Life in the Farm

room time ransack

I should have known that the girls were just a little too quiet while they were doing room time today.  Here is what I found when I went in Lexi's room:

And here is what Sasha was doing when I checked on her next:

You can't see the complete mess that was in Sasha's room, but all the dirty clothes that were once in the clothes basket were all over the ground.  We had a little room CLEANING time after these pictures were taken!  And a talk about safety, which I'm pretty sure went in one ear and out the other.

Free Stuff Friday

This post could also be called "Your trash is our treasure!"  As I was leaving a work appointment on Tuesday night, many of the people who lived in the neighborhood I was in were taking out their trash.  I noticed one of those old school desks on the curb as I was driving by and I knew Sasha would love it.  We really don't have a ton of room in our house for more stuff, but it was such a good find.  After considering how it would look if my clients looked out their window and saw me dumpster diving, I decided to go for it anyway.  I had to drive around the block because I had already passed the house and I was on a one-way street.  As I made it back to the house, I saw the owners of the desk still bringing things out to their curb.  I drove by and had to re-evaluate again.  Did I really want to actually have to interact with the people who I was taking garbage from?  I again decided that it was worth me feeling like a fool.  So I got out of the car and asked them if I could have it.  They were extremely nice and even helped me get it in my car, which I really needed because this thing is heavy!  But, oh how I made the right decision!  Right now the desk is sitting in the corner of our kitchen and Sasha has logged many hours sitting there drawing pictures and writing. 

So this is my favorite free thing this week...

From Walgreens I also got free baking powder which I need because I bake obsessively.  And I got 100 free pictures there too.  Now I just need to motivate myself to actually put them in my photo albums!

new style and some leaves

I have been in the rhythm of giving Alexis a new style once a week now, usually on Sunday mornings.  I used to have to do it more often because the types of styles I was doing didn't hold quite as long.  But now that I can incorporate more and better cornrows, her styles last a little longer.  Not as long as I would like, but hey, she is two.  She doesn't put much (make that any!) effort into keeping her hair nice.  I really like the style I did today.  It was inspired by a new blog I like, and even thought it turned out slightly different than I was planning, I think it is cute.  It's fun to bring back the puffs!  :)

As always, there are plenty of imperfections, but I just try to be happy with what I can do!  Sasha had some hair envy today while I did Lexi's.  She asked if I could give her the same style, and I just didn't have the energy after doing Lexi to even attempt it.  She did insist on a photo of her hair too though.

And here they are jumping in leaves later in the day...blurry yet fabulous!

Grandparents visit and Halloween recap

It was a whirlwind of Halloween craziness here the past weekend.  My parents arrived from MN on Friday afternoon and the fun began.  On Friday night, we went to a local community center that has a water park area.  Going to a water park was not actually high on my list of things I wanted to do right now, but we had purchased a Groupon-like coupon that was going to expire.  Thankfully there was a hot tub Nate and I could sit in while my parents could play alligator and go down the slides with the girls!  :)

Saturday morning brought Rock-o-ween at the Fisher Theater.   I took Sasha and Alexis last year and had a great time, so this year Nate and my parents came along as well.  We got there strategically early to do the face painting and all the other activities before the concert at 10am. 

Thank goodness we did that, because as we were leaving the concert around 10:45, the place was packed and you could hardly walk.  We made our escape and went to Good Girls go to Paris Crepes, which is somewhere you really need to go if you live around here!  We also gave my parents a little tour of Detroit.

On Saturday night, my mom and I had to rehearse for our big dance off, which you can read about here.  You can see me a little bit in the video...I'm the one with the lame costume!  But I will say that I did a good job on the dance, so it was okay that my costume definitely left something to be desired.  The entire dance is on my FB page if you want to see it. 

On Sunday, Nate had to work and the rest of us went to church.  One very exciting new development with our church is that I can now actually sit through a service without a child!  Sasha loves Sunday school, but Lexi just would not let me leave her in the nursery.  A couple weeks ago we tried her in the preschool room with Sasha and she did awesome.  Ever since then, she has marched right into the preschool room and had no issues.  After church my mom and I headed to get ready for the dance off and the rest of the fam came later to watch.  It was so much fun.  I have always wanted to be in a flash mob, and while this wasn't technically one, it was the closest I think I am going to get.

