Dips and Dustings

For Dolly's birthday dinner, she asked for a Calamari appetizer. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, so before I lose the scraps of paper I made my notes on, I thought I'd write it all down here where I can find it a lot easier later.
And while I'm in a recording mode, let it be noted that Dolly made dinner by herself (mostly) Monday night. Tuna Casserole (she followed a recipe out of her new cookbook) and perfectly cooked green beans. She'll never understand what a treasure to me that milestone was, but it's one I'll savor for a long time.

Deep Fry Calamari Appetizer
Serves 8

• 680 g. calamari pieces
• 1 red pepper
• ½large onion
• 1&12;c. flour
• &34;tsp. ground black pepper
• &3tsp. salt
• 2tsp. paprika
• vegetable oil for frying

Thaw (if frozen) and drain calamari. Slice pepper into ¼" strips. Thinly slice onion across the grain to make ¼" or smaller half-ring strips. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, pepper and paprika. Heat oil to 375° in a large skillet. In turns, dust and fry calamari, peppers and onions for 2-5 min until golden. Drain and keep in a low temp oven until ready to serve. Layer peppers and onions throughout calamari on a platter and serve with a dip of your choice.

Chipotle Dip
Makes about 2 cups.

• 2 Tbs. pureed Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce
• ¾c. mayonnaise
• ½c. plain yogurt
• ½c. sour cream
• 1 tsp. Liquid Smoke

Mix all ingredients together and serve! Super easy, and delicious!

Sweetness...

Tonight after all the kids were in bed, I was tidying up. When I got to the play room, it looked like I had a week's worth of work to do, and started sorting and tossing, and collecting as I started with clearing a pathway through the main walking area. About 4 feet into the room, I ran across a piece of paper that was mostly crumpled. I unfolded it to see if it was somebody's treasure, or just another piece of trash. This is what I found and it made me melt inside.

I turned it over and at first I wasn't sure if it was missing parts or not, but even if it is, what was left was lovely.

Of course, now another hour has slipped past and I probably don't have time to finish cleaning the play room really. I should have gone to bed before I got started on that, but it's little things like these, that make the long days worth every minute of frustration and exhaustion. It's little things like these, which are the windows that peek in at my real treasures. It's little things like these, that make me feel very inadequate as a mother because little things like these shouldn't be such a surprise to discover. And it's little things like these, that inspire me to try harder to understand and appreciate these fast growing, ever changing, not so little any more, precious children that I have been honored with the job of raising!

She's almost NINE!

Tea for Two

Once Upon A Time...

On Wednesday, Dolly and I got a rare chance for a special Mommy/Daughter time at home. I've wanted to somehow arrange some one-on-one time with each of my kids for a while now. Ideally, I'd like to take one of them out for the day and do some window shopping or fun shopping or lunch alone or some adventure with just the two of us. But I haven't figured out a system that will work yet.

This week, it seemed like 3 hours just plopped out of the sky for Dolly and me to have a special afternoon. PC was at a friend's house and was still gone for the afternoon, Grandma C. stopped by and took Emma out for some special Grandma&Me time and Butler, Ricka and Hal were down and out for naps(you know you haven't blogged about your infant much when you have to go look up the blog name you picked out for him way back when! Because you couldn't remember it on your own after three days of pondering it!). Suddenly Dolly and I found ourselves with no distractions and a long, lazy afternoon stretched out in front of us.

So, we decided to have Tea for Two outside on the deck.


We even dressed up for the occasion. And posed for pictures.


Dolly took this one.


And I never realized how hard it was to take a picture of yourself! Centered? What's that? 3 Chins? I was pretty sure there's only supposed to be two of them. Look at the camera? We were - why does it look like we're looking over our shoulders again! Eventually we figured it out.


The challenges of Biscotti and Gloves!

It really was a lot of fun. I loved to see Dolly so excited and it was wonderful not having a million interruptions intruding on us. When I first realized that it would just be Dolly and me for the afternoon, I asked her if she wanted to have a cup of tea with me. Once I got her attention away from the book she had settled down with on the couch, she jumped at the idea. She had been asking me for a cup of tea on and off for a few days. It's just been so warm out that a hot cup of tea didn't exactly sound appealing to me.

