Snow!!!

I have had several requests for pictures of the insane amount of snow that we were blessed with. Here they are! It ended up being just about a foot of snow, as you can see with Carver in the front yard up to his knees. The pile he's in front of is the pile the snow-plow left for us. Who knew it would be such a great toy?

The pile on the driveway is the pile I made shoveling they other day. That's just in front of David's parking spot. And here are me and the kids out attempting to sled. Ellie did not do very well. She got very scared watching Carver go down, and refused to go with me. I put her on the sled and pulled her back to the house, since it was so deep that she couldn't really walk. However, we hit a bump and I ended up dumping her face-first in the snow. That has confirmed her conviction (for this year, at least) that snow is not something to be directly involved with, ever. She went inside to Dad and hot chocolate, and Carver and I had a great time.

Quote of the Day

Over the past two days, we have gotten about a foot of snow. Now, for us, this is absolutely wonderful. The big kids and I went out today and played, sledded, and shoveled while Laura napped. I don't think we've ever gotten this much snow. The major downside is that our neighborhood, and especially our cul-de-sac are often the last to get plowed. Because we're not in the city, our HOA contracts with the county to have the work done. Often, it doesn't happen for a while. Today, the truck came around, cleared all the main roads in our neighborhood, and even part of our road, but completely neglected to do the cul-de-sac itself. Bad, very bad for those of us at the end who happen to drive Honda Accords whose wheels aren't even clearing the snow.

We have a neighbor who used to be the president of the HOA board, and is still very involved in goings-on around the neighborhood. He's a very nice guy, but admittedly does not keep tabs on the academic world. (Believe me, I don't have a problem with that--there are enough snobs at IU!) When we first moved in, he asked David why we were here, and David explained that he was working on his Ph.D. Fast forward to tonight--he called the county to have them send someone out to finish clearing our cul-de-sac. Then he came and knocked on our door, telling David that he had called them to have them come back out. He said, "I told them they needed to come back out--we have a doctor at the end of the street who can't even get out!"

Picture of the Day

Future Men

The Many Faces of Ellie

Since we've been spending so much time indoors lately, I've been practicing with my camera the past few days. My goal is to learn how to best use natural light indoors to avoid the flash at all costs, which I've always thought gives you goofy pictures. I've also just gotten a new book on photography, Jim Miotke's Photographing Children, which has made me want to take pictures all the more. Hopefully, you'll be seeing some of the results in upcoming posts!

Since we're on the subject...

How about this tiny town? Here's a great starter house. However, for our 3+ children, I think I might go for this one...

Moving

While we are still at least a year and a half away from David finishing his Ph.D and moving, we still dream about (and google home prices) where we may end up. While we would love to end up on the West Coast, here is the main reason the midwest holds so much appeal for me. Look at the size of that house! And the price! It's amazing. If you're looking for more reasons, how about this one? Or this one? However, this one wins the prize for size-to-cost ratio for me. Unfortunately, in this little midwest town, there is only one real college, and I'm pretty sure David would rather sell insurance or perhaps continue on-line teaching for Ivy Tech Community College than teach there. Well, if wishes were horses...

An Exciting Friday!

Today has been a particulary exciting day, which is a great blessing in the middle of dreary January. The weather is currently a balmy 49 degrees, which meant that the little neighbor girl was at our door, knocking, at 9 AM, asking if the kids would come outside and play (and yes, I might have still been in my bathrobe). After telling her that the kids would be out at 11, we hurried through school, which included tracing their bodies onto pieces of posterboard so that we can learn about parts of the body. Then we bundled up and headed out. Much to Ellie's (and my) surprise, she is now able to pedal the pedals on her bike and tricycle. Her leg muscled are a little weak, though, so I helped by pushing stealthily from behind.

49 is actually a little warmer than I had imagined, so after about 15 minutes, the kids had their hats and mittens off, though I would not let Ellie take her coat off. While they played, I was able to work on my bedraggled front planter, so that it went from this:
to this! I know, it's not a huge improvement, but cutting away old dead stuff means that spring is coming (eventually)! BTW, I think I might have cut away a little too much of my coral bells plant (real name: heucheura, but I can't pronounce that). Are you supposed to cut those back to the ground every year? Mom, Carol, any ideas?

The other reason that I was so eager to get the kids out of the house was that out piano tuner paid us a visit today. To fix sticky keys, he ended up taking apart some of the keyboard, which the kids and I found fascinating. In this picture, Carver is standing right next to me, absolutely refusing to go stand next to the disembodied keys. I think they scared him.

While the piano tuner and I discussed future maintenance, the kids unloaded the dishwasher. While I at first thought this was a great idea, I didn't really think through all the possibilities before letting little Laura help.


Voila!

And, it's only 1:30. After naps, we're off to run errands, finishing up with the library. Can you imagine how loopy I'll be tonight?

In Memory...

Warning: may only be found amusing by the staunch conservatives in the audience (hi, Mom!)

New Recipes!

While Laura napped today and David and Carver had an event to attend, Ellie and I tried a few new recipes. The first was Curry Pumpkin Soup, and I loved it. It had both curry and pumpkin pie spice, which made the whole house smell like the Indian restaurant that I love here in town.

