Happy Birthday in December

Matt and Claire sent the kids their birthday present. I had to call and check that it wasn't a Christmas present. It was a wonderfully large tent system. A tent, a tepee and two tunnels. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely.

The tent became a collect all.

The children were rather upset as pieces of it started disappearing. We only have so much room.





We can get it out again on the next snow day.

Thank you Aunt Claire and Uncle Matt!

Fresh air, almost

I armed myself with Nature's Miracle (NM), NM laundry detergent, and NM laundry booster. I divided the load in half and soaked the first half in all three for several hours. I washed it and did it again. Smell is gone. Second half-same thing. Smell gone.

The almost is ground zero - my jeans. They still stink. They are currently soaking for the fourth time and have been sprayed with NM at least four times. I have confidence I will wear them again without nary a fish boat smell.

Stuck with a smell

Monday night I finally got around to folding a load of laundry I did last Wednesday. I picked up my jeans and put my hand in the pocket to smooth it. I noticed the corner was stiff and there was an awful smell. I sniffed the pocket corner and grimaced. I had Gary smell it; He suggested cat urine. I thought that no, definitely not cat urine, because I am quite familiar with that smell, and this wasn't it. I thought ans thought what I could have had in my pocket that would create such and odor. I knew I recognized the smell and finally put a name to it. It smelled like an algae encrusted fish tank. Now to figure out why that smell was in my pocket.

I smelled other pieces of laundry in that load. All the same nasty smell. I put the load back in the basket to be washed again.

Well, now the load has been washed three more times, one just another wash, one with Nature's miracle (the cat urine remover,) and one with almost an entire box of baking soda. Each time I rewashed, I let the load soak. Still smells, but I believe the smell is decreasing.

After the first rewash, I finally remembered what I had in my pocket: fish oil pills. I took them with us when Gary and I had dinner out. We forgot to take them, and I forgot to check my pockets before throwing them in the washer.

I know Nature's Miracle will get the smell out, I just wonder how many washes it will take.

Sisters?

Perhaps Ellie should have had a sister?

Josh doesn't mind dressing up. He likes to have his nails painted. And he likes to have his hair done.

All great fun for Ellie.








And here is miss cutie pie with pony tails she put in herself. I didn't know she could do that.

Our tree and Lego train board are the background.

Milk and soda update

Josh's bottom has been doing much better. And there have been less diaper changes needed. We still have rice milk to use, and I don't know if I'll be buying more. I might try goat's milk again. Just for kicks, several months ago, I bought goat's milk for the kids to try. They actually asked for it, though I must have suggested it, since they wouldn't have come up with that request on their own. They didn't so much care for it.

With taking Josh off cow's milk, I thought I'd try some very expensive goat's cheese, since the soy cheese didn't work out. He didn't have a problem with the grilled goat cheese sandwich. And today I found goat's milk sliced cheese and goat's milk shredded mozzarella cheese and goat's milk yogurt at Trader Joe's.

We haven't had Josh exclusively off cow's milk, but for the most part he hasn't had any. I was wondering if we should try putting him back on it to see if the symptoms return.

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And I found a less expensive natural soda. Much more economical.

What a day!

UPDATE: The previous posts are as complete as they are going to be. And whatever I was going to say on this particular post, is lost to me.


This and several previous posts are works in progress. I decided to post the titles for you all to wonder what I might write about.


OK. I while downloading (or is it uploading) photos, I remembered what I was going to say.





Ellie was in the Souderton parade today on her school's float. She was a present.




























One comment - when someone is in a parade, and you are going to pick them up when it is over, I recommend having a predetermined location for said pick up spot. I drove around for over a half an hour in the rain/snow (see comments below) looking Gary and Ellie. I was mostly concerned that they were continuing to get even wetter and colder. It turns out that Ellie had to use a restroom. Once that was accomplished, I found them right away.







And we had our first snow of the season, which started as rain before the parade ended. [We got wet and colder.] You can see the water drop on the above photo.










And Gary started setting up our Lego train board.

