Megan and Her Papparazzi

Preschool productions are among my favorite. Part of it is probably the fact my attention span is about 20 minutes long--the same amount of time preschoolers can sing their entire repertoire.

Another reason is that preschoolers are unpredictable. Very fun to watch the spontaneity.

Below are some clips of Megan's preschool Thanksgiving song-thingy from today. Yes, that's her, picking her nose...so proud.

It was our first time using our new-to-us flipcam so we've learned a few things during this time--like the zoom makes things fuzzier...

Chocolate-Yummy Fun for the Whole Fam

When I graduated from college, I was fortunate to land a position re-typing press releases and managing circulation for a banking magazine in the Twin Cities. With an entry-level salary in the very low five figures, I thought I had hit the jackpot! Eventually I wrote stories, covered conventions and became state news editor. Because my degree was in writing and not strictly journalism, my poor editor had to drill into me the fact that it was a “lede,” not a thesis statement; that it was a headline, not a title; and that it needed a byline, not my name in the upper right hand corner. And that chewing watermelon-flavored Bubble Yum in the office was not acceptable.

One other thing I’ve learned in almost 20 years in journalism—it’s best to stick with what you know.

There are literally thousands of magazines out there in circulation. There are magazines for topics you’ve never even heard of and jobs you didn’t know existed. One of those magazines is Professional Candy Buyer, a trade publication for people who buy candy for a living. These are the people who decide in April what candies they’ll be ordering for Christmas to stock the shelves at gift stores, boutiques and the big box stores. I get to write for them.

While I chew a lot of gum and eat a lot of chocolate, I really had no idea how much science, technology, engineering and math went into these products! I’ve received quite an education on polymers, supply and demand, and sustainable growing methods. So I am an expert end-user, and I’m learning more on how it gets to the consumer.

One of the huge benefits of the interviews I do is sampling some of the products I’m writing about. Some of my favorites over the years have been chocolate-covered potato chips from out east, dark chocolates fromout west and a spearmint gum from overseas whose flavor lasts longer than my jaw does. 

But one of the most unique kits I’ve seen is the do-it-yourself gum kit from Verve, Inc. I came across this company as I worked on a story on gum trends and decided I wanted to do this with my kids.

Verve began in 1995 with these make-your-own kits after Deborah Schimberg made a trip to Guatemala and saw how gum was originally made before synthetic resins came onto the scene. She was very interested in sustainable development for that area through using chicle, the sap from the sapodilla tree, to support the chicleros (those who gather the sap).

“When I brought back a block of chicle, my kids (ages 7 and 9) had such a fun time making gum,” Schimberg said. So the company began marketing these novelty kits and eventually started production of Glee Gum, based on the same recipe as their make-your-own gum kit, which is available at the Olive Leaf Pantry in Fairmont and at Lakewinds Natural Foods in Chanhassen.

There are three make-your-own kits—one for gummies, one for gum and one for chocolate. We had all three. The kids voted on making the chocolate one first. Great choice!

Annika, age 8, helped me take inventory to make sure we had everything in our kit. Then four-year-old Emily helped me melt the cocoa butter in the double boiler (a glass mixing bowl placed on top of a small sauce pan with boiling water in it). Once we combined that with the cocoa powder and powdered sugar, the other girls helped me mix them together. We then re-heated the mixture with three-year-old Megan doing the stirring this time. Then came the hard part—waiting. Once we took the mixture off the stove, we had to wait until the concoction came down to 94 degrees. A tough feat in a hot kitchen. But the kit comes with a really cool little thermometer sticker that you place on the bottom part of the bowl. The 94 degrees glows green when it’s ready for the next step. 

While it cooled down, we got the paper candy liners ready—some we filled with a mini-marshmallow, some with almonds and some with a dried cherry, while a few were left empty. 

While we waited for the chocolate to cool, we had a chance to try the two cacao (pronounced kuh-kah-oh) beans that were included in the kit. They were horrible. It was like eating coffee beans. There’s a reason I add two ounces of chocolate and 12 ounces of milk to my espresso. I don’t much care for the taste of unadulterated coffee.

