So in case you missed the mass FB posts, or wanted a few more details….

Luke and I were discussing what size backpack he should take to Ethiopia and if he could take the one he already had. We needed to compare the measurements of his current backpack vs one on craigslist. So I go into the school room to get a ruler. There is a closet in the school room. The closet has a door in the ceiling, a small trap door thing that leads to an attic we don’t think much about except when the squirrels race each other at night and we’re annoyed.

I’m pawing (har har) through Bruce’s school bin for a ruler when I hear rustling, my heart rate spikes and I look up to see a tail and a large gray body scrambling back into the attic, I panic, screech and run out of the school room trying to shut the door behind me.

When I arrive in the livingroom 5 seconds later in near hysterics and out of breath, Luke is not moved. He has seen my reactions to small household rodents and knows I’m prone to being a weanie. He’s thinking it’s likely a large mouse in there freaking me out. I gasp out that there was an animal, a big animal, like, like, like….the size of like a raccoon… coming OUT OF THE ATTIC, and gasp gasp, I screeched and ran! I think I scared it back up. Oh my gosh oh my gosh.

My heart was racing.

Luke was now apologetic for being non plussed and also not thrilled. This is the part where he plays the the brave husband who defeats evil in the forms of  mice and unusual wild animals. We peek in the room, not seeing anything we get a chair and a flashlight. I hold the flashlight (it was wobbly for some reason).

He poked the trap door and we realized that it had quite a gap. We had sort of noticed this a few weeks back when we threw glue traps up there. I’d told the landlady that at night we would hear animals up there and sometimes it sounded like gnawing. She called a pest guy who said if it was only at night it was mice. That is patently ridiculous, but she bought glue traps and had us throw them up there (when I say throw, i mean I stood in a dining room chair, unfolded the stupid traps and chucked them through the hole while trying not to scream or imagine vicious squirrels coming to get their revenge on me. rodent hatred+unreasonable fear). We didn’t worry much about the door as we;ve been here 1 3/4 years and nothing has gotten into that closet.

Back to the story. It seemed prudent, given the crappy trap door to close the closet door, and then to bar it with the easel. Just in case.

I try to calm down. I pop popcorn. We turn on arrested development.

we hear a noise. Luke checks on the kids. They are fine. We Start another episode.

We hear a loud noise. Luke goes to the school/play room door and peeks in, and yeah, the closet door is pushed open a little. I try not to panic.

We call 911 after looking up animal control and seeing that appears to be largely a 9-5 thing.

They send over 2 police men. They are nice gentlemen, who look a little uncomfortable with tackling something which “seemed as big as a racoon” according to the resident wife. We explain where the closet is in the room, what I saw, what we heard etc. The light is off as well.

PO #1: what? the light is off! oh man. Luke promises he’ll turn it on as soon as the door is opened, I am hiding in the livingroom, although this is no good because there is no door to close. PO #1 goes over to the closet with his flashlight, PO #2 stands by the door to the room, oh! i think I see it, he says and PO #1 pushes on the door closed. PO #2 says…amke sure it’s not a skunk… (how is he supposed to know??)

PO #2 asks for a shovel. Luke goes to fetch one.

PO #1: are we going to whack it in the head?

police officer #2, NO! I just want to keep it from running up my leg!

I found this hilarious. All night long I laughed about this. seriously. PO #1 was not thrilled with what he thought the plan was.

Anyway, Luke comes back with a shovel. I am such a weanie I decide to make a bee line for the kids room, you know, to keep them safe, behind closed doors.

Apparently one of the officers wants to know if the Animal control officer is on duty. I don’t think so, the other says, but just in case he radios it in:

“Is the ACO available, kssssht? The ACO is not available, kssssht”

I’m in the room when I hear the fire truck pull up and see the lights on the side yard. So of course I start telling FB about our adventure using my Iphone. Why wouldn’t I??  (FB posts in italics)

“There is some kind of wild animal trapped in the play room of our house so we’re treating the neighbors to police officers and fire trucks at 10:46pm. Weeeeee(I’m hiding in the kids room)”

I also text the landlady to let her know that spotting a wild animal has escalated into calling the cops. She doesn’t respond to either of the texts I have sent, which is unusual.

