You've Got The Cutest Little Babylegs...

I'm firing up the blanching water to can tomatoes, so I have a few minutes to share a project with you. Honestly, my mom gets on my case if she doesn't have a post to read each morning! I get extra points for this one because she is showing off our model in the last photo.

We started cloth diapering with our 5th child. This is a whole post unto itself so I won't elaborate now or I won't get the tomatoes put up before church tonight. With the new advances in cloth diapering it changes the way in which we dress our kids. Snap crotch onesies our olders lived in are not cut full enough for the bulk of a cloth diaper. So someone came up with the idea of marketing "leg warmers" for babies. These footless socks retail for around $12. While this isn't outrageous, I knew I could make them for less. Our first pairs were made for Maielle from Mad's old knee high socks out of which she had blown the big toes. I had to make new ones for Merritt because he was wearing pink polka dots around the house during a construction phase and Matt was concerned the guys would make light of his young manhood. To tell you the truth he wasn't real thrilled with the knee socks I went out and purposefully purchased either. I had to remind him that they were for a baby and said baby was really an accessory of mine. Therefore, the socks only had to suit me!

1. Cut shaft from foot right above the heel. Then cut off toe where it starts to round.

2. Take mid-foot section and turn it wrong sides together. Slip it over the shaft raw edges even.

3. Serge or zig-zag stitch the raw edges together.

4. Let big sister try them on because she thinks everything I make is for her.

5. Show off the adorable legwear wish I had started cloth diapering sooner!

These are the leftover toes. I added this picture at the last minute for my dad. They remind me of the leftover parts we always had from working cattle. I always thought I should have saved a few and made something from them, so in hindsight I pulled these from the trash. Never know when you might take a last minute trip to the arctic and need to make a nose warmer or two...

A is for Apple...

When you are a homeschooling mom whose husband is self-employed there is often no such thing as a weekend. The week never ends. So it is up to me to create the party atmosphere. This is not an easy thing for me. I am not, as are my mom and sister, from "fun country". I am from "perfect/control country". (thank you Rev. Andrew) I would prefer to just "keep on truckin' ". I am okay with "all work and no play" as long as we are making accomplishments. But for the sake of my children who are at least 1/4 "fun country" I persevere in the pursuit of fun.

We try to differentiate that is it indeed the weekend by celebrating Too Fun Friday! For at least 5 years the kids have had Chicken Nugget and Fry Day. They eat this culinary masterpiece on plastic segmented picnic plates at our Little Tikes picnic table while they watch a movie. As if that weren't enough, we party hearty into the evening on a wave of frolic and jocularity with Fiesta Friday. In our revelry we consume refried beans, tacos, and pina coladas. At the same time, thanks to a long ago gift from my dad for the occasion, we're serenaded by Mariachi Madness.

On the particular Friday in focus we would be skipping the Fiesta as I had invited us to my folks' for supper. I offered to provide dessert. Since I recently covered cream pie school with my oldest sous-chefs in training, and mostly because said help was finishing up book work, I commandeered the younger set for a lesson. The following is what passes for fun at our house. How to make an apple pie...

-Use as little iced water as needed to hold your crust together. If available use lard, if not use real Crisco shortening. Cheaper brands have too much liquid content.

-Free apples fresh from the tree make the best pie. If the apples aren't tasty add extra cinnamon and serve with butter brickle ice cream. As long as the crust is tender and flaky no one will notice.

-Get some cute little sprite to drool and take a few bites from the apples while cutting them. This keeps them from browning and adds needed moisture. This always worked for my mom when my brother Sam helped her make cookies. Aunt Mary won't eat them to this day...

-Use a tiny cookie cutter to cut the shape of an apple in the top crust. This will distinguish the kind of pie and also distract from tasteless apples. Brush the top with 1/2 and 1/2 and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Remember it is all in the crust!

-My mom always lays a beautiful table. These were my grandmother's everyday dishes. Love the little orange nasturtiums.

The apples were only okay, but favorable comments were made concerning the crust. I count that a victory. Mom suggested we serve some smoked cheese alongside. She quipped, "Apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze!" I can only guess that one is from before they made butter brickle ice cream...

