She must dance!

I was playing some loud music today, and Sarah was dancing her heart out.  Noah was sitting in a chair.  Sarah yelled over to him, "How can you just SIT there and not dance?!"

Asbestos

Noah likes to watch Holmes Inspection on the Home & Garden channel.  He's learned a lot about the problems that come with home ownership.  Several days ago, he was telling Sarah about an episode where the house had asbestos.  Today, the kids were peeling potatoes, and Sarah suddenly yelled, "Noah!  There's asbestos in this potato!"

The sacrificial altar

There's a rug in our garage where Jason leaves all his sacrifices.  We call it the altar.  I've seen him carry his prey from far away, just to lay it at the altar and eat it.  I'm not sure if he does it so we'll notice and be proud of his hunting prowess, or if he just feels safer eating there, but it makes a nasty mess.  The rug is often covered in feathers, fur, blood, and various body parts.  He's left all kinds of animals at the altar: bunnies, birds of all kinds, cicadas, frogs, toads, chipmunks, etc.  One morning last week, I was up early and it was still dark in the garage.  I glanced out there as I went by and saw a strange hump on the altar.  I thought, "What has the cat killed this time???"  Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Sarah's socks, which she leaves everywhere.  By the time I took this picture, it was light out, so imagine it in the shadows:

Chocolate pudding?

I think avocados are interesting, and I wish I liked to eat them, because I love to prepare them.  I like the big, smooth pit, and I'm trying to think of something crafty to do with it.  I like the skins too after the flesh is all scooped out.  It seems like they should be useful for something.  Today I decided to try to make the taste of an avocado more to my liking.  I didn't have a clear plan of where I was going, but I started by putting the avocado meat in a food processor and whirring it up with some honey.  It was ugly, like baby diarrhea, so I put in some cocoa powder and whirred it up again.  It looked delicious, like creamy chocolate.  I took a taste.  Bitter.  Maybe a step above disgusting.  I added some agave nectar and a little salt.  Better, but still needed something...I glanced around the kitchen and saw half of an overripe banana sitting on the counter. Bananas are good with chocolate, right?  The color turned less appealing, but the taste was ok.  Just then, a friend stopped by and hesitantly tried it. She pronounced, "Tastes like chocolate pudding!"  So I passed it off on the children as chocolate pudding, and they gobbled it right down.  

Catching up

It has come to my attention (that's you, Dave) that I haven't posted anything new for awhile.  I haven't had anything bloggable to say, but since when does that stop me?  So here's a totally unblogworthy update:

Sarah thought Jason got on her lap while she was eating breakfast because he loves her.

His true motives are becoming clear...

He makes a strike on the bacon!

In other news...Mike brought home this nice cup from CEFCU.  The kids took one look at it and yelled, "Wow! Cool cup!"  I took one look at it and said, "That doesn't look dishwasher-safe."  When did I become an old fuddy-duddy?  Sure enough, it comes with instructions telling me that it is not designed for hot or cold liquids, that I can't overfill it, that I must hand wash it without soaking or submerging it, can't use bleach on it or put it in the microwave, dishwasher, or freezer.  I guess it will be handy for a nice lukewarm drink of water.

Have I mentioned lately how much Marty loves math?  There can be all kinds of books spread out on the desk, and she always goes for the math.  If I had the know-how to put a thought bubble by her, it would say, "I love math."  

The box of flashcards is her favorite.  She's always reaching for the cards, sniffing them, scratching on them with her ghost claws, digging in the box, even chewing on them.  If only the kids shared her affection.

I saved the most unblogworthy news for last.  See that bit of clear counter space?  It's a very rare sight. It's one of those places that the Flylady would call "hot spots".  It's a stuff-magnet.  It attracts things that are on their way somewhere else, mostly to the recycle bin. 

and still more pumpkins

I steamed the pieces that were cut out of the pumpkins (eyes, noses, mouths, etc.) and mashed them up.

Used some mashed pumpkin in the bread dough.  The kids love punching down the dough after it has risen.

Rolled it into a circle,

cut it into wedges,

and rolled them into crescent rolls.

They turned out a little dense and chewy, probably because the yeast I used expired 3 years ago. 

More pumpkins

I washed and dried the seeds,

tossed them with garlic-infused oil and salt,

and roasted them for half an hour.

Yum.

Pumpkins

Drawing on their pumpkins

She wanted lips and teeth cut out of hers.  Instead, she ended up with....

