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Showing posts from 2018

The Great Cross Country Race

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On December 14 this year, Monica and Phinehas were involved in the production of The Great Cross Country Race, a retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare, put on by their school. They had about 4.5 lines between the two of them, but their scene was considered to be one of the more entertaining ones, so that was gratifying. A play seems to be rather like a wedding - tons of time and money for a relatively short period of end-goal activity! But they made good memories and learned some skills, and everybody but Elena ended up being involved in the final production. Judah helped with child-wrangling and Ezra with lights and sound during the performance.  Phinehas played the screen-playing child with selective hearing. Monica played the "had-it-up-to-here-with-being-ignored mother. Monica demanding her inattentive "husband" get involved!

A Family Thanksgiving

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As a friend told me this fall, "the first time I hosted the entire family for Thanksgiving, I felt like I'd finally become an adult." Well, I've arrived, I guess! We hosted my family for Thanksgiving this year at our house, including my parents, my three siblings and the ten children they brought with them! There were 26 people at dinner! My dad got some lovely pictures.  Michael got Mo's clam chowder for dinner on Wednesday night. Judah was forced to make savory shortbreads, which sadly, he didn't even like. But I thought they were great! Ezra was a real favorite with all of the little kids, as usual! Soup and bread for dinner. Mom and my brother, Ben. Aunt Katy supervised the construction of Reeses Pieces table decorations, bless her! Partners in crime... ;-) Ezra, Thane, Hale and Elena Madeline, Monica, Valor and Rinah Success! We really probably didn't need to have an appetizer feast a mere 1-2 hours

School Days are Here Again!

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Well, here we are again at the beginning of the school year! I remembered to get a picture of the kids on their first day, but I forgot to have them set down their bags, take off their backpacks, etc. So it has historical accuracy, but no staging, I'm afraid. Unfortunately, most of my kids are opposed to having their picture taken. The older boys are in a state or resignation, Judah even smiles, because he tries to be a nice young man. Monica, the most photogenic, is always willing to have her picture taken. Elena is shy when she feels put on the spot. Phinehas has his customary picture-taking scowl (somewhat leavened by the excitement he's was undoubtedly feeling about his first day in 3rd grade). So here are my 9th grader (First Year of Highschool!), 8th grader, 5th grader, 3rd grader and 1st grader!  This is the entire high school class at Paideia (9th and 10th) - Judah on the far right.  This is Elena when she thought the color by numbers was a d

The Theatre, the Theatre .. the OSF Theatre in Ashland

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Our Trip To Ashland, OR in July We've been wanting to take our kids to see some plays in Ashland, OR for several years but this year we finally made the leap! We were scheduled to see Love's Labor's Lost in the outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre, Henry V in the Thomas Theater and Othello in the Bowman Theatre, but we only made it to the last two. Sadly, the first one was cancelled due to the wildfire smoke in the area, that was kind of off the charts and unhealthy to breathe - and there's no way to filter it out in an outdoor theater! Still, we had a pretty good time, and the kids enjoyed Henry V, which ended up being the only one they saw. It was a good one, though, and in a theater that is so small that anywhere you sit you are only yards away from the performers. My parents and my sister, Katy, and her significant other, Ryan, joined us for the adventure.  A vacation with Michael would not be complete without some sort of hike: this one in the Siskiyou National

Family Camp 2018

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Family Camp Photos These are my photos from my phone:  Phinehas at Newport, OR Our camp is a dry campus, but the beach is not! Phinehas' interest level in the talks.. So sweet. A family walk on the beach after eating at Mo's in Newport Preparing for Gaga Ball These (much better) photos are from my dad. I wanted to put them first, but Blogger overruled me. Ah well.   Judah and Elena build sandcastles It takes a telephoto lens to catch Phinehas smiling! Monica's Happy Place Phinehas and Judah playing GaGa Ball Super flattering action shot of Judah in the 13-16 boys basketball game  Michael signed us up to lead the children's campfire. Lucky me.  Ezra playing air-hockey - my old favorite.

Necessity is the Mother of... Internet Recipe #?

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I made a new recipe this evening for dinner, and it was generally well received!  Here's the original:  Italian Chicken Pasta Salad But I seldom have on hand exactly what a new recipe calls for, so here's what I ended up substituting: For the cucumber - nothing, sadly I have no cucumber, currently. For the cherry tomatoes - chopped normal-sized tomatoes. For the salami - sliced pepperoni slices. For the roasted red pepper - 3 small roasted sweet peppers leftover from a batch I made last week. For the elbow macaroni - a new lentil pasta I found at Costco. 20 grams of protein/serving! For the Nicoise olives - black olives. For the red onion - nothing. I don't like raw onion. And finally, for the fancy cheese - shredded mozzarella. Basically, I had part of a rotisserie chicken left over from a post-Costco run lunch yesterday and I wanted to use more of that lentil pasta. Thanks to Google, for enabling me to enter shredded rotisserie chicken pasta salad, and come u

Miscellaneous Happenings

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Ezra frequently brings his parakeets down to keep him company while doing homework. Monica went on a field trip to the Oregon Ballet Theater. Subsequently, Monica started ballet in February. Elena fell in love and started, too. That's how these things happen. I guess I can blame Monica's teacher! ;-) Monica is very enthused about it, at least right now! When we had two snow days in February, only the girls wanted to go sledding! But they sure enjoyed themselves! It was only 1-2 inches, and as you can see, it melted quickly on the second day. It was the week of President's Day, so they had a grand total of two days of school that week. They still did Assembly though, even though I am told they were basically "winging it." It's good to have family events during the dregs of tax season, it was close to Michael's birthday, and we wanted to celebrate the kids good report cards, so Michael decided to take the family out to diner a