Toasty-Toes mansion has become Toasty-Toes cottage

...or to be more accurate, it's a duplex. But it's lovely, and it's private, and for however long it takes us to fly away to Ecuador, it's mine. Living with friends was a wonderful-fun adventure. But six months is a long time, and I think we are all happy to have some space to roll around in and call our own.

Not to mention, I can homemake and decorate, and tell you all about it. Fun for me- fun for you.

What I can't do is play Blogger on the internet because the internet I have hardly works. I can't really complain, because, it's not mine.

So, look here for some sporadic posting. Unless of course, I take better advantage of the free wi-fi at the city park (whose internet I suspect I can almost pick up at the house), and post more often. The kids would love that. Fresh air, swings, and a great battlefield for Nerf wars.

Okay, now for the good stuff (at least for my curious family), here are some Living room pics. I still need to hang some art work and I have another chair that will be moved in. I love it. Oh, and right now it doubles as a dining room because as of this morning the dining room table was still in pieces.





Don't you just love Heidi girl's morning routine? Stretch girly, stretch!

Just a heads up

Toasty Toes Mansion has sold! Which is outrageously good news. Keep up with our adventures at:



I will occasionally be posting to Toasty-Toes to share the antics of our children but you won;t see me much here. I need to focus my time on other endeavors for a while.

Once I set up house in Ecuador, you will see me back. I will need a way to show off my lack of homemaking skills in a foreign country.

For some reason the link is refusing to show up. I will come back later to edit. Until then, copy and paste into your browser:
servantsinecuador.blogspot.com

Esther on her future:

untitled event

I took Esther to see Annie last night. "Tomorrow" has been running through my head marathon style ever since. Esther had a blast and as we waited through intermission she tried to get a grasp on the difference between story telling and real life. After she gave up on that she engaged me in a discussion about who the people were on stage.

Me: I used to be an actress you know.

Her: You did? What did you be?

Me: (I simply ran down my impressive resume of community and college theatre performances)

Her: Why don't you be an actress anymore?

Me: i found out I was a better mommy.

Her: Oh.

Silence ensues as she processes this

Her: Mommy, I decided that when I grow up I am going to be an actress. I want to be Annie. If I am good at actressing then I will just keep doing that. But if I am bad then I will just be a mommy.


Well, I guess she gave up on her career as a shoe fixer, clothing designer, horsey rider.

Esther thinks she can fly:

(Esther is learning to ride a bike- she can go about two feet after Grammy Pammy lets go)

Anyhow, sweet litle Essie might not be able to fly, but she does happen to think her butt works as well as a birds fluffyness. Today she found an intact robin's egg. She brought it to the meanest mommy in the world (me) and told me I needed to put it in a safe place for it to hatch. The meanest mommy in the world informed her that the egg was already cold and that the baby bird inside was rather... dead.

And Esther did not believe me. She insisted it was still alive and that I needed to help her. The meanest mommy in the world (me) insisted that she take the egg outside and leave it for the animals to find and eat. "It's the circle of life", I told her.

"It's still alive", she told me.

And she walked outside.

Ten minutes later she came back in.

With egg yuck all over the seat of her pants.

My five year old child tried to hatch an egg. It didn't work- obviously.

She was okay- at first.

"I have egg on my butt", she said.

I responded as only the meanest mommy in the world could respond:
"Nope- you have dead baby bird on your butt."

And, she wasn't okay.

I've been busy:

Here and there and everywhere. Right now we are at Grammy Pammy's where Marcus is busy learning his multiplication tables, Weston is learning to read, and Esther is wrapping two elders right around her little finger. It helps to have a teacher as a grandma- it really does. Just when I am ready to give up she steps in with a new idea that gets us over the hump.

Anyhow, we are having a great visit and since grammy has the kids either in her arms or in her lap, I had the time to watch this cute little video my dad sent me.

Enjoy the geniosity ( yes I made up the word).

The talk

We finally buckled down and gave "The Talk". You know which one I mean, right? THAT ONE TALK? The one where we explain to our son that part of a daddy and part of a mommy is needed to make a baby?

Yep, THAT one. I wish I had some advice for all of you yet to have to experience this. I can say, we had planned it out. There was to be no awkwardness, no embarrassment. And then it all went to pot as mommy died of embarrassment. I'm quite literally dead from having to talk about the birds and the bees.

