Now, blessings light on him that first invented sleep!  It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot.  It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even.  ~Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605

At two and a half, Brother has almost - but not quite- given up his nap.  He’ll go for a few days without one then drop at the most unexepected moments.  Here’s a simple list of the places I caught him sleeping this month.

On the stairs

After eating a PB&J

Cousin E’s baby carrier

 On the tile floor.  Okay, that one was a pose. But he said, “Mama, I sleeping.” so I think it counts.

I know this last one is pretty wild but I’ve decided to post it anyway.

In bed… see the little tuft of hair.

While Will & I were discussing the state of the union over coffee, Princess Sister assumed this very grownup pose with her VeggieTales mug of Pepsi and listened attentively.  I had to snap a picture. 

 Of course once she saw the camera her real personality came out.

(Just for clarification:  I did not provide the soda — it’s one of the uhm, perks of living with the grandparents.)

Long before the start of this blog, journaling was a habit in our home.  There is something therapeutic about putting one’s thoughts on paper.  Tonight, Will & I had a lengthy discussion about our current situation and our plans for the future; about what we think is important and what’s not.  It reminded me of this journal entry from May 2006 - back when our intentional pursuit of simple living was relatively new.

When we decided to live with my parents, I was afraid of what people would think … that it was not “normal” for a woman and her husband and two children to sell their perfect home and choose to live with her parents for no obvious reason other than they wanted to. In the long run, there will be no great financial gain.  In fact, there will be some loss as far as selling the house goes but still it seems like the right thing to do.  And then I ran across this quote by Ellen Goodman.

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.

That’s when I decided that “normal” is not something I want to pursue and it is not something I want to teach my children to pursue. I want “unconventional” to be the defining factor of our family.

What about you?  Are you “normal”?  Are you chained in by society’s should’s and should not’s or do you find comfort and safety in them?  This unconventional way of living works for us but would perhaps be stressful and unfulfilling to others.  What say you?  Define: “Normal.” 

I looked all over this week for something silver.  Then yesterday sitting at my desk I spied these.  Perfect.  To you these may look like ordinary containers but to me they represent so much more.  You see, I am a container junkie.  A place for everything and everything in its place.  Which means of course that you must have containers.  I even have containers for my containers.  My family humors my disorder.  This conversation was had a couple of weeks ago during cleanup time.

Dad: “Sister, where does this toy go?”

Sister:  “Oh, that goes in the ‘I-don’t-know’ bin.”

Dad:  “The ‘I-don’t-know’ bin?

Sister:   “Right here (pointing)”

Dad (to me):  “The ‘I-don’t-know’ bin?!

Me (very seriously):  Yes.  It’s for all those toys that don’t have matches… or don’t fit with any…thing…. else…. (trailing off).

Dad (slow nod) :  “Riiiight.”

Anyway, my entry for this week are three silver containers which I picked up over a month ago on sale for a buck each at the supermarket.  They used to hold Hershey’s kisses but that is obviously not why I bought them.  For proof of that fact, I offer another silver picture:  

Two still sealed bags of kisses. (The third bag did get opened but only because we had a guest in our house that weekend and I needed a tasty treat to offer.)

(Oh, I almost forgot.  The pop bead count was 25 ft of round and 8 ft of irregulars.)

Did you play?

We love stuff from Klutz.  The projects are simple and fun and all the materials are provided.  What could be better?  The kids got a pop bead people book for Christmas and liked the little creatures so much I ordered extras.  Last night Papa was home so Sister roped him into a project of magnificent proportion.

“I have an idea, Papa.  Let’s see how many beads we can put together.”

“Okay.”

“Great!  You put the round ones together over there and when you get some long strings hand them to me and I will put them together over here.”

I think Papa got the raw end of this project but he didn’t seem to mind.  Any guesses how many feet of pop beads the team put together in about an hour?

They even did the odd ones.

I’ll post the answer tomorrow with the photo hunt.  You did remember Saturday’s photo hunt day, didn’t you?

Do you ever notice God in the little things?  Do you recognize when He has turned a sour situation to good?  A few days ago I purchased several items at Walgreen’s one of which was a package of sewing needles.  They were cheap; three dollars max but I had been meaning to get some for a while so I was somewhat dismayed to find them missing after everything had been unpacked.  Oh well, they’ll turn up.  The children drew my attention to something else and I promptly forgot about them.  Skip to Wednesday - trash day.  We live a ways back from the road so our trash is picked up in two steps.  First the motorcycle man comes and hauls it up to the main road then two or three hours later the trash truck comes by to take it away for good.  In that short window between the two steps our dog has taken to looking for leftovers in the bags.  This Wednesday Sister and I walked to the mailbox to put in some mail and discovered that she (the dog) had been at it again.  Remarkably only one bag had been touched, still; there was trash everywhere.  I walked back down the drive to get a bag, found some boxes that needed to go out too and walked back up the drive to pick up the mess.  A few minutes later only one stray paper was left.  I picked it up and quickly realized it wasn’t a paper at all.  It was instead the missing needle packet, completely intact.

