So, siblings, remember when we were kids and planning our birthday parties, and we were allowed to invite as many friends as the age we were turning? It always seemed perfectly reasonable to me, and cool in a closet-nerd kind of way.
Well.
Miriam turned 10 this year. 10 is a big number. It requires BOTH hands to count it. And with double the digits, one ought to have double the fun, right?
Right?
So.
Miriam wanted to invite everyone in the whole world that she knew to her birthday tea and knitting party.
And, like a fool, I LET her, thinking, "Oh, surely, SOME won't be able to make it, it NEVER happens that EVERYONE comes..."
(FOREBODINGGG....)
And THAT is why we had 19 girls packed into our living room this past Sunday.
Someone please shoot me before I ever agree to do something like that ever again.
More details forthcoming, once I've recovered.
(P.S. Everyone had a fabulous time, and Miriam felt properly celebrated, so it all worked out, glory be to God.)
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Not Dead Yet.
And no, I haven't giving up blogging either. My hard drive is almost full (mostly of pictures and movies!) so Mr. Pickles and I have had to figure out a solution. We have an external hard drive now, he just has to teach me how to use it so I can transfer pictures from our cameras and then upload them to the blog. I KNOW! TWO whole steps! My life is SO complicated.
But I have so many things I want to share with you all! Here are a few (without pictures):
-We have a couple of wrens building a nest in our backyard. In a trashbag. That is full of leaves from LAST FALL. See, you should NEVER throw anything away! Now we will have our very own family of baby birds in our very own backyard soon because of our procrastination!
-Birthday Week is approaching! It's non-stop party at die Gurke Haus!
-Speaking of Birthday Week, for Miriam's 10th birthday I'm taking her to the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wis., and to visit her godmother who lives just a few minutes away from it. Say a prayer for us -- we'll be praying for you!
-The weather here is CRAZY. It was such a mild winter -- I think there were really only two days that could be considered semi-decent sledding weather (the kids came home covered in mud). The spring has been amazing. Yesterday and today it was in the 80's, which is just a little too extreme. I find myself dreading summer however....
-We've gotten threatening letters from our neighborhood HOA about the scruffiness of our property. We know it's scruffy. We have kids! Our front lawn has been a source of personal embarrassment for two years now. So we've got Big Plans for re-landscaping our little postage stamp yard -- about to become half a postage stamp! I also really, really want to make our back yard a true living space -- right now it's pretty junky (even not counting the broken gate lying on its side across the door frame -- I think we exist to make our neighbors feel better about themselves).
-Mr. Pickles and I have been taking this Matrimonial Love Course. It's a case study method, where you read a case, make note of the facts, discuss possible problems, and think of solutions together. We did the one for parenting a couple years ago and it was very insightful -- the marriage course is proving to be as well. It can get depressing reading about other couples' serious marital problems though! However you DO get to solve their lives for them. The bossy older sister in me finds that very satisfying.
-We're STILL working on our 2011 Christmas letter -- our printer died in the middle of printing them all out (the thing WAS about 10 years old -- a veritable fossil), so we had to get a new one. It's very shiny and has a scanner. I'm a little afraid of it. But all the letters got printed, and then when we went to print out labels we learned that the computer had deleted our address book. Grrrrrrrrr. So now we just have to psyche ourselves up to hand-address them and just finish already. (#19 on the anti-procrastination list...) But they are printed out! And we have the stamps! So we are determined to do it before the letter becomes obsolete!
-Speaking of procrastinating, for Lent I've made an anti-procrastination list of Stuff To Do Already and am working my way through them. I've crossed 11 1/2 things off my list so far. Some alert readers may note that we are near to finishing the third week of Lent. However, I would like to point out that these are things that I have been putting off for MONTHS, so 11 1/2 things in 3 weeks is pretty good! Often my problem is that I don't have the time to do many of the things during the day (like all the things that involve sewing, and therefore require scissors and pins to be out in the open) until certain destructive small persons are contained. Preferably, asleep. But by that point I'M ready for bed too, and starting a project that has More Than One Step can be beyond my emotional strength. It's been revealing how much of my resistance to completing these projects has been psychological -- when I can just psyche myself up to do a project, it really isn't that difficult and doesn't take that much time. I just have to invest in it mentally. For some reason that's been a real challenge. It's been good for me to realize this about myself. Something to bring to my spiritual adviser, when I get one (#20).
