Merry Christmas 2010

We're having a Christmas which really suits us.

Best Advent book: Jotham's Journey, a cliffhanger about a shepherd boy who meets baby Jesus which Anjali and I have been enjoying all month

Best Christmas breakfast: Banana Chocolate Chip muffins bought by Anjali for us as a surprise with her initiative chore money

Present best opened at Gramma's: shrieking slingshot monkeys from Tim to all the kids

Best handmade ornaments: Ceramic stars, bells (Anjali), and pink dinosaur (Mark) made at pottery class

Most original gift: a pineapple corer from Tim to Amy

Most symbolic gift: dancing couple ornament from Amy to Tim

Best use of bamming: Mark slapping sugar cookie dough flat with his palm before cutting it into stars

Best bead work: necklaces and this great flower ornament by Anjali

Most unexpected stocking stuffer: Legos and car parts Mark had stashed in his own stocking and which he was surprised to see

Latest Christmas Eve: playing at the White House and not going to bed until 11:00 p.m.

Best use of technology: Skyping Gramma and Grampa Kei (Reisdorf) this morning to chat

Best gift of all: Going around and saying what we most liked about each other

Mark- his humorous heart (Anjali), all the things he can do now that he's growing up (Amy), and how he puts his heart into everything he does (Tim)

Anjali- her good and generous heart (Amy), her kindness (Tim), she shares with me (Mark)

Tim- how hard he works for all of us (Anjali), taking time after hours and hours of snow shoveling to make Tunnel Town for the kids to play in (Amy), he runs fast (Mark)

Amy- how she likes taking care of me (Tim), she laughs at my jokes (Mark), her kind and generous heart (Anjali)

And then, Anjali asked, "What do we most like about our family today?"
Mark: "I like that we make art."
Anjali: "I like that how our family makes decisions and that we have choices."
Amy: "I like how we laugh and laugh together."
Tim: "I like our adventures, especially rock climbing."

Merry, Merry Christmas from all of us to you!

Our new van

In November, we finally replaced our 1995 Saturn with a 2005 Mazda minivan. It's "Celestial black" and seats 7. It's got doors which open and close remotely, a working clock, and a working CD player! It's a breeze to drive and the kids like being able to spread out.
One of our main desires in getting a bigger car was to have room to take friends along places so we hope to take you for a spin soon!

Dishwasher Magic

Our dishwasher is officially dead now but before it died, we had the repair techs out one last time. They opened it all up and showed us the incredibly gross build-up of decaying food. Yuck! We tried to take a photo of them scraping off the sludge but the camera didn't work. I never knew how absolutely filthy the inside of a dishwasher was, even when it looks clean, and I told them that I would blog about it. The solution is to buy a product called Dishwasher Magic and use it once every 3-4 months. It has citric acid in it and dissolves the food.
People, black and white decaying food scum- do I need to say more?

Dressing up

This year, we were hanging at Target waiting for a prescription when we found the costumes. Mark was a barbarian warrior, Anjali a fairy princess, and Tim got my favorite, the turkey hat. I was unable to go with the kids because of my ankle so special thanks go to Tim to taking them to the park carnival.

Cool finds

Found some cool things in a couple magazines yesterday. Wanted to share.

Season of Thanks, Minnesota Monthly- really moving stories about gratitude in unexpected places

CSA (Community Supported Art) Such a clever take-off on Community Sustained Agriculture boxes

Poetry Slam/Spoken Word champs of the Year, MN's own Soap Boxing

Crop Mobs- volunteers who do farm labor

We live in such an interesting place.

Thanks Mom!

I've been battling a tooth infection and despite a re-do root canal and 2 courses of antibiotic, it hasn't cleared up and in fact, has gotten substantially worse. I had planned last Thursday 10/28 to have it removed today, 11/1. I was hanging in there until the pain started really flaring last night around 6 p.m. I was very anxious about possibly being up all night in pain. So I called in the superhero- Mom.
She arrived around 11:00 p.m. and kept vigil with me all night until she needed to leave for work this morning. Just having her here made a huge difference.
Thanks, Mom for being my superhero.

