With apologies to Elizabeth Barrette Browning…

Ah coffee, how I love thee; let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
Of my coffee cup; and when being out and about,
To the bottom of my favorite non-spill travel mug.
I love thee to the level of the Venti cappuccino.
(More often needed with sunrise than candle-light.)
I love thee fresh-ground as we strive for perfect flavor;
I love thee “light” as we turn from fat and calories.
I love thy caffeine with a desperation arising from
Sleep deprivation and children’s frantic schedules.
I love thee with a clear mind I seemed to lose
With my marbles. — I love thee with the groggy
Motherliness of my mornings! — and, if well-brewed,
I shall love thee more with each cup.

Once upon a time there was a tall, dark, handsome, slightly smart-alecky College Boy who worked in the campus library. Actually he’s more than slightly smart-alecky but this is a fairy tale so we’ll go along with the illusion.

In the same library worked a tall, beautiful, soft-spoken, and just-plain-smart Irish Girl. Did I mention she is beautiful? And tall? Very tall - almost as tall as College Boy - which is saying something ‘cuz he’s no shrimp.

One night at work College Boy met Irish Girl and discovered that she was his One True Love. After completing many difficult quests which I would recount here except this is a modern fairy tale not a traditional Grimm tale - and yes, I know that disappoints you College Boy, but as your grandma would say; get over it. he finally won her heart and asked her to become his wife. She agreed, and there was much rejoicing.

Over a long holiday weekend the families of the smart-alecky boy and soft-spoken girl took a long and arduous journey How long and arduous? Imagine two adults, one teen, and three children aged 4 months, 2 years and 4 years together in a minivan without a DVD player for nine hours. Need I say more? to witness the joining of College Boy and Irish Girl in the bonds of holy matrimony.

And so their Happily Ever After begins. Congratulations both of you, and welcome to the family Irish Girl!

As I’ve said before, Little Guy loves my camera. He still hasn’t learned to keep his fingers off the lens; once he does he’ll be on his way to photography fame. Or maybe he’ll be known as “that guy who takes photos between his fingers.” Here are some of his latest works in the Kitchen Counter series - I wish just once he’d take some when the counter was clean.

The flotsam and jetsam of our lives.

I Spy…

Same shot with varying amounts of focus. Aka “Get as many pictures as I can before Mom takes the camera away”

If you like those, I have a ton more to post. And it gets better - Uncle Jon got Z-Man his own camera for Christmas. If you like endless shots of end tables, feet, and ceilings you won’t want to miss Z-Man’s photos!

Apparently I wasn’t meant to have croutons on my salad today. I wanted to freshen up the stale ones we had in the cupboard so I put some in a pan under the broiler for a couple of minutes. That would have been perfect except I got busy making the rest of my salad and forgot about them.

About a second before the burnt stench reached me I remembered the croutons and rushed over to rescue them from the oven. But I was too late - the pan was on fire! Blackened nuggets that used to be croutons fed the flames until they were a healthy 4-5″ tall. Yikes! What to do??

I pulled the rack out and looked at the flaming pan, debating my options. Wow, I’m calmer than I’d expect, I wonder if it’ll wear out and I’ll freak.

• Close the oven door? No, what if the whole oven starts on fire?
• Throw the pan into the sink? No, carrying a flaming pan across the kitchen can’t be safe. Besides, I’d learned that you’re not supposed to put water on a kitchen fire.
• Baking soda? That’s what you’re supposed to do, but I don’t think we have enough.
• Baking powder? No, we definitely don’t have of that.
• Put a lid over it? I could, but don’t want to leave the open oven to rummage in the cupboard for a lid.

All of these thoughts went through my mind in about a millisecond. Then I spied the big box of kosher salt on the back of the stove. Aha! Smother the flames with the salt! I dumped salt on the blackened croutons until the flames were all out then put the pan on the back of the stove to cool, cursing my stupidity.