I don't know how the end of THE TALK went. I got all the way to the part where something goes somewhere and I ran out of the room. Daddy had to finish. I don;t know how it went. I didn't ask. I am assuming that Dustan told the boy all kinds of crazy stuff.

It would have been far easier to just show him this video

(Thank Val)

A wedding, A trip, and a one room home.

We are still alive. I thought I had better post and let everyone know, just in case you thought we might have croaked. Sometimes we have wanted to, but we are still hopping around.

Lindsey married Nick, and is now a Greenfield. I played at photographer. These two are my favorites. I tried to take the pictures in a story form, and since I succeeded, I am naming the story- "And the Bride was Sassy". Almost every picture was full of attitude.



Right after the wedding, we took a two week trip to Ohio where we had the opportunity to stay with my mom and dad as well as to speak at two churches. I also gave the worst speech of my life, and will never live it down. Really. Dustan won't ever let me live it down. Fortunately I have a great since of humor, and though I am mortified at speaking FAR too long, and saying such ridiculous things as "The dirt was REAL dirt- not fake dirt..." (don't ask)... I can still laugh. We all have to have an off day. Right?

Anyhow, I was also able to spend some much needed time with my sister, nieces, and nephew. Danny taught me how to play Zelda, and I stole his DS for two weeks. I almost put it in my bag and took it home with me. But, I left it there and am hinting around that I have a birthday coming up. hint, hint.
Karist

Ellianna (Or Ellie-monster)

Danny-boy

Devonae

And, now, we have arrived back at home. A place that is not ours, but is still becoming home. It's a place to lie our heads at night, to share in good (meatless) foods, and a place to make good memories with good friends. I have been busy carving out a spot I can call home and I will bring back some pictures soon. I also want to share a great recipe for Gluten Free peanut butter cookies.

Homeless

Toasty Toes Mansion is closed. (bawl). THe kids and I are leaving so that all the work we have done to get the house ready to sell does not get undone.

We have a couple of thing left to do, but not with the kids- so we have packed our bags and left. Daddy gets to stay, because, in the words of the kids, "Daddy can keep things tidy". And he can. His mama raised him well. However, he is relegated to one bedroom (not the mater), and one bathroom (also not the master).

We will be traveling around here and there quite a bit. We are currently looking for churches and groups of people we can connect with who might support our families mission to Ecuador, so if you know of one of those- hook us up!

I'll keep posting here and there, keeping you updated on the latest happenings, and maybe sharing a recipe cooked in another kitchen, a garment sewn in another home, and hilarious antics of children that are displayed in front of other families...

An interview with my hooligans

Marcus is nine

Weston is seven

Esther will be five next month

I interviewed my kids one at a time (the other two were out of ear shot) and these are their perceptive and entertaining answers (all in their words).

What is something mom always says to you?
Marcus: “I love you.”
Weston: “I love you.”
Esther: “I love you.”

What makes mom happy?
Marcus: Me.
Weston: When I do stuff for her.
Esther: When I do this. (she says I love you in sign language)

What makes mom sad?
Marcus: I don’t know
Weston: When somebody is being mean to her like in a time when someone gets in a fight. Or, you could erase all that and say, when one of her friends die.
Esther: I don’t know

How does your mom make you laugh?
Marcus: Her stories make me laugh.
Weston: By smiling
Esther: By saying what you just said, because that made me laugh. (apparently, this question is hilarious)

What was your mom like as a child?
Marcus: bad
Weston: I remember her doing something bad.
Esther: I don’t know.

How old is your mom?
Marcus: 31? 32? 31.
Weston: 31?
Esther: 14. (definative)

How tall is your mom?
Marcus: I don’t know
Weston: fourteen feet (he used his feet to measure me)
Esther: (shrugs her shoulders)

What is her favorite thing to do?
Marcus: Play on the computer
Weston: Doing computer
Esther: Play on the computer

What does your mom do when you're not around?
Marcus: How would I know? I am not around!
Weston: Lays down on the bed.
Esther: Do work.

If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Marcus: There is nothing you do that is so good you would be famous.
Weston: Doing the computer. Dadahdauhduh: the famous person who is good at computers! Yay, a person who knows how to do the computer! DunDunDuh!
Esther: I don’t know.

