We're On Staycation!!

Rarely does everything align as it has this week: plenty of time off, no other commitments to have to stick around for, vacation money set aside...we were soooo excited to get away for a week of camping and hiking just the four of us.

Then our lovely springy weather from last week disappeared as winter made a comeback.

Gale force winds and lots of driving rain (almost snow) and bone-chilling cold.

There went the camping plans.

And our back-up plans up plans to the beach and the mountains.

We decided instead to take a series of day trips instead.

So, after a restful day of making plans on Monday, we went out that evening to see an impromptu movie. All of us.

It was awesome.



We saw Tangled in 3D. Even our teenage son enjoyed it.

Then Tuesday, we rose early and headed for Universal Studios, Hollywood.

Poor Judah couldn't ride on half of the rides there being such a short stuff, so he got his face painted instead.







Most memorable throughout the day was the House of Horrors...where characters from various Universal Studios horror flicks jump out at you while you're wending your way through the exhibit.

Jericho reported that the lady behind him grabbed him a couple of times so great was her fear.

Jeff said I was hanging onto his backpack and shrieking the entire time, and that the workers probably got the signal over their earphones, "Screamer in the white shirt!"

Believe it or not, poor little Judah was terrified. We didn't see the sign until afterward that it could be too scary for kids under 12. Bad parents!

It amazes me that in spite of the fact that the scary scenes from movies of 50 years ago don't affect today's children in light of all the high-tech, much more realistic special effects that they have in the movies nowdays...yet it is still so freaky to walk through a low-tech haunted house and have scary characters jump out at you...or to have an actor dressed like Norman Bates run towards your tram with a knife.



Judah did lean back a bit when Jaws rushed up out of the water towards our tour tram



but had no problem whatsoever with climbing inside the sharks mouth afterward.



It almost looks as though he's being spit back out, haha.



I never can get a serious photo of big brother, however.



:: :: :: ::

Day 2 of our Staycation is wide-open. We'd planned on the Arboretum near Pasadena, but the weather in that area is supposed to be rainy today.

Guess we'll be spontaneous and go anyway, and if we find it too miserable, we'll find something else to do in that area. There is always IKEA...

:: :: :: ::

On Monday, while driving around town, we saw a coyote on the loose. In our city. 5 minutes from the nearest WallyWorld.

We speculated that with all the recent rains, perhaps it's home got washed out or something. It looked kind of desperate and hungry.

Judah pipes up from the back seat, "Would a coyote bite a little boy?"

"They've been known to attack and even kill little kids."

"It wouldn't get me! I would do push-ups and sit-ups and then knock down a tree and use it to hit the coyote and kill it!"

What an elaborate and time consuming scenario, my son. Hahahaha!

:: :: :: ::

Jeff recently shaved off his goatee to begin fresh and new.

Judah saw him in the hallway and came to a screeching halt and stared.

Later that afternoon, when Jeff picked him up as usual, Judah grabbed both his cheeks with his hands and asked in an earnest voice, "Are you sure you're the same dad I always had?"

To which Jeff responded, "What? Why would you even ask that?"

"Because you're not the dad with the goatee that I remembered."

:: :: :: ::

We've been letting our outdoor dog in on cold nights as she's getting old and starting to show signs of arthritis when the temperatures dip. Now she gets to sleep on a thick comfy pillow on the boys bathroom floor.

I swear, sometimes I see her shivering outside on mild days, totally faking it while trying to look as pitiful as possible hoping for an invitation indoors. I'm thinking she might have a little Chihuahua in her somewhere.

So anyway, the other night, Judah had to go in there to brush his teeth after our dog was settled in for the night.

Not long afterwards, big brother went in to brush his teeth as well. From our bedroom, we hear him yell, "Judah?! Did you put toothpaste on Raisin's back??" And worse, "Did you squeeze it straight out of the tube?"

Sometimes, Jeff and I just look at each other and shake our heads. What possesses that kid to do such things?

:: :: :: ::

We have a rule that if anyone in the family is sharing a bottle of water, you have to 'waterfall it' so that nobody's mouth touches the bottle.

I become a real stickler about this during cold and flu season, especially, but have found that it works quite well to prevent 'floaties' in the water after a certain small member of our household has eaten and decided he needs a drink. Aaaack.

