HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE LOVE OF MY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!
Today is our eleventh wedding anniversary, which is just mind-blowing to me. We are beginning our second decade of marriage. We have been married for over one-third of my entire life. This is major stuff, guys.
When Todd and I were first married, I remember meeting a couple who was celebrating their eleventh anniversary and thinking how long that seemed! Now it really feels like it can't have been that long - we're still learning about one another, and trying new things together. The time has really flown.
Look at the babieeeeees:
I would not trade any of it. He is my closest friend, my strongest supporter, my best pastor. He has shaped me in so many ways for the better, and I'm grateful to have gotten to learn and grow alongside him for these years.
I'm also grateful I've kind of knocked off the efforts at Microsoft Painting over all of our most prized photos, but not before defacing this one. This will always be a favorite of mine:
So, Happy Anniversary to Todd, Todder, Toddest. Looking forward to more and more decades stretched out in front of us in which to know you better!
*****
Now, to take an abrupt turn, I shall tell you what we did this week. Namely, we did nothing of significance, because everything pales in comparison to our anniversary. But whatever. We did the normal stuff: mainly school, which was much easier than last week. I ate tortilla chips against my better judgement (corn makes me feel SO grouchy and mean). I forgot to take any photos of anything we did. I watched too much 7th Heaven. You know. All that normal stuff that makes Todd glad every single day that he married me.
I will say that Callista has been noteworthy this week, both because she's started actually walking around from place to place like an adult (well, not exactly like an adult. A drunk adult, maybe), and she says "Dad-dy" on command, clear as day.
How I adore this little buddy. He is so sweet and affectionate. He'll often come over just to give me a kiss on the cheek, and his favorite thing to play is, "I Love You; I Love You, Too." (It's just me saying, "I love you," and him saying, "I love you, too," over and over.) He still has that toddler pudginess and softness that is just so fun to cuddle.
I know I say this about all my kids, but I'm pretty sure he's a genius. He keeps up with the big kids like it's no big deal, and he's so articulate.
He is also a bruiser. He is built like a bowling ball, and he lives his life accordingly. His favorite activity is jumping off the furniture, yelling, "PAYAKORN! JUMP!" (If you need a toddler translator, that means "Parkour! Jump!") His skull is apparently made of concrete mixed with diamond dust, and I'm hoping the rest of his bones are equally unyielding, or I anticipate regular trips to the E.R. I'm quite confident he will one day do a full-on Kool-Aid Man through one of my walls, "Oh YEAH" and all.
He loves playing with his siblings and holding our turtle, Stumpi. (Yes, Stumpi-With-an-I. Turns out she's a female, and it also turns out that my life has come to involve sex-typing turtles.) He loves dressing up as soldiers and superheroes, and loves getting included any time the boys play D-Day (which is always). He has a special relationship with Penelope, who is diligently teaching him everything he needs to know. She has made him an exercise booklet (with illustrations, since he's not reading yet), written a how-to-read textbook (the mastery of which will probably warrant a second, more verbal exercise booklet), and is currently teaching him all the animal sounds. She really adores him, and the feeling is mutual.
His eyes are so beautiful - they change color! They're most often a steely grey color, but lately there has been some gold around the pupil, and they will even turn green sometimes in the sun.
Oh, buddy. Your name means "rest." I prayed and prayed that you would be easier than you had to be, that you would be a source of healing after a really difficult season, and you have been. Other than being a massive giant newborn, you have brought the chill with you. You have brought joy and delight. Life would be so much worse without you, little friend.
My prayer for you is that you throw your whole self into pursuing God, and that you win others to run that race alongside you. I pray you would always be a source of comfort and rest for weary people, like you have been to me.
First, I am the last hold out when it comes to paying for an Amazon Prime subscription. I get that it's not outrageously expensive, but I still don't want to spend the money. Sure, it would be nice to get things shipped in only a couple of days, but I like the earthy sense of superiority I feel when I have to practice the patience and self-discipline it takes to wait 7-10 business days for anything I order. That's how our grandmothers used to wait for their mail orders, and daggummit, am I better than our grandmothers? Maybe at driving, but not much else.
