so busy, but so close to being done...

I feel like I have been scanning in pictures forever! But I am almost done, soon (about 50 pictures from now), I am scanning as I type... -change picture- I will have every picture scanned in that we have of Aba's childhood... -change picture- and our lives together since we met, well at least our photographed lives... -change picture- into the computer and ready to make "modern photo albums" well that is except... - change picture- for the pictures we lost in the computer crash of 2006. Luckily it was only half of 2006 that is still unrecovered... -change picture- even though the "computer God" tried his hardest. Ce La Vie! But since my wonderful sister-in-law... -change picture- happens to be in town, in fact happens to be in the very next room, with her own laptop with pictures of... - change picture- my little ones on it, as soon as I am done with all of the scanning I am going to raid her computer with a blank DVD and... - change picture- hopefully restore some of what was lost (I am hoping to at least get the Del Mar Fair... - change picture- out of her!)

Passover. is fast approaching and I have been busy kashering. the house, collecting chametz. from the nooks and crannies that little hands... -change picture- seem to hide things, no matter how many times I remind them we only eat at the table. So all of the rooms have been gone over with a fine tooth comb, carpets shampooed and chametz closely guarded against little hands straying away with crumbs in there pockets.

Not to mention the fact that last year I promised to make a new updated version of the family hagaddah. for next years- now this years Seder, and when did I choose to wait to start this? Till yesterday!! I know, I know I procrastinated a whole year away. But it is done now, and read to be taken to Kinko's tomorrow for copies. -only 16 left to scan-

So as I am finally wrapping up the photos I needed to scan, I can't help but look forward to using my new Roxio. program, to make my new "modern albums" where I can combine photos, home movies, and music onto DVD for the children and future generations to watch: I can't imagine our children sitting around flipping through albums, having pastel books of sticky paper sitting on shelves gathering dust. I see them having cases of DVD's - or maybe some new modern thing we haven't even dream up yet and just popping them in their laptops or on the living room TV to reminisce. Ahh, what fun, I can't wait to see them but first I need to crop, edit and clean up them up before I can even begin to make my DVD movies, oh well just another thing to occupy my time. - All done scanning-

Sunday at the park.

mushroom tips

to clean mushrooms dip in a bowl of water and rub with your hands. You will not saturate the mushrooms as many believe, and it cleans them well as an alternate you can use a damp paper towel and lightly rub the mushrooms.

Mushrooms are easily sliced for pizzas and stir-fries by using an egg slicer.

To keep mushrooms fresh when you bring them home, immediately place in a brown paper bag and fold the bag shut.

Shakespeare is hard to do!

So in the amount of time I have tried to watch The Merchant of Venice Aba and the kids have each received 2 movies. The x-man 3: The last standard the da vinci code and the kids came out with the secret of n-i-m-h, which oddly enough never arrived at our house but was sent out by netflix and then returned to netflix (very odd) and Melody time.

Melody time is great! A collection of classic old mini movies set to old time movies. A walk down memory lane for adults and new classics for the kids, although Nathan did question talk of death during the little toot mini movie.

Da Vince code was great (as most of the known world already knew), although not acceptable for the kids. and X-men was loved by all! Some scenes were borderline acceptable, but were okay in the long run (especially since the kids know it is pretend).

Okay since this email has set in my drafts box for a week, I give up and will post about merchant of venice next week ( I hope!)

The sucking stops here!

So it is in. Today B got her Bluegrass appliance installed. And I hate to say it, but I couldn't help but laugh for so many reasons, even though I was a good mommy and hid it.

This morning when I told her we were going to the dentist, she asked if they were going to put playdough in her mouth again (the impression dough) and once we assured her there would be no playdough involved she was good to go. And did fabulous until after the appliance was installed and she was walking back out to the lobby where I was waiting (she doesn't do as well when I am with her at the dentist for some reason) and that is when the screaming cries started.

She had tried to suck her fingers and found out she no longer could. The screaming cries continued with enthusiasm, "Moooooommmmyyyyy, mooooommmmmmyyyyy, take it ooouuuutttt!!!" over and over again going on ten minutes when she heard me tell Aba on the phone that if she stopped crying I might get her a treat. Immediatly she began perking up "Treat?" I heard from the back of the van, , "what kind of treat?" and that was that. The traumatic crying was over, the crocodile tears had gone.

