And Another Thing...

Please don't wash your own plate...

So, the other night, the boys had a friend spend the night.  They had pizza, watched movies, played video games, you know, the whole teenage boy shebang.  After they got done eating, the friend brought his plate to me to ask what he should do with it.  I tols him to just put it in the sink and I would take care of it later when I loaded the dishwasher.  He informed me that he had already washed it.  This took me completely by surprise and it really annoyed me.  Now, I know that I should have been grateful that the boy had such good manners, but I really do not consider it good manners, and I'll tell you why.  

First, when you are a guest in someone's home, especially a first time guest, you don't know what the rules and routines are and you shouldn't assume that you do.  Now, in his home, it may have been the rule that you wash your own plate, but it is not here.  Good manners dictate that you ask what the procedures are before you act.  

Second, both of my boys had put their plates in the sink (as had Oliver and I), as per the routine of our house.  I found it to be quite presumptuous and a little up-staging-ish for this boy to wash his plate when he could clearly see that the rest of us had put our plates in the sink.  I might not have thought that if he hadn't also done similar things throughout the evening.  Like when the boys burst out of the house and bellowed that they were going off to a bike ride to the jumps and the friend turned to me and said, "I guess the plan is that we're going on a bike ride, is that okay with you?"  This was after I had already bellowed "Whatever, dude!" back to the boys (which is code in our house for, "Sure, that's great, don't kill yourselves because I don't have time for the drama!").  I just found it a little irksome.

Third, I now have this compulsion to make the boys wash their own dishes whenever they are at someone else's house.  I hate that this has me second guessing myself, even if it is just a tweeny-tiny bit.  Now, this is totally my problem and I own it, but it still pisses me off a bit.  I normally have great confidence in my children's social graces.  Most of the time, I feel quite at ease sending them off to a friend's house because we have made manners and  niceties a priority so that they do not offend people.  But now there is a little eensy part of me that thinks maybe I haven't been quite diligent enough.  Should they be washing their own dishes at other people's houses???  

Yes.  This is when the crazy starts to come out.  You'll have to excuse me now, I have to go shove it back in.

the deconstruction of a strawberry

It's love at first sight.

Dive right in!

It's important to let the strawberry think it's got the upper hand.

And then you go in for the kill...

What???  No more strawberries???

You have GOT to be kidding...

I don't think I like this joke.

I KNEW you were bluffing!

I'll just shove this in so you can't take it back!

mmmmmm...

nummy!

All gone!

Whew! What a great weekend!

This weekend was a whirlwind of activity.  On Friday, we went to our orthodontist's annual ics skating party.  I didn't get any pictures of this, I was way too busy eating pizza, pigging out at the chocolate fountain and ice skating with the kiddos to photograph anything.  Suffice it to say, it rocked!

When we got home, we had to bathe the girls and get them into bed so we could all get up early for Olivia's First Communion!  But first, I put Olivia's hair up in rag curlers.  It was so much fun and she looked so cute!

So when I was done, I shooed her off to bed and finished getting the house ready.  Then we were up early and bustin' our butts to get out the door on time for Olivia's mass.

Ben and Braidon served this mass so I thought I'd include ths shot of them and our beautiful church. 

Olivia in the dress my mom made for her, the sweater I knit for her and my own First Communion viel re-made to be a little more modern.

Olivia with my dad, because my dad made his First Communion this spring too!   After 40 some odd years, he finally relented and became a Catholic.  Olivia actually made her first communion at the Easter vigil with my dad.  This is technically her second communion.

Olivia with Grandma and Grandpa.

Olivia with Grammy and Papaw.

Olivia with Mama and Daddy.

It was a great mass,  Olivia got to read the second reading and enjoyed spending the morning in the limelight for her special event.   It's not very often in our house that you get a whole day just for you!  After mass, we went home and started getting ready for the party, of which I have no pictures beacause I have apparently taken leave of my senses.  I don't know what's wrong with me, people...

On Sunday, we got up and a bee-yutiful morning!  Oliver's parents stayed the night, so Oliver made french toast for everyone to selebrate Mother's Day.  It's super yummy french toast, and uf you ever spend the night at our house, chances are, you'll wake up in the morning to find Oliver in the kitchen, frying up a batch.  Yes, he deep fries his french toast.  Yum-o!

Then we spent the morning outside chatting with Oliver's parents and generally enjoying the first really fabulous day we've had this spring.

Good times :o)

The Breakfast Battle

A few months ago I decided that I'd had it up to here with the lousy breakfast habits of my children (nevermind mine, do what I say and all that...).  I really wanted to get them off cereal for many reasons; purchasing less milk, more nutrition, less processed food to name a few.  We only ever buy Cheerios, so it's not like they were eating sugar for breakfast, but still, there are better things they could be eating first thing in the day.  I tried nagging them, bribing them, beating them pleading with them, but none of those things work.  Habits are hard to break when we want to, let alone when we're perfectly happy. 