There is alot of noise. The kids sleep through it. I hear them tearing the winter plastic off a window- ohhh good idea, open a window for it to fling itself out of….After about 15 minutes of banging on walls and voices, I hear them starting to leave. I emerge from the kids room. They are filing down the stairs nodding and saying good luck. Keep the doors closed until someone can look into that for you.THey had cleared out the entire closet (not pretty) and looked in and under things to no avail. None of them were small enough to climb up there (nor is it their job). To a man, they looked relieved to not have encountered any wild animals.

We shut the door. I lock it, you know so that the kids won’t accidentally open the door in the morning and get eaten by a raccoon. Not that I am unreasonable.

We try to wind down. I put steel cut oats, some apples, pears and other stuff in the crockpot for breakfast in the morning. We try to lay down.Luke spots a mouse when he goes to check on one of the kids a few minutes later. he sets a trap, cause we don’t need any more animals in the house.

I am a little freaked, but we had a long day of dance class, laundry, coach pitch practice and mystery wild animal sightings so I fell asleep kind of quickly.

Around 3:30/4 in the morning Luke is getting out of bed and I hear the animal, wild lythrashing about. Oh man, i am freaked, my heart rate spikes. Luke says it’s been happening for a few minutes, he gets dressed and ready for police call #2. Then when he investigates he figures out the animal is in the attic but really struggling with something, he surmises it is the glue traps from several weeks ago. I am sleepily sitting up on the bed praying. He prays it would be quiet.

It is.

We decide there is nothing we can do for now.

After laying back down, the landlady starts texting me. She has just seen my texts, (at 4:30am. apparently she is an early riser). She is shocked. “OMG, I’m sorry, I just got this!”

We text back and forth, she promises to call pest control. I try to sleep. It’s not easy. I apparently drift off to sleep. In my dreans the mystery animal is a weird kangaroo/koala combo, maybe a wombat or something, but it’s somehow also drawn, in my dream. like the old school rabbit on the original Winnie the Pooh. Even in my dream I wonder how it walks. I am scared of said wombat/kangaroo/koala. Somehow I am in australia.

Also, there are alot of scary animals i see, A giant black snake, large toads, a crocidile that eats a Tigger looking animal (what the????) and of course that stinking wombat/kangaroo/Koala. SOmeone tells me that there is no Kung fu or Ninjas in Australia. This is apparently important.

I wake up groggy and freaked out some more.

In the morning, the landlady texts that the ACO will be on duty at 9am.

Ollie screams that cinnamon apple pear oatmeal is not what he wants. Loudly.

Then she texts that she can have someone here by 12.

Then she texts again, she can have someone here  in 30 minutes. Thank God.

We try to explain to the kids what is happening. I tell the story all funny, like it’s HILARIOUS that I saw an animal trying to sneak into the school room, ha ha ha.

They kind of buy it. I tell them the ACO is coming. They are playing in their room and I hear:

Gillian: maybe the animal control guy can control animals!
Me: how would he control animals?
Gillian: with his animal mind-control powers.
Bruce:yeah maybe he can control the animals to jump outside while the roofer fixed the open (attic) window!

I’m sure this has NOTHING to do with how much aquaman they’ve been allowed to watch (Batman cartoons…superfriends). At some point it is surmised that maybe there is a fish up there, yeah…a fish in the attic. We make jokes that it is a Zebra, and this confuses them. Nevermind.

So Critter Control shows up. I tell the whole story. I say there are squirells up there I think but this seemed bigger than a Squirrel. He confirms that squirrels wouldn’t try to come in the house. i explain the trap door is small. He says he can get up there he is skinny (very true). I have been getting the kids into coats and shoes since i knew they were coming, so now I herd them out the door. Eliot is frozen in the livingroom from stranger anxiety. I have to unlock the school/play room but there is no way I am oing that until I can run down the stairs.

