Our week

This week Todd has had some kind of cold/sinus thing, and baby Bubby has it now. I feel so bad for him. Mornings are the worst for him. It is hard for him to eat and breathe at the same time...so he just gets mad instead. The baby...not Todd!

We are gearing up to start school back next week. We did a little this week, just to get back into things. Peanut is studying about Elizabethan England. I found a neat article called "Young Will" that we will use to talk about Shakespeare. I don't think we'll delve too deep here. There is a biography written for kids that I put on reserve at the library, and a book called Tales From Shakespeare, which has summaries of some of his plays.

Tomorrow is errand day. I haven't been out of the house since Sunday afternoon, so I'm looking forward to it. We will go to the library and dance class, then a fast food lunch. There is now a Chik-fil-a just down the street from dance, and it shouldn't be too hard to talk the big kids into that. Yum! They might get to go visit Grandma and Grandpa for the weekend.

Peanut has been playing with clay today. This is a mermaid, an eel, a fish, and an oyster.

Ellie...Elmer's girlfriend

This is Ellie. She is planning on breaking into country music. She has already made her first video, pulling out one of the old classics.

Cool Video I found

I just really love this YouTube thing. I have not seen this video in years and years. Now some nice person has decided to share their copy with the world. I know they weren't really supposed to, but it's not like this is on TV all the time. If you're not familiar, it's the Travelling Wilburys...George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty.

By the way, I saw something that said it is Jeff Lynne's birthday today. Todd really likes ELO, I kind of make fun of it because some of the stuff is slightly weird. But you have to admit, the guy has made some pretty amazing music. I think this is the best, but that's just me. It is kind of sad to see this because George Harrison and Roy Orbison are gone now. I hear they are soon going to be re-releasing the albums that they made. It's about time!

Introducing...Elmer!

Elmer is a character that Peanut and I created last night. He is a pretty funny guy, and he's wanting to break into the music business. Here is his first video. What do you think?

His girlfriend is working up a video of her own. We'll share it soon!

The Pantry Game

No pics today. Bubby got shots today and he was just not his happy self.

I have been fortunate to not have to cook much lately, thanks to my mom, neighbors, friends, and people from church. It has been SO great. But that is slowing down, and I have almost used up my freezer meals also. Last night my goal was to fix a meal out of just what was on hand...because I really haven't done much menu planning and my shopping has been kind of disorganized. (Todd asks me what I need from the store, I scramble around trying to think of what we need in about 15 minutes, then he goes out and buys it.) 

This is a pretty fun thing to do. You can come up with some great recipes just by using what is on hand. Last night I made chili and potato salad. Here is what I used for the chili:

1 lb. hamburger meat
1 med. onion, diced
1 clove garlic
A little veg. oil to brown those things.
16 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1/3 c. ketchup (because that was not enough tomatoes and I didn't have another can)
1 can ranch style beans
Chili powder and salt to taste (I don't know how much I used!)

The potato salad was easy. I didn't use a recipe here, either. I just tried to think what might be in a good potato salad.

1 can sliced new potatoes (then I chopped them a little smaller)
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. Miracle Whip
Chopped roasted red pepper, out of a jar that we use for sandwiches
1 tbsp. pickle relish

The potato salad was really good. It would have been nice with a chopped boiled egg, I think, but I didn't have time for all that. The reason I had a can of potatoes was because I had seen a recipe for potato salad in Quick Cooking that used them, and I had meant to make it back in the summer.

I have a bunch of odds and ends in my pantry, so it might be interesting to try to use all that up in the next couple of weeks.

Another Old Poem

Here is a second poem I found in my searching. Peanut and I got a kick out of it. It was also written in the 1800s. So cute! It must have been popular to write poetry in 'baby talk.' Maybe so people could recite it, and it would be entertaining?

ONLY A BABY
Author Unknown

ONLY a baby
'Thout any hair,
'Cept just a little
Fuzz here and there.

Only a baby,
Name you have none,
Barefooted and dimpled,
Sweet little one.

Only a baby,
Teeth none at all;
What are you good for,
Only to squall?

Only a baby,
Just a week old;
What are you here for,
You little scold?

BABY'S REPLY.

Only a baby!
What sood I be?
Lots o' big folks
Been little like me.

Ain't dot any hair?
'Es I have, so;
S'pos'n' I hadn't,
Dess it tood drow.

Not any teeth --
Wouldn't have one;
Don't dit my dinner
Gnawin' a bone.

