Chicago!

This past weekend, we drove up to Chicago for a visit with my family. David was going anyway for a philosophy conference, so we all decided to go. My parents flew in from Spokane, and I picked them up at the airport on Friday, and my sister took the train from Hillsdale and got in late Friday night. We stayed right downtown, about 3 blocks from the school I went to the semester I lived there. Friday night we went to a classic Chicago pizza place, Giordano's. It was good, but we're not sure it lives up to Pizzeria Uno. Saturday we took the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was awesome. I wondered several times why Bloomington's WonderLab isn't that awesome, and had to remind myself that we were in Chicago. If we lived there, I would totally buy one of their yearly passes. Then you could stay for two hours, long enough to wear the kids out, but feel free to leave when they lost it. As it was, we left when they lost it, but missed several of the good exhibits.

Here are the kids and Auntie BJ checking out the display of chicks hatching (real ones) in the genetics section:




Here are people waiting in line to see the German U-Boat they have on display.


My Mom was actually present at all of these events, but for some reason the camera never found her.

Saturday evening we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, and then crashed at the hotel. Sunday was breakfast together, and then back home!

It was a great weekend. It was nice to see my parents, who we haven't seen since our August trip. It was fun to be in Chicago again, where I haven't been since I lived there and remember all the places I used to walk. And, it was great to get away for a few days! Thanks for the trip, Mom and Dad!






Update: I just realized that blogger put all the pictures in reverse order of the way I wanted them. Due to lack of time to fix it right now, I'll let you figure out which picture goes with which description :).

New Shoes!

In preparation for an upcoming anniversary trip with my husband, I bought a new pair of shoes! (Any excuse for a new pair of shoes is a good excuse, right?)



David is taking me to Boston, and my mother-in-law, who is as brave as a lion, is coming to stay with the kids for 7 1/2 days. Anyway, Boston is a city with lots of historical walking stuff to do. The last pair of new tennis shoes I had survived Laura's pregnancy, so I figured it was probably time for a new set. Instead of just getting boring Nike's, though, I found these awesomely cute shoes on zappos.com.

They arrived today, and I immediately tried them on. They are insanely comfortable, and the purple shoe laces are just fun. However, the best part has been the packing and information that came with the shoes. They are made by a brand I've never heard of, Simple. They specialize in shoes made from recycled materials. So, my soles are made of recycled tires (cleaned up, I assume), the laces are bamboo, and the canvas upper is not canvas, but...HEMP. They are indeed, happy shoes.

Ellie update

David and I have been worrying lately about Ellie's extreme mood swings and exczema. We had decided about two weeks ago to try and see if there was some food allergy behind all of this, and we think we have found a winner! She seems to be allergic to wheat, or gluten, I'm not entirely sure which. My initial thought was dairy, since all of us seem to have sensitivities to dairy. But, much to my surprise, I found that she would be fine after a bowl of ice cream, but crying and miserable after baked ziti and bread. After watching her closely for a few more days, we decided to try to cut the wheat out of her diet (no easy task around here!). While I have not seen a huge improvement in her overall exczema yet, I have definitely noticed fewer mood swings in the evening. Also (maybe somebody can explain this to me?), the times when she has wheat now, she reacts more severely than she ever did before. It's like her system has cleared out of a lot of the problem, and letting any back in just causes her little body to go bonkers. Today, for instance, she had a flour tortilla for lunch. Soon afterward, she was cranky, and her face, especially eyes, had puffed up like crazy. She started scratching at her eyes and her wrists (the wrist scratching used to be a classic after-dinner activity). While she's mellowed out a little since then, her face is still swolen and I just gave her some Benadryl to give her some relief. Poor kid.

I was a little daunted at the prospect at cutting wheat entirely out of our diet, but it's not turning out to be as bad as I had imagined. A lot of what we eat does not contain flour until I add bread as a side. We can start substituting rice and potatoes instead. I e-mailed a friend of mine who eats a gluten-free diet, and she had some great suggestions and recipes, especially a recipe for gluten-free pizza. I can't wait to try it. Fortunately, our family eats enough now that I can justify making normal pizza for some and GF pizza for others. While I am not entirely sure if she is allergic just to wheat or to gluten in general, it does not look like she has celiac disease to me. But don't worry, the next time we're at the pediatrician for a well-baby visit, I'll ask him to have her tested for all.

So, if you have any recipes based on rice and potatoes instead of pasta, let me know!

No Princesses Here...

The rule with toy guns in our house has been that Carver may not shoot at unarmed innocents (Ellie, Laura, ME), but he may shoot at armed villians (Dad). About a year ago, Ellie no longer wanted to stand by and watch the Carver-Dad shoot-outs, so she figured out how to make a gun "shooting" sound, and started participating. The other day, I caught Carver in the kitchen shooting Laura. I reprimanded him, and told him he may not shoot his sister. He looked at me and said, "But mom, she was shooting me!" Yeah. Right.