A new soda

In my attempt to eat healthier, I have not been drinking as much soda, not that I drank much anyway. But since I do still crave the occasional carbonated beverage, I decided to look for a healthier soda. And since "soda" and "healthy" seemingly don't belong in the same sentence, I wasn't too hopeful.

But alas, Giant Food Stores, the only one I checked so far, had several natural soda options. I went with the cheapest. It only has a fifth of the ingredients of regular sodas, and it does not contain high fructose corn syrup. Although it was the cheapest, it was still pricey. I got a 6 pack for the price of a 24 can pack.

Here you see Josh and Ellie displaying a can. (When I get a chance to download the photo.)

Rice milk anyone?

Josh had his three year checkup. I told his doctor about his bowel issues. [Call me if you don't know and want details.] He suggested buying Lactaid milk. After looking up much information about lactose intolerance and milk allergy on the handy Internet, I decided that if his problem is milk, than he should be off dairy altogether, not just switching milks.

So, today started our journey of no dairy for Josh for two weeks, a road Josh doesn't really care for even though he doesn't know he's on it. He cares not for rice milk and tried, emphatically, to wipe it off his tongue. He didn't like his brush with soy cheese, but I can't blame him.

It was also suggested to add more fiber to his diet. I used my trusty Internet and bought prune juice, very high in fiber. If I mask it with the correct proportion of apple cider, both kids drink it.

I still have ground flaxseed to buy and bran muffins to make.

We have two new dogs

Here are our new dogs, Ellie and Josh.

Using their creativity, Ellie and Josh decided to move about the house with leashes, found themselves doghouses (which they are inhabiting in the photo,) and even asked to be tied up for a short time.

I drew the line at eating on the floor.

Camping in the cold

I think we are starting a Josh's birthday camping tradition. This is our second year of camping in November. And it's very important to remember the space heater.

After the camper was set up, Gary got our campfire burning. He roasted our hot dogs and kielbasa over it. I organized the camper. It is no fun to camper, even for one night, with stuff strewn about.












Here are Josh and Ellie being crazy.













Our humble little camper getting all wet. It rained on us last year too.

What are you waiting for?

Yesterday was the start of the Advent season - a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the birth of Jesus. In our household, we have an advent wreath. It consists of three purple candles, one pink, and a center white candle surrounded by holly. On the first Sunday of Advent, one purple candle is lit. The next Sunday, two are lit, and so on. Christmas day all candles are lit. As we lit the first candle, we said a blessing. With each candle being lit, we say a verse and prayer.

Here is what will be said as three candles are lit: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4. Lord Jesus, we implore You to hear our prayers and to lighten the darkness of our hearts by Your gracious visitation; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen. 'Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding! "Christ is near," we hear it say. "Cast away the works of darkness, All you children of the Day!"

Ellie and Josh enjoy the lighting and blowing out of candles the most. They also enjoy opening the little paper window on our Advent calendar, telling the story of the birth of Jesus.

We are trying to instill the importance of what this time represents to us as Christians. A time of waiting, anticipating the salvation that Simeon's eyes were allowed to see. Jesus, God with us. Savior, Christ the Lord.

What are you waiting for?

Everywhere I go . . .

. . . my truck comes with me.

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Josh's day started out with "Happy Birthdays!" from his family. He got to choose what he wore, and what he ate for breakfast. He got to watch Dumbo. He got to be the main character in our Bible devotions. He got to cut a second birthday cake (not a train, but I did drizzle pink icing on it.) And he picked me to rocked him before bedtime.





Josh received a Hess emergency truck with a rescue vehicle from us for his birthday. Once we got the batteries in and the vehicles working, they played until bedtime with them. He also received his very own coloring book, but that was forgotten as soon as the truck came out of the bag. The rescue vehicle only lights up, so Ellie was producing her own siren. All I got were videos of Josh and his truck, because he didn't sit still with it. The video is a little dark, because to see the lights on the trucks properly, so say Josh and Ellie, the lights must be out. When told it was time to put the truck away, there were much tears.

We're having a party!

Today was Josh's 3rd birthday party. My parents and aunt, and Gary's mom were able to make it. Gary's dad and Judy caught the flu, so needed to stay at home and rest. And Jess had a paper due today she needed to work on.

