EVA WANTS TO PLAY TAG TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 jobs I've had

1. Unloading the dishwasher.

2. Helping Dani take care of Addie.

3. Chopping food in the kitchen.

4. Scrapping brass in the garage with Dad.

4 movies I've watched more than 1 time

1. Elf

2. Starwars

3. The Empire Strikes Back

4. Return of the Jedi

4 TV shows I've watched

I do not have cable, but 3 years ago I did, so that counts I think.

1. Doodle bops.

2. Mr. dress-up.

3. Postcards from buster.

4. Maya and Miguel.

4 favorite foods

1. Pad-see-ew.

2. Pad-thai.

3. Pizza

4. chocolate

4 places I want to visit

1. Hawaii.

2. Afganistan.

3. Russia.

4. Austria.

4 things I look forwerd to for the next year

1. Summer.

2. Christmas.

3. May 1st (my Birthday.)

4. And all the exciting activities there are in the next year.

4 things I like about my Dad

1. He will play a game with me if I ask him.

2. His snugaly hugaly attitood when he is tired.

3. How he willingly gives me a Coke when I ask.

4. His LOUD honky way of playing his saxafone.

Hurray! That was fun. I am going to do that in one year and see the difference!

by Eva

autumn's pleasures- the simple and the splendid

A plan to try a run / bike on the trail by Cedar River and then meet friends Keri, Taryn and Erik turned into a four hour outing, complete with a wild leaf-tossing extravaganza.

Conclusion #1: I can run at the right pace for Eva to bike, Naomi to bike, (I think, she was on the scooter today) and Josiah to scooter. Looking forward to another try! What freedom!

Conclusion # 2: Children can find more pleasure in a pile of leaves than in anything at Toys-R-Us, I'm convinced!

Conclusion # 3: A warm, sunny October day, spent outdoors, in good company, under a canopy of brilliantly colored leaves is a gift to be treasured.

Other than jumping in the leaves, the children all delighted themselves by eating the last of the blackberries growing along the trail, throwing rocks in to the river and picking up some creepy crawly things.

A super-worm, which was actually Erik's find, but they passed him around...

Josiah's find, below, is a little garter snake. If you think he looks a little limp, and doesn't seem to be coiling around in a healthy snake way, that is because he is not alive. He was found dead, but that didn't seem to deter Siah from keeping him as a pet. He stuck him in his sweatshirt pocket to show Erik when he came. As we were sitting on a rock eating apples in the sun, he patted his pocket and casually observed, "Bet m'snake's gettin' real hot in there." Fortunately, he was a responsible animal steward, and self-lessly "let him go" in the river within the following hour.

my first time playing tag

So my friend Keri just "tagged" me on her blog, which means I'm supposed to answer the same questions that she had to answer when someone tagged her. They are not super interesting questions but I will play just because, and if you are bored to tears and sorry for logging on perhaps I will put a nice picture at the end to reward you for your bother.

4 jobs I've had

1. High-school sports reporter for the local paper

2. Rooters BBQ all-star (that means I made beans, took orders, washed dishes, ran the till, all that jazz. my favorite job ever. really!)

3. Sophomore English Teacher

4. Flusher for Mrs. Phillip's Kindergarten Class(that's for you, dad.) In Kindergarten we took turns doing different chores, and the week I announced to my parents that I was the flusher, (making sure all bowls were clean after bathroom break) my dad howled with laughter, and never forgot, of course!

4 movies I've watched more than once

1. What About Bob

2. The Usual Suspects

3. Dumb and Dumber (that's embarrassing)

4. The Grinch (the original cartoon, not Jim Carrey. We watch it every Christmas after putting up the tree.)

4 TV shows I watch

(I don't have television, so I don't really watch any. But I do reserve the following full season DVDs at the library and watch them when they come in, so that counts, I think)

1. The Office

2. Arrested Development

3.4. no more

4 people who email me regularly

1. Keri

2. Andrea

3. Brenda Thorn (leader of a homeschool group I belong to)

4. SarandDani ;) (less than A so I put you together :)

4 favorite foods

1. Jason's pan-fried oysters

2. ripe home-grown tomatoes with salt and basil

3. fresh berries of any kind

4. freshly baked bread with butter

(this is just the tip of the iceberg here, folks... 4 just doesn't cut it. I'll stop though.)