I got to surprise her over and over again; first by having her choose some pretty tea cups out of the dish hutch (we usually just use plain old coffee mugs at the dining room table). I got to surprise her again by setting up the table outside. Once the table was set, I surprised her a third time by adding snacks to our tea menu. And finally, she was surprised that we were going to dress up all the way to necklaces and perfume just for tea by ourselves. She chattered the whole time, and we each had at least 3 cups of tea before the clock stuck twelve and we had to start putting everything back the way it usually is. But even the cleanup was a thrill for Dolly, because we didn't want to disappoint the other kids by having them see the evidence of our afternoon and the realization of what they missed out on. It was especially heart-racing since Butler woke up before the last of the table outside was cleared. He was still waking up though, so he didn't notice Dolly's suspicious behavior as she darted in the house with a wad of table cloths behind her back or sidled past him with the empty teapot disguised by a dishtowel draped over it.

And then the fairy tale ended and we had to return to Real Life where we all lived Normally-Ever-After.
The End.

8 Years Ago Right Now....

I had been a mother for 6 hours.

Dollly - just minutes old.

Little Miss Dolly had finally made her long-awaited arrival into our lives. She became one of my most influential teachers and has continued to change my life every single day ever since.

Not even 24 hours old here.

I remember being amazed at how heavy she felt on my chest after she was born. I think it was because I'd never worked so hard to do anything before. That and being more thankful than I'd ever been to have something to eat! Having a baby makes you very hungry.

Now over 70,000 hours later, I have 5 very influential teachers that change my life daily. But Dolly introduces me to the most uncharted territories.

Mid December 2012.

This was the most recent picture I have of her - on my computer at least. There might be something more recent on the camera, but this picture pretty much sums Dolly up right now. B-O-O-K-S. Or anything in print. She can get distracted going from one place to another that's less than 10 feet away if there's anything that can be read between the two spots. I'm not joking.

Dolly loves to read, and reads very well. She loves horses, but also admires many other animals too. She has a very tender heart and is easily upset by unkindness. She is more upset by thinking she has offended someone else. Her greatest flaw is probably her absent-mindedness. This is intensified exponentially if there is anything written within a 3 foot area surrounding her. And she is quickly growing up and becoming more and more independent. She helps me a lot, and I especially love it when she finds things that need to be done and does them on her own.

The rest of the pictures here, were taken at my littlest sister's wedding back in September last year. I was going to post just one of them, but then I couldn't choose between them so I included all three.

Happy Birthday, Dolly! I love you so much!

My Little Lady

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."
2 Peter 3:18

Dolly is growing up so fast. This was her birthday picture that we had taken almost two weeks after she turned 6 earlier this year. I brought the tulip and as the photographer and I reviewed a posed picture, we looked up to see her just daydreaming into her flower. Quick as a wink, the photographer snapped this picture and it turned out better than all the rest that we tried so hard to make 'look natural'.

She loves to write letters and notes, and every day I find a new one that she's carefully written. I think it's almost time to start introducing spelling rules though. So far everything is phonetic, but pretty soon some of those phonetic spellings might become a habit that will be hard to overcome later. She reads everything she sees now and is only a couple books away from being halfway to our goal of 100 read-aloud books. Since she started going away to school, I've had her read aloud to me so her reading skills stay challenged.

I think what comes most naturally for her do is to nurture. Sometimes it seems like she can't wait for someone else in the family to be sick so she can take care of them. But I can say from experience, that she does a wonderful job - it's such a luxury to have someone wait on you hand and foot. I'm not entirely surprised though, nursing runs in the family. She looks out for her siblings almost to a fault though. Some days all her intervening causes quite the uproar of chaos around here, but her intentions are good.

Dolly is very generous and selfless although she has lost a lot of patience for her siblings since she's been in school. At least some of her reactions to them are far less gracious than they used to be. This has been hard for me to watch, but hopefully it's just a phase she's passing through and everything will be normal again when she's home again in the summer.

She has a tender conscience and is always eager to please. These attributes make her a delight to have as part of the family and I'll always be thankful that I have been blessed to be her mother.

Long Nights

4:15 am on the first leg of our trip to California:

Sir had pulled over due to a nosebleed. While he was outside getting it under control and getting a bit of fresh air at the same time, Dolly stirred in the back seat.
"Is is morning time yet?" she asked.

"No, it's still the middle of the night. Go back to sleep." I hushed.

"But is it a little bit morning yet?" she pressed.

"No, Dolly. It's still very much the middle of the night. Go back to sleep and when you wake up we'll almost be at Grandpa and Grandma's house."

"I knowed nights were long, but I didn't know it was THIS long!" She said, and then settled down again to sleep.