What am I here for?
'At's petty mean;
Who's dot a better right
'T ever you've seen?

What am I dood for,
Did you say?
Eber so many sings
Ebery day.

Tourse I squall at times,
Sometimes I bawl;
Zey dassn't spant me,
Taus I'm so small.

Only a baby!
'Es, sir, 'at 's true;
'N' if you only tood,
You'd be one, too.

'At 's all I've to say,
You're mos' too old;
Dess I'll det into bed,
Toes dettin' cold.

An old poem

I found a cute poem last night. I think this is a poem that my Aunt Lee used to recite. It is very close, anyway. It was written in the 1800s. We are not experiencing this kind of sibling rivalry at our house! I hadn't thought of this poem in a long time, but yesterday I told Bubby I couldn't give him any "tandy." It all came back, so I had to go look it up!

THE NEW BABY

I'se a poor little sorrowful baby,
For Bidget is way down tairs,
The titten has statched my finder,
And dolly won't say her payers.
Ain't seen my bootiful mamma
Since ever so long adoe,
And I ain't her tunningest baby
No longer, for Bidget says so.

My mamma's dot a new baby;
Dod dived it, he did, yesterday;
And it kies, and it kies, so defful,
I wish he would tate it away.
Don't want no sweet little sister,
I want my dood mamma, I do,
I want her to tis me, and tis me,
And tall me her pessus Lulu.

Oh, here tums nurse wis the baby!
It sees me yite out of its eyes;
I dess we will keep it, and dive it
Some tandy whenever it kies;
I dess I will dive it my dolly
To play wis 'most every day;
And I dess, I dess -- say, Bidget,
Ask Dod not to tate it away.

Why do we have Christmas?

Not that we haven't talked a lot about Chrismas around here, but I thought I would get a feel for where Junior is in his understanding.

Interview
Mama: Why do we have Christmas?
Junior: Because it's fun and you get lots and lots of presents and it's about God and you get lots of presents. It's special.
Mama: What do you mean it's about God? (trying to help him out here...)
Junior: What you do is you make a Christmas list and you give it to Santa and then he brings you what the Christmas list says.
Mama: Help me out here, son. What is Christmas all about?
Junior: It's about sharing. God gave us baby Jesus. That was the first Christmas. Jesus is the Son of God.

Third time is the charm.

This was very revealing, because we really try to emphasize that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. Just goes to show what part of the message is coming across!

Christmas Cookies

When we were at Grandma's for Thanksgiving, I enjoyed reading their newspaper. Every Thanksgiving, they ask the local kindergarten classes for the instructions on how to cook a turkey. They publish the responses, and they can be really funny. So in that spirit, I asked Junior if he could tell me how to make Christmas cookies. He has an advantage here because he usually helps me make cookies:

Recipe for Christmas Cookies

Start with dough. You go with eggs. Then you go with chocolate chips. Use a cookie spoon. Now squeeze the cookie spoon and cookies will come out. Put the cookies on a cookie pan and put them in the oven at 30 degrees for 3 minutes.

Since we are not doing a scheduled "school day" right now, Peanut and Junior are going to be helping with this blog so that they can practice what they learned earlier this year.

Peanut's Report - 2

A few weeks ago, Peanut had to give a report to her co-op class on an Oklahoma product or something invented in Oklahoma. She chose the shopping cart, which was invented in the 1930s in Oklahoma by Sylvan Goldman. It is an interesting story. Here is her report:

Sylvan Goldman was the owner of a chain of grocery stores in Oklahoma City, called Humpty Dumpty-Standard. In those days, when people shopped at the grocery store, they carried a basket in their hand to hold everything they wanted to buy. In 1936, Mr. Goldman got the idea to make a folding cart that would hold two baskets, so that it would be easier to buy more groceries. A maintenance man named Fred Young helped him design the cart. It took them a while to get it
right, but in a few months, they had shopping carts in all the stores.



At first, no one would use the carts. Men thought their arms were strong enough to carry around a little shopping basket. Women thought the cart looked too much like a baby buggy. A few days later, Mr. Goldman got the idea to hire men and women models to pretend to shop at the front of the store where people could see them when they came in. The lady at the front of the store would say, “Everybody is using these, why not you?” So their idea worked and now everyone uses shopping carts at the grocery store.



Mr. Goldman kept improving the cart, and he made them bigger so that people would buy even more. The shopping cart is the invention that has helped grocery stores the most.