Nostalgia

I tend to look pretty much everything up on the internet. I can't even tell you how many things I look up per week just out of curiosity. Last night, I was researching something or other and stumbled across an interesting idea for any parent to keep in mind. The article I was reading mentioned that people tend to recall events that are unique and/or infrequent occurrences in their lives (I believe the context was that because of this fact, it's not the expense that matters but the uniqueness when planning special outings).

I frequently wonder what memories my children will look back upon with special fondness. After reading that article last night, I think I might have a better clue. Thinking back on my own life, I do realize that nostalgia is a very funny thing. I may not have tons of vivid memories from early childhood, but those that I do have are in fact quite unique. One of my favorites involves my mom ironing while watching Hawaii 5-0 (which, I feel like she did often, but maybe it was actually a one time thing). While she ironed away, I sat in an inflatable yellow plastic raft (that we had apparently just bought and had blown up to test) eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sprinkled over the top. Given the fact that this all took place in our livingroom, it doesn't get much more unusual that that.

As a parent, I want memories like that one for my own kids. Of course, I can't select what they will recall later on in life, but as a stay-at-home mom, I can do my best to fill their young lives with potentially great memories. This is actually the number one reason I chose not to work especially while they're little. And, armed with this new information, maybe I can do a little better at choosing fun/unique activities that they will remember for years to come.

Activities like the pizza making from a few nights ago. Daddy was out of town, and if I know how to do anything, it's bread baking. I don't often make pizza, though they do love it. The other night, I had the appropriate ingredients and offered to let them make their own. They jumped at the chance to dig into the dough. They made the entire pizza dough from scratch themselves. The only thing I did was measure the ingredients and show them the proper way to knead. They had a ball (of dough! hee hee!) and were so proud to learn how delicious their very own homemade pizzas could turn out (and, they were perfect). Just take a look at how yummy they were...

Oh, and in case anyone would like to know...

The recipe for their mini-pizzas was pretty simple. I gave them each a cup of flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp yeast. They mixed that with a fork and then we started adding warm water. Once the mixture was a little moist, we added about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Then, we continued adding water till the dough was workable but not too wet. When it was a tiny bit sticky we just added a bit more flour to help get the kneading going. They kneaded for quite a while (adding more flour when necessary). This kept them both busy while I breastfed/got the baby down for a nap. When they were done, we let it rise for a while and then rolled it out and added the toppings.

You might notice there is no tomato sauce on this pizza. It was really good that way. It does have tomatoes, but I didn't just chop them up and toss them on there. I used to do that but found that the dough gets soggy in places when the tomato juices are released in cooking. This time, I chopped the tomatoes into chucks (slices would work too) and sprinkled salt over them. I let them sit for about 1/2 an hour in a collander placed over the sink (or a bowl to collect the juice if you want to use it for something else). This got just the right consistency for the pizza. So tasty, and they weren't sautéed in oil, so they'd definitely be lower fat (and, did I mention this was really easy?).

Still in keeping with the feel of nostalgia we've got going here... I made an apron. It took me forever to get it done. I used a man's button-down I got at the thrift shop for a euro in January. It was this shirt originally. I chopped it up to make it into this halter top apron. I can't get away with halter dresses, which are kind of sexy (but picture your grandma without a bra and that's what it'd be like on me), but I can do a halter apron. I love the look of this apron. It feels so very retro and kitcheny to me. I'm going to love it.

And, one last thought on nostalgia before I go. You might have noticed that I tend to take lots of pictures of my kids. You actually only see a small portion of those that I take. I try to select the best so that my family overseas can share the happy bits of our lives here. I took one photography course at the age of 19 (we won't get into how very long ago that was), and I didn't learn as much as I should have. I've got some of the basics down, but I recently stumbled across the text book I had for that class (which I'm almost certain I never actually read). I pulled it out and have begun to study it. I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth (I'm fully aware this is relative) surrounded by four of the most beautiful people on earth (Nope, this is not relative - it's just a fact). They are the ideal inspiration and subject matter for picture taking and have inspired me to improve my photography skills.

What I would really love is to be able to actually take pictures for a living. To get paid for doing something I find that fun would be amazing. For now, I just have a tourist digital camera. It is at least capable of being set on "manual" so that I can control all of its different functions, but I can't change it's lenses or anything fancy like that. I can't afford to go out and buy my dream camera, though, so I've decided to work on my framing and composition until the time that I will be able to afford a new one. Today, Lambchop #3 and I played around with some soft back lighting by putting a sheet over our heads. She found this to be great fun, but it might have been a little hard to snap the shot before she pulled the sheet off (I may or may not have erased more shots than I kept, which is the real beauty of digital cameras). I don't think our efforts were in vain, though (Mom and Aunt Dis and Uncle B, let me know if you'd like these sent via email so they're more printable)...

She's a keeper. That much is for sure.

Punk Rock Preschooler

Apparently, we're back to the stage of needing to make sure we're noticed. We've started decorating things we shouldn't with permanent markers again. **SIGH** Thank goodness he's cute...

This is his Marilyn Manson imitation.
As long as he doesn't start putting on fake boobs and red contact lenses (clicking here is not for the faint of heart), I'm okay with this.

