Elsie at eleven months

Elsie turned eleven months yesterday.

Her personality is coming out more and more and we find her absolutely delightful. Bubbly and agreeable.

Her newest trick is a smile with squinty eyes while tucking her chin into her shoulder. We melt.

She's a snuggler. I adore this picture of her with our neighbor girl. She loves the neighbor girls so much.

Elsie enjoys blueberries, bananas and watermelon the most. She's a hearty eater.

And she's a dancer. If I sing or even if there is music on tv, she bops her body up and down.

She has very sensitive skin.

Her words are Mama and Baba and just recently began to comprehend what we are saying. A super fun stage.

She fake coughs from her crib to let us know she's still there.

And so to summarize: she is wonderful.

Josie's riding lesson

Hi everybody! It's Josie writing about my horse riding lesson with Meghan and Elska! (Elska is the horse:)

Meghan is the next door neighbor who owns three other horses named (and I'm probably spelling these wrong) Litley, Dakota, and Cocoa. Every morning this week, I looked out the window to see Meghan riding Cocoa down the road. I thought it was so funny that people ride scooters and bikes in my neighborhood and here is Meghan with her beautiful, tall, dark brown horse trotting down the gravel path. :)

Above, Meghan is walking around and showing me how nice and relaxed Elska is. Meghan is an excellent rider and taught me some of the basics yesterday.

Uncle Rory pointed out that as I was brushing her, her lip hung in the air and was wiggling around. Meghan said that that was a sign of relaxation; along with the droopy eyelids and the bent back leg.

Getting on the horse wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I've rode only one other time and that was 3 years ago when I was a lot shorter. As my weight climbed up on one side, the saddle slipped, but was soon adjusted.

Meghan was adjusting the foot strap so it matched my leg length. I was paying attention when Uncle Rory suddenly said, "Smile!" and quickly took the picture.

Meghan wanted me to get used to the feeling of the horse moving under me. She grabbed the reigns and gently walked Elska around while teaching me the proper turn signals and how to make her start walking. I simply had to say "walk on" and squeeze my legs together a little bit. That was the easy part. Elska, being so relaxed earlier, wanted to stop more than go. I would get her to walk, but about 3/4 through the track, she would say, "no, I don't want to walk anymore. why don't you try wearing a giant coat in hot, sunny weather with someone sitting on your back and see how long you can last!"

You can clearly see the droopy eyelids in this shot. It was very important to sit with your shoulders, hips, and heels all lined up as you ride. (I tried my best.) It almost looks like Elska has her shoulders slumped with a sad look on her face.

The cones were one of the three exercises Meghan had me walk through. I had to start at the right side, walk through the cones, go right around the first, left around the second, and walk over a small white bar at the end. (You can barely see it in this picture.)

This is the second track. I tried it starting from both directions. I had to walk over the white bar, weave through the cones, and over the thick white bar at the end. Earlier, Elska and I were walking around the rim (called the rail) when she took 2 steps and stopped. Then 2 more, and stopped. This went on for a little more when finally Elska wouldn't move anymore. Megan was behind us and discovered the problem. Let me put it this way: the little brown chucks by the last white pole aren't any chew toys.

Meghan also wanted me to get used to a horse's trot. This is a different kind of horse where instead of a trot it is called... something else that I can't remember. Give me a break, it was almost 24 hours ago:) Because of the different way Elska trots, instead of bouncing up and down, you bounce side to side. Megan said it's an unusual way to move and always makes her laugh.

The whole time I have been typing this, Ivar has come up about three times saying "I wanna see you ride Elska!"

I've had sooooo much fun these past couple days here at The Grovestead! My visit ranged from John Denver, to John Deere to John the deer! I remember two stories I told Ivar at bedtime last night about Jake the Horse, who met a red ladybug named Friend, and about Phil the cow, who needed to listen to his mom who told him not to eat too much grass. :)

I hope to come back real soon!

chicken update

I've heard that I've been slacking in the chicken posts lately. I think the reason I've slowed on my chicken reporting is because now that they are outside with a fence, they don't require a whole lot of attention. They are the easiest animals on the planet. We give them new feed and water every morning and hook the door closed in the evening. And they're happy. And they love us. And they continue to entertain our children.

So up top there is Hamburgerpoopedonthecarpet. A beauty.

And this here is Eggs. Eggs is quite aggressive. I think he is a bully. And I also think he thinks he is at the top of the pecking order.

