Blessing In Disguise

Last week, Mr. MOTH had to travel out of town for work (Last time!  WOOT!) and, of course, we had some pretty severe storms.  I didn't even know they were coming - we had planned to play in the pool that afternoon.  Mom called and said, "Turn on the weather." and hung up - she was at work.  The sky was blue, clear, and sunny.  I waited until the kids were finished with their after-lunch TV viewing and switched it to the Weather Channel.  Just as I did, a warning flashed across the bottom of the screen and the announcer said, "A tornado warning has been issued for our area..."  Youngest Boy freaked the frickety frack OUT!  We spent the next hour-and-a-half in the basement (this isn't exactly a hardship since Mr. MOTH finished it, but still, a mama's got stuff that has to get done!).  Between keeping them calm and entertained, fielding texts from Mr. MOTH who was watching Intellicast from Chicago, and finding the flashlights when the lights blinked out, I was exhausted!

About an hour later I got a call from my brother, E.  His power was out and, because his wife is performing in a musical, he was going to be home alone with baby V.  He scouted out the situation and decided it was going to be awhile.  He came to visit.  It was great because I rarely get to see her all to myself (well, I had to share with 4 VERY enthusiastic cousins!).  She is adorable!  She does this thing where she sits perfectly straight and then spins around in a full circle.  She looks like she's on a sit-and-spin, without the toy!

We made sure both V and E were well-fed, and once it was confirmed they had power they headed back home.  Truly, the power outage was a blessing in disguise:

I can't even believe her first birthday is just around the corner!!

A Milestone and Elderberry Pie

Last night - for the first time in almost 9 and a half years - there was no one officially sleeping in our nursery. :(  We moved Little One into Baby Girl's room (now officially called "The Girls' Room") and she slept in there.  We will move up to a big girl bed - right now it's a crib mattress on the floor (a smart move considering I went in last night to check on her and her head was hanging over the edge).  The idea is that she will stay in her OWN bed all night.  On paper, it seemed like a good idea.  In reality?  Notsomuch.  She seems to think that she can't get out on her own still, so when she wakes up, instead of coming into our room like her siblings (who STILL do it), she sat up and screamed for me.  Good thing her sister can sleep through a freight train!

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We have a bumper crop of elderberries growing in our yard this year.  I've been watching and waiting for them to get ripe for what seems like FOREVER and yesterday - when the birds were attacking the bushes - I knew it was time.  Perfect timing, too, because my parents come over on most Sundays and I knew if I made elderberry pie at least I would have someone to share it with.  It's really all about memories.  My Grams used to make pie with elderberries every year - I think it was one of her favorites.  I love pie.  Of ANY kind. 

Baby Girl and Grandma picked the berries off of the bushes (you cut the whole stem) and brought them to me. Youngest Boy, Baby Girl and I picked them off of the stems and into the bowl (4 cups?  That's a whole lotta berries, yinz guys!).  It took more than a hour for that whole process.  I had already made the crust so it didn't take long to get the pie in the oven and, even though we had to eat it when it was probably a tad too warm, it was worth the effort and stained fingers (and front porch).

For your baking pleasure:

Flaky Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening - CHILLED
1/2 cup butter - no substitutes (TRUST ME) - cold
up to 6 TBSP ice water

Using a food processor, combine flour, salt, shortening and butter.  Pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Drizzle in ice water, a tablespoon at a time, JUST until dough comes together.  Divide in half and wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill for at least 30 minutes (or up to 24 hours) before rolling out between two pieces of waxed paper.  Makes 2 9" crusts.

I used this Elderberry Pie recipe (I ended up adding a bit more cornstarch). (I also forgot the lemon juice)

Not Running and The Olympics

I am a huge fan of the Olympics.  I can't say I have one sport in particular that I like to watch but I just love the atmosphere; the competition; the fact that there's not much else on TV that inspires quite as much.  We watched some of the Opening Ceremonies together with the kids (until bedtime) and it's always worth the wait.  However, am I the only one who wants to punch Bob Costas between the eyes already?  Anybody else screaming at the TV for him to STOP TALKING ALREADY?!?!  I would have preferred to watch the ceremony with the mute button on rather than listen to him, except I wanted to TRY to hear the music and such (sometimes he would hush for a moment or two).  And there wasn't a single other person on the planet who was disappointed that the Parade of Nations went so fast!  He had to rush through all of his inane trivia so fast that half of the time the next country was already on it's way through!  Sheesh!  I still thought it was beautiful, humorous and inspiring - despite the commentary.  Easily my favorite part was Queen Elizabeth II.  I have a thing for the royals.  I also think the lighting of the flame this time was AH-MAZE-ING!

