Pretty cool!

December 2009:

December 2010:

Isn't that cool?

I sure think so!

"Outside lights off"

In another installment of 

"funny things the kids say"...

#5's term for "it's dark outside" 

is "outside lights off"

or sometimes "no outside lights on".

Many times she says things a little backwards...

like "Me Mommy I love"

which means

I love you, Mommy.

(I'll take it!)

and Six will tell me:

"This no I love."

instead of

I don't like it.

It's amazing how much English they are using now!

As I was sitting and detangling Five's hair yesterday, 

she casually told her Daddy and I that: 

"In Ethiopia, outside lights off, doggies eat."

When we asked for clarification...

she made this low growling sound.

Yikes.

When we asked her what they eat...

she named herself and the other two littles.

Double yikes.

As they are speaking more English...

we are learning more about their life in Ethiopia.

Some things we can't even fathom here in the USA.

Our dogs don't typically pose a threat.

We don't have dogs coming to steal 

our children away in the night.

We don't have to worry about SO many things

that my babies had to worry about.

Have you ever had to worry if you were going 

to be able to feed your children in the morning?

Have you watched someone die of Malaria?

Yeah... me neither.

Their history is difficult.

Their stories are often hard to hear.

But watching them chatter in either language about 

the lights on the tree...

or hearing them try to sing along to songs on the radio...

I am SO thankful that I get to walk them through these things.

I get to be the one to hug my girls and tell them that they 

don't have to be afraid of the dark anymore.

And that our giant fuzzball won't EVER try to eat them.

She is a SUPER picky eater.

Triggers

Trigger - 

(N) An event that sets off a series of thoughts, feelings, 

emotions or sometimes physical reactions 

based solely on a memory. 

(Dictionary according to Chrissy)

Before we adopted our three kiddos,

I had my own set of triggers.

It might be a smell,

a sound,

a phrase,

a tone of voice...

but there are things that "set me off".

And not in a good way.

I have a friend, Lisa, who knows a lot about "triggers" too.

If I am having a bad day, I can call her and say...

"There was this 'trigger'..."

and she understands.

Her advice?

Since she's one of the most Jesus-loving women I know...

she says "trap the crap".

(Which is a reference to the verse 

"take every thought captive" 2 Cor. 10:5)

I love my friend and her way of saying things

so that they stick in my head.

I sometimes need reminders to trap the crap...

especially when I have let the trigger take hold

of my entire brain and send me head-first

into a hurricane of emotion.

My problem is this:

my three littles can't identify their own triggers

and they can't communicate them to me

and I can't help head them off

because I don't know where they are hiding.

This morning it was raining outside.

Was that the trigger?

It was dark when 5 and 7 woke up.

#6 slept in until 6:05am.

Was the darkness the trigger?

Whatever it was...

wherever it was hiding...

Baby Boy had a big food meltdown this morning.

I know my babies know what it is to be "starving".

I don't allow that word anymore out of the mouths of my first four.

I guarantee they don't know "starving" like the littles know "starving".

The first four barely allow their tummies to growl... much less...starving.

Maybe he felt a little hungry and the hunger itself was a trigger.

Crying hysterically, 

Big huge tears,

Clinging to my legs,

BEGGING for milk, water, food of any kind...
it was PANIC.
I saw PANIC in his eyes.

Horrible.

It was horrible.

And it took me a minute to remember his past.

To remember that he knows starvation.

To remember that he knows the feeling of being hungry

and not getting food.

He knows drinking unclean water.

He knows...

WAY more than a baby boy should know.

So once I saw what was going on...

and identified the source of the problem...

He got a bottle of milk,

with a little extra cream,

a handful of cereal on his tray

while I made his favorite...

pancakes with apple butter.

And he ate several.

And we hit the "reset" button

on this trigger.

Career Day

Dear School District,
This past week my oldest child was allowed to participate in a field trip to a local Career Day presentation.
He was really looking forward to this field trip.He even wore a suit!
He was excited about seeing the abundance of career choices presented to him that day, and was looking forward to meeting people in the community who are the leaders in their respective fields.

Of particular note was the inclusion of the local Bail Bondswoman... Grumpy's Bail Bonds... in the career fair.

(Yes, bloggy friends... she was there... running the booth.)

While I am certain you weren't intentionally letting the kids know that you expect them to wind up in jail in their near future...