Josh picked pizza for dinner and a pink train cake for dessert. He was quite set on pink . . . I think Ellie had something to do with it. He knew what he didn't want for the inside color (flavor,) and finally agreed on spice cake. We ordered the gigantic 28" pizza again. This time we had it delivered.

We bought train plates and napkins. Josh helped me make the cake, but then went down for his nap. He recieved three matchbox cars, a train peg shelf, goofy bug things that crawl down the window, a CD with his name inserted in all the songs, a roll of smarties, and a shirt. He has to wait until his actually birthday for our gifts, not that he noticed he didn't get them yet. He immediately set to playing with the cars. And the trains that my dad set up while we visited before dinner. He received from Dan back in April, but we never took time to set up because of them being broken. I finally pulled them out today to see if we could get the in working order. They still don't work, but Josh has a grand time playing with cars and track anyway. He likes the track even without the train cars, since anything will ride on them. I think if we get fresh batteries, he might get to see them move on their own. And hear a regular sounding whistle, not a sick cat sounding whistle.


Ellie had a hard time letting it be Josh's day. She tried her mightiest to stick herself in the middle of everything. We feel it very important to teach her that everything does not revolve around Elisabeth Virginia Kulp, even if she thinks it does. She still has to make it through him getting extra attention on his actual birthday.

Are they going to make it?

Here you see our brussel sprouts actually trying to grow after 5 months of waiting. I'm not holding out for them.

Leaves all around

I decided that our leaf population had increased to an unreasonable high. I got out the rake and the bags, cleaned up the dog poop, and got to raking. Josh helped.


Here are the leaves I raked off the street. If you look closely, you can see that these are 99% oak leaves. We have maple trees. All these leaves aren't even ours. They belong across the street.






Ellie home from school, showing off her tongue and the cleaned up sidewalk and street. I didn't get to finish all the raking by the time she got home, but I at least got them off the sidewalk and street. You can see them on the far left of the picture covering the grass.



Did I mention that I walked Ellie to the bus not once, not twice, but three times this morning? Yesterday I finally got the schedule they said I would have last week. First Student transports students for Penn View Christian School and Grace Christian school. So the schedule is different when the other school is closed, as it was today. The last time Penn View didn't have school, we didn't know about the different schedule (the note not getting home to us.) I thought surely today will go fine, we have the altered schedule, which states the stop - York and Cannon, and time - 7:45 am. I was at the appropriate corner by 7:40 am. By about 7:57, I walked back home with Josh and Ellie to give ol' First Student a call. The bus driver claimed he was at the stop at 7:45, and I reminded her that wasn't true. She told me the bus would be there in 10 minutes. I walked back to the stop with both kids and waited another 15 minutes. At 8:30 (when her school starts,) I headed back home again, kids in tow. Another call, another promise that the bus would be coming in 5 minutes, we went back to stop. Before I even got there (we walk down our street, then turn and walk another block,) the bus was headed by on the cross street. I had to wave to him to wait. Good thing there is a stop sign. But she got on the bus.

I am quite put out with First Student, if you couldn't tell.

Friends, scrabble, entertaining, and such

Myrtle came over today. Some might not think that odd, since she lives in Virginia and never left her couch to come over. First we just talked on the phone, while I beat her at scrabble, then she went and beat me. We sang a few hymns, and then she came over to watch the kids while I prepared dinner. She read them Frog and Toad, The Napping House, and then the kids showed her books. As you can see Josh didn't last as long as Ellie. He started playing. Then she joined us at the table for dinner. It was a lovely afternoon. All thanks to skype and a camera phone.

Herbs and Spices, Coffee and Tea

It was brought to my attention, thank you Claire, that I have not given an account of what we are selling. So, in case anyone is in need of something and close by, we are selling (all of it organic) apple spice, pumpkin spice, mulling spices, poultry seasoning, pickling spices, bay leaves, 100% pure vanilla extract, seasoned garlic salt, cinnamon, rosemary, basil, herbs de province, whole chilies, chili flakes, cinnamon sticks, sage, paprika, chipotle powder, cayenne powder, parsley, Earl Grey tea, spiced coffee - regular and decaf, and house blend coffee - regular and decaf, to name a few.