All of this athleticism is making me a bit twitchy to get back to running but, man, I have a serious pulled muscle.  One that is going to take a couple of WEEKS to get better and it is making me grumpy.  And chubby.  And lazy.  {SIGH}.  Rest is not something I do well.  But.  I also don't do pain very well and it freakin' hurts to run.  Believe me, I tried.  And that probably set me back at least a few days.  Stupid.  Oh, well.  At least I can turn on my TV and live vicariously through my fellow Americans vying for Gold! 

There's nothing quite like hearing 4 (OK, 6) voices at the dinner table yelling, "USA! USA! USA!"  Sweet!

Buoyancy

Week #4 of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry Brain Games was Buoyancy.  In the original version, you tried to float different things to determine how/why different things float.  In our version, I made it a competition between the kids.  They each made a boat out of aluminum foil and the boat that held the most pennies won.  For the record, I made Little One's boat.

 And the winner is....Baby Girl!  It was a lesson, that's for sure!  The boys were rather disgusted that their boats didn't even come close, even though theirs definitely LOOKED more like a boat.  Hers looked more like something out of Swiss Family Robinson - a raft, maybe.  But it held 75 pennies!  Which was lucky, because that was all that I had out there with us!  I was trying to figure out how I was going to get more without Little One sinking them all.

For the record - Oldest Boy - 54 pennies; Youngest Boy - 53 pennies; Little One (and The Mommy) - 73 pennies.

The best part was splashing in the tub of water afterwards.  Geez, it's still hot here!

Next up:  Solar Snacks!  This requires the use of an empty pizza box...which we never have because I always make homemade pizza (and tonight's pizza night!).  Thankfully, my mom is going to hook us up with one on Sunday.  We're supposed to make s'mores.  None of my kids really like s'mores (which, I KNOW!).  Guess that means I'll have to eat the experiments myself! 

Bottle Rockets

We are about a week behind in our Summer Brain Games quest, but that's OK.  We'll make up for lost time this week.

Week #3 is Bottle Rockets.  I had orginally planned for this to happen during the 4th of July weekend when Mr. MOTH was home for a few extra days but that didn't work out.  Although I think he was looking forward to participating; when he read the instructions he said, "Look, boys!  We're going to get to meet the local authorities!!"  LOL!

I'll make a small admission here:  When I was working as an analytical chemist for a paint and coatings company, I was in charge of the Take Your Child to Work Day activities.  We did something very similar to this activity except it was in a sealed ziploc bag instead of a bottle with a cork.  This one requires more prep time (good, if you've got a creative child; bad if you just wanna get it done).  It's a simple chemical reaction which generates a gas that fills the volume of the container and causes an "explosion".  Cool, when you're a child.  Very cool when you're an adult. 

Because Baby Girl believes EVERYTHING needs to be decorated, we went the bottle rocket route:

 Youngest Boy was in charge of the launch pad - we had one "rocket" for boys, one for girls.

 Little One has ZERO interest in these science experiments.  She does, however, make off with the necessary equipment every time.  That's toilet paper:

 Pour a 1/4 cup vinegar into a small plastic bottle (we used 10oz water bottles); place a teaspoon or so of baking soda on 2 squares of TP and fold it up; Drop the TP in the bottle, cork it TIGHTLY, invert it on your launch pad and run like heck!!

This was too hard for the little kids.  Oldest Boy probably could have done it but there was too much confusion and fear from the others.  It only worked when I took control.  But they were still impressed when the rocket shot right out of it's construction paper wrapper.  Note:  We did not meet the local authorities. 