Today at lunch, I watched as Laura "shot" Carver with a Dorito (don't worry, Mom, it was a special treat). I am not kidding. She had figured out how to make the same gutteral shooting sounds that the big kids make. Amazing. Carver burst out laughing and immediately started shooting back. Lunch dissolved into a shoot-out, and I went to clean the kitchen.

Pachelbel's Canon Humor

Warning: some lyrics not appropriate for medium-sized children who can talk (I would know, since they're now running around the house singing them).

The Children of Greene Knowe

I've decided to try to write up a little review of the books that I've finished reading. I think it will be helpful for me to try to remember the content of what I've read (yeah, go ahead and laugh), and I can attempt to improve my writing skills. Ha ha. So, at the risk of offending the person who loaned me the book and my children's favorite non-grandparent babysitter, I'm going to start with The Children of Greene Knowe, by LM Boston.

The book starts with a sad young boy named Toseland sitting on a train, off to visit his great-grandmother for the Christmas holiday. Upon arrival at his grandmother's castle, she promptly rechristens him "Tolly," and they become good friends. Soon it becoms apparent that the castle is magical, inhabited by the spirits of his ancestors; in particular, a set of 3 siblings about his age. As the story unfolds, Tolly is led into their magical world and won over by their personalities. The book climaxes on Christmas Eve, when Tolly triumphs over an evil curse laid on the castle centuries ago, aided by his 3 friends.

The book was beautiful. The language was so much fun to read, and would be so easy to read aloud. Carver is probably a bit young, but in just a few years, I think he would be able to follow the story line and not be scared by the evil curse at the end. The descriptions were amazing, and the story-telling superb. And, I am always amazed at the imaginations of those who can concoct such stories. I love reading them, but I will never have the creative genius to be able to do it.

Here is the reason I will not read aloud to Carver in a few years (sorry!): there are two looming issues of gender and gender roles that bother me.

First, Tolly has no male role-model to look up to. He is living with his grandmother, who is a distinctly feminine, though adventerous, character. His own father is far away and married to a woman that Tolly does not like (his own mother is dead). There is a male gardener in the story, but he bears no shaping influence on Tolly, though Tolly is allowed to tag along with him on several errands. The children that he loves are his own age, and although the boys are boy-ish, they are not father figures. Their own father, who is mentioned a few times, is a Captain, and away frequently. In my fiction choices at this young age, I would like to present Carver with stories of bravery and adventure that include a Dad (or some such figure) who is brave and Christ-like.

Second, Tolly could very easily be switched to "Tally," all the pronouns switched to "she" and the story would read the same. There is nothing that makes him distinctly a boy. In my short experiences with children, this is unrealistic. The spirits of the young girl and her brothers that Tolly is forever chasing are always playing together--there is never any separation, and all the activities that they do are completely androgenous. The boys carry swords, but it is only because they are perfect gentlemen, not because they ever play-fight with them. All the children sit quietly and feed the woodland animals, naming them and petting them. In fact, when the encounter with the evil Green Noah spirit occurs, it is the little girl that gives Tolly the courage to stand up to him, while her brothers tell her to "shhh!" While I am not going to discourage my girls from showing courage, I want them to understand that God has arranged our world in such a way that men (and boys, in this case) are there to protect them, not the other way around.

There is one other aspect of the book that makes it not an ideal read for small children: the complete absence of true faith. The children are mentioned believing that saints are real (a statue of St. Christopher lives in the garden), and they attend mass a few times, but that is the extent of the religious instruction. Christmas is viewed as a magical time, not a time to think about God's plan for redeeming His people through His Son. I do not think that all books must have some obviously Christian aspects. There are many books that I read to the kids, like Corduroy, or Winnie-the-Pooh, that are completely absent of any religion whatsoever. What worries me about this book is the presence of common religious items, like saints and mass, that have magical powers. And, in this particular case, this is a very Catholic (as in Roman Catholic) depiction. Saints, mass, nothing deeper than that. No understanding of the gospel.

And, there is another issue that I am not even going to touch: the issue of magic in children's literature. I don't know what I think, and I don't know where this book fits on the continuum from Narnia to Harry Potter. But, there is a lot of magic here. So there you have it.

Now, just in case you are worried that these will be my criteria for literature for my children until they reach college, let me reassure you. I would not read this to Carver right now. What I would do is give it to him as a 10- or 12- year old with perhaps a worksheet of questions, or a note in my own mind to discuss these issues with him as he reads the book. He would still get exposed to the beautiful language and fascinating story, but at an age where he would be better able to evaluate some of these important issues in light of what he knows about the Gospel and what the Bible says about the way the world is.

