Oriel's House of Fluffy Pancakes

Making Jewish Egg Bread

If you have no time pressures, Christmas is a great time to be in the kitchen with your child. I personally enjoy making things with Analeasa because she is so interested and wants to help with everything.

This was an attempt at Challah for a friend who misses the traditional braid wreath at her Christmas breakfast table in Panama. Oh, and Analeasa's pretty good at braiding, too.

The Pink Guitar

Levi got this gift for Analeasa in July last year and I tortured him and made him wait for a real reason to give it to her. This was very hard for him as he has difficulty waiting to give something even a couple hours most of the time. But I think he would agree, that her face was worth it. When Christmas came, she got to open this one last. Completely unexpected. It's still a bit too big, but it's 1/2 or 3/4 size, so it's just right for my small hands. He's impressed upon her that it's not just another toy, but an instrument meant for creating beautiful music.

For her birthday she got some books and CD's to help with that and if I have the patience, I'll be attempting to learn with her how to do just that. Play beautiful music. or at least just music would be a real accomplishment for me.

So, of course, pink. And fairy, and flowers. Oh, and mister moon too. Hee
Levi snapped a couple the other day.

Oh, and I guess I should explain that in our family the "Blue Guitar" is the thing. Levi's crazy about all guitars, especially if they're blue. We love bluegrass. I had a custom designed blue mandolin made to his specifications for a surprise wedding present. So the "pink guitar" is quite a departure from the norm, but she loves it and I think it's darling.

What's my name again?

So the other day Levi mentioned the title or name or whatever it is that my blog is called. Oriel's house of fluffy pancakes. what does that mean anyway? and so, he said that people probably think that it was my idea and mentioned that it doesn't really reflect who I am or anything. I'm not sure I'm ready to change it, mostly cuz I'm too uncreative to give it any better name, but I think it may eventually need that.

so at this point I guess I'm taking suggestions. And a little history on that name may also be in order. and there's really only little. We finally got the blog cleared for takeoff, but then we were supposed to go through all that set up process, and in doing that I think I remember a couple of options, and frustration at them and then finally telling Levi to just put something in there and I'd just go change it later. well, I guess it's later.....Any ideas??

The dreaded flu shot

I/we were again blessed this year with a birthday illness. This year's was way WAY WAY nicer. The morning after her birthday Analeasa woke me up an hour early and I promptly scooped her and whispered that it wasn't time to get up. she told me she knew but she came down to tell me that her ear really hurt.

I flew into action attempting to be as quiet as possible to let Levi sleep, but I wasn't about to let the nasty flu bug that's been sweeping our church get us down for more than a week, if I could do anything about it. I'd just talked to one who had it and she told me that theirs started as ear complaints and ended in bronchial/sinus/head misery that kept them from church for two weeks.

So, after cleaning her ears and administering every known supplement and remedy to aid in fighting off the nasties, I set out to get her to the bathtub and cook the bugs too. that wasn't a happy thing after the ear cleaning fiasco, but she did it anyway, knowing I was going to be with her. She's always more compliant when a bit under the weather. Levi was super helpful that morning, but still ended up leaving late. Sorry, Levi. So, that was the start and let's just say it was pretty mild for her, fever didn't even begin until bedtime that night and then only peaked at 101 which is very low. but then she had already thrown up twice and had nothing in her for at least 9 hours.

She woke up on Saturday ready for a great day. happy and helpful and trying to help father stay asleep (he spent most of the next two days in bed with aches, chills, and an upset tummy, poor father). But again this is mild compared to last year's week of extremely high fever, up constantly every night and in misery.

After it all, I think we can strike the 24 hour bug from our list of flus to watch for this season. We've all three done that shot. And, thanks to God's mercy, it was relatively easy. Now we are praying that we can weather the nasty one that's still out there (it didn't include stomach at all, I'm told) as quickly and with as good an attitude.

