Common Sense Plan

Sorry, no pictures of kids or family stories AGAIN. (I'm working on it...) Instead, some more of my political diatribe. Along with the rest of you, I'm anxiously wondering how things will play out with the current financial crisis. I read about Dave Ramsey's Common Sense Fix/Plan (PDF link) that he's promoting and it sounds good. I went ahead and emailed it and my thoughts to my representatives and am now encouraging you all to READ ABOUT IT HERE and do the same.

I've never contacted my representatives before and I must say that it felt very civic to type my thoughts in a form and send it along. I think I'll call tomorrow, too. Hopefully it's not too late!!

Time for some campaignin'

I saw this on my friend Dawn's blog and it made me laugh, so I went to the website and made my own version. yee-haw!

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New Camera Suggestions

Okay all my bloggy friends and readers and lurkers. We are in the market for a new digital camera. (Okay, so we've been planning on replacing it for at least a year now) I've been browsing at Costco and Walmart and online a bit, but there are sooo many choices and personal preferences and price ranges to consider. So I'm looking for some input.

I have a film Canon Rebel SLR that I haven't used regularly since we bought our digital 4+ years ago. As much as I'd love to go back to that in digital format, taking the plunge for a really nice DSLR isn't in the ballpark right now. We mostly need a "diaper bag camera" for all the day to day shots and movie clips. We've enjoyed our Pentax Optio 33WR. It's biggest feature is that it's water and dust resistant (which also translates to very kid friendly). No external moving parts, gaskets on all of the openings, etc. BUT it's also in need of a new battery and some higher resolution, it's only a 3MP and I've never been in love with it's color/white balance results. We'll probably still refurbish it and it will be strictly Matt's fishing camera, which is why we went with the WR in the first place.

I liked the options available on some of the Canon Powershots (A720?). The one's I tested out seemed to be a hybrid DSLR/point in shoot. I've poked around on dpreview.com, but again there are sooo many choices.

Here's where you all can help. Tell me about your camera, even if it doesn't fit what I've described above. I know some of you take some awesome pictures and I want to know what you use to get those shots! :)

*What digital camera(s) do you have? (Make/Model)
*Do you like it enough to recommend it?
*Favorite features
*Least favorite features
*General price range ($150, 200, 400+, etc)
*Durability?
*Portability?
*Battery life/options: how does the battery charge and how long does it last? can you slip in batteries if need be or do you need an extra battery pack on hand?

If you don't have time to leave a long comment, just your camera make/model and how much you like/don't like it would suffice. THANK YOU!

New Niece!

My sister Heather finally had her baby girl! Julia Blyn Cantarero was born Thursday night at 11:30 PM. 8 lbs 9 oz, 21 inches long. I can't wait to meet her and see pictures! Evalyn has been so excited about this and talks constantly about "when Baby Julia is born and we go to see her". When we arrived at the preschool co-op yesterday she announced. "My Aunt Heather had her baby! We're going to see her in FIVE days! (holding up her hand)". This spur of the moment trip was news to me, but hopefully we can squeeze in a trip before Thanksgiving. We shall see...

First Words

Our little baby girl is growing up so fast.

Her first official word: Uh-Oh.

Her first "signed" baby signs: Milk (squeezing both hands like milking a cow), Hat (patting her head) and More (putting her fingers together) this one's a little inconsistent. She's still working on All Done.

We've heard her making MaMaMa sounds, but she hasn't called me that yet. The same for DaDaDaDa. It's still amazing how quickly she's absorbing the world around her and doing her best to be as involved in it as we are. She loves looking out the window in her room. She loves toddling outside after her big brother and sister. She gets very upset if they close the door and leave her inside. Henry alternates between being her protector and tormentor. Evalyn usually just dotes on her.

I'd love to put a video clip or recent photos up, but our memory card isn't working in our card reader. The camera can read the memory card and take pictures, the card reader can read other memory cards, but neither card reader will read the memory card with the last couple weeks of pictures on it. sigh. Anyone have a suggestion on how to get the images off it?

Here is one from my last download. Linnea is working on her sippy cup technique and enjoying some chocolate chip banana bread....

Playing with Dirt

Scene: Quiet afternoon nap time. The younger two children are sleeping. Mommy is tapping away on the computer. The bored preschooler is bored.

E: Mo-om! I want to go outsi-yed. Can you open the door? (I'd deadbolted it at the top from the mornings antics.)