When the chocolate got to the proper temperature, I had Megan help stir in the chocolate crystals which would help our new chocolate crystallize as well. This probably wasn’t the best plan; I think we missed our crystallizing window. A three-year-old doesn’t exactly mix fast; however, the chocolate still tasted really yummy.

While we were eating one of our treats, we read some of the information in the kit that told us the history of chocolate, including mention of Montezuma, who was said to drink 50 pitchers a day of xocolatl (pronounced ho-ko-la-tol), a predecessor to our drinking chocolate. As chocolate is a diuretic, I can see why Montezuma’s Revenge was so named. 

After chilling the chocolate for 15 minutes, we then filled the candy liners about two-thirds full and ended up with 21 chocolates. They didn’t last 24 hours. The kids’ favorite was the marshmallow which worked out well as Dan and I thoroughly enjoyed the plain, almond and chocolate-cherry ones.

The kits retail for about $13. A discount for educators is available directly from Verve. There’s even a sample lesson plan at http://bit.ly/sentinel11.

Two cautions for doing this project in the evening: 1) Chocolate has caffeine; think about the ramifications of this when allowing your children to taste-test the end product, and 2) make sure the children are well-rested. Mine weren’t. I know, novice mistakes—I’m sure I’ll make them again!

About 26,000 Words

I'm about two weeks overdue on my blog (I try to post about the 15th of each month), and I'm too tired to think of something clever, pithy or even close to interesting. So I'm cheating. Here are some pics from the last month, mainly. That's all you really want to see anyway, isn't it? Hey, "they" say a pic is worth 1,000 words...

Cute kid quote:
Emily, singing in the shower yesterday: "I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ He calls me Frank." [It should be "He calls me friend."]

Above: Lauren several years ago--wearing an outfit that Meg now fits. Crazy.

Valleyfair this year.

Annika as goalie at our family night at the farm

MMMMMmm. Smores.

Meg's dragon face

Meg's first day of school

Em's first day of school

Last ice cream of the summer at Dairy Freeze

Annika and Lauren's first day of school

Lauren opening some of her presents for her 7th birthday...Sigh. Too old.

Ah, Dick and Jane. Always a classic.

Everyone's got one--crazy Uncle John (at Lauren's birthday party). We love you, John! : )

Em giving Meg bunny ears as we "Make Your Own Chocolate" from a kit by Verve, Inc. The kit costs about $13 and they tie it into information about where they get their ingredients in Costa Rica. Pretty good chocolate, too. More on that next time.

Too Tired

I'm too tired to really write anything, even though this is two weeks later than intended. So I'm just going to cheat and post cute pictures.

Quote of the week
Emily singing in the shower: "I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ I am a friend of God/ He calls me Frank." [Should be "He calls me friend."]

Popcorn on a Stick

Boredom is contagious; however, so is enthusiasm. A lot of the activities I do with my kids are simple ones, but a lot of their enthusiasm for an activity has to do with my attitude about it. For instance, visiting the dentist.

At this point in my young life, my mouth is more bionic than original. But I want my children to go to the dentist and have the opportunity to manage their oral care better than I have. So my attitude in having them go to the dentist is critical. If I flinch, they’re going to flinch. So I don’t flinch.Much.

Of course, for some activities, my lack of enthusiasm doesn’t seem to dampen theirs. Like getting caught in the rain. The whole “colds/pneumonia/influenza can’t happen to me” mentality is still very much intact for them. We were at the Dairy Freeze one Tuesday, eating our $1 junior ice cream cones, when a sudden downpour began.

The fact Emily was wearing fabric shoes didn’t stop her from jumping into the little puddles that cropped up near our table. Megan, the three-year-old, just took her shoes off. She didn’t want to get her rubbery Croc sandals wet as she stuck most of her body into the steady stream of rainwater coming off the tin roof.
In a break in the storm, we dashed to the truck. We didn’t dash enough.