Meanwhile the boys and Tara (a daycare child) were watching with interest from the table where they were eating their lunch. “Something’s on fire, Amy.” “The smoke alarm is going off, do we have to go outside?” “Is the fire out?” “Can I have some ketchup?” “Why was there a fire?” “The smoke alarm stopped.” “What’s for fruit?” Oh gawd, I hope Tara doesn’t go home and her parents that there was a fire at Amy’s today!

Not having learned my lesson I still wanted croutons on my salad so I put the last of them into a clean pan, turned the oven OFF, and set the pan on the lower rack. I figured that with the oven off and the pan on the lower rack I was safe, and went back to constructing my salad.

WRONG!

I didn’t forget about them this time… OK, I did, but just for a little bit… When I opened the oven the croutons were dark, dark, dark, DARK brown. Arrrgh! These almost-burnt offerings - the last of the croutons - were tossed into the sink. Now I felt even stupider, was still hungry, and had no croutons for my salad. Waaah!

Then I remembered the garlic toast leftovers in the bread drawer. Hooray, my salad was saved! This time I was super-duper-smart: I put two slices on the oven rack and set the timer for one minute. Who says you can’t teach an old dog a new trick?! Hey, who called me an old dog?!! The garlic toast turned out perfect; nice and toasty, and most important- not burned.

Tomorrow I think I’ll have leftover spaghetti warmed up in the microwave. The nice, safe microwave.

I got a free full-size bottle of laundry detergent in the mail - how cool is that! How’d I get it? Ruth of Selestial Soap offered to send it to me. I know, that answer doesn’t help you much at all, does it? Keep reading; all will be explained.

I’m always getting emails from sites wanting to trade links with Zany Zebra. Most of the time they want me to link to their main site but they put my link on a glorified link farm that you can’t even find from the site’s home page. Nice try but I’m too smart to fall for that.

I always read the emails though, in case there’s another WAHM or worthwhile small business that I think my site visitors would be interested in. Ruth’s email was one of those. She told me about her laundry detergent; that it’s natural, has no residue, no foaming surfactants, is made up of sodium carbonate(soda ash) sodium tetra borate( borax), sodium chloride(salt) and glycerine, etc. No, I didn’t remember all of that, I looked up her original email. Ruth offered to send me a sample to try and see if I’d recommend it for cloth diapers. I’ll always take free samples so of course I agreed.

Expecting a two-to-three load sample, I was shocked and thrilled to receive a full-size bottle of Selestial Soap! Since there was laundry to do - there’s ALWAYS laundry to do around here - I tried it out right away. The “2x concentrated” Selestial Soap calls for me to use the same amount as my 2x concentrated Arm & Hammer Essentials. The Selestial is thinner than the Arm & Hammer, but that’s not a big deal in my opinion. Arm & Hammer has a fairly strong scent, but Selestial only has a very, very slight soapy smell - one that’s so light I had to stick my nose into the bottle and breathe deep to notice.

The laundry came out clean and bright with no scent at all on it - I really like this stuff! Since Teacher does the grocery shopping I have no idea how much Arm & Hammer costs, but if Selestial Soap is comparable we’ve got a new laundry detergent!

Little Guy is a stubborn cuss - he comes by it naturally since both of his parents are stubborn too. For the longest time he wouldn’t speak much. It’s not that he couldn’t talk, he just wouldn’t. Teacher and I worried on and off about it for months. At the age where our other kids were putting words together into sentences Little Guy rarely spoke single words, much less sentences. He would learn new words and repeat them several times in one day, then file them away somewhere deep in his brain never to be spoken again. We knew he was OK because he could understand us beautifully, and he was able to get his point across through grunts and gestures. But Teacher and I were still frustrated because we had to work so hard to figure out what Little Guy wanted, and because we knew he could talk if he wanted to.

But all this time Little Gut was soaking language in like a sponge and storing it in his brain. Right before Christmas the dam broke and he began to talk like he’d been doing it all his life. It started one night when I was changing his diaper and talking to him like I always do. I was saying something about a cow when he said “Moo!” I was so surprised and excited to hear him speak that I didn’t know what to do.