I finally decided that the only way to make this happen was to devise a menu and prepare breakfast for them each morning.  I am not a morning person, so this is a major sacrifice for me.  I finally settled on a weekly breakfast menu and put it into action.  It goes a little something like this:

• Monday - Breakfast cookies
• Tuesday - Smoothie
• Wednesday - scrambled egg
• Thursday - pancakes and sausage
• Friday - oatmeal
• Saturday and Sunday - leftovers

This has worked really well for us for several months now and it has successfully gotten the kids off cereal, for the most part.  I make a big batch of breakfast cookies on Monday because they can choose to eat them for breakfast any other morning until they are gone.  On Thursdays I make a triple batch of pancakes and then freeze the leftovers so that they can pop those in the toaster oven when they want to as well. 

I was very surprised when this method actually worked as well as it did.  We're enjoying eating breakfast together most mornings and the kids really like that I have taken the time to prepare something for them to start their day on.  If they really don't want to eat what I make (Olivia doesn't like smoothie and Benjamin hates oatmeal, for example) there will always be leftovers from another day that they can eat.

I love that I can control that much more of what goes into their bodies and that I don't have to fight them about it.  Now, that may be because they're too groggy, but hey, I'll take what I can get!  I know I could buy toaster waffles or or organic pop tarts, but by giving it that much more effort, I ensure that they get sinple, nutritious food with only ingredients that we can all pronounce.

So, the next big step for me is implementing a lunch menu.  I have been waiting until I really got the breakfast thing down before I attempted preparing an organized lunch.  When I get that going, I'll let ys know!

And just because I know you'll ask:

Breakfast Cookies

• 1 c. butter, melted (i often use 1/2 c. butter + 1/2 c. coconut oil)
• 3/4 c. honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. salt
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 c. plain yogurt (or milk or buttermilk or kefir)
• 2 c. whole wheat flour
• 2 c. rolled oats (NOT steel-cut oats)
• 1/2 c. coconut
• 1 c. raisins
• 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips(or whatever your preference is)

Mix the first 11 ingredients together and then add in the raisin and chocolate chips.  Scoop large (really big, I use one of those ice cream scoops with the scooping arm thing, very easy!)) spoonfuls of batter on to baking tray, bake at 350F for 18 minutes. yields 12-15 cookies per batch (I've have actually found that I get more like 20 some cookies per batch, but that probably is just the way I scoop or the added coconut or something).  Lately, I have been leaving out the raisins (Olivia's request) and adding in about 1/2 of peanut butter.  The kids really dig this.  Enjoy!

The Great American Girl Place Adventure

Olivia and Anna both celebrated a birthday this month and a while back my mom and I decided to celebrate with a trip to Chicago and American Girl Place.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Nearly 36 hours of fabulous girlie-girl adventure and excitement.  Wow.

Oh my were they excited about staying in a fancy hotel room.

We even had a lake view.  It's there. Waaaaaaay in the distance, right in the middle.  I swear.

All "dolled" up and on our way!

Right in front of the store and so excited!

Ah... The promised land.

Julie, the newsest member of our family.

Molly and Kit in their new summer dresses.

Grandma and the girls waiting to be seated for dinner.

Oh my goodness, a fancier dinner there never was.

All the pink lemonade a girl could want.

"The best day of my LIFE!!!!" Olivia exclaimed as we were leaving.  I am so happy that Grandma and I got to be a part of this fabulous memory with them. 

Changing Our Snacking Paradigm

For several years now (8 to be exact, almost to the day) I have been working toward bringing a whole and healthy diet to my family.  Before we moved to Michigan, got pregnant with Olivia and took our Bradley Childbirth class (our teacher was wonderful and introduced us to our first whole foods, we were hooked); we were a typical white-bread, boxed and canned food eating and Hi-C drinking family.  We both came from a town that had only one tiny natural food store and a culture that did not encourage healthy eating.  Yes, both of us had mothers who cooked regular family dinners, but as time went on and our families became busier, more of those dinners came from packaged food rather than from scratch.  Quite understandable. 

However, when we moved to the Ann Arbor area of Michigan, we began to encounter a more natural lifestyle and that appealed to us.  Whole, natural foods were readily available to us at places like Arbor Farms Market, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, and over the years, the mainstream grocery stores have also gotten in the natural foods market. 

So, as we found more places to obtain natural foods, our eating and shopping habits began to change.  I had to start making choices in order to stay within our grocery budget.  If you look in my pantry, you'll notice organic rice, quinoa and millet alongside Cheerios and Prego (which now comes in a much more natural state than it used to) because I can't afford to buy everything organically.  I try to make choices according to what we tend to eat more.  For example, I make rice almost everyday, but we only eat spaghetti once or twice a month.  So I choose to buy organic rice and settle on conventional spaghetti sauce. 

As the years have gone on, I've been able to incoporate more and more natural and organic foods into our diet.  But one thing that I am still actively working on is changing our snack foods.  Far too often we reach for pretzels or tortilla chips and bypass the fruit and veggies or the nuts and cheese.  So lately I have been working to build up a healthier stock of snack food such as roasted pumpkin seeds, dried apple peels, raisins, banana chips, carrots, peas, cashews, walnuts and cheese slices.  The kids still want to reach for the chips or pretzels out of habit and availablity, and I am trying to head them off and suggest the healthier, more nutrient dense options.