This is what I see when I look up from my bed. It's the ceiling over the loft area we sleep in, which stretches over above the kitchen as well. I find it pretty. It's especially cool lit up only by moonlight or the blue light that my computer speakers emit when they're on.

It also makes a pretty cool background for portrait taking, I think...

And, one last little thing that isn't at all related to children or my house...

I died (yep, killed it dead - woops, I meant dyed) some wool the other day. I wanted to try out dyeing fabric with natural dyes. This was done with hibiscus flowers, which, according to the book I used, should have given the yarn a light mauve or pink color. Hmmm. Okay. Perhaps we should try again some other time. I'm sure that part of the problem is the fact that I needed 100g of petals for every 100g of yarn. I only had 75g of flowers, but decided to try it out and see what happened. This is also just some very cheap Knit Picks dye-your-own laceweight merino, which doesn't absorb colors as well as better quality yarns (as far as I've heard).

It started out looking like the yarn I'm using for this long lost baby shawl - just natural. Then, I threw it in the dye pot, which looked like this...

which led me to believe it would turn out a lot more pink than this...

I even let the mix sit for several days, hoping it would absorb a lot more color. I don't know why it didn't. Obviously, I'm no expert on the matter, but there was a lot of color left in the liquid when I strained it a couple of days later. I'm not sure how much is supposed to be left. I imagine the liquid wouldn't be clear in the end, but I was hoping for a bit of pink on the yarn. It's current color reminds me of Knit Picks' fawn colorway, even if it's possibly a bit lighter. It definitely took some color - just not the one I was expecting. Either way, I do kind of like the color it has. It's very antique looking, and it would make a lovely shawl, I would think. That or a lacey sweater, maybe. I'll have to think about that for a while.

Before I start in on that, I guess that baby shawl does deserve a little attention. But, before I do that, I'd like to sneak downstairs and attempt to finally finish the apron I've been working on in bits and pieces for the last week. It's taken entirely too long, because of other obligations and little set-backs like children needing my attention or lengthy hours of kitchen duty after making pizzas (from scratch) with the kids - more on that tomorrow, perhaps (because, like a good daughter to a grandmother far from her grandkids, I took pictures).

I Wish I Had One

They say you always give people gifts you wish you owned. I kind of pride myself on trying to give thoughtful gifts that are something the recipient would love to have. This time, though, I'd kind of like to keep it for myself...

Yesterday my husband mentioned that tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday. Normally, they don't make a big fuss about that kind of thing in his family. This time, though, since both my husband and his mother are leaving early tomorrow morning for a short business trip (he happened to be able to hitch a ride with her), she's staying the night at our place. I feel a bit funny about seeing someone on their birthday and practically ignoring it. So, I threw an easy apricot pie in the oven while our bread was baking. Then, it occurred to me that I could pretty easily make something I know she has been wanting out of some fabric I'm certain she would like.

I know all this, because the fabric is some beautiful batik (cotton or maybe linen) that she bought back in the 70's when my husband's family was living in Africa (he has fond memories of jumping from one dried elephant patty to the next). The last time I saw her, she gave it to me, happy to know it would finally be put to good use. She had seen how much I have been sewing lately and decided that I should have it. It was a spur-of-the-moment kindness, and I really wanted to make her something out of it, since she had said she had originally wanted to make something with it but never ended up doing so (she doesn't really sew much).

She may not be a seamstress, but she's an excellent knitter who always has something on her needles. She tends to stick to kids' sweaters for all her many grandchildren, but she still has amassed an amazing collection of various needles (big and small). She tends to jam them all into a glass jar (which we've probably all heard isn't great for their tips). What she really needed was a handy cloth needle case. So, I sat down and made one for her today. It got in the way of me finishing an apron I'm making for myself, but it's a sacrifice I was willing to make. Oh, woe is me, I was forced to use that nice, old sewing machine of mine (whose brand is Luxor, by the way - it's French made and dates from at least the early 50's, I'd say by the date on the needles that were in the box). Not to mention this batik fabric. So pretty, and I happened to have a pink corduroy that matched it perfectly (My husband seems to think that given the size of my fabric stash, this really isn't much of a coincidence, but he knows nothing when it comes to real fabric stashes - mine is meager, I assure you.).

The lining is the batik (from Kenya, since I forgot to mention it earlier) and the outside is the corduroy I had leftover from some pants for Lambchop #1 that didn't turn out all that well. I also had the idea that it would be pretty to add a patch of the batik (because I love it so much) to the outside as well as making the ties with it. The only problem with that is that in order for it to show nicely, it had to be placed where I needed to also sew lines for the needles to have little pockets. So, that part is not quite as nice as I had hoped, but she really liked it and was happy to receive such a practical gift (now I see where her son gets it). She isn't one for keeping many objects around, which explains why buying birthday gifts isn't a big thing in this family. But if the object in question has a really good purpose, she's happy to receive it, so I chose well.

Now that I take another look at the pictures of that patch of batik on the outside of it, I don't think it's that bad. You would never have it laying open like that, and it looks very nice rolled up with its patch. You don't see the lines I had to sew all that much.

