Of Carnivals and Corn

Even though we're basically living on the edge of new development and suburban sprawl, there is still much small town to be found around us. Yesterday, in the overly agressive heat (I love high temperatures and high humidity in Chicago - and yes, humidity does matter), we headed west for some corn and carnival fun.

Apparently my son is much braver than I am ... I have known for some time, but truly realized that being a parent requires you to be brave for them, when you really want to hold their hand and steer them in the direction of the wussy rides. He got to ride the "Dragon Train" twice, in the front car, all smiles. I want Q to be independent, and not hide behind my skirts, but the process of letting him be that requires that I tap down all my fears and worries and let him go. And to top it off, The Bee follows him right in ... I am thankful for height requirements.

We all rode what used to be called The Scrambler, but is now The Flinger or something like that. I also have realized that my motion sickness is getting worse as I get older. It took all of my Childbirth Breathing to keep from horking after the ride. If I don't get some Dramamine, I'm going to be the "Mom that Watches from the Side and Holds our Stuff" ... which is not what I want to be. The kids laughed the whole time ... The Bee really wanted to go, but we had told her no, that she was not big enough. She asked, "pease" so nicely, and when I got the okay from the ride operator, I went and got her, and she said "yay" ... she was so excited to go, and she sat like such a big girl and laughed so much ... it was almost, but not quite enough, to make me forget about the fact that I was going to be sick. I am so proud of my kids.

We left shortly after that - Did you know it costs $3 for the pick a duck game, I remember when it used to be $1 per duck! We went to a relatives house to watch fireworks off of the deck ... Q was trying so hard to be patient - "Boom Boom Crackers, Hurry Up, I'm waiting!" It really was a very good show ... The Bee thought it was too loud, so I sat inside with her and we watched them through the door. She kept covering her eyes and saying her ears hurt, but she laughed her new laugh at them, so I know she liked them even if they were loud.

Next week, fireworks at our house, we'll see how that turns out.

Extreme Makeover, Miller Edition

Every family has some goofy thing that they do, that they proudly claim as their own. In my husbands family, which is now mine as well, there is "the statue".

Briefly, "the statue", which is now known as Ellie Phant, started out as a ceramic statue that my Mother In Law had made, and eventually worked her way into the Christmas White Elephant. The rule is that you can re-gift as long as the item has been altered in some way. The next year, she came back with a bandaid on her arm to cover a break and re-attachment. Then, she came back as a Denver Broncos fan, much to the dismay of the Green Bay fans in the family. Back and forth she went, basically between the Denver house (ours) and the Green Bay house (theirs). She has also been a soldier, resurrected from a non fatal self inflicted injury and has taken a world tour at Fox Valley Mall (ask Uncle Greg, he was her travelling companion).

Abbey, from the House of Theirs, got married this past weekend and had a surprise guest at her reception, Miss Ellie Phant. She was a well received guest, and went home with the Newlyweds. It is now up to them as to what her next adventure will be.

Congratulations Chris & Abbey!

Harvesting, Round 1

Well ... it's been an interesting few days, mostly spent in the kitchen, acquiring sore shoulders.

On Wednesday, I was given six gallons of already shelled peas. I gave away about two gallons, which left me four. Now that may not sound like a lot, but believe me, four gallons of peas is a lot of peas. I've been washing, sorting, blanching, drying, freezing and bagging these things up for three days now. I'm almost done. And now I'm blogging about them ... what am I turning into?!?

Oh yeah, peas smell wierd too.

Also, since our freezer is jam pack full of frozen peas now, I needed to do something with eight and a half pounds of blueberries that were brought back from Michigan on Monday ... well, I took some strawberries and turned it into my first ever batch of Blueberry Strawberry Jam. I ended up with four pints of that, canned and ready to go on the shelf. I am still freezing berries for pies and muffins and what not, but it gave me a little more room to move in the freezer.

What is it about me that won't let anything go? I've got a container full of old celery stalks, carrot tops, etc for making soup base. I've got three or four chicken carcasses in the freezer for soup base, in addition to a ham hock, also waiting to be turned into soup. I've got frozen blueberries, rhubarb, asparagus, green beans, apples, cherries and corn, all ready for who knows what. I can make at least six pies and four batches of soup, and still have enough food to serve with meals ... it's not like I grew up hungry every night. Sure, money was tight, but we were never THAT broke that there was no food in the house. We ate a lot of hot dogs and fish sticks, however. Or maybe it's the "grama" in me coming out ...

