Hot Broth

Today I had a lot of plans.  But I woke up in the morning with Isaiah telling me that everything in the refrigerator was warm. The night before, he had decided to make turkey broth with a turkey carcass.   So, naturally, he boiled the turkey for several hours on the stove and then kindly put the pot of turkey broth in the refrigerator.  By seven o'clock, the turkey broth had warmed everything in the refrigerator.  But it did not end there.  At seven thirty, he took the pot out of the fridge and put it in the garage, hoping this would solve the warm food problem.  At ten thirty, my oldest son opened the fridge to rummage around as he naturally does each hour of the day, and I used the opportunity to see how the warm food situation was doing. Everything was still warm.  In fact, everything was not only warm but actually warmer than it would have been if it were sitting on our counter. I closed the door and vowed not to open it for at least two hours. Or, at least try to open it way less than I usually would in the course of two hours.  Two hours went by and I only opened the fridge four times, which is probably a record for me.  How do you not open the fridge at least ten times an hour when you have a one year old and a three year old?  I am always in there scratching my head for an idea for a snack and then my oldest son thinks he needs to do the same....so anyway, I tried to open the fridge less than usual for two hours, hoping this would help things cool back down.  But everything was still very warm.  Everything including a weeks worth of groceries which included meat, cheese, eggs, mayo and Lox as a special treat, and I am sure there were other random perishable things I am failing to mention because I have blocked them out of my memory. By one o'clock I was beginning to panic. I started to call every parent I knew who would have many more years of refrigerator and spoiled food wisdom than I have.  Eventually, we got a hold of a repair guy who told us that our fridge fan had frozen because it was trying to overcompensate for all the heat and was basically pumping all of the refrigerator's energy into the freezer.  I was wondering why I almost burned my hand off earlier trying to get something out of there.  So I spent about four hours today unpacking the refrigerator, cleaning it, putting all of our frozen stuff in the spare freezer and then trying to cook up a storm of stuff that was not rotten in the refrigerator so I could put it in the freezer and then throwing away a few weeks worth of meat (some of it we were going to freeze for later that month) then washing and putting away all of those containers, then suddenly realizing that I have NO bread and only corn tortillas and I just used up cheese and there was literally NOTHING for the boys to eat, so I spent twenty minutes making potato pancakes while they whined and cried, only to find that they would not eat those either.  Luckily I found some really amazing checks cereal that was intended for home made chex mix. So the boys ate Chex cereal and drank buttermilk for dinner. Probably not the healthiest of options but I was not about my health tonight. Then I had to put them to bed.  They don't make it easy on me even tough I had a long day.  I am now so exhausted I can barley think. I don't know why I am even here I should be in bed.  I would be mad at Isaiah but we all make mistakes and I am sure he has probably bailed me out of even worse scenarios in my life, or at least many more minor scenarios, and the bottom line is, I want to warn everyone out there to never ever put hot broth in your refrigerator.

Christmas, 2012

Dear reader,

Every year as this day (Christmas) approaches, I feel a sense of excitement, and of dread coming over me.  Excitement because of the significance of this day to me, and to the world, and dread because its another year far away from my home and my mother's cooking, and I must try to overcompensate for the loss.  So, Isaiah always kindly tries to help me out of my grief by doing something special for our family that is very out of the ordinary. Usually this involves a small trip somewhere.  Although, this year we were too tired and too poor to drive very far away so we decided to go to a hotel down the road.  Our goal was to go swimming, do NO chores, and watch as much television as possible.  We don't have a Television, or a pool for that matter, so these things would be a wonderful treat for our family.

It really was a wonderful memory we created.  We succeeded at everything except the television watching did not go so well.  At 11:30pm our son was still kicking us and requesting in a small squeaky voice that he wanted to watch "Thomas the Train."  We finally had to turn off all the lights and pretend that we left the room so he would go to sleep.  He finally fell asleep but by that time we were too tired to watch Television.

Television watching in our marriage means that I have the remote control, and I flip through all the channels and we collectively make fun of people and shows, particularly the home shopping network.  Sometimes we stumble on something we actually want to watch.  This night we settled on "The Sound of Music" and we watched the end of it, talked about Nazi Germany for about three minutes, and then fell asleep.

