MommyCoddle

cutting room floor :: may 16

the final freezer bag of last year's tomatoes going into spaghetti sauce for supper

the lazy-man's way to net butterflies

taking a break from the overwhelming task of weeding at the new house

how each morning begins for elizabeth...a girl-party in her crib. usually there's one more little pair of feet in there, too.

mastering the climb into the rocking chair and feeling pretty proud of herself

mastering the reach (and dump) of the can of markers. they were on the floor about twelve seconds after this was taken.

and lastly...you don't have to watch these videos. Really, you don't. It's like sitting through someone's home movies or slideshow from their trip to the Grand Canyon. But they crack me up, because it's my children. And I get weak in the knees at every coo and squeal. And I melt at every chubby hand and wrinkled foot. And someday (like in six months), I'm going to look back at this and long for the days when she crawled across the floor and laid herself spread-eagle at the front door of the old apartment to tease the cats sitting on the porch hankering for a taste of our kitty food just inside....
**and for the record, I don't know what's more embarrassing: the scratched up, peeling paint dirty front door, the little green dresser missing its knobs, or the overflowing baskets of shirts and hats and riding boots...welcome to my world.**

Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

in search of a do-over

I barked at my children a few too many times this morning...
I woke up to Emma standing at my bedside in a teeshirt, shorts, half chaps and riding boots, asking if her outfit was okay for her riding lesson. (Her riding lesson that starts at 4:30 pm, that we've been counting down to since the drive home from lessons last Thursday.) Mary has plundered the hats and mittens basket looking for her helmet light, unearthing a crumbled up baggie of dry cereal in the meantime, tossing it and all its crumbs on to the floor.  And someone has accidentally let one of the barn cats into the house and it is whining for food somewhere in this apartment. Maybe it will find the cereal crumbs. And Elizabeth? She's cooing and laughing in her crib, waiting for me to come and swoop her up. My sanctuary in this little early morning storm of busy, messy, single-minded, creative, obsessive, curious, goofy children.
So I'm making my coffee and going to find them. Somewhere outside. No doubt checking on kittens or setting up bicycle obstacle courses in the driveway. I need a do-over. And joining them in their morning excursions is probably a good place to start. Even if it just means being an audience to the latest gymnastics show.

....Elizabeth just knocked over the cat food....at this point, though. It's all comical.....
Happy Thursday, everyone....

****On a completely different note--my sister is heading out on a long road trip with her three kids tomorrow. What's your favorite road trip activity, craft, etc.? What tricks do you have up your sleeve for the long boring ride? I'd love to pass some of your ideas on to her....

someone has to stay home and knit the dishcloths

That's what I told my husband last night, when he walked in the door at 11:00pm, after putting another two and a half hours of work in at the house after dinner. He found me kicked back on the sofa, putting the final stitches on another dishcloth, watching the finale of....ahem, this is hard to admit in public and might lose me some readers...The Bachelor. Shhhh...please don't tell anyone else.

The past few months of bachlorette-hood for me while Dan puts in evenings at the house, have meant that I've done some serious damage in the world of girlie movies, bad TV and my dishcloth stash. Knitting needles and the redbox have been my pseudo husband on nights I found myself alone in an empty house, but for sleeping babes in the back rooms. Dan asked me the other night, as I was finishing up Juno if there were any movies left in the RedBox that I haven't seen...It's not so much that, as it is that I'm running out of movies I want to see in the RedBox.

So armed with the only skein of cotton yarn I could find in my stash, a simple, knit-without-looking pattern, and some good (and bad) movies, I've got myself a nice collection of knitted dishcloths and an answer to the question I often hear from my sister and mother, "have you seen any good movies lately?"

I've never knitted dishcloths before and it really is quite addicting. And now that I've started using these beauties, I'm not sure I could go back to the stinky blue sponge that I'm currently using. I knit mine up on slightly smaller needles so they are more hand-sized and have a tighter stitch. And I love them.

They were inspired by THIS picture. And the pattern can be found HERE. It's called "Grandma's Favorite". Is there really any more that needs to be said?

the weekend report

Emma and I watched some college gymnastics on Saturday which inspired a whole weekend of  flips and routines. Emma doesn't miss a detail when she watches these things, hence the paper number on her back, the hair pulled back in a bun, the focused, dramatic pause before each routine, the arms-raised bow after each dismount. She even got out baby powder and chalked up her hands. Dan threw together a make-shift "bouncing beam" at the house to complete the shows I've been watching all weekend.

I finally remembered to take my camera over to the house to show some floor progress. It was pretty crappy weather all weekend, so they're not the best shots. But the fact that there is now a floor where there was only logs before? That's progress. We put a few pieces of furniture around in the living room for fun. And all of a sudden our things are looking very colonial. But I like it.

