Future plans

Josiah informed us this evening "Ah me, adonaht!"

Translation: "I be, astronaut!"

He's also fascinated by the fact that there are "adonaht ruff ruff" and "adonaht ooh ooh aah aah".

Just sitting and listening to Josiah talk is so much fun. :)

I didn't realize that I married Mega Man

Sentence structure

Josiah's emerging sentences would make for some interesting grammar diagrams.

Me: "Josiah, are you a baby?"

Josiah: "Yeah, baby now me!"

meal planning - help!

Image credit

I don't usually make meal plans. I just don't like to do it, and while that makes me feel minorly guilty, it is something I can live with.

But. I also do not like having no idea what is for dinner.

I think that this has become more of a problem for me as we've changed our eating habits. No longer can I pop a frozen pizza in the oven on evenings when I'm stumped for ideas. Also, we're eating a lot less meat since we've chosen to switch to free-range/pastured (i.e. pricy!) So throwing together hamburgers or meatloaf or something in the crock pot isn't as much of an option either.

I am definitely open to suggestions. Here's what I have to work with (and I'm shopping on Saturday, so feel free to suggest items for the grocery list):

3 bunches of kale (yes, I'm feeling over-run!)
lettuce
carrots
cauliflower head
onions
cabbage (not sure what it is called, but it is the same as the green kind pictured above)
broccolini
1 zucchini
spinach
apples
oranges
lemons
pasta
canned pumpkin
canned tomatoes
canned pears
dried split peas
brown rice
bread (well, the ingredients for it, anyway)
shredded cheddar
milk

What are the most interesting, yummy meals you can dream up, using those ingredients?

Amazon and coupons???

I just purchased a box of Pampers for a friend who will be having a baby. Amazon (lovely company!) has grabbed my diaper business by offering Amazon Mom - basically you sign up for Amazon Mom, set up Subscribe & Save for your purchase, and voila! reasonably priced diapers without having to set foot outside my house (or remember to re-order before running out). Love it.

What I'm loving even more right now is that there was a little box under the item price asking me if I wanted to "clip a coupon" to apply to the product.

*blink*

Do I want to? Yes please.

One click and $1.50 was taken off my total. And that was on TOP of the 30% discount I was already receiving.

I am going to be one happy, happy camper if this catches on. :)

Our birds are back!

Last year two doves nested in my hanging planter. We loved having them around, particularly when they successfully hatched baby birds.

They're back! Well, I guess I don't really know which birds they are (did the parent doves come back? did the babies decide to reclaim their early home?) but a pair of doves has most certainly settled into the planter. They lined it with soft hair from the boys' past cuts, and now putter in the strawberry patch and coo outside my bedroom window.

I'm feeling decidedly fond of our little birds.

Language development

Jonathan's complaint today: "I keep hiccing up."

Heeheehee!

This is such an accurately humorous representation of how people (tend to) view homeschoolers!

Chores

A couple of days ago, a certain someone said to me, "Mom, this is such a dirty house. I can't believe you make me live in such a dirty house!"

*blink*

Guess who has a whole new set of chores?

Oh, the sweet, sweet sound of a child rinsing the dishes. :)

Thomas

Thomas enjoys living in an imaginary world, populated by imaginext people with a few dragons thrown in for good measure. And dinosaurs. That fly.

Jonathan, in his eternal quest for a playmate, often induces Thomas to play with him, and then directs the imaginary world himself. But if Jonathan is busy with another friend, I'll often find Thomas playing quietly with his toys and himself. Sometimes he fusses about quiet time, but I have to wonder if it is just on principle! Quiet time is when he gets space and time to himself, just for dreaming.

Thomas enjoys playing with Duplo and the occasional Lego pieces, but his play doesn't revolve around building things. Instead of building airplanes and boats and forts and castles, he builds small houses and carefully populates them with people. (And dinosaurs.) Every creation has a story attached.