And, now, just because my mom is having yet another of those days at the office, I'll give you a couple of baby pictures. This little one is a live wire, let me tell you. The other two walked at a pretty early age, so it doesn't surprise me to see her wanting to get around now. She's 9-and-a-half months, and for the past few weeks she's been able to make her way around the rooms of our house a little too well. She loves to pull herself up into a standing position now. Even though she can't walk yet, that doesn't seem to phase her. She's perfectly comfortable climbing things anyway. Yeah, you read right. Climbing things. Like stairs or my sewing box. You know, just whatever might help her get higher. Have to keep an eye on this girl.

Like a caged animal. "Somebody please let me out of here!"

"Better yet, my feet are little. Maybe I could learn to climb this thing."



It is hard work, though. She's just beside herself with... fatigue?

Here's To Brighter Days

In France, kids don't go to school on Wednesdays. They are often forced to go on Saturday morning to make up for it, but they get a free day in the middle of the week. It's a remnant of the days when schools became secular and the Catholic church apparently negotiated Wednesdays for learning about God and the church (do they capitalize "The Church"?). Anyway, France isn't really much of a religious country these days, and I guess anyone so inclined could just send their kids to parochial school. So, most kids do sports or other extra curricular activities on Wednesdays. Lambchop #1 will probably start dance next year or something. Until then, though, I have to figure out what to do with the kids every Wednesday so they don't destroy the house.

Since the weather got nice, I've been driving them over to the beach every Wednesday (okay, since last week, but I plan to keep doing it) and Saturday. I've decided it's a really good way to kill several hours, since it's only a 20-25 minute drive from here (nothing is less than 10 minutes, so that's pretty close). I'm considering spending most of our summer mornings there, too. That way they won't be too bored. They seem to wreck the house when they get too imaginative. I don't want to stifle their creativity, but when they build "a house" - watch out. Today the water was particularly wonderful. We just waded in a little, since I've got all three of them to watch, but it sure felt great, and the kids love playing in the sand and water.

Knowing I'm not at a size I plan to stay at, I haven't bought myself a bathing suit in years. I'm kind of figuring I could just make myself one when I get to the size I want to be at. Until then, I have an ugly suit I bought in between Lambchop #1 and Lambchop #2. It was the only thing in the entire store that fit my chest size (always a problem here in France). I have another one, too, but it was a maternity horror show (again, the only thing in the store that fit my chest - though it was in the US). It's blue and white gingham, which I could live with, but the top was like a skirt/dress thing. Not a pretty sight unless your under 4 years old, and in a place where women frequently go topless, it looks a bit absurd. Seemed like a waste to just throw it away, though, because even if I took it to the charity shop, no one would want it. So, I modified it to fit me now. It worked pretty well, and is very comfy since it has a bit of a boob shelf (unlike the one I bought here), which I really do need. I'll try to get a picture of it sometime to show you what I did.

Until then, I'll have to just show off our sleeping beauty. I decided to take a few shots in Sepia mode today. I guess I was feeling a little whimsical or something. The real reason I took this picture, though, is that my mom sounded like she was having a rough time at work these days, so I figured she could use a little pick-me-up (you know, since coming into work drunk off margaritas is probably frowned upon). Hope this brightens your day, Mom.

A Horrible End

(FIGHTING OVER CAMERA TIME)

I've recently been finding large ants in our bed. I only come across one at a time, so I never know where they're coming from. I usually just squash them when I feel them crawling on my skin at night. Not fun, but what else can I do? There's at least some amount of justice in this world, though.

One of them met a very gruesome end this morning. It apparently crawled into the baby's nose, got tangled in snot and could not escape. It must have been ugly, so where's my sympathy? Ask me that again the next time you're awakened by a car-sized black ant nibbling on your knee. Besides, it most likely bit my sweet, angelic sleeping baby, so it surely deserved what it got, right?

On a lighter note... or maybe not. I'm not sure. On a different note at least...

I've figured out why kids' songs really aren't for Mommy and Daddy. You might think it's just because they're irritating and repetitive, but it's the content we should avoid thinking to hard on. Take this one as an example:

This old man, he played one
He played knick-knack on my thumb [some versions use "drum"]
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played two
He played knick-knack on my shoe
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played three
He played knick-knack on my knee
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played four
He played knick-knack on my door
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played five
He played knick-knack on my hive
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played six
He played knick-knack on my sticks
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played seven
He played knick-knack up in heaven
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played eight
He played knick-knack on my gate
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played nine
He played knick-knack on my spine [some versions use "line" here]
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

This old man, he played ten
He played knick-knack once ag'n [some versions use "on my hen" here]
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

We all know it well, but have we ever really analyzed its lyrics? I sing it to my kids all the time, but yesterday, I saw it for what it really is for the very time ever. And, I was disturbed. Yeah, take a look at it a second time....

Who is this perverted old man, anyway? I'm not sure what knick-knack paddywhacking is, but it sounds suspicious to me. The old perv starts out innocently enough with doing his paddywhacking on my thumb and my shoe, but he soon works his way up to my knee. The old dog - we all know what a bone is. And, then you just can't get rid of the geezer. He starts stalking me. He's at the door. The gate. He's even worked his way up to my spine. Apparently, though, by the count of seven somebody's getting a bit fed up and tries to knock him off (though, I'd doubt with his behavior that he's heading off to heaven). It didn't really seem to work all that well, though, because by the count of ten, he's back at it again.