What is your mom really good at?
Marcus: writing.
Weston: Doing the computer (he breaks into hysterical laughter)
Esther: Playing that ball game

What is your mom not very good at?
Marcus: You are good at everything. But... not so good you can be famous.
Weston: Not loving people. She is so bad at that. She never not loves people.
Esther: Candy Bash. The hard Candy Bash. With the bean. When it says stuff.

What does your mom do for a job?"
Marcus: Watches me
Weston: Teach us
Esther: Working

What is your mom's favorite food?
Marcus: Pizza
Weston: Pizza
Esther: Salad

What makes you proud of your mom?
Marcus: I can’t think of anything.
Weston: That she is a good mommy!
Esther: When she gives me food that I like.

If your mom were a cartoon character who would she be:
Marcus: She would be a good character but no one has made her yet.
Weston: Princess Leah on Star Wars
Esther: princess Leah.

What do you and your mom like to do together?
Marcus: We just like to hang out.
Weston: Cuddle
Esther: Say “I love you” together

How are you and your mom the same?
Marcus: There are many similarities...well...in looks. And in behavior.
Weston: Our noses are the same. At least I think so
Esther: We are not.

How are you and your mom different?
Marcus: Well, you are a girl. I mean a woman. I am a boy.
Weston: She is bigger. I am littler.
Esther: Cause she does work and I don’t do work very much.

How do you know your mom loves you?
Marcus: Because she says, “I love you”. I don’t believe that she is lying.
Weston: Because she loves me! She does love me. I know she does. Or why would she do all those fun stuff for me if she didn’t love me?
Esther: Cause she always says I love you.

What does your mom like most about your dad?
Marcus: I don’t know.
Weston: He does work and she doesn’t have to do anything. All she has to do is lay down. Except when mom has to do a lot of work. But when she doesn’t have to do a lot of work then dad can do her work and she can CUDDLE with ME! I like that when my dad does work my mom can lay down and cuddle with me. What was the question?
Esther: His hair.

Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Marcus: To Tara’s house.
Weston: Tara’s.
Esther: To the store. Clothes store. To buy clothes for a present for somebody. Me! and sometimes herself, and Weston, and Marcus.

Things I learned about myself: I am on the computer FAR too much. And...I am rather good at loving.

Ten (again)

Ten things I will miss when I move to Ecuador: (in random order)

1. My dog. I will really miss my Heidi-girl. I would take her with us, but she has a bad knee and it would be rough on her to have to live in the mountains.

2. Fall leaves. Can I even survive without a Fall season?

3. A Bathtub. I take at least one bath every single day. Ecuador has showers. No tubs. I am going to DIE.

4. Camping every year with my favorite peeps. I bet I can fit one more trip in before I leave, but I know that soon- they will be camping without me.

5. Dr. Pepper.

6. Access to good books, written in English.

7. English.

8. Tara. Can't write more. My vision is blurry.

9. My house/home/place I live right now.

10. My king sized bed. Ecuadorians are small people and King sized mattresses have to be custom made. Which is for rich people. Which will not be what I am.


I because I left you all hanging for so long in great anticipation of my next random TEN- here is another:

Ten random things I will NOT miss:

1. Slush/Freezing rain

2. Starbucks

3. Cookie Cutter Subdivisions (and being greatly annoyed everytime I see fields being turned into yet ANOTHER one)

4. Feeling purposeless

5. Having to drive everywhere I want to go.

6. Bananas (cause there will be an abundance there)

7. Constant ringing of my telephone

8. Mega sized grocery stores

9. Dentists (I might regret this one)

10. People burning Fall leaves

And now, I tag ten of you to fill my my big head with lots of love. Tell me ten things you will miss about me when I leave you here to deal with freezing rain and urban sprawl without me.

A Solution

It's to late for me to use this solution, but perhaps other moms of boys will appreciate it. I am pretty sure the purpose was not meant to be practical, but come on, we all know how much easier it would be to clean plastic walls.

Contact Paper Bathroom Walls

Four down from Ten

Ten random adjectives that start with P:

1. Putrid

2. persimmony (I can make up a word. Afterall, I made up the game)

3. Pleasant

4. Precarious

4. Pretty

5. Precocious

6. Periwinkle

7. Plausible

8. Plodding

9. poor

10. Pooped-out

I randomly assign the following ten following letters to ten random friends.
Gwen- H
Renee- K
Tara- X
Carrie- L
Devon- B
Dawn- F
Random friend number - A
Stacey- C
Sarah (from the Sarah and Jack fame) -S
Sarah (the artsy fartsy colorful lady with the singing husband)- Q (and I think she can handle it)

10.3 (and not the one I promised)

Ten Random thoughts that are rolling around in my brain.