The rest of the afternoon she played happily stopping every hour or so to request I take it out, and when I said no, she went back to playing. Once thought she did say she couldn't talk once N got home, and when I asked why, her response was that he would make fun of her (due to her new, but temporary lisp - it is actually kinda cute!) well, we quickly assured her that That would not happen (and it did not).

In time she will learn to talk normally, will forget about sucking her fingers, be able to eat properly again (it took her over 30 minutes to eat a cookie!), and her palette will return to normal. Thank god for modern dentistry and the big smile on my face.

So busy!

well, with passover fast approaching and my annual pre-passover spring cleaning behind schedule and guests arriving next week( 8 more days!) it is no wonder I haven't had time to blog. I still have my netflix sitting on the mantel waiting patiently for me to watch it from last week; cookbook recipe notes stirring in my head that need to be typed up, and TONS of homework to do ( piles and piles), and I almost forgot we have spring open house at N's school tomorrow! I am so busy yet feel so behind. There are tons of things I need and want to do, yet not enough hours in the day. I need to find a way to step back and regroup. I feel the best way to do this is to get the house sparkling and out back in order, and the first step of this is to get my car back in the garage (somehow we took it out for a day to do a project in the garage and now there is stuff scattered everywhere so that I can't possibly fit it back, amazing how that happens). Okay back to playing catch up. Catch up with the laundry; catchup with the dishes; catchup with my Tivo :)

Is it summer??

It sure feels like summer has come early this year, we went from a
winter wonderland filled with blizzards to a toasty 74 degrees this week!

The kids have gone from sledding and bundling up, to riding their bikes and wearing shorts. And the early time change is killing me! I don't want to get out of bed, but I do, when the sun is golden in the sky, Colorado has the Best sunrises! Soon we will be serenaded by the song birds, that is if we can ever get rid of the stupid pigeons.

I am sure we are in for a few more storms this year, and I can already feel we will be in for a lot of exciting weather this summer, with plenty of lightning, hail, and a few tornado's.

Soon there will be games of flashlight tag, fishing at the pond, and swimming lessons to keep everyone busy, that is as soon as schools out for summer (only 90 more days to go)!

The adult movies sucked this week!

So we will start with the kids, The Black Cauldron a Disney movie that seems to have slipped through the cracks. This is a must see for any kid enchanted with wizardry - which is most kids these days. While N loved it, B was scared at parts, so I would leave it for the kids 5 and older.

Shopgirl my movie of the week was awful! Slow to start, an uninteresting story line, and a cast that didn't seem to mesh well all helped add to this disaster. While Steve Martin and Claire Danes are two of my favorite actors, they were not meant to play romantic opposites. I almost turned this one off after 10 minutes, but decided to give it another 15, at which time my curiosity had finally peaked enough not to chuck it out the window, but it was close. While watching this I felt as if I was watching a foreign film and the subtitles were missing, like I was truly missing the plot - exactly how I felt when we tried to watch the Davinci Code and there was a glitch on the movie so we couldn't read them fast enough (it has been put back on he list to try and watch again) like a big part of the story was missing.

And that brings us to our final movie, Monster House a computer animated film, which is very obvious on the computer aspect, not my favorite style of movie. Initially I did not want the children to watch this one, but overall it wasn't too bad, although they only saw it once, and I still would not recommend it for young viewers. I did not really like this film, although the plot wasn't bad, I just couldn't get past the style of animation used.

To sift or not to sift...

That is the question. Well, actually it is not really a question, but rather a direction often given to one when trying to bake almost anything that requires flour or powdered sugar.

How often have you really contemplated sifting and the various ways to do it?

Well, the traditional way is of course to use a sifter, measure out your flour, pour into the sifter and either crank or squeeze away! Givig your hand and or arm a real work out, and then trying to clean it with out letting it rust ( these things always rust!) and having room to store it.

The high tech way, use the blade attachment of your food processor and pulse a few times, but who really wants to do that? then you have to wash all those parts! The bowl, the blade, the lid.

Nope, neither of those are for me. My favorite way depends on what I am doing. If I am sifting flour or other dry ingredients that are going to be part of a batter, dough, or breading, I just get out my trusty wire balloon whisk and stir a few times, and if I am making something that needs a really fine consistency then I turn to my mesh colander, and just tap on the side of my hand, much easier than cranking the sifter, and less mess of sugar jumping up everywhere.

So next time you sift, use your whisk, you will thank me.

some new favorites

"the Fishing pole" named by B look who is getting bigger!
A new hat, just like Aba's.
bagels all around!