Conversation

 I fell in love with my husband writing letters to him. We wrote letters back and forth while he served his mission in Japan. We shared what we were learning about the gospel and things we struggled with and were trying to become and understand. When he got home from his mission we lived in different states and spent hours and hours on the phone. We always said "When we get married, we won't have to stay up all night talking because we'll live with each other and then we can just talk during the day." But we'd still stay up almost every night until midnight. We'd sit in the living room and talk until we were almost falling asleep then go to bed and talk more.

 I love to sit on the couch with him and talk through life. I love to sit across the table from him and laugh. I love to lay in bed after we've said prayers and wait for the moment when one of us will have one last thought we have to share.... 

Cori, I like you.

First day of school! 2014-2015

Totally rocked the 1st day! Loved it!

Also totally rocked the 1st day.... does not remember because her blood sugar was low when this picture was taken... morning of day 2 she is excited again and I will have something to stick in her mouth the minute she walks in the door today.

This guy and I had a day alone...we get one more tomorrow... today we started our T/Th babysitting gig.

Next week we start taking care of a new friend who comes every day, so we're soaking it up our alone time before we have lots of friends to play with every day! 

(That will be awesome too!) 

Yummy Harvest time After School Snack for kids-who-need-to-eat-the-second-they-get-home:

Sliced pan roasted peaches

Apples and peanut butter

Watermelon

Veggies and dip

Zucchini bread

Any other ideas??? My only requirements are, healthy, quick, cheap... in that order.

The dish ran away with the spoon...

But I am sure the Bowl and the Pitcher had WAY more fun than the dish and the spoon... because we went to their park yesterday, and it was awesome!

He's not getting ready to bludgeon her, they are practicing skipping rocks. 

An, Lilly, Cori, Gid and Havah is the background

Lilly practicing her  climbing skills. Preston & Savanah, Matt & Gid and Amy.

We waded in the river, made rafts from little sticks, played on the rocks, at yummy fresh fruit and made new friends.

We live in such a beautiful happy place!

Life is good.

In with the New out with the old...

There are little boxes in the top of my closet filled with new clothes and shoes and crayons and wide ruled paper and glue sticks...

Confession: All the new things makes me want to get ride of EVERYTHING! Everything.

Start new- clean... only bring in what needs to be here and everything else - Bye Bye.

This is not entirely possible however... So instead I just get ride of things slowly...

Today I went through the kids drawers. May I just say- RIDICULOUS!

Who is their MOTHER? and Why?!?! has she allowed them to horde so much clothing?
Yikes.

I have a few rooms I am hiding from though. The office and the playroom... Must be done.
Before the kids go back to school, it will be done.

Havah's choice for her First day of 2nd grade Shirt!

Father's Day 2014

Happy Father's Day to our Favorite Dad!!

We're planning all kinds of fun when you come home!

Love you!

Ew! Yick! Confessions of a little brother: the house knife

My mom showed me pictures of big trucks tonight. They had stairs like a house. I like them. She showed me this too.

it's a Bagger. And it can do this:

CUT A HOUSE LIKE A PIECE OF CAKE! 

WOW! Who will eat it?

*note: those are his real words, he was so amazed. I love showing him things like this to watch his eyes bug out. Thank you msn for providing us with such amazing bizarre hings to behold.

Life is good. Now go away...

Havah home sick his week with viral pink eye.

This is kind of how I feel about blogging right now.

I deactivated our Facebook account on a meditated whim... 

you know when you think about something for a long time an then one day wake up and say "NOW!"

Then you do, and wonder to yourself later, why did it take so long?

Exiting that world has been terribly liberating. 

And somehow, this beautiful place got sucked into the vortex of disconnecting.

I am enjoying my privacy.

Enjoying putting our feet firmly under ourselves without thinking about the places other people's feet are.

She was super excited to get her picture taken

But one of my favorite things is to look back through at the pictures of my children.