2 T. butter

2 medium onions, chopped (1 cup)

1 medium carrot, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 stalk celery, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 tsp. curry powder

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I improvised with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice)

2 15-0z cans pumpkin

2 14-oz cans chicken broth

2/3 cup water

1 cup half-and-half (I substituted 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup milk)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1. In 4-quart Dutch over melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, carrot, and celery. Cook, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add curry powder and pumpkin pie spice. Cook and stir 1 minute. Add pumpkin, broth, and water. Increase heat to medium-high; bring to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

2. In food processor or blender, add one-third of the pumpkin mixture at a time, cover, and process or blend until smooth. Return all pumpking mixture to Dutch oven.

3. Stir half-and-half, salt and pepper int opumpking mixture; heat through.

The second was Blackberry Swirl Pie. Unfortunately, we have not tried it yet (we're saving it for small group tonight), so I'll give you the recipe simply because it looks amazing!

1 uncooked pie crust

1 8-oz. package dairy sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

3 T. flour

1/8 tsp. salt

3 cups fresh blackberries or 16-oz. frozen blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 450. Let frozen berries stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare pastry and line 9-inch pie plate. Line pastry with double thickness of foil. Bake 8 minutes. Remove foil. Bake 4 minutes more or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. Reduce oven to 350.

2. In bowl combine sour cream, sugar, flour, and salt. Add blackberries and gently stir to combine. Spoon into prebaked crust. To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake 25 minutes (50 minutes if using frozen berries). Remove foil. Bake 20 minutes more or until filling is bubbly and appears set. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve or cover and refrigerate.

Obsessive-Compulsive Organizing

The topic at our moms group yesterday was organizing your house. As you can imagine, this is a topic that I was almost drooling over (attractive picture, I know). I learned a lot of good tips, and was newly inspired to tackle some of our problem areas: our closets. There are 4 in particular that, while not totally horrendous, are a little jumbled. I figured if I could clear some extra space in there for other stuff, we'll have more room in general once the baby gets here! Space around here is getting to be a pretty hot commodity as the kids get bigger. The added bonus to my cleaning plan is that the upstairs in our house is a full 7-8 degrees warmer than the downstairs, and as our outside temperatures drop to around zero for the next few days, I'm doing everything in my power to stay upstairs!

So, the kids and I tackled the walk-in closet in the girls room that has always served as the landing place for junk. David got a head start on me here, cleaning out some of his electronics several days ago to sell on ebay. We dug all the way to the back, where I have been storing 5 boxes, mysteriously labeled "Anna-high school--do not open." Well, we opened them and found a treasure chest of goodies! The girls found old jewelery, prom dresses, prom shoes, mardi gras beads, and lace gloves to add to their dress-up collection. I found a million stuffed animals to throw away (ahhh--so cathartic!), in addition to a million high school trophies that have also now gone the way of the garbage truck. Don't worry-I did save the important ones. Carver found an old picture of Dad playing the guitar that I had thought was long-lost. I also found a piece of jewely that I had given up for lost--bonus! All in all, we went through 5 boxes, put 3 large bags out for the trash guys, 1 in the trunk of the car for goodwill, and put 1 small box back in the closet with diplomas and old pictures. Success!

Here are the girls in some of the mardi gras beads. Ellie also found 3 beanie babies (remember those?) that she took an immediate liking to.


Here's Ellie, trying on the procelain mask that I brought home from Mardi Gras in high school (also pictured: previously mentioned lace gloves):

Here's Laura, trying to drink out of a miniature china pitcher that we found. This, among a few other things, was one of the memorabilia items I saved to use to decorate the girl's room.

Coming soon: the 2nd half of this closet, and then on to Carver's closet!

2 New "Firsts"

...for our family, that is.

#1--We used two carts for our weekly Wal-Mart run yesterday. Ellie and Laura were in one cart, groceries in the other. We have reached new heights of parenthood. Pros: you can prettymuch take up an entire Wal Mart aisle if you stand side-by-side having a discussion about what product to buy. Cons: It is made painfully obvious to others that you have a lot of small children (and they often feel free to comment on that fact. When shopping alone, I find this discouraging, but with David, it's often more humorous).


#2--We had venison for dinner tonight! Actually, our first venison was several weeks ago when I accidentally pulled some frozen ground venison out of the freezer, thinking it was ground beef. It was well disguised in spaghetti though, and you really couldn't tell what it was. Tonight, however, we had venison stew, and it turned out very well. Here's Laura, grinning for the camera:

Here's Carver, taking a huge bite of the yummy meat. Oh wait, that's rice!!!

Carver did eat it, and thought it was very cool to be eating "deer." And here's David, being charming as usual!

Christmas in California

As some of you know, we spent Christmas with David's family in California this year. We flew out Christmas Day, and got back on Monday. We were able to spend about 4 total day with David's entire family--all of his siblings and their families. All total, it was 9 adults and 4 kids, and it made for a few zany days! Our kids got to meet their cousin Davy for the first time, and they loved it. He's only 9 months, and I think they were expecting him to be able to run around with them, so they'll have to wait until next time for that.


Here's the entire crew, including Grandma Talcott:


Here are the cousins!




Here's Joy with the two big kids, taking a break after running on the San Clemente Beach Trail for a while:

And, our last night there, Joy taught little Laura how to play Nintendo! (Actually, you'll notice her controller is different from Joy's--her's isn't plugged in, but don't tell :)

We had a wonderful week and a great Christmas, and we're looking forward to the next visit!