Colorado Crockers

Do you see it? That apple up there. The one taunting me, hanging high out of reach, looking all shinny and red? Well, sure, I have a full tree of apples, but THAT one looks amazing. I am pretty sure it is bigger than the ones on the branches within reach. And it looks like it is more red, too. I have shaken the tree repeatedly, but that darn apple refuses to fall. Life is like that, isn't it. We are surrounded by good things, apples with in reach, but what we REALLY want is that apple up on top. I guess it is a classic case of "the grass is always greener". The truth is I already have more apples than I know what to do with. They have made me yummy pie and apple butter and crisp. I don't need that one. It would do me know good to wish for that apple and ignore the ones I have. Sometimes life is a balance between contentment and striving. You don't want to be shaking the tree so hard that you bruise all the apples within your reach but you don't want to quit dr

We are big fans of green chili in this house, we put it on everything that holds still long enough. Last year I made my own. Matt complained, after finishing the last jar, that I hadn't made nearly enough. This year we have already made and frozen two batches. Frozen because I don't really know squat about how to can things. Maybe next year I can tackle that. For anyone else who enjoys a little kick to there life, here is how we went about it. -Green chilies . We buy pre-roasted ones from the farmers market. You could roast your own but that would be...intense. Or just a heck of a lot of work. Assume you need several pounds of roasted chilies . We buy a mix of medium and mild and our green chili always has a kick to it. - Stock. We use chicken, homemade. You could use canned or even water, but we love home made stock. You will need 4-8 cups. Yes, that is a broad range but it sorta depends on how thick you like your chili and how many roasted chilies you could get your hands o

I suppose it was inevitable. All of her friends are into it, it was only a matter of time. The last few months the evil "Disney Princess" bug has hit our house hard. Gag. I have a couple of beefs with these chicks, one being they always need a man to come save them. That beauty reining supreme is enough to make me shudder. I feel like it goes against a lot of what we try to teach the girls. Things like beauty doesn't matter and you can work to fix your own problems. These pretend women are willing to change who they are, give up everything, all for a man to love them. And now, for icing on the cake or insult to injury, Eliana wants to be a princess for Halloween . I will let her, begrudgingly . She has the right to choose to pretend to be what she wants. I want her to feel like it is ok to be into things that I am not, she is her own person with her own mind. But that doesn't mean I won't show her some other, much cooler choices.

We lucked out. The GAP Clinic, where Belle needed to be seen, was booked through mid-November. After they looked at her charts they got us in with-in a week. Here is the short and long of it: -Annabelle is skinny. They do a height vs. weight comparison and then assign either slightly underweight, moderately underweight or severely underweight. She falls in the category of " moderately ". - In the last month, Belle has put on almost a pound. This is the same amount she put on in the prior 3 months. We haven't changed anything. I attribute her weight gain to a steady diet of lots of prayer of those who love her. - We are in a holding pattern. Since Belle's weight seems to be getting better, we are going to wait and see for the next 8 weeks. We will go in to our Doctors office for weight checks in that time to make sure the numbers are rising. -We were encouraged to continue physical therapy to see if we can help with her stiffness. If it doesn't seem to help, w

It is strange to me that when my brain is very full my blog is very empty. I like to write but when my head is stuffed I sometimes have a hard time getting it all out. Brain constipation. Here is what is bouncing around in my head right now: -Tomorrow is Annabelles visit to Childrens . I am trying not to over think it or dread what is coming , it won't do any good. I know they will do blood work, which won't be fun. I also know that in cases like hers they sometimes worry about neglect. I hate the thought of anyone thinking that this baby who is so dear to my heart just may not be getting the love she needs to thrive. - Motherhood is an odd thing. You don't get a report card or pay check so it is easy to judge how your doing by other things i.e the way your home looks or weather or not your children are thriving. Right now I think I would be fired and get a flunking grade. I know something are beyond my control but I take the fact Belle is tiny as a sign of personal failu

