Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was just perfect. I couldn't have asked for better company and better food for my very first Thanksgiving as an American.



We ended up with twenty one attendants. Not bad for a first try at hosting something like this. Not to mention that it's halfway there to forty two, which should count for something.



My friend made Dutch food, I made Korean food, the neighbours made turkey, everyone brought pies, and there was an abundance of love and laughter.



We had cranberries from our very own cranberry bushes, and maybe some day we will be able to make them into sauce that is NOT bitter. For now let's just say that most people preferred the canned cranberry sauce.



There was eggnog and punch.



I made sweet potatoes surprise from one of the Moosewood cookbooks and fell in love with that way of preparing sweet potatoes.



I was amazed how relatively smooth everything went, I thought it would be hard to pull this off. Of course, the smoothness had a lot to do with the way everyone pitched in and contributed to the fun.



We had EIGHT different desserts!



There was a fire going in the fire place, which made the house nice and toasty. Even more so once the thermostat broke and the furnace joined the heating efforts.



Kate shared with us what she is grateful for 'I am grateful for life, the universe, and everything!' I couldn't agree more.



Architectural design, quite tall and interesting buildings.



This was one wonderful Thanksgiving!

Little Things

Last night, our thermostat broke and I couldn't get the furnace to shut off unless I used the emergency switch. It got quite hot in the house before I noticed it.

Today, I called the oil company and tried to get someone to come over and fix it. She happily told me 'No problem, madam, we can get you in at December 10th!'. Um... let's talk about that a bit more, shall we?

I managed them to squeeze me in today instead, and it was only a few hours later when the repair man appeared at my front door. He took a quick look and agreed that replacing the thermostat was the best way to go.

Now I am the proud owner of a shiny new thermostat which actually can be programmed! Yay for entering the 21st century!



I ordered new tubes for some light fixtures which have been annoying me for ages. OK, maybe it wasn't the light fixtures annoying me, but the tubes were, by turning themselves on after about three minutes. I would turn them on again, mumbling encouraging words, and poof! there they went again. On, off, on, off... Until I got tired of turning on the darned lights.

One of those small annoyances in life. One which doesn't take much to fix. Apart from actually DOING it. Today, it happened!

Ironic detail of the day: after I took out one fluorescent tube to order new ones, I put it back in, and it has been working EVER SINCE! Still not canceling my order though.

It's Turtles All the Way Down

It is almost 3am. Many vegetables have been cut. Sweet potato surprise is all assembled and ready to be baked. The guest list has been increased to 18 to 20 attendants. Cranberries have been picked, cleaned (Thanks you, Dawn!), and made into a cranberry sauce. Rooms have been cleaned. (Thank you, B!). Plain bread has been baked. Cucumbers have been squeezed. Tempeh is marinating.

And I baked a cinnamon raisin bread shaped like a tur.... tle.



Oh shush! Any idea how hard it is to make a turkey shaped bread? I wasn't even going to try, a turtle is almost the same anyway.

You never guess what happened earlier this evening. The door bell rang. I went to open it, and two neighbours were there with a FULLY COOKED turkey and homebaked apple bread. Wow! I was blown away and totally amazed and boggled and grateful and life is so perfect!

I guess I actually should include some sleep in that perfect life though, so I am off to bed. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Ack! I am Hosting Thanksgiving Tomorrow!

What was I thinking????

This might sound unlikely, but I have never ever hosted Thanksgiving before. This year, things are different! Not only am I going to host Thanksgiving for the first time, but in addition, it will be my Very First Thanksgiving as an American.



To celebrate, I invited a bunch of friends and will make bibimbap in addition to many other dishes. Everyone makes korean dishes for American Thanksgiving, right? My friend will make the turkey. Nothing says 'I love you!' like inviting someone and tell them 'If you want dead animals you'd better cook them yourself, because I'm not gonna to!' I think I managed to be a tiny bit politer in my choice of words, really I tried. She will bring Dutch hutspot too, this will be an interesting Thanksgiving!

Since this is my very first time, decided to keep it small, only sixteen people. Will start out simple before doing bigger things.

I am supposed to be making list of all the things I want to do to get ready, so I'd better get started on that. Making lists for the win!

Six Years Ago...

Same question: who is who?



And yes, I should be preparing for Thanksgiving, but one of the things I 'HAVE' to do in preparation is find a picture of a Thanksgiving past, so I am checking all my november files on computer. Very important, no?

And no, I still didn't find Thanksgiving picture, but stay tuned!

Eight Years Ago... .

Can you figure out who is who?

Make Your Own Story

Sourdough Fun

A few weeks ago, I woke up Robert, to help out a friend.



Life was good, until The Friend complained about 'Robert II' not performing satifactory. Um... I don't think so. You must have done something wrong , buddy!