On Monday morning, we hung around at home and got ready for Halloween.  My mom and I raked leaves and my dad carved our pumpkins while the girls ran around wearing angel/fairy/butterfly wings.  I spent a good amount of time making delicious things in the kitchen, like pumpkin bars, pumpkin doughnuts, vermont cheddar bread and bagels, apple cider, and chili. 

the girls with grandma

We sent Sasha off to school and we had a quiet afternoon before the Haloween fun began.  We invited our family and some friends over for dinner and for trick or treating because our neighborhood is pretty fun on Haloween night.  Daniel, who is Lexi's age, and his parents came over, along with Charlotte from Sasha's school.  Jackie and her family came over too, which was great.  At first we all stayed together, but Sasha and Charlotte were going at a much quicker pace, so we separated then.  I just love Haloween and seeing everyone out in the neighborhood.  Such a good community time!

Our little strawberry

Fairy Girl

There are a couple houses in our neighborhood that like to be scary...here is Sasha completely freaked out after one of them...

All in all, it was a great visit with my parents.  They are heading to Nica tomorrow to go see this little guy!

fun in the Farm

I knew nothing about Farmington Hills before I moved here, but I am SO thankful this is where we ended up.  It is such a fun little town, with lots of family activities, but most importantly, it has great racial and ethnic diversity.  My kids are almost always surrounded with other kids and families of color and of many different ethnic backgrounds.  It is true that our family does stand out much of the time, but that is not because of my kids, it is because of the fact that our family doesn't match, quite obviously.  I do get a lot of people who "know" us, who I don't know.  Last winter we were on vacation a few hours away and a woman came up to me and said "You are from Farmington Hills, right?"  I'd never seen her before, but she remembered us. 

But I digress.  The point of this post is that my kids were photographed for a newspaper!  Last week we went to the International Coffee House, which was part of the annual Heritage Week for Farmington Hills.  It was put on by the Multicultural/Multiracial Community Council, and well, I love them, so I go to as many of their events that I can.  They were taking tons of pictures and I had a feeling I would be seeing my children in print soon!  Click here for the article.

jumping back in

Here is a little Nate and Heidi story.  And for once, it doesn't center around our adorable children.  We have always thought it was important to be connected in our church.  When we got married, we joined our first "married couples small group."  If you don't go to church, you might not know the phenomenon that is the married couples small group, but it is quite the thing.  But the thing about being young and newly married and in our first small group together, was that we had NO IDEA how to be good small group members.  Heck, we were just learning how to be married.  And I'm pretty sure we thought we knew everything.  So we stumbled along and learned some things, even though we were clueless.  I would not have wanted to be our small group leader back then! 

Even though small groups, especially when done right, are not the easiest thing to be a part of, we got the importance of it.  So with  a few moves and church changes, Nate and I always dutifully signed up to be part of a small group.  Over the years, we have been a part of quite a few groups.  While we were always committed to the groups we were in, I have to admit that a lot of it was forced.  We tried to become great friends with the people in our groups, but the truth was there weren't that many other couples that we truly felt a strong connection with.  And some that we had nothing in common with.  So while there were some great times, there were also plenty of times that just weren't so fabulous.

Then Sasha was born.  And at the time, the small group we were in always met at night and would go pretty late.  Oh, the things we would do, pre-children!  Anyway, it didn't take long for us to tire of having our baby out till 10 at night, and we were also feeling pretty busy with other things in life.  So, for the first time in our married lives, we stopped being part of a small group.  It was a bit scandalous at the time, but we knew it was the right call for us.   It was actually kind of a relief.  But fast forward about 4 years later, and Nate and I still haven't re-joined a small group.  I have been part of a women's group for the past few years, which I have loved, but we haven't done anything together.  Over the past year or so, I have missed being in a group with Nate, that intentionally has discussions and tries to grow spiritually.  I have seen that while it is fine to take a break, it is a good thing to try to get back into. 

And recently, an opportunity arose.  One of our pastors, along with his wife who is a good friend of mine, is leading a group for married couples.  Both Nate and I were ready to jump back into the small group world.  The nice thing about this group is that it is centered around a book, so when we finish the book, that is a natural stopping point for the group.  But maybe if all goes well, it will continue.  The other difference with this group is that for once, we are part of a group that is diverse in many ways.  Our groups in the past were pretty homogeneous, and well, if you know us at this point in our lives, that is not what we are looking for.  So we are doing it...our first meeting was Thursday night and it was great.  I can see how much Nate and I have grown.  I am excited to be doing this together once again; it's going to be good.  I am thankful and feeling blessed.

growing girls, part 2

Okay, Lexi-Loo's turn!  She is a funny one, that girl.  Oh how she cracks me up.  Many, many people have said that she seems so serious and that they never see her smile.  Well, they don't really know Alexis.  She is SUCH a ham.  Her latest hilarious thing is making faces.  Doesn't sound that funny, but this face that she makes, well, you just have to see it.  It can get Nate and I laughing for a long time.  She is also a chatterbox.  She sings and talks to herself quite a bit.  Her two favorite songs to sing right now are "If you're happy and you know it" and "Happy Birthday."  If she gets any sense that you might be watching or enjoying what she is doing, she will get a grin on her face and ham it up. 