-Also for Lent, I tried giving up wheat, in communion with Mr. Pickles. But that's been a miserable failure. I find that making pasta and sandwiches for lunch is just too convenient -- I haven't thought through what to replace them with instead that doesn't involve tripling our grocery budget. Any suggestions? (fyi the kids aren't going wheat-free so they're still sandwich-approved -- it's just me)
-We got our piano tuned yesterday. Well, not exactly tuned. We got a pitch raise, which means that the pitches had sunk so low that the tuner had to raise them all back into somewhat closer range to their true pitch. And then in another month he's going to have to come back to do the fine tuning. I knew it sounded bad, but I didn't know it was THAT BAD! I feel like a failure of a piano owner! It had only been 8 months since the last tuning, and the one before THAT was exactly 6 months, so it's not like we're neglecting the piano. I have a sneaking suspicion it was the last tuner we had. The piano honestly just never sounded in tune, even right after he tuned it. And it started sounding TERRIBLE about 2 months after the tuning. It sounds much better now, even though I can tell it's not perfect. But at least we're not cringing every time Miriam practices!
There, proof we're not dead. Life is going on -- the usual rounds of laundry, school, chaos-resistance, and days in the sunshine thrown in for good measure.
FURTHER BULLETINS AS EVENTS WARRANT
But I have so many things I want to share with you all! Here are a few (without pictures):
-We have a couple of wrens building a nest in our backyard. In a trashbag. That is full of leaves from LAST FALL. See, you should NEVER throw anything away! Now we will have our very own family of baby birds in our very own backyard soon because of our procrastination!
-Birthday Week is approaching! It's non-stop party at die Gurke Haus!
-Speaking of Birthday Week, for Miriam's 10th birthday I'm taking her to the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wis., and to visit her godmother who lives just a few minutes away from it. Say a prayer for us -- we'll be praying for you!
-The weather here is CRAZY. It was such a mild winter -- I think there were really only two days that could be considered semi-decent sledding weather (the kids came home covered in mud). The spring has been amazing. Yesterday and today it was in the 80's, which is just a little too extreme. I find myself dreading summer however....
-We've gotten threatening letters from our neighborhood HOA about the scruffiness of our property. We know it's scruffy. We have kids! Our front lawn has been a source of personal embarrassment for two years now. So we've got Big Plans for re-landscaping our little postage stamp yard -- about to become half a postage stamp! I also really, really want to make our back yard a true living space -- right now it's pretty junky (even not counting the broken gate lying on its side across the door frame -- I think we exist to make our neighbors feel better about themselves).
-Mr. Pickles and I have been taking this Matrimonial Love Course. It's a case study method, where you read a case, make note of the facts, discuss possible problems, and think of solutions together. We did the one for parenting a couple years ago and it was very insightful -- the marriage course is proving to be as well. It can get depressing reading about other couples' serious marital problems though! However you DO get to solve their lives for them. The bossy older sister in me finds that very satisfying.
-We're STILL working on our 2011 Christmas letter -- our printer died in the middle of printing them all out (the thing WAS about 10 years old -- a veritable fossil), so we had to get a new one. It's very shiny and has a scanner. I'm a little afraid of it. But all the letters got printed, and then when we went to print out labels we learned that the computer had deleted our address book. Grrrrrrrrr. So now we just have to psyche ourselves up to hand-address them and just finish already. (#19 on the anti-procrastination list...) But they are printed out! And we have the stamps! So we are determined to do it before the letter becomes obsolete!
-Speaking of procrastinating, for Lent I've made an anti-procrastination list of Stuff To Do Already and am working my way through them. I've crossed 11 1/2 things off my list so far. Some alert readers may note that we are near to finishing the third week of Lent. However, I would like to point out that these are things that I have been putting off for MONTHS, so 11 1/2 things in 3 weeks is pretty good! Often my problem is that I don't have the time to do many of the things during the day (like all the things that involve sewing, and therefore require scissors and pins to be out in the open) until certain destructive small persons are contained. Preferably, asleep. But by that point I'M ready for bed too, and starting a project that has More Than One Step can be beyond my emotional strength. It's been revealing how much of my resistance to completing these projects has been psychological -- when I can just psyche myself up to do a project, it really isn't that difficult and doesn't take that much time. I just have to invest in it mentally. For some reason that's been a real challenge. It's been good for me to realize this about myself. Something to bring to my spiritual adviser, when I get one (#20).
