Let The Home Repairs Begin!

We closed on our house on Friday.  I can't say it was a happy exciting day because it was actually super stressful.  Everything that could go wrong did.  There were several instances that we thought we wouldn't be able to close.  Delaying the closing wouldn't have mattered except that we already have a date that we need to be out of our rental house, so each day counts from here on out.  Anyways, everything barely worked out in the end, so we took our keys and went to our new home one final time that evening.

Here's our new home picture.  :)

Yesterday Jim used a vacation day to start painting.  Unfortunately, we didn't accomplish much because we had eight hours worth of unavoidable holds ups and Abby wanted me to hold her all day (so not typical!).  It wasn't stressful, though, and we enjoyed being in our new house.

The only area we actually painted was the kitchen ceiling.  Sheesh!

We also started repairing cracks and holes in the ceilings and walls.

Jim is using another vacation day tomorrow, and we have a babysitter lined up.  (Thank you!  You know who you are.)  So we're hopeful to make a lot of progress.

Hot Chocolate Floats

 We had a tasty Family Home Evening treat this week: hot chocolate ice cream floats!  I invented these a couple of winters ago, and they sounded so good this week.  I made the hot chocolate from scratch and gave everyone a scoop of ice cream.  Delicious!

This was Jim's...mine wasn't this full.  :)

 

Coconut

Last week the kids thought it was pretty cool that we tried a new fruit and a new vegetable, so they were eager to try more.  I promised them we could get a coconut the next time we went to the store.  It was a little bit of an adventure.  I'm glad I had the internet to help me figure out how to open it and remove the meat!

First we dug into one of the holes to get the coconut water out.  Interesting fact: coconut water can be used in IV's, and can be very effective for re-hydration because it's full of electrolytes!

I then put the coconut in a ziploc bag and took it outside to the concrete.  A few whacks with a hammer opened it nicely.  The kids were excited to see the inside.

Harvesting the meat was the most difficult part, but it wasn't too bad.  I put the coconut pieces in the oven for 20 min. and then was able to pull the meat with soft husk away from the hard outer shell.  Then the soft husk came off with a vegetable peeler.  I loved the fresh coconut, but the rest of my family didn't really care for it.  So I snacked on it all week.  Fun fact: coconut is so densely packed with nutrients that it's used to treat malnutrition.  A 2 inch by 2 inch square has 300 calories!  As far as calories go, it was worse than snacking on peanut butter! 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

We finally ran low on our homemade laundry detergent, so I made some more this week.  I feel this deserves another post because it was so awesome!  The first time around this lasted us over a year and a half and an estimated 450 loads.  At $20 for the whole thing, that's .0444 cents per load!  The best part is that I've continued to love this detergent as much as I did at the start.  It cleans our clothes better than any detergent I've ever used.

Here's the recipe once again:

 

-4lb box borax
-55oz box Super Washing Soda 

-3 bars Fels Naptha Soap 

-36oz OxiClean
-64oz baking soda

 I bought everything at Wal-mart; all of it was together on the same aisle.  Grand total: $20.  Yeah!

 Putting this together was super simple and fast, and my house smelled wonderful afterwards.  I simply grated the Fels Naptha soap with my cheese grater and then mixed all the ingredients together in a garbage bag. 

Ta da!  I use 1 Tablespoon per load and it cleans better than a full cup of any other detergent.  :)

Sweet Little Girls

 I love these sweet darlings.

 Little miss Abigail had a booger nose last week and an ear infection.  No fun!  She's pretty cute even when she's slimy, though.

Annie had another hair-do to show off.

Lots of baby smiles...

First Snow

We had our first snow last week.  It was all the kids could think about from the moment they woke that morning, so I let them go out in it as soon as we were finished with breakfast.  It melted later that afternoon, so I'm glad they had the chance.  A first snow is so fun when you're a kid!