FB Post:

We basically unlocked the door to the playroom and then ran outside. (I managed not to scream while I ran, self-control I tell you).my voice was preeeeety high pitched by the end there…OKKAAAYYYYY kiddddooos let;s go outside FUN FUN FUN…

I was feeling panicked. Attack of the vengeful Raccoon and all that.

Outside the kids are happily playing. I check FB to get everyone’s reactions. You are all funny.

The guys can’t see it right away, but the skinny talkative one tells me that yes it is a raccoon and it did in fact get into the glue traps there is raccoon hair and fur all stuck in one and paw prints everywhere. But they can’t find it.

oh great.

Also, he’s trying to find out how it got in, we see some squirrel entrance holes but are not sure about the raccoon. I knew that at one point the opening in attic from the outside was open. I didn’t realize the roofer had come fix it already, but when we look he had. I was confused about when the opening in the attic had been fixed, maybe while we were gone over the weekend? He said probably not or it would have gone nuts looking for a way out by now.

lovely.

They go to their trusty giant lader.

I text the landlady our progress. The kids oohh and ahhh over the giant ladder going up to the attic.

The landlady says the hole was only fixed yesterday.

Oh.

By the time I know this, they have figured out that the hole was definetley where the critter got in, as there were paw prints all over the sill. The raccoon apparently got used to going in and out of the opening and hanging with the squirrels in the attic (again: annoying rodents). Yesterday he/she went into the attic. The roofer came and sealed up the window opening with boards. The raccoon was trapped inside. It wanted food and apparently the only other way out was the little opening in the school room closet.

They set a trap. We get to see the trap, oohh ahhh. There are going to be marshmellows in the trap, more ohh ahh. Then also I see the guy using a margarita mix for the trap. Very funny.

They go up the door in the school room and set the trap. They close up the school room and call the landlady and promise me to return in the morning.

I am secretly thinking the sneaky raccoon probably snuck out into my apartment while the CC guys were outside. I try not to panic when I go inside for some water. I can tell Bruce is not thrilled with these developments and he stays outside with Ollie.

We locked up and went on a trip to the local produce store for beets and fruit. We get beets and fruit and strawberry shortcake supplies “for being brave”.

As soon as we get home (maybe a 40 minute excursion) I can tell they caught something. It is NOT happy to be caught. It is banging all around up there.

“hooray! the trap sounds like it worked. OH MY GOODNESS, the trap SOUNDS are freaking me out……come back critter control, come back!!!! they should of left me some of that margarita mix… ”

I text the landlady to get the CC guys back. It is so very loud up there. We all make jokes, “ha ha, I guess the raccoon fell for the balls and marshmallows and then is all mad that it’s stuck in the trap” ha ha ha……ha?

It gets louder and louder. Takes breaks then goes at it again.

“I’m not saying I’m unreasonable, but that raccoon is likely on roids’ (or possibly pregnant….those hormones will get ya) I would be willing to bet it’s actually just picking up the trap and throwing it around in a fit of rage. see…perfectly reasonable guess. raccoon roid rage.”

CC calls:

criiter control guy(ccg) on phone: so you’re hearing noises?

me: um yeah lots of NOISES.

CCG: Like chirping….
me: no no, like crashing, lots of crashing around,
ccg: really,
me: yeah like it’s trapped and angry.
ccg: ok well that’s good then, sometimes when the mother is trapped the babies make a chirping sound when they’re hungry. so that means there probably isn’t babies. well I’ll be there in 15 minutes…

now every bird chirp causes me anxiety….

We try to act normal. Ollie wants to be read to, after I update FB and start some rice for lunch we read. Then i smell burning, oh good i burned the bottom layer of rice. The baby falls asleep. The crazy banging happens off and on.

While we’re finishing up lunch a different CC guy arrives. Right away I think he is not going to fit in the hole. He doesn’t seem thrilled that the raccoon is going crazy and we both hope it’s in the trap. He’s there about 1 minute when he says that he “brought the wrong ladder”. Would I be around in a few hours?

um yeah.