We went and did a lot of swimming with the boys.  Our oldest son loves to swim.  He talks about the pool, runs around the pool, points at the pool, giggles about the pool, but he will NOT get in the pool.  He sits on the top step and laughs at Isaiah when he goes under the water, but that is as far as his swimming experience goes.

Our other son, on the other hand, crawled right up to the pool and took a dive right in.  We had to rescue him three times.

So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little tid-bit about our day before Christmas eve and Christmas eve morning.

Love,
JoAnna

Cookies and such

Today we made holiday cookies for our holiday experience.  I have a lovely white stand mixer which looks very beautiful on my new kitchen Island from IKEA, both furnished by my loving and wonderful in laws who have graciously gifted us with amazing kitchen equipment.  It was a beautiful picture with all the flour and molasses and chocolate chips all neatly spread out across the island.  I might have even taken a picture.  At any rate, I suddenly realized that there was no three pronged outlet.  So I had to take half of my operation to the other side of the kitchen.  Then, half of my operation wound up in a three year old's belly.  What was left of it, remains in balls of dough in the refrigerator, chilling.  I have decided, however, that as professional as my cookie making excursion looked, I know better than to actually try to bake those cookies.  The dough has a perfect flavor.  Why ruin it by trying to bake it, when I know I have never had success baking a cookie in my life?

Isaiah came home with lots of other cookie supplies, which it took him two jump starts and a new car battery to get to the store to get the thingies he needed to make an entire batch of cookies for his co-workers.  In the end, I think I decided that perhaps neither of us were skilled in the desert department. So, we will cook you up a delicious storm if you ever come to our house for dinner, but don't expect very good dessert!

P.S.  I love how anything in the kitchen suddenly becomes "mine." :)

Thanksgiving, 2012

An old post, but what the hey!

We did not get to go "home" to our families this Thanksgiving, as I dream of doing each year and it never happens.  However, this year we were invited to spend Thanksgiving with our friends from church, who gave us a warm and inviting experience that involved a fireplace, so I suppose this was a good substitute for being so freaking far away from all you ever knew about celebrating Thanksgivings.   Not that we had fireplaces in Miami on Thanksgiving, but it did make the day special.  I just wish somehow that I could get them to play a foot ball game in the background.  No one has to pay attention to it but it would be nice to hear the sounds of a foot ball game on Thanksgiving.

So, there was a lot of joy and many tears.  Matheson cried for the first half of our stay.  He would not be consoled by anything but green olives.  Everything else he violently threw at me.  So, for his first coherent Thanksgiving, he ate a plate full of olives.

The worst thing that happened that day was when I brought a pot of potatoes to their home ready to me mashed, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something quite horrifying. I looked away, hoping if I looked back it wouldn't be true:  Did I really accidentally bought fat free half and half? I looked back, and it was true.  It was bad enough that I couldn't grab actual heavy cream to begin with.  Not only did I have a feeling that my mashed potatoes would be ruined, (and I mean ruined!)  I also had to work through many emotions regarding the very concept of fat free half and half.  How, exactly do you make fat free cream? They did happen to have regular milk in their house, so I guess the potatoes came out not too horrible. 

But everything else went well.  Jedidiah seemed to enjoy his day and was a very good little boy and I ended the evening talking to my aunties in Florida which I rarely talk to.  I also looked at some amazing photographs of the Oregon Coast.

Now, Christmas is coming.....

Bye Bye!

My attempt to make Christmas Cards with my son: 

He contributed the large hole, by painting the same spot over and over again: 

The potty timer

I want to tell you how this timer saved my life.  One day, someone gave me the brilliant idea to set the timer when cleaning.  Every day, go through each room and clean for ten minutes.  It really has worked wonders for me. I can see change happening in my cleaning and feel more productive this way. That is, when I can find it the timer.  It also helps with potty training. Every time the ten minute dinger goes off, I am done with that room or project, and on the potty we go!  Or, at least "on the potty Jedidiah goes."

I don't just use it with chores either.  I use it with the computer and other projects.  It is really nice to really get a grip of how long you are on the computer and what you are actually accomplishing when there.  When I hear the ticking it reminds me to actually do what I was supposed to do when I sat down at the computer.  I was going to say "on" the computer, but I don't generally sit on the computer.