So for some reason, Judah was mulling this over the other day and says, "Why do we call pouring the water 'waterfalling it'? Why?" (He has been adding this very persistent WHY? on the end of every question he's posed to us lately...and the questions are legion these days.)

So I explained to him how if the water falls into our mouths, it helps to prevent the sharing of germs.

"I want to go down a waterfall someday."

**curling up in fetal position** Lord, have mercy.

The Worst Cookbook Title EVER!

How in the world did the folks at Scholastic and Disney let this title slip past their editors?

Recipe For A Nightmare

Tonight, Judah was demonstrating with his toy suction-cup bow and arrow what knights (I'm assuming Medieval) used to do when they would "shoot em into the castle".

A little later, I heard him saying, "I need to get some fire on my arrows..."

Why do I suddenly feel like I should a.) destroy all household matches and b.) sleep with one eye open all night long?

Family Funnies

Daddy has had Jury duty all week.

Of course Jeff can't talk about the trial, but that hasn't stopped little Judah from peppering me with tons of questions about where daddy's been all week.

His 5 year old understanding about our legal system was a bit sketchy, and all he knew was that police arrest the bad guys (and gals), and that somehow they go to this place called a court where somehow a judge is involved and that people can end up going to jail.

After fielding an unusual number of questions about trials and courts and judges and jails, I finally said to him, "If the jury determines that the person on trial did break the law, then the Judge will eventually say, "Guilty" and the person who broke the law will go to jail."

"How long do they have to be in jail?"

"Well, that depends on what the person did. For a speeding tickets, you usually just have to pay a fine at the courthouse and attend defensive driving school. But if you get caught drunk driving, you can go to jail for a long time and get your license taken away. If you do something really bad like kill another person, you can go to prison for years. Sometimes people even have to go to prison for the rest of their lives for what they've done. That's why it's so important to obey the law."

I looked in the rear-view mirror and Judah looked crestfallen. "But I don't want daddy to go to jail!"

"Daddy's not going to go to jail...he's a juror."

Poor kid...no wonder he had so many questions!

I suppose now would be a good time to dig out a movie with a legal trial in it to show him exactly what being a juror is all about, to allay his fears as to why his daddy was at that big place called the courthouse.

:: :: :: ::

You know your child was born in the 21st Century when they are snuggled beside you on the sofa while listening to their favorite storybook being read then suddenly jump up to go to the restroom and say, "Can you please pause the book until I get back?"

:: :: :: ::

Judah has begun a new phase of life...learning his letters and numbers.

He's also a budding artist.

If I do say so myself, he's getting quite good at both writing and drawing.

Unfortunately, I've been finding evidence of it all over the house.

And I do mean all over the house.





And occasionally, when he sneaks into mom's scrapbooking supplies, on himself.



Because that wasn't enough of a canvas for his work, he also opted to spread out onto one of daddy's Bible commentaries. He's very proud of his penmanship, even if his J's tend to end up upside down most of the time.



**note to self: hide all spray paint and sharpie markers, stat!**

:: :: :: ::

Last Sunday morning, on the way out to the car for church, I overheard Jeff commending Judah for being fully prepared for the service, having remembered his Bible and everything.

Not seeing a Bible in Judah's hands, I wondered what Jeff meant, until I heard Judah mention, "It fits in my pocket."

Judah long ago lost his little orange Gideon's Bible.

Upon further investigation, I discovered a darling little black pocket-sized Bible with shiny gold edges on the pages...which I recognized from the Youth Group room at church.

Yes. The church Youth Leader's son stole a Bible!

Aghast, I mentioned this to him, and he quickly replied (albeit a bit shamefacedly), "No...I borrowed it."

**shakes head in shame**

Perhaps a little refresher course on the 10 Commandments is in order?

:: :: :: ::

Judah has had a playmate over this week.

They have gotten along famously this boy's boy and a girly girl.

Instead of playing house, they play "Campeen". Using Judah's very own little shovel and rake, they take along a couple of stuffed animal dogs and their coats, and they set up various camps around the back yard.

It's kept them happy for hours out in the fresh air and sunshine.

It wasn't until they cracked open Judah's costume tub that we ran into a little snafu.

Having dual sets of both cowboy and knight costume sets left over from the days when big brother was a little guy and we watched Cousin K on a regular basis, the kids were happy to pretend for at least an hour.

But our darling little guest drew the line when they switched from "Cowboy" to "Knights", and in her charming little girly girl voice said, "Dis knight helmet messes up my haiow!"



