what's up weekly.

This week was full of so much fun!  So let's jump in.

Last Saturday was Reformation Day (also known as Halloween to all you heathen).  Covid actually made the day kind of nice - we typically have to figure out how to cram trick-or-treating into an evening that is already set aside in our house as a church celebration.  I know, I know, I could go the way of shunning Halloween altogether like a good fundamentalist, and save the hassle of squeezing in two parties, but here's my thing: we're Americans, and that's not an accident.  

I want my kids to grow up celebrating the good things that are deeply ingrained in their culture, because God has made people to shape, and be shaped by, and celebrate culture.  (Note to shuddering Christians here: you can't escape culture, nor should you.  You are to play a meaningful role in shaping culture, and then reveling in it.)  I want my kids to know and participate in their history, and Halloween is cultural in both a national sense and a religious sense.  So we, as American Christians, love the good parts of Halloween (namely the cute costumes and the crazygonuts amounts of candy), and are also always looking for reasons to party together.  So sue us, and the horse we rode in on, but I warn you our horse has excellent legal defense on retainer.

Anywayzzz.

I headed out on Saturday morning to hit up the antique mall and buy some cute corbels for my living room, because Reformation Day is only made better when it's also Decor-mation Day.  (Had to do it.  Haters don't hate.)  I headed home in time for the kids to finish up their lunch, and then we pulled out our Bin O' Costumes (a little Celtic flavor in honor of Halloween) and got the kids dressed up.

For any of you that still aren't convinced that we should be participating in Halloween, let me offer up Exhibit A: "BABY LAMBY."  See?  I was right all along.  No one should be deprived of this pastorable pygmy, so you're welcome world!

Not thrilled with the promotion to Sergeant Officer BABY LAMBY, but I trust she'll get the job done.

We have here a fisherman, a bumble bee, a soldier, a fairy princess, the Hamburglar, Little Red Riding Hood, and BABY LAMBY.

We headed out the door for a 'drive-thru trick-or-treat' experience, which was just as mediocre as you can imagine.  We drove through a parking lot full of a waving, costumed adults (one of whom won my vote with just a bunch of masks stapled to him, and an eye mask and a cowboy hat.  Anyone figure it out?, and another of whom won the kids' vote, dressed as an inflatable piece of poop), and then ended our 'tour' with a stop at a tent to collect pre-filled bags of candy.  Not the worst way to get free candy, though, I have to say.

On the way to the D-T T-o-T, we discovered a solid Little Tykes wagon on the side of the road, put out 

for free by a neighbor.  It was a Hallowation Day MIRACLE!  My kids go through wagons like gangbusters, and wagons are spendy, so a free find in good condition was received gratefully by all, though it was a treat that didn't exactly fit in our trick-or treat-buckets.  Maybe the 'trick' was supposed to be figuring out a way to get it home, but joke's on them because the Kraken laughs in the face of cargo.  (Member that time we fit an entire live Christmas tree in the trunk and still had room for the stroller and also a second Christmas tree?)

After that, the kids stayed in their costumes and enacted their own neighborhood trick-or-treat festivities: they set up the playhouses in the back, drew a road on the concrete, and the big kids passed out candy to the little kids, who just hiked from Playhouse 1 to Playhouse 2, and back again.  They shuttled Juni around in her new wagon.

Anxiously awaiting her first trick-or-treaters of the night, who coincidentally will also be her last trick-or-treaters of the night.

After all of that, I put Juni to nap and the kids changed into play clothes, and we painted pumpkins.  (Correction: the kids painted pumpkins while I started cleaning out the garden.)  Then I did a load of laundry because: obvious.

Callista's masterpiece.

For dinner, I assembled a cheeseboard, the first cheeseboard we've had in months, and the first of many to come in the upcoming celebratory season.  It was so good to feast together again!

Then after dinner, we watched Luther together as a family, and it only took us about three hours to get through, since we had to keep stopping to explain things.  ("Those are indulgences.  Indulgences are..." "That is Wartburg Castle.  He is translating the New Testament into common German."  "Katarina von Bora looks janky right now because nuns would shear all their hair off, and also she just spent three days in a fish barrel.")  Then the kids went to bed entirely too late, but who cares because it was Daylight Saving, and we were all in for a night from hell anyway.  (Side note: Daylight Saving is so much less exciting once you're no longer young, and you have tiny children who can't read a clock and don't find the opportunity to sleep in quite as luxurious as you do.  Or, as you would if you could remember what that's like...)

Sunday was full of church and naps and cereal for dinner and Harry Potter for movie night, just the way I like it.