Me: Sure. As long as you keep your clothes on and don't pour dirt in your hair.


Is that too much to ask??


Background: The kids have been "making compost" lately which involves shoveling dirt into containers and collecting leaves and finding rocks and putting it all somewhere. Perhaps in the compost bin, perhaps not. That parts a little fuzzy. Not sure where the rocks came in because that's not in the "recipe". But I have a bowl of scraps on the counter to dump a little later today so I may be in for a surprise.

As much as I'd like to claim complete responsibility for teaching my kids about compost (they fight over who gets to dump the bowl in), our favorite PBS cartoon show, Curious George, has reinforced the concept. There were 4 new episodes the beginning of the month and we all got excited about that. Yes, Matt and I sat down and watched them start to finish with the kids. Apple presses, penguins, seeds, carrots, compost, levers... all sorts of science-y stuff. We have 54 episodes of Curious George on our DVR. Ridiculous indeed. :)

My kids usual backyard entertainment involves water. They call it "swimming" but it's really playing with water and dirt/sand in containers and often wearing a swimsuit. As the summer has dragged on (so much for my one weekend of fall weather) the ratio of water has shrunk and the dirt has increased. After a bad day last week that involved mud patties being thrown at the house and sandcastles on the deck I hosed everything down and locked the hoses away in the garage. Enough was enough. So now their outside play has evolved to playing with dirt. So much for the climbing trees or kicking a soccer ball around....

The Frugal Clothes Dryer

A few weeks ago our clothes dryer broke. I'd just put a load in to dry and was starting another load in the washer when BAM! The dryer made a loud bang and the pitch changed. I opened the door to investigate, pushed my little finger on the door close button and sure enough: the drum was not turning even though the heat and air was working. Rats. A little while later I googled my problem and troubleshooted that the belt had most likely broken. It sounded like a reasonable DIY fix though.





I didn't have time to explore more than that at the moment, so I hung the clothes on the limited line space outside AND on the patio chairs AND on the tiny retractable line I'd recently installed above the W&D in their hallway laundry closet. For the next load that HAD to get done I found some rope and a hook and rigged up some more line space. It was interesting how my attitude toward hanging laundry was not exactly the benevolent "be good to the environment" mood from last spring. No, I was feeling quite put out that it took me an entire 20 minutes to hang all the wet clothes in a space efficient manner. And then an hour or so later (it's constantly sunny and dry here) I'd have to repeat the process all while trying to keep my kids from pulling things down with their sweet little paws. No wonder household appliances were such liberating devices back in the day!!



Matt thought my additional clothes line was pretty ghetto looking. But it's grown on him and we've been hanging clothes regularly for the past few weeks. It wasn't until this weekend that we finally made time to work on the dryer together. The long delay came from me not knowing that the dryer belt was a skinny thing that wrapped around the middle of the drum. When I looked inside initially (with my dad on the phone) I saw this wide black gasket thing on the back of the drum and figured that was the belt so the problem must've been something else and we'd have to call a repairman so I stopped trying to fix it myself. Then Pappy Roy suggested a few other things to try which made me open the back of the dryer and look around closer and I found the broken belt! And the tensioner pulley! I could fix it after all. It took me another week to go buy the replacement belt.



It still took a bit of diagram checking and trial and error to figure out that the belt went back on the middle of the drum and not the end. I felt pretty dumb when I realized why our first few attempts weren't working (and the diagram that showed this very clearly!!). But now that I know how my clothes dryer works, inside and out, I'm feeling like a truly frugal woman for fixing it (with some help of course). Grand Total: $14.99 (plus tax) for the belt and $16.99 for the new cord (even if it wasn't the problem it certainly looked like it needed replacing!).

But the real question is, will I keep hanging clothes on the line or simply plunk them in the dryer? I'll wait and see what our September electric bill looks like first.... : )

Politics

I wrote a post earlier in the week about my take on the election thus far. But when I re-read it I thought it was lame and didn't really get at whatever point I was trying to make.

So here's my second attempt, in bullet form, on
Ten Things I Think I Think About The Campaign Thus Far:

1. I think Sarah Palin's selection as Vice President for John McCain is the most interesting thing that's happened to the presidential campaign this fall. It's completely changed the dynamics and shaken things up.

