Levi's book

The other day Levi told me he needed paper and markers.
He later came to me and said he needed to use the stapler.

Do you want to know what he was up to?

My little kiddo wrote a book.

He brought it to me, beaming ear to ear and read me his story.
It makes this Mama heart smile.
So here it is.

Written and Illustrated by Levi

"I like to ride trains"

"I like to eat on trains. I like to drink tea on trains" 

The End. 

Yup. I'm pretty in love with this kid.

Our life in pictures

I feel like just kind of passes us by sometimes without even realizing it. Most days, our lives consist of a morning nap for Ruby, while Levi and I do a craft, project or some sort of learning together, all while I try to do housework and the ever growing pile of laundry.

We normally eat lunch around 11:30, then it's down for naps\quiet time, followed quickly by babysitters arriving so that I can teach piano lessons in the evening.

When the weather is tolerable, we do our best to get outside and enjoy the snow.
There ya go.. our life in pictures.

A PlayDoh Zoo. Bonus points if you can name all the animals. : )

One of Levi's favorite projects as of late. We spent a morning painting and putting this train together.

Levi has been very into wanting to go swimming lately... He spends a lot of his day dressed like this. 

Less laundry, so I let him. :) 

Miss Ruby is ALWAYS bringing me books to look at.

And of course we spend time outside. 

We love winter, unlike most people who live here.

Ruby at 14 months

My sweet Ruby,

Mama is a few days late, but you, my sweet girl, are 14 months old these days. I still have zero idea how that  has happened.

At 14 months you...
--> Are learning new words all the time... your words include Hi, Bye, Mama, Papa, Please, More, Eat, Drink, you use signs with all but mama and papa. I really need to get a good video of you jabbering away, because it really is like you are talking, it's just that I can't understand you.
--> Are developing a bit of a temper, and like to throw fits when you don't get your way. Oh silly girl.... this  means that timeouts are now in your life.
--> Have several teeth now, I"m not even sure how many. You have all but one of your molars, though it's right under the surface and I imagine it will be up soon.
--> Have crazy hair. It's too short to pull up, but too long to not look weird, I guess. I don't know, just different from boy hair, so it's just crazy all the time.
--> Still take 2 naps a day, though the morning one seems to be getting shorter.
-->  Go to bed around 6 and sleep until around 6 each morning. You, more and more, sleep consistently all the way through the night. Mama thanks you for that.
--> Are still nursing, though not much anymore, nursing, most days, just in the morning, and again at night.
--> Favorites still include bath time, books, and more and more you like to try to wear other clothes you find, or you'll turn something into a hat, necklace etc. It's amazing to me how much this boy\girl stuff is different.
 --> Love following your brother around, enjoy playing with him, and even playing hide and seek with him. It makes me laugh, every. single. day.

I'm so thankful for you my baby girl. You bless our lives each and every day.

Levi at 4

My dear, sweet, Levi.

You are becoming a young man (ha!) before my very eyes. I feel like just yesterday you were born, and I head you in my arms for the first time. Instead, it has been 4! years. You amaze me every day with your tenacity for life, your energy, and the fun you have along the way. We love you so much little man. I'm so thankful that God gave me you, and that I have been given the amazing, and sacred, privilege of raising you, to be a man after God's own heart.

At 4......

-- you are in preschool this year, 2 days a week. You love it, because you love learning.
-- you can write all of your letters, both capital and lowercase
--you easily recognize and can write your name
-- you can sound out some small 3 letter words, and recognize many words by sight
-- you can count to 30 without hesitation. you can count backwards from 10.
--  you can recognize and count up to 100 (thank you chicka chicka boom boom)
-- you don't really nap anymore, but you get up around 6-6:30 and go to bed around 7.
-- you love, and I do mean, LOVE crafts. we regularly spend part of our day doing some kind of craft together. painting, cutting\pasting etc..
-- the main love of your life? travis.  yup. you pretty much love him unconditionally.
-- you still love trains of all varieties, and you even got to ride on one for your birthday this year!
-- you love spending time outside.
--you love winter.... love snow, sledding, and all things related. you are definitely my son
-- you love books. we spend a good 1\2 hour each day reading and looking at books. we frequent the library, and you love to pick out new books each week.
-- you are a wonderful big brother. today, I found you, helping to get food for Ruby for lunch. You love her a lot, even when she takes your toys and knocks down your blocks.
-- you are really into playing games right now. we do this quite often as well.
-- you enjoy going to kids club at church, and get excited about going each week

I love you little man, more than you will ever know.

