Didja miss me?

I've been busy! School got out, and all the kids have been home, and it was Ed's 40th birthday, and people have been having babies, and.... I could go on and on, but I'll spare you. So, where to start? Caroline is almost 11 months old! There's a birthday coming up pretty soon!!! She's cruising like a champ, and took her first step yesterday. I promptly knocked her down and duct taped her to the floor, so we should be good around here for a little while longer. Oh, for those of you who don't know me too well, that was a joke. I just said 'no no no Caroline!' and she sat down and hasn't taken another step. Yet. She's getting so big! Keith still loves her to death - he was taking her 'shopping' the other day...


She was having a blast, until he almost dumped her out onto her head. She wasn't a fan of that. Fortunately he caught her. How, I don't know, but I'll take it. We got new storm doors, and she loves looking through the glass at what's going on in the world. She also loves to smash her face against it and smush her nose up. It's pretty funny!


Henry's been, well, Henry. After shoving the lego through his eardrum, we were good for, oh, maybe 2 weeks. Then, he decided that he should jump off of the fort part of the swingset while holding onto the swing chain. Unfortunately he doesn't have a great grasp on the mechanics of gravity, and didn't let go of said swing chain until gravity decided maybe he should. Fortunately nothing was broken, but he managed to dislocate his shoulder. Guess where we went! That was a quick trip, too. He's talking up a storm, and will reenact the whole swingset fiasco for you if you ask. On the ground, though! We've appeared to have adopted my parents' dog, Kona, and Henry just loves her to death. He helps us feed her, takes her on walks with us, and tries his hardest to get her to play fetch with him. Unfortunately, she can't see too well, so she can't see the balls that he continues to throw for her. He gets a little irritated about that, and yells "KONA! Go get ball KONA!!!!' at her, which probably confuses her even more. So, that's what we've been up to. Keith leaves on Wednesday to go to Wyoming with my parents for six weeks, so Henry and Caroline and I will have to find something to do! I think I'm going to realize quickly just how much Keith does to help out with the little guys!

I scream... you scream...

We all scream for ice cream! Make another mark on that mother of the year tally sheet for me - I made ice cream from SCRATCH today! Chocolate chip ice cream even! And it was GOOD.

Back to the mint...

Hey, did I mention I have mint coming out of my ears? I made mint jelly with it today! From scratch! As in, I picked the leaves, boiled the mint, added the sugar, added the pectin (what, exactly, IS pectin??), jarred it, and sealed the jars. For real. I actually succeeded in my very first attempt at canning! I'm going to make pickles next.
Making the jelly...

Warming the jars in hot water so they don't break when I pour really really hot jelly into them.

Sealing the jars. It worked!!

Mint jelly!!!

What happens to your stove when you don't use a big enough pan. Think sugar, burner, smoke, fire alarm...

No fair!

I had to take Henry to the ER yesterday, seeing as he shoved a lego through his ear. We went to the pediatrician, and she recommended we go to the ER (since, you know, it had been a month since the last time we were there). We came home to drop Caroline off with Ed, and got home a few moments before he did. I put Caroline down for a nap (she was D.O.N.E. done) and Henry and I took Kona for a walk. We were walking along the driveway, and Henry saw the swingset in the backyard.
Henry: I go swingset.
Me: No - we have to go to the doctors.
Henry: I go swingset.
Me: Not now Henry. We're leaving.
Henry: NO FAIR!
Who taught him that??????

Henry! Don't stick legos in...

What's that? I know you're asking yourself that. Well, THAT is a lego ax for a little lego man. I took a picture of it next to my hair band to give you an idea of its size. It's pretty skinny. So. Henry. Wait, let me first remind you of Keith's experience with a lego. Ok, you remember that incident? Well, fortunately, this lego was cheaper. Mostly since we haven't gone to the doctor yet lol. Anyways, I was watching tv and Henry was playing in the foyer. I look over at him, and he's sticking that lego ax into his ear. Stick side first. I say "HENRY! Don't stick legos in...." and he goes WHAM and slams it into his ear. And then screams hysterically. I almost threw up lol - it really looked like it hurt!! Ed came running over and pulled it out - about an inch of the lego ax was in his ear. Fortunately it wasn't bleeding or draining any fluid or anything, so we'll be checking in with the pediatrician tomorrow morning. He keeps telling me "my ear hurt bad" and insisted on a band aid for it, but it seems okay. He's been complaining about the toenail he ripped off (unrelated incident) more. I'm pretty sure I see yet another gray hair.

Caroline and the baby

My friend had a baby on Saturday, and we went to see her today and give her a present (which would be a mei tai from Divas N Babes). Caroline was absolutely in love with the baby. She'd crawl over, look at him, then turn and smile at us. She was a bit confused by the socks on his hands to keep him from scratching his face, and kept trying to pull them off. She looked so big with him!! I told her that he was her future husband so she better be nice!