Plus, old school shipping really makes me evaluate my choices as a consumer. "Do I really want this thing badly enough to wait a week and a half for it? And if I don't need it in the next week and a half, do I really need it at all?" Deep stuff.
However. Amazon was offering a free month of Prime, so I was all like, sure, why not. After all, our grandmothers were frugal and would never have turned down a free offer like this. Admittedly, though, my motivation was less integrous than wanting to preserve the pride and legacy of the Greatest Generation. It was basically to fuel my latest guilty pleasure (and my second confession):
I have been watching ungodly amounts of 7th Heaven.
Why? I don't really know. If you've ever seen it, I don't have to tell you how cheesy it is. But pizza is cheesy, and nachos are cheesy, so if liking cheesy stuff is wrong, I don't want to be right. I just want to hunker down in front of Prime Streaming with my giant plate of nachos, OKAY?!?!? Gosh. Get off my back.
I think it all started when I attempted watching Party of Five on Netflix. I was never allowed to watch it as a teen, and as a rebellious adult, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. But I'm still not sure why people liked it, since it seems like a big dull dud. I didn't have a nostalgic tie to it at all, so my interest waned by like the third episode. But what was kindled in me was a fire to watch dramas from my own teen experience - namely, 7th Heaven, the only WB show I was allowed to watch in middle school.
And you know what? I still like it, and I'm mostly not ashamed of that. Sure, it's a show about Christians that is written by people who aren't Christians, so it's a little wonky. And sure, sometimes I just want to throttle everyone on the show for being a huge dummy. ('Member when the dad found a joint in his house, and instead of just asking his kids whose it was, he started mentally tabulating all the 'clues' each kid was displaying? Mary has red eyes from allergies... Simon has had a lot of pressure at school... Lucy is dating a guy with a real bummer of a mustache and a real bummer of a moped... It could really be any of them. But then when he finally asks them like forty minutes into a forty-three minute show, the guilty party confesses pretty readily? It could have saved us all a lot of time if the dad had just asked everyone like eight minutes in. But then again, I would have just spent that extra saved time watching another episode of 7th Heaven, so I guess I'm not really out anything.)
Anyway, I tell you all of this because as of yesterday, my free trial month expired and I'm Prime-less once again. I feel pretty lost, to tell you the truth. HOW WILL I KNOW HOW TO MISHANDLE DRAMATIC FAMILY SITUATIONS IF I DON'T HAVE THE CAMDENS TO MODEL IT FOR ME, I ASK YOU?? HOW? Now that I've tasted Prime Streaming, is there really ever any going back to the old days?
I have decided to be more diligent about getting out for nature walks this year than I have been in past school years. I even committed a chunk of time on the schedule each week, hoping that will help me be more consistent. It helps that the bigger kids can now read the schedule, and can harangue lovingly remind me when I forget or feel like putting it off.
So on Friday, I decided to get all "Exemplary Charlotte Mason Mom" and take my kids for a trek through the woods near our house.
Except, I didn't realize that 'the woods near our house' was little more than just a blazing-hot pedestrian highway cutting through subdivision development and people's backyards. Oh, well. Still plenty to see.
We started off on a good foot. Everyone was in good spirits, but I knew our time was limited because it was over 90 degrees, the sun was high and it was hot. There turned out to be very little shade along this trail, and I have a couple of Hyper-Sweat-ers (or Sweaties, as I just now have started to call them). Laurelai pours sweat any time she even looks out the window at a sunny day, and Finneas turns all red and splotchy and swollen. (About fifteen minutes into our trip, he was so swollen his lips were turning white.) Fortunately, they're both pretty good-natured about it.
Finneas got pretty hot, so he had to sit down and rest on this memorial bench.