This morning, they've been playing with bathtub toys in the bathroom sink and it's gotten awfully quiet all of a sudden.

I'd better go check on them as I don't need any repeats of the toilet water incident.

Silly Boy

The other evening, we were driving home late from a day trip. The kids were wiped out in the back seat and Jeff and I were chatting about a situation we know of that has been heavy on our hearts recently.

In reply to something I'd brought up, he said, "That's like that passage that says, 'When your child asks for bread would you give him a Scorpion?'"

He couldn't remember the exact wording of the passage, but the principle was there, and was a perfect analogy for what we were discussing.

From the back seat, Judah says brightly, "I would like a scorpion! For a pet! Or a tarantula."

Oh, mercy.

Poor boy wants a pet of his own so badly.

Perhaps we'll need to be getting him a puppy sooner than we thought.

Somehow, caring for a puppy doesn't seem quite so bad in light of poisonous desert creatures living in our house. With us. With Judah as their caretaker and the ever present possibility of them escaping. Or inflicting injury on members of our household.

I wonder if we could talk him into a Pygmy goat?

Observations From The Back Pew

When our youngest was a baby, we had grand intentions of keeping him in the church service routinely so that he would learn to be quiet and attentive and reverent from a young age and remain so throughout his childhood. "Train up a child" and all that.

It seemed to have worked quite well for big brother.

But since our second son's birth, things...haven't quite worked out that way.

Little brother has a completely different personality.

Where big brother was compliant and eager to please mom and dad, rarely ever getting into trouble in church, little brother simply can't sit still. If he's not talking far too loudly, he's exploring the territory, checking for gum beneath the pews, drawing on the backs of offering envelopes, loudly getting his offering money ready for the ushers to collect, playing with the short pencil or pulling out the little gold plastic stopper thing that holds the empty communion cups on the back of the pew.

I find myself constantly on alert, trying to anticipate his next move and hopefully avert disaster.

I shudder to think what this will translate to when he gets to Kindergarten.

Anyway, on Christmas Eve, our family was sitting in our usual spot on the aisle within steps of the back door of the sanctuary. The quicker we can escort our distruptive dear son out of the sanctuary, the better for everyone.

That particular night he was hopped up on sugar from a jumbo candy cane and who knows what other goodies had been in a little stocking a friend had given him just before the service but which I hadn't discovered until he was nearly through with it, foil wrappers and cellophane hanging out of the pockets of his Christmas slacks.

The poor, sugar-deprived boy works pretty quick when goodies are involved, because there is always the possibility that mom will intercept it and opt to put it in her purse and 'save it for later'.

At any given time, I have at least a couple of suckers and some hard candies rattling around in the bottom of my purse from these search and destroy type occasions. Yes, Judah dislikes that I do this, but this mom wants to control the sugar intake around here as much as possible because I loathe taking care of sick children and expensive dental visits.

So our Music Director got up and said, "In a few minutes, we're going to have someone turn out the lights for our candlelight carol sing...but first, our Pastor will come and share a few announcements."

Singing Carols is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time. But as I tuned into what our Pastor was saying, I was kind of surprised to see the stage lights above him flicker off. Then on. Then the left bank of lights flipped off and on. Then the right.

Judah was no longer sitting with us in the pew. A quick glance to the light switches in the back of the sanctuary confirmed my suspicions. Yes, little brother had taken it upon himself to that 'someone' to turn out the lights. Only without having been asked to do so.

Talk about mortifying.

And yet oddly hilarity inducing.

I started to giggle silently. I tried to hold them back, but as I pondered over what might have possessed Judah to do such a thing, I ended up in a shoulder shaking silent laugh that I'm pretty sure was every bit as distracting as our boys antics.

By this time, Jeff had assessed the situation, grabbed him, returned the lights to their previous settings and was already back, little brother firmly wedged between us in the pews.

Then Jeff saw me trying not to laugh.

And then his shoulders began to shake, and we both went through that whole self-talk thing, Don't make eye contact...don't do it.

Failing miserably, we both ended up acting like a couple of misbehaving kids in church.

How could we possibly work up a good 'stern' face to discipline our son when we ourselves were acting up in church?