Kids Say

The boys sprayed our fire extinguisher all over the house.  Afterward Logan nonchalantly, "Well Mom, I guess now we know not to spray a fire extinguisher in the house."  Ya think?!

Annie, "I'm barely pretty strong."

Logan spent some time drawing a future company that he is going to create when he grows up.  It's going to be called NASA 2 and he's going to build a spaceship like the X-33 but called L-35.  It will carry 100 passengers.  It will have a device on it made of new materials he makes that will increase the ships' mass to slow it down and decrease the mass to speed it up.  He calls this device an A-NUT.  The L-35 will enter the atmosphere so slowly it will take 2 days before it lands because of the A-NUT.  His company will be housed in a building that is 4000ft tall and 1300 ft long (Jim talked him down from 400million ft by 130million ft.).  The building will have a sound room for testing his engines and a massive fuel storage facility.

Alex pretending that his markers are rockets, "Nine, three, two, one blast off!"

I was being silly singing in a growly voice and Alex says, "Mom you earned a extra chore because you singed like that!"

I told Alex his teeth will hurt and fall out if he doesn't brush them.  Alex, "No they won't.  They didn't hurt last night!  Really!"

Logan to me, "Wicket's a full grown dog like you?!"  Pause.  Logan, "Except you're not a dog..."

I asked the kids what they were doing downstairs.  Logan, "Oh, playing Hindenberg.  The Hindenberg disaster just happened."

Annie, "I have a good idea!  You can call me Madeline.  Except you can call me Annie with your visiting teachers.  Then when my hair gets long you can call me Annie."

Annie, "Daddy, do you want a bite of my ice cream?"  Jim, "No, I am fine."  Annie, "Why?"  Jim, "Because ice cream will made a daddy fat and then they can't run around and play so much with their kids."  Annie, "Oh."  (Thoughtful pause.)  Then in a sing song voice, "Well that's not true about mommies!"  (Woohoo!  Good news for us mommies right?)

Annie wanted to know if I would put braids in her hair and I said no.  Annie, "But Grandma (my mom) said she would do braids again!"  Me, "Your hair isn't long enough."  Logan chimes in, "Yeah and she (meaning Grandma) would be dead by then!"

Logan, "Just so you know, so far we've lost 11 cents through my body."  He'd apparently swallowed a dime and a penny.

Alex, "Someday there going to be babies in my tummy.  Really!"

Logan, "If Annie doesn't share her bike will be be cast up to hell?"

John Deere Family Day

 Last weekend we had a fun time visiting Jim's office.  They opened up the whole facility for a family day; it was the first time in 10 years.

Outside they had tractors that everyone could climb into.

Inside there were several displays, some kids' activities, and we were allowed to walk through the offices and the test labs.  It was really interesting to see the things Jim has been working on.  Our boys in particular enjoyed it.  They had so many question!  Logan has been talking about it ever since.  We were only allowed to take pictures in the room with the kids' activities, so that's what I have to share.

Abby was a good sport about being in her stroller so long.

The kids assembled a tractor on a computer.

They also planted a bean seed, colored, and saw some of the crops that are grown in this area.

Afterward, we had some friends over for lunch.  They'd been at the family day as well, but we hadn't seen them in a while because they live in our old city.  It was fun to spend some time with them. 

Borscht and Pelmeni

For our wellness challenge, we had to eat some unusual (meaning unusual to your normal diet) veggies this week, so I decided to make borscht.  Borscht was my favorite food during the semester I taught English in Russia, but I hadn't made it since.  

The beets were so pretty after I peeled them.  (They also turned everything pink.)  

Borscht is basically beef stew with beets.  The beets add a unique flavor and turn the soup red/ pink.  It is SO delicious!  I went backwards 12 years the moment I sampled it.  So not only was it tasty, but it was nostalgic.  One of my friends that is doing the wellness challenge with me joined us for lunch.  None of our kids were brave enough to try it, but she said she liked it.  Jim had some today, and he wasn't sure what he thought.  It's pretty strange eating brightly colored soup if you aren't used to it!  Our kids finally tried it today, and Alex LOVED it! 