I took a second to read the memorial plaque next to the bench, and I am not kidding you, it said something pretty close to, "Janet Whatever dedicated her time and energy to protecting the property values in the Ridgeway community. Though it was rarely an easy battle, her tenacity won out." So, in blunt terms, it seems Janet Whatever spent her life badgering her neighbors and city government into keeping the riffraff and the malcontents off the streets until she died. RIP, Janet.
I bet this is the most joy this bench has seen in a while, though as I was taking this photo, I did wonder if the lingering energy of our riffy-raff presence might negatively impact the property values in the surrounding Ridgeway neighborhood...
A few other highlights of the walk were the time I got to spend with my koala-baby …
Her countenance here is deceptive -she really did love the walk!
… this 'fig' (read: black walnut) Penelope found …
… and the feeling of pure accomplishment I felt knowing that we had not only gone on a nature walk for once, but that I also got the added benefit of a whole hour (and a whole mile) of movement and exhaustion into the kids before coming home for nap time and quiet nature journaling time. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking up our wildflower finds in our field guide, pressing flowers, and documenting our walk in our nature journals. We all honestly had a great time.
I always put stuff like this off, thinking it's too much of a hassle. But now that the kids are a bit older and easier to load up quickly (our neighborhood has large hills, busy streets, and no sidewalks, so we have to drive to the entrance of a trail any time we want to go walking), and now that I seem to have found a window of time during the day when it doesn't interrupt anyone's nap time, I really do think this is sustainable during tolerable weather. I'm really looking forward to our next outing!
We'll probably try a different trail next time, though - one with more shade, fewer houses, more actual nature, and no bummer benches. If any of you reading live nearby and want to go walking with us some week, just holler! We'd love the company!
Well, we've got a lot to cover today. Not only did I fail to post a weekly update last week, but it's been a couple of very full weeks. So grab a coffee... or maybe even a full meal, and tuck in, because we're going to be here for a while.
Last week was our last full week of summer. We wrapped up swimming lessons, though a couple of the kids developed weird rashes partway through the week, so they had to sit out a few of the days. Oh well, it just meant I had more company on the sidelines, and most of them still passed their levels even with missing so many days.
After our last day of lessons, I took all the kids to Sonic for shakes, and we finished the morning at my friend Megan's pool.
"Oh, you know, just drinking a shake and contemplating the metaphysical realities of my life."
Rocco was glad he was finally able to get in the water! Callista was done sitting for the day, so we stuck her in a pack and play for a little poolside R&R. She was not a fan.
Intrigued by that perennial favorite, the Air Bubble in the Swim Shorts phenomenon.
Other than that, last week held a few other highlights: I had a surgery consult for a hernia I've developed, at which I nearly blacked out while he was showing me an illustrated pamphlet about hernias, and also got the good news that surgery won't be necessary, at least in the immediate future.
Knowing that school was about to start the following week, I decided to be super impulsive and paint the ceiling of our room. I didn't get to the walls, though, and I have a feeling it will be a while before I do. School strips me of almost all energy for anything else. I really should have gotten the walls done last week... sad trombone.
The ceiling paint is so fresh it's still wet, and my bed is covered with a makeshift dropcloth. Fancy. I have my eyes on this room as my next project... I mean, after bookshelves for the dining room, and a family closet/pantry setup for my laundry room, and installing a new dining room door. But other than that, it's next on the list. ;)
Then came the stretch of All the Good Things: Todd got news of his promotion, he officiated a wedding, he preached at church, and we all got in front of the camera for once.
Sunday morning, I woke up feeling kind of under the weather, but I figured it had just been a long stretch of a week. But by Sunday night, I was running a fever and was having difficulty swallowing. Monday, I still had a fever, and was wrestling with a migraine and loss of appetite... which made a really perfect addition to the chaos of the first day of school. (**NOT.**) (Remember "NOT"? Ahh, the golden age.)
And how IS school going, you ask?