And, we're singing this too our kids. Between that and Hansel and Gretel, it's amazing they're not all in therapy by the age of 6.

Catchy tune, though, don't you think?

Anyone just completely unsettled by my mind's random wanderings? What can I say? I spend hours upon hours with kids' music and tv in the background. A mom's got to have a little fun. Anyway, I blame my parents. This kind of humor runs in the family - a family where the game of pool (where technical words like "stroke," "balls" and "stick" are said with a straight face) is really popular.

Oh, and for those who are concerned about the state of my house... I made some real progress on the baker's rack. It got mostly emptied (though much more organized piles of things still awaiting a home can be found on two shelves), and two of the shelves now have nice arrangements of pots and pans on them. Maybe we should make a little challenge for ourselves to post pictures of our worst clutter spots and vow to clean them up and then post the after shots. A little support group for those who tend to bury their heads in their knitting so as not to see the mess around them? Anybody with me on that one? I know it might take away from your knitting time for a while, but it'll be worth it if you can find those extra yarn balls hiding under a pile of old newspapers.

Banging Your Head Against A Wall

This evening, I found two bumble bees smacking their little heads and their probiscus (is probisci the plural there?) against a metal pole. There was apparently an odor that attracted them to it, but I don't know if they were able to get any of that lovely iron nectar they were after. It was pretty funny to me, so I took a little picture of one. Plus, they're unlike any bumble bees I've ever seen in the US, so I figured I'd show them off for my American readers (some day, I'll get a nice shot of the huge all black bees they have here - fascinating). After taking pictures of them, I realized how appropriate it was for my current mood. I feel a little like I'm banging my head against a metal pole, too. Here's why...

Having the duty of taking care of laundry and dishes and other miscellaneous messes for five is a daunting task. They work so much faster than I do. First, they outnumber me by far. And, then, they are so efficient at what they do. It can take me days to thoroughly clean a room, yet during the time it takes me to take an afternoon nap, they can not only undo all my hard work, but they can also rearrange the furniture and other things they hadn't thought to do before I cleaned. It's quite impressive, really, and if I weren't so busy trying to pick up after them, I'd been in awe of their talent. They're just that good.

The kitchen is the room I would most like to get under control (or at least some semblance of control). Like in many households, our kitchen somehow ends up being the command center of the house. There is so much more than eating and cooking going on in this room. They color at the table, even though they have a desk in their playroom. They play on the floor there sometimes. And, we can't forget that the kitchen is often turned into my sewing room while a cake or a loaf of bread bakes in the oven. Naturally, every time someone does a non-food related task in the kitchen, bits and pieces of their project (my sewing included) seem to find a semi-permanent home there. It's frustrating, and I never even come close to fully controlling this room. I think the thing I have the most difficulty with is the fact that (through no fault of the kids), every horizontal surface in the room becomes a junk space. We don't have a junk drawer, and since my husband still hasn't gotten around to making the majority of the closets and shelves that should be in our new house, I'm left with few storage options.

Tonight before dinner, I had a very strong desire to clean the kitchen from top to bottom. After dinner, I scanned the room to take stock. That's when I became paralyzed by a sense of being overwhelmed by the mess and all motivation drained from my body in a matter of seconds. Well, that's not really true. I still have a strong desire - a need really - to clean that room. I just don't know where to start. I always have trouble putting my blinders on and zeroing in on one section of the room at a time. Then, there's the very real issue that most of the things I see lying around don't have a real home of their own. So, I stand there aimlessly shifting objects from one pile to the next. Needless to say, none of this helps either my mood or the general appearance of the house.

I'm a little down now after wanting to dive in and get something done but spending too long standing around lost in my own home. And, when faced with this sort of problem what do all bloggers do to tackle it? Why, we blog, of course. I don't tend to talk much about this part of my life. It's a little too depressing, and I'd rather show off the kids and my sewing or knitting projects. Call it denial. I don't care. You'd most likely be right. After all, staring into this 14 or so inch box as I type these words certainly prevents me from looking around the room at the chaos around me.

Now, I generally choose not to be 100% honest about this part of my life. Well, I don't really lie. I just conveniently omit it when I blog. Some of you recently were amazed at all the sewing I seem to get done. It's largely due to the fact that I can ignore messes much like the one pictured here when my nose is buried in a bunch of fabric. This is a satisfactory solution as long as I continue to sew (hence the amazing productivity). Again some may refer to this behavior as denial, but I prefer to call it attention displacement. Sounds fancier that way.

It may seem a bit perverse or silly for me to snap a picture of this mess and post it on the internet (my mom is surely hanging her head in shame at the sight of it). My reasons are valid, though. First, I figure I'm not the only one out there with some section of their home that looks this way. It can only be comforting to those people to know they are not alone. Second, if I post a picture and claim I'm going to clean this mess up, I just might stick to it and show you the finished picture, where my lovely pots and pans might find a neat and tidy home here on the rack they used to love back before I had kids and a husband. And, third, I think taking a picture could help me to better focus on just this small area long enough to clean it without feeling overwhelmed. Just looking at it here as I write this post, I see a few items whose homes would be easy enough to find. I could clear them pretty easily. Standing in the kitchen looking at this rack, I was too shocked by the mess in its entirety to see the individual parts that could easily be dealt with. I just might have found a new decluttering method here. My camera's lens isn't wide enough to take everything in, and I just might be able to deal with the small sections of the chaos it presents me with.