Yum. Corn.

Keith made breakfast this morning!

See what I woke up to?




Keith made breakfast for me and Henry! He set the table, put out bananas, cherries, grapefruit, and spaghettios. Yes, spaghettios. He said we had to have soup, but I only had cream of mushroom in the house and I'm not a fan of cream of mushroom, especially at 7 in the morning. So he settled for Spaghettios. He opened the can and heated them up on the stove (with a little help from his mother!). Henry was THRILLED. Henry thinks spaghettios are God's gift to Henry, so he was on cloud nine. Unfortunately for me, they needed more so I had to give up my bowl so Keith and Henry could have seconds. Bummer. But, my coffee and grapefruit were good! And it's the thought that counts!!

Remember the mint?

It's coming out of my ears. So I picked some more, and made mint iced tea. From scratch, I might add.

It is officially summer!

Because there is corn. And fireflies. But this post is about the corn. Last night we had the first corn on the cob of the season. Of course, there were a few glitches in the preparation of the corn, but once it was cooked, it was good.

See that thing floating in the pot of corn water? The thing on the left? I had the water boiling and was just about to stick the corn in when I looked (thank goodness) and said "what the hell is that?" Henry piped up "A cracker." Oh, of course. Crackers. In the corn water. Who WOULDN'T put crackers in the corn water? Anyways, I wouldn't, so I dumped it and started all over. Fortunately there were no crackers in the second batch of corn water. So we cooked the corn, and some steaks and some rice. The kids really enjoyed the corn and the rice - steaks, not so much. Oh well, more for me and Ed!

My little entrepreneur

Did I spell that right? Anyways, Keith has decided (with a little help from his mother) that he has too many toys. So he cleared out his room, put a whole bunch of toys in boxes, and announced that he was going to sell them. And once he sold them, he would be rich and buy the Lego Death Star (retail value $399.95). I said "if you sell $400 worth of toys you can buy whatever you want." I'm wondering if those might just end up being famous last words. So last night, Keith was bugging Ed about wanting to go sell his toys. He wanted to have a yard sale, but impatience was getting the better of him. He finally wore Ed down enough who said "fine, go outside and sell your toys. Just stay in the driveway - I don't want you near the road." Henry went out with Keith, and Keith set up shop out towards the mailbox. Henry hung out on the steps waiting for Keith. Not five minutes later Keith yells "DAD! I got FIVE DOLLARS!!!" Ed goes out, makes sure he didn't sell Henry, and says "What? You sold something?" to which Keith replies "Yeah! Someone was walking buy and bought a toy for FIVE DOLLARS!"
So, apparently, you CAN sell toys out of a box in your driveway at 5pm on a Sunday. Who would have known. Now if he just sells $394.95 more, I'll be buying a Death Star. And I have a feeling he's going to want to spend every waking hour outside selling toys, now.

Caroline makes a break for it

Got mint?

Really, do you? Because if you don't, I can give you some. Heck, I can give you some even if you do! I have the mint patch from hell. I spent the day today with Ed ripping mint out of the flower beds and trying to tame the mint patch. I shall have mint tea until the day I die, now, because you can't just throw mint out!

That picture is how the mint patch looks now. After, oh, gee, 5 hours of gardening. Really. FIVE HOURS of ripping mint out of the flower bed. Well, maybe 4 hours of ripping mint out, and one hour of planting the new stuff.

See that mulchy bit? Around the big flowering plant (I think its an azalea)? That was ALL MINT. ALL MINT. Oh, and some ferns. And mint. And MORE mint. Did I mention that there was a lot of mint in my flower bed?



All that? That was mint, too. But now, now it is fennel, marigolds, lobelia, dill, and lavender. And in the pots are tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers. I'm going to find a new place for the pots, but it was starting to rain so I just stuck them there so I could come inside. Pretty impressive, huh?


So the mint is now drying in my mudroom. That is, oh, gee, maybe half of all the mint I pulled. Maybe. So, if you need mint, you know who to call. And you better hope you're not on my Christmas list!

Caroline and the slide

Yesterday Keith decided that Caroline needed to be introduced to the slide. So he got Henry and Caroline out the front door and carried Caroline back to the swing set. Henry has some kind of magnet in him that just draws him to the swing set, so Keith didn't have to worry about him. They got out there, Henry climbed up to the fort, and then I looked out to see Keith climbing the ladder while he was holding Caroline. After my heart resumed beating, I grabbed the camera. She loved the slide, at least until Henry went down after her and landed on top of her. She wasn't a fan of that. But the slide, and Keith hauling her around the swingset - she loved those!

More kitchen pictures

It's pretty much done! It looks awesome!