"Dear Me" and a School Picture

Dolly in Kindergarten

I can't say that Dolly is learning very much at school and just because she goes away every day doesn't mean we've stopped learning here. Most days after school, she reads to me and it's obvious that the practice is making the task easier. So much so, that I've been finding little play notes about the house. This one is one of my favorites:

In case you missed anything, here's a typed version:

"Dear Hannah (A letter from Ellyette)
Would you want my tea set?
Please may you send the letter back and say 'yes' or 'no'.
Love,
Ellyette"

Ellyette is a girl in Dolly's class with a matching backpack. I think that has a lot to do with Dolly's admiration of her, but this note was entirely produced by Dolly.

Ellyette did NOT write this letter.

Today, I Didn't Cry.

Dear Dolly,

'They' say, when your firstborn goes away to school, that you cry. Today was your first day at school all by yourself. We met your teacher yesterday and everything changed in our lives.

To be honest, I've been dreading this day all year long. Every day that's gone by, I've thought about it. I've thought about the times we've done 'schoolwork' together, the times you've read to me, the letters you've spent hours on for writing practice. I've thought about this being the last summer before you'd have to go away to school. No more slow mornings and late breakfasts. No more spur of the moment, last minute plans for the day, no more late nights because we could recover the next day. And the days kept marching by.

This morning Emma got up early enough to eat breakfast with you. The boys barely made it out of bed and into the car by the time we had to go. She even chose to have the same kind of cereal that you had. It made me smile a little.

When we got to school, you didn't see the point in us waiting for you to go inside. You would have been the first in line if I hadn't made you hold still for a picture. I didn't want to take pictures, but I knew we'd want to see what your first day of school looked like someday. Emma wanted to stand in line with you, and she hardly left your elbow before your teacher came out and started giving directions.

That's when PC and Emma gave you a hug and you lined up with your classmates for the first time. Next week you'll meet the second half of your class, but out of the students we saw today, you were the only blond. My girl of gold. I must give your teacher credit, she did well organizing her students - even the ones who needed more organizing than the rest. It wasn't too long before you all made it up the stairs and the four of us were left standing outside. We'd be back soon, because this week, your school days are mere hours - just over an hour each day to be exact. Next week will see longer classroom time. Next week.

When we picked you up, you had your first paper to take home. You'd glued a cutout of your hand to it and there was a poem printed on the back side of paper. Poetry is bad for me. It has music - it has feeling. They're not just ordinary words because they've been carefully chosen so that they run smoothly together. That little poem with your hand print on the back almost had me today. My eyes welled up as I read it to you when you showed me your work, but I blinked them back to normal.

When I was a little girl my dream was to grow up, get married and be a mom. As I got older, that dream never changed, but I discovered I loved to teach and I dreamt of being a teacher too. Then I grew up, got married, and became a mom and I dreamt of being your teacher. So, today when I watched you climb up the steps I had to realize the fact that some dreams don't mix no matter how much you want them to.

I love you Dolly, and I'll be smiling for you as you go on to learn at school. I have the times we had before today to remember learning with you. They make me smile.

So today, I didn't cry.

Love Always,
~Mama

Dolly turned 5.

"One thing have I desired of the LORD, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple."
Psalm 27:4

Six months ago - and a day- my little girl turned 5. Now in just a few short weeks, she'll be going away to school every day. Some things are bitter sweet.

I was just unpacking a box the other day which turned out to be more of my desk stuff. And there, amidst all the rest of the paperwork, were a whole collection of pictures that I hadn't even scanned to post yet. So, since yesterday we saw the fireworks and tomorrow we're going to visit our Nomads and I won't be around to work on the camping posts, I thought I'd pick a picture to scan and post. Dolly's happens to be the earliest picture in my collection of dust acquiring photos.

You can see I needed to trim her bangs - I actually got around to that the very next week. Just not in time for her picture. It's hard to remember what stages she was at half a year ago, but I can summarize her a bit now. She can read if she makes the effort. She'll insist that she can't read if there's any chance you might read the said matter to her. Dolly loves to mother Butler, and she is a huge help to me around the house. The rule is she's not supposed to carry him around, so she spends hours entertaining him wherever he happens to be. And that can be a pretty tough job sometimes.

She loves any kind of water and will get wet no matter how cold it might be. Beach, lake, pool, puddle - it doesn't matter to her. I'll breathe easier when I know she can swim though. I'm sure there's more, but I need to get our stuff together for the drive tomorrow. Preferably with some time left to sleep tonight too! Below is the extra pose we got with her package photo above.

Our little lady.