Okay, I've talked myself into. The kids are in bed, and the men (husband and father-in-law) are engrossed in a rugby match on tv (I might even get them each a beer to nurse while I work, so I can feel all 1950's this evening), so I think I'll get to work. Before I go, I'll give you some happy thoughts to tide you over. Look at these clowns. This is why I still love them despite the messes they leave me to deal with.

Birthday Bag

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in France, and I had a wonderful one. I was awakened at 7:30 am by a very excited Lambchop #1 bearing gifts. She had been hiding them all week long and couldn't hold her secret in any longer. Lambchop #2 followed soon after with an offering of his own. Very sweet. I loved the gifts, too. When do kids stop making things for Mommy and Daddy at school? That will be a sad day, I think. Anybody who enjoys crafting as much as I do can certainly appreciate a hand-made gift from their own kids.

Speaking of hand-made gifts, Lambchop #2 was invited to the birthday party of a little girl in his class. I'm not a big fan of buying junky plastic toys for kids that age. They get broken with amazing speed and efficiency, and since the kid in question is female, I figure a little hand-made bag would be better. I let Lambchop #2 raid my fabric stash, and he picked out some blue fabric with stars. My great-aunt gave me this fabric, which she most likely picked up at someone's yard sale. It's cute, and just masculine enough that my boy could get on board with it. That became the inner lining, the straps (which, as my husband pointed out, at their length, only one would have been necessary) and the front pocket. The outside of the bag is a portion of a jean leg. It already had the side seams, which I was happy about. Less work for both me and my machine, who likes to jam up on me when the fabric is very thick like that. All I had to do to the jean part was add an oval bottom to give the bag some roominess and a fun shape.

Since all the fabric was either given to me or taken from something old I no longer use, this was an amazingly cheap project. I'd say it cost me mere cents to make (because of the cost of the thread used to sew it). It's not perfect, since I didn't feel like measuring anything to make it. Lambchop #2 is very proud of it, though, and wanted to take it to school with him this morning to give it to the birthday girl right way (though her party is on Wednesday afternoon). I think we can fill it with candy before then just in case she doesn't find a bag very exciting.

And, this morning I couldn't help but snap a few shots of Lambchop #3 sleeping. I took way more than necessary, but that's the beauty of digital cameras - one is bound to turn out right. Here's the one I liked best (oh, and for you thrift shoppers, this is a thrift shop shirt she's wearing - it was in perfect condition).

Now I'm off to do some actual chores. Our dryer's heating element seems to have given out, so I'm forced to be both more frugal and more environmentally friendly. With a baby, it can be hard to make it out to hang clothes. I need to take advantage of Lambchop #3's nap really fast before she wakes up. Maybe I should consider installing some kind of baby swing in a nearby tree, because I really do enjoy hanging clothes (except when we've got high winds and I have to fight the line to hang them).

What Do You Say When You Don't Know Where To Start?

And, how long could I actually make this post title? I have been so busy, I don't even know where to start to tell you about my week. It's been hectic in both good ways and in bad. Hey, let's do a list. I haven't done one using that little easy-list tool Blogger's got. I'm obviously a nerd and find that idea exciting, so let's go for it.

1. Lambchop #2 has strep throat. We had a really fun couple of nights before the antibiotic kicked in - incidentally, I'm all for "soft" medicine as they call homeopathy and the like here, but as a mommy who had her tonsils removed at the age of 20, I'm also all for bringing out the big guns when strep is involved.
2. I made some of that famous "n0-knead" bread that's making the rounds of the net. You must try this stuff. Very tasty and way too easy for how well it turns out. It isn't a very big loaf, though, so I modified the recipe to make a bigger one. I've also tried it with 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white. It worked out well, but I'm sure I had a slightly different flour-to-water ratio to get the right texture. Some day, when we don't devour it in one sitting before it even has the time to cool, I'll post a picture.
   
3. Made a pound cake with the kids the other day. Learned something new there: had no idea that there was no rising ingredient in pound cake.
4. Hating to throw out perfectly good egg whites after making the pound cake, I started making meringue and then decided to add some flour and whip up some mini angel cakes (using a silicon muffin mold). We each had our own mini cake for dessert with kiwis (just tossed them in a bit of sugar to release their juices) over the top. Yum. And frugal.
5. Ate the worst meal I can recall last night after my husband left for a business trip and I realized we had no more butane gas to run the stove/oven (they won't bring the gas pipes out this far). Dinner was half-cooked, and I was really irritated. Couldn't very well serve bloody chicken to the kids, so I boiled some water in the electric kettle to make couscous. We ate it really bland (I must have skimped on the salt) with cheese on top. The only good thing about dinner was the strawberries and whipped cream we had for dessert.
6. My knitting project is coming along nicely, though I have no idea yet if it'll actually be pretty.
7. I spent a couple of days fiddling with iWeb to build the website for my husband's business. It turned out okay, but that software is seriously limited in very annoying ways. I called my brother to have him take a look and got tons of great information - like that I could download a nice, free webpage-making, graphic interface kind of html editor. I'm really excited about learning to use this software (without all the limitations). I'll let you know how I like it.
   