Well. School is KICKING MY BUTT. It is not messing around with me this year. Most days this week we didn't finish before 3:30, and one day it even went until 4:30. I know it will get easier (and quicker) as we figure out the system, but dang. I'm feeling intimidated by the weight of the looming year. The kids seem less fazed by it than I've been, though, which is good.
Rocco is killing it at 'blanket time,' the time during which all the big kids are otherwise occupied with school and Callista is down for a nap. I just get out a special box of toys from the 'off-limits' closet, and require him to quietly play within the perimeter of a blanket. He seems to like it!
And, just because this post is already a novel anyway, let me play you into the weekend with some gratuitous photos of my beautiful babies:
It seemed to spark a lot of interest and curiosity, so I thought I'd give you the run-down on how to go about making this heavenly goodness in your very own kitchen (if you're not already).
Kombucha is essentially just a fermented sweet tea - so it's fizzy and sweet-tasting, and high in B vitamins and live probiotic cultures, but low in sugar when brewed at home. It kind of has an apple cider vinegar taste, but like, in a good way.
First Ferment (Regular Kombucha)
What you'll need to make a 1 gallon: SCOBY
1 cup of 'starter' kombucha (already brewed)
4 c. + 12 c. water
5 tea bags (regular black tea works best when you're just starting; NO herbal teas.)
1 c. white sugar (no honey or coconut sugar or anything.)
You will also need a basic gallon-sized glass jar to brew it in, a cloth for the top (tea towels or thickly folded cheesecloth work great;), and a rubber band or canning band to secure the cloth to the jar.
Okay, so let's talk SCOBY, which stands for "Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast." Basically, it's alive. It's kind of like a rubbery mushroom, and it's probably going to gross you out. Give it a name to help you quickly get over that hump. Todd named ours Scoby Bryant, but he would like you to know that Scoby Doo and Scoby Flenderson are both viable name options up for grabs.
Where do you get a SCOBY, you might ask? Well, you can order one (this one is consistently recommended, even though the listing looks janky), or you can just ask around. Any friend of yours who's already making this likely has a SCOBY baby to share. These things multiply like rabbits. Or, really, rabbits multiply like SCOBYs. In addition to the SCOBY itself, you're also going to need about a cup of 'starter': already-brewed kombucha to get the party going.
So, now you have your SCOBY and your starter, so get them in your jar. (I make two gallons at a time, so I have multiple jars going.)
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, then turn off heat. Add tea bags and sugar, and steep for 3-5 minutes. Stir to incorporate sugar, then add 12 more cups of cold water, to get the tea down to room temperature more quickly.
Once the tea has cooled to room temp, add it to the jar. Secure a cloth over the top.
Let it sit out on the counter for 7-10 days. Actually, when you're first starting out and your SCOBY is still gaining strength, it will probably take closer to 14 days. It will start growing a filmy new SCOBY on top, and the smell will change from sweet to almost vinegar-like. The kombucha itself will change from a deep brown to an amber color.
You can always test where it's at in the fermentation process by gently sticking a stainless steel straw down the side to taste it, being careful not to disturb the SCOBY more than necessary. When it's ready, it will taste a lot like slightly fizzy, sour-sweet apple cider.
It's not an exact science - when you like the taste of it, consider it done! The longer you let it ferment, the less sugar it will contain (this is what the SCOBY cultures actually eat), but it can get too sour if you let it go too long, so just experiment. As you continue to make new batches, it will take less and less time for it to 'arrive' - your SCOBY will get thicker with each brew, so it will eat through the sugar more quickly. When your SCOBY gets so thick that it's brewing TOO quickly, simply divide it and share a SCOBY baby with another friend!
At this point, you can consider your kombucha ready to drink, orrrrr….
...make it fruity and even more fizzy! (Yes, please!)
Second Ferment (Flavored Kombucha)
What you'll need:
Air-tight jars or bottles
Fruit (or fruit juice) of your choice
Add fruit or fruit juice to each jar. (I really like raspberries in mine, so for reference, I typically drop 6-10 berries into each 16 oz bottle. Play around with amounts, you really can't mess this up.) Top each jar with kombucha. I do this in the sink, to keep the mess contained. Make sure you keep about a cup reserved to use as a starter for your next batch.
