the quotidian (12.19.11)

*de-sprouting the potatoes (the five-year-old was quizzing the four-year-old in basic addition, no joke)
*using the inhaler for the first time: my husband is giving my (wheezing) daughter a demonstration. Also, I’m so thankful for medicine.
*beef broth: a quarter cow showed up on my porch in the form of ground beef and a huge box of frozen-together bones that my husband jumped up and down on in order to break them apart. I thought it might be fun to try to reconstruct the cow by hooking the bones together, but instead I’ve been steadily cooking them for hours, batch after batch—it makes the most marvelous, thick (think jello) broth.
*”I’m a Chinese-er, Mom!”: because that’s what you become when you eat your peppernuts with chopsticks
*watching this Ted.com talk
*messy art: (stifled sigh)
*rest time results: whatever will I do with this child!
*more rest time results: a paper-and-tape bridle and saddle for a favorite unicorn
*leeks: because they’re too beautiful not to photograph
*learning to make granola: she made it two days in a row. A couple more times and she’ll be the new granola expert, yay
*wood carving: inspiration credit goes to Christmas Story (cheesy, but the kids liked it well enough)
*we’re not perfect: but we did tone it down a little (after pausing to to laugh at them)
*the solar project continues! (photo credit: my oldest)

This same time, years previous: chocolate-dipped candied orange rinds, walnut balls