8. Took the kids into the city via the new tram line that reaches one of the towns on the outskirts of the city. I still had to drive to get there, but it was a fun and less stressful way to get all the way into the city. We picnicked in Montpellier's lovely botanical gardens and then bought goodies (Yay! A list within a list):
   

• a kit to make a wild and crazy (and also hugely humongous) ring for Lambchop #1.
• buttons for the cardigany-tank I'm knitting (I'm so boring that I bought plain wooden ones).
• a cutting board for the bread (you can't imagine how excited I am about this after my husband repeatedly telling me he'd make me one but never finding the time to do it).
• some funky beads and string to make a couple of necklaces for Lambchop #2 (he's into that kind of thing, I wanted to avoid any jealousy over the ring kit, and shut up! they're masculine beads!).
• several used kids' DVDs that I'm also oddly excited about.
• very bland milkshakes at a place that had delicious gelato. It was a sad waste. I actually saw a lady bring hers back and tell them it wasn't any good. She was right, but I didn't have the heart. It was a bit like drinking bland chocolate milk with a bit of a spicy kick to it (I had them use dark chocolate/hot pepper ice cream, which was amazing when they let me sample it). Basically, they just added a dollop of ice cream to milk and then whirred it till it was foamy on top. So, I paid ten bucks for the three of us to drink about 3 cups of milk with about 5 or 6 tablespoons of ice cream. I'll know better next time. McDonald's can do better.
• black-eyed peas. Yum, and hard to get here.
  

Hey would you look at that! Even my lists are wordy. You'd better be glad I never followed through with a kooky idea I had the other day about doing an entire post in poetry. You know, like:

Went to the store today,
To load up on food stuff.

I don't know what else to say,
This poem-writin's kinda tough.

Obviously, I'm considering this as a career option when I finally grow up. I'm that talented. Hey, come to think of it, maybe doing all my blog posts as poems would cut down on the excess verbage a bit. Until that time, I'll try to load up on the kid pictures to try to balance the post and make it look like there really aren't a million and two paragraphs of my blabbing.

Mom, quit being silly with the camera.

I'm feeling camera shy.

Then, again, maybe I'm not.

Up to no good?

Yeah, well, it's hard work annoying my sister being a little brother, but somebody has to do it (pulling apart a bit of spool knitting done by Lambchop #1).

Lucky you. I'm about to fall asleep sitting up after my long day weaving in and out of human traffic in small alleyways with 3 lively children, so we'll have to cut this "short".

A Mother's Dreams

I haven't posted in a little while because I haven't had much to say. I haven't felt all that funny, and I hate to drone on endlessly about my life with three kids. There haven't even really been any projects to talk much about. I've done no sewing, but I've been knitting a little everyday. I hadn't had any inspiration to knit in quite some time, but thanks to this lace I saw at Jenla, I have gotten out of that funk. I'm now neck-deep in the drama involved in not knowing if there will be enough yarn to finish the tank I've started. It's so close, and I'm pretty sure that if I have I wish for it hard enough, there will either be enough yarn already, or it'll miraculously start to reproduce itself while I knit.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if yarn would reproduce itself the way dirty dishes and used diapers do? In this dream world of mine, the yarn would, of course, be asexual like worms. We could just by one skein of some coveted expensive stuff and leave it alone for a few days (surely, it'd want its privacy). Of course I can see how this could quickly get out of hand, but I wouldn't complain. I can picture sleeping on the softer hanks if they started to take over the place like the laundry always does (especially now that I'm trying to be good by getting the cloth diapers back out - we always have to work up the courage to do this).

Along with the knitting, I've done a little thrift shopping. I was reasonable this time, because I've started to realize that the amount of laundry I do is directly proportional to the amount of thrift shopping I do (funny how that works out), but I did buy a really great little object that would have to work really hard to find itself in the dirty clothes hamper. It's the Magnus Electric Chord Piano pictured with Lambchop #3. I got it for 1 euro, which according to ebay is a pretty darn good deal. Aside from a little dust, it's in great condition and works perfectly. The kids love it (including the baby), and I even taught myself to play parts of La Vie En Rose today.

The baby is great with it. She's got some real talent. I'm thinking she may be a child prodigy or something, because she instantly started to pick out the notes to some classical piece I can't quite place (she's obviously much more musically inclined than her mommy). Okay, well, maybe she just sits there and slams her hands down on the keys, but she really seems to enjoy herself, and as the parent of any kid who sucks at a sport will tell you, what matters is how much fun you're having. If you take a good look at her right hand in this second picture, you can see the blur of her hand as she bangs on the keys. Mozart in the making.

Perhaps she will take time off from her travels as a concert pianist to be a professional photographer (Do I sense a mother projecting her own dreams onto her children a bit here??) She loves the camera. She's always trying to reach for it.

Give me that!

Almost got it.


Just a little closer.


Ha! Now I just have to pull really hard.