(wait no i won't i just thought of cheese. Blue, Parmesan, Dubliner, Asiago... cheese could replace anything above, but there really shouldn't be any going back...)

4 places I want to visit

1. Jamaica

2. Austria

3. Norway

4. Pakistan

4 things I'm looking forward to in the next year

1. planting some new fruit trees

2. reading all the wonderful books I have planned to read with my kids

3. planting the spring garden

4. camping with the fam

4 things I like about my husband

1. his curly hair

2. his nature observation skills, and keen eye for cause and effect in the natural world

3. his desire to prioritize his family, and give his kids (and me) a great life, as far as it is up to him

4. his complete lack of concern for fashion

Thar ya go! I did it, Keri! Aren't I a go-along kinda gal?! ;) I am very wordy, I notice. Forget the part where I said I was an English teacher so you don't judge me on it... So now I tag 2 people, I think? Well if so, I tag Andi and Dani!

Here are some random pictures...

Naomi was delighted with the way she styled Gramps' hair!

Tickle-fight aboard the MS Westerdam

Naomi & Josiah in our rental van in Colorado, cracking-up to the point of tears because.... the seat-belts were retracting when pulled.

A kiss for a silly, chocolate-faced boy.

global costumes and a tooth update

Tonight was "International Costume Night" at Awana. The girls were thrilled to dress up; Eva went as a Guatemalan peasant, and Naomi went as Anne of Green Gables (from Prince Edward Island, Canada, of course). I told Eva how striking she looked when she was serious, and she had a hard time maintaining the straight face but managed to do it for a few pictures! The smile is certainly very lovely too.

Anne, not Marilyn! Oops. Cute, Nomsi!

If you are wondering why Josiah is not in these pictures, the reasons are twofold, and related. One, he is really not at all a costume person. Drawing attention to himself outside the home = bad. Two, he is officially now a Cubbies drop-out. He's not going any more. He's staying home, and that's that.

By the way, if you didn't notice in these pictures, the frighteningly dangling tooth did fall out over the weekend. Naomi got a little cavalier about twisting it to horrify people, like this...

and next thing you know, it was gone.

What a relief.

kid- over easy

Josiah and I were just having a little conversation at the table... He was holding one of his "sons" (a bear) upside down.

"See how he is, mom? See how I've got him?"

"Upside down. Some babies really like to be upside down," I said. "I know baby Caleb likes that."

"And baby Buddy."

"Yes. And some babies really don't like to be upside down... I know one baby who really doesn't like upside down."

He raised his eyebrows, smiled, and pointed hard at his chest.

"Right. You've always been more of a right-side up kind of guy."

"No," he corrects. "I don't like to be right side up either. My feet hurt if I walk too much."

I laughed and shook my head. "Well what do you like to be, then, if not upside-down or right-side up!?"

"Well, swingin'! I just like to be swingin."

Now here is a kid who has always had his personal priorities all sorted out. No one needs to tell him to relax.

the knockout- revisited

Last night Dani was talking to me about the recent post featuring Nomi's very loose tooth. It reminded her of another case of a loose tooth, and she requested a re-visiting of that incident... Whether you've heard it or not, the details follow. I'll let you readers draw your own conclusions.

exhibit a: photo- the hapless, long winded-victim...

exhibit b: photo: by-stander, or criminal? Isn't this the face of innocence...?

...or does something lurk beneath?





Here is the indecent as described by an eyewitness, (me- I witnessed it) on the day it occurred.

"You know how Eva likes to drag out her loose teeth, and make a big deal about when she’ll lose them, and trick us that they’ve come out, etc…. Well, tonight she was doing that in the bathroom- talking about maybe losing it on Christmas day when is everyone watching, ( the thing is totally dangling by a thread) and Naomi’s standing there, brushing her teeth, listening to the same old routine, looking like she’s not paying attention and suddenly- with no warning- her fist shoots out and she PUNCHES Eva in the mouth, and POW! knocks her tooth out!! It was so very violent and naughty and yet so very FUNNY- I really had to scold her while hiding behind a towel in laughter. Can you believe that?! Eva couldn’t!!"

