Author: althea

August 4: We’re back from Jack’s house, and it was lovely lovely!  Amazing weather, fun games, delicious food (more on that soon), Sylvie’s first ride down the Wisconsin River, campfire, prairie hike, frisbee, wet campers, and great company.  I made chocolate ice cream for Sunday evening.  It was…really good.  So to ensure that others can enjoy the creamy chocolaty-ness, (and so I can find the recipe after I return the book to the library) I’ll share the recipe here.

Chocolate Ice Cream
From: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
(by the way, I’ve made three ice creams from this book – chocolate gelato and avocado too – and they’ve all been amazing)

2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used bittersweet)
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly.  Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth.  Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream.  Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.   Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolk, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (note from Althea: really do stir and scrape constantly…I ended up with some cooked eggs on the bottom of the pan).  Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla.  Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.)
(note from Althea: I made a double batch which worked fine until I tried to freeze the second half in the ice cream maker.  The ice cream maker didn’t have enough cold left to successfully churn the second half, so it was more goopy than churned.  Yet somehow, it was still delicous, and no one complained!)

August 1: We’re off to Jack’s house today, but before we go, I really need to do at least a quick post to say what a great visit we had to Texas.  Andrew’s solo time went super-smoothly, and when we flew in, he didn’t even want to come to the airport…he was busy washing the car with Grandad.  So I think he’s ready to do trips to Texas whenever we can make it work.  It was such a great vacation for me…I’d love to send him down there monthly if it weren’t for the airfare issue!
Ben and Melanie drove down to College Station for the weekend, and we all just had a splendid time together.  I think we would have happily stayed for another week or so.  We went to a local pool one day, and Andrew had a lot of fun hanging on to a “noodle” and kicking.  It was one of his first times where he was really kicking and controlling himself in the water.  I could do that every day!  OK, Sylvie has had it with me not holding her.  Photos from our vacation are in the gallery!

August 1: Were Sylvia not at this moment waking from her nap, I would write a post about how nuts my kids are making me this morning.  More on that another time.

OK, I’m back.  I love my children.  I really, really do.  And I feel so lucky to be their mama.  But there are moments when I find myself plotting out an escape route.  Like I was seriously thinking of hiding from them in the back yard for a bit this morning.  But what I really wanted to do was to get on my computer to figure out why my website’s gallery wasn’t working after some tweaks I tried on it recently.  [Aside: is my gallery running slowly for you?  I “upgraded” it in December, and since then it seems like it might actually be slower.  Let me know]  Anyway, I was just wanting to check my email and fix my gallery problems.

But instead, I decided to take Andrew to a park in Monona to meet some of the kids he’s going to go to preschool with.  However, he adamantly refused.  He “never wants to go anywhere EVER.”  Instead he’d prefer to kiss Sylvie lots until it’s too rough, snuggle with her until he’s on top of her and squashing her, and shake/kiss her hands until it gets violent.  I think he’s like me when I hold a little bunny.  I sometimes think “It’s so CUTE.  I must squish it.”  Weird, I know, but it’s true.

When he’s not love-mauling his sister, he’s either crying or wanting to be doing something new or being totally adorable.  It’s been exhausting.

For example, just now he started banging our floor lamp into the wall.
“STOP, please, Andrew!” I say.
“Why?” says Andrew.
“Because that might put a dent in the wall or break the lamp,” I say.
“What dent?” says Andrew.
“The Lamp Might Dent the Wall,” I say.
“Why?” says Andrew as he walks away.

Then as I typed that, he went to the other room and came back with a finger painting he did this morning.
“Oh,” I say, “that’s your pretty finger painting.”
Andrew lays it down by my feet.
“Oooo.  It’s really wet still, let’s put it back on the table so it can dry.”
“WHhhhhyyyy?” asks Andrew as he takes it away.
“So it doesn’t get all over everything,” I call as he disappears around the corner.

As I typed that, Andrew came in the room with his new bug net and repeatedly “caught me” by plopping it over my head.  Oh, and Sylvie is nursing/typing/fussing/grinning.  She isn’t having a great day.  Wait, I take that back. If I hold her and focus on her, she’s fine.  She’s just teething and not feeling like life is OK if she’s been set down.

So we leave for Jack’s house this afternoon, and I’m looking forward to getting out of the house!!!

July 30:  We got home from a great vacation in Texas visiting Bryan’s family (more on that in an upcoming post), and when I checked my email this morning, I had notes from three (3) (III) friends who had babies!  Holy smokes!  Add in a baby born earlier this month and two (2) (II) friends who’ve told me in the past couple weeks that they are expecting babies, and we’re having a baby fiesta here this July!  And three more friends are expecting babies in August!

So which babies were born?

Wyatt, Andrew’s little friend, has a new little brother – Clay Oliver.  He was born on Friday, July 25, and the word is that he’s doing really well.  He was 7 lbs, 5 oz and 20 inches.  Sarah and Steve are now parents of two:)  Sarah had a planned c-section since Clay was breach, and she had some medical complications afterwards, but now all is well, and we’re really glad we live with 21st century medicine.

