Words of Advice

At the dinner table last night, we were talking to Ege about parties, etc. He exclaimed, "I won't go to any place where there is alcohol."
Makili was listening, and added with importance, "You also shouldn't go to any place with guns!"

??? It is good advice, I suppose.

To the top

Earlier this month, we did our annual exchange student hike to the top of Mount Major, a beautiful and challenging hike. This year we had 15 or so exchange students, some host families, half a dozen of Raph's students, and my two adorable cousins, Emily and Caroline, who really came up to go to a concert with me (Slaid Cleaves) but were good enough sports to come along for the hike. Raph and I have declared them full on the most helpful cousins that ever existed. LOVE!

First Snow

The first fat snowflakes are falling outside in the dark, collecting on the roof of the cars, and on the tips of blades of grass.

Thanks to Emma

At the suggestion of a dear friend, I bought this book of poems recently called Hurry, Hurry Mary Dear by N. M. Bodecker, and boy oh boy is it full of silliness. She suggested the book to us because of the first poem: Hurry Hurry Mary Dear. I'm sure you'll see why.

Hurry Hurry Mary Dear

Hurry, hurry, Mary dear,
fall is over, winter's here.

Not a moment to be lost,
in a minute, we get frost.

In an hour we get snow!
Drifts like houses! Ten Below!

Pick the apples, dill the pickles,
chop down trees for wooden nickles.

Dig the turnips, split the peas,
cook molasses, curdle cheese.

Churn the butter, smoke the hams,
can tomatoes, put up jams.

Stack the stove wood, string the beans,
up the storms and down the screens.

Pull the curtains, close the shutters.
Dreadfully the wild wind mutters.

Oil the snowshoes, stoke the fires.
Soon the roads are hopeless mires.

Mend the mittens, knit the sweaters,
bring my glasses, mail my letters.

Toast the muffins, brew the tea,
hot and sweet and good for me.

Bake me doughnuts, plain and frosted...

What, my dear? You feel exhausted?

Yes, these winters are severe!
Hurry, hurry, Mary dear.

When you live with teenagers...

You get to take their pictures before they head off to the homecoming dance. You get to tell them that they can't leave the house until they clean their room. You get to hear about the teenage drama at school: which girl is "the one" this week, and who else likes her, and how she'd be perfect, etc. You get to remind them OFTEN to shut off the lights before they leave, to pick up their underwear from the bathroom floor, that six towels on their floor of their room is TOO many. You get to watch them play with your children, even if it adds lots of decibels to the room. In all, it's pretty entertaining.

Friends, pumpkins, fire

We've had a slew of bonfires lately, enjoying the fall as much as we can while continuing to scramble to complete house projects. Trim a door, eat a meal, add two courses of siding, take a hike, stack some wood, etc. Over Columbus day weekend (yeah I'm a bit behind on posting) we had some friends over to carve pumpkins and have a fire, and it was really fun. I'm so appreciative of nights like these.

My culinary adventures this season

I made two things recently that were new experiments. I was proud of both. first I made homemade ketchup, which is very time consuming, but totally worth it. To be honest, you have to strain it to get the "normal" ketchup, and I ended up eating the stuff I strained out too as "thick" ketchup. I made enough to freeze, and for us each to have our own little bowl with grilled cheese and sweet potato fries. Yum.


And then I cooked a bunch of lemon verbena in a simple syrup to use with seltzer water for some fancy drinks. I loved the smell, but I couldn't handle the sweetness of the drinks. Raph and other seemed to like it, but I felt like it was something new and interesting to try. And amazingly, we did drink almost a whole jar of the stuff.

Melts me.

My cutie.

Quick friend visit

I had a little Pampered Chef party for Ann, and got to hang with a few of my friends in the process. Alden and Daniel came to hang out with their moms, which was really fun. Alden is so big and cute. Delectable. We've seen these kids a lot and it will be fun to watch them all grow up together.

Basketball skies

Ege was on the soccer team, but basketball is his real sport he says. I'm excited to see! We recently went to play some bball and had some gorgeous skies as a backdrop. Even Altana, from Mongolia got in on the act, and she wasn't half-bad either!

Making Kraut

My friend Mary and I had an unusual afternoon together with no kids (well to be fair Peter was sleeping, which was pretty sporting of him I say) and we set to work making loads of saurkraut. Which if you didn't know involved crushing the cabbage, say with you feet! Much like grapes. So we had a day of standing on cabbage together with salt and jars and cuisinarts and screen-printed t-shirts as a back drop. And it was lovely.

My farmer

My Makili is definitely my little farmer. (Remick is the worm herder/caretaker/torturer, depending on the day.) But Makili has his own little garden out there where he actually grew this amazing brussel sprout stalk pictured below. (We had already plucked the sprouts off.) He was so proud to eat them! And if you know Makili you know that he is pretty much all the time obsessed with something. Starting from birth those things include balls, tractors, racecars, and currently soccer. He takes breaks from these obsessions for sideline passions - gardening, puzzles, drawing, etc.
Makili is learning so fast these days. Two recent incidents totally made me stop and take stock of that. First the other day he saw a guy with a mohawk in the parking lot. He stopped dead in his track, and said, "Mom what is that?" I think I laughed out loud and told him, but it made me realize how he just knows what he's seen. And then while we were drawing the other day, he was frustrated that the wheels he was drawing on Lightning McQueen (I hope we move on from this phase soon) weren't right. He was drawing with pencil, and so I suggested he erase it. He looked at me like I was crazy. When I showed him what an eraser did, he went straight to the task of erasing everything. It was really cute.

New Garden Favorite

Someone gave me some Sweet Annie seedlings at the beginning of the season. They are tall, plumy, weed-looking things, but they smell like absolute heaven and apparently have all sorts of medicinal value as well. What I love them for? Making crowns! Aren't they cute. My mom and the kids are pretty cute too.

Perfect Fall Days

We've had some of the. loveliest. fall days ever. One of which, we got to spend with Grammy on Plum Island. I love the beach off season when there are no people there and crisp air. It was lovely. We love having Grammy here is general.

I just love watching this pile of kids grow.

Brothers Rock!

I'll be honest. When I was pregnant with Remick, I was hoping for a girl. At each of my three ultrasounds, I made them check again, in case the previous person had got it wrong. But I didn't know then that brothers rock. For real. I feel so lucky to get to raise these two brothers together, who love each other so much. Remick wants to do EVERYTHING Makili (or "Kili" as he calls his brother) does. Makili gets mad at Remick a lot for wrecking his garages, or whatever, but he also LOVES to play with him. And there is nothing better than when they are making each other giggle and playing together. I really think brothers are cool.

So lucky

We got so lucky to have Grammy come visit us for 10 days, which as usual was not enough! More pictures to come.

Can you believe that THIS is my baby??

Loud, willful, funny. Remick completely idolizes his big brother and will do just about anything for his attention, which sometimes means he'll stand there watching his brother as he slowly and purposely knocks down his brother's garage or whatever. He says EVERYTHING anybody else says. He's gone from being the bird of prey to the parrot. Everything. He tries to ride a bike like his brother, and almost can (with steering wheels). We think he might be color-blind, but we'll see. He's a peanut, but full of energy. He and Makili like to race more than anything. Doesn't matter how many seconds or minutes Remick finishes after Makilis, every time he'll say "I won!" He's a cuddlebug, which is nice can I can actually sleep with this kid occasionally. But he likes me to hold him when he wakes up. Divine. He's a hoot. He makes jokes all the time. At the moment he really likes being a "monster" and he runs around the house with a paper mask he made yelling really loud "monster in the house!"