Happy New Year!

I'll admit it. I love New Year's. It's my favorite holiday. I don't even do anything for the holiday, I just love having that clean slate (As Anne Shirley would say, "Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it").

So my resolution for 2011 is to be more "in the moment."

I'm trying to avoid multitasking (I deplore multitasking) and to really think about what I'm doing, be more cognizant of my actions, ask myself what are my motivations for doing something before I do it.

This is actually something that I started about six months ago, but I'm still a work in progress.

It started with going to Frances' play. I just decided that I didn't want to worry about taking pictures or filming it. I'm so distracted by the tools in my hands that I end up not even enjoying the play. And let's be honest, it's not like I'm going to watch the video of it later -- but just in case I did want to, I made Nigel film it (and no, I haven't watched the video).

Then when my kids were taking various classes (Alice Grace in gymnastics and Jeffrey in parkour), I decided to purposely not take anything with me. Instead of reading or knitting, I watched them participate. They loved that I was there cheering them on and seeing every move they made.

Now before I buy something or eat something, I ask myself, "Do I really need this? Am I just bored? Is it worth it?"

So if you see me doing something and I don't stop right away to say hi, I'm not being rude, I'm just waiting until I finish so I can give you my full, undivided attention. So that's my goal for 2011.

An Apple a Day...

In our quest to not buy any groceries this month, I decided to get into our long-term food storage (otherwise known as Alice-Grace's "bed") and open up a #10 can of powdered apple juice and try it out.

First of all, the color is...shall we say...disturbing. The juice was a sickly, brown, sewer-y looking color. Yuck.

But it's the taste that matters, right? Well, it tastes EXACTLY like green apple flavored Jolly Rancher candies. Not exactly something I want to drink.

But what do I know? Did you know that Jolly Rancher also makes a soda pop? I've never seen it (and after tasting this "apple juice," now I know why).
I must admit that Alice-Grace and Jeffrey absolutely LOVED it. Of course, they're also known for eating powdered sugar out of the bag with a spoon.

Nigel, Frances and I definitely did NOT like it. I won't be buying any more #10 cans of this in the future. I'll stick to things I know that I like (like packets of cherry Kool-Aid -- I love me some cherry Kool-Aid).

Christmas Quote

Alice-Grace on Christmas Day:

"Jeffrey! Don't use the bug zapper on Jesus' birthday!"

Ah, the holidays.

2009 Christmas Newsletter

Christmas 2009 for Lois & Family

Lois spent 2009 NOT cleaning her house, NOT scrapbooking, NOT making her kids dinner, and best of all, in this crazy economy, Lois spent the year NOT unemployed.

Nigel spent the year NOT being a starving artist (he actually sold many paintings), NOT getting away from scouts (he went from Webelos leader to Cub Master), but best of all, Nigel did NOT pop any more holes in his lungs.

Frances finished the year NOT reading classic literature when there's a good ghost story or alien book near by, NOT failing in school and NOT being one of those horrible children you see on an MTV reality show.

Jeffrey spent 2009 NOT cleaning up his Legos, NOT giving up his plans for his own Viking-themed amusement park, and NOT letting up on lecturing his family on NOT spending money.

Alice-Grace pretty much spent this last year doing "skin the cat" on an old broom stick that she places between the arm rests of the couch and love seat. Luckily, she has NOT been taken to the emergency room -- yet.

Stupid Rabbit ("Stew" for short) has NOT figured out that he's only supposed to pooh in his cage, NOT realized that he's a vegetarian, and it has NOT dawned on him that a balloon is NOT a girl rabbit.

Here's to a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year from our family to yours.

Priceless

Jeffrey and Alice-Grace had play dates, so I wanted to do something special with Frances (but didn't want to spend any money). Here's what we did:

Two craft projects (a cute embossed Christmas card and an adorable snowflake ornament -- free make & take day) and five sheets of card stock (coupon) at a scrapbooking store at the local mall = $0.00

One really large (though they called it a small) ice-cream cone (coupon) at the food court = $0.00

Frances being able to spend time with her parents without any annoying younger siblings = priceless

I think it's time for some hearing aids...