In our somewhat bedraggled state, we made our way to the grocery store to pick up some necessities, like frozen pizza. As we were turning into the Five Lakes Centre parking lot, I noticed some rather soggy farmers selling their wares at the market. And there was my catch of the day.

At Ken Simmering’s table was something I hadn’t seen before. Popping corn. Seriously, I hadn’t seen it this way before. It was still on the cob. Logically, yes, popcorn has to come from somewhere, but I don’t believe I’ve spent much time pondering its origins. Ken gave me information on how to prepare the corn—put the whole cob in a brown bag, put it in the microwave and hit the “popcorn” button. For us, one ear of corn took about 2:10 to cook in a 1000 watt microwave. It was so cool!

We made it that night as our family watched “America’s Got Talent,” a fairly family-friendly show. A little butter, a little salt. Voila! Happiness in a bowl.

I think Ken has something here. I think he should put his dried corn on a stick and sell it at the Great Minnesota Get-together…popcorn on a stick. If he has any left when we go back to the farmer’s market, I’m getting more. I think this is a great novelty and several siblings and cousins are getting this for Christmas!

Simple? Yes. Exciting? Definitely! Man, I’m so easy to please.

Megan eating the rest of the popcorn on the cob

Some other fun family activities this summer...Kids Bowl Free afternoons

You gotta just love these thigh-highs Em chose to wear on a hot summer day...

The county fair--complete with bounce castle and slide

Leave it up to the 3-year-old to decide to go down head first...

The family photo with "Bumblebee" from Transformers. Pretty much any yellow vehicle is Bumblebee, really, to my kids. We've even seen a Bumblebee motorcycle and firetruck. However, yellow buses are not bumblebee. Notice Emily's pose (you can click the picture to enlarge it)

Can you tell pork is really big down here in Southern Minnesota? Shameless promotion right here.

Waiting on the Lord

Today I read about one woman's struggle that resonated with me.

When we had the cafe, the finances were always in the red. Because Dan and I felt that God had called us to open the cafe, I naively believed that financial worries would be nil. I'm still not sure what lessons I was supposed to learn. I can only hope I learned what God wanted to teach me so I don't have to go through the same lessons again!

Laura MacCorkle in the story on crosswalk.com said:
I’ve been struggling with an ongoing life situation that has got me journaling and praying and reading and discussing up a storm. I don’t understand what God is doing, and I want answers and a flowchart of how this will all be worked out. Right now.

I want to plan my course and make something happen—move the situation along, if I can, and get the results that I think should be had and on my time schedule.

I can relate to that. How many times did I pray during the most stressful times that God would help me learn my lesson faster so the stress would be over?! And yet, I think the one lesson I most needed to learn was to trust in Him.

Amazingly, when the cafe got an eviction notice, someone came through with the money to pay the back rent--in five figures. Several times we got shut-off notices from the utility company. I even got to know the guy by first name--and he would call us first that morning to let us know he was on his way. He did that so we could get to the bank, make a payment and then show him the receipt when he got there, and he could leave our electricity on.


Over the course of the cafe's six years, I always had cafe stresses, but I ended up stressing less over them. My trust in God's sovereignty grew. I still have bills. I still wish they would be paid now (that instant gratification thing), but I'm s l o w l y learning to take more joy in the journey. Sometimes I have to be reminded, and that's what this devotional and the Bible passage from Psalms did for me. So this is my version of "one generation will commend your works to another." And my way of reminding myself of God's greatness and how worthy He is to be praised.


Psalm 145:3-7
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
His greatness no one can fathom.
One generation will commend your works to another;
They will tell of your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Kid Quotes

Two quick kid stories to share:

Lauren and Emily love the fatty parts of meat. We discourage it as much as we can, but there's a limit to how much Dan and I can do. What's really bad is that Lauren will sometimes only eat the fat and neglect the meat. After one particular episode, Annika said, "It was like a palace of disgusting meat" in describing the mound of roast Lauren had chewed and then regurgitated back onto her plate. Yeah, I know--TMI.