-Also for Lent, I tried giving up wheat, in communion with Mr. Pickles. But that's been a miserable failure. I find that making pasta and sandwiches for lunch is just too convenient -- I haven't thought through what to replace them with instead that doesn't involve tripling our grocery budget. Any suggestions? (fyi the kids aren't going wheat-free so they're still sandwich-approved -- it's just me)
-We got our piano tuned yesterday. Well, not exactly tuned. We got a pitch raise, which means that the pitches had sunk so low that the tuner had to raise them all back into somewhat closer range to their true pitch. And then in another month he's going to have to come back to do the fine tuning. I knew it sounded bad, but I didn't know it was THAT BAD! I feel like a failure of a piano owner! It had only been 8 months since the last tuning, and the one before THAT was exactly 6 months, so it's not like we're neglecting the piano. I have a sneaking suspicion it was the last tuner we had. The piano honestly just never sounded in tune, even right after he tuned it. And it started sounding TERRIBLE about 2 months after the tuning. It sounds much better now, even though I can tell it's not perfect. But at least we're not cringing every time Miriam practices!
There, proof we're not dead. Life is going on -- the usual rounds of laundry, school, chaos-resistance, and days in the sunshine thrown in for good measure.
FURTHER BULLETINS AS EVENTS WARRANT
Sunday, February 05, 2012
{phfr}
{pretty}
{happy}
We're doing ancient history this year. This photo was completely unstaged. *sigh of happiness*
{funny}
 |
| the grown-ups were having wine with dinner. he wanted some "juice" too |
{real}
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| the self-timer misfired |
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| slightly better, but still very "real" :) |
Homemade Christmas
I love making presents for Christmas, especially now that Miriam is old enough and skilled enough to help. I only wish I had remembered to take pictures of all the things we made! Here are some handprint pillows we made for the grandparents. I got the idea from cousin Rachel, who had forwarded a Pinterest link.
This pillow is for Nana, who, when I first started planning it, had 19 great-grandchildren and one little flower on the way -- by the time I finished it had expanded to four on the way! (for that reason I'm glad I didn't finish it before Christmas -- this way I was able to include everyone's Big News!)
I tried to think of ways to fit all the hands on one side of a pillow, but it would have been chaos! This way I could organize them in family groups to help Nana keep track of who belongs to where.
The completed pillow!
The pillow form I used is 20x20.
Apologies to all the cousins who have been waiting to see the end result. Hope it was worth the wait!
The grandparents on each side got a smaller pillow with just our kids' prints.
This pillow is for Nana, who, when I first started planning it, had 19 great-grandchildren and one little flower on the way -- by the time I finished it had expanded to four on the way! (for that reason I'm glad I didn't finish it before Christmas -- this way I was able to include everyone's Big News!)
 |
| tracing the handprint patterns |
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| embroidering the hands. I tried to use a different color for each hand. |
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| what a clan! |
The pillow form I used is 20x20.
Apologies to all the cousins who have been waiting to see the end result. Hope it was worth the wait!
The grandparents on each side got a smaller pillow with just our kids' prints.
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| first sewing project ever! |
|
| ta-da! |
Belated Bear Birthday Post
So Katie turned 7 in November. In keeping with Pickles blogging tradition, I am posting about it 3 months after the fact. :)
Yay for 7! The Age of Reason is magical. Katie has really grown up a lot in the last year. Now we're looking forward to her First Penance later this month, and First Holy Communion in May!
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| the craft Katie chose was, of course, decorating princess crowns |
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| Katie decorated her cake all by herself! |
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| such a fun group of girls! |
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| She loved every single present she received, but the purple unicorn pillow pet from Miriam was perhaps the cause of the most rejoicing! |
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
How to Make Chicken Over Biscuits
by Katie
Now you know. You're welcome.
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| Step #1 is very important: kill chicken DEAD |
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| how to make the white sauce |
Christmas 2011
Figured I should get these up before Candlemas...