“What’s a cow say?” I asked again. “Moo!” He replied.
“How about a pig?” “Wink!”
“Kitty cat?” “Mow!”
“Doggie?” “Voof!”
Whoa, I didn’t know he knew these! How many does he know, and where did he learn them?
“What does a duck say?” “Kahk!”
“Rooster?” He looked at me like I was crazy. “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” I said. He looked at me like I was crazy again so I decided to skip that one.
“How about a mouse?” I asked. “Skeek!”
I was astounded! Here was a child who wouldn’t say more than Mama, Dada, and No for the longest time, and he was telling me what all the animals said. Wow! I later found out that Angel Face had been reading him a book with animal sounds and went through all of them whenever she changed him.

Since then it’s been a joy to hear Little Guy speak - made all the more precious because we had to wait so long for it. I love the insight into what’s going on in his mind, what he thinks, feels and understands. Sometimes I wish he’d stop talking, or at least learn to whisper - like the other Sunday when he spent the whole church service pretending I was a castle and climbing his “Wonder Pets Save the Unicorn” figures all over me while saying “Castle! Mine castle! No, castle! Up castle!” etc.

The other night he found two potato cubes that had escaped Teacher’s cooking pot and was making a tower with them. He was so proud of his “little tower” and having so much fun knocking it down that I had to take a quick video of it with my digital camera. His personality shines through, and you’ll get to hear him speak - finally. Enjoy!

Princess had to take Independent Living this semester in order to graduate. I think that’s funny because Princess already knows how to do laundry, wash dishes, cook, bake, and can sew a little. Teacher and I have been encouraging our children to be independent since they were little - even four-year-old Z-Man knows how to make a PBJ sandwich!

One of Princess’s assignments was to cook something at home and clean up afterward. She decided to make Carrot Cake because she didn’t know how to make cake “from scratch” and wanted to learn. I came into the process late but managed to snap a few photos anyway. Just ignore the messy kitchen in the background. Someday I’ll have a clean house… maybe. Keep reading to the end for the recipes.

The batter is ready for a final mix before baking. Our recipe calls for grated fresh carrots, crushed pineapple, coconut, and walnuts. We always use pecans instead of walnuts cuz we like them better.

Princess absolutely hates getting her hands yucky but greased the pan without complaining. She learned that it’s tricky to get shortening into all the crevices of a bundt pan.

I caught Princess licking off one of the beaters - check out that guilty look! She says the batter is yummy even before it’s baked.

I couldn’t remember if the cake had to be turned out right away or cool a bit first so I loosened the edges and had her turn it out right away. Part of it stuck - Oops! But you should have seen the family pounce on the bits that were stuck in the pan; it was a feeding frenzy!

Not everyone likes cream cheese frosting so Princess only frosted half of the cake and dusted powdered sugar on the other half. She dusted her belly with powdered sugar too!

Z-Man got to lick one of the frosting beaters, but he’s not sure if he likes it or not.

Little Guy couldn’t keep his hands off the cake. When I told him “No-no, hands off.” he pouted and said “Not hands off! Mine hands on!” He did stop touching it though.

Peanut helped out by sleeping the whole time. I wear her in the sling or mei tai a lot, and she seems to love it. I love it too.

Part of the assignment was cleaning up afterward and doing the dishes. I tried to convince Princess that ALL the dinner dishes had to be washed, but she didn’t buy it. She’s too smart for me.

This is my piece of carrot cake. I’d share some with you but I ate it all before posting the picture. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m really not - it was soooo yummy! Now don’t get mad at me, use the recipes below to make your own carrot cake. I promise I won’t make you share it.

