Summertime Trip Number 1 - Grants Pass

We took a few days to go see my dad and step mom down in Grants Pass Oregon. The trip down took about 7 hours, 2 hours longer than it needed to, mostly because the kids, once you remove them from the car, do NOT want to get back into it.

Of course, there was the one funny stop. We had just gotten back into the car after stopping for a meal and were just back on the freeway when my son announces with great urgency that he needs to poop. We get to the next stop as fast as we can and figure we can fill up with gas while he poops. He is a rather shy pooper, so we have a little training potty from IKEA in the back of the car for him to use. We got him sitting on that while the car filled with gas. We didn't really NEED gas, but figured it was better to get it while we were there. My son ended up taking longer than expected to do his business and there was a line starting to form behind us. I had taken off to make my own pit stop and my husband made the decision to ever so slowly drive the car away from the pump. With the 4 year old sitting on his potty in the back of it. Yes the door was shut, he only traveled about 40 feet, just around the building to get out of the way. We spent another 15 minutes waiting for my son to finish up before we had to get him back into his car seat and clean the potty and finally get back on the road. As I sat there leaning on the car waiting for my son to poop, I had one of those "this is something only parents get to experience" moments and couldn't stop laughing because it was all so absurd.

We made it to the house late at night, around 9:30 and after unpacking and getting the children into pajamas, they took forever to fall asleep. At my dads house, there are guest rooms downstairs, but of course my son will not sleep there, and my daughter will not sleep in a playpen or even her own bed. No. She sleeps on a dog bed.




She ran around with my dad and the dogs there. The yellow labs are his, the grey and black Aussie is our dog, and the retriever is a neighbors dog who has adopted my dad and step mom as his own family and they treat him like one of their own.

So we got Evie's dog bed set up, and we pitched a tent in the living room for my son to sleep in. He likes it. Around 11pm we got him settled and asleep after reading a few stories, and then we tried to get my daughter calm and sleepy, but she was so keyed up that every time someone came or went into the main room she had to see what was going on. Well, my husband got the idea that she needed to watch some My Little Pony to fall asleep, but the TV was not set up to access the on demand stuff. My husband and my father spent an hour trying to get it set up, during which each time they left the room and I got her almost calm and sleeping, they would return and she would pop awake again. Finally, around 12:30, Ponies was happening, and the baby was dozing, and then my husband tried to move her into the other room. Yes. He did that. Of course she woke up and screamed. So it was back to the living room with her where she spent the night on the dog bed.

In the morning, we headed down to the Rogue River to play and splash and look for rocks. It didn't last long as the kiddos were tired and snoozy, but we had a bit of fun! Before we left, Liam spent some time talking to Amber about planes, and everything else that mattered to him. Amber is a good listener.

The kids spent the afternoon with Grandma Kathy and made home made ice cream, while my husband and I spent the afternoon with my dad. He is convinced that there is some gold on his property and we needed to help him dig up dirt and pan for gold. In a dry creek bed.  We tried, but found nothing but mica. Maybe in another spot on the mountain, we can try next time. When there is water running, so we don't have to haul dirt back to the house in a bucket. The kids had fun licking ice cream off the blades when the machine was done making it, so did the dogs....
 

We left in the afternoon on Tuesday after having lunch at this great little burger place, Jimmy's. Wow those were some tasty burgers, and truly hand made onion rings and frickles (fried pickles, YUM!). The drive home was a lot shorter, as the kids were already tired from all the having fun, so we could make it in great time with no stops.

Oh, and I almost forgot, before we left Evie got into the baby powder while I was packing the car and decided to make a mess. In my bedroom. That was fun to clean up!

And I even managed to get a nice picture of me and Evie, complete with her messy face!

Starting the Garden

Finally the worst of the storms have come to an end here in the great Pacific Northwest. Spring is in full swing here and heading into summer.

I decided to try to make a new seed starting tray this year. I saw something online about using old toilet paper tubes cut in half, so I saved all of ours through the winter. Ended up only using a few because I am not going to make a big garden this year.

We had a little downpour expose the seeds, I need to put more dirt over them.