1. I am done.

2. Finished.

3. So very done.

4. I am NOT kidding

5. If I were a cake, and you stuck a fork in me, the cake would come out with the fork. Because it was a burned up piece of rock.

6. If you asked me to take a long walk off a short pier; I would. Then I would drown, because I am doner than doner than done.

7. I quit.

8. Some worlds will end. Most will continue to turn. the planet Beckasan has blown into tiny shards sending shrapnel into the entire known universe, making everyone else wish that they too, were DONE.

9. I think it is cool that I have have my own planet. I just wish it had a cooler name. Maybe Beckawsome? Or Rebappy? Or just BecDONE!

10. I don;t have any more random thoughts. My brain quit just a few milliseconds after I did.

And I can't tag anyone. I'm too done.

Ten point Two

Ten (random) things I am grateful for:

1. Colorful socks. Especially the 1.00 Target ones. Nothing beats cheap and colorful!

2. Coffee. Duh.

3. Peanut butter. (the kind that is not laden with poison)

4. Spring (because it's coming. I can smell it.)

5. My sister-in-law Carrie and brother Seth, who are braving the Foster care system to take care of children who need a home and a family. Right now they are my heroes.

6. A working toilet. Although, the more my boys pee on my walls, the more I think outhouses were a pretty good idea. (I am sorry for the complaint that worked its way in here)

7. WIBI radio, which I can get streaming online, and which allows me a chance to worship while I do my morning chores.

8. Raymond Paving Rabbids Wii game, which has kept my three children VERY entertained for the past three days. It has been quite a pleasure to not hear, "mommy....I'm bored".

9. My laptop, which allows to to browse anywhere in the house.

10. jalapenos- because the world would just be a duller place without them.

And I am still tagging the same people I tagged yesterday plus I am adding Tara and Murali. And Gretchen. And Splayneo (I think I spelled that wrong) (I am too darn lazy to find all the links for those.

Tomorrow will be ten blogs I LOVE to read, which will not be fun because
a. I will have to not be lazy. Blogs need links.
b. I read over 100 blogs. How will I narrow it down?

Ten (part one)

Ten Random Categories of Ten Random Things (in ten days)

II. Ten Complaints:
1. My house. My poor house. We have to practically give it away. All my lovely trees are apparently worth nil in a nasty economy.

2. I am fat. And I exercise and eat well. I am sick of working hard and seeing nothing. At the same time, I think I look good. So why do I care? I am complaining that I care.

3. My couch is full of dog hair.

4. I have sores all over my head from being mysteriously glutened. I think someone is trying to poison me.

5. I am really missing some of my old friends. Facebook made me uncharacteristically sentimental. I really want to see
Brittany, Michelle, and Stacey. I want to sit with them and laugh about melting sporks over candle flames, dodging scissors, and watching bad movies.

6. I have too much stuff I have to read. I love to read, but not the stuff I have to read. The stuff I have to read puts me to sleep. And I don;t have time to sleep because I have too much stuff to read.

7. I hate the carpet in my house.

8. I hate my skin. I used to have beautiful skin, which I assume I should be grateful for. But it's a tough pill to swallow when I look in the mirror every morning to red, rough, nasty skin.

9. I want a grilled cheese sandwich. With real bread.

10. I have boys who pee on the walls. There is no other complaint as big as THAT one.


And I tag ten friends to play along (Marmie, Carrie, Renee, Gwen, Dawn, and five other people who might also read my blog)

Tomorrow will be Ten wonderful things I am grateful for. Unless I randomly decide to have something different.

Consider the ant...

Years ago I wrote a little piece on my "Ant thoughts". And, for your reading pleasure, here are those very thoughts:

Two things:

#1. My dad always told me to look at the ant. See how hard he works? He works all day and never complains. He lifts twice his body weight and doesn't say a word about an achey back. He works with his co-workers and doesn't get in fights and squabbles.

All this pert advice supposedly comes from scripture, and was supposedly supposed to make me clean my room without grumbling and without fighting with my sister.

#2. My cabinets are overrun with tiny ants, scrambling for homemade bread-crust crumbs and the big red splat of strawberry jam. I noticed their ever-moving line as I was trying to find a half dirty glass to get myself a glass of water.