I looked at The Brave Sir Robert on my counter, and decided to prove to The Friend that Brave Sir Robert was potent just fine, thank you very much.



I baked the simple sourdough bread from King Arthur, which has baking soda in it. Leading to The Friend accusing me 'That is not sourdough bread, that is a SODA bread!' Geez, he clearly didn't taste it, it was like The Best Sourdough Bread Ever.



So I dug up one of my other bread baking books and looked up my polaine recipe. A whole wheat sourdough, only ingredients are flour, sourdough starter, salt, and water. No baking soda, sir.



Took me a few days from start to finish, but naturally, it came out quite nicely. It has a beautiful sourdoughy tang to it, and proves to my friend that Robert is just fine, so there!



Robert Rules!

CAOS!

Total bliss! This morning, for the first time in like at least six months, I got to sleep in! Till 10am! Such total bliss. Usually I get up around 6:30am. Cees didn't have to work till 11am.



Later, I took four of my kids, and one extra to our local Community Open Art Studio.



They had quite a wonderful time, and worked with clay, which I would show pictures of if I actually had brought my camera. Instead I sat and studied Korean while they did their art thing. Sylvia wanted me close by, so it was perfect.



CAOS person, to me: 'Are you going to make any art today?'
Me: 'No, I'll just sit and study my Korean.'
CAOS person: 'What???'
Me: 'Korean, the language.'
CAOS person: 'Yes, that's what I thought you said.'
I smiled.



The tween girls went to see the Twilight movie and had a great time. I was home, looking around me at all the colourful balls I have dropped over the last few months, shrugging, and deciding to make myself hot cocoa. Sometimes that is the best way to go. I'll pick them up soon, I swear.

Love Is Donut Shaped

Last week, I realized it had been ages since I made donuts.



Time to fix that!



On Sunday morning, Dawn and I made raised donuts while the little ones slept in.



The results were enjoyed by all.



Happy Love Thursday!

A Greater Gaggle of Girls and One Gander

Another visit to Rachel and her gaggle. We ended up with nine girls and one Erik. He was truly blessed ^^



Ra and Giant met for the very first time. They did really well together.



Their parks are way cooler than ours are. Come on, a real tank to climb on!



There was lots of running around, tiring out pups and kids alike.



'Trust me, Sylvia, I know what I am doing.'



It was COLD and very windy.



Jane contemplating the meaning of life, the universe, and everything!



Action packed adventures.



"I'll lean on you and you lean on me and we'll be okay."



"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. ~Charlotte Whitton"



Jane's intricately patterned creation.

And then we went geocaching and got kicked out of the estate grounds and might or might not have been almost apprehended by the police.

Go in peace, my friends.

Life!

Life: enjoying every moment of it.



Friends.



Family.



Marshmallows.



Fire.



Life is good!

Yuck!

I refuse to admit that this could possibly be s***.

Erik

Sharing some pictures.



Very focused on building with blocks.



Faces.



He loves to draw and has a great sense of humour.



He loves disgustingly sweet drinks.



And is a huge fan of ice cream, but here had had a bit too much of it ^^

So Much To Post...

so little time.

My life is amazingly good, and crazily full. Every day I juggle at least twenty seven balls, and do a reasonable job at it. Not perfect, not even close to perfect, but reasonable. Mostly good enough even.

My blogs seem to be one of the balls which often gets dropped for a few days while I am working the other balls into intricate patterns.



Today I am picking up my blog ball, and finally posting another picture of Giant where his cute puppy face is more visible. More posts later today or tomorrow! Or next week ^^

Life is good!

Wordless Wednesday

Question

I am getting more organized (stop laughing already!) and making a to-do list for the day. The big question: should I add all the things I already did this morning to make me feel more productive, of should I just write down the 42 things which still need to happen?



Yes, I know, Very Important Monday morning question.

Fifteen!

How can it be fifteen years ago that this baby was born?



I would almost starting singing 'Sunrise, sunset', if I could remember all the words. Maybe I'll just go for 'Time flies like bananas'.



He is growing up into a wonderful young man, it is fun to look back on when he was only a little boy.



He has gorgeous hair, which he doesn't really appreciate now that he is a teenager ^^



He sure has grown tons over the years, which can be proven by the way he inhales food at the moment. Feeding teenagers is not an easy task.



He had a great birthday with his siblings, and later a celebration in the Netherlands too.



And yes, I am a bit late posting this, but hey, I did it!



Happy belated birthday Tim! You rock!

First Vet Visit

Giant 'enjoyed' his first visit to our local vet to get shots.



She listened to his heart and lungs.



She took his temperature. Giant, in a shocked voice 'WHERE u put that???'



He checked out nice and healthy. He came to us at 10 pounds on Monday, and was 14 pounds at Friday's visit at the vet. Quite some growth!



He was happy to go home after all that!