They're scooping goop, and I'm separating seeds from goop.

Somebody threw some goop,

and there was some retaliation...

and an all-out goop war. 

Noah's turned out like this.  That hole next to the nose is a wart.

On the back, he made an N and 11, for Noah 2011.

Morning at the Janes house

Sarah woke up thinking about food, as she does every morning.  Her little feet hadn't even touched the floor before she said, in mid-stretch, "Let's make pancakes!"  But of course she's too hungry to wait for the pancakes to be made, so while she's stirring pancake ingredients she's munching on a granola bar:

The pancakes still weren't done, so she toasted herself a bagel:

She never does anything without singing and dancing, so she made up a song about pancakes and sang it into her spatula microphone:

She finally succeeded in waking Noah, who came stumbling out, squinting:

horrified at the thought of pancakes so early in the morning:

Just a typical morning around here.

Riverfront

This amazing WWII ship was docked in Peoria, and Noah was very interested.  

 

Mike met us there after work (and before Noah's baseball practice), and the two of them toured the ship.

 

Sarah had no interest at all in the ship, so I took her to the Riverplex playground, where she instantly made friends with these two girls.

Annual fall tradition

We always take a trip to Ackerman Farms at the beginning of September to get our free pumpkin and hold the kittens.  Here's Noah, carefully making his pumpkin selection:

Sarah latched onto this kitten and named him "Ounces":

She wanted to share the love, so she passed him over to Noah:

Then we went to visit the goats and horses:

It was a beautiful day at the farm!

A couple Noah-isms

Sarah moved up to Noah's class at CBS this fall, so I was telling Noah that he would have to show her the ropes and help her out on the first day of class as much as he could.  On the way there, he said to her, "Ok, Sarah. I'm going to tell you the ropes. First, you check the box next to your name and pick up your name tag..."
Sarah interrupted with, "What are you talking about?  What ropes?"

Another day, Noah and his buddy Andrew were comparing baseball gloves and trying to determine whose was the best.  (What is it with males that they're always doing that?)  Andrew pointed out some pocket on his that Noah's didn't have.  Noah pointed to the words "genuine leather" printed on his and said, "Well...yeah, but mine is gourmet leather."

Both kids made me laugh today...

Sarah saw the remains of dead bunny fur in the garage from Jason's kill, and she yelled, "Hey Mom!  There's raccoon feathers in the garage!"

Noah and I were at a garage sale.  I picked up a Cardinals mug, thinking about buying it for my nephews who are Cardinals fans.  My extreme-Cub-fan-son blurted out, "Don't you dare think about putting that thing in our house!" which sent all the other shoppers into fits of laughter. 

Swimming in chocolate milk

I took Sarah to Kroger.  She asked me if she could get chocolate milk.  I said no.  Then she said, "Wouldn't it be awesome if I could swim in a pool of chocolate milk with my mouth wide open?"

Deuteronomy 31

Moses had an apparently pointless job.  He was to teach the Israelites God's laws and encourage them to obey, all the while knowing that they wouldn't.  How discouraging!  But Moses wasn't discouraged.  He faithfully obeyed and did his best.  Although the Israelites failed, future generations (even we) benefited, because now we have God's laws written down for us.  When my job seems hopeless, I'll try to remember that.

Sarah's favorite things

Sarah was singing a Sound of Music song this morning and made it her own:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages filled up with ice cream,
These are a few of my favorite things!

Frog jockey

Noah gave this to me and explained that the frog was a jockey riding the lizard. I love little boys!
Which reminds me...We went for a bike ride tonight after the rain.  I was carefully steering around the puddles, but he made a special effort to ride through the biggest puddle on the street.  It was so much fun that he turned around to do it again, but he turned too sharply and crashed in the middle of the street.  As he came up smiling, shirt all splattered with muddy water, and blood dripping down his knee, I thought, "I really love that kid."

Blunt Sarah-isms

We were on vacation and taking the kids to a beach.  There were parking meters all around, so we were driving around trying to find a free place to park.  We finally found a side street a few blocks away.  Sarah was not happy about the delay or the walking, and she piped up from the back seat:  "Just suck it up and pay!"

Mike was holding her and trying to snuggle with her, although she is not a snuggler. She was squirming and squealing and trying to get away.  All the while, I was reading an article to Mike about cherishing the time while his girl is little, because before he knows it he'll be walking her down the aisle.  Finally, Sarah broke free and said, "Stop cherishing the moment, Dad!"