2. Experience (in any of the candidates) is over rated and somewhat irrelevant. Once you get to the White House, you're surrounded by advisors and experts and staffers who get you the information you lack to make the best decisions for this country. We recently watched Thirteen Days about JFK and the Cuban missile crisis. It was an interesting juxtoposition on the issue of what role the president plays as commander in chief in world crisis situations.

3. The issue of "fixing the economy" is another one that bugs me. The American economy is such a ginarmous black box of trillion dollar debt and interest rates and all that. It will take a lot more than one person's ideas on how to fix things. Every little bit helps, but it's very conceited to think that the President has some super natural power to make it all better.

4. The media is really annoyed that they didn't "have a say" in McCain's running mate. They had plans for all the other names they'd vetted as possibilities. He chose an outsider and now the media is openly hostile about it. I think the feminists are ticked too that she's not playing by their rules.

5. Because Palin is an outsider she's getting the 3rd degree on many issues reporters wouldn't even broach with other candidates. Here's some insight by UPI's Martin Sieff (courtesy of Matt). Charlie Gibson's interviews these past few days make him come across as a scornful condescending bully. Sure he's vetting her out and that's fine, but the unrealistic standard he has on some of his questions were a little over the top. My favorite touche of the interview was her pushing back when he asked about her quote on not being involved with the Iraq war. I can't find the quote but the gist of it was "That answer I gave then was appropriate for the conversation on business in Alaska and what I was doing as governor of my state to support the war in Iraq."

6. Also the whole "Bush Doctrine gotcha moment" where Palin clearly didn't know what he meant by the Bush Doctrine and 95% of those listening couldn't have answered the question either. (Matt interjects: I don't know if Bush himself knows what the Bush Doctrine is.) This article in the Washington Post by Charles Krauthammer hit the nail on the head. I especially liked his concluding paragraph

Yes, Sarah Palin didn't know what it is. But neither does Charlie Gibson. And at least she didn't pretend to know -- while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and "sounding like an impatient teacher," as the Times noted. In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension that has characterized the chattering classes' reaction to the mother of five who presumes to play on their stage.

7. Before Palin was nominated I was feeling very apathetic about the campaign and didn't care for either candidate. Some of Obama's notions seem all talk and little substance. Some of McCain's rhetoric seems far from reform and changing the ways of Washington. Both sides dug into eachother at their conventions. But Palin is interesting and different and she seems to value some of the same things I do. But she is not the Presidential nominee. She is a great asset to McCain's ticket because people or looking past him and straight at her. And she seems very forthright and open, but don't we all hope our politicians are that way, even if they turn out differently in the end.

8. I do wonder at her being able to attend to her family's needs and serve her country in such a big way, but I've known some amazing women who seem to balance it all. Who are the media or public to question how a woman and mother chooses to care for her family? There are many fathers who stay with the kids while the mother works outside the home. I don't see the numerous mothers who are CEO's and lawyers and doctors and what not being grilled on this. The higher standard women are held to bothers me, but at the same time wants me to say "We Can Do It". It's mixed feelings for me of believing strongly in motherhood but also the right for a women to choose their own path.

9. It's really late and my brain power is fading along with my laptop battery power. Politically I am a cynical moderate with conservative views and liberal leanings.

10. I said ten things so here's my last thought/caveat: I'll probably think differently about the whole thing in another week or two. I think either candidate will do good things in office to try and help the economy and to make changes. But how they each plan to go about it is the real question.

10.5
One of my favorite images I found on a comment somewhere was Governor Palin wearing her infant son in a pouch. Go babywearers! And according to this link nursing/pumping too.

First Soccer Game

Evalyn is playing soccer this fall on a U6 team in our town. Thursday was our first game. She was excited to wear her uniform for the first time and I did my best to tame her "free spirit" hair.

(insert cute picture when I figure out why my card reader isn't working)

She played in the first quarter but was thirsty and bored barely five minutes into the game. I was the sideline/goalie coach and she was playing the guard position near the goalie. I think if she was down the field helping chase the ball around she might not have gotten bored so quickly.
She had a turn to play goalie a little while later and also had fun pulling grass on the sideline. At the very end she got some ball action in just before the game was called. It was a lot of fun to watch. Evalyn said her favorite part was the snacks afterward. (Big surprise there!) They had fruit cups and pretzels and mini water bottles.

So that's the cute part. The rest of this post is my thoughts on coaching and our little team of 4 and 5 year olds.