Monday was nothing, but TUESDAY WAS ELECTION DAY!  (Or, so we were led to believe at the time.  It is currently still Election Day and the excitement has worn off a bit.)  We took the kids with us to cast our votes, and it was such a great experience.  Our polling place had no lines, we weren't harrassed even a little bit for not wearing masks (if anything, people seemed extra nice to us; it must've been nice to see a human face for the first time in months), and we attempted to make our voices  heard.  I didn't know beforehand that we'd be competing with every last dead person on the planet, but oh, well.  I guess the dead have strong opinions on things, and have as much of a right as anyone else to vote whenever they feel like it, and who am I to begrudge them that?  I hope that when I'm dead, America is still holding elections.  Maybe my voice will be louder by then.

If you squint hard enough, you can see that there are nine of us, standing in front of the Kraken, being photographed by a kindly but camera-challenged volunteer in the parking lot.

Won't this sticker look even better on me when I'm a skeleton, all those years in the future when they resurrect my memory (or just my pertinent information) to allow me one last vote?

Wednesday was ROCCO'S BIRTHDAY!  This strong, brave, broadshouldered boy just gets more and more awesome by the day.  He is so kind and relaxed and un-ruffle-able.  He is agreeable and funny, and so incredibly smart.  He has a raspy voice and beautiful eyes and a crooked-toothed smile and he always falls asleep on the couch during read-alouds and I just LOVE HIM TO TINY LITTLE BITS.

Yesterday, one of the kids woke up with Tummy Stuff.  I mean, TUMMY STUFF.  I mean, "loss of control of important bodily functions" stuff.  Luckily, we got through it in just a few hours and it didn't seem to spread to anyone else, but DANG, it has been a while since I've parented on that level.

And that brings us to today: Glorious 75-degree Friday.  Earlier this week, I donated some furniture pieces to make some more room in my garage, so I'm hoping to do some organizing out there while this weather holds out.  (I'm trying to make room in the garage for storage bins, which I'm moving out of the basement, to make room down there for a potential piano).  (Yes, we already have a piano, but who can't use more pianos?)

And with that, let's soar into the weekend as though we believe simple, honest election results are imminent!  WHOOOOOO!!!

what's up weekly.

It's time for the rundown of our week!

I am beginning to feel like the news is always the same, and if you haven't noticed that already, I won't judge you but I will tell you to prepare yourself for many more posts that run along the lines of, "The kids are fantastic, school is going well, life is stable-bordering-on-the-mundane, and Coronavirus and all its implications can go to hell."

1. The kids are fantastic.

What can I tell you that you don't already know?  The kids are a gift.  This week we got to celebrate so many milestones!  Juni turned 18 months - her half birthday.  She is a year and a half old.  Full-throttle toddler.  HOWWWWWWWWWWW.  She started signing and saying "please" this week, and has finally started saying anything specific besides Dada.  (Why say anything else when the most important things are communicated so clearly already?  She loves Dada, end of story.)  She will now occasionally, begrudgingly, say Mama, and will sometimes say, "No, no, no."  But honestly, she mostly just nods at anything you ask her - such an accommodating little nugget.

We celebrated the two-year anniversary of Atticus' baptism...

...and the three-year anniversary of Penelope's baptism...

...and the fact that Finneas is just so very Finneas.

2.  School is going well.

As has been the case this school year, everything is just running along like clockwork.  We are loving this school year with all our hearts.

3.  Life is stable and boring.

In the best way possible.  I just finished reading Gone with the Wind again, and it is so engrossing, so haunting, so sad, so riveting, so good.  I don't feel ready to start another work of fiction quite yet until I sort through All the Thoughts.  If it wasn't such a hefty book (700-900 pages, depending on the formatting of the edition), I'd consider starting it over immediately.  I'm also still reading "You Who" and "Heaven Misplaced" (both nonfiction) and am planning to start Booker T. Washington's "Up from Slavery," once I can find my way out of the grip of GWTW.

Other than that, no news is good news, right?

4.  Covid can shove it where the sun don't shine.

If you want me to consider shanking you, just utter the words "pandemic" or "unprecedented" in my hearing.  I am absolutely serious, just try me.

And with that friendly threat, I leave you to enjoy your weekend.

what's up weekly.

Well.  I thought last week's news was sparse, but apparently my noteworthy life updates are following the trend of the viewers of the NBA finals: just when they hit the fewest ever seen, they somehow managed to go lower yet.  What a feat! 

To wit: I took nary a photo this week.  NOT A ONE.  And that is reflective of the overall state of the union over here.  Nothing to see here, folks.  So I'm just going to post unrelated, but adorable photos of the kids taken previously.

On Saturday, we were supposed to go up to Iowa to meet my brand-new, precious, perfect niece (!!), but then Penelope woke up with the barfs.  Not exactly the 'Welcome Home, New Baby!' gift we were looking to give, so we sadly stayed at home.  More than one Van Voorst cried over it.