The kids go to rest and put on Encyclopedia brown on CD.

I go into the livingroom to clear out my google reader and discover there is a Red Sox game on. I turn it on to tune out the off and on banging I can still hear.

I move to the kitchen and do baking therapy. I had promised the kids banana bread muffins and had shortcake to make so I whipped some up.

My nerves were shot, but the baking was fun. The older two kids got up and began to play and finally, the first CC guy came back. I knew they’d send the skinny guy back. I notice that his ladder looks like the same on as the other guys’ ladder.

Anyway i hear some banging around up in the attic. I keep doing dishes. I am trying not to panic or visualize the racoon escaping and making a run for it.

The CCG emerges victorious with a yell of “we got it!”

The older two come to the doorway and peer at the wild animal in the cage. I am trying to act all cool and interested and not freaked out. The raccoon is looking like a punk rock star and pacing in the cage.

CCG: I;ve never seen anything like it, there is so much glue everywhere! I can’t even tell if its a boy or a girl”!

He explains that if it is a girl, she might have had babies, to keep our ears open and mark on the ceiling where we hear the little chirping noises so they can climb in there and get them.

oh great. Ollie is just waking up and wants to see the raccoon.

no he doesn’t.

yes he does.

no he doesn’t.

Finally while the CCG clears up a few more details,(he’ll call in the morning to verify girl or boy).

Ollie peeks out at the wild raccoon. We are all in awe.

I take no pictures. DRAT.

It was large, and wild looking. How is that for descriptive? I cannot tell you how glad I am that it didn’t come into the house all the way and that it was scared of me when I first saw it. It was big, did I mention it was big? yeah.

So the kids are happy. We are keeping the closet door closed until a better trap door is installed, but otherwise they played in the school room with no fear. The sight of the animal in the cage seemed to bring closure for them.

I wanted to cry once the CCG left, but instead I decided to blog And text the landlady to beg for a new trap door

Also, “there;s a part of me that wants to call the police station and say, really, there was a raccoon! want to come see it? cause there was a point when they were thinking maybe I was just a crazy house wife (though, to a man they look really relieved to not had a run in with any kind of critter when they left). really those cops need hats or helmets or something to protect their shaved heads in these instances.”

I really wished I had taken a picture, but oh well. There were many funny FB moments about what was in the attic, and lots of encouragement.

Now I need to make red flannel hash with the Easter leftovers and finish making strawberry shortcake, and try to go to bed at a reasonable time.

Hopefully there aren’t babies up there…..

Today we did most of our homeschool activities outside. This was partly because with the great sunshine and the wind and the birds constantly tweeting, there wasn’t much use trying to get the kids to focus inside. Also, we had some more bird seed houses to hang up and birds to watch for.

I, of course, took pictures of the kids running around, um, learning, and then Lily and Bruce took pictures of me modeling the lovely skirt I inherited from Miss Jo before she trekked off to South Africa with her family. Also a way to say, hey i got a new hair cut, and look I’m skinny now. Funny, this whole not being pregnant thing makes it easier to keep the weight off

Lily taking my picture

Bruce's turn to take a picture

I’m not sure how we ended up with 80 degree weather in March, in New England. That is highly unusual. Especially for an entire week of it. Last week the children begged me to unpack the spring/summer clothes after one 70+ degree day and I did so. However, the rest of the week was back to regular spring 50 degree weather, which bummed them out.

This week it has regularly reached the upper 70′s. I must admit, I am loving the sunshine, not turning on the heat and all that but I don’t care for 80 degree weather in March. It makes me paranoid about the weather for summer. I like 4 seasons, each with their own range of temperatures. But for now, we’re reveling in skirts and shorts and trying on new to us things that were packed up in the basement. I am appreciating Miss Jo’s spring wadrobe that is now mine after pawing through her stuff last fall. It makes me feel like you’re not that far away Jo.

Happy Spring!