Anyway, all that to say how happy I was when little brother was invited to go with the elementary aged kids to Children's Church even though he's not yet a Kindergartner. Though I had my suspicions at first that she'd been asked by the powers that be to please, please take him out, we were pleased to hear week after week since that he's done very well in class.

Win-Win, I say. We get to hear a sermon--in it's entirety--without distraction and he gets to hear a Bible lesson in a place where it doesn't matter if he's got the wiggles. WooHOO!

So last evening, Jeff got a call asking if he could fill in for the Children's Church leader as she was moving to a new house this weekend.

This morning, we found ourselves waaaay out of our comfort zone, teaching little kids and singing every single Sunday School song that has motions to it during the course of the morning.

Just a quick aside: If you have small children and haven't worked with them in a classroom setting before, you might want to give it a whirl just once, because otherwise you have NO IDEA the kinds of information they unwittingly reveal to their teachers about your family.

Stories that for whatever reason are indelibly marked upon their brains are blurted out during the course of the class to the wide-eyed shock of their teachers.

After listening to a couple of sisters tell just such a story, which painted a very vivid picture about their household, I sat back feeling pretty confident that thus far, my boys hadn't ever been so... indiscreet. Started patting myself on the back for it, actually. In fact, I believe I may have actually got a little sanctimonious and proud.

Maybe you can see where this is going? That whole pride goeth before a fall thing?

Well, it all started when Jeff told about the 10 Lepers that were healed by Jesus, but only one returned to thank Him for it.

Jeff asked if any of the children knew what leprosy was. There was a hum of speculation and one very bright little girl raised her hand and said, "A skin disease that is very contagious."

"Very good!" Jeff replied. "In fact, it was so contagious that people who had it were kicked out of their homes and even their villages or cities, and had to live far away from other people because they were considered 'unclean'."

He went on to talk about how it was a "dread disease. It was incurable. Nobody wanted to catch it. It began with spots of discolored skin, which would then become somewhat gangrenous and gross and which would result in large, horrible, smelly sores which would eventually deaden nerve endings and could cause fingers to fall off."

Unexpectedly, Judah pipes up and says for everyone to hear, "Oh...like what my mom has!"

Say WHAT???

Being that I haven't had so much as a band-aid on my fingers in the last year I was mystified as to what would give him that idea.

As we laughingly discussed it on the way home, I thought perhaps Judah was referring to the 'Science Project incident' in which my thumbs were lacerated by a broken Christmas bulb.

Then Jeff reminded me that maybe it was the time I'd contracted ringworm from a friend's cat.

The time I may have overreacted just a tad because I knew how contagious and hard to get rid of that stuff was, and didn't want anyone in my family to get it.

Perhaps Judah had just picked up on the contagious part.

Incidentally, nothing works better for ringworm than lavender essential oil rubbed into the area and allowed to dry, then liquid bandages (in the nail polish type bottle) painted over the area and worn for 3-5 days until it smothers the ringworm to death.

Believe me...in the two weeks before I finally hit on that remedy, I tried everything from tea-tree oil on down to wasabi powdered horseradish...the latter of which about burned off the top three layers off my skin.

Anyway, after discussing this with little brother, we're pretty sure that's what he was referring to. Although there is a HUGE difference between ringworm and leprosy.

Oy, I cringe thinking about the kinds of word pictures our son has routinely painted about our family in the few short weeks he's been in that class.

It just doesn't get much worse than insinuating that your mom has leprosy!

Finally Well and A Yummy Valentine Recipe

**cough, cough**

It's kinda dusty here. Anyone out there?

Mom?

So having gained momentum from a very busy and productive Holiday season, I wrote out a big long to-do list for the month of January, and set to work on it.

I was on a roll and literally didn't have a spare moment to blog.

I made some serious headway on my 'list'. Supplies for more garden beds purchased? Check. Supplies all stacked together for my Fair project entries? Check. Craft room in some semblance of working order to work on Fair projects? Check. Crochet project for the fair done? Check.

Things were going great until I got slammed with a really bad cold (possible bronchitis) about midway through the month. That had me laid out flat for a week and on light duty for a couple of weeks thereafter.

Productivity ground to a halt. I was basically out of commish.

Which makes me so mad. I don't get sick often, but when I do, it's a doozy.

And Jekyll and Hyde-ish. The normally chipper, even-keeled version of me disappears and this cranky, pitiful person comes to stay in my place. Not pretty.