So my mother's day was another work day for us. (or for poor Dan. I was on kid-duty.) It was a bit of a disappointing day, but I think that maybe I was just having a pity-party for myself. As I was sitting in the chair putting Elizabeth down for a nap yesterday I was reminded what a gift it is to be a mother. To feel so full and satisfied. To love it so much. To wake up to something new every single day. It is really a privilege. And that is what is most important to me. My three girls are really the best gift, as cheesy as that might sound.

And before I forget...books! My good friend the random number generator picked out Sam and Ali for the two Shackleton books. Sam, I'm sending you Trapped by the Ice, and Ali, I'll send you Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. So send me an email with your address and I'll wrap them up and put them in the mail. 

I hope you all have a lovely Monday. It's rainy, cold and WINDY here! Yuck. But I think we might make the trek to the hardware store for a mailbox for the new house, despite the weather. My sunflower seeds are coming to the new house, and there's no mailbox to deliver them to. Yay for house progress!

good eatin'

Thank you for all the book suggestions, folks! I just sat down and created a huge checkout list from my library. My local library can be accessed online. I can reserve books and have them "sent" to a drive-thru window where I pick them up and checkout. It's pretty much what keeps my reading life alive b/c any time spent at the library is usually spent downstairs in the children's department. Now if I could just find a grocery store with a drive thru window....

Strawberries aren't quite in season here, but were are just on the cusp. So I'm getting ready because I'm pretty much a strawberry fanatic. My grandmother told me that you should only wash the serving of strawberries you are going to eat because they spoil more quickly after you've washed them. So armed with that wisdom, I now only wash a handful at a time. This ritual had me thinking how much I wish I had a tiny collander to wash my one serving of berries. So I emailed my genius potter friend, Melissa and described what I was looking for and offered a swap for her design and potting services.

She sent me this beauty in the mail last week and it is just perfect. Perfectly sized for a large handful of berries--enough this morning for my cereal, a few in my mouth right away and some extras for my berry-lovin' babe, Elizabeth who was tugging on my leg and grunting for more. Melissa, I love it. And if you want one of your own, she says she'll be making more later this month. So go favorite her etsy shop and keep watch. And Melissa, your swallow mobile is in the works.... :) **edited to add: she's making more next week!**

And on the topic of food, I made this snack for the girls today which is straight from the latest issue of EDF's after school snack section. Oh.My.Man. as my children would say. It is so good--cinnamon swirl bread, toasted. Plain cream cheese. Apple slices. Oh geez. Try it.

Yesterday, I called my mom on the phone. The woman makes the best salads in the world. So as I was making out my grocery list this week, I called to ask what key ingredients I needed to make a mom-esque salad...She really doesn't know exactly what makes them so good. They're these clean out the refrigerator, never the same twice kinds of salads. But her guesses were the cheese--feta. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper. Those were the base of almost every salad. So today, I made one for lunch--using the same base and adding some leftover grilled salmon, and some black beans. It was really, really good and filled me up for the rest of the day. (It's 4:30 right now.) Now if only I'd made some crackers to go with it.

I'm still doing my weekly meal planning and I'm not sure I'll be able to turn back. It is so helpful. (Although this week, I was a few days behind on my big shop and had to leave a "Dear John" letter on the fridge for Dan about his breakfast that wouldn't be there for him.) But unfortunately my grocery bill keeps creeping higher and higher. Gone are the days of the $79 shopping trip. These grocery prices are making me want to add an extra acre to my garden. I saw a gallon of organic milk for seven dollars!

a few good reads for you, for me

A good family friend, Sarah, has just started blogging in the last few months as she courageously (and with a lot of spunk and style) battles breast cancer. Yesterday, I was catching up on her blog and I read a post about how good it felt for her to do "normal" things. She was just starting to feel better after a recent treatment and was so excited to be able to vacuum and change sheets on the bed. Reading that post was the reminder I needed this week. Here I am dragging my feet and grumbling through my "normal" day's activities but reading Sarah's blog entry quickly brought everything into perspective for me. It was a much needed little kick in the pants, slap in the face. Thank you, Sarah.
************
When Dan and I moved from Wisconsin to the farm apartment, we only brought the necessities. We were putting our house on the market weeks before everything fell apart and we blindly thought we would be reunited with our stuff in just a matter of months after the house sold. Hahaha!!! So here we are, two years later and the reunion has just begun. (though not because we've sold the house!) But one of the things we didn't intend on leaving behind were several large boxes of children's books. It wasn't until we started unpacking and saying, "Where are all the girls' books???" that we realized we'd forgotten them. So this week, Dan has been bringing over a box or two in the evenings for the girls to dig through. Oh, it's so much fun!

