The Frantic Clean, and a (belated) Thanksgiving recap

Today was the day I'd planned to clean for Greg's upcoming arrival.  A few days early, but I figured this would give me a chance to get a reasonable amount of things done each day without going totally crazy.  Let me just tell you: the nesting urge, once fully unleashed, is a frightening and powerful beast.  The children helped some, because of course the Best Thing Ever is to squirt excessive amounts of cleaning supplies all over everything, and we actually had a very nice day together.  Things accomplished today:

Children's toys picked up and put into their room
Floors in living room, guest room and sun room swept and vacuumed, including rolling up area rugs and getting under them.
All furniture moved and cleaned under (vacuumed inside couches, moved piano, corner bench, etc.)
Living room and my room dusted.
7 loads of laundry washed and hung to dry (= 14 trips up and down 2 flights of stairs)
Both bathrooms cleaned.
Some windows and both glass doors Windexed.
Microwave scrubbed out.
Kitchen cabinet surfaces wiped down.
Hood and stove range cleaned on top of and under.
Oven door window scrubbed.
Computer room partially organized.

I still want to wipe down the inside of the refrigerator, finish the computer room and hit a few other clutter spots, but I had to stop myself after 8 hours.  It's 10 at night right now.  The children have been in bed for 2 hours, and I'm just now finishing my dinner.  I will clean more...if I can still move tomorrow.  I'm telling you though, this level of Crazy Clean feels good.

This is very belated to post about (although when has that ever stopped me?), but we had Jonathan here for Thanksgiving weekend!

Jillian had a big Thanksgiving dinner at her house.  Lavella, teething two teeth at once, had refused a nap all day, so this is how she spent the first part of the later afternoon:


Thankfully she roused herself part-way through, and was quite the character for the rest of the evening.


Jonathan and I were responsible for most of the desserts, so we brought Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie (with dark chocolate almond bark, whipped cream and toffee sauce), and Butterscotch Pumpkin Pie (with Scotch spiked whipped cream).  Both were huge hits, and rather delicious, although Jonathan preferred the latter (guess which one he made). 


(Sorry, the picture sucks, but I kept having to jump up and help the children with stuff, so it started melting before I could get a good shot)

Also, because I'm excessive, I decided that I needed to make two types of candy as well.

Chocolate rum balls (recipe to come soon):


And vanilla marshmallows:


On the last day he was here, we struck on a fun idea.  He ran out to get take-out from the local Asian Bistro (their name for it, not ours -- just "Asian".  Really darn good food though; some sort of Chinese/Thai fusion.).  We set up the computer room with my little collapsible tables, and then watched on the computer an episode of Bizzare Foods on Thailand.  Everyone ate happily, and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to be "eating what the other Andrew is eating!!"

(I love all of their expressions in this shot)



We also visited the Midevil Christmas Market at a nearby castle ("OUR" castle), which wound up being kind of fun, but very, very cold in the end.




Overall, we had a wonderful visit, and look forward to seeing him Christmas weekend!  (He and Greg will probably be cooking dinner -- should be fun times!)


Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to all of you, and much love from our family to yours.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Week 33

I feel like I've never been bigger in my life, but in reality, I've still got 7 weeks to go.  Apparently, my skin knows how to stretch even further. 



Last week, I went to a cupcake decorating class, and my children were thrilled with the results:



I've always been a horrible cake decorator, so I was relieved to find that with a little coaching and some lessons in technique, I was actually able to turn out some presentable little cakes.



I know, they're almost too cute.  I let each of my children eat two, and then had Andrew and Elijah deliver the rest to the two neighbor families in our building with children.

The first two cupcakes made it without incident (the boys each only held one), but then the trouble arose when I sent Elijah down on a second trip with a paper plate full of 4.  Admittedly, a terrible idea, but I thought I'd give the guy a chance.  He and Andrew knocked on the second door, and in the space of time it took the family not to answer the door, Elijah said "whoops".  I looked out to see, and sure enough, there he was, picking them up off of the welcome mat.  I was a little miffed, but relieved that at least the family hadn't answered, so now they wouldn't see the ruined cakes.  I told the boys to just come back up, intending to throw the cupcakes away. 

Half-way back to our door, the dad of the family opened his door.  I explained, also saying that they'd been dropped, and at that moment Elijah turned around to face the guy and dropped them at his feet.  The guy generously took them anyway, and I found out the next day that they'd all eaten them, in spite of the extra seasoning.  I mean, they're the ones who clean the stairs, so they know how clean/dirty they are, but...oh goodness. 

The nesting urge this time around has spun me into a series of sweaters for myself, and I'm powerless to resist.



Must get back to the knitting.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Pumpkin processing (and a belly)

Thank you to Jill (in the comments), Aunt Terry (via email), and my mom (over the phone) who helped out with my pumpkin question.

My mom gave me step by step instruction to follow for processing the pumpkin. It's simple, but it takes all day, so if you plan to do it too, start out in the morning. This is what you do:

First, you prick the pumpkin all over with a fork. This was enacted with great vigor by all.