Her Royal Gimpyness

Yesterday I fell hard and twisted my ankle. So today, I've been sitting in the recliner with my very swollen, blue foot elevated. I've felt loved and rather royal as Tim and the kids have waited on me and taken over portions of my daily routine. A special call out to Anjali for making breakfast and lunch for she and Mark this morning and to Tim for making unbelievably good chocolate pudding from scratch tonight.
Special thanks you guys from Her Gimpy Majesty.

Growing up

Today Mark visited our neighborhood preschool. He walked in, greeted the teacher, started playing, followed directions, and joined right in like he'd been there all along. He's going to attending preschool Mondays and Wednesdays starting next week. My little boy is now a growing up boy.

While Mark's in preschool, Anjali and I will be having a writing intensive. We're going to be working 2 1/2 hours twice per week on writing and spelling. My growing up girl is really maturing.

Mark is a clever boy

The other day TJ, our neighbor boy, came to the door and asked Mark to play. Mark turned him down so TJ asked for Anjali. Mark walked upstairs and called to Anjali, "Anjali your friend is here!" And when Anjali asked, "Who is it?" Mark replied, "Hodan" who is Anjali's favorite friend on the block.
Tim and I burst into laughter. We could so clearly see the wheels turning in his mind. What especially cracked me up is that TJ is a stocky, Italian first grader and Hodan is a tall, lithe, Somali girl in a hijab. Ooops, my mistake. I thought it was Hodan!
Not.

Art Show by Mark and Anjali

The kids have been making a lot of art lately so we decided to have an Art Show for you. We'll be mailing these to family and friends starting Monday so if you have a favorite, get your comment, email, or phone call in first, and we'll send it to you.
Enjoy!

"Practice Piece"
Anjali 10/10
This one was a practice piece for me to practice using objects to paint.
The circles were bubble wands.
I did the ocean waves with the top of a can.
I stamped a circle over and over for the ground.

"It's A Road"
Mark 10/10
It's a road that has lots of people in it.
The orange road had only snakes and spiders.
The blue road has coconut trees and fishies that can bite you.
They can clamp you- clamp, clamp- down below.
The red road, I forgot. Wait. It's our house, the middle one.

Mark 2010
That one's an elephant that can walk and talk and that can do some tricks like upside down and go to the moon.
He can jump really high like the moon.

Rainbow
Anjali 2010

"It's Daddy's Rake"
Mark 10/10
It's Daddy's rake that can help people rake leaves. 'Cause we have 3 rakes.
My favorite color of leaves is pink.

View from My Room
Anjali 10/10
This is the view from my window.
I used water pencils.

"South Dakota Mountains"
Anjali 9/10
This is a picture of me and my family going to South Dakota.
We used rubbing and I created the hills which we climbed.

Untitled
Anjali 10/10
At Grace Homeschool Academy, we learned about painting with objects.
The flower was painted by me putting red paint on a cookie cutter.
I drew the hearts by my finger.

Practice Art for using water pencils
Anjali 10/10

"Two Police Cars"
Mark 10/10
I want to go to Minneapolis.
I made this at my school, Grace Homeschool Academy.

Anjali's upcoming concert and Mark's quotes

Anjali has her Sounds of Praise debut this Sunday, October 17 at Wooddale's Edina campus at the 9:00 and 10:30 services. This is her first concert of her first choir. Look also for Tim who will be wearing SOP shirt and corralling munchkins. Hope to see you there.

Mark is fast approaching his 4th birthday and seems taller and more grown-up daily. My favorite recent comments have been these two. I was slow and distracted in getting out the door to the park and Mark said to me, "Mom, you're taking ages!" A couple mornings ago he got up with a runny nose and I suggested a Kleenex. He said no and I asked, "So how are you going to solve your runny nose?" He replied, "Avoid it." Yep, that's my boy.

Dishes the old fashioned way

Our dishwasher doesn't these days. So we do. Amy washes, Mark rinses bubbles, and Anjali dries and puts away. It's been interesting to watch the kids learning how to do dishes by hand and although it's a bit time consuming, it's also a chance to work together. My favorite today was when Mark yelled, "Quality inspection!" and pointed to a cruddy I'd neglected to wash off.

