Making a start!

OK.... so the comments and hints re: blog entries (or lack thereof), are starting to make me feel somewhat guilty. Several notable occasions have been and gone with nary a word from me: Thanksgiving, Paul's (husband) birthday, Christmas, New Year, Luc's birthday (now Master Six), fourth anniversary of being in the USA ...

Truly, I blame the snow, snow, snow and more snow that has fallen during this extreme season we seem to be in the midst of. The 'snow days' causing schools to be closed have been copious. The days of being 'housebound' have been many. The lines at the supermarket prior to a snow 'event' have been interminable. The hours required to shovel snow have been numerous. The number of calories burned shoveling snow have been momentous. The resultant tiredness and aches have been significant. The desire to feast on hearty dinners has been uncontrollable. The need to imbibe hot chocolate spiced with cognac while one has one's feet elevated and eyes closed has been overwhelming. Therefore, not a lot of time, nor energy, to blog.

I started my first blog (gearon.org) just over four years ago as a record of our move from Brisbane to Chicago. (Some - still undetermined - glitch has made this impossible to view for the moment). I started this rum sum mum blog in August of last year as a record of our move from Chicago to rural Virginia. My intention was to keep it regularly updated... Obviously this wasn't one of my new-year's-resolutions of 2010! *SIGH*

Oh well... here I put finger pad to keyboard as a start. Perhaps now I will be able to fall asleep a little easier rather than composing intended blog entries in my head at night...

Snowbound

Another experience to add to our list of 'new life experiences'. We became snowbound late Friday night. We had a heavy snowfall that left us trapped at our house. We heard the reports of the impending snow... but really paid it little heed. I went shopping (twice) on Friday for provisions for my husband's birthday party - and was met with an onslaught of panicked shoppers. It wasn't until I was at the check-out, standing behind another five people with laden carts (with every check-out the same), that it occurred to me that, perhaps, I should be buying provisions?!

Nah. I decided. It appears that our experience of snowstorms in Chicago was quite a misleading example: snowplows were ready to catch the first snowflakes before they hit the road, stores remained open, and really, not too much snow would fall. It was just really cold. Not too much of an imposition at all.

When some of our friends were not able to make it to our party on Sunday as their road (and ours) had not been cleared, it began to dawn on us that this whole storm-warning thing did have some credence. We instructed the kids to go easy on the milk. Our other guests (neighbors) were able to make it to the party once a clear passage had been shoveled between their driveway and ours.

Darling husband did a massive effort clearing our driveway - some 70 meters long covered with almost 2 feet of snow - attacking it with Olympic-like fervor. We were very sad to hear that a neighbor, whom I had just met a couple of weeks earlier, passed away after having a snow-shoveling-provoked heart-attack. He was only 52. I instructed exuberant snow-shoveling husband to take it easy. This whole beautiful, soft, fuzzy, romantic snow thing has a sinister side.

First snow

What excitement. The first snow of the season fell in our OWN garden yesterday! This was the first snow we haven't had to share... EVER! What a joy to have our very own snow. For my husband and I, snow is still quite a novelty - having grown up in snow-free areas. Our children have grown up with snow in Chicago - but in a purely urban environment so we had to share our snow in the parks, and on the streets... and it was often just too cold to make a park trip to have a quick snowball fight.

Yesterday we built a snowman together. It was difficult for me not to dominate the building process... given that I was just as excited as the kids. Our neighbors gave us some sleds to play with and my husband burnt off a number of calories carting the kids around until way after dark. My husband made a big pot of Wassail that he had seen his food-hero Alton Brown make. After the kids were in bed, we crashed out on the couch after imbibing this old-fashioned concoction. You can find a version of the recipe here (we made half quantity).

The Rake's progress...

We can not get over how many leaves our lovely lush oak trees had been harboring over the Summer... that is until they blanketed the ground! Not some light flimsy blanket either, but akin to one of those heavy, bulky feather eiderdowns of long ago. Not one blanket either, but several blankets being laid down in succession. That damn rain doesn't help - it only escalates our problem, bringing down extra leaves and making the act of raking even harder.