Another first on Sunny Toad Farm...

It seems as if one cannot call themselves a roofer until they have made a work related visit to the ER. Matt has now found himself a member of this elite order. He was on a lower roof and stood up under the eave where he had already "steeled" and sliced into his head. He always wears a hat as he is pretty much hair handicapped. Unfortunately it was cloudy so he wasn't wearing his floppy sun hat, and his stocking cap is still in its summer hibernation buried deep in the recesses of the front closet. Therefore, there was nothing to offer the slightest resistance to his poor naked noggin. On the bright side, he doesn't have to buy a new hat and the extraction of foreign fabric was not required from the split in his scalp.

He called to tell me the home owner was driving him to the ER- after they dropped home two of the kids who had been helping clean up the work site. My first instinct was to question the necessity of an ER trip. I have a perfectly suitable bottle of super glue here at home that takes care of most injuries. Following quickly was the realization that if the injury required Breadwinner to cease his industrious activities there must be a pretty good reason. A few short hours later he was delivered home swathed in a pressure bandage that wrapped around both the breadth and width of his head. Apparently he had hit an artery, a fact that came to light a few days later. This would explain why 24 hours after the incident when I removed the pressure bandage I had to soak the gauze to loosen the clots that glued it to the wound.

This all seemed pretty minor after Merritt's escapade a couple weeks ago. The doctor had instructed Matt to return in 10 days to have the staples removed. Instead Matt headed to our nearest Napa dealer and purchased a brand new pair of side cutters. I dug out my jeweler's pliers and we proceeded with the after supper entertainment. Madigan recorded video footage of the process which I will refrain from posting due to its potentially to cause swooning. Matt assured me it hurt a lot less than he supposed it would have had the procedure been performed by an actual medical professional. I have to admit I garnered enjoyment from the process and was not the least bit queasy. I do enjoy the removing of wayward splinters and picking of a ripe fester- a trait handed down by way of my mother.

Sorry if this post has been a bit on the scabby side. It has been that kind of fortnight here on Sunny Toad Farm. After Matt's troubles Madigan stubbed off the end of her big toe- and if you've seen Mad's big toe you know that is no small wonder that it got caught up on something. Maliah stepped on a nail which hurt but also put a hole in her tennis shoe. The foot has healed, but no amount of triple antibiotic ointment has helped the shoe. Most recently Maielle fell of the couch and bit through her front lip. Seems that has caused her toe and finger to ache as well, especially when she is asked to do something to which she is adverse. Our lofty goal is to hit 3 days without man hours lost due to injury. I'll let you know how that goes...

Because I Have A Sister I Will Always Have A Friend

Happy Birthday to my first and best friend!

This week at Sunny Toad Academy...

People keep asking the kids how school is going. I know it is the child equivalent of "how are you doing?" A lot of adults have a hard time making small talk with small fries. I completely understand. I am with them 24/7/365 and I still scratch my head often. The following is something Mitchell told me this morning. Keep in mind that at the time I was holding his precious little 4 year old face in my hands. He had my undivided attention.

"How can you like purple and not like the bubble gum of it?"-Mitchell

"I don't know." -a perplexed Me.

"How 'bout you read the Bible of it?"- Mitchell

-Over his shoulder as he walks away.

"10, 25 of it, okay?"

What!!? An important prophecy? I'm still puzzling over this one. Anyway, people ask the kids how school is and usually my kids start giggling and tell people, "We haven't started school, we're home schooled." They either don't understand or don't care that they are often perceived as odd balls. I'm good with that either way.

What they say is true. We have yet to crack a book. Funny thing to say as often the most effective punishment in my arsenal is removing reading materials from their possession. As a rule we don't hit the books until the garden is, for the most part, put to bed for the winter.

Here is a run down of how we have been passing the time the last week.

Sweet potato harvest school to make baby food for littlest brother.

Chicken fried steak lessons. The fresh beans and potato

from our garden cancel out the breaded fried meat.

Carpentry school adds a garage and "classroom" to our home.

There's no question this was my favorite lesson to teach this week.