Seal each bottle tightly, and let sit out at room temperature. Aren't they so pretty?
Store-bought kombucha bottles work really well for the second ferment. These Synergy bottles don't seal as tightly as the Kevita ones do, I've noticed, so they don't get as fizzy. If you're buying store kombucha to use the bottles later, go with Kevita. And, if I'm making suggestions, try the Tart Cherry flavor. SO GOOD.
After a day, you'll want to 'burp' your bottles - open them and then reclose them to release any built up carbonation. Kombucha has been known to build up so much pressure that it can actually shoot the cap off the bottle, or even explode. (Ask me how I know.) It's a delicate balance - open them once to release the high pressure, but avoid opening them after that, as they'll lose the carbonation. After they're sealed again, return to the counter for another day or two... or four or five, like I do; I like mine pretty well-done, but I do take the risk of them building up a bunch of pressure again by leaving them out so long.
You'll start to notice the fruit and the liquid changing color as the flavors from the fruit infuse the kombucha.
My favorite flavor combination so far is raspberry-ginger, but thanks to a tip from my friend Melissa, I started putting peaches in it, and HOLY COW do they make it fizz up! If you like a lot of bubbles, you should definitely try using peaches.
Once they've been allowed to sit out on the counter for a couple of days, move them to the fridge to stop the fermentation process. You'll probably want to strain out the fruit pieces before drinking, but other than that, they're ready to go!
******** I know, I know. It sounds like a lot. I waited months before trying this because it all seemed really complicated. But just jump in - you'll find it's basically just a matter of brewing some sweet tea and letting it sit out for a few days. That's easy enough, right?
I'm curious - what's your favorite flavor? Do you have any fruit suggestions for me to try next? I'm kind of on a kombucha kick right now, so I'm in an experimenting mood!
Well, we jumped into the school year yesterday, and we survived!
This is major news, not only because the kids' work load is much heavier this year as the older two kids are headed into fourth-ish grade, and I am also adding in the next two. I am juggling twice the students (and more than twice the workload) than I have had in my previous four years of homeschooling. This year is already shaping up to be a doozy. Luckily, I have my psychopathic visual schedule to help things run smoothly.
Not to mention the fact that I was also struck down by a ill-timed virus, so I was not only dealing with the nausea, fever, migraine, and sore throat that comes with all of that, but I seem to be developing a regular habit of joint pain flares in my hands whenever I get sick. So I was arthritic and nauseous and breaking out in cold sweats all day. Let me tell you, I was a real gem.
The fact that we survived the day is literally a miracle.
But survive we did, and I even have the photos to prove it. (These were taken at the end of the day, and everyone is mustering a smile! I will admit, some smiles were more genuine than others, but whatever. Appearances are all that matter to me at this point.)
We've come a long way from our first-ever day of homeschooling!
We have had a whirlwind of a life the last few days, and it all centers around so many good things going on in Todd's world.
This weekend was full full full - Friday night, we had a wedding rehearsal for the first ceremony he has ever officiated, and Saturday was THE WEDDING! We spent the whole day getting ready since three of the kids were also in it.
Worth it - they looked adorable.
How handsome and officiator-y did Todd look? (Don't mind that guy conspicuously crouching in the bushes there. He was supposed to be there, I'm pretty sure.)
We actually got a picture of all six of us for once! See? Best life now, even though it was literally 100 degrees out and Rocco was acting like a giant turd about having his picture taken.
Then on Sunday, Todd taught at church, which he always loves.
And as the cherry on top of all this good life, we found out on Thursday that he got a promotion at work! This is MAJOR for us - this is the first time since starting our life of church planting over five years ago that he's actually been at a company long enough to move ahead.
We're all feeling the good vibes. (All except Rocco, that is, but that's just because he doesn't understand how the corporate ladder works.)