Next up:  Week #4 Buoyancy with aluminum foil.  I'm making it a competition between the kids - whoever's boat holds the most coins gets to keep the coins (Little One, she LOVES coins so I'm hoping to keep her attention).

Race Report

Yesterday was the local Fireworks 5K that my sister and I ran in last year (the first year of the event) and again this year.  We both got faster and we both finished at the top for our age group (we flip-flopped - this year she was second and I was first - different age groups.  Very.).  My official time was 27:15.90 - a PR for me.  WOOT!

At least this year they managed to STOP traffic - last year?  Notsomuch.  Of course, this year one of the officers handling traffic flow was the husband of a former high school "friend".  She and I have had a falling out (apparently, because I sent her a Christmas card?  Yes.  That was it.) but, ya know, I'm a friendly kinda girl.  So I acknowledged her husband as I ran passed.  I'm sure that broke some kind of former friendship rule that she'll let me know about in the rudest way possible but, hey!  What else is new?  At least he didn't trip me.

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The course is a 5K/10K with the 10K being a double loop of the 5K.  As we were nearing the finish, I was running next to some older (as in, 70-year-old) guy (no shirt, of course.  This IS western PA).  Because of the double-loop set up, the first of the 10K runners ran passed on their way back.  As the first guy came up I muttered under my breath, "Show off..." and the old dude about fell over laughing.  I musta said it louder than I thought.  I was wearing my earbuds, but still.

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Everyone has different reasons why they run.  Mine change, sometimes daily, but a repeating theme is the girl I was in high school.  I was one of two girls who were ALWAYS last in "the mile".  As in, couldn't complete it in under 20 minutes the first time so I had to run it AGAIN to try to make that time.  (Mind you, no one ever told me what the hell I was supposed to actually DO to be able to run it in less time, quality phys ed teachers right there).  The girl running next to me was the "friend" I mentioned above.  Sometimes, when I'm running, for each step I take I'll picture her sitting on her couch eating another chip.  And I'll take another step.  And another.  My mile is usually under nine (9!) minutes these days.  It's nice to picture someone who has hurt you eating your dust once in awhile.

The Farm 2012

We made our annual pilgrimage to The Farm this week.  Unlike most years, it was NOT a straight-forward drive.  There were 3 (count 'em, 3!) different detours.  On the third detour, we made a turn (I ignored the GPS, "Maggi Ellen", when she tried to tell me to turn down a DIRT road and simply followed the detour signs on this one) and there in front of me was a very s-l-o-w moving coal train.  I'm pretty sure I cursed.  I decided to suck it up and count the cars with the kids.  There were only maybe 4 or 5 cars left when I noticed...something.  I turned to my sister who was riding shotgun and said, "What the heck am I supposed to do now?!?!  LOOK!"  On the other side of the tracks was a combine harvester which took up both lanes of the road (it being a two-lane road is extremely questionable) and then some.  I ended up having to back up into a random driveway and wait it out.  At least the farmer dude in the truck in front waved at me!

But.  We made it.  I took photos of the train and the combine but they're on my phone and I'm just not that savvy.  My Youngest Boy saw me taking pictures and got out his trusty camera and started snapping shots...of houses we passed and I think the occasional tree and/or cell phone tower (sidenote:  I don't think they were cell phone towers as that is the only place I have ever been where I get NO SERVICE.).

 There were kittens for everyone to hold.  Grandma is saying, "Honey!  You're being a little heavy-handed with that 10-day-old kitty!!":

 This kitty and her sisters were in the 6-week-old range.  Old enough to come home with us, but, alas, Mr. MOTH isn't convinced we need a pet.  Yet.

 The kids played a rousing game of hide-n-seek while we caught up with my Aunt E.  Little One's "hiding" spot:

 This photo just cracks me up.  They look like they're about to head out on an African safari, especially with the camera!

We followed Maggi Ellen's (it's a Magellan GPS) route home with no major detours or delays.  And now Baby Girl has embarked on a unique strategy to convince her daddy that she needs a kitten.  It's called "whine, beg, plead" and it's worked for other things so I'm convinced we'll be buying Tidy Cat by the end of the summer. ;)