Love is Blueberries and Friends

Love is when good friends take my kids blueberry picking so that I can deal with some legal stuff.



Love is when they sent me this beautiful picture of Sylvia afterwards, which made me smile.

Love is being supported by friends all through my life's happenings, and supporting friends through their lives happenings. Love is being there when a friend needs me, and not feeling guilty when friends are there for me.

I am grateful for many, many good friends, both in 'real life' and on line. Happy Love Thursday!

My Vote Has Been Cast!

This morning, I dropped off Kate, Erik, and Sylvia at homeschool art class and made my way to the polls with Dawn and Giant. I pondered for a moment whether I should take Giant inside and vote, but decided not to do that, since he is not fully house broken yet.



We figured there would be many opportunities for socializing for Giant.



Giant enjoyed the socializing, but got quite tired and had a nice, long nap afterwards.



I picked up the three youngest from art class and listened to Erik's 'I don't waaaaaaaaaaaaaaant to vote' for a while, and I told him it was not optional. I dragged them to the polls, where they actually had a good time and went with me into the voting booth. It was fun for them to see the process, AND all four of us got a sticker!



No lines at all around here. No id needed, I just stated my name and got a paper ballot. Stated my name again at the exit, before dropping my ballot in some kind of machine.



My very first ever presidential election! How exciting. And how fortunate I actually got off my butt and got my naturalization done!

Impeccable Timing

Today, I will vote for the new president of the United States! What impeccable timing my naturalization was!

Go in peace, my friends.

Morning Walk

Early morning, the sky is clear, and the air has that crispy feeling to it, signifying that winter is not far off. I stumble out of bed to wake up kids and pup, and take out pup for a walk. I love early morning walks.



Every morning, at least one of the kittens joins us. They sit in front of Giant, doing the feline equivalent of 'Nah nah nah nah, nah nah!' right in his face.



They taunt, they stride, they follow, they lead. They look disdainfully at anything Giant does.



They never are far away, flitting in and out of his reach like a bee trying to find the best pollen.



If Giant dares to get too close, a warning gets issued. 'Don't invade my space!'



I guess all this can be counted as socialization, right?

Midnight Madness

Stealing some rare time all by myself (yes, in lieu of sleeping, thank you very much), and getting ready for trip to visit friends tomorrow. My friend has been killing his sourdough starters, so about a month ago (or was it three months? or seven?) I promised him some of my Robert.

Of course, thanks to life, Robert had been a teensy bit neglected once again. Seemed easier to just push him to the back of the fridge instead of actually paying attention to him.



Today I did have no choice than to wake him up. Tell him how sorry I was for not calling him sooner. Making up excuses for my inexcusable behaviour towards him. I went out and bought him a bouquet of flowers and some chocolate and set out on my quest.

He was covered in that black yucky liquid starters use to show their displeasure. I stirred it back in and found out that he seemed ok still. Phew. I took out a cup of him to make the crumpets, added salt, baking soda, and sugar. He nicely grew from one cup to three cups in the container in almost no time at all. Good!

Got frying pan ready, found crumpet rings, but got impatient and poured the batter before the pan was heated enough. Or something else. Whatever I did, the batter was not only in the rings, but everywhere where it shouldn't be. And I made A Big Crumpet Mess.

The good news was that Robert performed well, and that the creation tasted good anyway, even if it looked horrible. They were a bit too brown at one side too. As in almost black. I am sure there are health benefits to that, right?

I dug into my fridge and found hot jalapeno jelly! Oh! Perfect for midnight madness crumpets. I pretended my crumpets looked perfect, added jalapeno jelly, and had the best midnight snack ever. My friend 'd better appreciate what I did for him.

Halloween!

Our Halloween was filled with all the things Halloween should be filled with. Good friends, an abundance of candy, fun costumes, and lots of trick or treating.



People were in and out all night, and we ended up with an eleven kids sleepover. Only six of those kids were mine! Do you know how much pounds of candy eleven kids can eat? Do you have any idea how many wrappers they do NOT throw away?



The girls arranged a scary movie night in our basement, and had a great time, even if not enough sleep ^^



I smashed one of my kids pumpkins, earning The Mother of The Year Award, but that will be blog fodder for other time.



Cees and his friend spent their night working at McDonalds, so had to do with leftover candy from our own stash when they came home. The poor dears. Not getting out into the cold, but getting candy right at home!



When everyone finally was in bed, and I had dozed off, I got woken up by the kind of sound you do not want to hear next to you. The sound a kid makes just before she starts throwing up. I fought myself from the depths of my warm and cozy dream, to awaken into a puke-filled universe of Sylvia throwing up on the pillows, on the sheets, on the blanket, on ME, on the ceiling, and on herself. Nothing I love more than cleaning off and making the bed, and doing laundry at 2am at night!