Of the stories of our days and to remember them. To bottle of the little pieces of their childhood that seem to float away so quickly. Quicker every day. The things that I know will make those children come alive to me when they are grown.

So even though this privacy is so refreshing, I am trying to remember. I am writing for me, and I'd better not miss it. 

Ta-dah! and oops... NEED HELP!

Three days. No Facebook... life is very nice. 

Just one problem. In my excitment to dump the book, and revamp the blog/vlog/email listed on fb, I lost a bunch of  addresses.... sooo... if you have a blog and you read this... would you please do one of the following:

leave a comment with your blog address in the comments of this post OR email it to me at kcalcornfamily at gmail dot com.  

Thanks :) 

Nightmares

I was up late last night... about 11:30 I heard Havah calling out, "Mommy! MOMMY! MOMMY!" I found her sitting up in her bed, tears streaming down her face. I touched her face and whispered to her that she was safe and Lilly was safe and Gid was safe Daddy was safe, Mommy was safe, Sadie was safe she could rest, she laid back down and let me tuck her in. I ran my hand gently over her hair and then she looked at me with a closed eyes grimace and whined, "But what. about. the. SMEEELLLLL!" her head dropped to the other side and she was gone.

How to find us now that we've left facebook land

come here... if you'd like to find us you can reach us here... leave a comment with your email and I'll email you our email... :)

Bald Eagle flying over lake Cour de laine on new years 2014

Goodbye to the Book of Faces... Hello 2014

Hello real life. Where have you been? Oh you have been here the whole time while I was looking at Facebook? Bummer... guess we have some catching up to do.

 Our new years celebrations included a lot of fun games with our Anderberg cousins and their friends (Thank you for inviting us a long, we had a blast!), then this morning we had lunch with our Calkins cousins and went to see the eagles at Lake Cour de laine. What a great way to start the new year!

Personality reveal

Aren't pictures interesting things? I especially love the photo booth. I think it's a great way to capture someone's personality in 45 seconds.  You say "Make a _______ face". There isn't enough time to plan something, you just do the first things that comes to your head. If this strip from our Mommy Daughters date isn't proof of that, I don't know what is....

living at a convent

Our Andrea is here for a month (again, she was here in October too, we are so spoiled). She stayed with a family friend last month. This month she is staying in a convent. I am trying really hard not to say that every time I tell someone that she is here, but for some juvenile reason, it's really funny to me. Really funny.

The awesome things about convents is that they have gardens. This one also has a beautiful waterfall that was constructed in memory of a Sister who passed away. We had a great time walking around the grounds, but it was so cold we didn't last long.  This is the best pic I got of the kids... apparently it wasn't  a 'smile at the camera' kind of day...

Cold Curry

I love curry... well I love Thai curry. The problem (with any cooking) right now is that we live in a very little, very old house. This means two things : Almost no insulation and no air conditioning. So cooking in the summer is not exactly high on my list of things I love to do. Unless it is BBQed or cold cooked.

Curry is not either of these things... or wasn't until last week.

Without further adieu, I give you cold curry.

 You will need:
A couple of days, because it is not cooked, the flavors need time to rest together.

BBQ or oven roast:
1 large onion chopped roughly
10 small whole sweet peppers
4 whole cloves garlic 
2 whole medium size tomatoes (like roma) 
Coat liberally in olive oil season with salt and pepper,  roast in several layers of foil until they are soft and lovely, eat a little and then wrap them all up and stick them in the fridge over night (you could probably use them that day if you want but it is cold curry so they need to chill).

Later that day: Pull out your veggies and dump them in the food processor with a good handful of fresh basil a can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed) a table spoon or two of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of yellow curry (if you like yours spicier you can add more, just know the heat grows as it rests. paste, the zest and juice of two limes, and a table spoon of brown sugar. Blitz it all until it is smooth and lovely, you may need to scrape the sides to make sure it's fully combined.