Alexis is also quite intense in her expression of like for someone else.  Take little friend Maya, for example.  She sees Maya from a distance, screams her name and runs to greet her.  She is getting better about physical boundaries, so she doesn't always immediately hug her, but she will stand in front of her, jump up and down, and just squeal with delight.  I can tell she wants so badly to grab her, but she probably knows I will say "be careful!" because her hugs usually end in both people falling down.  She is also very interested in babies and wants to get right in their faces.  And their strollers.  We have a few new baby friends coming soon, so she is going to go into happiness overload!

Lexi also loves to read too.  And I have to admit that she gets more of a variety of books than Sasha did at her age.  With Sasha we pretty much exclusively read the books at our house, but Lexi too has worked her way through the "101 Books for Preschoolers" just because Sasha has.  Lexi loves to pick out a few books at night before bedtime and climb into our bed and do family reading time.  She is still a cuddler too.  The other day she was a little crabby after waking up and just couldn't seem to get out of it.  I asked her if she wanted her "bebe" (blanket) and after I got it for her, she said "Cuddle on the couch?"  I obliged and she was much happier after a few minutes.

Lexi is a great independent player.  She will happily pull out a little tea set and set up a tea party on her own or play with her baby dolls.  I think she loves room time.  We only do it for about 20-30 minutes and I usually open her bedroom door to find her engrossed in her toys.  She loves playing with Sasha though too.  The other morning the girls were laying in my bed, reading books, pretending to be scared of a thunderstorm.  If Lexi wants Sasha and she is in another part of the house, you will hear her yell "Sash!  Sash!"  She mimics nearly everything Sasha says.

The hardest thing with Lexi right now is that she throws stuff.  She finishes her milk and chucks her cup to the floor.  She pulls books down from the library shelves and runs away.  (On Friday I grabbed her, brought her back, and made her pick each one up, though she fought it tooth and nail!)  When she has something she shouldn't have, or when it is her turn to share it with Sasha, she just lets it fly.  So that is when time outs come for her!  She is also asserting more independence with wanting to walk (or run) in parking lots, or buckle herself in her car seat, or insist that she not wear socks.  She has been waking up a lot in the middle of the night lately, calling and whining.  Last night around 10pm Nate and I heard her singing "Happy Birthday to Sasha!" and then at about 2am she said over and over "I want to brush my teeth!  I want to brush my teeth!"  That was a weird one. 

I am happy to say that Alexis hasn't had any bathroom accidents in awhile.  She definitely had a lot throughout September, way more accidents than Sasha ever had, but this month has been great.  She still wears diapers when she sleeps, but otherwise she is diaper free which is a beautiful thing!  All in all, she is growing up so fast.  She is so intelligent and sweet.  But very determined when she wants to be.  One thing I love about toddlers is that they will put up a fight about something, but then completely move on and forget about it the next minute.  I think we could learn from that!  Alexis wasn't really into my photo shoot today, so I didn't get any individual ones of her, so here she is with Sasha...

growing girls

It is definitely time for a Sasha and Alexis update.  They are both growing and changing so fast, I really cannot keep up.  I have so much to say about both of them, I will need separate posts.  I guess I'll do Sasha first...older siblings get all the perks!  :)

School has been absolutely amazing for Sasha.  She has grown up so much in the past month...we seriously saw major changes in her behavior after just a few days of school!  Her awesomeness has confirmed what Nate and I thought all along...that she needs tons of structure and tons of activity.  I've always been able to provide that in the mornings, but with Lexi sleeping all afternoon, we always had trouble there.  Afternoon preschool was definintely the right call for her and I only wish she could go every afternoon.  (She has Fridays off).  She could probably manage going all day, but I don't want her gone from me for that long yet!  All day kindergarten will be here before we know it.

Now that she doesn't nap, she can fall asleep super fast at night, at 8:00pm.  It has removed a huge area of tension in this fam!  She is usually up around 7:30, sometimes closer to 8:00am and she is well rested and ready to go.  Her behavior at home is so much happier too.  Not nearly as many temper tantrums and battles for control, or picking on her sister.  She often continues a project that she was working on at school when she gets home.  She'll pull out craft supplies, sit at the kitchen counter and work away.  Right now she is into cutting out hearts and coloring them.  Her drawing skills have gotten really good too.  Not that I have any idea what 4.5 year old drawing skills should be, but to me they look good!  She also loves to "write" notes.  She has lots of pads of paper that she carries around the house and scribbles on.  There have been a couple times that she has been mad at me and "wrote" me an angry note.  Last week as we were packing to go on a church retreat, she carried around the pad and pencil and checked off everything we needed.  She would say "Got the sleeping bags?"  I would say "Yep." and she would say "Check!" and make a mark on her paper.  This went on for quite a while.  She also has paper and pencils in the car and draws and writes then too.

