Sentimental Eating

If you asked, I'd probably say that I am not a sentimental person. Or at least that is what I thought.

Last week at the beach I was strolling by The Buzz candy store. (The Buzz was the inspiration for my fudge blog post last July.) In the window of The Buzz, I spotted something I hadn't seen for over 30 years...FLICKS.

One of my earliest memories is of my mom taking me grocery shopping and letting me pick out a treat from the candy section. I'd always pick Flicks because after I was done eating the chocolate bits (actually, "chocolate flavored" according to the package) I was left with a paper tube that could be used for all kinds of fun.

Mostly I pretended the tube was a telescope, but sometimes it was a slide for my wooden Fisher Price Little People.

I've actually thought about my happy Flicks memories over the years, so when I saw them at The Buzz, I knew I had to have them. The Buzz's owner helped me find Flicks on the shelf, then commented that I looked too young to remember Flicks.

Well, I was going to buy them anyway, but her little compliment made it a whole lot easier to swallow the price. When I was a kid Flicks were no more than 25 cents. Today however: $2.

One other interesting addition to the packaging which makes me glad I discovered Flicks in the 70's and not the 00's, besides nutritional information, is this warning: "Choking Hazard! not suitable for children 3 years of age or younger."

Thoughts on Cleaning the Bathroom and Kitchen

If you ever find yourself looking to purchase a new home and you find a home you think you might want to buy, if that home has white tile counter tops with white grout in the kitchen and bathrooms, turn and walk away.

Do not try and convince yourself that the tile will be easier to clean than it looks. If the tile grout you are looking at is currently white, it was either put in 2 days ago or was scoured for 3 and a half days with a toothbrush and several bottles of "Soft Scrub."

Do not lie to yourself and say that you will install fashionable granite counter tops and redo the whole kitchen. Just buy the house with the kitchen you want in the first place. Trust me on this one!

Seaside: The Good and Bad

Good: We had a great time in Seaside, Oregon this last weekend. Seaside may not be the most glamorous place on the Oregon Coast, but all the kitschy attractions are perfect for our no-frills family.

Bad: It was cloudy for most of our visit.

Good: It didn't rain! At least while we were outside. Very much.

Bad: The ocean water was freezing.

Good: 80% of the people in our family didn't mind one bit! I suppose once you got numb, the water didn't seem too bad. Ethan and Robert practiced their skim boarding and Jonah and Isaac jumped the waves.

Bad: The boys found it difficult to look at the camera or refrain from making a funny face for most of the pictures I snapped.

Good: I've stopped caring and will get my revenge when I show my stash of "bad" pictures to my boy's future girlfriends. I can't wait.

Bad: The price of a generous Tillamook ice cream cone at "The Candyman" has risen in price from 75 cents to $1.

Good: $1 is still a fabulous deal. And you can get a kid cone for 75 cents if you can't part with an extra quarter.

Bad: The boys went through almost all the clothes I brought for them in the first 5 hours of our vacation.

Good: They didn't mind wearing dirty clothes.

Bad: The sun broke through the clouds just as we were pulling out of Seaside.

Good: We knew we'd be back soon on a sunny day.

Bad: The car encountered problems about 30 miles from home and our 90 minute drive turned into a 90 minute drive with a 4 hour wait. (photo NOT available)

Excellent: Brother-in-law to the rescue! Dale brought us 3 new belts AND is smart enough to have tools in his car. He and Robert got their hands greasy and got us safely on our way.

Late Fee

We failed to return the power tamper to Home Depot by 8pm tonight. Also, I made Robert stop using it at 9pm out of fear the neighbors would hate us and call the cops. We plan to return the power tamper tomorrow morning after a few more hours of use. We will make the late fee worth it, I suppose. (It's a $50 late fee, thank you very much.)

Here is a picture of Robert using said tamper. For those of you who don't own a copy of Home Depot's "Patios and Walkways 1-2-3" here's what we did. We started by compacting 2 inches of gravel, then another 2 inches of crushed gravel on top of that.

The power tamper is loud and emits carbon dioxide. So, it should not be used in an enclosed car (according to the "warnings and precautions" section of the instructions.)

After the gravel is sufficiently compacted, we installed edging and started to lay our pavers. Here is a view from my upstairs bathroom.

Another trip to Home Depot, I thought to "rent" a concrete cutter. As it turned out, one was purchased. But look at the results. All those little spaces filled in with nicely cut-to-fit pavers. Divine!

The concrete cutting tool is also very loud and while it does not emit carbon dioxide, it does puff out an alarming amount of concrete dust. It is also a tool I've forbidden Robert to use after 9pm.

You might notice that the path seems to end without purpose. I noticed that too. I'm not sure what to do about it.