By the end of the afternoon, everyone was back to normal, but I hadn't planned any food for the day since we were supposed to be gone, but I didn't want to put a recently-barfing kid in the car for a half-hour drive to an out-of-town park for a picnic, just to potentially spread our germs and risk car-puking far from home.  No to the thanks.  So we were a little stuck.

But then Todd came to the rescue and ordered food for pickup from a nearby town's wing place.  Sick kids opted not to eat, the rest of us ate like kings, and I didn't have to cook.  It all worked out.

We had nothing else of note until Tuesday night, when a sweet friend came and watched the kids so Todd and I could go on a date to a local Mexican restaurant.

On Wednesday night, I made chili, even though it was 87 degrees outside.  (That's literal.  Hello, October?)  This was a big mistake, not just because it was way too hot to be eating chili, but because I had no idea Atticus was getting ready for gastrotechnics.  Another one down with the barfs for a few hours.

Then yesterday, everyone woke up with headaches and sore throats, including myself.  No fevers or anything, just a rundown, ragged, slow-going kind of day.  We got our read alouds done for school, but we skipped out on our table work.

It honestly hasn't been that bad, and I can't even remember the last time any of us was sick, which is saying something because in a household this size, it seems like we can spend months just recycling each others' germs.  But we have stayed crazy healthy (for large family standards) for almost a year now, maybe longer.  I spent a lot of time yesterday reflecting on the fact that this week's sickness really just served to highlight how blessed we've been this year.  And now that we did get something, it seems to be pretty mild.

And that was literally the entirety of our week: sickness, interspersed with some hot wings and some margaritas.  Actually, when I put it that way, it was actually pretty noteworthy after all.


(Oh, P.S., just for posterity's sake: Let the record show that the city's mask ordinance was extended this week.  Hey, Future Paige, remember when you emailed your city councilman to voice your thoughts, and he LIED DIRECTLY TO YOU and said it was no longer an issue that the city council had anything to do with, and then he voted on that exact issue the next day at the city council meeting he failed to mention?  Those were good times.  2020, unflaggingly working hard to endear us all to our representatives.)

what (very little) was up weekly.

Hello, hello! How you doin' this fine Friday?

I'm fantastic, thanks for asking!

There was little of note this week, so I'll blitz through our lives as though you can boil 168 hours, and nine human lives, into a bulleted list like it ain't no thang. Watch me gooooo!

1.  Yesterday, I was like a woman possessed.  I painted my nails, took a shower, put on real-person pants, AND put on makeup, and never went anywhere.  I did it just cuz.  And the kids were spooked.  "What kind of ill wind is blowing...?"

2.  A while back, we bought Callista a wagon with her birthday money.  Well, the darn thing was a complete beast to assemble, so it's been sitting in the garage in half-done misery for a couple months.  Todd finished it up this week, and the kids have had a ball pulling her, and each other, around the yard.

3.  I started and finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in less than 48 hours, which was a feat considering I've really been lagging in my reading lately.  I realized I need more fiction right now, so I started the next book in the Anne of Green Gables series (I'm slowly making my way through those for the first time) and Gone with the Wind.

4.  I'm still reveling in Fall - I haven't yet got up my hackles against winter, so I'm just luxuriating in leaving the windows wide open, lighting candles, sleeping with the down quilt on our bed, and walking around in slippers.  I'm also loving the fact that the poison ivy has almost given up the ghost for this season - only five new plants spotted this week.  I like to think my CONSTANT VIGILANCE! had something to do with it, but I secretly know I have the cooler weather alone to thank for it.

5.  Four words: PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE - OOFDA, AMIRIGHT?  I feel a bit sucker-punched, but also weirdly optimistic now.  If the debates don't matter, as they clearly don't, then all I have to do is vote based on the candidates' records.  Who knew it could be that easy?!

And that is literally all the news that this week held.  Not that I'm telling you how to live your life or anything, but I wouldn't hold it against you if you bragged to all your friends that you know me.  "Yes, that Paige Van Voorst.  The one who lives such a jet-setting lifestyle, all from the comfort of her own threadbare bathrobe."  It's this kind of name-dropping that just might help you land that promotion you've been coveting.

Hello, hello, fellow Friday Femmes and Fellas.

I have a few things to tell you about this week, so let's dive right in.  My first topic: FOOD.  I have been making Food (most of which I don't have photos of, but that shouldn't shock you).

In the words of Penelope, I have gotten crafty during quarantine, and much of that creative energy has been channeled into kitchen activity.  First, I checked out a book on raw milk cheesemaking from the library, and it got my wheels spinning.  I started with yogurt cheese, and it was a big hit.  But it turns out that yogurt cheese is a gateway cheese.

