Iveyrock

As Ray’s mom gets ready to move, we are being given some of the things that he played with when he was a boy. Our most recent collections have been a big hit.

Matchbox cars

Legos. Lots of Legos.

Ray loved these legos when he was growing up. He has been wanting to get some for Ian, and I am so pleased that we have the same ones that Ray played with for hours as a boy.

I am a little surprised by how much Ian plays with them already. I’m not sure why, but I was vaguely thinking he would need to be a little older to really enjoy them.

Chava likes them too… true to form, she collects all the little lego people while her brother builds spaceships and tractors. These lego people are unfortunately lacking heads.

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl…

… I walked to the library near my house. I browsed around for awhile, and checked out thirty-two books to take home. I loaded them all into my backpack, and started to walk (uphill) home to my house. Luckily for me, my neighbor stopped and offered me a ride home.

When I got home, my mom seemed to think that thirty-two books was a bit much. For a good while after that, I was limited to ten books when I went to the library. (At this point, I would like it to be known that I did read all thirty-two books).

Now I am an adult, living in my own house. We recently upgraded our library card, which means we have a limit of forty-five books. My inner child is delighted, and my family is taking full advantage.

My rule for my kids – you can get out as many books as you want; as long as you can carry them

I have a bread recipe I’ve been wanting to try, and Aunt Heidi’s visit seemed like to perfect opportunity. In the past when I’ve made bread with small kids, the kneading has been a problem. Someone always needs something right when I am covered in flour and sticky to my elbows. I was hoping that Aunt Heidi would be able to run interference, so I could see try out the recipe, and see how feasible it would be on my own.

As it turns out, not only was kneading much smoother this time, I had lots of help.

The bread turned out better than I expected, based on my previous attempts. I am happy with the taste, and really happy with the texture. The kids really liked it, and the house smelled wonderful. I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to make it again, but we enjoyed it this time.

- this loaf is 100% whole wheat. I only used one tablespoon each of sugar and honey. I added some gluten, as the recipe suggests. I also added a tablespoon of grapefruit juice (for the citric acid) and a tiny sprinkle of ginger. Heidi suggested brushing the top with butter right as it came out of the oven, and I like how that made the crust nice and soft.

A couple of weeks ago, when my mom was on vacation in Maine, I happened to mention to her that I really wanted an antique eggbeater for my kids. I had been looking around for over a year, and hadn’t found one. An hour later, my mother called me back to tell me that they had walked into an antique shop, found and eggbeater, and gotten it for me. I was thrilled, and impressed.

Yesterday, my sister Heidi came down to visit us. She brought the eggbeater through airport security, and it arrived safely at our house. So it has now traveled from Maine to Ohio, then from Ohio to Texas.

So we made scrambled eggs for dinner.

She asks me, “Why do Giraffes taste so good?”

And sitting down in a chair, she says, “Sooo…. bears don’t sit in chairs.”

She wants her own little hut, like the recycling center has. She thinks that daddy goes to work in the front yard. She insists that her name is “Beef and Lentils”.

I love that she is old enough to put her thoughts into words. It is so fun to listen to her processing her days. Sometimes she is right there with whatever we’re doing, and sometimes she is thinking about something completely different. She loves to repeat whatever Ian is saying, whether she understands it or not. But she is developing her own (very clear) ideas about how life works, and what she wants from it.

I can tell from her words that she is still so much a baby in so many ways. Her understanding of the world is so different than my jaded, adult perspective. I am listening as she makes discoveries and connections. It’s a little bit of a window into her baby-mind, and a little bit of hearing her grow up, every day. She is smart, and quick, and funny; and she makes me laugh.

My playroom chair

It has no back cushion, and I got it for ten dollars at a garage sale. It’s a non-descript sort of color, and who knows how old.

There is a lizard that likes to sit right on the other side of the glass and sun himself. It holds my cushions that I made when I left for college, and the ones I made for Ray when he left for college. There’s a cushion on there that was a gift from one of my oldest friends. The big cushion in back was a gift from Ray, when I moved out to a new school and a new state.

It makes the playroom someplace I WANT to be with my kids. It is my daughter’s special spot to curl up. It gave me a space to snuggle with my son, when we needed something new to reconnect. I re-learned to crochet there, when I was on bedrest with Micah.