He will sit for very long periods of time, moving his people in and out of cars, setting up scenes, and doing the talking for every character in his little drama. "Ok, now you get into the car. Ok. Bring me the gun. Thanks. Ok, now we'll go fight the bad guy. You go around with the gun. Ok."



Thomas does a truly remarkable impression of a non-communicative teenager. He has a way of lowering his chin, raising his shoulders in a shrug, and grunting. He does this when he's upset/angry, or upset/sad, or upset/...playing a trick on me. Yesterday he was sitting alone, looking very sad and disgruntled about something. I came over and tried to give him a hug, asking "Thomas, are you ok?" *shrug* "Are you sad about something?" *grunt/shrug* "I'd like to help you, but you'll have to talk to me so I know what to do." At which point he slyly looked up at me out of the corner of his eye and grinned. Little charlatan!!!

Jonathan

Our Jonathan loves to build things, create things, rig things, explore things. It is a fascinating world.

Lately he's been discovering the joys of Lego creation. For quite awhile he had difficulty adjusting to the freedom all those little pieces afforded - he wanted instructions, and he wanted help, and he was disturbed if our pieces were different colors than the pieces in the picture/instructions. Just recently he seems to be breaking away from that and enjoying creating on his own. Yesterday it was a castle with a jail cell, and a special airplane to transport the prisoners.

He is constantly asking me to do a "special project" with him. By which he means, something messy, preferably with paint and needing glue and scissors. My poor craft-hating self wants to run away and hide every time this request is made, but I'm trying to curb that tendency. :) Jonathan just loves to create things!

I'm always finding various interesting objects hung from his curtain rods. He taught himself to tie knots and is getting quite good at rigging blankets and toys above his bed. Once he "hung" the baby doll by the neck with a pair of hand-cuffs and a rope. Gabe laughed hysterically and wanted to take a picture. I rescued the baby and gave her to Josiah. "Po baby" indeed!

Jonathan is very interested in how things work, and definitely prefers to learn in a hands-on manner. He found a spare external spigot that Gabe hadn't installed yet, twisted the handle and peered inside for awhile, and then commented, "Oh, now I know how this works."

Josiah

Josiah has been blossoming lately, in a variety of ways. His language has improved by leaps and bounds in the past weeks. It is common to hear two word sentences, and the occasional three or four word attempt. Every time he wakes up, either in the morning or from a nap, the first thing he asks is "Daddy home?" He knows that Daddy goes to work, of course, but the weekends keep his hope alive that I might just answer "yes!"

At two years old, Josiah is definitely aware of his own preferences, and often gives decided voice to them. Which only makes it sweeter to hear "oh tay" when he's asked to do something! Not that the words are always followed with the desired action, but hey, it's a start!

Since Josiah was a baby, I've been singing "Baby Mine" to him as a lullaby. He requests it every night when we put him to bed, and also whenever he gets hurt or feels in need of comfort. He's learned to sing the opening three notes and words, and sings it to comfort his brothers, along with gentle pats, if they get hurt and cry.

Along with empathy, Siah's imagination is really developing. He enjoys creating interesting recipes in his little kitchen, and considers it hysterically funny to put the pans in the fridge and the food on the burners. He's getting interested in dressing up, especially as a fire fighter. Recently we acquired a baby doll (for use with Lullaby Slings) and Josiah enjoys carrying her around, patting her back, and saying "po baby".

He does the same thing with his stuffed Elmo toy. Can you see it in the picture? We gave it to him for Christmas, after he saw the same toy in cousin Eva's possession. Josiah calls it "Eva Elmo" and it is much beloved.

Siah, darlin', you're much beloved, too.

And the winner is...

Jennifer Himes! (I used random.org to generate a winning number.)

If anyone else wants a copy, you can purchase the e-book for only $6.95 or a printed copy for $9.95.

I enjoyed reading the comments about your forays into healthier eating!