First of all, it's spreadable, so I clearly needed to start making bread.  But if I was going to make bread, why not dust off the old sourdough know-how?  So I got a sourdough sponge started with some incredible locally grown whole wheat and whole rye.  I have now tried a few different bread recipes, including a no-knead recipe and one that takes literally three days of intermittent but intense home-nursing.  Also, have I mentioned I don't eat gluten, so I can only surmise the results by the smell, the texture, the density and the general reception by the peanut gallery?  It would seem the hospice-care bread is a much more successful recipe.

But back to cheesemaking.  The book recommended trying some of the recipes with kefir-cultured milk, so I jumped back into making kefir after a long, long hiatus.

But did you know you can make a kind of wine/kombucha with milk kefir grains in juice?  Neither did I until I JUST DID IT.  It is fantastic, and much easier than kombucha.  Juice + kefir grains + sealed container + 3-4 days = bubbly, fizzy, sweet-sour goodness.  You just need to feed the grains milk again every so often.

Okay, but then back to sourdough.  I had all of this sourdough discard made with pristine flour that I didn't want to just toss in the compost, so I made sourdough crackers.  (Not really a hit.)

But then back to cheese.  In addition to simple, spreadable cheeses, I've also made cultured whey ricotta, paneer (SO fabulous with breakfast, fried alongside my eggs in bacon grease), and a fresh/slightly aged, firm calf-rennet cheese.  I feel so Ma Ingalls, and I love it.

But then back to bread.  Now that I have all this delicious cheese, but no gluten-free bread with which to enjoy it, I had to go ahead and try Simple Kneads GF sourdough.  (I'm not so Covid Crazy that I want to try my hand at anymore gluten free baking; that's the kind of stuff I still hire out.)  It is okay - actually, it's SUPER sour; it almost tastes like beer.  But it's much better toasted. (Which then forced me to buy a new toaster last week, when my old-as-my-marriage, $9 Chefmate toaster crapped out.  This has all kind of spiraled out of control.)  But now that I have sourdough GF bread, I'm experimenting with the cheese recipes using only skim milk, to see if I can make a THM-approved bread-and-cheese meal.

Whew.  I told you had some news to share about food.

It also turns out I have some kids I'm having to tend to occasionally, so let's get to those.

First of all, let me just say for those of you who had no idea: Callista has opinions about some things.  Like, for instance, hanging on the monkey bars after she asked to hang on the monkey bars.

Or, as another example, her thoughts regarding the placement and overall volume of her first-ever piggy tails.  

(The tears came, not as a result of the piggies themselves, but of the fact that one piggy wasn't full enough for her liking.  You're free to guess which one.)

Juni also has opinions about things, but they're mainly of the Everlasting Optimist persuasion.  Seriously nothing can ruffle this child.  At least, "sliding down the slide one million billion times" can't, nor can "handing me Every Last Woodchip on the Face of the Earth".  See what I mean?

Penelope sold her first 'not-sold-to-Mom' bouquet of zinnias this week, and could not be more proud.  With this bouquet, she actually moved from just recouping her investment costs to making an actual profit, and with that, in addition to her allowance, she has procured all the funds projected for her Christmas gifting needs.  She is quite the little economist.

In final news, we celebrated the Quinceanera of my baptism yesterday with a trip to Booneville to eat dinner looking out over the River.  It has been a good week!

As a parting gift, I would like to burn this image in your mind for you to noodle on throughout the weekend.

You're welcome.

back to school!

Well, well.  Look at that.  I didn't post when I said I was going to.  So, as a peace offering, I give you the kids' Back to School pictures that I promised six weeks ago.  See, I sometimes follow through.  Eventually.

In school news, we have finished our first six-week stretch, and are on break this week.  Things are actually going well - really well.  We have hit a rhythm that seems to work for everyone, and our days feel so smooth.  

The only thing I haven't figured out is when to fit piano practice into the days for all the big kids.  I'm thinking I would like to get a piano for the basement family room, so they can practice there while I'm doing read-alouds with other kids in the upstairs living room.  If you have any leads on a local, small-ish upright piano that's in good shape, let me know!  (And yes, I've thought of just getting a keyboard, or moving read-alouds to the basement to free up the living room for piano practice.  Neither option is a good fit for us at the moment.)  I've been on the hunt on Craigslist, but none have been listed in town, and I haven't been able to hunt Marketplace since I got off of Facebook.  (And good riddance - FB is a crapstorm right now, am I right?  Stay safe out there, web surfers.)

We spent our first day of break yesterday enjoying the beautiful weather.  I got some fertilizer down on the front lawn, the kids played outside for hours, and I cleaned out the garage.  I got the houseplants ready to come back inside later this week, and I made soup for dinner.  The seasons are changing, and I'm loving it!

Happy "Back to School"!  (Or, should I say, Happy "Still in School, but On Break, but Back to School Next Week.")