A conversation at our house last night (obviously we all need to get our hearing checked).

MICHAEL SCOTT (From TV's "The Office"): Oh, you must pass the dungeon wisdom test.

JEFFREY: Mushroom seeds? Everyone knows that mushrooms don't have seeds.

FRANCES: What about Muslims?

Mountain House Freeze-Dried Beef Stroganoff

Nigel and the kids really liked this (I stand corrected -- Jeffrey again refused to taste it), but I was not thrilled with it. I thought it was OK, but not great.

This one took longer to rehydrate than the others, had lots of noodles, good meat, but I thought the sauce was lacking and it needed more mushrooms (were there any mushrooms in it?).

Our Final Analysis:

If it was up to me, I'd pass on this one.

Mountain House Freeze-Dried Noodles and Chicken

This is chicken with noodles in a light chicken broth sauce with some red peppers and herbs. I really liked this, but Nigel and the kids prefered the spaghetti (again, Jeffrey wouldn't try it). As Frances put it, "It would've been better without the vegetables."

There were LOTS of noodles (as opposed to the spaghetti), but the chicken was chopped, pressed and formed. Before when I've had freeze-dried chicken, it was shredded, but this still tasted good. Nigel thought it would be glorified ramen, and was pleasantly surprised by its home-made taste (he especially liked the red peppers).

Our Final Analysis:

I would definitely buy it, but the rest of my family wasn't that thrilled.

Mountain House Freeze-Dried Scrambled Eggs with Bacon

Jeffrey loved this! And he hates everything! He kept going on and on about how it tastes just like scrambled eggs and bacon (which it is). Frances and Alice-Grace weren't as thrilled (but then again, they don't like bacon or scrambled eggs to begin with). Nigel and I liked it, but the texture of the eggs is a little different. Not bad, just different.

I should note that these meals come in pouches and they're completely dry. All you have to do is add boiling hot water, stir, seal the pouch back up and wait 5-10 minutes. With the spaghetti, you just ate it from the pouch, but with the eggs, you had to drain the excess water out first. This was hard to do without losing all the tiny bacon pieces along with the water.

Our Final Analysis:

Tasted good, but not sure if we'd like a big can of it

Mountain House Freeze-Dried Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

This was surprisingly good. The ground beef tasted exactly like regular ground beef and the sauce was delicious. There was even cheese in it that tasted like normal melted cheddar. I was expecting it to taste like dog food like those canned spaghetti meals do, but it was really yummy. The whole family liked it (except for Jeffrey, who wouldn't even try it because he hates spaghetti in all forms) and even asked for seconds. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough noodles (I prefer much more noodles to sauce).

Our Final Analysis:

Definitely going to go out and get a #10 can of this!

Adventures in Preparedness

Recently we bought Alice-Grace her own 72-hour emergency preparedness kit (she's in Kindergarten now, that's plenty big enough to lug around a 20-pound backpack in case of fire, flood or earthquake).

Of course, she was way excited and had to pull everything out of her pack. This made Frances and Jeffrey want to empty out their 72-hour kits. Which eventually led to them unloading mine and Nigel's emergency packs.

Now our already messy living room was even more cluttered with candles, MREs, matches, toilet paper, water packets, first aid kits, flashlights, hand warmers, light sticks, solar radios, etc.

The next morning I go to get something in the living room, trip over an empty backpack and fall on something. CRACK! Oh no, what emergency tool did I just crush?

AAAAAARRRRGHHHHH! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!

I quickly found it. I had broken open the ammonia capsule you use to wake up people who have fainted. Let's just say that those things really do work.

Pancakes!

In my quest to be frugal and save money, I've stopped giving my kids cold cereal (though they can have it on weekends -- and Jeffrey can have it in place of dinner since the boy hates everything) and try to make a nice, hot, healthy, home-made breakfast every morning.