My Budding Author/Illustrator

The other day I fell down the outside stairs. Dolly had been inside drawing away in a notepad that Aunt Knittery had given her and when she saw me gimping about after Sir had helped me back inside the house, she brought me her masterpiece. "Mommy," she said, "I decided to give this picture to you because you got hurt on the stairs. It's a princess, and I made her hair like yours so it might help you feel better."

A few hours later when I was feeling a bit better, I called Dolly and asked her to tell me the story about her picture. "I don't know." she said "I just made a princess." "You did," I told her, "but every princess has a story.... 'let's write this princess' story together. Go get your notepad and I'll help you." My intention was to help her get some printing practice in as well as encouraging her creativity. In the end, I did most of the printing except for a word or two on each page and I discovered quite a bit about my little girl.

(Dolly's part of the story is what's written in blue
and she did all the illustrations unassisted)

THE PRINCESS, THE FAIRY AND THE KING
by Dolly and Mommy

CHAPTER ONE

(the princess)

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in a castle. She never was allowed outside because the beast who lived in the swamp, wanted to eat her. But there was a kind and wise fairy who had a magic wand and she was going to rescue the princess by using her magic wand.

CHAPTER TWO

(the fairy)

But the wand was missing! Without her magic wand, the fairy could not help the beautiful princess. So, the fairy travelled for many days until she met a king. He was sitting on a rock under a big tree. "Hello," said the fairy. "Can you help me fix my magic wand?" "Yes, of course!" replied the king, "Where is it?" "I think it is on top of the mountain." said the fairy. "Last week a giant bird swooped down and took my wand and flew away. I need you to climb the mountain and get my magic wand. So the king did.

CHAPTER THREE

(the king)

After the king gave the fairy her wand, he decided to go with her and help her rescue the princess. Only when they got to the castle, the princess was gone! She had gone looking for the fairy in the woods. But she had left a note on the castle door when she left. "Dear Fairy," the note read "I am in the woods. Love, Beaute." So the fairy and the king dashed into the woods. When they got there, they heard a terrible roar! The beast was about to gobble up the princess!

CHAPTER FOUR

(the beast)

"Stop Beast!" shouted the king. The shout startled the ugly monster so that he dropped the princess and tried to grab the king instead. But he couldn't because the fairy used her magic wand and turned him into a duck. And with a quack, he waddled away. The king rushed to the princess and carried her to the castle where she got better and they fell in love. So they got married, and lived happily ever after.

(and the magic wand)
THE END.

Like Mother.... Like Daughter.

(1983/1984)


(2006)

It's hereditary.

4 Years Old...

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
John 10:27-28

Of course I'm late again when it comes to getting pictures up here, but I guess late is better than never. Time is ever marching on, and it seems so unreal that Dolly is already on her way to 4½. It wasn't that long ago that she was just a helpless little thing - so different from the very independent and capable little girl that she's become.

5 days old

3½weeks old

Now Dolly is learning to read and write. She reads by sight over 50 words now, and with a little effort she can sound out a lot more. When she fills a line with painfully printed letters, the pride she beams while I pick 'the best one' is just priceless. Her memory is incredible whether it's memorizing long passages or just remembering what I said at a certain time about nearly any topic.

She is such a help to me in so many ways and I'm so thankful for her willingness. That said we do have days where the willingness is not so prominent, but she does obey even when she would rather not. Naptime is almost a thing of the past - we skip it about half the time in favor of 'doing schoolwork' or 'quiet time'.

More and more I find her picking her way across the piano keys and its so much fun to watch her begin to understand the instrument. I wish I could teach her how to play it properly. I love to hear her sing 'Jesus Loves Me' to the melody of a scale - do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do-ti-la-so-fa-mi-re-do: Je-sus-loves-me-this-I-know-for-the-bi-ble-tells-me-so!

Dolly has always been the easiest kid to photograph - as in she's been the most cooperative, but much to my surprise this last session was the hardest picture we've done yet. I think that maybe she's finally becoming conscious of her smile and was just trying too hard. It was hard to get a smile that didn't look slightly forced. It's always hard when you're the mom and you know what a bubbly happy smile looks like on your kid and you have to choose one that may be 'nice' when you know she's capable of sparkling.

Anyway, below are the original professional pictures we had taken when Dolly turned 4. Sir edited the main package picture for me above - I could have paid an extra arm and leg to get the photo lab to do the same thing, but the package prices are getting bad enough as it is when it comes to the number of pictures and assortment of photo sizes available now.

The package shot.


The extra free pose our picture card wins us.