When my kids saw me moping around in my pajamas for the fourth day in a row and began to wonder if they'd ever get their mother back, I knew I had to rally, if not for my own sake, for theirs. But it still took me a couple of weeks to get my usual get-up-and-go back.

Thank God, I'm much better now.

Since then, of course, I've been playing catch-up on everything I fell behind on.

I even did some early spring cleaning. This is what my pantry looked like AFTER it was cleaned. I neglected to take a BEFORE shot...and probably wouldn't have posted it anyway, because it was that bad.



Things were once again going great...until Jeff and the boys got sick, too.

And wouldn't you know, both strep throat and whooping cough are going around, so I had to be extra vigilant. Fun.

Anyway, I have learned something valuable from these experiences.

At the very first twinge of a sore throat...use this stuff liberally. (We got ours from our local health food store.)



Nips. sore. throats. in. the. bud.

The Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) in it is some seriously awesome stuff for killing germs.

The same company also makes ear drops which worked wonders with the last ear ache our little guy had. Two applications in his ears and the infection was gone, never to return...and we didn't need to visit the doctor or get any prescription antibiotics.

Grapefruits are being hailed as something of a wonder food, and are full of all kinds of antioxidants as well as beneficial nutrients and compounds that help fight an array of illnesses.

I was reading recently that certain compounds found within the white pithy part around the fruit are very beneficial in fighting off the effects of Malaria. Powerful stuff, that grapefruit.

Anyway, when my friend's husband came down with his third case of strep throat recently, a friend of hers mentioned that "Echinacea and activated charcoal will have him feeling great in 2 days."

We've long been fans of Echinacea in our family, and though I've heard of activated charcoal caplets before, I'd never heard of it used for sore throats.

However, when Jeff came down with a major sore throat late Saturday evening, I remembered that little nugget and went out and got some. Swallowing was painful.

He's been on it for nearly 24 hours now, and woke up this morning feeling much improved from yesterday.

Anyway, it looks like that will now be a permanent part of our illness fighting arsenal.

:: :: :: ::

Yesterday evening was our annual Valentine Dinner at church.

I was to bring dessert.

Jericho had also needed some treats made to sell at his Awana bake sale Sunday morning.

What's a mom to do when she just doesn't feel like baking?

Make things that barely qualify as homebaked, that's what.

For the bake sale, we made 'Turtles' out of pretzyls (a rounded 'heart' shape), Rolos and pecans.

And for the dinner, I made Neopolitan Cake.



This cake cuts into beautiful slices.

For the cake, you will need:

• 1 chocolate cake mix (we used a dark chocolate mix)
  
• 1 strawberry cake mix
• 2, 8 inch pans (for each mix), greased and floured. If you happen to have a 10x3 round pan for wedding cakes, each mix will fit into that pan, making a very large layer cake for a crowd (which is what I did). I recommend that if using 8 inch round pans, that you wrap the extra cakes in plastic wrap and freeze them away for a super easy dessert for another time.
  

For the Vanilla Cream filling/icing, you will need:

• 1 box (5.1 oz.) instant vanilla pudding
• 1.5 cups cold milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (if you can find the clear kind, it won't yellow your icing)
• 2 cups whipping cream, whipped
  

In a large mixing bowl, blend together the pudding mix, milk and vanilla. Let this set up for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a smaller mixing bowl, whip the cream until it's no longer 'soupy'. Then, fold the cream into the pudding mixture and blend well.

Using a large bread knife, carefully cut your cakes into 2 layers (I did 3 layers with the 10x3 pan). You can stick toothpicks in around the edges as a 'guide'.

On a cake plate, alternate the colors of cake, sandwiching a dollop of the vanilla cream mixture in between layers, spread around with the back of a spoon. After putting the next layer on, you can eyeball it and press it down if it doesn't seem to be level. This will squeeze excess filling out the edges.

The remaining filling goes on top of the cake.

This cake will need to be kept refrigerated.

Yummo.

:: :: :: ::

Menu for Valentine's Day Dinner

This Ribeye Steak recipe
Cauliflower Mashed 'Potatoes' (steamed cauliflower made as I do my garlic mashed potatoes)
A Colorful Salad

:: :: :: ::

And finally...to my Valentine of nearly 20 years (dating) and nearly 18 years (married)...HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!



It's hard to believe but I've now officially spent more of my life WITH you than WITHOUT you...and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Love you, Babe!