And we're working on training our children to not eat dinner before a)we pray and b)Dan and I are also seated at the table. Believe it or not, it's working better on the younger children. A few weeks ago, I had this conversation with Megan:

Megan: Mom, can we eat yet since we haven't prayed?
Mom: No, not yet.
Megan then spit out a mouthful of cole slaw onto her plate.

And a pic of Megan's latest musical instrument. If you ask her, I'm sure she'll tell you she's pretty good...

In case you're wondering, it's a teapot.

Summer Lovin'

This summer, we did have a blast, and this time I took notes so I could remember some of the fun we had.

When we went to the "cabinet" on the lake, we created a lot of memories by taking things slowly and not rushing.

We got to:

• watch a turtle bury her eggs
• hear Minnesota's state birds, the "balloons"
• go fishing for the first time for most of the girls and catch keepers!
• see a butterfly land on a rock
• be in a boat parade
• watch a blue heron
• watch seagulls
• notice a birdhouse designed like a cabin (apparently even our fowl friends need a getaway)
• run into a classmate of mine from Minnetonka High School who I hadn't seen in 21 years--her son was attending the same camp as Annika
• go tubing behind a speed boat
• dangle our feet in the water
• sleep on a top bunk--without railings!
• have Meg sleep in a twin bed
• see a wall that looked like a cow
• drive around Camp Ripley which has entrance gates like a castle--really cool! to which Emily replied, "If we go in there, will we go in the dungeon?"
• see ALL of our cousins on both my side and Dan's
• celebrate Dan's grandma's 97th birthday party
• watch "dance" (ants)
• have deep theological discussions

For instance, one conversation I had with Lauren went this way:
Lauren: I can't hear Jesus, but I can see him.
Mom: How can you see him?
Lauren: I have super vision because I'm a fairy, you know.

 deer tracks

 Meg at Camp Ripley--what a contrast. "Pearls" and a tank...

We also tried to spend money at mom-n-pop shops in Little Falls, but they were all closed. We ended up at the Pizza Ranch.

Lost in Translation

Before I became a mother, I remember listening to youngsters only to look at their parents with that lost look on my face. I was being attentive, yet I had no idea what the youngun had just said to me.

Now, as a parent, I've become the translator. What's funny is that even though you can understand every word my three-year-old is saying, you still may not have any idea what Megan just said.

For example:
Mom: What shoes are you going, to wear?
Megan: My beautiful shoes.
Mom: I don't think those will work so well for the water park.
Megan: I'll get my tapping shoes.

And the tapping shoes will work just fine for the water. Why? Because these are not necessarily straight descriptions of these shoes; these seem to be the actual names for these shoes. These shoes are always described exactly the same way. What's great about being able to spend so much time with my girls is that I know exactly what Megan is talking about. Not that I'm not driven to madness (in more than one way), but being a Mom is great fun.

the beautiful shoes

the tapping shoes (because of their sound when walking)

the coconut shoes 
(so named by Emily because she misheard the words 'polka dot' shoes)

Surgery #1 and #2

In June, I had surgery to remove a small cyst, a complication of my last c-section. I let a few people know about it way ahead of time, including the dear woman at our church who coordinates meals. I asked for one week's worth of dinners while I recovered. We got two weeks.

Food always tastes better when someone else makes it; and these were grand. I don't think our family has ever had so many desserts in a 14-day period! We also got some good ideas for future recipes. We were so blessed by those who shared their gifts of hospitality.

Before my surgery, two of the women from church also came by to pray for me. I was the recipient of the first shawl from the newly formed prayer shawl ministry at church. That's pretty cool. Of course, I like being first at anything, which doesn't happen often since I'm not very athletic. But this was pretty special, and I feel the prayers of these women and the many others who lifted me up really helped since I wasn't very nervous before the surgery, unusual for me.

Two weeks later, it was Lauren's turn. She had to have her adenoids out; since her tonsils would probably have to come out at some point, too, we decided to do it all at once since Lauren has such a fear of all things medical.