Valentine Birthday Party

Yes, I have finally succumbed. Actually, I gave in before she was born, telling Levi that if he kept saying that, "we are not having a Valentine's baby!" we were sure to have one, if I know anything about God's sense of humor/justice. So, I gave up. As soon as I knew she was a girl, I was certain that pink would dominate our lives until we were out of this world. And let me say, it has, despite our attempts to encourage other favorites. She's a Valentine's girl, and loved the hue even before she knew that there was a holiday that Hallmark has ruined and devoted to the color and it happened to be on the same day she was born.

Ok. So here's the how it all went down. I finally decided that we ought to let her have a real birthday party (not that she hasn't fully enjoyed her previous four adult parties with kids in attendance--her birthday has always been an excuse to have over all our friends that she happens to enjoy too, and not celebrate Valentine's day in any of it's typical frilliness). So, we asked her for a shortened list of kids she'd like to invite. And having made the invites, they all got ruined in the afore mentioned purse swim along with my cell phone on their way to being hand delivered.

Then the dilemma of what to do at a kids birthday party. That's one of the beauties of an adult party--no one expects you to have games and activities suited to their liking, just good conversation. So while brainstorming one day, I happened upon the cliche. But it was to be good.

Here was the plan. We would set up a couple stations of craft supplies (all collecting dust and most handed down to me over the years, so no money out on that part--yay), and let the kids make their own Valentine boxes decorated how they saw fit for their parents. And we'd fill them with some sort of easy sweet. That'd keep them busy and hopefully happy. And then I thought we'd do claymations too. Since I had a large quantity of children's modeling clay given to us a while back and still hadn't opened it. I'm thinking, "this will help me get started on my great purging that I've been really anxious to get to."

Sounds harmless right? well, lets just review the scene and then offer up a prayer.
~11 little girls, several younger than Analeasa, and their baby siblings
~everyone lively due to just getting done with lunch and having a couple hours before naps and the added excitement of a birthday PARTY
~a table full of the craft paper, box templates, ribbons, colored pencils, crayons
~Modeling clay
~a small handful of parents
~a couple Elmers school glues
~several glue sticks
~several different colors of glitter and metallic confetti
~eight or nine pairs of exciting patterned scissors

Thank you, God, for watching over us and having mercy on my idiocy and oversight. Thank you for sending mother's more thoughtful and protective than I. And for giving me friends who won't say anything about my foolishness, but will stay longer than they have time for just to help me clean up a bit of the mess. For these things I am by no means worthy, but am truly grateful.

p.s. the only injury I know of was my daughter's traditional self-inflicted Birthday Teeth-Bashing, which incidentally happened after it was all over while saying goodbye. Unfortunately for her, she got more scolding than sympathy this time.

pps Thank you also, to Levi for coming home and helping me out a bit too, and being company to the only other adult male--Steve, we were thrilled to have you there.

A couple weeks ago

I asked Analeasa to go get a coat on cuz we're gonna be late to church again. A couple minutes later she was asking, "I'm ready, can I go outside?" Levi took the last few minutes while I was finishing up to snap this series. I love it. I hope she keeps that sense of fashion. I don't have it. Everyone raved about her outfit. All her choice this time.

Six Pounds

I was all excited to be able to document this. I got on the scale the other day, which I don't do very often at all (you have to understand, I have the same fear as other folks, only in the reverse). I was so thrilled. It said that I had actually gained 6 pounds since the last time I checked, which was probably over 6 months ago. And then Levi told me that he had gained a similar amount in the last several months too. This was encouraging to us both until I realized that my clothes aren't fitting any better, and in fact some feel worse. And there's nothing to account for it at all. no changes in lifestyle. I thought that perhaps getting more sleep was the thing, but that only lasted a couple weeks and it was about two months ago. so that's not it either.

Anyhow, I think I've got it all figured out. Our scale is one of those really cheap place holders that we got several years ago at the clearance section of Wal*Mart for showing the house I think. we have been meaning to get another so that we can verify our bulk meat orders when they arrive, but this has yet to happen. I was hoping that the foot care specialists I went to see yesterday would have a scale, but no such luck.

So, no real news to report after all. I hope everyone else is faring a bit healthier than we. Analeasa's struggling with a very persistent wheezy cough today, Levi had two near emergency injuries in a couple hours last night, and I feel like I've been run over by a truck.