She's not really into blogging, though, and I'm getting tired of fighting her while I type, so we're going to have to call it quits for today.

Through It

Throughout all of yesterday and parts of today, we have had quite a bit of rainfall. At one point, there was even some hail. This always starts my vintner husband to worrying and staring quietly out the windows with a small look of panic. The scariest thing to a person who lives off the land is the weather. It is so unpredictable and uncontrollable, yet it can wreak havoc on what is essentially your life's work.

Luckily, the hail was pretty mild and didn't last long, but a walk in the vineyard proved his worries not to be totally unfounded. There was indeed some damage to the vine's new leaves. What he doesn't know is how much that will actually affect the plant, if any. We'll hope for the best and assume since it's still early in the season that the vines will have plenty of time to make more leaves to make up for any loss.

I really enjoyed the rain, though. The sound it made as it pelted the skylight was impressive. You had to almost shout to make yourself heard over its din. I felt like I was suddenly transported to a new and amazing place called the Tropics of the Mediterranean. Strange oxymoron of a place, let me tell you.

A river runs through it:

This is the dirt road that leads up to our home. It turned into our very own river yesterday. It's still raining a lot today, so I'm pretty sure my husband and his father will have some fun with the tractor when all is said and done. They always have to put the road back together after a rain like this.

My husband said the natural spring we have near the winery was overflowing, too, which is unusual in the arid Mediterranean climate we live in.

A baby sleeps through it:

This kind of weather makes me want to sit with a cup of cappuccino (I rarely drink coffee) and read or do some other lazy activity. Instead, I've forced myself to do housework and take care of the kids, because, well, they just don't seem to take care of themselves no matter how much I wish for it sometimes. Unfortunately, for me, we have no decaf coffee in the house, anyway, and I can't handle caffeine anymore.

From the looks of it, I'd say that Lambchop #3 is a bit like her mommy. She seems to enjoy the sound of rain on the skylight. She slept soundlessly for hours yesterday while buckets of rain were being dumped all around her.

What I don't like:

What's not so cool about the rain is the leaks we found in the skylight over the wood floor on the stairs. I also really don't like having to have all the phones, computer and internet disconnected during thunderstorms. We've lost many an electric doodad that way, though, so I just have to live with it and hope the satellite doesn't get taken out since it's out on top of the house.

And, a last couple of pictures before I go change a diaper (mercifully, I won't take any pictures of that for you)...
Oh, and I haven't done any new sewing projects unless you count the lovely skirt I made my husband the other day. Okay, well, it was more like a skort - you know, those blousey shorts that were so popular about 15 years ago. The thing about blogs is that you can filter the information you give others about your life. I'm thinking you don't need to see my husband's skort until becomes a proper pair of men's shorts. It was good for a hysterical laugh around midnight the other night, though.

Partay!

We had a fun-filled weekend. We were invited to a party at the home of another vintner who has been a friend of my husband's since he was a kid. It ended up being a potluck, so we tried all sorts of interesting dishes. I made what turned out to be the fastest dessert I've ever made. It was based on a recipe labeled "fast" in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It should have been made with corn syrup, peanut butter, brown sugar and puffed rice cereal. I didn't have half of those ingredients, so I substituted wheat syrup (because I've never seen corn syrup here), chocolate and corn flakes. It turned out quite well and took a whole ten minutes to prepare. I'd show you what it looked like, but it was all eaten up at the party.

The two older Lambchops and I got to wear some new clothes to the party, too. I wore my new wrap skirt and kimono shirt and felt very pretty the whole evening (which is quite a feat when you're sporting a post-pregnancy body like mine). Lambchop #1 wore a dress that used to be mine. It was always very much a mini-dress on me. I altered the torso section of the dress, and she looks great in it as a long dress. I think she felt very pretty, too. She certainly looked pretty to me.

Lambchop #2 wore a pair of jean shorts I made him. I actually cut out the fabric for these last year but never got around to sewing them, so imagine my surprise when I found they still fit him. I was thinking I'd have to make them girly and give them to his littler cousin. My husband tells me they are so plain, they look homemade. I think he might be right. I could add some contrasting stitching here and there to spice them up a little. I may actually do that, because the side pockets could use some reinforcing.

On a totally unrelated side note, I love this picture of him. His little girlfriend from school is hiding behind him in the background. We were at school on Saturday morning to watch a show put on by Lambchop #1's class. Later, he went out to the playground to play with some of the kids from his class whose parents opt to send their kids to school Saturday mornings (School is optional on Saturday mornings at their age, but it becomes mandatory in elementary school - they get Wednesdays off, though.) Anyway, he and this little girl adore each other, and it just cracks me up to see them together.

And, one last, great tidbit from the party that I don't have a picture of...

I saw my husband dance for the first time. This is something I've never witnessed before, because every time we go to a wedding or some other party, we've got small children who conveniently impede such activities. This party was what they call a Balfort (not sure about the spelling there), which comes from the local endangered language of Occitan. It's basically a party featuring Occitan folk music and dances. The music sounds very Celtic to me, and it involves a lot of dancing where everyone dances together in a circle or in two lines facing each other. At one point, there weren't enough men for the dance, so they asked him to do it. He appeared to have fun, and I took this as a sign that I should be the one to drive home.