Here’s hoping that putting the winter boots in the basement and wearing flip flops everywhere doesn’t bring on a snow storm in April (us New Englanders are wary of early heat like this….we’ve seen too many freak snow storms to think we’re out of the woods yet )

I realized the other day I’m terribly neglecting the blogs, how wrong of me.

Since Christmas (opps) we’ve:

spent most of January sick (kids had ear infections, Luke and I had nasty cold/flu like stuff)

Enjoyed a mostly healthy February that hardly had snow. The kids and I went on winter vacation to N and they got 8-12 inches while we were there. Thanks grammie and grampa! They were thrilled to accommodate…oh wait.

An then March has arrived. Spring seems ready to take up residence, but this being New England we get plenty of cool days. The kids have been pleading with me to bring up the spring clothes. Bruce in particular is fond of the seasonal activity. The other day, it was so warm in the middle of the day shorts would have been acceptable. Since then Bruce has been anxious to get out the warm weather  clothes.

So today we dragged up the bins and sorted through what we had. Bruce can still squeeze into some things, but being the oldest needs some clothes. Lily has about 100 dresses from cousins and grandmothers. I may need to help her weed, but as it was I snuck some of the more wintery ones out to pass on. Ollie went into happy delirium when he discovered that his hand me downs from Bruce. not one but TWO Batman jammie sets. He has been obsessed with his “mario clothes” (red overalls and a certain blue shirt and his red mario hat) and pretty much panics if they are not clean. As soon as they are out of the laundry he takes off what he is wearing and puts on his mario clothes. Well, batman pj’s outrank mario clothes apparently as he was insistent on putting them on NOW, even though today was more like early spring and not so much like the sunny 70 degree weather we had. Either way it was cute.

Then our friend Sasha came over to cut our hair and now he looks so much older. sniff sniff, and in Bruce’s clothes to boot. sigh.

Anyway, we’re all very anxious for spring to stay. We did a night time playground run last night, aided by the daylight savings extra time before dark. We had supper outside at the picnic table as well. Spring is on the brain.

In other news the washing machine is broken, possibly for a week or MORE with parts arriving and then tracking down the fix it dude again. Laundromats are not particularly fun places. And oh my goodness, do people really pay this much to do laundry? Sometimes I forget how spoiled I am.

I sent in my renewal for our vegetable and fruit CSA today, which was exciting. We’re getting excited to plant things in containers and take walks and eat more ice cream. HA. Easter seems early this year, and that seems fitting with the weather. I anticipate alot of sunshine and happiness that day.

I’ve been trying to track with our church’s leap of faith activity, which is our protestant, non-high church way of following along with Lent. So far I’m enjoying the Gospel of John, finding fasting chocolate to be really starting to be hard, and generally glad for the marking of the time out of darkness into light. Otherwise, nothing really deep and though provoking yet.

Well, I have lots else to say, especially about four kids at a dentist (don’t do it) and other miscellany, but it’s late enough that I’ll catch that up later. Which maybe means I’ll update this here blog more often

So I started crafting in November, a new early record for me. I spent a bit of time at the sewing machine, both at my house and at my friend Leah’s (she is a bit more polished and clever about sewing).  I also made a few non sewing-machine items. Overall, I was pleased with the reception of the things I made. Without further ado:

I dug out some unused frames and organied some lovely photos of the past year for the three oldest kids

One of my favorite projects turned out as fun as I had hoped…I give you Hula Hoops!!!:

purple for Lily!

I also made 4 (for all but the eldest) Maine Cousins. 

Molly proves they work!

Purple flannel pj's for Lily

I had some lovely wool fabric and So I made myself a skirt and Lily a jumper to match,

three sweet boys in blue and plaid flannel. Definitely worth the effort!

extra adorable picture of Eliot for good measure

And a bunny for my sweet niece to cap it off:

perfect for snuggling!

So, I haven’t blogged in an age, but lots of good things have been going on around here.

Since the Folk festival,

Bruce turned 6

Eliot turned one

Homeschooling and dance and Jr Sports have all started back up.

And most recently I had a birthday. Yeah me.