I love you little man, more than you will ever know.

Yogurt Making Adventures

Ahh, the never ending making yogurt task. I feel like I'm constantly looking for new recipes, to find "the perfect" recipe. Of course, I'll never find that one, but it's fun to keep looking .I've had a standard crockpot one for quite some time now. Super easy, hands off, but I felt like when I put it into a different container is got more runny, which, all you yogurt making gurus out there know it's because of the pectin situation.

Anyway......

I was on the hunt, and my good pal, Ingrid, makes yogurt as well. I happened to be at her house one day, and tried some of her yogurt, and I knew I needed to try her recipe. The yogurt was thick, tangy, and yummy. I could stick my spoon in, and it didn't run all over the place.  The good news is that when I made it, it turned out the same way :) She has kind of tweaked and modified a couple of different recipes to get this one... so without further ado, I will entitle it..

Ingrid's Yogurt  :)

You will need: large pot, metal bowl, canning funnel, candy thermometer, crock pot, 3 mason jars and lids, and towels  ( I didn't use a canning funnel, I'm a rebel that way) I also only made enough yogurt to full 2 mason jars because that's how much milk I had.

As a note: sterilize the quarts sized mason jars.
Heat 12 cups of whole milk in a large pan over medium heat. Be careful not to boil it! Stir almost constantly. Keep a candy thermometer in the milk and remove from heat when temp reaches 180. While the milk is heating, put 3-5 tbsp starter (I used Meijer lowfat plain yogurt) in a 4 cup measuring container. I also put some water in my crock pot and set it on warm so that the water heats up.

Pour milk into the metal mixing bowl and stir occasionally. When the temp drops to 105-115, pour several cups of milk into the starter and stir it around. You want there to still be yogurt lumps, so don't try to whisk it or anything! Pour the milk/starter into the metal bowl and stir it all up for a minute.
Unplug the crock pot. Pour the milk into the mason jars and put the lids on. Set the jars in the crock pot water bath and fill to the brim with hot water. I usually set a plate on top the jars before wrapping two towels around the crock pot (so the towels don't end up in the water). I usually let everything sit from 6 or 7 pm until 8 or 9 the next morning. Try to leave it in a place it won't get bumped and jostled!


That's Ingrid's recipe to the T... here were my modifications, which were basically making it smaller.
I used 8 cups of milk (1\2 gallon), and used 3 TB of yogurt. (which was Meijer yogurt as well) The temp dropping part took maybe an hour? I found that to be the most time consuming because I kept running and checking the temp, certain it was going to jump below 105 rapidly and suddenly. :)   Your crockpot lid will not fit on with the jars, so if you put a plate on top, and then wrap towels over and around it, it works well. I positioned my crockpot in a spot on my counter, so that once I wrapped it in towels, I didn't have to move it.  If you don't have a crockpot, I would imagine, a big ol' stockpot with hot water and a lid, wrapped in towels would work as well.

As another note: I used our milk that we get from the dairy farm, but the stuff I ate at Ingrid's that day was made from plain ol' D milk from the store.  I think the difference is that the yogurt "sets" in the jars. It keeps it  a little bit more congealed. That's my theory at least. :)

Happy yogurt making, my crazy friends. :)

p.s. I'm glad I have crazy yogurt making friends in my life. I feel not so crazy. :)

Garden 2012...thoughts on 2013

I've been meaning to write down my thoughts on our first garden where we didn't have to drive to it, for a while now, and, well... Life just gets in the way...