Here is a super healthy pancake recipe from Mavis Diment (whoever she is, but thank you!) that I love (and more importantly, my KIDS love it):

HEARTY PANCAKE MIX
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour*
1 1/2 cups finely crushed cornflakes**
1 cup old-fashioned oats***
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt

Combine ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months. Yield: 5 batches.

*My kids love grinding wheat into flour -- they feel so "Little House on the Prairie"!
**I used Total cereal -- makes the pancakes even more nutritious.
***I didn't have old-fashioned oats, so I used quick oats -- I can't tell the difference.

PANCAKES
1 1/2 cups hearty pancake mix
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

In a bowl combine mix, milk, egg and oil. Whisk until just moistened. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Yield: 10 pancakes.

Caution: These are very filling, so one or two is usually the most any of us can eat.

"WALL-E"

Back when we were doing our "Family Camp" staycation, someone surprised us by leaving on our porch a bag of goodies (soda pop, popcorn, candy) plus a gift card for a local movie theater.

We ate the goodies right away and saved the gift card for "WALL-E."

Jeffrey loved the movie (robots, space, trash -- all his favorite things). Frances liked it (bonus -- she actually did NOT throw up while in the theater). Alice-Grace was fine through the opening credits and then the craziness began (that girl can't sit still to save her life). Nigel liked the movie.

I thought it was OK, but just too darn LONG! Is that a bad sign that I can't even sit through a children's movie? I felt like a child again playing "Risk" with my brothers (where I would always be France so that I could get invaded quickly and stop playing that mind-numbing game).

We did have a great time, though, seeing a movie when it first came out in a nice cinema. Thank you, movie pass and candy fairy!

Please note that I haven't posted lately because I've been so busy at work. Here are my favorite closed-captioning mistakes that I've seen lately:

"John McCain" was typed as "John Muck Contain"

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt's daughter "Zahara" was typed as "The Horror"

Family Camp Day Seven: Pirate Day

Why couldn't the young pirate go to the movie? Because it was rated "arrrr"!

OK, bad joke. Like dinosaur day, pirate day kind of fizzled (maybe it's because we're burned out on family camp, maybe it's because real life started creeping in, I don't know).

We went to a local park (please note that we do go to a different park each time) and made pirate hats and paper boats. We then sailed the boats in a little stream. It was a good competition between Nigel's and Frances' boats. Poor Jeffrey, his boat kept getting stuck in the weeds (we said it was picking up passengers). Mine didn't win, but it did keep its shape the longest (my origami skills are awesome!). Alice-Grace didn't want to get hers wet.

After a picnic lunch, I had lots of games and activities planned (buried treasure in the sand volleyball court, see how many pretzels you can pick up with a hook-hand, pirate "Simon Says," etc.), but it all dissolved in a puddle of tears because Jeffrey kept falling down and he was convinced it was the park's fault (not his slippery shoes).

Once we got back home, everyone soon scattered and then we ended up in the pool. Pirates went swimming, didn't they? OK, maybe not of their own free will, but they did go swimming. Can we call that a "walk the plank" activity?

Then our day was eaten up by Frances going to her church group activity and Nigel heading off to scouts. I had to go to bed early because it was back to work for me the next morning.

We actually did our pirate craft the next day. Here are our rice crispy treat pirate sculptures. Frances did an island (check out the palm tree) with a cave full of gold coins. Jeffrey did a treasure chest full of gold coins and a pirate ship and a cannon. Alice-Grace copied Frances' island, but hers has barrette fish and a bridge.

(photos of rice crispy creations coming soon)

That's the end of our family camp. It was a lot of fun and the kids really got into it. They looked forward to the different themes and activities and although we didn't get to everything that I had planned, it was wonderful just to be together. I was amazed by all the FREE activities within our city and it was good for the kids to realize that you don't need to spend a ton of money to have a good time.

