my sister natalie got me this savvy little lithograph on her road trip this summer. it’s just what i needed. what a good sister.
Archive for August, 2007
i spent the morning patching jehu’s car seat. every time you wash it, 15 new holes appear. i could run out and buy a new wal-mart one, but i am completely enamored of my holey britax, as is (and can’t afford $260 for a new one). gideon’s ‘graco’ is a joke, as are most other baby gettups. so my theory is; if you want a car seat, buy ‘britax‘, if you want a stroller, buy ‘mountain buggy‘ and if you want a high chair, buy ‘kinderzeat‘ (or find one for free in someone’s yard, it’s cheaper).
my only yard sale find from last week. i thought it was an apron and for 10 cents i didn’t mind so much. but when i got home, i found out it was a dress. “what am i supposed to do with this?” so i wore it to church. i’ve noticed that most of my style choices are unintentional, “hey, this is free! i’ll wear it!” if i had money, i would rather look like this.
maybe it would take more than money.
this is one of my favorite indian recipes. don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. most of it is just spices to make into a paste (a dang good paste, i might say). you can get the spices you might be missing at the co-op. personally, i don’t think you’ve ate food until you’ve ate indian food. but then again, my taste buds aren’t very subtle.
“prick the potatoes all over with a fork and leave to soak in water for half an hour. drain and dry. deep-fry in ghee till golden. remove and drain. meanwhile, grind the poppy seeds, almonds, cumin, coriander, cloves, peppercorns and cardamoms with the ginger and garlic, adding a little water to make a paste. fry the onions in two tablespoons of ghee, stir in the paprika, tumeric, salt, and the masala paste. fry for five minutes and stir in the yogurt. add the fried potatoes and garam masala and cook for a further five minutes. serve hot with puris or rice.”
i made a few more nursing covers. one for mackenzie (on the left) and one for my sister.
i made them out of amy butler fabric, which is always a joy. you should try it, you’ll like it (but not on anything that takes more than a yard, otherwise your children will starve and your husband will find a new wife).
if you’ve missed me, i’ve been on vacation in northern idaho. sister sarah was visiting from north carolina with sir suckling, husband, husband’s sister, daughter, and mum. consequently sister violet hopped over from maine to visit too, causing a general chain reaction compelling me to drive seven hours. here is auntie piolet toting the brand new scrom.
mackenzie and laura visited too. and you must excuse my smurf face. apparently that was the best i muster at the time.
here is boy with suckling. he insists that he doesn’t like other people’s babies. who would believe him?
mom had eight little kids over so she devised this lovely little tea party for them. however the hornets planned a mass attack and we had to move it inside.
it wasn’t quite as lovely, but i think the minions were only in it for the frosting and didn’t notice.
it certainly didn’t make one whit of difference to reuben, who should not be invited to tea parties in the first place.
saturday afternoon we headed out to go camping. i think there were 20 of us, all together. when our convoy pulled into the little four site campground, you should of seen the looks of horror on the faces of the legitimate campers. you know, the one’s who drive subaru’s and mull about quitely in their columbia jackets with their well behaved dogs and don’t pull the seats out of their van for extra seating.
this is a picture of the boy’s when they were still clean and below is a picture of the boys 10 minutes later. this is why mavis does not like camping. i had to change their clothes constantly. fortunately, i pack just about everything they own and find laundry to be a therapeutic adventure.
this is granddad on baby duty.
and here is reuben and boy ‘helping’ jehu get a rock he wanted. apparently no one wanted to get wet and there was a shortage of rocks.
i can’t say how much fun the boys had. it’s hard to understand once you reach the stolid old age of 26. …how lady bugs, sticks and gravel can be so overwhelmingly enchanting. but i guess they are, so we will keep at it on a faith basis and hope they thank me when they get older.
here is reuben handling gideon, who had just become a bio-hazard. two of a kind, if you ask me.
this is jehu right before he tried to saw off his finger. lots of blood and screaming but he’s quite fine.
it rained two days out of the four. dad forgot his hat and was always running about with something strange on his head. he had jehu’s overalls on for a while until i advised that he smell them. if you are going to put something on your head you shouldn’t find it in someone else’s laundry especially without making inquiries.
the little girl on the right is mia, sarah’s step-daughter. she is six “medium-sized” and cannot be lifted, “six year olds cannot be lifted.” she is the cutest thing ever.
we drove up to one of the lookouts. this is just like the one boy and i rented for a bit on our honeymoon, where we ate piles of cowgirl caramel sauce and skinny dipped in very cold rivers. you know, back when we were young and i was less expensive.
gideon liked throwing rocks in the river, almost as much as he liked peeing in the river. every time he had to go, someone had to walk him down to find the most strategic spot.
here we are on a little romp into the middle of nowhere. marc can’t wait till the boys can walk so they can explore the deep dark woods. i am less thrilled since marc and reuben found two rattlesnakes on their last walk. this we can do without.
tuesday, it finally warmed up and the boys got to play in the sand. they were less excited about the boat, however.
come on, tough it up.
grandma fed gideon animal crackers while he was in the midst of being buried and the inevitable happened. mmm.
and here we all are, looking good. they eventually got the pile up to natalie’s neck and she is probably still finding sand to date. thank you mom for taking such good care of us and making me french toast for breakfast. i think i survived.
my great aunt lena (my grandmother’s sister) came to visit from kalamath falls. she’s one classy dame, i must say. we had a jolly good time knocking about with her. i think jehu was quite smitten.
here is grandma great convincing my little land lover to get wet. generally, i just keep the pool around to throw the kids in after lunch. sometimes i get the slide wet and push them off, because it’s funny. to me.
marlena is a gourmet of sorts. she’s sending me some egg taragon recipes when she gets home, so i’ll be sure to pass them on. we basically spent the whole time she was here eating. sigh.
while my grandma was here she gave me a new book, “fascinating womanhood” by helen andelin. it’s on how to please your man. i told marc it probably would just tell me to cook him indian food and have sex with him all the time. his nonchalant response, “if it was any good.”
i understand there are some well meaning souls out there who don’t know how to eat an artichoke. i am taking pity on you. the universal favorite food of the germains (all 6 of them) is the artichoke. however, i wouldn’t like them at all if it weren’t for seaweed salt. dipping an artichoke in just plain mayo or butter would be an awful fate (i hope to save you from it). so run out to your local coop and buy a few ounces of kelp granules. you can mix these with mayonnaise, as you can sort of see in the picture. it makes a greenish paste and quite a party for your mouth. enjoy.