So there you have it. Draw your own conclusions as to the guilt, intentions of the alleged perpetrator. Try not to be influenced by the photo below. It should not be admitted as evidence. I don't know how it got in there.

"SOUNDER" BOOK REVIEW

I, Eva, just read a book called "Sounder," by William H. Armstrong. It is about a sharecropper boy, his three younger siblings, mama and papa and his coondog Sounder. They are in a bad situation, and aren't treated very nicely by anybody, except for one man, who invited the boy to live with him and taught him how to read and write. When the boy first goes to the man's house, he is so surprised, because the man has two lamps lit at one time. The boy makes it sound like his younger siblings are too curious, and asking too many questions, and he talks about them in a strict way.

There are three words I can describe the book with: sad, interesting, and exciting. It is sad because the boy loses loved ones. It is interesting, because they go through a life I have never experienced, or never thought there was. It was exciting because every time I went to read, a big change would happen, like somebody would go to jail. I think most people would enjoy reading this book.

by Eva

hangin' in there

Every day for the last two weeks or so, I've said to Naomi, "Bet today is the day your tooth is coming out!" Unfortunately, it's gross-out powers are too appealing, and, amazingly, it stays in another day. The only problem is just at bedtime, when she panics...

"I'm scared! I'm scared my tooth is going to fall out while I sleeep!"

I reassure her that if it didn't fall out while she ate, etc. during the day, she should be fine for the night. "But I grind my teeth!"

"So you do. So what if it does fall out," I say.

"I might swallow it!"

"Well you'd probably be just fine," I say.

Brows narrow with concern..."Well, would I get any money though?"

Here is Naomi at Awana on Rainbow Night. She was happy with the outfit she'd selected, though became slightly disturbed when a friend of ours, Mr. Chris, said "Hey, you look just like Mork!" She doesn't know who Mork is, but Mork was not what she was trying to be, and plus sounded dorky. Not good. Other than that, she felt pretty cool in her Colorful Concoction. The picture of her running I caught incidentally when I came into the gym on an errand, and there she was running as fast as she could to win the game... I know it's blurry, but I like the colors, and how you can see her little form.

Eva and Naomi have been fascinated by Siamese Twins for the past few months. We have seen pictures of some twins, and some video clips on the internet where the twins are interviewed, and share their amazing adaptions to a world designed for individuals. The girls have learned that "Siamese twins" is not the title most prefer, because, of course, they are not actually Siamese. "Conjoined Twins" is preferable. Anyway, so they talk a lot about what would be different in life as such a twin, etc. They are quite open minded about it, and have surprised my old, already-made-up mind by thinking of several things that would be great about being a Siamese, "No Conjoined!" twin. In fact, it began to get so interesting and appealing that they decided they would like to try it. But lacking the tools and know-how to preform such a surgery, they instead found a quick solution- Daddy's vest. A blissful twenty minutes was spent conjoined inside. However, things took a turn for the worst when Bubby invited himself in as triplet. The conjoinees could no longer stand upright, or maintain civility. Alas, with all that violence trapped inside of one coat, I had no time for photos, but had to perform the delicate surgery single-handedly, and separate my little brood. Sometimes three is, in fact, a crowd.

altruism averted

This is a picture taken of the kids while hiking at Fort Flagler this fall...

And a memorable conversation this morning... Naomi went outside to pick some of the last strawberries of the season that she spotted from the kitchen window. She came in with one nice large berry, and several small berries. Thoughtful enough not to eat the strawberry herself, but unsure of the level of her generosity, she asked...

"How will we split this big berry, mom?"

"We can split it like we split the berry at breakfast- into fourths."

"Hmmm. OK. Well, can I not have the fourth with the hole in it, please?"

"Who do you think should have the hole, then?"

"Um. I don't know- just not me."

"Well I want you to pick someone deserving, then, if you think it shouldn't be you."

"Well... How about you!"

"Oh. Why me?"

"Well, because you are nice!"

"Oh, I'm nice so I deserve the piece with the hole? And if I'm nice, what are you?"