Today was the big day, the consult with Children's Hospital. The appointment was early, 8:00am, and 20 minutes away so of course Annabelle decided to sleep in today. Mom was nice enough to get up early on her day off to watch the big girls and my friend Sarah took time off from work so I wouldn't have to go alone. I was impressed with the office, which is not surprising because Children's Hospital of Denver is #2 in the nation. We met with a OT specialist who asked me all kinds of questions. It was so nice to have Sarah there as an extra set of hands/ baby occupier . The therapist said Annabelle is not doing to badly. She is rigid and has a muscle imbalance which means she has some muscles that are really strong so instead of developing her other ones she uses the strong ones. She also has one of the markers for cerebral palsy but none of the others so we think we are in the clear. We will be meeting with her every week for a while and doing exercises at home. The the

Meet Aunt Darlene. This is Matt's Aunt and my girls think she hung the moon. See her lap full of children? Yeah, that is normal. My girls quickly learned to ask her for something instead of me, they always like her answer better than mine! They have an awesome house with a play room and pool in the back yard where we crash while we are in the Orange County area. I am surprised my girls came home with us, they would have been happy to stay forever! This is Eric and Adrianna, Matt's cousin and his wife. The have two beautiful little girls who my children loved playing with. They, too, have an amazing home which they opened up to us. And here are the big girls, Addilyn , Eliana , Brooklyn and Sophia. The little ones are Annabelle, Presley, and Ava but they won't hold still long enough for a picture.

Well, we are at long last home again. It feels good, well feels good except for the copious piles of laundry. We had such a nice time in California. Not so nice that I am signing up to move there or anything, but a good time none the less. Here is what is going on -Matt is out of town. yes, again. He was home for about 36 hours. I am surprised he has any clean underwear to pack. Maybe he doesn't, so if you live in New York, give my hubby some grace for going commando . - Raksha , the mama kitty is no longer at our house, she is being adopted into a "forever home". To soften the blow, Georgia brought us some kittens. Some being 5. Yes 5 kittens. Eliana is in heaven and I must say that the babies are really cute. Nigel, Nora, Nelly, Nubbins and Nyla will either leave our home very well socialised or in need of kitten therapy. - I am about to kill the darn dog. He is peeing on EVERYTHING and right now has very few redeeming qualities . He needs a better home than ours wh

I have spent this week in a hotel room with 3 children age 4 and under. If it weren't for the fact that this particular hotel room is located in sunny CA, this might lead to an unfortunate case of child abuse involving duct tape, but since this allows us to be together as a family we are pushing through the occasional boredom. We didn't pack many toys so our creativity has been stretched to it's limits. Here is what we have discovered you can do with an ice bucket: Fill bucket with ice and play on patio Place baby doll who is wrapped in a towel in bucket and carry her around Use bucket as a stool to watch cartoons on Roll buck back and forth between friends See how many wash cloths can fit into bucket Turn bucket over and use as drum Place bucket on head and use as hat Stand on bucket to reach things in high places Swing bucket around and try to hit sister Use bucket for collecting rocks Shout into bucket and enjoy the echo noise Make fart noises in the bucket and enjoy the

I am proud to say I have breast fed all 3 of my children. It can be so much work, but I believe it is totally worth the hours, the stained shirts, the occasional pain, the sacrifice and the great rack I get for the duration. After watching friends struggle to make it work, I know how blessed I am that it came easy for me. Here is a reflection of my nursing relationship with my girls. 30 minutes of feeding a newborn Baby is screaming. Try to calm down squirming bundle and convince her that her hand is not your boob. Take deep breath and cringe as baby finally latches on. Realize it is a bad latch, unlatch and try again. More screaming. Get baby successfully latched. Kick yourself for not noticing earlier hunger signs. Take deep breaths until it doesn't hurt. Notice baby is falling asleep instead of eating. Rub her back. Tickle her head. Bounce. Thump baby's feet. Unlatch and burp a totally comatose baby. Poke her until she wakes up enough to latch on to other side. Flinch. Watch