Sick

Apparently, the stomach flu has decided to make its rounds again in our family. Pure joy. Ellie spent the afternoon wrapped up in her quilt (which is relatively easy to wash, compared to the items that David took to the laundrymat this afternoon), first listening to Carver read a new book, and then watching a movie. She's actually pretty happy--she'll smile for you; but she's not moving around very much.

Grocery Prices

A friend and I recently had a discussion about whose grocery prices in town are the best. Kroger and Marsh were completely out of the running, being actual overpriced supermarkets. The options we considered were 1)Sam's Club; 2) Wal Mart Supercenter; and 3) Aldi. We left the organic foodstores in town unconsidered, since if you want organic, you are willing to pay the price for it.

Fortunately for me, all three of these stores are on our side of town, all within about 3 blocks of one another. So, over the past week, I have been carting my notebook around while I grocery shop, trying to write down prices for things I would normally buy. For my fellow grocery shoppers knowledge, I would like to start by saying that Wal Mart will match any price found in a coupon for Kroger or Marsh. How awesome is that? While I have not tried it, it almost completely eliminates the need to go to Kroger, even when they have their famous $10/10 sales, or a great price on a 12-pack of soda.

Here are the items that Aldi had the best price on:
brown sugar and powdered sugar (though they only had Sam's beat by a few cents per pound)
breakfast cereal* (Cherrios, Shredded Wheat, and Corn Chex--all the Aldi brand)
oatmeal*
wheat bread
bagels*
eggs*
sour cream*
spaghetti sauce in a jar (we love their spaghetti sauce)
grapes (one of the few produce items I'll buy at Aldi)
frozen stir-fry veggies

*these are items that are cheaper at Aldi, but for quality purposes, I spend the extra money and buy the better quality at Sam's. Sour cream, for example, is $0.99/16 oz. at Aldi, but has an ingredients list about 10 items long, including high fructose corn syrup. The Daisy brand at Sam's, however, is $3.87/ 3 lbs., but the ingredients list has 1 item: Grade A Cultured Cream. Eggs, I know, do not have ingredients, but I have always hated Aldi eggs. They don't peel well when hard boiled, and they're small. And, in general, I hate shopping at Aldi. It's not kid-conducive, and I feel like the quality is always just a little sub-par, if not majorly sub-par. Our exception is their spaghetti sauce, which we really like. I've started running by Aldi once a month without kids and stocking up on spaghetti sauce for the whole month.

Here are the items that Sam's has the best price on (providing your family eats in quantity, like ours now does):
granola bars
bread flour and regular flour
diced tomatoes
frozen stawberries
mexican cheese, shredded
Silk Soymilk
butter
milk (I never buy this, but the price was $2.26/gallon--how crazy is that?!?)
carrots
garlic
potatoes
green, red, and yellow peppers
fruit, in general
fresh mozzarella cheese
Cabot sharp cheddar (same price as Wal Mart)
Thomasville english muffins
flour tortillas
meat (not only were their prices on all sorts of different cuts cheaper, but the quality, we feel, is so much superior to Wal Mart and Aldi that we won't consider buying meat anywhere else--try the steak!)

Wal Mart, sadly, could not beat any of the Sam's prices. So, we only buy the things from Wal Mart that Sam's doesn't carry. However, for some strange reason, Wal Mart will often have gas a few cents cheaper than Sam's. I don't know why--maybe a quality issue? You wouldn't think so with gas...)

Here's what's next on my list to try to save food costs: the Aunt Millie's bakery outlet just down the road. I'll let you know how it goes!

Crazy!

We have had a bit of a crazy weekend around here. Our church sponsored a parenting conference that ran Friday night and Saturday morning. They brought in Tedd Tripp, well-known for his great book, Shepherding a Child's Heart. While we have heard this talk before and read the book, David and I appreciated the reminder and encouragement in our parenting. The conference attracted a few out-of-towners, and we were lucky to have a younger couple and their two small children stay with us. They were fascinating people, which led to two very late nights for us. We enjoy opening up our home to people, but this particular case definitely takes the cake for most intriguing past jobs: this guy used to be a professional card counter. Yeah. Like in Vegas. Crazy! He got out of it because it was a little stressful. Uh...yeah.

After the conference got over Saturday morning, the girls and I took naps (some slept more than others--but I won't say who :) while David took Carver up to his gun club in Martinsville to do some shooting. The weather was warm, so it was a little slushy from melting snow, but they both enjoyed themselves immensely. The picture above is from another guy who was out there, taken on his cell phone.

When David and Carver got back, we got to go on a date! Evan and Zoe had graciously volunteered to watch our kids, so we got to get out to a movie (DO NOT go see Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and dinner afterwards. Zoe took a few pictures and a video, and put them up on her blog. Go check it out!

A Nerdy Evening