Cream pie school. Madigan made chocolate and Maliah's was coconut.

Instruction was also received in how to prepare for a church potluck, how to neatly apply paint to a large object and a room, and how to prune suckers from trees. We will get around to the books, but until then we will settle for the mundane of every day life. Like coconut cream pie...

In Case You're Curious As To The Origins of My Writing Style...

It is genetic. Maybe it piggybacks on the love-of-pizza gene. Guest writing today will be my dad...

The two guerillas emerged from the edge of the forest. They were armed and eager. Scanning the perimeter, their muscles tightened in anticipation. Wearing sneers of derision, their minds feasted on the knowledge of impending havoc they would soon wreak on the unsuspecting and helpless fauna of the plains…..

68 bottles of sauce on the wall, 68 bottles of sauce...

I live for pizza. I am pretty sure it is genetic. Something from my dad. Mom limited him to once a week when we were kids. Saturday night was pizza night. It goes without saying that it was homemade. I don't recall ever ordering pizza from anywhere. With six kids and plenty of extras that was never in the budget. Pizza night was one of the reasons I never really cared to hit the town on the weekends. I'd miss the pizza and the people that seemed to gravitate toward it.

Now my folks have pizza on Sunday nights. They pick it up from Papa Murphy's on the way home from church and (gasp) eat it in their bed while they watch T.V. There are so many things about that that seem foreign and removed from how my folks were when I was a kid.

1. People eat supper on Sunday nights? As a kid I thought that was why popcorn was invented.

2. You can buy pizza?

3. We didn't watch T.V. when we were kids. The T.V. was kept in the closet and only saw the light of day every 4 years when the Olympics were airing.

4. Eating in bed?! The only thing that makes sense on this one is that Mom washes sheets on Mondays. We weren't even allowed crackers in bed if we had the flu.

Anyway, now that I make the rules we have pizza as many times a week as my conscience will allow. I can find any number of ways to justify this. I freshly grind the wheat to make the crust. I grow the tomatoes to make the sauce. I put hamburger on with the pepperoni and bacon. I add zucchini when it is in season. It is practically health food as it covers all the food groups.

This week the kids and I made 68 quarts of spaghetti/pizza sauce. This may sound like a lot until you take into consideration that it is our version of fast food. If I haven't thought far enough in advance about the next meal I can grab a jar and have pizza or spaghetti ready in a flash.

We had 20 tomato plants this year, mostly a Roma called Big Mama. They are big and meaty. Aptly named... The recipe I use comes from an older lady in our first church as a married couple. I don't recall how I came to be the recipient of such a prize as we lived in an apartment at the time and had no garden or even the ambition for one. At the time I lacked even the desire to produce little people that would need a supply of healthful nourishment. Forward 14 years to find the Lord has blessed me with both! Thanks for letting the Lord use you, Linda.

Spaghetti/Pizza Sauce

4 cups onion chopped (I use a food processor)

2/3 cup veggie oil (I just pour in some)

24 large tomatoes

8 beef bouillon cubes

8 tsp basil

4 tsp oregano4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp Italian seasoning

2 12 oz cans tomato paste

-Blanch tomatoes to remove skins and run meats through blender. Add tomato and all other ingredients to a heavy kettle and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 1 hour or until thick. Can be frozen or canned in hot water bath processed for 20 minutes. makes 7 1/2 pints.

I quadruple the recipe using 3 gallons of blended tomato in my 20 quart stock pot. I end up with 16-18 quarts per batch.

This is the second recipe she evidently thought every newlywed must have. Perhaps I will take this one to the potluck this Wednesday as Harvest Baptist Church celebrates 7 years...

Elephant Stew

1 sack of flour

1 sack of salt

1 can pepper

cooking oil

1 rabbit

1 elephant

-Cut elephant in chunks and coat with salt and pepper. Brown in hot oil and place in large containers and bake in 325 oven for 48 hours. serves 3,800. If you are expecting a larger crowd put in the rabbit. Don't do this unless it is necessary as most people don't like hare in their stew! (This from the same "straight laced" little old Dutch lady who once served us "dirt" dessert from a flower pot!)