Salsa, anyone?

I have decided I'm going to make a noble effort at being domestic. I first gave things a try as I made freezer jam last year. Since, I have become pretty good (if I do say so myself:o)) at making homemade-from scratch rolls. That's right, no store bought frozen stuff, though I think they can be quite delicious too. Anyhow, this year I tried to extend my capabilities as I made a brave attempt at canning salsa. We planted quite a few tomatoes in our garden this year, and even more peppers. Jake and I decided homemade canned salsa sounded like the best solution to making the best use of these fine vegetables. Little did we know. . . .

My first mistake was trying to can at home, by myself, with a very energetic 2-yr-old and a 3-yr-old (I guess that would meand I wasn't by myself). Things were going fairly well, despite my demanding kiddos. Emmy was down for a nap, and Carter was "helping" me dice veggies--until the onions got to him. He didn't like the stinging in the eyes thing so much.

I was beginning to feel proud of myself for my newfound accomplishment. The salsa had been simmering for an hour or so when I decided to make sure I had gotten all ingredients in (I know-a little late, but better late than never, right?). I looked a little more closely at my gallon of vinegar, remembering it had been up in the bathroom a couple weeks earlier for cleaning purposes. When I took the lid off and took a whiff, I realized it was not vinegar at all, but in fact bleach. My blessed, angelic, little, darling boy had decided to pour bleach into the vinegar container. Jake was aware of this transition and thought I had known as well. Obviously, I didn't. But, I do now. . . . about 8 quarts of ruined salsa later.

I called Jake to explain what had happened. He started to laugh, and I started to cry. No worries, I can laugh about it now. Lesson learned: I will now always smell my vinegar bottle before dumping it in to any recipe, just to double check.:o)

Carter-tah

So I had to post this cute story about Carter before I forgot. The other night we went out to dinner, and on our way home Carter went with Jake in our new truck (new to us:o)). He kept asking Jake tons of questions about the truck--he's into that lately. He plays 20 questions multiple times a day. So, he asked Jake where we got the truck. Jake told him we bought it from a guy in Utah. Carter then responded with something Jake had a hard time understanding. Carter kept repeating himself until Jake finally realized he was saying "Me-tah, Carter-tah? You got it in my-tah? Jake was laughing so hard he couldn't explain to Carter that Utah was a place just like Idaho is a place. So, he still says "Me-tah" every time we talk about Utah. He's so funny. He's constantly cracking me up. When I say he cracks me up he says, "Where I crack you up, Mom, huh?"

Family Vacation!!!. . .continued

I decided to do the pics on another post so I was sure not to lose my whole post again! I'm not blogger savvy. I'll learn some day.:o)
We took a ton of pictures, but here's a few that has the fam plus scenery. They're in no particular order. . .

Emmy on the trail at Miner Falls, I believe:o)

(Sorry, I forgot to rotate the pic before it uploaded)

The sunset on Lake Michigan

Me and my honey on the boat ride to Mackinac Island

Carter all ready for Mackinac!

The view from the fort at Mackinac Island

Taquehanon Falls, or something like that. I know it starts with a T and there's a Q somewhere along the way:o)

This is all of us that went to the cabin on the U.P. From L to R: (Back Row) Jenny, Bryan, Trever, Krystal, Emmy, Jake, Me, Carter (Front Row) Bryan David, Marissa, Aunt Joanie, Aubrianna, Eric, Uncle Dave

Whitefish Point, just as the sign says.

Mackinac Bridge (5 miles long)

Family Vacation!!!

Okay, so I just had my whole post already typed up and somehow lost it. Aaaagh! Now that's a little irritating when I only take time to post biannualy!:o)

Anyways, life has been crazy busy, and I'm lovin' it! I just finished up my year with piano students and "Let's Play Music" students (music classes for little kids). I had so much fun watching my students progress and learn so much. I love my job!

Jake and I and the kids just got back from our big trip to Michigan. We had such a good time. There was plenty of time for relaxing. I almost forgot how to get back into everyday life again!!

Here's a brief outline of what we did there:
Thursday, (21st)--we flew out of SLC and arrived in Detroit to be greeted by Jake's amazing Uncle Dave and Aunt Joanie.
Friday--drove to the Mackinac bridge, across the bridge:o), and to Uncle Dave and Aunt Joanie's cabin on the Upper Peninsula.
Saturday--went to Whitefish Point, a location infamous for causing over 550 shipwrecks. It's on Lake Superior. My favorite picture of our family was taken on the beach there, but I can't find it on my card, so I'll post it another time.
Sunday--visited Mackinac Island, famous for not allowing any cars. There were thousands of bikes an lots of horse drawn wagons (their "taxis").
Monday--took a boat tour of Pictured Rocks, very picturesque and gorgeous rock formations along the coast of Lake Superior.
Tuesday--headed back to Howell, Michigan, not without a detour to a friendly little zoo>:o)
Wednesday--rest and relaxation, got to see Grandma Hawes for the first time this trip.
Thursday--Jake, Krystal, Me, and the kids went to visit Jake's step-dad, Mike. It was so fun meeting him. Jake gets a lot of who he is from Mike. If I could sum Mike up in a few short words, it would be mountain man! Not even kidding, he reminded me of Spur off "The Man from Snowy River". I've often teased Jake that he would be happiest as a mountain man. No wonder! That's where he gets it.
Friday--got to spend time with Sherry, Jake's mom. We went and visited a "farm" too. It was kinda funny, 'cause our kids get to see farm animals quite frequently here in Idaho, but they had a whole park mad just to view farm animals. The kids enjoyed it though. I enjoyed watching 13 piglets try to eat all at the same time--poor sow!:o)
Saturday--We got to spend some more time with Sherry as well as the rest of the fam. We also got to see Danielle (Jake's cousin, David's, wife--David passed away in a car accident 3 years ago) and their two children for a short time. They were at a horse show. It was fun to get to see them doing something they love so much!
Sunday--We flew out from Detroit and arrived back in SLC. It was so welcoming to see the Rockies again. I love the mountains! The drive home from Salt Lake got a bit long, but we all survived.