Luke and his folks got me a new lens for my camera and then I took the morning to walk around and take pictures by the River. I sometimes read photography blogs, usually mama photographers and they talk alot about learning to take a self portrait, since moms are hardly ever IN the pictures, which is of course silly since we’re such a part of what’s going on, but we’re always behind the camera. Sometimes I look through all the pictures of a fun day and realize I am not accounted for. oppps.

Anyway, behold, my new lens and some fun…

self portrait….look fall leavespark bench…

found a comfy spot to journal…in my plaid all stars

journaling. down by the river….

it looked like someone had gone around and placed some leaves artistically at this part of the river walk, pretty cool

Last weekend we celebrated our 11th anniversary early by dropping the three older kids off at my folks in NH (thanks folks!) and then  attending the Newport Folk Festival in RI.

It was very awesome.

there were some…bands….all early afternoon and then the magic:

Gillian Welch!

Dave Rawlings!

so awesome together!

high steppin it in her awesome boots!

with Sara Watkins to kick it up a notch!

Intermission…cute kid!

Then the Decemberists, with Sara Watkins guest star

Then they all played together, but we were too busy enjoying the awesome to take pictures. But trust me, it was awesome.

happy early anniversary to us!

So it seemed like such a small, achievable goal:

grow a bunch of mint so we can have minty iced tea all summer long.

After living in Maine where our friend Ingrid had a ton of mint growing which she kindly allowed (or rather encouraged) us to help her use up, we became addicted to homemade iced tea and fresh picked mint in our spring rolls, and homemade iced tea (in homemade mojitos ). Well, it;s true, whatever else we use it for iced tea is the main priority on hot summer days.

And the allowing/encouraging bring me why I thought this goal achievable- Mint is a weed. A tasty tasty weed, but a weed nonetheless. A fast growing one at that (or is that true of all weeds?)

what could be easier.

oh.my.goodness.

So our friends gladly gave us like half a dozen of their mint stalks (weeds?plants? stalks, I dunno, I am new to this) and some nice soil and sent us packing. We gleefully transplanted these stalks to a dirt covered part of our yard about 1 foot or so in from the end of the grass near a fence. we watered it. We threw some other compost and stuff we used in our container planters in their direction for extra luck.

we waited anxiously for it to seem healthy enough to start picking it’s minty goodness.

Then the neighbor happened. The neighbor who graciously swaps housecleaners from our landlady to mow our lawn.

and.our. mint.

grrrrr

I was grumpy. I mean it was clearly a foot in from the grass,I shouted. But mint is a weed and luke pointed out there are other (not so tasty)weeds in that general area,which probably means the mint didn’t stand out, and he was right, and so I got over it.

and planted more mint. cause we had more and it was growing fine in the container, but I wanted, say, ALOT more.

this time luke put up some sturdy sticks around the mint.

and the next time the neighbor mowed, his lawn-mower-with-wood-chipping-action mowed the mint and sticks over. again.

grrr

so the friends brought us more mint. I mean it’s a weed for goodness sake and they started with one measly mint stalk and got a whole side yard full. They left it on our front porch and luke joked we better hide it from the neighbors weed whacker.

ha ha ha ha ha. but seriously, I was nervous.

So again, I transplant, I put up little chunks of wood and this time I haphazardly put some string across the front of the area with the mint, and I  tied the string to the wood sticks.

I meant to get around to labeling it, but um, I forgot. but really, the string drapped across the front seemed telling and helpful. Also some of the older mint was regrowing nicely and I felt triumphant ( as triumphant as a person growing a flipping weed can feel).

and then he mowed it down. AGAIN. AND, adding injury to insult even pushed our picnic table ON TOP OF the mint area to mow where the table had been.

WHAT ON EARTH?!!!

So after considering retaliating (how? not sure, probably egging or something), volunteering to mow for him (um with what mower?and wow, that sounds like…work, work which would keep us from the beach, ewww) and being generally grumpy, I decided to really make a mint garden.

Make (a) mint (garden) and not war.