Family Camp Day Six: Science Day

I thought I'd start off our sixth day of "family camp" with a homemade breakfast. Well, I guess it's been a while since I've used my antique Manning Bowman waffle iron because when I turned it on, billows of smoke filled our kitchen. Instead of waking the kids up with the delicious aroma of waffles, I woke them up with the smoke alarm going off!

Well, it is science day, after all. I was glad to see that they all promptly got up and started crawling towards the front door to get outside (those fire drills must be working).

After breakfast (the waffles were yummy, by the way), we headed out to the local University campus to check out their science building. There were lots of hands-on exhibits and we all had a great time. We'll have to come back when the Planetarium is open.

Then we went to another science building to check out the fish tanks. Jeffrey was enamored with the lobster and Alice-Grace couldn't get enough of the sucker fish.

We had a nice picnic lunch on campus (where we accidentally threw away Alice-Grace's bracelets that she was keeping in her lunch sack for "safe keeping").

Then it was off to the college library. We saw an exhibit by one of our friends (if you want to be a great artist, be our neighbor -- so far in our travels we have been to museums where THREE of our past next door neighbors' artwork has been on display) and we loved checking out the huge globe. "Hey, look, it's Sri Lanka!"

(photo of us pointing to big globe coming soon)

Then we headed to the art museum (art can be a science, right?). This is where Alice-Grace remembered her lost bracelets. This induced much crying, which caused the security guards to circle around us giving us the stink-eye. I took Alice-Grace back to our lunch spot and after much trash digging, we found her bag with the treasured bracelets still inside (please note that her "bracelets" are actually hair rubber bands). We went back to the art museum and then, exhausted, headed home.

Back at home we did some science experiments on surface tension (you know, sprinkle pepper on water and then add a drop of dish soap to see them disperse) and then we brought out the Diet Coke and Mentos. We had never done this before, so it was totally exciting. It was especially fun because cousin Fred gave us a special rocket launcher just for this reason.

(photos of Diet Coke shooting into the air coming soon)

That night, we went to a local park to FINALLY do our campfire (you know, what we tried to do on day one of family camp but the weather was nasty). Nigel taught us how to build a proper fire and we roasted marshmallows. The kids loved it.

(photo of kids roasting marshmallows coming soon)

Then we did Alka-Seltzer rockets (put an Alka-Seltzer tablet and some vinegar in an empty film canister, put the lid on and watch it shoot into the air) until our container flew on top of the pavilion roof and did not roll off.

Luckily there was lots to do at the park. Frances loved playing "Robinson Crusoe" under a big pine tree. We then played at the playground and in the sand volleyball court before heading home.

Another great day of family camp! One more to go!

Family Camp Day Five: Flag Day

Happy Flag Day! We started off the day with a (free) breakfast at our local supermarket. There was French toast with yummy butter syrup (see recipe below) and orange juice or milk to drink. It must be popular because we saw many of our friends there.

After that we went swimming (and continued some events from Olympics Day). While in the jacuzzi, we went over proper flag etiquette and the history of "Old Glory" (isn't that what most people discuss while hot tubbing?).

Then off to buy Nigel a Father's Day gift and a quick snack at the local French bakery. After all, without the French, we never would have won the Revolutionary War!

I taught the kids how to make a perfect five-pointed star with a few folds and just one straight cut of the scissors. Supposedly, the story goes that George Washington wanted six-pointed stars on the flag because he thought a five-pointed star would be too hard to do. Betsy Ross showed him how to fold a piece of fabric and with one cut make a star. Here are our stars.
That evening we went to the flag retirement ceremony to see the old, tattered flags be burned. It was a really great program with music, a speaker, and lots of scouts. I think Frances, Jeffrey and Alice-Grace enjoyed it (of course, they enjoy anything involving a large fire).
All in all, it was a much more relaxing Family Camp day, but one that had a lot more meaning.