"Well, I'm nice too. It's just, moms are the most nice. And they say things like 'oh I'll have the piece with the hole.' "

"What do you think you'll do when you are a mom?"

"Hmmm...... Well, I just won't plant any strawberries."

the truth in love

So I've already posted about our trip to BC, but a few things came out Josiah's mouth that I just can't let be forgotten...

#1- Josiah and I were alone in Grandmom's kitchen, looking at the pictures on her fridge...

"Mama who are those people in this picture?"

"That is Siphiwe, and that is Grandmom."

"Huh! That does NOT look like Grandmom! Is she still old in that picture?"

"Um, well, one goes from being young to old, and doesn't go back to being young, so..."

"Well, how long HAS she been old? Like, dozens of years?"

"Why don't you just run upstairs and ask her!" (He did)

#2 Josiah in the back doorway with Grandmom, and spots some tools she had been using outside

"Grandmom, whose tools are those?

"Those are mine, dear."

"Yours! You can't have tools- you don't do any work!!"

"Ha! I do plenty of work, dear!"

"But you CAN'T do work- if you did, you would be strong! And really, you're an old lady!"

(Thank God for Grandmom's great sense of humor and ready laugh!)

#3 We had just returned from hours at Dim Sum. Josiah had barely survived the near torture of staying seated while "yucky things" plopped onto his plate, and looking longingly at the tanks of cool sea creatures (to look at! not EAT!) who were calling him over for a visit. Finally home after NOT eating, he was very hungry... Grandmom cheerfully opened two tins full of little cookies for him to eat at will. He sighed in pleasure, bit into a sugary cookie, closing his eyes and shaking his head slowly with his hand on his chest, he said, "Oh, Grandmom... These cookies just bless my heart."

"JOURNEY TO NOWHERE" BOOK REVIEW

I, Eva, just finished a book called "Journey to Nowhere," by Mary Jane Auch. It is about an 11 year old girl named Remembrance- Mem for short. Her family has to travel from Connecticut to Lake Ontario. My favorite part is when Mem amd Mama are hiding the special cake for the cabin raising, and they say they hiding it from any animal, especially Mem's little brother, Joshua! I would really recommend reading this book, because it is so interesting and exciting.



by Eva

summer's end

A few photos from last week when the weather was warm... We have several plum trees in the back corner of our yard but the plums are so hard to reach, we usually don't get many of them. The kids were overwhelmed by their sweet smell last week, and persuaded me to go to the neighbor's house to pick from her yard where the branches hang down lower- much easier. We soon filled two large buckets. Eva quickly volunteered to wash and pit them. (She has been learning a lot about cooking lately, and says, "I always feel happy when I'm working in the kitchen.") We made most of them into a big batch of plum sauce, canned the sauce, then ran out of steam for that task and froze the rest! Preserving the harvest is lots of work.

Naomi and Josiah helped to pick the plums, and ate probably dozens in the process, but elected to stay outside during the follow-up. They hauled out Josiah's dinosaur collection and set up quite a scene by the garden. When Josiah plays dinos by himself, they mostly just take turns eating each other or scaring people. When Naomi plays with him, it's totally different, and they call it playing "Green Brothers." Most of the dinosaurs are in a semi-good-guy gang of sorts, and they are the Green Brothers. The others are the outsiders, shunned for their terrrible-ness. They have never had a name before, but on this day it was decided that those frightening outsiders should be called "The Smith Brothers." (milk, anyone?)

They play like this for hours. At their age, this is their work. They wake up, and are quickly busy with imaginative play like this, or any other random sort of activity. The other day it was making boats, inner-tubes and swimwear out of paper, string and tape for all the little figures they have so that they could take them out for a day of water sports on the lake that is the spiral staircase. And this all before breakfast.

Notice Naomi's missing teeth- three are gone now. The first was tied to the doorknob by Eva (Naomi shut the door) the second pulled out by Daddy (Naomi's request) and the last she pulled out with her own hand- a fact that she is proud of.

Josiah is holding scarlet runner beans- he loves to peel away the green "wrapper" and carefully take them out... He says they look like a sunset.