Since my pre-mommy days were spent as an elementary school teacher, I have quite the collection of books and I'm finding many multiple copies as I dig through boxes. So, as I come across them, I figure I'll share some of those extra copies here with all of you. The two I found in the first box, ironically, are about the same topic--Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition whose goal was to cross the Antarctic continent on foot. If you don't know this story, you must read a book on it. It is an amazing story of willpower and strength and courage and leadership and adventure. Dan and I have this book which you should definitely check out, if only for the amazing photography.

But moving on, I have two children's books about this story to share today. The first is called, "Trapped in the Ice", which you can read about here. It is an easier read, soft cover picture book.

The second is called, "Shipwreck At The Bottom of The World". It is also a soft cover book, but definitely more in the young adult category or maybe a read aloud. Read about it here. It has some of the amazing photography that you'll find in the book Dan and I have.

So if  you're interested in one of these books let me know in the comments. If there are more than one or two of you, I'll just draw a name again.

Now do me a favor...I looking for a good book to read. What are you reading these days? Any suggestions?

truths I believe to be universal

Children become engrossed in their most creative, independent, cooperative play just as one wants to put them down for naps, or take them to bed.

At the moment, it is well past  their usual nap time but because they are dressed in fancy dresses (Emma in my circa 1991 glittery homecoming number) wearing white washcloths on their heads as caps, drinking tea, and talking about things that are "splendid", they're getting some extra time.

Children are their most irresistible in the middle of the night, when they come to your bedside all doe-eyed, drowsy and whispery-voiced asking to snuggle.

Mary has been showing up at my bedside quite regularly the past few nights asking to sleep in between me and Dan. She kicks like an angry cow, throws arms and elbows around and has a mean pair of what is known in our family as "thermal thighs", but darn, she's too cute to turn down. At least for now.

The best thrift stores are in sleepy little towns where the ladies sit behind the counter watching soaps, and bounce your baby on their knees and feed her bright orange peanut butter crackers while you shop.

It was fill your bag for five dollars. I didn't fill mine all the way so they only charged me four. But I brought home this tattered quilt top. Think there's some pillows in their somewhere? Or maybe a little kitchen window curtain? And the ladies held Elizabeth until her 26 pounds of chubs became too heavy for their frail laps and fragile arms and she slipped down their legs onto the floor to happily dig in the hanger box.

Kittens are cute.

kitten update 5. 6. 08 from molly balint on Vimeo.

Wrestling kittens are even cuter.

Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

video mode in the hands of an excited six year old

Well, hello there! The nice thing about a giveaway is that I get to meet so many of  my "quieter" readers. So many of you de-lurk to say hello. I love it. And for that, I'd say it IS better to give than receive. Thanks to the random number generator, the winner of Amanda's book is.....

MANDY of sewspun. Mandy, send me an email with your address and I'll get it in the mail to you, asap.

I have two more books to give away this week--children's books, so I'll try to get to those tomorrow.

This weekend was another week of work at the house. It was one of those, "the house is killing me" weekends. But the floors are getting close to being completed and we're at the point now where I think we'll just move in and work on everything else once we get in there. The house takes Dan away from us so much. It's really wearing on all of us. Saturday night, we gave up watching the Kentucky Derby to take a surprise picnic dinner over to Dan. I could tell he just needed to have his family running around the place while he worked. So we christened our back deck with its first meal and then walked around and explored more of the property after supper. 

Emma discovered the "movie" setting on my digital camera and I gave her full reign while we were hanging out after supper. I was casually observing the footage she was recording and I was really excited to download the things she had filmed. She was getting some great stuff on there of herself, her sisters. I couldn't wait to see. Looks like I'm going to have to give her a little more instruction about how it works. She must have gotten a little crazy with her trigger finger--there were only little ten second segments of video. I guess she was "taking pictures" instead of letting the thing just run and record. There's really nothing that earth-shattering about these videos, I just like to put them up on my blog every now and then. A little change-up...some live footage is always fun, right?

A little background for her clips: our friend showed up in the driveway in his tractor. A  boy that hangs around the farm a lot and plays with the kids. Emma got a tad bit excited but still managed to maintain her commentary to the camera. (hold on to your stomach while you watch...) **I think the videos are coming up as private. Let me work on that...**

Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.
Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo. Try to ignore the junky yard and big old wood pile dumped in the driveway...work in progress, remember? Happy Monday, everyone.

off the cutting room floor

The back of my National Geographic magazine has a page that shows one picture that didn't make the cut. One picture that was tossed aside and didn't make it into the preceding pages of stunning photography. Yet there was still something special about the photo. Special enough to rescue it from the cutting room floor and share it at the close of the magazine.
When I go through my week there are many posts that get written in my head that never make it to the blog. And there are many pictures that get taken but never shown. So today, I decided to rescue a few of those shots from my past week or so and share them here together--off my "cutting room" floor, if you will...