Now I’m not saying that God caused our dog to go digging in the trash but it seems quite coincidental that with six bags to choose from she picked the one with the needles.  Also, if I hadn’t come back for a new bag I wouldn’t have remembered to take out the boxes.  On top of all that, four trips along our driveway is actually pretty good exercise.

Maybe you think all of this a bit Pollyana-ish.  Maybe it is.  I prefer to think it’s God in the everyday… in the little things.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

Inspired by our favorite book of the week (Herman and Marguerite - An Earth Story) and because I promised something interesting today.

The rings on an earthworm’s body help it wriggle forward and backward.  (Like many of us, I have rings of my own, unfortunately they wriggle up and down and are not as useful.)

Worms breath through their skins much like fish and can live submerged in water for a time.  (Today I am wishing I could breath through my skin.  Did you know that someone with a cold expells about a gallon of mucus daily?  Sorry… gross and off-topic… back to the worms)

Worms don’t have ears but they can feel vibrations.  (I can’t feel vibrations but like most moms I can feel the sound of silence.  You know… “the kid’s have been quiet way too long” kind of silence.)

Worm’s don’t need eyes because they live and work in the dark earth.  (Mother’s need two sets of eyes - one in front and one in the back of our heads- because we live and work in the presence of children.)

A worm can grow a new head or tail if it loses one.  (Boy, wouldn’t that be a useful skill.)

The earthworm is like us in that its body uses blood to deliver food and oxygen to its muscles and organs.  Unlike us, however, a worm has five pairs of hearts.  (Any mom will tell you that her one heart holds enough love for all.)

For more interesting tidbits on worms check out these resources:

• The Worm Woman’s Website
• Worm Facts
• NIEHS Kid’s Pages
• Discovery Kids

why it’s been so quiet around here, I’ve been doing taxes.  Yes, in January.  Every year I have a race with myself to see if I can beat the previous year’s record.  This time that won’t be so hard because in 2006 we filed sometime in October.  (Extensions are remarkably easy to file by the way.) We had two, no three companies to file for plus personal, mixed in with a move, starting school and other sundry activities … you can see why we are opting out of the status quo and searching for simplicity.  This year, it’s just one company and us but that still requires gathering and sending the business papers to the accountant so she can provide us with Form Such and Such so we can file online… hopefully in early February.

I promise something more interesting tomorrow.

Old bananas are few and far between around here.  Brother devours them so quickly I almost don’t see the point in having a hanger to keep them fresh.  This must have been an off week because yesterday we had three very ripe fruits to dispose of.  Hmm, we could feed them to the chickens, or the worms, or us.  Not a hard choice when you have Nana’s Banana Bread recipe close at hand.  Straight from Grandma’s kitchen… no, not my grandma (this one), it’s perfect every time. 

I’m including the recipe below as it reads on the card though I don’t do it the same every time.  I never measure the bananas - 3 medium to large ones is close enough.  I usually use pecans instead of walnuts and this time we made muffins instead of loaves.  Nana recommends letting the flavors mingle and develop overnight before eating it.  Nice thought but nearly impossible around here.

Nana’ Banana Bread

5 tbsp butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray bottom only of a 9×5x3 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray

2. Beat butter in large bowl with an electric mixer set at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat well. Add egg, eff whites and vanilla; beat until well blended. Add mashed banana, and beat on high speed 30 seconds.

3. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder in medium bowl. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with cream, ending with flour mixture. Add walnuts to batter; mix well.

4. Pour batter evenly into prepared loaf pan. Bake until browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes.

5. Cool bread in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan; cool completely on wire rack. Slice and serve with butter and jam.

Not in honor of Chinese New Year (though it is coming up soon) but just because, Sister rushes in earlier this week and declares she wants to make a Chinese Dragon “that’s big so a person can wear it.”  We scoured the internet for ideas but most designs were for small handpuppets.  Finally, Sister concluded, “Well, we’ll just have to make our own… I guess???  How could I refuse such sweet hopefulness Mama wouldn’t give up on the project.  It took all day in a series of cutting and painting and testing and cutting and taping but we finished in time to surprise Dad with a special twisty, wiggly, twirly dance.