But here is Almonzo flapping his wings, who I think actually is at the top of the pecking order. He just has confidence like that. I think Eggs is insecure and gets into other chickens business to exert his wanted authority. But Almonzo really is the Alpha Male. Sort of a whole Scar versus Mufasa thing.

I don't have much to report on Zumbrota. This bird sort of gets lost in the bunch, beautiful and black, she or he doesn't seem to need too much extra attention.

Still the favorite is Legos. Our delightful niece, Josie, is here for a few nights and has confirmed that Legos is the most social. Legos lets Josie hold her and is always the first to come out to say hello when she goes for a visit. Plus, just look at how awesome and fluffy this bird is!

And finally, below is Butterscotch Cookies, another bird that doesn't make too much of a scene. Butterscotch is pretty chill, and reminds me a bit of that one guy Bull on that court show that used to be on channel nine on Saturday afternoons growing up. (thanks to a google search: the Bailiff Bull Shannon on Night Court) I'll get a close up and to a comparison another day.

We're thinking we've got a good number of Roosters in the bunch. Which is a total bummer. Because we were going for eggs. But the boys still aren't too loud. At the moment their morning sounds are more like chain smokers barking out a "rook-a-doo" first think in the morning.

But they'll get louder I'm afraid. And when the full on cock-a-doodle-doo comes, we'll have to figure something out since we like our neighbors and want them to keep liking us.

Having Josie here has been a blast. Last night I used her as a model for the picture I needed for The Soul Sisterhood post that went up today. Be sure to go over and check today's post on the importance of a Strong Finish. 

"the moon is scared to me."

A few Ivar fears came out this week. As we were getting ready to go to a parade he came running into the garage and told me, "the moon is scared to me!" He wouldn't go out of the garage. I had to carry him to the car in the driveway with his head buried into my shoulder, hiding from the moon.

In the car we asked him why the moon was scared to him. He said it was moving. (Which is true since Ivar was moving and it kept following him.) And I think he didn't like that it was out in the daytime. He just doesn't trust a thing that comes out as it pleases and follows him wherever he goes. He's suspicious.

Then we went to the parade and he did not like the loud sirens on the fire trucks and police cars. But he didn't cry. He just pulled down his hat over his eyes.

And later, after he fell down I asked him if he was hurt. He said, "I am. I got hurt my feelings."

good mood food

I am tired a lot of the time. And since that's a terrible feeling, I started trying to find a remedy. I went to bed earlier, tried to get a shower in before the kids got up, added some new vitamins to the mix and even started drinking a cup of coffee every so often.

Then Rory, for reasons of his own, began to cut out as much sugar and carbs from his diet as he could. I didn't jump on his train and it was during those two weeks of his eating spinach salads and meat that I was so, so aware of how I medicate my exhaustion with sugar-starchy snacks. Like a bowl of cereal. Or a granola bar. Or a handful of chocolate chips. Or club crackers. And they're great in the moment, but leave me worse off than when I started.

So it dawned on me that I could do something about these sugar crashes, with hopes that it would help my energy too. I started trying to eat only energy-giving food. I read an awesome hippie-dippy article about how we should envision our bodies as fires. You would never feed a fire kindling (sugar and carbs) and expect it to last all day long. But throw a big log on that fire (protein, fiber) and that fire will stay a blazing a long, long time.

So now my question before I eat is: will this meal or snack give me long lasting energy?

It's a great question to ask and has helped dramatically improve my diet, my attitude (most days!) and my energy.

I was greatly inspired by Elise Blaha's post on what she ate with gestational diabetes. She had to test her blood sugar four times a day, and as Elise always seems to do, she made this annoyance seem like a great awesome opportunity to see what foods were best for her body. I read this post and thought it would be interesting to poke my finger and learn this too. Then I decided I didn't need to poke my finger. I could just monitor my own energy.

In her post she writes about the grain-free granola above. She wrote highly of it and so I gave it a try. And man it is so good. Rory likes it, my mom likes it, Ivar likes it and I love it. And it sort of bums me out that Ivar likes it because that kid is bottomless and eats a lot. But I'll get over it.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the link to this granola recipe. It's my new breakfast of choice and it's easy and so good, packed with protein and starts me out on the right foot. Elise recommends cutting the coconut oil down to just 1/3 cup and I agree. Also, I don't have a food processor or vitamix...I just buy the already chopped nuts in the baking aisle and crush the almonds up with a rolling pin like the olden days. And it works just fine. I keep the granola in the fridge to keep the oil solidified and eat it with milk in the mornings. Enjoy!