The latest and greatest!

There's been a lot of fun around the Walsman house lately!

Steve's parents came for an evening and brought their lovely friends from England with them.  The boys sat with them and an Atlas, an learned all about England and it's history.  It was perfect because we have just been learning in history about the English queens and kings from the 1500's.  England strikes me as having at times both a tragic and romantic history.  

John and Christine were fascinatingly good story tellers.  Christine loves history so we were just soaking it all in!  Then everyone, minus me and the babies, traveled to Stone Mountain for the laser show.  It was quite a day!

Of course, one of my main tasks of late has been to protect Samuel.  All I can say is that he is going to be ONE TOUGH COOKIE.  He gets poked, pulled and prodded far more than I'd like to admit.  I try, I really really do.  Benjamin tries to, I think.  He just loves his little brother so passionately he doesn't know quite how to express it.  I think.

Do  you see how YUMMY he is?  Baby love.  Baby fever.  I've got it.  

Samuel will be 6 months old tomorrow!  Truly, time has flown by.  The more kids you have the faster time seems to travel.  Steve said something to me today like, "Yeah, but you said that 3 or 4 weeks ago."  I told him, three or four weeks in my time, is 3 or 4 days in regular time.  So if your ever waiting on a response to a phone call or an email, don't give me a day or two, give me a week or two.  :)  Better yet, call me and keep calling back until you get me.  Chances are, I've not heard your message.  I forget to listen to those.  Okay, I'm digressing.  Maybe this is why I have no connected friendships?  hmmm.....  or, I'm just plain weird.  Maybe both?  

Okay, back to life within the walls of the Walsman house...

We've also been blessed by five sweet Nigerian children who are visiting for a few months.  They return to Nigeria next week.  My boys will be crushed.  They are the sweetest kids.  We just love them.  The other day, I told them the boys couldn't play yet because they had to finish their afternoon chores.  So they sweetly asked if they could come in and help.  How could I refuse?  So there were many bodies of various sizes sweeping, vacuuming, wiping, cleaning.  Made me smile :)

Steve and I have been going on dates lately!  Twice to be precise.  Our plan is to go out every other Saturday.  At least for a while.  We've not been out, just the two of us, more than maybe once or twice in the last several years.  I think when baby number four entered our lives, dates exited our lives.  Well, there back and we are enjoying it.  We have a precious baby-sitter who is brave enough to sit for our kids.  (actually they are really good kids, just a lot of them)  She comes Saturday morning right after we get Samuel down for his morning nap.  That gives us about an hour and a half or two hours, out all by ourselves.  Then we sneak back in to get Samuel and take him with us out to lunch.  Today we went to Mulberry Park, swallowed every ounce of our pride, and rode scooters, 

Yes.  I did say scooters.  

Our children's scooters, through the park to a trail in the woods at the back of the park.  If we had had to walk, it would have taken too much of our time and didn't have a way to get our bikes there.  Steve's scooter was very manly purple.  mmm-hm.  Purple.

Well, we were liberated today.  No fear of man.  No caring what people thought.  We just scooted.  All through the park.  Actually, scooters give you a good bun workout!  

Anyhow, those were a few pictures I took.  When I walk through the woods I can't just walk.  I have to be looking around constantly for what cool nature things I can find.  It's like an obsession.  Oh, that reminds me.  I found a really pretty blue jay feather for the boys.  I hope I dont' forget to give it to them.  Steve told me there were GERMS ALL OVER IT.  I'd hate to leave all them germs in the backpack.  

Okay, now for a little bit of how I handle feeding all these fellows.

First time ever-a month meal plan.  Boy, this was crazy hard for me to pull off.  It is hard enough for me to think of a weeks worth of meals, much less 4 weeks worth.  But, I gritted my teeth, and did it.  I'm about a week and half into it (I started mid to late August) and I think it is going to be very nice.  Steve went ahead and bought all the non-perishables at Wal-Mart, and then he or I will run to Publix for the perishables about once a week.  I think the hardest part is that big Wal-mart trip, and the planning.  So if those only have to happen once a month, that will be great.

I wanted to share a little bit about how I manage the day to day cooking.  First of all, I have to look the night or even the day before at the meal plan for the next day.  (I even look a few days out to see if I need to take some meat out of the freezer to start thawing)  

Next, I write on the write on/wipe off board on our fridge what we will be having the next day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Then I do in preparations I need to.  For example, on the stove is a pot of oats soaking in water and a bit of yogurt for breakfast in the morning.  In the kitchen aid mixer is a rice/oat flour mixture soaking in buttermilk to make pancakes for dinner.  (soaking helps with tummy/digestive issues, if uh...hmmm.... you know what I mean....we all appreciate soaked whole grains around here)  Smile.

So this is my nightly ritual.  I always have to think food before my head hits the pillow.  Any prep work I do definitely pays off the next day.  

Okay, I gotta get to bed.  Last night Samuel woke up about 5 times like he was a newborn again.  I think he's cutting teeth.  Sweet little guy.  He's all worth it.  

(Please excuse any typos or misspelled words.  I'm too tired to proofread)