And ironically, after years and years of reminding people to load their dishes in the dishwasher, now I'm reminding them not to. :) If and when we get it back in action, I think we'll all be a lot more grateful.

Our trip to SD

We had a good trip to South Dakota. Our first stop was Palisades State Park- beautiful and great rock climbing.

This is me standing next to and Tim and the kids climbing "The Queen," one of two towering formations named, The King and Queen. Rock climbing was a daily pastime on our trip.

This is Tim's favorite photo from the trip- a hug.

Stopped to stretch legs at Corn Palace- totally forgettable, is the way Tim described it. There is perhaps a good reason why this is the World's Only Corn Palace.

We all really enjoyed the Wind Cave. Unusual box work formations. Lots of stairs.

Saw lots of wildlife. This is a squirrel in the Black Hills who came to check out our picnic lunch. For cuteness, it would be a tie between this little guy and the prairie dogs.


I stopped here just outside of Custer to do some art while Tim and the kids hiked up to the fire outlook.


There had been a fire several years ago and the signs were everywhere. It was interesting to see burned parts next to green parts.

We really liked the Badlands. I sat and drew while Tim and the kids hiked down in. The views were so interesting and varied.



In the Badlands, they also had a prairie dog town and bison. Tim got close for a photo while Anjali practiced her prairie dog whistle.

We came home a day early, tired and glad to sleep in our own beds. We've got homeschool going as well as starting a new fall schedule including choir and Wednesday nights at Wooddale, Sundays at Wooddale Edina, Fridays at Grace Homeschool co-op, Tuesday night square dance lessons, swimming at the Y, and Inner City Tennis and soccer for Mark.

Politeness- almost

Lately, I've noticed that my kids have gotten politeness, sort of.

The other day, I was busy and Mark asked me to stop and do something for him. I told him he could wait for me to finish or do it himself. He replied by singing a song from a kids' show, "You help me and I'll help you." I explained that I didn't need his help at the moment and that he could do it himself. He shouted, "Ex-Cuse ME!?! Tha's not the point! The song says 'You help me and I'll help you. Tha's the point. Tha's the song, mom." I smiled, finished my project, and helped, per the song.

A couple days ago, I asked Anjali to finish a chore and she replied, "No thanks, Mom," and kept walking. I insisted that even polite disobeying was not working for me.

Trip to the North Shore

This weekend we took our first family trip to the North Shore. Our first stop was a new marina just north of Duluth and we got out to climb around.




Our hotel was in Silver Bay and after dinner we went for a walk to see the town mascot, Rocky Taconite. The kids took a shine to Rocky and Mark took this photo.

We all choose what we most wanted to do- 3 votes for rock climbing and Mom's vote for walking the pier at Two Harbors. So we stopped at another marina to rock climb, then traveled to Gooseberry Falls for more rock climbing. Here's Mark and Tim up the falls.

We went to a naturalist class and learned new things about fish. Mark was a sunny, Anjali was a catfish, and I was a rainbow trout. Mark's stripes help sunnies blend into seaweed, Anjali's feelers (see green yarn hanging down) help catfish feel food in the mud, and my spots help trout blend into rocks.
My flat tail indicates that trout are not fast swimmers while the deep groove between fins on the kids means that sunnies and catfish are faster. Gotta say that wiggling my tail while talking through a dixie cup mouth pretty much made my afternoon. :) Had to capture that for the blog.

Tim made friends with a large pillow rainbow trout. Mark asked what it's name was and since the naturalist didn't know, Mark decided that it was a girl trout and named her Ahri. Also a blog moment captured by Mark.


We finished our adventures at Two Harbors where for the 4th time in 24 hours, Tim and the kids climbed rocks.

Then we drove home slowly through crazy construction and traffic. Kids were great sports and now we've got some food for thought about our SD trip in September.
Good times!

