot starts boiling, they stay in there an additional five minutes or so. Then I immediately put them in jars.

The finished product. I did mostly pints because I'm the only one in our family that eats beets. I did a few quarts for when we might have guests/family over for a meal. I wonder how long the house will smell like beets?!