So we dug three holes, filled them with the same vermiculite, peat moss and compost combo in our containers, grabbed  one of the two containers of mint that was still growing and threw the nice soil from our friends in the mix too and transplanted yet another batch of mint.

But this time we also cleared out other non-tasty weeds and were extra gentle w/ the mint. The kids were totally into the event. We found some scap wood bits and a sharpie and wrote mint all over them. We made a wooden fence in front of the mint w/ the labeled wood interspersed with “planted”  sticks to make a little protective stick fence.

all this to grow a weed. because the mint iced tea (and mojitos) are really worth it.

ta-da:

not the best photography ever (happens when you’re also holding a baby on your hip, but three groupings of mint, and 3 labeled sticks in front a one large “labeled”(scribbled by Ollie) stick in the rear. If you look close you can see some of the smaller sticks in between.

Then it was time to go inside drink cold lemonade and start a batch of mint iced tea (from the mint in the other container we didn’t rob of it’s mint stalks….).

summer is good times.

Every year around Lily’s birthday and Christmas I go crazy with the sewing projects. Perhaps I should learn to do them in a more balanced way, but alas, so far…it’s sewing mania or sewing drought. In that vein, I present to you the party favors for lily’s 4th birthday:

there are 12 of them. for all 12 attending nieces/nephews and dearly loved friends.

oh but also:

Two sided! woot!

I had the idea in oh, April. I started it, oh about 2 weeks before the party. yikes. But look at these adorable children in these hats, it was worth it was it not??!!!

most but not all the kiddos.

Levi in his hat, auntie models Gabe’s.

ahhhhh cuteness is overwhelming!

The oldest (who;s hat was started, um last summer, oppps, he was patient)

The sweet Lily girl, now 4 and always adorable.

and of course, Ollie, in action as usual.

It just makes me so happy when the kids like to wear things I;ve made them.

Hat pattern here. And thanks Leah for teaching me how to make these  

So I am now running experiments into how many things I can make in the dehydrator since I bought it.

There is an entire raw food movement that insists most if not all things should be eaten raw, and when you dehydrate them you can keep the living enzymes in your food active by only doing it at a certain low temp.

We are not converting to this lifestyle but I like to try out ways of sneaking more healthy food into us that doesn’t resemble kale chips.

ew. those were a disaster.

SO I ran across this recipe for dehydrated butternut squash cookies. Is your mouth watering? no? Yeah well, they are not meant to replace chocolatey or chewy cookies with oatmeal and raisins, but a chewy somewhat sweet snack that has butternut squash and raisins and just a tad bit of maple syrup in it? that sounds like happy snack-time.

so far the two eldest children have approved the cookie as have I. we’ll see what papa bear says when he tastes them.

since I had bought a rather large squash, I put it to good use and tried out these muffins from 101cookbooks.com which is where I go for inspiration and to be amazed at the kinds of things Heidi “whips up”. If we ever get desperate enough to buy tofu she has lots of tasty sounding ideas to try, but gads of her recipes don’t need it so I enjoy them. Anyway Pumpkin (I mean butternut squash) and feta muffins it was, this late morning.

OH. MY. GOSH. I AM IN LOVE.

I am not good with savory things, I prefer baking sweet muffins and cookies but these are delish. yum. Luke thinks they would be better with sausage, (though he hasn’t been home to try them yet) and I agree that might make them even awesomer but they are pretty awesome as is, even if my tequniques aren’t so great (somehow my haphazard measure-while-doing-homeschooling-dealing-with-a-cramky-toddler-method ended up netting me 18 muffins and not 12. I am not, for the record complaining. mmmmmmmmm) Also I am sure that if my parmesean cheese hadn’t come out of a can they would be even better. So sad I know, but there is only so many kinds of cheese i can buy high quality in one month.