Then you bake it on a rimmed cookie-sheet or jelly-roll pan for about 3 or 4 hours until it's soft, deep golden orange, and possibly collapsing on itself (sorry, no pictures).

Then, you cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out and set aside all of the seeds, and put the baked flesh in the food processor (or in small batches, the blender), and process until it's a smooth puree.



Now take the puree, put it in a pot with a lid askew, turn your burner to the lowest heat, and slowly cook off the extra water for about 3 more hours.

Take all of the pumpkin seeds, rinse them as well as you can to get off all of the gunk, and spread them out on a baking sheet (they'll still be slimy feeling, but that's OK). Bake for about 30 minutes, or until dry feeling.



The next step is optional, but it was recommended by Aunt Terry, and it makes a good thing even better. Put the now dried seeds into a saute pan with a little olive oil and sea salt, and toast for a few minutes until they're as golden as you want them.


All three children and I agree that this is a great snack!

I measured out the pumpkin puree into batches of 2 cups each, and they're now in the freezer in quart-sized Ziploc bags.

Next on the menu -- pumpkin curry!

And, because I've been sadly delinquent on belly picture until now, here is the first official one, taken earlier today:


31 weeks, my dears.

I've just ordered a maternity support belt. My midwife agrees: my stomach muscles have had enough of this.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Belly: 24 weeks

NOTE: Photo credit for the two shots of me teaching the children a few posts ago were taken by Uncle Bob.



It has been brought to my attention that I haven't shown you all my belly much at all during this pregnancy, and the scope of my bulbous growth in the first day of school picture came as a surprise to some (Greg, Jom).  Jill (Greg's mom) just happened to take these two pictures of me the other day while I was spinning in their kitchen, and as they show my belly to great advantage, here they are:





Just to round things out, here's a cute picture from today of my three children playing with Joel and Rachel out on our little playground in the backyard.


And then here is Rachel coming home from school on her 2nd day (she rides the bus home by herself every afternoon since everyone else stays behind for sports practices of all sorts).


Andrew ran out to greet her, then wasn't sure what to do because it was all so emotional, so he decided to fling himself down on the lawn.  All kinds of drama.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

On pregnant people and my love of sushi

Now, I know that people have started to stop by this blog in the hopes of a hint as to how Hannah is doing. No worries, she and baby are fine, but he still hasn't made his appearance yet (and yes, today is her due date). At the moment she's still living her normal, active (although increasingly uncomfortable) life, and we're all just waiting. It's sort of like sitting around watching a bomb, waiting for it to go off. We'll let you know as soon as the Big Event has taken place and list the stats and everything right here.

By the way, congratulations to Beka, who just gave birth to her 4th baby -- finally a little girl! (Beka, I would link to your blog here, but I can't seem to figure out where your blog is.)

Now since there's nothing more to say about Hannah and the little guy we have yet to meet, I'm going to talk about me. =)

With each pregnancy, I've struggled with a good deal of back pain. This is largely because of scoliosis, but also the shear size of my babies in comparison to my small frame adds to it (although most people would say that a 9.5 baby is large for any size woman).

In the last few weeks before Andrew was born, I had trouble walking, driving, and sitting for periods longer than 10 minutes at a time; I was constantly going to lie down.

When I was pregnant with Elijah, I had just recently been in a car accident before I conceived, so our insurance paid for regular chiropractic care almost up to my due date. It made a huge difference in the constant back pain (which went from almost unbearable to just minimal and definitely manageable). I also saw an increase in energy, probably because of better circulation due to regular adjustments.

With Lavella I had no care at all, and once again the pain was back full force.

All of this to say, I finally decided to go and get a pre-natal massage this past Wednesday. I felt strange about dropping so much cash to have someone spend an hour rubbing my back, but let me tell you, it was incredible. I felt rested and relaxed and cared for. I think I'm going to have to pay a few visits to both the chiropractor and massage therapist while I'm home this summer; I'm already having trouble walking when I'm tired (it's like something in my low back just gives out, and makes it painful for me to lift one of my legs). When I get back to Germany I'm going to have to look into what options the Army has available for me -- I know that they do physical therapy of sorts, and maybe my German midwife can work something out.

Anyway, now that you've heard all about my back pain (which was probably just as fascinating as watching the paint dry), let me just say that the place where I went to get the pre-natal massage, Traditions At The Glen, is completely worth going to. It was a lovely, soothing experience from the moment I walked in the door, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a few hours to unwind and pamper yourself. It's a fluffy towel/white robe kind of a place, and the staff is exceptional.

After my massage and a good long steam shower, I stopped at Wegmans for some sushi (my selection was fully cooked -- no worries).



Besides the fact that sushi is addictively good, is the fact that it's so aesthetically pleasing. Mmmmm.... I'm already hungry for more.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A very little (tiny) announcement

Meet Thumbkin.



Thumbin is due to arrive at Christmas.

This ultrasound was taken in Germany when he/she was 10 weeks along.  We'll be rounding the corner of week 14 in a few days.

Blogged with the Flock Browser