This was the first year since we started gardening 7 years ago, that we were able to have our garden in our backyard. Up until now, we've always driven to someone else's home that had so graciously allowed us the opportunity to dig up their land.  We perhaps we were a bit overzealous in our expectations for what that meant, but we plugged ahead, and planted a ton. We were also privileged to pass on the "sharing of the garden" with some good friends of ours, which just makes gardening more fun. We even named our garden. "Jean Skirt Farms" If you want to know, just ask. :)

It was a oddly strange summer, weather wise, where we continuously fought drought and high heat. Mike was beyond a trooper and faithfully watered the garden for about 3-4 hours every. single. night.   We fought weeds the best we could, but honestly, lets face it, the weeds always win.  Part of our learning curve this year was where things would grow best in the garden. We have trees to the east, and we don't get sun until around 11:30-12 during the summer, but then after that, it's full on sun and heat, until the last rays of the day.

So the recap:

Peppers----- meh. We ate some fresh, and I chopped and froze maybe 20 bags of them.  (not awful, not great)
4 rows of onions---- I froze what we couldn't eat, and we've already blazed through them this winter. We will plant more next year.
Zucchini and Yellow Squash--both did great, and we froze a ton!
Beans, Broccoli, Cabbage, Spinach, Lettuce and Kohlrabi---they were eaten by the pesky deer and other vermin that we battled all summer.. we saw a little return, but not much, sadly.
Our vine plants, cucumbers, and melons------ failed miserably.  We saw no return on them, minus a handful of cucumbers. I think it was just. too. hot. for them to survive without massive massive amounts of water. Eggplant-------it did well, and I was begging people to take it from me.
Pumpkins----- fun, and we enjoyed having them around come September and October.
Potatoes------- fun, and I think we will plant more of them this next spring.

We seriously had a banner year on tomatoes. I'm not sure if it was that we were there to pick as they riped, if it was just a good year (we've heard that), or we just lucked out.. but man alive. We were blessed to can, freeze, store, and "put up" right at 100 quarts of tomato product, whether that was stewed tomatoes, soup, pasta sauce etc. We are reaping and enjoying the benefits of those tomatoes now, and I'm hopeful to get through at least the spring with what we have left.  We were even blessed to have friends come and pick by the bushel full to their hearts content.

Overall, I would say that we were satisfied with our first year of our own actual garden. It was so nice to go out to the garden with the kids, and let Levi learn about what's ripe to pick, and what we need to leave be and let grow a little bit more. We've already begun talking about and making plans for Garden 2013.  We are thankful for the people who have taught us to love to garden, to respect what the Lord has blessed us with, and to be good stewards of that.  I have so enjoyed learning the process of saving and preserving what we can, to help feed our family. It's a blessing.

Ruby at 13 months

Dear sweet Ruby.

Today, you turn 13 months old.... it seems like you were born yesterday, and yet... we've already celebrated 2 Christmas' with you!  You my sweet baby girl, growing up too fast.....

At 13 months you...

1) SLEEP! Blessed sleep, you've finally begun solidly sleeping through the night, for that, I'm truly thankful.
2) You are picking up more and more words saying, Mama, Papa, sit, up, kitty, out, and you're starting to sign as well... knowing more, and all done. baby no more, you are a ever growing toddler
3) At your 12 month appt you weighed in at 18lbs 10 oz, and 28 1\4 inches long
3) You have no fear about much of anything, I attribute this to your big brother
4) You LOVE being outside, you love snow, you love sledding... you are so my child. ;)
5) Your laugh cracks me up on a daily basis, and you still laugh for Levi more than anyone else
6) You are loving books, and it warms my heart when you pick a book out, come over, and ask me to pick you up. You however, don't want me to read to you, you just want to flip through the pages yourself, but, in my lap
7) You have an opinion, and you make it known, sometimes rather loudly. I'm certain this is from your father.... right? certainly not your quiet non-opinionated mother. ;)
8) You love to climb. into a chair, up on the couch, a stool in the kitchen, the bed, and you DETERMINED to figure out how to go down the stairs forward facing. Heaven help me.
9) You still take 2 naps a day. You wake around 6, nap around 8-9:30 or so, nap again around noon-2, and then bed at 6.
10) I feel like you are constantly watching, listening, and trying to do what we do... you want to be big!

We love you baby girl, and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.