Lauren hates needles. When she had to get her last immunization for kindergarten, it took about three of us to hold her down. This time, she was much braver. It only took one nurse to hold her arm as Lauren sat on my lap as the phlebotomist drew blood for her pre-op appointment.

Before her surgery, she asked Dan if people at church could pray for her. So, the Sunday before, her name was added to the prayer request list. And on Monday, two ladies from church brought her her very own Lauren-sized prayer shawl. The women prayed for Lauren as did Dan and I.

Lauren went into surgery with some nervousness, but not too much. She went to the surgery in her pajamas and slippers carrying her stuffed dog and prayer shawl.

We're now both fully recovered and very grateful that so many cared for us enough to lift us up to the Heavenly Father.

Some fun thoughts

Spending time together in an unhurried setting allows more time to just observe. So here are a few observations...

1. Megan's newest cell phone is made from three lego pieces. I have no idea how good the reception is; she seems happy with it.
2. Tonight, she fell asleep with her sunglasses on. Good ol' girl of the 1980s..." I wear my sunglasses at night..."
3. I think it was yesterday when Megan approached Dan and said, "Daddy, can I play the chicken game on your iPod?" Dan wasn't sure what she was talking about, so she expounded. "The green chickens, the red chickens." Ah, Angry Birds...
4. While on vacation, Dan and I heard a lot of new jargon:
     squirrel--as it relates to ice cream--it means "swirl" (Emily)
     cabinet--where one stays on vacation (Emily)
     balloons--those pretty Minnesota birds (Megan)
5. Lauren's voice has changed since her surgery. It's now higher-pitched and a tad more nasally--ironic, I think, since her nasal passage is supposed to be more open.
6. Megan is always ready with a song. Often she serenades us while on car rides.
7. Lauren is content to fish for hours, even when not catching anything.
8. Annika, however, is much less patient. She hates fishing when not catching keepers and hates shopping if she can't buy.
9. Megan's latest meltdown was tonight at bedtime--when Dan wouldn't let her continue chewing her gum while in bed. This after we had to cut a chunk of her hair to extract the last piece...
10. All four girls are daddy's girls, but after getting to spend more time concentrating on them and not tasks to be done while at the "cabinet," I think I've carved a bit more of a niche where they are a little more mommy's girls.

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation 2011, part deux

We learned last year that driving up and back to Lake Beauty twice within 48 hours is a lot of driving--16 hours, to be exact. And this year we decided to take a more relaxed pace when driving Annika to the two-day camp for first and second graders. So we rented a cabin for the other five of us to R&R while Annika was busy at camp getting hives from a heretofore unknown allergy to horses.

Woodticks aside, we had a wonderful time. We put together a 100 piece puzzle, shared internet from an unknown neighbor, did some swimming, a lot of fishing...our first full day there, we were able to eat surf and turf for dinner since we had enough "keepers" of pan fish and had brought up some steak.

Dan and I even watched 1.5 movies together.

It was low-key, quiet, peaceful, restorative. I loved it. For us, it was a perfect family getaway.

The family we rented from, the Olsons, attend church at another Covenant church. We heard about them from a mutual friend. The Olsons bought the cabin which is directly next door to the wife's parents' cabin so we had a chance to get to know them, the Christiansens. Ah, good Swedish names. Good Covenant names. It was fun--it was like we had connections there before we ever got there. They even let Annika and Lauren help clean the paddleboat and ride around in it.

Since we were so close to Brainerd, we had to see Paul Bunyan and Babe. We also made a side trip to Camp Ripley, which is where the National Guardsmen down in Fairmont do their two-week training. We stopped there because those guys/gals will be deployed to Kuwait in the next few weeks for about a year.

 Spotting deer tracks...

 Emily catching her first fish...

 This is a traditional dustpan in the northwoods...

 At Camp Ripley...with her beads and smile while carrying her "slip-slops,"

Meg seems the poster child for "Make Love, Not War"

 Lauren was totally Daddy's fishing buddy.

 On our last morning there, I was able to catch this shot of the 

mama and baby loon which had provided us with night music all week.