We had such great time. I loved learning more about Jake's childhood and seeing where he gets so many of his quirks--thanks to Uncle Dave:o) Aunt Joan and Uncle Dave were so nice to let us stay with them the entire time. It was so fun to see Krystal and her little guy, Trever, and Jake's cousin Jenny and her 4 kids. What a great break and fun vacation, and now, life must go on. . .I almost forgot!

A Fun Blog Game!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Though I hope you will!)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. {might be a little while}
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. I don't even have a clue what it's going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a homemade gift! It may not be great, but it will be fun!!* * *Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!* * *

Ode to "Love and Logic". . .and Marvelous Mothers

So, after my last post, I'm pretty sure I had a near breakdown. The yogurt all over the kitchen was just the beginning of a whole plethora of disasters Carter had lined up for me for the week. To mention a few: food coloring thrown about the kitchen, deciding Emmy was done with her nap after only 15 minutes or so (more than once), the end of a box of crackers spread across the only carpet we have on the main floor (a 5'x7' rug), and yes, poop smeared on Grandma's toilet and bathroom floor. I've tried to block the rest from my memory, but I'm still trying to get over the ones mentioned.

Anyways, the point of this blog is to bring to light the techniques that have saved my life the past week-and-a-half. I finally called my mama, almost two weeks ago, in tears. I felt desperate. I didn't know how to control my two-year-old, and my one-year-old was catching on all too quickly. It sounds much worse in words than it really was. I can laugh now over the situations I was faced with then. That being said, I felt I was at a dead end. I asked my mom to take me shopping (which was previously planned, I just brought to her attention that we would be going right then, instead of in the next couple of weeks:o))

When she arrived at my house, she had with her a book entitled, "Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood". Can I just say, "WOW!" It has been my life saver ever since. I started using a couple of the techniques that day and saw an almost immediate improvement! It's still not what I would call "easy", but it's so much more tolerable!!! So, for those of you who may struggle with knowing how to handle your children, this is the answer! And amazing parents who would drop anything to help/save you are definitely huge life savers too. I probably still wouldn't be reading that book if it wasn't for my marvelous mother!!

As of recent, I have been trying to come up with new activities/games for my kids to do. Staying inside the house (mostly just our house) all day with the same old toys just doesn't meet the demands of a 17-month old, and more specifically an almost 3-year old. And going to Grandma's and Grandpa's house every day just might wear out the excitement of that idea. Some things we've tried--on days that are too cold to go outside--are baking cookies (Carter loves the cookie dough, and helping to make it, but Emmy gets a little restless during this one), playing with play-dough (Carter also loves this one, but Em still tries to eat it), reading stories, playing guns (maybe not the best activity, but Carter and Emily both get a kick out of that one:o)), and occasionally watching a movie (okay, maybe the movie-watching is a little more frequent than "occasionally"). If the kids will sit down to watch a movie, that is usually the only time I have to myself during the day. Yes, Carter is watching a movie right now, and Emmy is taking a nap.

These games we play are fun and have helped to make rambunctious days fun days too, but I'm afraid they're getting old. So, today I got online to look for some new ideas. While doing so, I left the kids upstairs playing for about five minutes. I went up to find Carter and Emily helping themselves to some yogurt straight out of the carton. Em was covered pretty much from head to toe.

I had already sent Carter to the bathroom out of frustration before I thought to take a picture. He wasn't near as covered as he had a spoon to eat with, and Emmy, just her hands. Just this morning while I was getting ready they did the exact same thing with a bowl of frosting. Am I being too neglectful?

Reflecting on today's messes has made me think a lot about some of the things I have learned- or should have learned by now- to avoid or deal with, being the mother of two very energetic kids, a 1 and 2 year old, just 16-1/2 months apart.

1. Keep as close supervision as possible 110% of the time!

2. Never leave open bags of cereal, crackers, or anything of the like within reach. It will end up scattered across the kitchen/dining room floors.

3. If they are laughing histerically at each other in the next room, most likely something is being destroyed or thrown about all over the premices.

4. Never ever ever plan a shopping trip "for fun" with just you and the two of them. You may end up chasing them in the dressing room from stall to stall in your scivies.

5. The bathtub requires extremely close supervision. If you choose not to, the whole bathroom may be flooded, not to mention the damage done below in the basement bathroom.

6. Just try to get up and get ready before the kids are awake, otherwise you may look like you just got out of bed for the rest of the day.

7. Always, always, always have something for them to do so their energy is put to good use and not toward destruction.

8. I love my kids more and more every day despite the messes I am faced with.

9. Potty training for 8 months and counting is not my idea of fun!

10. My kids are the stinkin' cutest kids in all the world, and I wouldn't trade them for anything!

11. My husband is pretty dang amazing too, and I love him more than ever!

Just because I know some things to do or not to do doesn't mean I always do or don't do it. Thus, my life is an adventure each and every day!! :o)