I am lacking the funds to put in raised beds, so we are just doing containers this year. I bought 8 tubs from a store and while 7 of them ended up in the yard, one of them ended up in my living room filled with yarn. Hmmmm.... I wonder if I can grow yarn!

I am keeping it small and going to try sharing space. This coming weekend I am buying tomatoes from the tomato guy at our local farmers market. He has all kinds of fun types. I started green beans, cucumber and yellow squash. I put my carrot seeds in a container and once the tomatoes are in I am going to put in lettuce to share the space with them.

I am super excited for the growing season. My apple trees are already making little tiny furry green apples, my cherry trees might actually give me a few cherries this year and my pear tree is once again infected with rust. Which  makes me sad and I am thinking I may need to tear it out and put something else in. I do not want to spray it with all the toxic chemicals needed to kill off that fungus, but the rust gets so bad it eats all the baby pears.

Blueberry blossoms

Cherries

 There is a robin nesting right outside my bedroom window, my friend wants to turn my rhubarb into jam, the kids have been enjoying the sunshine and I am glad to be getting outside. Finally.

We got out the dehydrator and did bananas and apples for snacks, but they didn't last long. The kids ate them all up in 2 days!!!!! I will have to make more.

 
And we emptied out our rock tumbler and then loaded it up with some new stones. I am just tumbling the ones that came with the rock tumbler. I think the kiddos will enjoy having them to look at.

My grandma is doing well, her physical therapy is progressing and she is working hard to get back to being able to walk. I am working on a gift for her that I finished the main part of but still have the details to work on. Glad to know that she is on the mend though.

Got to meet with Liam's teacher at his school and talk to her about his progress and what we need to work on over the summer. I am excited to hear how well he is doing in school and how far he has come since September. I will be glad though to have a few months off where I do not have to get him dressed and out the door every morning!

Yay for SUMMER!

Love Cookies

I love making these cookies, but I rarely have a good excuse for them. My sons classroom celebration of Valentines day was perfect. His classroom has each of the children make ONE card to share with the class, then they swap the cards and every kiddo goes home with one that someone else made. I sure like that a lot more than buying cards from the store!

I started this recipe a few years ago with my basic sugar cookie recipe, something from a Christmas cookie book that I was given too many years ago to remember. It came from Goose Berry Patch, they called it Magical Sugar Cookies. Indeed, I loved the cream cheese in the cookie. Also, I found that the baked cookies tasted even BETTER a day old.

I can never remember if I used baking soda or baking powder in the recipe, but when I did it this time I used the soda. It gives it just enough lift to not let the cranberries make it overly dense.

The kids loved the cookie, as well as my knitting group who got the extras!

I am really bad about not getting out everything I need before I start, so this is good for me!

Liam helped me upwrap sticks of butter.

I love how pretty it looks with the cranberries in it!

Sharing the beater blade

Cutting out hearts

Ready to bake

Cooling

Ready to decorate

All done!

1c butter - softened
3oz of cream cheese - softened
1c sugar
1 egg yolk
1tsp vanilla (I usually double this. I always double the vanilla)
1 c flour. (I use Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. It is fine enough to work well for this)
1 1/2c all purple flour
2/3 cup dried cranberries
pinch of baking soda
pinch of salt

Oven 350

In a stand mixer blend butter and cream cheese until smooth.
While that is working, toss the whole wheat flour, the baking soda and the dried cranberries into a food processor and run that until the cranberries are chopped into tiny pieces. Add some of the all purpose flour if it gets sticky on you.
Beat sugar into the butter/cheese mixture
Add egg yolk into the butter/cheese mixture along with vanilla and the flour as well as the cranberry/whole wheat mixture.
Mix until combined.
You can roll it out now and cut it out, but it works better if it chills for an hour at least.
Bake on baking sheet covered with parchment paper at 350 degrees for 8 - 12 minutes. You are looking for a slight browning to the edges.

For frosting, I use 1c powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and enough milk to make it the consistency you like. Add milk in small small small increments. Like 1/4 tsp at a time. The smallest bit too much and your frosting is runny and you can't make the little designs. I do this often and end up making 4 cups of frosting as I try to balance it out.

I imagine you can do this with almost any dried fruit you like. Cherries or apricots, mangoes or pineapple even!