These two things got me wondering, thinking, and trying to make excuses for why I am not like an ant.

And here is what I came up with. Really, how do we know that ants are not complaining? They are tiny. If they made complaining noises we
a.) might not hear them, and
b.) they would be in a foreign ant language that is not understood by the common housewife or even an educated scientist. I doubt even a linguist could tell us if the ant was making sounds of pleasure or grumbling about the wicked queen who turned him into a slave.

How do we know there is not a tiny morgue lined with tiny ant parts from ants who have been slaughtered by other over-worked ants who have gone postal?

Oh, and another thing...we don't see what is going on under those any hills. Maybe there are rooms full of drunken ants watching all the other ant men carrying in jagged leaves and all of my homemade bread crumbs. Perhaps there are hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS of these lazy ants who sit on their third body part all day -dreaming of watching soap operas and eating bon bons...
AND, on top of THAT, ants are indistinguishable. They could be carrying one load back and taking in easy in a leaf hammock for the rest of the day for all we know. They COULD have a 2 hr work day and a 2 day work year, spending the rest of the time dreaming of soap operas and bon bons.

And one last thought. Ants are annoying.

They somehow worked their way into folkloric heroic proportions. They serve very little purpose (Leaves are capable of decomposing on their own), except to make me feel guilty. After all, they are such hard workers AND they wouldn't be in my house if I was more fastidious about cleaning up all the homemade bread crumbs off my counters.
They are simply a perky, little, crawling conscience.

So, I have considered the ant. And I have decided that I am not one. They have a thorax, an antennae, six legs, and seemingly super-human strength. Until God blesses me with six legs to help me do all my work, I am going to continue on as I have. Reading the online newspaper, doing dishes when we run out of clean ones, doing laundry when Mt. dirty clothes explodes, and having fun chasing my kids around the house whenever I feel like it. Oh, and I will spend a good amount of time dreaming of soap operas and bon bons...

(My ant study was not a scientific one. I manipulated my observations to create the theory I needed to salve my guilt)

(also, the constant reference to homemade bread was also an attempt to salve my guilt.)

That said, this video is FASCINATING! Watch and enjoy (and clean up your bread crumbs)

I am still alive.

But I don't have anything to say. I know you all just died of shock, and since I no longer have an audience, it doesn't matter that I have nothing to say.

We educate

Weston is learning the value of money. For a school project we set u a play store (with real food) and Weston received 35.00 to shop for the family.
For lunch he bought pancake mix and all the ingredients that went with it.
Then he bought peppermints for desert.
Dinner was noodles and sauce. No meat. He ran out of money after spending it on a gigantic number of salad ingredients and a box of chocolate granola bars.
"We need meat Weston. Maybe you could put the granola bars back and then you will have enough for meat."
Weston looked at me quizzically.
"Is it my money to spend however I want?"
"Yes, but your daddy does not like spaghetti with no meat."
"And I don't like peas." he responded.
I thought to ask him what his dislike for peas had to do with the cost of meat or granola bars, but then I realized how many time daddy had made him eat peas.
He made his purchases, all very thoughtfully, including his steadfast decision to forego the meat.



when daddy came home, he said

"Where's the meat?"
"You made Weston eat too many peas," I responded.


And, I assumed incorrectly that this little activity taught him a good lesson about the value of money. What it really taught him is, that if you run out of money, you can just cut some out of paper.
And a previous activity, which had explained that you need to earn money, by getting a job, to get the things you want and need?
He took that lesson and learned that if you don't want to do a job, you can always pay someone else to do it.
He tried to pay his father SIX dollars to unload the dishwasher for him.

And of course, if he doesn't have six dollars, he can always make some more. But, not by working.

A cozy winter corner

It's freezing cold in our neck of the woods. Stay warm blogger friends.

And that's a match:

Remember THIS?
http://toasty-toes.blogspot.com/2008/01/hospitality-is-not-gift-i-have.html
Look down at the last paragraph. All the way at the end. The rest of the mumbo jumbo is inconsequential.

Now.

Remember THIS?
















Those are wedding invitations.

And she won't let me be a bridesmaid. She said I could give the toast. Which would make me a toaster. And I am allergic to bread. Oh, yes. That WAS the lamest joke in existence. BUT... if you want a laugh...