So, there you go. I think I may be making a trip to see Violet and step on their really neat-o glass weight measurement device soon. Besides I need to check out the new place since they've gotten "settled."

sermon application opportunity

So, I always know that as soon as God teaches you something in your head/heart, He gives you an opportunity (or usually several to make sure you get it good and solid in there) to apply it. But when pastor was preaching on the walking on the sea after the feeding of the 5000 and he said that we'd have storms on monday because we are being taught to see His glory even through the trials and focus on that which will bring peace in the midst of it, well, I didn't expect (foolishly) that it'd be starting before the sun even goes down today.

I hope this doesn't sound too much like whining. That's not what I'm intending at all.
I really am thankful for the opportunity to live how He's taught us so soon, cuz I'm so forgetful lately that I don't even retain it far into Monday anymore. Hopefully I really learn it so that it doesn't take a lot of storms for me to see His glory.

On our way to evening service tonight I threw my water bottle in my purse as I ran out the door late. when we got to church I looked to get something out of my purse and it was almost empty. I looked and sure enough everything in my purse was soaked and floating in about 2 inches of water. my phone is completely dysfunctional (and it'd cost over $200 to replace) and I lost my journal to water damage. I'm told that if I get a new phone even if it's just a cheapo, I will get my phone numbers all back. and the pics I had on there are supposedly safe, but the phone is completely ruined. Levi says they are made to ruin at the sight of water so that they can make you buy more, since so many of them are given away as a selling the service tactic (which this one was) Anyway
it's my only source of long distance and I can't function on the home phone cuz it has no ear piece and it really hurts my neck/head. Can't multitask without it.

So, how you doing with your storm? I'm attempting to remain calm and continue to row against the wind in HIS strength, cuz mine failed quite a while ago.

Snowmans

Analeasa has a huge fascination with snow, and rain too for that matter, mostly cuz she's not really gotten to see a real snow in all her almost 5 years. This year Levi was so kind as to humor her love of the white stuff.

So, first we had to clean out the freezer on the fly cuz we got another cow and desperately needed to defrost to fit it all in. And in the process we had to get rid of the tiny snowman from the single dusting of snow we got last year that actually stuck. Analeasa was sad, but he was looking a bit weird anyway. So, from all the white "snow" in the freezer which didn't even melt in our sink overnight Levi made a nice little replacement for the one we had to throw out. This made the little girl very happy and he lived on our porch where she could watch him through the window for a couple days while it was cold.

Then we had this accumulation of snow on the ground that started falling beautifully just before bedtime and turned to a drizzly wet rain by morning and then stopped. Levi wasn't going to pass up the chance, so after she was snug in her bed, he tiptoed out into the flurry and quiet as a mouse carefully wrote "I love you" in the new fallen blanket while rolling balls for the snowman he made. we had to take pics of him in the dark to make sure if he melted overnight we'd have evidence of his labor of love to show her. She was beside herself in the morning when he opened the door and out there, just her size was a leafy rendition of one of her favorite movies (The Snowman has left a real impression on her this year again).

The rain washed away a lot of his white fluffiness, but she didn't mind at all and immediately made plans to make a snowman of her own as soon as she finished her breakfast. So, out into the slush she and I went with my jammies still on. Levi has named this picture of our "snowbird" his favorite of this winter.

O: Ours is a girl and Father's is a boy, so I guess they can be married.
A: no, she's too small to be his wife. He's my husband, not my real husband, but he's my pretend husband, just for now.
O: well, then who's she?
A: she's our child.

Levi still thinks she's a snow bird. kinda like one of cinderella's poor bluebirds I guess.

Oh yeah, and then it stayed cold for a while during the nights but it'd get just enough sun during the day to melt a bit more for almost a week. And as it did it sadly would turn more and more mottled due to the windstorm weeks before that pushed all the newly raked leaves back into our yard.

Life imitating... itself

They say life imitates art, and sometimes life imitates itself in funny ways, and sometimes it's a humbling moment. The vivid truth of my daughter following in my footsteps, demonstrated in her penchant for stowing her shoes in mine, every day, this once, didn't slip by without notice.