There is the picture that is one of my favorites I've taken in a really long time--shot holding my camera out the car window, feeling warm and blessed for the beautiful place where I live and wide open spaces.

The sunset shot, on the same evening that really captured the colors my eyes were seeing.

A day of lingering in the parking lot of the farm, watching the girls roller skate. The lingering that put me in the right place at the right time, to hear someone's cries for help, who was seriously hurt.

The post that made me notice and appreciate an early morning with all my girls in the kitchen with me.

The climax of the Star Magnolia tree outside my grandmother's porch.

The pillow--made for my dear college girlfriend--who sent me "the" envelope--and asked me to put together a package that would reveal the surprise to her and her husband. The pillow says, "oh boy!".....

The rainy day of math disguised as games...that started out so fun, but soon turned to attitude problems and then ended with me, sitting on the floor by myself wondering what happened.

Sometimes it makes me sad, when an idea or a moment, doesn't get shared. Because more often than not, I forget those moments. I've been keeping a five year journal now for the past six months. When I flip through old entries, I'm amazed while reading those four or five lines I jot down each night, how much I've forgotten. It's just the nature of life, I suppose. So maybe I'll start doing this a little more often--rescuing a few photos, a few stories off the cutting room floor at the end of the week. Then just maybe they won't be completely forgotten and that simple sentence or picture will remind me of a moment, a lesson learned, or a beautiful view that I don't want to lose.

to give :: to receive

So they say that it's better to give than receive, but after some of the things that have been coming to my mailbox lately, I'm not so sure. I'll have to get back to you. I'm going to "give" at the end of this post, so I'll let you know which feels better!

First of all my dear long-time blogging friend Kristen, sent me a nice little package a few weeks ago. In it were some of her fabulous fabrics, which are the nicest fabrics that have ever graced my fabric shelves, along with a MollyBirds print, in a new (my favorite so far) colorway.  Who knew a little woodworking project could inspire something so great? Kristen also sent along two pads of her new line of papers. I love them and I'm beating my children off with a stick to keep them away from them. They've got sticky fingers those girls so I've taken to hiding them in different places around my desk.

And Kristen, for the record, Happy Belated Birthday! I made you a video message to send as a little "gift", but I chickened out. I'm working on "take 2". Thank you, friend! You know what I love.

As if that wasn't enough, Molly,(whose new banner I love), my dear blogging friend and new penpal sent an extra large "letter" in the mail for our last exchange. In it she included this cute little puzzle wreath, these books that she scores at her "friends of the library" sales (I'm jealous), and some homemade marshmallows. Molly, the books were key--especially the horse-drawing one. I'm not turning it over to Emma quite yet because apparently my horses aren't "real-ish enough" these days. I need some lessons.

Now about the marshmallows...I'm not sure if I should admit this openly, but I've never had homemade marshmallows. Whoa. Is there any ounce of comparison between powdery puffy store-bought nothingness and fluffy, sweet, perfect homemade? The bag was gone the next day--probably another thing I shouldn't admit openly--but I did have lots of help with the finishing...

And last of all, one night when Dan was well into dreamland, I was up late on the computer and somehow stumbled upon the etsy shop DoggiePiggie. I'm not one for impulse buys, but as soon as I saw these animal tracks alphabet cards, I knew I needed a set for me, (I mean, the girls.) I love them. I'll probably somehow use them to decorate in their new room. And tonight I see that the shop owner at doggiepiggie was holding out on me!! She now has a Memory Card Game, Counting Flash Cards, and great sets of flat and folded cards. Her profile says she's combining her love of science and art. I think they've come together beautifully.

Now for the giving....I've somehow managed to have an extra copy of Amanda's Creative Family book. And I would love to give it away to someone who doesn't have a copy. If you are a mother, auntie (uncle? anyone?), grandmother....you should be reading this book. I can't tell you how many times Amanda's words come back to me throughout my day. Leave a comment indicating that you'd like your name in the hat. I'll pick a name later in the week. You can read my review of her book here.

I actually have two other books to give away, but I'll save them for another post soon. This turned into a longer post than I anticipated.

I gave the bloggity-blog a facelift today. I just needed something new. This was different. The seasons are changing and I get blog-design-ants-in-my-pants. I feel much better now.