25 random things about "me"

I have not been in much of a mind frame for writing these days.  I do not know what to write about.  Mostly when I come to the internet these days I just click around and wonder what I am doing here and then lament over how the internet has changed so many things in this life for the negative.  For example, its all too incredibly easy for so many people to waste SO much time.  Also, I find the amount of people, things and ideas coming at me to be all too overwhelming.  I like to try to keep my thoughts in a straight line and the internet makes that impossible.  So if you wonder why i don't write you back, or comment on your photograph, its not because I don't care.  I do care very much.  I just....can only take so much.  However, as much as I would like to go back to the little house on the prairie and be a pioneer because I think as a whole society was much healthier without technology, that just doesn't seem to be happening in our society, at least not yet. I am working on changing that.  But for now, my hope is to make my interactions with my computer purposeful, if I must interact with them.  So, I hope that I can find more time to be alone with my computer, drinking coffee with him and sharing about life's joys and trials. Maybe then I will spit out more blog posts. For now, I decided to share 25 facts about myself, that you may not have previously known:

 1. David Hasselhoff's youtube video "hooked on a feeling" never ever stops amusing me.
2.  Therefore, one of my children walks around the house singing "I'm hoot on da feeling..."
3.  I think ice cream would be better if they put half the amount of sugar in it.
4.  It takes me at least a half hour every single day to find socks for my children. Often time the solution is just to buy more on the way to wherever we are going.
4. I really miss Publix.  Particularly the one in South Miami.
5. I would rather explode than use a port-a-potty.

Well, I actually can't think of anything more to say about myself that would interest someone else at this hour. But writing this made me think of more ideas for future blog posts.  So see you soon!

Isaiah's Birthday

"Our perfect 50's home" 

Thanking God he Made YOU.....

We've come to the time in the season 

When family and friends gather near 

To offer a prayer of Thanksgiving 

For blessings we've known through the year 

To join hands and thank the creator 

And now when Thanksgiving is due 

This year when I count my blessings 

I'm thanking the Lord He made you 

This year when I count my blessings 

I'm thanking the Lord He made you

I'm grateful for the laughter of children 

The sun and the wind and the rain 

The color of blue in your sweet eyes 

The sight of a high ball and train 

The moon rise over a prairie 

Old love that you've made new 

This year when I count my blessings 

I'm thanking the Lord He made you 

This year when I count my blessings 

I'm thanking the Lord He made you

And when the time comes to be going 

It won't be in sorrow and tear 

I'll kiss you goodbye and I'll go on my way 

Grateful for all of the years 

I thank for all that you gave me 

For teaching me what love can do 

Thanksgiving day for the rest of my life 

I'm thanking the Lord He made you 

Thanksgiving day for the rest of my life 

I'm thanking the Lord He made you

-Johnny Cash

Happenings of our day.

Today I made the mistake of putting my oldest son in the wrong car seat.  There were tears.  Lots of big, sad drops. During our twenty five minute car ride, I was reminded at least eight teen times in a hysterical voice that "Matheson does not want to sit in THAT car seat, he wants to sit in THIS car seat."  Meanwhile, Matheson is staring very sweetly and contentedly out the window.

Later this evening, the last band aid fell off of Jedidiah's toe.  There was a blister that healed over a week ago. But there were bitter tears, and according to him it was entirely necessary for me to pack the kids up and take them to the drugstore in the pouring rain after dark to get him a band aid.  He didn't get a band aid though.  He did get put in bed.

Some Financial Advise from the expert (me).

Hi.  I thought of some ideas that helped us save money and I thought I would share.  Some of these are Isaiah's ideas.  I will let you figure out whose ideas are whose.