We attempted to rake these leaves... and rake... and rake. We bought a tarpaulin to shift the leaves to the forest at the back of our property. We moved the leaves... moved some more... moved yet more. We built our own Rocky Mountain range of leaves - and with leaves from less than a quarter of our garden!

We sighed and started to remember the number of leaves one had to rake in an apartment: a few minutes to vacuum errant Christmas tree needles and a moment to clean up the leaves dropped from a vase of flowers. Ahhhh... them were the days.

What on earth possessed us to buy 2½ acres liberally peppered with leaf producing machines. Caveat emptor and all that - but why on earth did no one warn us about the hours... nay, days and weeks of raking ahead of us?!

Master 3 turns 4!

Our darling Master 3 turned 4 years old today. My husband and I breathed a huge sigh of relief... we managed to raise him to 4! At times we didn't think we would get this far... as he raced to an almost certain doom or as we trekked off to the ER. Our 'middle child' is frustratingly 'individual', master of his own destiny and was assured to be 'challenging' from an early age. A real conundrum, he has had some behavioral issues at school (totally within his control) yet is the most loving, compassionate and sharing child. He continually astounds, annoys, aggravates and amazes us. We hope we can raise him to a ripe old age as it will be a real revelation to see what he eventually becomes.

Master 4 was extremely happy with all of his birthday gifts. a real sense of wonder and a love for toys means this child loves anything. This makes me happy as we can avoid many of the 'commercial' type toys that his big brother adores. The 'winner' toy was a Melissa & Doug Treehouse.

Pumpkin Cookies

 I was all prepared to make a pumpkin pie: I had measured the spices, steamed the pumpkin, retrieved the pie shell... only to find that it was the wrong type! I wasn't prepared to make pastry at short notice, nor let the pumpkin go to waste... so I made cookies instead!

I found this recipe over at Designmom.

Having only one cookie tray meant I had to make two batches. The first batch wasn't very successful - but the second was better as I made the cookies much smaller (heaped teaspoonfuls rather than tablespoonfuls). The cookies spread so make sure to leave lots of space between cookies. These cookies are very soft and are best eaten within a couple of days. I felt a little more color was needed so I added some color to the glaze. Color could be added to the cookie dough give a nice subtle orange tinge (if pumpkin flesh is light in color).

OLD FASHIONED SOFT PUMPKIN COOKIES

Ingredients

2½ cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp grated nutmeg

½ tsp salt

1½ cups sugar

½ cup butter (1 stick), softened

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze

2 cups powdered (icing) sugar

3 tblsp milk

1 tblsp melted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 350℉. Grease baking sheets.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and set aside. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Drizzle glaze over cookies.

Glaze

Combine glaze ingredients in small bowl and blend until smooth. Add color to glaze if desired.

Post-Halloween post

Such a delayed post... but I thought you might like to see the kids in costume.

This was the first year we had to contend with rain on a Halloween night- what a shame. With such long walks in our neighborhood, this seriously curtailed the trick-or-treaters. This was also our first Halloween as 'householders' and we had to be prepared for trick-or-treaters arriving. As we have a long driveway, I sat near the road with a candy supply, while my husband took the kids out treating.

Master 5 worked out his own costume using pieces from a skeleton costume, and a cape and cap my mother had lovingly made him. He started off being a 'dead magician' with an oversized hat... but when he added the devilish horn cap, he looked quite frightful. Master 3 dressed up as a 'mighty knight' and Little Miss wore a hand-me-down Koala suit. I was so happy that we managed to avoid 'commercial' character costumes.

One of our neighbors threw a Halloween party on Friday evening - complete with lots of games and tasks for the kids: crafts, apple bobbing, ring toss, musical pumpkins, donut-eating (on a string - no hands!). This was so wonderfully unexpected and so-well organized.

Master five quickly designed his jack-o'-lantern and I carved it for him. Thankfully we left this to the last minute as the squirrels ate all our decorative pumpkins and were not shy about eating carved pumpkins either (the macabre remains of a devoured head greeted us the next morning).