Eat it with hot rice or (if you want it to be better) let it sit over night and eat it the next day. We all know Curry grows better with age. I think day 2 was my flavor favorite.

If you try it, tell me what you think. It is so not here now and no a/c... I could eat this every day.

This recipe is Dairy free, Gluten free and Vegan ... sorry your Paleo friends will have to bring their own food. ;)

Ew Yuck! Confessions of a little brother: Bubble Bath

I like ice cream and digging in the yocks (rocks) in the back yard. 

I get messy. 

I like bafs too. With bubboos and toys.

Today Mommy said I was fill-fee and do I want to take a baf.

YES!!! I ask for bubboos. 

I can take take off my clothes myself. 

I took a baf with bubboos.

Mommy had to help Lilly downstairs. 

My bubboos were not a lot.

So I got some more.

Some got on the floor.

Some got on the toilet.

Some got on the tub.

Some a lot got on Gid.

I bonked my head, so I went to get Mommy.

Mommy kissed me better then saw bubbles on my back.

Uh Oh.

Mommy says boys don't get bubbles. Only Moms.

No guilt trips!

My family is messy.
On so many levels.
And that is okay.
Because when push comes to shove, I think we've got a lot of the important things in order.
Or at least they are the priority.

My lovely parents eloped the end of April. We are all just tickled. I smile just thinking about it.

Their reception is this weekend. and no matter which way you look at it we can't make it happen.

I feel guilt. We want to be there...

But here is where I am grateful.

They keep asking is there any way we can go? We keep looking at it and saying we don't think so...

And there is no guilt tripping. There is no, "Well everyone else is going to be here, if you cared about us/them you would do what needs to be done to get here."

Instead, it is, "We've been there, we get it. We'll miss you."

So grateful. So SO grateful for kind understanding parents.

I hope your party is AWESOME!

Conversations

Three children sit a the breakfast table (backs to their mother). The older girls visit in a friendly manner while the younger boy smears raisin bran and blue berries across his mother's favorite table cloth. 
Lilly (casually): Havah, what does 'accused' mean?
Havah: 'We think we want to get you in trouble.'
Lilly (nonchalantly clearing her place): Oh, okay. Havah, you are accused. (walks away)
Havah, (silent, shakes her head.)

From last Sat, reorganizing some rooms upstairs (hence the box spring in the dining room)

1000 Points to Lilly!

This girl has been practicing. My goodness she has.

She did not want to play "Alphabet blocks" anymore on Starfall and I told her she could not stop playing them (5 before she can do the other activities) until she could tell me ALL the letter sounds (I call out the letter, she makes the sound). 

Quized her yesterday.

She totally knows them all. 

Because she is an awesome hard worker. 

Go Lilly! 

My Dad and Mom are getting married!

So the last 5 years have been a little shall we say... crazy? 

But I think things are headed in a very good direction.

See this cute lady below? 

She's my mom... well... the mom Heavenly Father gave me after my mom kick-ed the bucket.

She is also my brother's wife's mother.

My brother's wife is my sister's best friend.

My sister called my brother's wife, "Ducky" when they met because she could not remember Alexis.

So we all call her Ducky too.. well sometimes. Sometimes Alexis. 

We call my brother Steven.

We call my sister a lot of things... Mine Lissa, Missy, Missa, Lala... Melissa.. Dory...

 Guess that kind of depends on the chapter of her life you walk in on.

My sister called my brother's wife's mother, "Mama Sue".

So we  all called her Mama Sue. 

(I have also called her friend and neighbor for the last 4 years)

* pictures of Mama Sue, Grandpa's arm and a red airplane courtesy of Gid.

But I think after this summer, maybe we'll just call her Mom, and Grandma. 

Which is just absolutely perfect. 

Because none of us are perfect... but we all sure like each other a lot.

And if there is one thing I have learned about families in the last 5 years, 

it's that liking each other counts for a lot.

I am just tickled that my parents fell in love.

* Thank you Kristina for the picture of them together!