Anyway, the next step will be to sweep sand in all the cracks, then use the power tamper to make the sand settle and add even more sand.

And lest you think that in 14 hours we got just one pathway complete, there is a second, longer path on the other side of the yard that is so close to being done. I just didn't take pictures of it. Maybe next time.

It's About Time

It only took 12 hours for everyone to be out of the house at the same time. Finally, peace, quiet, bliss.

This is short-lived bliss to be sure. Robert will be back soon with the power tamper he is renting from Home Depot. We are going to do some power tamping tonight and maybe get a few more rocks off the driveway in the process.

And the boys will be back soon too. They are running around the neighborhood, or something. I think they left while I was watching Jeopardy. Speaking of Jeopardy, I was a bit disappointed this week when the skinny guy with the big hair and suit from the dumpster didn’t win. I seriously could have handled having him as a Jeopardy champion for a few nights. He was funny. And smart.

I’ve been systematically carpet cleaning the downstairs all this week. Tonight was supposed to be the final room: The Family Room. I was really looking forward to cleaning the family room because it is the dirtiest room of them all. I get giddy when I empty the water collection container and the water is really, really dirty. I call people to come and look and everything. Nobody ever comes, but they should. They are missing out on seeing some totally disgusting water.

I don’t think I’ll be able to do the carpet cleaning tonight, however, because a) I’m not really sure where I will move the furniture, b) I can’t move it by myself, even if I did know where to put it, c) the kids are all hyped up to watch a Lion King video we checked out of the library and they will be watching it in that room, and d) I’m pretty sure I will be involved in the power tamping…woo hoo.

Other Stuff I’ve Been Doing

Picked Waldo blackberries on Tuesday, maybe about 12 pounds. Also ran every last one of those suckers through a cheese cloth strainer to remove all the seeds. I know it sounds time consuming, but it only took about 4 hours including my lunch break.

On Wednesday (that would be today) I picked about 12 pounds of blueberries—YUM! I also took the blackberry juice/pulp (from yesterday) and made seedless blackberry jam: twelve half pint jars and 2 whole pint jars to be exact.

I also am in the process of freezing some blueberries and we made blueberry smoothies and a blueberry pie today. Did I mention I love living here?

Coming Up

Robert is taking tomorrow off to work in the backyard. Hopefully I’ll have some stunning pictures of our “finished” paver pathways to post tomorrow.

I’ll make another pie for “Pie In Here” Day, which is tomorrow. Happy Pie In Here Day everyone.

I’ll get ready for our beach trip and optimistically pack bathing suits (for the kids, OK, not me!) (What? The water is really, really cold!)

I’ll take the kids to see a movie…probably Space Chimps.

Summer Craft #4 and #5

A few days ago Jonah showed me this caterpillar craft from his Ranger Rick magazine. I purchased a bag of pom poms and googly eyes from the craft store and gave Jonah and Isaac a needle and thread. They did a surprisingly good job stringing their little caterpillars together. Best of all, they spent quite a bit of time and had a lot of fun making these cute critters.

We added magnets to the bottom so they stick to the fridge.

For about an hour today, Isaac was the only kid at home. He was supremely bored because it's a "no screen" day so there is no TV, video games or computer. (Well, I can use the computer because I'm the mom!)

Isaac wanted to play with Play Doh, but our Play Doh supply had been reduced to hard, colorful, useless bits.

I remembered this recipe for play clay that I used to make all the time for Ethan. It's quick and easy and best of all, Isaac was able to help. Within 5 minutes Isaac was playing with a big lump of warm clay.

If you are interested, here is the recipe:

Play Clay

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 TB cream of tartar
1 TB vegetable oil
food coloring if desired

Mix all the ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat. Continue stirring until the mixture comes together in a ball. Turn the ball of clay out onto the counter and knead a bit to combine any remaining lumps. Let cool. Store in an air tight container.

Keep and use for a couple of weeks.

Isaac only played with his clay for a few minutes, but he actually sang a "clean up" song and picked up all the clay when he was done.

Piles of Popularity

A few of the neighbors have mentioned that our house seems to be the most popular on the block because there is always a group of kids in the front yard.

The reason for this, of course, is the huge pile of gravel in our driveway. Actually, the pile is small compared to what it used to be. About three quarters of the rocks have already been shoveled and hauled into the backyard. Currently we are wondering what to do with the rest of these rocks that seem to be "left over."

Of course the boys in the neighborhood aren't wondering what to do with them. Tonight when I peeked out to check on how everyone was doing, I noticed that Ethan had buried Jonah up to his neck. (Must be getting ready for the upcoming beach trip!)

Directly behind the boys in this picture is a green tarp. Under it is a sizeable pile of dirt. And it is very possible that we will order a load of sand, also to be dumped in our driveway. I fear our driveway will never be free from piles.