Sweet Butter Syrup

1/2 cup real butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 cup buttermilk

Cook ingredients until boiling, then add:

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

Family Camp Day Four: Olympics

We started our Olympics-themed fourth day of family camp with the "breakfast of champions." That's right, little chocolate donuts.
Do you remember that "Saturday Night Live" skit with John Belushi spoofing Bruce Jenner and eating little chocolate donuts instead of Wheaties? Of course my children didn't get the reference at all, but I giggled the whole time eating them.

We started with a torch relay (yellow tissue paper shoved in an empty toilet paper tube) and then the march of countries, complete with flags (Frances was Frances-Land, Alice-Grace was Alice-fornia, and Jeffrey was the United States of America).

We then started the competition. We had the high jump (won by Frances), limbo (won by Jeffrey), forward long jump (Jeffrey), backwards long jump (it was a three-way tie -- could it be that you can only jump so far backwards?), see who can whistle the longest (Frances), climb up a slide (Frances), and a game of SPUD (Frances).

Then we had a popsicle break.

More sports followed. We used the popsicle sticks for a javelin throw (won by Jeffrey), crab walk (Jeffrey), push-ups (Jeffrey) and lastly a soccer kick competition (won by Alice-Grace -- finally, she won something).

It was interesting to see how their personalities came out during the competition. Alice-Grace wore a dress the whole time, Jeffrey had to wash his popsicle stick before throwing it, and Frances got fed up with the judges and boycotted much of the games.

After that, we took a field trip to the nearby Museum of Peoples and Cultures (because the Olympics is all about bringing different people together). We learned all about the Casa Grandes, the Pueblo people, and Kachina dolls. Nigel was totally digging it and the kids were literally digging for artifacts in the sand pit and putting together shards of pottery.
After that, we went out to get some Chinese food (because the Summer Olympics are being held in Beijing this year).

For our closing ceremonies, we went to a (free) carnival put on by Frances' orthodontist. We had (free) snow cones, hot dogs, drinks, cotton candy, popcorn, plus a game and a bounce house.

It was fun, there were tears, we came close to political unrest, it was too commercial and over-rated. Just like the real Olympics!

Family Camp Day Three: Dinosaurs

All the traveling and fun of yesterday wore us out, so "Dinosaur" day kind of fizzled.

We started off really well with us making milk jug T-Rex skulls and papier mache dinosaur bones.
Then we headed off to the local Earth Science Museum (free!) to check out all the displays of fossils, dinosaurs, crystals, etc. We even got to see real scientists working on the bones!
We decided to be dinosaur scientists ourselves and used toothpicks to excavate the chocolate chips out of some cookies. That worked great until it started getting too warm and all of our chips started melting (do dinosaur bones melt?).

Then we had dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets for lunch.

Since the weather was FINALLY nice, we went swimming (dinosaurs swim, don't they?) and hot tubbing (dinosaurs hung out in hot springs, didn't they?).

We were going to film our dinosaur movies (Nigel has a dinosaur puppet -- don't ask), but time got away from us.

I had a huge dinner party I was in charge of that night (we did a spoof on Food Network's "Iron Chef" and the secret ingredient was strawberries) and we must've had between 20-30 people come. It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted afterwards and didn't get much "dinosauring" in afterwards.

Hey, I think dinosaurs ate strawberries, didn't they?

Family Camp Day Two: Under the Sea

Today in "family camp" our theme was "under the sea." We started off with some delicious fish pancakes. No, not pancakes MADE out of fish, but rather regular pancakes that LOOK like fish.
Then we drove to the local fish hatchery for a tour of the visitors center which we soon discovered to be closed (because of "whirling" disease). But we did learn that children under age 12 don't need a fishing license. Good news because my kids are always begging to go fishing.

After that disappointment, we went to the art museum to count how many works had "fish" in them. Can you believe that we only found six? Three in paintings and three on a sculpture. The kids must've looked odd to all the museum docents as they searched from room to room asking, "Are there any fish? Did you see any fish?"

