Cashing in the tzedekah boxes

$111.27 to Habitat for Humanity!

I. Made. Food.

And this IS truly blog-worthy, because as you may recall, the last time I spent any intense amount of the time in the kitchen was for that glorious stuffed chicken that took forever.  In Sacramento.  Like two years ago.

A cook I am not.

But I was inspired by the lasagna noodle box in the back of the pantry.

Al dente noodles nicely laid out flat on foil.

Ricotta, grated parmesan, eggs, salt, all that good stuff. 

Ground beef (no sausage, because hey, I'll have a meat lasagna, but no treif. My husband can't figure me out) - divided up into the three portions for layering.  This seemed like it should have been easy: I was to add in a whole bunch of basic spices like basil, oregano, etc.  Except. We're moving in three weeks, and I've already been sorting through the kitchen. And a whole bunch of our spices, the basic ones in the huge containers, were all wilted at the bottom... like the oregano, basil, etc.  So I had dumped them.  What was I thinking?!  (oh right, that we rarely cook)

I finally chopped up three cloves of garlic and some "Sicilian spice mix" I found next to the Creole spice in the back. It worked beautifully.

And in the vein of cheating... who needed the real tomatoes the recipe called for?  All hail Classico Tomato and Basil Sauce for the win.  

Layering.  

It was so GOOD.

Bedtime conversation

J: "In ten minutes, if you're still thirsty, you can get yourself some more water."

A: "How do I know how long ten minutes is?"

J: "Sing the ABC's to yourself five times, and if you're still thirsty, go get more water."

A begins to sing out loud: A, B, C.... 

J interrupts: "Please sing in your head."

A" "I can't sing in my head!"

X, from the top bunk: "No, Ari, you just think-sing."

A: "What?"

X: "Look, Ari, I'll do it."

(silence)

Afternoon at the park

My elder boys and A's friend E rode bikes to the park on Sunday. I pushed Connor in his fire truck, which also let me carry all the sand toys. 

Getting right down to the hard work of digging holes.  "All the way to the sewer, Mommy!"

Break for snacktime. 

He passed out in Jonathan's arms about two minutes after we got home.

Watching TV from their fort

Ari-ism

One that I had actually forgotten about, but was quoted on a friend's FB page.  She had written it after we had joined her family for erev Rosh Hashanah dinner:

Me: Where would be a bad place to hide for hide-n-seek? (Correct answer- outside)
5 year old: With a stranger! (Also a correct answer)

1978 to 2016

We showed the kids the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeves.  Back to the superhero basics, right?

X wanted to know why the bad guy went all over the city just to find out the news from a newspaper.  We had to explain that in a time before smartphones or cellphones, tablets or computers, you had to physically walk all over to pick up a newspaper. And it was only updated once or twice a day.

Then we got to the view of the Daily Planet newsroom.

They had never seen a typewriter before.  Connor didn't recognize a telephone.

And the joke where Clark Kent wanted to change into his costume, but it wasn't a full phone booth, only a half booth?  They didn't even recognize what that was.

They did think the outfits people wore were funny, though.

Culture shock on so many levels. :)

The joy of dirt

A bulldozer, dump truck, dirt, and siblings.  What more do children need?

A bike rider!

Xander on his own!  He did NOT want to learn how to ride a bike, after a plethora of falls in Sacramento.  But when a screw was loose on his scooter wheel, he told me, "I guess I'll just have to learn how to do this without the training wheels."  And he did. I'm a big believer in there being no such thing as a "late bloomer," or "early bloomer." It's just when people are ready, or not.  And yesterday he was ready.

New selling site

I'm starting to post some things to sell in preparation for our move back to California.  I usually use Craigslist, it was all the rage in Cincinnati, and FB was a hit in Sacramento.  Someone just told me of the new app OfferUp.  Anyone know of it?

Yogurtland

Balloon wars

A packet of 12 balloons.

A lot of air.

Entertainment for hours.

Bubby makes the best grilled cheese

And yes, everyone, he IS always naked.  We put the clothes on, he rips 'em off.  Gotta love our little nudist.

Making cookies for Yom Kippur break-fast (e.g. big meal in which we literally break our fast)

Stirring batter.

Deep discussions.

Smiling for Bubby's camera.

Shy little Ari.

Toppings! says Xander.

Connor loved the eating, not the baking.

Later that night...

We counted 36 cars in Connor's dump truck.

Fascinated by a MineCraft how-to video.

Xander's 8!

His birthday was mildly overshadowed by the hurricane, but 8 years old he is.

The birthday boy's request?  Did he want to go swimming, go out, have a playdate, a party?  No.  He wanted to stay in his pajamas, not leave the house all day, and play MineCraft for hours.

So he did.

We took a break in the afternoon for cake.

Then on Saturday, when things in the city were open again, we went to SubZero Ice Cream, which makes the ice cream through nitrogen flash-freeze.  You pick the type of liquid cream, the flavoring syrup, and the candy bits to mix in, and the bowl is full of liquid until... nitrogen steam!  and then ice cream happens.

Overheard from the older boys at bedtime

A: indeterminate whining

X: "Ari, I've even gotten compliments from Daddy saying that I was good at arguments, and I am.  You're not as good at arguments yet.  I don't think you can argue out of brushing your teeth!"

Safe and sound

All clear!  Now we're working on putting all the patio furniture back where it belongs.

First hurricane

So far, we've been overprepared and underwhelmed.

Praying for all those in the Caribbean who weren't so lucky.

All prepared

Hurricane Matthew arrives tomorrow.

All the hatches are battened down, so to speak.

We have plenty of food and water.

Our eldest is very nervous. Our middle child is excited that school is cancelled.  Our youngest doesn't understand why the patio furniture is in our bedroom.

We're expecting power outages, so might not be able to blog for a while.

Stay safe, everyone!

Rosh Hashanah weekend in pajamas

A true family photo, for they all worked on it.  Shot of the night light, courtesy of Connor.  Edited/writing feature at the top courtesy of Xander.  Names at the bottom courtesy of Ari.

My friend Aviva sent us an Edible Arrangements for Rosh Hashanah.  Here everyone is with their glorious fruit.  Judy and Darryl made amazing chocolate toffee too, that we got the next day.  There is no picture of the chocolate because I was too busy eating it. :)

Train tracks for the win.

And last but not least... Ari asked us to buy hair gel so he can make his hair spiky.  Here it is, albeit worn off a bit by the end of the day:

Shana tovah, Happy New Year!

Apples and honey. Dinner with friends last night.  Snuggles from kids.

May it be a sweet new year for all!