See the thing is, my kids LOVE all of those healthier foods.  There is not one of those foods listed above that they don't like.  When I pull out a bag of frozen peas, they literally cheer.  They have deemed that the apples peels taste like candy and one of their favorite snacks is cashews and craisins.  But for whatever reason, ease of reach, readiness, habit, craving; they reach for the simple carbs first.  So my first goal is to get the pretzels, if not out of the house, at least hidden from view.  I like to have them around if I'm having a particular salty craving or if one of us has a little tummy ache they tend to help, so I don't want to 86 them altogether.

So we're going to keep working on changing our snacking paradigm and I will keep reminding the children that there are other choices that are just as easy and even yummier than our old standby's.  Has anyone else tried this?  What has helped you make those nutritious leaps?  How did you get your kids to change their snacking habits?

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

This is more of a "how-to" than a recipe.  Cut open and clean out however many pumpkins you have on hand or want to deal with at the moment.  The seeds in the picture above cam from pie pumpkins that I roasted and pureed for pies during the winter.  Using bows and a collander, thouroughly clean all the pulp from the seeds.  I do this twice just to be sure because I don't like any pulp on my seeds, but I'm a bit OCD like that.  Dissolve some good quality sea salt in warm water (I use 2 or 3 scoops of celtic sea salt from my little salt pig) and soak the seeds overnight or for about 8 hours.  Make sure the seeds are covered with water.  Drain the water after soaking and dry off the seeds a bit on a towel.  Put the seeds back in the bowl, dump on a little EVOO and 2 or 3 more scoops of sea salt (or to taste).  Spread them out on a cookie sheet and give them a good shake to make an even layer.  Pop them in the oven at about 150-170 degrees for about 8 hours or over night.  I usually soak the seeds during the day and then put them in the oven overnight.  When I wake up in the morning, I give them a good stirring right on the pan and put them back in the oven for another hour or so until they are a lovely golden color and quite crunchy.  Let them cool a bit and them store them in an airtight container.  Enjoy and remember to share!

 

Sunday Dinner

What could be better then homemade waffles, scrambled eggs and watermelon for Sunday dinner outside in the cool evening breeze?  Maybe the massive watermelon fight started by a certain Mama and ending with one boy up in a tree while his Dad waits on the ground, hose in hand.  Yup, that's how we roll here at the Eikenberry Nuthouse.

Blueberry picking and baseball games

We went blueberry picking yesterday and I must say, it was delicious fabulous picking!
 
We ended up with 20 pounds, which means that while we got a great start, we will have to go back a couple more times to even get close to our goal of 100 pounds.  I think I'm going to revise that down a bit, taking into consideration all the hullabaloo going on in the next few weeks (more on that later).

Braidon and his friend, Alex, relaxing after they did a stellar job picking!
 
Every year, Oliver's company treats the employees and their families to a Lansing Lugnuts game and a tailgate style dinner.  It's always a fun night.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner that included, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and very yummy potato salad.

The game was not one of the most exciting that I have attended, but it was still fun to see the action and in-between activities.

My dad went with us, which made the game much more informative than it has been before. My dad is something of a baseball trivia nut and he was kind enough to share his knowledge with us.

  Braidon and Olivia stood a little bit away from us to watch the game.  When I took this picture, it struck me that they are getting so big!

We had a great time at the game and I can't wait for next year's season.  Tickets are actually pretty reasonable and we're thinking of trying to get to several games next year.  If you're local or visiting the area and you want to make a date with us, let me know!

Enjoying the Holiday...

Surely there is no better way to celebrate the birth of a nation than by consuming a ginormous marshmallow.  

Boy Scout Camp

The boys went to Camp Frontier at the Pioneer Scout Reservation in Ohio last week.  Wednesday was Parent Night, so we went down with another scout parent to check things out.  This was the first experience either of them has had away at camp.  Although they were very excited to have this adventure and were having a tremendous amount of fun, they were both very glad to see us on Wednesday.  I'm very happy to say that Ben hugged me so hard, it hurt!

Ben was dubbed "The Kid With the Hair" by his fellow scouts.  You can see why they'd think that.

We got to eat dinner with the boys and after they consumed enormous amounts of food we had a lovely conversation.  As I watched nearly every boy go back for seconds and thirds, I deduced that 90% of the cost of camp was for the food.

Braidon participated in the Root Beer Cantina which I gather involved drinking an unhealthy amount of root beer in a very short period of time.

This is where the boys learned all kinds of stuff like lashings, rope tying, survival skills, first aid, etc.  The fenced in area on the right side is a human foosball table.

This is the tent where Braidon did some of the work on his fishing merit badge.

I may be biased, but I think these were the two best looking boys at the whole camp.

On a serious note, the boys had great time all week long.  This is including, but not limited to: each of them earning 3 merit badges, passing the swim test on the first try, learning a bunch of new things, eating as much food as they wanted at meal time and  surviving a tornado by hiding out in an unfinished latrine.  All in all, a very good week.  They're already talking about next year's camp.