All the sports teams here are volunteer based, no city/county parks and rec department to do the job. A friend from church who coordinates all the coaches asked if I'd coach one of the U6 teams. I almost said yes but was nervous about doing it by myself since I've never played soccer before and watched very little. I was also a little unsure how the timing of games would work out with Matt's work schedule and me needing to still watch the younger two. So I opted to be an assistant coach with my friend Sheila and that has worked well so far.

We have 7 kids on our team, 3 who played last year so they get what it's all about and our other 4 are first timers. We're trying our best to make things fun while still teaching the basics of how to play soccer. Anyone with some good tips or things you've seen work well for your kids teams... pass them along!

The hardest thing about helping coach is not knowing what to do when Evalyn says she's done or tired or bored or hungry and wants to go play on the playground with Daddy and Henry. I know she's just little still and I don't want to push her too hard where practices/games aren't fun for her. But I also want her to learn a little bit of commitment and endurance. I try to ask myself if I wasn't on the field helping with drills if she'd be more likely stay involved or if she'd just plop down next to me on the sideline and ask to go home. As it is I bribe her with "kick one more ball down the field and then you can go play" or "let's have a water break instead". Now that we're into games every week and there's more action I'm hoping she'll be more into it.

A Ripple

Some of you may have heard/read about the Nielson family from Arizona that was affected by a plane crash in August. I first read about it on a friend's blog and have been following it since. The New York Times recently wrote an article. As I first followed the story and the four precious children being transported to their aunties houses a state away my heart broke with "can you imagine" tears.

The more I read and the more I learned about who "NieNie" was, the more it made sense why so many people were coming together to support her and her family. Over Labor Day weekend hundreds of people were holding silent auctions (some are still going on!) to raise money for them. One of those giving to the Nielson family is a photographer Jonathan Canlas who is donating ALL proceeds from family portrait sessions for the month of September. (I'm so wishing I had an extra $300 sitting around for family portraits so I could drive down to Chico/Sac where he'll be on a weekend later this month.) Taking a huge chunk of your livelihood like that and giving it away so freely is just one example of how generous people are being. It really is amazing.

One mother shared some thoughts that really stuck with me. (I can't remember which blog or comment I read it on... wait, I found it) She said that to support "NieNie Day" she will do those mundane and sometimes tedious things that we mothers do on a daily basis, but do them in honor of Stephanie who can't clean and hold and help and sweep and comfort and tidy and walk and all those other little things that most of us can do everyday, but she may not be able to do for a very long time. For me those thoughts really hit home. What kind of a mother am I on a day to day basis? Sure we all have good days and bad days but when I'm having a bad day do I try to make it a good one? Or do I let it continue on it's downward spiral? Just thinking about how my children might remember me if I were suddenly not around to be their mother certainly motivates me to cuddle on the floor reading books together in the afternoon instead of putting on another kids show. Or play 50 games of tickle monster a day. Or not get cross over the third glass of spilled milk that morning. Or comfort my baby back to sleep for the umpteenth time that night. It makes me want to raise my voice less and hug and kiss more. To not worry if ingredients don't get measured right or flour and sugar falls all over the floor. To sing lullabies and help with bedtime prayers and tell stories about "when you were a little baby".

Now if I can just hold on to that feeling in the heat of the moment when my darling four year old is experimenting with how worked up she can make her mommy get at the end of an afternoon..... THEN I would feel like I'm going about my day as a loving mother and not merely a household manager. Then I would feel like I'm making everyday count.

Black Eyed Tree Frog and other Evalynisms

The other evening Evalyn and I ran an errand together. As we drove down our street she noticed some yellow flowers with dark centers in a neighbors yard.

E: Look Mom! Sunflowers!

Me: Those aren't sunflowers sweetie, those are Black Eyed Susans.

E: No, Daddy said they were sunflowers.

Me: Well he was wrong. Those are Black Eyed Susans. Sunflowers are taller and are usually just one flower by itself. Black Eyed Susan's are also yellow with dark middles but they are short and bushy.

E: (thinking for a bit) Mommy, can you say Black Eyed Tree Frog?

So of course this is hilarious to me as the Mommy because she puts three things together in that last phrase: My habit of requesting Evalyn to repeat a new phrase/word/vocabulary when she learns it. And, putting new information with something that sounds the same. Namely "Red Eyed Treefrog" from the Go, Diego, Go! cartoon.