Lucy is another mom in my Happy Bambino group.  Her daughter, Isobel, is a big sister now that little Suvi Jane has made her appearance.  Lucy was 10 days over due, and her labor culminated in an emergency c-section, but all is well, and it sounds like Suvi is a pretty mellow little person.  She was born 9 lbs, 11 oz!  What a cutie!

My friend Liz from Michigan also had a baby in the last several days.  Her little boy, Zachary, was born a couple weeks early.  Liz and I went to Botswana together in 1997.  Her little guy was 6 lbs, 4 oz. and 21 inches.

Bryan’s high school friend, Mark, and his wife Brytt had a baby girl, Sutton Eileen, on July 9.  She weighed in at 7 lbs, 10 oz, and is 20 inches long.  Congratulations all!

As if that wasn’t enough, one of my favorite blogs, The Pioneer Woman, has gone baby-crazy because her sister had a baby boy.

And babies on the way?  Well, one is not-yet public so I can’t yet say.  The other is long anticipated makes me so very happy.  Julie and Jerry have had a really rough last 15 months.  They had two miscarriages, but as of today, they are 10 weeks along with a much-desired pregnancy.  Julie has been posting updates on her website.  Grayson should be a big brother in February!

In the next month or so, my friends Sarah, Jen, and Mandee are all heading toward delivery.  Babies Everywhere!

July 25: I just love this time of year.  In the past I haven’t been as big of a fan of summer.  Fall and spring were my favorite seasons.  And maybe they still are…but right now I can think of no time I’d rather have it be than late summer.  The fireflies are lighting up our yard with their dances each night.  I made avocado ice cream last night from The Perfect Scoop.   Bryan and I took a walk with Sylvia before dinner, and we talked and pushed her in a stroller, and it was so peaceful.  I’m really enjoying this one-child vacation!
On Wednesday night, we attended our first Concert on the Square this summer.  It was a soft and mild summer evening, and the light was great so I took lots of photos.  Bryan and I have been filling our evenings recently re-watching Band of Brothers.  Last night, we watched the last three episodes.  What a great show.
Sylvia is squealing and spinning in her exersaucer.  She’s improving her sitting skills by the hour.  It’s a lot of fun to get to focus just on her for a bit here.  But I think she misses the excitement of her fabulous big brother:)
Off to Texas tomorrow morning!  Word from the grandparents is that he is having a tremendous time.  What a lucky kid:)

July 24: I got photos downloaded off my camera yesterday afternoon (post-Andrew departure), and it reminded me of all the fun things we’ve had the chance to do this last week.  I really like this staying at home gig.  It provides lots of opportunities to spend time with my kids and people I love and for us to do all sorts of fun things.  And the weather!  It’s been gorgeous!
Pictures of our galavanting adventures are in the gallery.

Last Friday, we went to the County Fair with Uncle Bubba.  I’d stayed home all day on Thursday, and it had driven me slightly mad.  I’m just not that good at being home in the house with both kids and no activities or adult interactions all day.  Nope.  So Friday afternoon, Uncle Bubba rescued me from myself by meeting us at the fair.  We walked through all the barns and saw large numbers of animals.  It was kind of amazing to see how much Andrew has grown and matured.  He was intrigued by the animals, ran up to try to pet them, and even let a woman pick him up and put him in the pen with a couple huge pigs.  Last year, he was facinated but very hesitant and the year before he was interested but rather terrified.  He’s really growing up!

On Sunday, I helped co-host a baby shower for Sarah.  Her mom and sister and neice drove up from Chicago, and we all had a really fun time.  Andrew loved eating the M&M’s.  We drew pictures on onesies and chatted away the afternoon.  Sarah’s due in late August/early Sept., and it’s a lot of fun to anticipate the arrival of the wee one.

The night before we had gone to a baby-welcoming party for another Sarah (Wyatt’s mom).  Her baby is due (via c-section) tomorrow!  She’s looking so great and strong…it’s going to be fun to see Wyatt as a big brother very soon.

Sunday evening, Andrew went to a Mallards baseball game with Bryan and my dad.  It was my dad’s birthday present to the little guy.  Andrew had an absolute blast.  He came home nearly vibrating with excitement and spilling over with tales of jumping in the big blow-up duck, playing in the sandbox, and eating popcorn, a hotdog, and potato chips.  Oh, yea, they also watched a few innings of the game:)

On Tuesday, Jessica, Eli, and Celia came over and we all enjoyed a fabulous summer day together.  While Jessica was point person of the 4 (four) kids, I headed up a craft project of dying play silks with kool-aid.  Years before having kids, I was really, really wanting to fill my life with colorful play silks.  But for $11 each, I just haven’t been able to justify it.  So I was pretty excited when I found that you can get silks for $2.50 each and dye them with a few packets of Kool-aid!  We made 16 silks.  The boys even helped with some of the stirring and dye-packet-dumping.  I now dance around the house just like these kids.

So it’s been a good week!  Happy summer!

July 21: I haven’t done an update on Tom in a while, but no news is good news.  He’s back at home recovering and doing pretty well.  Sleep does wonderful for healing.  I hope he recovers from this surgery as handily as Mom recovered from her Whipple procedure in January 2006.  They seem to be somewhat similar in terms of being major gastro-intestinal surgeries!