He did a couple of different dances with everyone. One of them was a circle dance, where you switch partners each time you make a turn around the room. It was fun to watch. He looked quite a bit like a he was playing rugby and ready to catch a ball at any moment. I didn't take pictures, though, because I figured if I made fun of him, he might never dance with me if and when we're ever at a party or wedding without babies in tow. The funniest part of it all was the fact that Lambchop #2 seemed to have really gotten the gist of all the dancing. Daddy came over breathless and sweating after that circle dance. Our son looked up at his father and said, "So, you've danced with all the ladies now, Daddy?" Perceptive little guy, isn't he?

And lastly:

As I type this, Lambchop #3 is experimenting with maneuvering her way around the room by sliding around on her tummy backwards. She pushes backwards with her arms and moves around in reverse. She just hit the laundry basket, though, so she'll be stuck unless she figures out a way out of there. That's a funny age.

Circus, Circus

Lambchop #1 went to circus school this year with her class. They spent a week learning all kinds of acrobatics. Then, they came back and spent lots more time practicing to put on a circus for the parents. That's happening tomorrow. I got the invitation a few days ago, but with all the sick kids and other messes, I seem to have misplaced it without ever getting the chance to read it. I had the hubbie check with the teacher to find out what time it will be tomorrow. Good thing, too, because he also learned she needed to wear either something blue or something red. This is a five-year-old girl we're talking about. If it's not pink or purple, it doesn't get worn. So, why would we have any blue outfits lying around here?

Wait a minute! This gives Mommy the perfect excuse to make something on the sewing machine. Good thinking. In fact, I've got plenty of blue shirts from my drab phase. I'm trying to get rid of them all, anyway, so I pulled out a particularly blah one and got to work on it. Here's the end result. One long-sleeved t-shirt gave me this entire outfit.

The pants are made of the sleeves. I just laid a pair of capris pants down on the sleeve and was happy to see they were just the right length and width. Then, I cut the crotch seam area and left the side seams and hem intact. That meant I only needed to make a waistband.

The shirt comes from the body of the original t-shirt. I kept one side seam and the hem again. I realized later that the original shirt dipped lower in the center of the bottom hem than on the side (curved hem), and this meant that one side of Lambchop's shirt hem is higher than the other. I'm going with the words "design detail" to explain this. Those asymmetrical hem-lines are all the rage at the moment, anyway.

Then, all that was left was to add the scallopy stuff on the hems, collar and armholes to make it more feminine and something she'll be more likely to wear after this circus show, too. I figure, if nothing else, she'll have a new pair of pjs for the summer.

I'm all excited about how well it turned out and can't wait to see her in it. It was very cheap, considering the original shirt is a man's shirt that I had picked up for next to nothing after Lambchop #1 was born. I don't remember what I paid for it, but it wasn't much, because I remember it was on clearance and I refused to pay much back then for clothes that wouldn't fit me for very long since I was sure I'd lose that pregnancy weight some time. Considering how much use I got out of that shirt myself, the whole outfit basically only cost me whatever amount of thread I used, plus the bit of elastic for the waistband, both of which I had on hand. I think it took me a maximum of 2 1/2 hours to make it all from start to finish. It could have been much faster, but the scallops take a while to sew. In my opinion, they are well worth the time and effort for the effect they give, though.

A Good Sick Day

Normally, Lambchop #1 can be very whiny when she's sick. Being sick seems to really knock her out, so she's generally miserable. She woke up this morning feeling a lot better than last night, but I tested her ear by tugging lightly on it. Her "ouch" told me she'd better go to the doctor today. So, I kept her home and made an appointment. Daddy's got an earache, too, so I sent him along with her. While waiting for him to get ready, Lambchop #1 and I made a little shirt I had promised to paint with her long ago. At the time, she wanted to paint a princess on the front, but today, she was in the mood for a house with a little person next to it.

What took me so long was trying to decide how to go about painting on fabric. The paints are supposed to be used for that purpose, but I tried them out on a pair of plain white panties with less than satisfactory results. I then decided some kind of template would be best. I don't have any butcher paper, and I don't even know where you could get any here in France, so that wasn't an option. That's when I decided on this cardboard cut-out method. The t-shirt itself is pinned to a piece of cardboard to hold it in place and to hold it taut.

After pinning the shirt down, I had her draw the house and sun and person another piece of cardboard. Then, I cut the larger pieces out and we colored on them with the paints. Then, we held the painted pieces onto the fabric and pressed down and pulled them off when the paint looked good on the shirt. She then drew in the sun's rays. I saw how hard it was for her to control the paint tube while trying to squeeze hard enough to make the paint come out, so I did the flowers and the person, trying my hardest to be faithful to her own representation of them on the cardboard.

It was definitely a fun little project to do with her on a day when Lambchop #2 wasn't home and while Lambchop #3 was napping. It's rare for me to get any time alone with Lambchop #1. As is often the case with the oldest child, I feel like she feels a little swept aside at times when she wants us to "take care of her" just like we take care of the baby and her less independent younger brother. It can't be easy being the first kid, even though, I admit I wouldn't know, since I was the second and last child in our family.

Let's just hope she will want to wear this shirt with pride when it's all dried.