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We've been on a crazy stint lately of our kids ending up in our bed at some point in the early morning hours. Sometimes this results in Daddy on the couch with Henry or both of us squished to falling off our queen sized bed.

One morning recently Matt had retreated to the couch and I was snoozing away until Evalyn woke me up around 5AM or so saying "Mommy! Mommy! The stars are making a line!" I fumble for my glasses to figure out what she's talking about. She is standing on our bed looking out the window and sure enough, the constellation Orion is laying on it's side on the eastern horizon and his belt is making a nice straight line. What an observant girl you are, I mumbled as we both snuggled back into the covers.

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This next one is perhaps my favorite Evalynism of late. Last Friday we went to Ashland with our preschool/"playschool" friends to pick peaches and play at Lithia Park. We returned home mid afternoon and the younger two were napping. I was beat from all the activity and was somewhere between wanting a nap or a snack for an energy boost. Eva and Daddy were in the office on his computer. From my position on the couch in the next room and with my brain in a fog and needing some help figuring out my next action, I exclaimed in a loud voice, "I need to eat something!"

Evalyn responded in tone and volume to match mine, without skipping a beat, "Are you falling apart Mommy?!"

Matt and I burst out laughing. Oh my sweet girl who's observed her mama "falling apart" on many a late afternoon or busy morning when I needed a snack to help stabilize my occasionally needy blood sugar. You sure bring a lot of joy to us little girl!

Toast

I made toast and hot chocolate this morning. This was a novelty for us because our toaster oven has been out of commission for awhile. Some weekend day at the end of July we were all outside or napping or whatnot. Henry had climbed on something and put some non-food items in the toaster oven and turned it on. We were notified of this by Evalyn announcing "Henry's in trouble! He put something that's not food in the toaster oven!!" By the time we got to the kitchen there was smoke everywhere and flames billowing from the toaster.

After extinguishing the fire (unplugging and leaving the door closed, conveniently written in small print on the front of the door I later noticed) I examined the interior and found remnants of birthday candles and sprinkles and something that used to be plastic. It had melted through the grate and dripped below the lower heat element. When I tried to start the oven again, more flareups and yucky smells. I called it a loss and stuck in in the garage. It was a wedding gift so it was going on 6 years of use. I figured it wasn't the end of the world to replace it.



Fast forward a month or so and we still hadn't replaced it. One of my favorite comfort foods is toasted sourdough bread slathered with butter.... mmmmmm. We had a loaf in the cupboard and by golly I wanted some toast! So I plugged in an extension cord, set the toaster oven on the patio and determined that I'd let it go until the plastic waxy stuff melted off. After a few changes of foil liner on the bottom and some paper towel work, I declared it good enough to put back into service. I love "earning" money like this by fixing something rather than replacing. :) Plus my little helper Eva and I pretended we were camping and the toaster was our campfire.

I'm sure the novelty will wear of soon, but for now we're happy to have our sourdough, cinnamon and peanut butter toasts, as well as quick quesadillas back on the menu.

There's something about the Fall...

I love the fall. I love the crisp mornings and pleasant afternoons. I love noticing one afternoon that the slant of the sun is lower and more golden earlier in the day. I love the end of August and early September harvests, the transition between seasons. I feel like baking apple crisps and pies and breads and soups and stews. I love sliding on my favorite pair of jeans and sweater for the first time. Cracking the window at night for that cool breeze. Burning scented candles in the evening. Making hot chocolate again. I love cuddling in the hammock with a cool breeze and a warm blanket. And of course I love the fall colors in the trees and flowers. (for the record I haven't done ALL of these things already, but I'm anticipating the ones I haven't yet)

This fall, though, I am missing the East Coast. I keep finding myself feeling the fall changes yet lacking the sights of turning maples and red brick buildings and low rolling hillsides gilt with golds and reds and oranges. Instead I see the gold and green of the California hillsides. The cottonwoods are a bit more yellow at the end of their season. And although it's still early autumn, I'm not holding my breath for a big color change. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. But for now I'm hankering after a big pile of leaves in the backyard and a drive up to the Laurel Highlands of western PA.

I rarely decorate my house except for the fall and Christmas. I can put the decor up in September and it lasts until the week after Thanksgiving when we start putting up the lights. I love pots of chrysanthemums, fat pumpkins, stalks of corn, garlands of leaves, and bumpy crookneck squashes. With our resident deer population here, I'm hesitant to put much on the front steps. They may think I'm hosting dinner! ; )