a.rose

This photo was taken by Lex Logan Photography When Hallie was just a month or two into kindergarten, she boldly declared that she wanted to be an illustrator when she grew up, and then she proceeded to spend all of her spare time writing stories and drawing the pictures for them.  In the fall sometime she decided that she had to have a cookbook to go in her "kitchen" so she sat down and wrote a cookbook.  It has 12 recipes in it, and they are actually astonishingly close - I think in some cases you really could follow it to make the food it describes.  I think my favorite thing about the cookbook though, is that she wrote it early enough in kindergarten that her spelling was still pretty kooky - and yet she stuck with it, writing, spelling, doing her best through 12 whole recipes. Pumpkin Pie (Pupkin Pie) Lasagna (pzoyn) Cookies (cookes) Fruit Salad (froot salldid) Pasta Salad (psn sld) Pizza (pesa) Pasta Plain (postu plan) Bread (bed) Chicken Soup (chik soop)

Hallie's Recipe for: pupkin pie flour (flawr) sugar (shoogr) spread in the pan and the pumpkin in the ovin for 44 minutes. (spred in the pan and the pupkin in the uvin foor 44 minis)

Hallie's recipe for: psoyn Sauce (sos) Pasta (postu) in the oven for 66 minutes (in the nvirn foo 66 minis)

Hallie's recipe for cookes Water (wodr) Flour (flowr) Sugar (soogr) in the oven for 3 minutes (in the uvin for 3 minis)

Hallie's recipe for: Froot Salldid Banana (bnana) Grapes (graps) Apples (apls) Yogurt (yogrt) Oranges (oornjins)* *This one is my favorite attempt at spelling.

Hallie's recipe for psu sld Ranch (rach) Broccoli (branck) Pasta (postu)

Hallie's recipe for pesu Flour (fawr) Water (wodr) Knead. (nede) Rest. (rest) Spread toppings (spred topings) In the oven for 29 minutes (in the uvin foor 29 minis)

(This is Hallie and Hanna's favorite thing to eat) Hallie's recipe for postu plan water (wodr) let it boil for 23 minutes then put the pasta in and 2 more minutes (let ti boel for 23 minis them poot the postu in and 2 mnis)

Hallie's recipe for: Bed water (wodr) yeast (yest) flour (flaur) salt (solt) sugar (shgr) mix let it rise and put it in the oven (led it ris hap poot it in uvin)

Hallie's recipe for: chik soop Can of chicken broth (cun is cicin broth) onion (uyin) big pot and on the stove for 10 minutes (big pot and on teh sov for 10 minis)

Hallie's recipe for: Coklit Penns milk with chocolate (mik w cau) Pour the chocolate on the peanuts and let it sit. (por the coklit on the penwus and let it sit)

Hallie's recipe for: Coklit kupkaks Water (wadr) mix (mikx) Sit and in the oven for 20 minutes (sit and in the uvin for 20 minis)

Hallie's recipe for Coklik Cak Eggs (egs) Milk (milk) Butter (budr) The chocolate mix (the choktlt mix) In the oven for 10 minutes. (In the uvin for 10 minis)

On Father's and Mother's Day the children wrote down what they think about us on a little questionnaire (someone wrote the answers down for them, really).  Some of the answers really had us laughing: Here is Hanna's perspective on Devin: My dad is 18 years old. (He's 34) His favorite food is "brown stuff".  My dad is so strong that he could lift a "big pot".  When my dad wants to relax he likes to "lay on the couch". (Fyi: in 8 years of marriage, Devin has lain on the couch maybe... twice?)  My dad is the best at "planting flowers".  I love my dad because he "gives me kisses at night". Here is Hallie's perspective on Devin: My dad is 34 years old. (she nailed it!)  His favorite food is "oats" (right again!) My dad is so strong he could lift a "box of suitcases". When my dad wants to relax he likes to "sleep".  (Again, I don't think they have ever seen him sleeping).

We were in Northern Michigan for a variety of reasons: family reunion, wedding, camping trip, and most of all because: Northern Michigan itself is reason enough. We heard about hay rides being offered, so we gathered up the children, my four, my sister's three, and my brother's two, and off we went.  We climbed up the little ladder and settled ourselves and the children on the hay bales, trying to find the optimum adult to child ration to ensure that no one would slip between the wooden planks and fall off the tractor.  Because naturally that kind of incident would not have been in the spirit of the outing. I noticed, in the way you do when you notice things, that the driver of the tractor was a young, good looking person, in that age where they are sort of lost between man and boy.  He was probably about halfway through college, working in the summers to pay his next semesters' tuition.  I was also quick to observe that the person helping us get onto the trailer bed

A few days ago I posted about Hazel's "twin" sister, and today I thought I'd show you long lost photos of my little known about twin sister.  I miss that girl sometimes, you know? We had good times together, really good times. Admit it: You miss her too.

Happy Birthday Mom! Tonight after I put the girls in bed I found myself in kind of a funk. Honestly, I was in kind of a funk all day. You know, one of those days where you feel an itch on your shoulder in that spot you can't quite catch except you feel the itch not physically, but emotionally? You are angry, and sad, and unhappy but you know you have no reason to be any of those things, and it makes you feel worse? And you know that part of it is because you keep forgetting everything that is important - appointments to make, appointments to keep, things to get in the mail, insurance papers to figure out ... I didn't ever feed my kids lunch today.  When they got hungry I told them to go eat some birthday cake, and then Hallie said, "But mom, we have to have lunch first!" So I said, "Well, today is backwards day. We'll eat lunch in a minute after you eat your birthday cake." But then I never made them lunch.  When I called them in from th

I was looking through my pictures last night and came across this old family picture.  Sometimes people ask who I think Hazel looks like, and I don't know if I think she looks much like me or Devin, yet, but I'll tell you that she is the spitting image of Hanna at her age.

I went for a run this evening, in the rain, which is sort of the most magical experience you can have, almost, probably.  You know what I mean. And I felt good, my body and me, we were on the same page for the first time in - I don't even know how to calculate how long.  I keep thinking that I won't know what to do with myself next summer, because for the past 8 solid years every single summer I have either been pregnant or had a newborn, and next summer it's just going to be me.  (I mean, you know, who knows?) Sure, I'll have four little monkeys running around and through, but my body will be mine. There I am, running, and thinking about what a great thing this body of mine really is, how good it feels to move and a song by Imagine Dragons came up, the one called "It's Time".  A couple lines caught my attention.  "I'm just the same as I was, now don't you understand, that I'm never changing who I am." The thing is, a person

I found an essay I wrote when I was eleven for my Social Studies class.  In it, I wrote what I thought George Washington might have said in his inaugural speech.  Now I don't mean to brag about my eleven year old self or anything, but I can totally see why I got an A+ on the assignment. "Dear Fellow Americans, I feel proud to have the honor to be your first President.  I pray that God will give me wisdom to lead this new nation even as if I were Solomon of old.  May my conduct always show the great love I have in my heart for our growing country.  With the Articles of Confederation, a new freedom was born.  We learned that to keep this freedom the states must work together.  Let us unite in praising Heaven for guiding the hands and minds of the honorable men who framed the constitution.  I know that the Supreme Ruler of all nations stood at the loom to insure that the fabric of the constitution would bear his design.  We, the citizens of these 11 states and territories,