(*yes, that's a coupon.)

and I am SURE you didn't mean to appear to promote underage drinking by allowing the 8th graders to return home with lovely parting gifts such as:

(Beer Cozy)

I am just wondering... exactly WHAT WAS her inclusion in career day supposed to be promoting?

Do you think I want my son to aspire to Bail Bondsmanship as his career of choice?

Were there other lovely career options as well?

Were there professional "Hit Men" present with large breasted women hanging out of their shirts people handing out brochures and free beer can cozies?

How about the "Lady Of The Night" booth?? What kind of free gifts were they offering?

I hear there was some guy with a big scary looking snake...

I am hoping he was a herpetologist. 

My 8th grader wasn't sure.

He spent all of his time in line waiting for the free gifts from the scantily clad bail bond woman.

Sincerely,

Chrissy

********EDITED TO SAY:

I do not NOW nor do I hope to EVER need the services of this or any other bail bonds person. Thank you for your concern over the fees... but this was simply a post written out of sarcastic outrage over this particular local character being included in the middle school career day for my child.

Rare cooking post

Today I made fresh mozzarella!

This was actually the third time I attempted this recipe.

The first two times produced something akin to cauliflower shaped bouncy ball.

And you don't want to know how awful it tasted.

Hint: We unsuccessfully used it as mouse trap bait in the garage.

Having finally produced something yummy, 

I wanted to do this little pictorial cooking tutorial for my friends 

who like to try their hand at homemade stuff.

First, I started with one gallon of whole milk.

(not my counters, unfortunately, but I loved the picture at 

www.foodrenegade.com )

Then, pour milk into a large, non-reactive pot.

Next, get out a clean glass and put one cup of water in the glass.

To this, add 2tsp. Citric Acid. 

(mistake I made with batch #1 was leaving this out)

I bought mine at the local crazy health food lady's store.

Next, whisk like a crazy person trying to make whipped cream out of whole milk 

and pour the dissolved citric acid/water into the pot of milk in a tiny, thin stream. 

(mistake I made with batch #2...not stirring with enough vigor 

thereby allowing the citric acid the opportunity 

to curdle the milk prematurely)

Do not stop pouring or whisking. 

Grow an extra arm if you must... but do NOT stop whisking.

NEXT... heat the milk SLOWLY to 90 degrees. 

Once it hits 90 degrees, take it off of the heat and add

1/2 tsp of Rennet.

I used actual rennet from one of these:

but you can also purchase this:

or this stuff... but I'm not sure about the conversion:

Stir for almost a minute, being sure to get it all blended up well.

You can't SEE the rennet being mixed in... so you want to be sure to stir from the top to the bottom, then bottom to top, side to side... blendy, blendy, blendy... all nice and uniform like.

NEXT...

WALK AWAY.

Don't touch the pot.

Just LEAVE it ALONE.

It likes its alone time.

Really.

Resist the temptation.

Come back in about 10 minutes.

It's still sitting there, doing it's thing....

that's fine.

What you should see now may look something like this:

Uh huh... 

yummy, right?

No?

Okay... well, next...

you want to take a knife and cut little squares in the curds.

That's the money shot, baby.

Good stuff.

Okay. Now walk away again.

I know... it's hard.

Just do it.

When you come back in about 10 more minutes,

you will want to get a large bowl and put a colander inside of it in the sink.

I used my cheapest plastic one that never drains well.

Gently pour the pot of curds into the colander.

I let all the whey drain into the bowl to give to my dog, 

but you can also use this to water some acid loving plants if you like. 

Or you can dump it... to each her own.

 After I got the colander out of the bowl of whey, I started rinsing the curds with hot water.

This is where the magic starts happening!

I used the hottest water out of the tap and just tilted the colander around in a circle while rinsing it off, getting all of the whey out and it magically starts forming a ball!

THEN...

I dumped it into a bowl of SALTY hot water.

Yeah... looks AWESOME, right?

Okay... just wait.

So, once in the hot salty water, I was able to stretch and knead the cheese, almost like making pizza dough.

It stretched quite well and became somewhat addictive to play with!

However, don't over-do the stretching.

Once I was happy with the consistency, I rolled it back around in the hot water till it looked like a log...

and plopped it on the counter to take this picture:

I know the picture looks like a roll of frozen bread dough, but it's cheese!!

And it was yummy!

Needs a little more salt, which I will try to incorporate next time... 

but its WHEY WAY better than store-bought fresh mozzarella!

Thanks to my friend Julie for giving me cheese pointers 

the last two times with the failed batches!