Fresh Carrot Cake
(My Great Recipes card #64)
For 1 nine or ten inch bundt cake you will need:
1 1/2 cups corn oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups peeled & grated carrots
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple (well-drained)

1) Beat together corn oil, sugar & eggs until well combined.
2) In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking soda, salt & cinnamon.
3) Beat together with the sugar & egg mixture. Stir in vanilla. Mix well.
4) Add carrots, walnuts, coconut & pineapple. Mix until well blended. Pour batter into a greased & floured 9/10 inch bundt pan.
5) Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.
6) Cool on cake rack. Remove from pan. Cover with icing. Garnish with grated carrots & chopped nuts.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
2 8oz pkgs cream cheese
1 1/4C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1) Soften the cream cheese and beat it until creamy.
2) Slowly beat in the powdered sugar
3) Add the vanilla extract and blend well.

Things we’d change next time:

• We’d substitute applesauce for the oil to make it more nutritious and less greasy.
• We’d use half whole wheat and half white flour for added nutrition and taste.
• We’d make 1/2 a recipe of frosting because it ended up being VERY thick.
• We’ll keep substituting pecans for walnuts cuz it tastes better that way.

Try the recipe yourself and let me know what you think!

OK, I admit right off the bat that I took this idea from my friend, Pietra of Homestead Emporium. I really don’t think she’ll mind though because I’m only making them for myself and the girls: I don’t serge small circles like this well enough to think about selling them (as you can see). But that’s OK, they don’t have to be perfect for me; I’m just excited to find another way to use some of the gorgeous fabrics I have leftover from making diapers.

There’s nothing I hate more than wasting fabric so I’ve been keeping all my scraps to make cloth pads and nursing pads but there’s only so many of those that you need - especially if you’re not nursing anymore. I did make some nursing pads for Princess but need more practice on those too. Luckily she doesn’t mind if some of the circles are a bit wonky. It’s frustrating that I can’t serge as well as I sew, but since I’ve been sewing waaaay longer than I’ve been serging it makes sense. I don’t have to like it though. But I digress…

Getting back on track: I took photos of Pietra’s and my cotton rounds. In case you can’t tell, Pietra’s are on the top. There were 10 rounds but one went AWOL before the photo shoot. Her girls do all the work for them, including taking the photos and shipping, except the actual serging. I think that’s SO cool! My girls help me whenever they have time - they especially like tearing out the stabilizer behind appliques and helping to package orders - but they don’t have a product all their own. I was going to teach them to serge so they could do wipes and such but whenever I had time they didn’t and vice versa. Oops, I’m digressing again…

The bottom photo are the ones I made; obviously. They got better as I went along and figured out which side is best to have up (the dyed side) and what settings to have the serger on (for my serger it’s the longest stitch length and neutral width). They’re not as perfect as Pietra’s, but I like them anyway.

Another disposable product eliminated from our household! After switching to cloth napkins, washcloths instead of paper towels for the daycare, reusable shopping bags, cloth pads, containers instead of ziploc bags for food storage, and now reusable cotton balls, I’m running out of ideas. Paper towels? Maybe, but we reserve those for gross things we don’t want to see again - like cat puke. Q-tips? I haven’t figured out how to do those “green” yet. Family cloth? Not likely - I likes my toilet paper!

As Teacher and I try to bring more “greenness” and sustainablity (Is “sustainability” a word? My spellcheck doesn’t like it, but I’m in charge so it’s staying) into our family life I’ve written more posts about “going green.” That got me thinking that I should add a Green category, but I can’t think of a good name.

Quest for Greeness?
Going Green?
Goodness Greeness?
It’s not Easy Being Green?
???

Help!! I need a little guidance here from some creative folk - and I know you’re all creative - so don’t be shy: What do YOU think would be a good name for a Green category? Silly, strange, whatever, I’m open to ideas so go ahead and post ‘em here! If there’s a bunch of names I’ll run a poll - democracy in action, such a beautiful thing.

I can’t wait to see what y’all come up with - there’s bound to be something spectacular!

Everyone knows that you can’t fool Mother Nature, but I didn’t realize that writing her a friendly letter was a no-no too. I wrote her exactly one week ago, and this morning when I looked out the front door I saw this:

I was going to email Father Time about the wrinkles and grey hairs that keep appearing but now I think I’ll leave well enough alone!