911 twice in 2 days

Two days in a row we saw ambulances come. One Tim and Anjali saw when an elderly lady fell in a store parking lot, hit her head, and was bleeding.
The second was Tuesday when our neighbor, Hodan, had difficulty breathing, when she went to the park with us. Her sister mentioned an inhaler and I knew we couldn't walk her back home for it in time. As she lay gasping on the ground, a friendly stranger, Ayan, with a cell phone stopped and helped me dial 911. I talked with a paramedic by phone until the ambulance arrived. I was terrified and Anjali cried. I had no idea how to help her myself and could only call for aid, watch her, and stroke her hair. Hearing those sirens coming for her, I was so moved. Help is coming for you! Then once she was under the care of paramedics, I spoke with Safiya, her mom. Safiya had entrusted her daughter to me and now she was laying in the back of an ambulance. I had no idea she was an asthmatic, no idea she even had an inhaler. Telling that mom- your daughter is in an ambulance- that was sober. Then the paramedic told us she was alright and I signed Hodan out of the ambulance according to her mother's instructions by phone. I've never had to sign anyone out of an ambulance before. Another sober responsibility.

Hodan is alright. She's a new inhaler user and she's agreed to carry it all the time now.

Special thanks to the kind stranger, Ayan, who stood there in the park for 20+ minutes while we used her cell phone. Thanks also to the 4 police officers, 3 fire fighters, and 2 paramedics who came to help a stranger, someone they'll never meet again. Thanks for being here and for doing for her what I couldn't.

Square Dance ABC

We been attending Square Dance ABC nights over the course of several months, most recently in July. These are beginning level square dance nights held all over the metro to interest new people in dancing. Experienced dancers, called angels, come in great numbers specifically to dance with newbies like us.

The people have been so kind and friendly. They remembered us from this spring and went out of their way to make the kids welcome. They even took these photos of us and sent them to us by email.
Anjali has been well received, dancing away with everyone and garnering praise for being a good listener.
Mark made a special friend, Gramma Dee, one of the organizers of the dances. She even danced a dance with Mark on her hip.

Mark also walked around with our camera taking photos of us. Here's one of Tim.

The group has great values. Everyone dances with everyone- no awkward standing around waiting to be picked. Everyone introduces themselves to their partner and corner. Everyone does the thank you cheer at the end of each set and then individually shakes hands with each person. At the end of the night, everyone joins hands in a big circle and sings a song about friendship, how a stranger is just a friend-to-be.

I've got to say, they've won us over. Tim, Anjali, and I are planning to take a 6-month class in Richfield starting this fall so we can attend regular dances. All of us have a good time and we all leave feeling happy which is quite an accomplishment for preschooler, elementary, and adult.

You're invited to the fun! We're going to be at the Square Dance ABC in Bloomington on August 17, 24, and 31 from 7-8:30 p.m. at Bloomington Lutheran Church, 9350 Portland Ave S.
Come and join us. It's super fun!

Mark's jokes

Mark told me joke #1 today and when I said we should put it on the blog, he told me #2, saying, "You can put this one on the blog, too."

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
A wire.
A wire who?
A wire banana.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
A banana tree.
A banana tree who?
A banana tree fire fighter.

It's Goggle Boy to the rescue!

Goggle Boy: secret identity- Mark

Mark: Goggle Boy will help you save people and cut them out from the webs. Spider Man gets webs from the bottom of his hands and it makes like a web. Goggle Boy can be in the front and save Spider Man and cut the spider web because the webs aren't good for people or cars.

Mark's rendition of the original Spider Man theme song:

Spider Man, Spider Man
Can he swing pomegranate?
Take a look over head.
Me, man, here comes a Spider Man.
Super web, any size

Is he strong?
He's a gum.
He's got radioactive blood.
Me, man, here comes a Spider Man.

Grampa Kei came to visit

A couple weeks ago, Grampa Kei came to visit from Florida. We hung out, went to dinner at It's Greek to Me, and stopped by for a quick look at Anjali's Youth Farm garden.
Thanks for making the big effort to come visit, Grampa!

Milkapalooza

On Saturday, June 26, we drove to Cedar Summit Farm in New Prague for their Milkapalooza. We ate ice cream made with milk from their cows as well as meat, cheese, apples, and water from local MN farms. In fact, we ate dessert first which was a special treat. Yum!


Mark rode ponies and pet a chicken. Anjali entered a drawing and did some art. We all took a tractor-drawn wagon ride.

I Don't Want My Brother to Sit Next to Me by Mom

Milkapalooza From the Tractor Ride by Anjali

Momma by Mark

Butterflies and Cows by Mark