1.  Resist the urge to eat out a lot.  We have saved TONS of money from not eating out.
2. You will probably eat out anyway, so my next thought is to not buy sodas with your meal.  They cost extra and are bad for you, unless you are eating pizza.  Nothing tastes better with pizza than a coke.
3. Buy real food, its actually cheaper in the long run than prepared foods. And much of the prepared food sold today is the leading cause of cancer, diabetes, anger, resentment and even sudden death by car accident.
4. Have your husband go on a hunting trip and bring home an elk or deer.  It will be a year's worth of meat for free.  If he isn't successful on his trip though, be a supportive wife.
5. Butcher the animal and store it in salt to save on electricity.
6. Several nights a week, "Unplug."  Turn off your computers and TV's and light candles.  Read a book, write a letter.  Not only will you be saving on electricity but you might find that you have a much more relaxing evening and better quality time with your family.
7. Buy good bread.  I mean, bakery  bread.  But the way you do this is by going to the bakery and asking them for "day old" bread.  Day old bread is just as good as the non-day old bread.  It is also cheaper and better than any bread from the store.
8. Come up with a fun project to do at home involving things around your house. For example, you can take a pile of Styrofoam plates and shred them then drive your toy cars through them.  It won't cost anyone but your mamma a dime!
9. Quit eating.  Okay don't quit eating, at least not altogether.  But, I have considered skipping a meal or two a week and saving the money I would have spent on that meal. But I don't know if I will ever calculate how much my meals cost in that much detail to make this an efficient way to save money.
10. Get a Costco Membership.  The amount of money you will save on free samples each week will pay for the cost of the membership itself, and then some.  Then you will have money to go through the rest of the store and buy lots of other things that you hadn't thought that you needed until you went to Costco.
11. We often buy bulk beans and rice.  Black beans, lentils and pinto beans.  I make large pots of all sorts of things with them.  We eat these types of things several nights a week.
12. Shop at Garage sales and craigslist.  Isaiah and I are avid yard-sailers, and I have found that not only do garage sales build community, they also give you a chance to buy enough things to host your own garage sale the following summer.  Seriously, though I have found a ton of great things almost new through craigslist and yard sales.
13. Run a hose from your neighbors house into the kitchen to wash dishes.  Not only will you be saving on your water bill but you will be encouraging a stronger and more giving community.
14. Eat oats in the morning.  I bought a 50 lb bag of oatmeal for 17 dollars from Azure standard and it fed us breakfast for two years. Even though we really don't like oats and throw half of them away each time.
 15. Buy Bulk.  I buy bulk stuff from Costco, Azure Standard, Winco and Cash and Carry.  Don't buy bulk at the Market of Choice, their prices pay for the polished floor and cleverly picked selection of classical music.  Which I do admit I enjoy just for fun on occasion.
16. Walk!  If you live in a place where you can walk places do it!  There is no reason to spend the extra gas money if you don't have too.  It will be better for your health and even for the earth, if you're into the earth.
17.  Don't get cable T.V. Instead, find a neighbor who has cable and watch it through your window at night.  Not....that we have ever....done that....
18. Buy a cow.  We bought a quarter of a cow this year and the meat is AMAZING and much much cheaper than the store.
19. Finally, attend Dave Ramsey's Financial peace University.  We went through this last year and it has helped us re-orient  our thinking about money for the better, thus saving us a lot of headache and helped us see clearly enough to get out of some of our debts.

I can't actually think of a 20th.  Please share if you come up with something interesting.

Camping

We love to camp.  Actually I take that back, Isaiah loves to camp, and I don't mind it.  I might prefer to sleep in a luxury hotel with a swimming pool and cable television, but camping is a much more reasonable option.  And it does bond a family together in a special kind of way.  Some friends from our church invited us to go camping with them early this fall.  It was a wonderful, beautiful place, and a wonderful, beautiful time which I will share with you right here: 

90th Birthday and other Montana Musings from 2008

90th Birthday and other Montana Musings from 2008.  This was prior to Children.  Now there is an entire nation of little James Men formulating in our midst. 

Montana Sky, big rainstorm (Okay that sounds like the name of every city in Montana)

Manna From Heaven

Brotherly Love

Wash clothes And Towels

Grandpa's 90 today!

And Grandma is proud of it

In Love

Surprised!!

Sisterly Love

Isaiah running away from his bored brother

Little Baby Dilly Joined us!

Some earthy types

Cutting Banana for baby Dilly

JoAnna trying to escape the clutches of her in laws quirky behavior patterns. Mother in law is too strong for her to escape.

Another earthy type

Beautiful Family before the others came along

Our Handsome Husbands

Best Buddies

There goes a husband off the ledge.  Oh no.

Inappropriate

Happy Hitchhiker 

Isaiah finding himself

Butterfly finds himself on Susan's hat

32 degrees

Pretending to be brave

Joyous reunion of mother-in-laws

He is not actually Chinese

Isaiah and his old man.

I take camping seriously.