All I know is I need to invest in a pressure canner and a lot of Mason jars ...

Play Doh

My initial thought about Play Doh is that it smells wierd. Then my mind wanders to that news blurb I had heard about Eau de Play Doh or something like that.

I remember playing this with my Dad when I was a kid, and I remember I always wanted him to play because he was always the "softener upper" - he would sit and mish and mash the play doh back and forth until it became workable ... ready for my Barber Shop or McDonald's burger maker set.

Well, since my kids have discovered the joy of Play Doh ... I have re-discovered the joy of being the softener upper ... there is somthing to be said about sitting there, talking with the kids, and working a piece of Play Doh, back and forth, until it's nice and soft. It could almost be a form of therapy, if I didn't have to "remind" the kids about table manners and what not.

Now if I could only do something about the smell ...

Stay to the right, but not necessarily politically ...

I took the kids on a quick train ride last week. I found a very kind man in the station parking lot, he helped us get a spot to park, and was just very nice overall. We don't seem to find too much of that these days. My hat off to Roy!

So we made our way to get our tickets and off to the train. Remember, I have a four year old and a two year old with me ... there are two grown people, each standing half on/half off the train, blocking our attempts to get in, while the conductor is tellling me to hurry up! Hello ... we can't get on! So, the two adults finally get off, and I think they missed the train because they were waiting for somebody's mom ...

We took our ten minute train ride to the Children's Museum (www.dupagechildrensmuseum.org) , and trying to get off the train is almost as difficult as it was for us to get on. I understand that there is limited time to do these things, but I remember one of the first lessons we were taught at a school wide assembly in junior high (7th grade) was to "Stay on the right." Evidently, getting off the train is like being salmon, trying to make your way upstream to spawn. I don't know how many people pushed right past my kids in their hurry to get on the train. Are we that self absorbed and that much in a hurry, that we can't wait twenty seconds for a woman and two kids to get off the train?!? Or, am I such a Mayberry-oriented soul that I haven't caught up with the mentality of the 2000's?

All in all, the kids had a good time, they enjoyed the train rides and the time at the museum. Bonus: it cost me about a dollar fifty more than it would have cost me to drive there, but it only took twenty minutes (ten to the station, ten on the train), not thirty! Not bad ...

We survived the birthdays!

Wow! Six weeks sounds like a decent amount of time - it's 42 days, right? Well, not when you factor in something else called life ... I remember when Q turned two, I only had six weeks left of being pregnant with The Bee ... it didn't seem like eternity, but it didn't exactly fly by, either.

Fast forward two years ... in the span of six weeks we had: Q's 4th birthday, Mother's Day, then Gracie's 5th birthday, then Father's Day and then The Bee's 2nd birthday. Add in two weeks of no fence along the road, which eliminated a lot of backyard time, and a missing kitchen floor for almost a month, and you have the last six weeks of our lives.

Any hoo ... Q is already looking ahead to being five, and The Bee will tell you that she is four. If you ask her if she might in fact, be two, she says, "No. Foh." and holds up four fingers. This may be the pattern for the rest of her life.

So now we are getting ready for the 4th of July - another birthday, this time, America's. I think we'll make a birthday cake tonight for tomorrow. We'll start instilling a bit of patriotism early at our house.

And, we've also had a lot of Papa going on. Papa Florida was here (showed up unexpectedly at our house on Father's Day as a surprise to me), built a sandbox with some help from Q, and then left the next day. Then, my Dad (Poppy Michigan) came down from Michigan for the day, had dinner and then left. And now, Papa Florida just called, he's on his way back here, will have dinner, stay the night and then head back to Florida tomorrow morning. Needless to say, the kids are having a blast. It's just hard having the grandparents so far away ... on a number of levels, but especially the my kids are in Illinois level. More on that later when I'm not so weepy about it.

Off to make a batch of brownies for the road trip home ...

Happy Birthday America!