Last night’s supper was 101cookbooks carrot soup, which went over pretty well. tasty tasty.  I managed to go all wild and roast some….um….sweet potato to go with it. I salvaged the orange presentation with…..grilled cheese. ha! Also with little garlic butter toast in the oven with the last of a loaf that wasn’t sandwich quality anymore. I’m still learning how to make sure the texture of the night isn’t just smooth. But the soup was a keeper. and simple. i like simple. I even used water and not veg stock and it was yummy.

notes-I forgot the lemon juice and there was no fancy drizze of oil….too much craziness with 4 hungry kids for that. It was good anyway, did I mention that already?

SO for a recap, for snack I tried the just finished dehydrating butternut squash cookies, for lunch I finished off the last tiny bit of carrot soup I didn’t send luke with the rest of the sweetpotato (to be fair some red potato and red onion also found its way in the pan last night) and when the muffins cooled off I tried the squash/feta muffins.

I may turn orange.

Also, in further adventures of vegetarian cooking, I made us Lentil loaf last friday. It’s meatloaf except with lentils. Which essentially means, if you don’t botch up the flavors and there is ketchup in the house, everyone will eat it

And they did.

I’ve never made meatloaf so the added bonus was it didn’t seem like a subbing- lentils-for meat meal. It was something new.

Peanut noodle night had mixed reviews, despite using the exact same peanut sauce they happily dipped fresh spring rolls in last week (what gives??).

I was pretty proud of myself for whipping up a white-wine-sauce to go with our Monkfish (fresh from the Gloucester fishermans’ wives co-op) on tuesday. I even used Real wine. MY sister-in-law would be so proud of me. And I was proud too! It came out smooth and was tasty except too overpowering (was a little generous measuring out the wine me thinks, and by measuring I mean pouring it into the pot until it seemed right…).

Monkfish is hideously ugly but oh so tasty. I love this fisherman’s wives co-op.

And so there you have it. We’re making it work over here trying new things so we can buy more expensive, better quality meat. Even though Luke frets he will have to grill lentil burgers this summer (some things are too sacred to mess with if you ask me, real burgers it is), and he’s never sure what sort of meatless concoction I will try next, he’s a good sport.

Bruce was a little nervous that the butternut squash cookies ALSO had feta cheese, but I assured him, there was no cheese in his cookie.

Also I made 4 loaves of bread this week (2 monday, 2 today) and  some Bob’s red mill bran/flaxseed muffins.

I’ve been little miss betty crocker in the kitchen this week.

I think it’s the spring weather! I’ve also sorted everyone’s closets, swapped out MOST of the winter stuff for spring (this IS New England, not all the sweaters can be packed up) and am currently overwhelmed with organizing the scads of bags I’ve offered up on freecycle.

Happy Spring!

This morning while I was waking up slowly, ahem, the older children were trashing their room preparing an “animal show”.

Animal show- (n)

When all small chairs are dragged into the bedroom, many MANY, stuffed animals are placed in and on and around said chairs, blankets and toys are then strewn around the room for the stuffed animals comfort, and a show is performed.

Upon seeing this creative mess endevour when calling them to breakfast, I informed them that as soon as eating was done the animal show must be cleaned up.

In a moment of genius on his way out the door Luke mediated on their behalf, you mean after they finish what they are doing? They need to complete their thought.

All, right, ok, AFTER they finish.

SO I let them continue to terrorize thier room while I changed diapers and happily read to Ollie, who was so happy to only compete with Eliot for attention, causing me to read at least 3 books.

Anyway we then begged to be the audience.

What a delight. Ollie and Eliot and I sat on the toybox and were serenaded by such hits as Have you ever seen a Giraffe….(eat book, stand on a puzzle, eat a bear (what???) etc etc etc, as well as the famous “What is a school bus” and the grand finale of “What is the name of the Last song”

Quite entertaining.

the self named “Bunkbed Band” posing for the camera phone photographer

Anyway, kudos to Luke for looking past the mess and seeing the creativity because I had a most delightful morning. Hopefully I can get the video from camera phone to internet, because really, who doesn’t want to see my kids singing and playing ukulele and Slide whistle and toy trumpet under the stage names of Singer Lily, Rockstar Bruce and Ollie-ver.

This is certainly one of those days when I realize I live the good life