Then we ate some lunch and headed to a local park were there was a very scummy pond full of tadpoles and water bugs. Also at the park we played many "ocean" games such as: sardines, octopus tag, fish-light shark-light (OK, we're reaching there), fish maker (our own version of statue maker), etc. We had a lot of fun and most of the games my kids had never played before.

We then drove home to eat our "ocean dessert" made out of blue Jello, Swedish fish, gummy sharks, gummy frogs and whipped cream. Does anyone else think it odd that Frances bit the heads off of her fish and had them floating at the top?
Then it was off to a hunting/fishing store to see them feed the huge tanks of trout. This is especially exciting because they feed them live goldfish and you always hope one of them makes it out alive. We were a little disturbed by this one trout that just hung out at the bottom of the tank licking the same rock over and over again. Even more disturbing was Nigel's inability to figure out a PlayStation hunting game. We looked around the store, checked out the displays, did some shooting in the shooting gallery and gave in and bought the kids some fishing poles (they don't seem to understand that the down-side to fishing is that you might actually CATCH some fish. Then you have to clean them and eat them! Yuck!).

To end the day we went to a seafood restaurant and ordered a variety of crab, shrimp, lobster, clams, etc. We had a fun time trying everything out and Jeffrey's favorite part was figuring out which ligament to pull to get his crab claw to open and close. As we were leaving, the hostess pulled a lobster out of the tank and let Frances and Alice-Grace hold it and pet it (of course, I wanted nothing to do with it -- I can't stand any animal that doesn't have fur, it's unnatural).

Another fun (but tiring) day of family camp. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Family Camp Day One: The Great Outdoors

Today we celebrated "The Great Outdoors" on our first day of family camp.

We drove to a park in the canyon (free!) and attempted some rock climbing (which was a bust). Then we went on a nature hike heading toward the waterfalls (with Alice-Grace freaking out the whole time that we wouldn't find our way back -- she's convinced that I'm always getting us lost).

The highlight of our nature walk was our tape bracelets. We put a ring of tape (sticky side out) on our wrists and stuck various leaves, flowers, shells, etc. on them that we found along the way. Please note that Nigel has a big hunk of broken glass on his.
Half-way to the waterfalls Alice-Grace starting complaining that her legs hurt, so we stopped at a campground and had a delicious picnic lunch. What we did not realize is that it must've been the peak of caterpillar season because they were dropping on us from the trees right and left! Finally Jeffrey had enough and exclaimed, "Can we go home? All these bugs are creeping me out!" This from the boy who keeps snails as pets. Check out this branch that is COVERED with them!
So we headed back to the park and tried to search for water bugs in the river with our homemade waterscopes. I LOVED the waterscopes, I thought they worked great -- but the kids were not impressed.
We attempted to fly a kite, but that resulted in much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth from my children. We tried to do some leaf imprints (pounding leaves with rocks on white cloth), but instead of producing beautiful green designs, it just produced horrendous noise.

The kids' favorite part was our impromptu talent show in the park's amphitheater and filling up their water bottles from an old fashioned water pump.

After much complaining, I figured my kids are not the "outdoorsy" types and we soon left the canyon and headed to a bookstore and then to a gourmet chocolate shop (yes, we spent money -- but since it was on food, does it break the rules?).

Back home, we learned about campfire safety and used pretzel sticks and frosting to demonstrate different ways of building fires.

That evening we went to the local life science museum (free admission) and saw a show on animal adaptations. It was excellent and I was quite impressed with Frances, who knew most of the answers (she's addicted to "Animal Planet"). Frances and Alice-Grace were very brave and held a California king snake and a blue-tongue skink, while Jeffrey and I just watched -- from afar.
We were supposed to use our new camping skills to build a fire and roast marshmallows, but a sudden storm came up and it was much too windy and cold. We'll have to save that for another day (they weren't content to just roast marshmallows over the stove like we usually do).

All in all we had a lot of fun and the kids seemed to enjoy our time together as a family. Sure not everything worked out the way I thought it would, but we're all still speaking to each other and no one wound up in the emergency room. So far, so good!