I had leftover cabbage after making the soup, and I had Russia on my mind, so I went the extra mile and made pelmeni.  Pelmeni are like dumplings filled with ground meat, cabbage, and onions.  We had problems with the dough, and the kids were helping, so the dough wasn't thin enough and they were sort of hideous.  They tasted right, though.  (Aside from the dough being too thick.)  Annie and Jim really liked these.  The boys tolerated them.

Hair

I've been getting up super early every morning to exercise with some friends.  I want to maximize my sleep time, so I only give myself enough time to throw on some clothes and leave.  That means that I don't look in the mirror or even glance at my hair brush.  So one morning a couple of weeks ago, I pulled my hair into a ponytail without the aforementioned mirror or brush, exercised, came home, and headed to shower.  I wash my hair every other day, so on this day I quickly clipped my ponytail up high to keep it dry (again no mirror or brush) while I washed.  The kids needed me before I had time to fully get ready, so I came out of the bathroom with my hair still unattended.  Imagine my surprise and amusement when Annie says, "Mom, your hair is SO cute like that!"  I finally looked in the mirror at that point and this is what I saw.  It wasn't too bad, especially considering how it was created.  I thought that was funny, so I took this picture.

A few days later, we had almost the same experience, except it was much funnier.  My morning was the same, and again Annie told me that she like my hair.  This time she said it was pretty and that she especially liked the back.  Check it out.

I asked Jim if he'd like to take me out in public since my hair was so 'pretty' that day.  Ha ha!

The story continues.  That evening Annie tried to replicate my 'pretty' hair from the morning.  This is what she came up with and she felt totally beautiful.  :)

 Ironically, I have even more hair pictures from the last couple of weeks.  Annie has a problem with her hair getting in her eyes, so I tried something new a few days ago.  This is a very tiny french braid.

Amazingly it stayed in for three days (we were really busy and fell behind on baths...).

I tried it again a second time on Thursday, except I tried two braids.

I told her she had princess hair.  :)

Jim's Birthday

Jim had his birthday this week.  With little kids, ANY birthday is very exciting, so there was high anticipation.  We started our fun by making him a birthday banner two weeks early.

 Then we went shopping and discovered there was nothing in our price range he would enjoy except a candy bar.  So we bought him a candy bar and went to one of his favorite restaurants for a gift card.  While we were out, the kids noticed some pinatas and wanted to know if we could have a pinata for his party.  They were super stuck on the idea, and it's totally the silly kind of thing we do for adult birthdays around here.  So we made one.  I think it was way better than anything we could have bought at the store.  :)

Jim arrived home from work on his birthday to this display and dinner (of his choosing) on the table.  It was party time!

The kids couldn't wait to hit the pinata (I'm not sure they've ever hit one before) so we did that right after dinner.

Abby was so funny when it was Logan's turn.  Somehow it made her nervous; she let out a little squeal every time he hit it.  Then she was fine for everyone else.

Because we made the pinata out of a box, it literally took some man power to break it open.

We had bags of popcorn inside for everyone.

Next Jim opened his cards and present.  His grandma had excellent timing; her card arrived that very day.

His best gift were the letters/ stories the kids wrote for him.  They were super cute; he took them to work to put on his wall.

Jim requested chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches instead of a cake.  Yum!  They are pretty close to my favorite too.

We sang 'Happy Birthday' over the cookie sandwiches and Jim pretended to blow out the candles.

To wrap up his birthday, he and I had a much needed date last night.  We went to Hu Hot (my first time and it was so delicious!), ran a few errands, and ended up walking around a furniture store just for the fun of it.  Our babysitter even watched Abby, so we were totally kid free.  It was a very nice evening.  Happy Birthday sweetheart!