Sasha also loves reading.  We have been going to the library preschool storytime every Friday morning and we always bring home a big bag of books.  I am happy to say that we achieved our goal of reading the "101 Books for Preschoolers" that the library has.  Anytime there is a moment of crabbiness or just a little bit of time to be filled, we sit down and read.  I have noticed that it has such a calming effect on her, and on Alexis too, who usually sits and listens.  I hope that she is on her way to loving reading as much as I do, because it is such a gift.

Her language....I don't really know how to describe it.  But her vocabulary is amazing.  And her questions and comments and insights.  She is smart.  On Friday at the library storytime, she sneaked back to where I was sitting and whispered in my ear "Does she (storytime leader) have a baby in her tummy?"  I just love that she knew to ask me that privately, rather than yell it out.  (And yes, she does have a baby in her tummy!)  She is definitely picking up on the social stuff we teach her.

The hardest area with Sasha right now is probably dinner time.  For the most part, no matter what I make, she doesn't want to eat it.  And she doesn't want to sit in her chair.  So you can imagine that it is not the most fun time of the day.  Nate usually takes over the on discipline when it comes to dinner time and it usually ends in Sasha sitting at the table until she takes like three bites of food.  Ah well, can't have everything perfect!

So that is our Sasha in a nutshell.  Super cute, super fun, super smart, and still just a little stubborn!  She is a good kid. 

for my girls

I found something today on the blog Love Isn't Enough that is a must-read, which linked to a post on Chocolate Hair, Vanilla Care.  Here is a snippet:

"Dear People Who Have, or May, Come Into Contact with My Daughter,

Thank you so much for your interest in my daughter’s hair. Yes, it is beautiful, we both appreciate your compliments. Yes, she’s very patient and has no problem sitting to have her hair done. She’s been getting her hair done since she was very small and knows of nothing else; her hair regime is a fact of life and she doesn’t see it as the burden that you do. Nor do I.

While asking me about my daughter’s hair, please do not start touching it. Just because I am a vanilla parent this does not mean that you have an “in” to touch chocolate hair for the first time."

Please, please, PLEASE go read the rest of this post!  People fingering my girls' hair is one of my hugest pet peeves!

what's cookin'

Homemaker Heidi, checking in.  I have gone crazy in the kitchen and here are the happenings.  

• Most exciting news...we got our cow!  We ordered a half a grass-fed cow from a farm about an hour away and we picked it up on Saturday.  Sasha and Lexi had a great time touring the farm and Nate and I had a great time cataloging all the different kinds of meat we got and organizing it in our new freezer.  We thought we may have overbought, but now that we have it home, I think we can definitely eat it all!
• Related to that news, I made a true "Sunday dinner" today.  We had the first taste of our cow, in roast form, and I made homemade applesauce and homemade broccoli and cheddar rolls from my artisan bread cookbook.
• And related to that...I have been waiting make a huge batch of homemade applesauce.  The week is here.  Apples are on a great sale at Aldi and I think I will be making batches all week to freeze.  I considered canning some, but I am out of jars because...
• I canned tomatoes!  This happened several weeks ago, but I never got around to posting about it.  I canned the bushel of tomatoes that I got on our trip west over Labor Day.  It was not too hard and very fulfilling.  And you know I took a picture!  I only wish I had more.  Next year I'm doubling it!

• Did you know that my SIL Allie has a new food blog?  She is trying to cook more at home, and focus on cooking healthy meals, so she is documenting it all in her blog.  I have made three batches of these spinach quinoa muffins.
• As part of my attempt to eat foods in season, and locally grown if possible, I have been collecting delicious red, yellow, and orange peppers from the farmer's market every week.  (Okay, and I'll admit, some from Aldi).  When I get them home, I roast some of them and freeze them whole, and others I chop and freeze.  I am hoping to get a huge stockpile so when I want  delicious sweet peppers this winter, I don't have a pay an arm and a leg for some that were shipped from far away.
• Last, but certainly not least, I made a carrot cake this weekend.  I am a total chocolate lover and that is almost always my preference when it comes to dessert, but I have a carrot cake recipe that I love.  I make it maybe once a year, when Nate asks for it.  I love making desserts but I don't make them that often because then I basically end up eating the entire thing.  So right after I made it I cut it in half and brought it over to Nate's parents' house.  It still gave Nate and I plenty of cake, but we didn't gorge ourselves.

So, that is what I have been cooking.  What have YOU been making that I need to try?