For some reason I didn't think about taking a picture of the whole family (it's not like I had two big meals to make for guests or anything!), so you don't get the girls all dressed up in their Christmas finery, at least not until I have a chance to make everyone get all dolled up again and fake it. :)
St. Nicholas' Day
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| Jojo likes his Joey Dress-up |
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| a bear for The Bear |
Making Our House Fair (As We Are Able)
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| window markers! I'm so happy about this impulse purchase! |
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| trim the [banisters]... |
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| and set the table... (he does this when he is hungry and has decided it's Time To Eat) |
Christmas Day
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| well, if you'd been woken up at o'dark thirty, your picture might be a little blurry too! |
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| that's better. |
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| Daniel loveslovesloves this doggie, given to him by Katie. It is unbelievably soft and squishy, just like him! |
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| yay! another Tails book to replace the one I destroyed! |
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| who needs more presents? read me my books, slave! |
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| ain't I handsome? |
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| this is the best shot one can expect from him these days... |
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Happy New Year 2012!!!
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| some of us are happier about our decision to stay up late to ring in the new year than others... |
Friday, December 30, 2011
Merry Christmas from Handel and Quinhagak, Alaska
According to an email forward I just received:
"This video from the small Yupiq Village of Quinhagak, Alaska, was a school computer project intended for the other Yupiq villages in the area. Much to the villagers' shock, over a half million people have viewed it."
Actually, as of this writing, it's reached over a million views, when it was originally intended for an audience of about 200!
It's amazing what a group of 10 year olds with a video camera, some paper, and a Sharpie can do!
"This video from the small Yupiq Village of Quinhagak, Alaska, was a school computer project intended for the other Yupiq villages in the area. Much to the villagers' shock, over a half million people have viewed it."
Actually, as of this writing, it's reached over a million views, when it was originally intended for an audience of about 200!
It's amazing what a group of 10 year olds with a video camera, some paper, and a Sharpie can do!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.....
(didn't I use the same blog title last year? well, it's still true...)
So until I figure out which blogger gadget turns on Smell-O-Vision, just imagine that scents of cardamom and razzleberry and baking bread with a hint of pine are wafting towards you, and then you'll know what our house smells like right now. I love the smell of Christmas Eve.
I am especially appreciating the smell of the Southern-Comfort-laced egg nog that is sitting next to my laptop right now. I spent pretty much all day in the kitchen, and am now sitting with my feet up, until I have to get up and finish wrapping. I had lots of help in the kitchen today. I like the fact that the kids want to be involved in the process of making our family's traditional Christmas goodies, especially Pulla. Making Pulla is a lot of work, but fun work, plus it's much more fun when you have an accomplished helper.
Nothing says Christmas Eve like Pulla, freshly drizzled, waiting on the counter for Christmas morning:
Aaaaaaand another Moment of Truth -- just to the right of that lovely view is this:
Despite the knowledge that my sink will look like this all day tomorrow too, I'm still so looking forward to the morning! I love Christmas. Once again I find myself wishing I had spent more time preparing spiritually for the feast, but I do feel very at peace this year. And I'm still waiting with a joyful expectation for the coming of the Lord.
Merry Christmas!
So until I figure out which blogger gadget turns on Smell-O-Vision, just imagine that scents of cardamom and razzleberry and baking bread with a hint of pine are wafting towards you, and then you'll know what our house smells like right now. I love the smell of Christmas Eve.
I am especially appreciating the smell of the Southern-Comfort-laced egg nog that is sitting next to my laptop right now. I spent pretty much all day in the kitchen, and am now sitting with my feet up, until I have to get up and finish wrapping. I had lots of help in the kitchen today. I like the fact that the kids want to be involved in the process of making our family's traditional Christmas goodies, especially Pulla. Making Pulla is a lot of work, but fun work, plus it's much more fun when you have an accomplished helper.
 |
| she shaped all three of the braids, God bless her! |
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| my little Rapunzel is a very experienced braider |
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| not much longer and I can turn over the whole process to her! |
Nothing says Christmas Eve like Pulla, freshly drizzled, waiting on the counter for Christmas morning:
Aaaaaaand another Moment of Truth -- just to the right of that lovely view is this:
 |
| has anyone else's kitchen sink looked like this ALL stinkin day? |
Despite the knowledge that my sink will look like this all day tomorrow too, I'm still so looking forward to the morning! I love Christmas. Once again I find myself wishing I had spent more time preparing spiritually for the feast, but I do feel very at peace this year. And I'm still waiting with a joyful expectation for the coming of the Lord.
Merry Christmas!
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