On our first day we had the first seven I think. Since then we've grown.

To market, to market

We've had a few late nights, and it has nothing to do with the Phillies. We have a store location to put our spices. Yeah! But since we didn't plan well, we were up past midnight for two nights getting stuff ready. An acquaintance of Gary's from high school has an antique type shop and offered us a spot for our spices. Gary and I are exhausted from getting everything ready.

We did, however, have our biggest sales day at the farmer's market today. And Ellie was Daddy's little helper. She was there all day with him and was well behaved. Josh stayed at Grammy H.'s overnight for his birthday. Each had a special treat and Mom had no kids for half a day.

Now, even though I had no kids, I had no relaxation. Gary and I scrambled this morning to get him off to the farmer's market. Things that went wrong - 1. Ground coffee too fine and had to grind more. 2. When grinding the second batch forgot to add the spices, so instead used already ground spices and just mixed it in. 3. Since he was so late, we just brewed the coffee and mulled the cider at home and hoped it wouldn't spill on the way over. After Gary left, I took a record time shower and went over with Ellie to help him set up.

I finally made it over to The Shabby Attic with our spices. I had the display all set, then remembered I forgot the bags of coffee to sell. When I got back to the shop with the coffee, Karin asked about the coffee Gary said we would brew for samples. Back to the house I went to grab the coffee Gary accidentally ground too fine and mixed in the spices. After stopping at four grocery stores looking for 8 oz. cups for said coffee, I ended up buying foam ones, which I was loathe to do. I wanted the cardboard/paper kind. Apparently I am the only one who does.

I raced back to the shop to set up the coffee maker and then took a needed bathroom brake. As I got back to check on the coffee, I saw that it had overflowed and made a large mess. The full pot of full strength coffee became a half pot of weak coffee. But I was told, since I don't drink coffee, that it had good flavor. Perhaps the orange juice drinker should not be put in charge of the coffee. And to top it all off, I forgot cream and sugar.

But there were some high points to the day. What seemed as wrongs, were actually rights. Thank you God for looking out for us. When Gary got to the farmer's market, he discovered that the electricity had been turned off. If we hadn't brewed and mulled at home, we wouldn't have had coffee or cider ready to sell. It did eventually get turned back on and keep the drinks hot. And since Gary brewed some coffee that didn't work for the percolator, I had coffee to take to the shop.

And the best part of the day was that Ellie had a great morning with her dad and Josh had a great morning with his grandmother.

The Full Moon

The children ate all their dinner tonight. An unusual occurrence, to be sure. And not only did they finish, they had seconds (and thirds if more were available) of the broccoli and cauliflower, and seconds (and thirds for Ellie) of the noodles. They did not however want anymore meat. And who could blame them, since I cooked it to death. I made it chewy and mostly tasteless. I mistakenly thought what I was cooking was thin ground beef, but it wasn't. One might wonder how I could make such a mistake, but we won't bother with that now. I have another package of it, and I won't make that mistake twice. I'll actually pay attention when reading the label.

Anyway, I also thought I'd make a gravy to go on the meat and noodles. Sounds good until I decided, foolishly, to add hickory smoke flavoring. I added too much, and because it was not real flavoring, it was yucky. Eventually I had to remove the pot from the table, the smell bothered me so much. I am throwing that bottle away.

Now the vegetables were the highlight of the meal. And that actually means something coming from me, the one whose tongue generally cares not for such healthy things. I sauteed them in grape seed oil (I can talk about that later) and Gary's seasoned garlic salt. Very tasty, highly recommend cooking them that way, especially for those who don't want to eat their greens. I should have made more.

And to top it off, we had told Josh he didn't have to finish his meat. He declined our offer and ate the last two pieces. At that point I wondered allowed if there was a full moon tonight? I immediately looked at the calendar and discovered that indeed it was a full moon. Go figure. Maybe at least once a month they'll eat all their dinner!