Elephants

Here is some work from our budding artist:

Asian Elephants are huge.  So huge that you can't scan them right side up.

You know what this is, of course.

Lego Rosary

For everyone who asked if James got coal for Christmas, here he is showing his enthusiasm for his Lego rosary his cousin Laurence gave him.  He loves to lead a decade when it's his turn.

Bill gave me the award

for being the nicest mom ever because I let the kids do this:

I didn't mention that I didn't "let" them. I didn't notice since I was so absorbed in reading aloud Beauty: a Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. When I looked up to make dinner after a few hours of reading (with many complaints that I stopping), I realized how grateful I am for that set of World Books.  Worth every penny. (By the way, the World Books are back out again today, and we've finished this delicious book.)

Who we are this week--the 10 family member version

Bill's quiet and thorough personality have made our new house hunting adventure much less stressful than it otherwise would be.  In a few weeks we hope to be homeowners.  To increase his personal fitness, his new workout plan involves lots of push ups.  He has all the kids participating too, so anytime one of them crosses from the carpet to the hardwood in the kitchen, he/she falls to the floor to do a few.  It's been pretty funny watching Joseph rock on his stomach trying to get it off the floor.

Rachel usual scattered approach to doing all things necessary is getting an overhaul by the Mother's Rule of Life.  She's hoping that in a short time she will have learned to keep the house clean, the kids schooled, the aprons sewed, and the Christmas cards done in a timely and orderly manner.

We have Thomas (11) who is fairly outgoing and friendly and in that preteen stage where he takes things seriously.  He loves legos and reading and taking pictures.  He is a little shorter than Anthony which helps telling them apart if they are together.  

Anthony (11) is the compliment to Thomas so he is a little more serious and introverted and contrariwise.  He is also the one who talks about his faith more and tries to tell a lot of jokes.  He often has two problems with whatever you say and loves to tell you what they are.  He's also very gentle with small kids and seeks out the child that everyone else ignores.  

Maria (10) LOVES babies and will ask about a billion times to hold any baby she meets.  She's artsy and enjoys sewing and singing.  She and Cecilia are involved in an American Heritage Girls group at our parish which is her one activity.  She and Thomas and Anthony look and act like triplets a lot of the time.  They are the "big kids".  

Charles (8) is quiet and social, however those two things work together.  Everyone plays legos  here, and he's probably there in the Lego zone if he isn't wrestling someone on the living room floor and driving his mother crazy.  Charles, Anthony and Thomas are all Scouts.  

Cecilia (6) is sunshine.  Or she is a golden retriever bounding up to you with her tongue hanging out.  When she is tired or asked to do what she thinks is an insurmountable task, say, sweeping the kitchen, she is a very rainy rain cloud.  She's also quite "sporty" and used to take me running when I was 9 months pregnant with Joseph.

James (4) looks either like he thinks the world is going to end or like he just won the lottery.  This week we've had a lot more of the lottery winning face which has been nice.

Joseph (2) compares well with a  butterball turkey.  He and James both wear 4T clothes and play together a lot, often with Joseph as lead trouble maker.  He's also my very cuddly guy, and I love to sit with him on my lap and just hold him.  He has just started to talk more, so if you speak monkey, you will understand everything he says.

and the new baby:
 

Real life

I think I'm done experimenting with the slideshow for a while.  That was a project for the girls' American Heritage Girls troop blog.

In real life my experiment is baking bread.  I've made different breads over the years, but I recently decided to try again in the hopes that we could make a tasty sandwich bread which doesn't mold between the day we bring it home and then next day when we finish the loaf.  If we save money, great.  If the nutrition is better, fabulous. I'll look into those points once I've finished deciding which recipe I like best.

Tonight I'm experimenting with a whole-wheat sandwich bread recipe which yields 4 loaves.  The yield is what I needed since I've making a 2 loaf recipe every two days for the past few weeks.  In addition to French Bread, hamburger buns, banana muffins, and healthy whole wheat dinner bread, that adds up to a lot of baking.  But, hey, with the oven on so much, we can keep the thermostat lower!

American Heritage Girls earning their Aviation badge

I don't have any great bread pics to share, and this is better anyway.