AND....... WE'RE BACK!

Sort of....

That is to say, I'm back.

Maybe...

On occasion.

I hope.

I really thought I'd get more in before Soccer hit the family, but somehow the beginning of August gave way to the middle of August all too soon - and that, for anyone who was not aware, was the beginning of our fall.

See, every year we start with soccer - in mid August - then school & dance & violin in late August.

Doesn't sound too bad, yet, right? Well, consider this:

Bob coached 3 soccer teams this year (we bumped Peter up so the boys were on a team together). Each team typically played at least two games a week - plus there were practices.

My job in all this: warm up the boys while Beth was playing so Bob could just put them on the field on time. Oh, did I mention that was done with Jacob either on my back or in a toddler harness, and sometimes just on my hip. Thank goodness Gabi jumped in with some of that drag around adventure too. And that doesn't count the one game I coached when Bob was gone to 6th grade camp. Thank heaven's for one of the other boy's dad who offered to help - he ran on the field and I worked the subs (though I'm sure I messed that up along the way too) - all the while with my little monster too tired (from not napping well and from having already watched one game - that thankfully a different parent had coached) and dragging me, and Beth, and Gabi all over the place, the boys going crazy (can we say Peter was a perfect Animal - from the Muppets), and extra soccer balls and kids floating onto the field. There is a reason Bob coaches them all and I play mom on the side lines.

Anyway - soccer was the biggest part, but everything else required time and energy too - and, like I mentioned, Bob had 6th grade camp to plan and execute. And I had a house (still have a house) in serious need of reorganization (it's coming) and a strong need to find a schedule that worked for everyone (we're still working that out too).

Then, as if it weren't enough, Youth Orchestra and Beginning Band started up a couple of weeks before soccer finished. Beth is in the first, having had violin lessons for just over a year and having advanced quickly due to her back ground from piano lessons (thanks grandma) and Gabi was just starting the Clarinet with me, so we put her in beginning band. Who knows if she'll stay there the whole time or move over to the Orchestra - we'll have to see how that works out later on. Don't want to push too fast.

Okay - so you get the picture. We were busy, crazy, nuts. And the blog has been fully neglected - on purpose even - for shame - gasp - yeah, I know - but I think we can start to come back. Don't expect too much right off as I'm still a little swamped with Sutter's Fort around the corner and Halloween in two days and all the normal stuff. But with soccer completed for another year, we're back to finding the true normal in our home for the school year.

So I'll leave you with my favorite Jacob saying of the last month - as he noted I was frazzled once again with the boys and he comes out talking to me as we join up with Bob and loudly announces (though I think he was trying to ask a question):

"I'm driving me NUTS!"

Yup - I think that about sums it up!

Icy Cold - Sweet Treat - Homemade Sorbet

Okay - so no pictures - at least not right now. I'm kind of lazy when it comes to that kind of thing. But I wanted to share with you my new adventure this summer. Okay - so one of my new adventures. The making of Sorbet.

I've wanted to do this for years, but just never did. I would actually google recipes and all that and then never do it. Fear of failure I think, though some might say it was fear of success. In any case, it took me until this summer to do it.

See, I had 8 cups of raspberries sitting in my fridge and I knew they needed to be used up within the next couple of days. Normally I'd just make a raspberry pie - and for those of you who know me, you know I love raspberry pie. But it was really hot - and it wasn't supposed to cool down - and the nights weren't going to be bringing in a heavy breeze to cool down the house as much as I like - so I got determined.

I made a batch of Raspberry Sorbet - yummy, delicious - we loved it - big hit! But my real favorite sorbet is not Raspberry - it's lemon. Yes, I'm a bit of a lemon junky - I love lemon pie, I love lemon bars, I love my lemonade - and make it a bit tart please - I love lemon cake - if it is lemon, I probably love it.

Well - we had recently decided to take Jacob off raspberries again and give him until next year - so I needed something different for him anyway - so I made lemon sorbet (basically it's lemonade frozen). Bob and I especially enjoyed the two flavors together!

Anyway - here I am having made my second batch of both - but could I be certain I'd done the same amounts of everything? Of course not. See the other thing about me that my dearest friends already know is that I rarely (if ever) follow a recipe exactly (even the first time through) and then I'm terrible about not writing down what I did until I'm not certain what I did. A few times I've been smart enough to write things down and I've been very happy with the results.

So - tonight, after messing up my lemon sorbet (as in too tart, even for me) - I've made a new discovery.... Raspberry Lemonade Sorbet! OH MY GOODNESS! I think it's my new favorite! And I'm pretty sure I figured out what I did wrong - and then I wrote down all three recipes. Yeah for me!

So I thought I'd share... and no, you do not need an ice cream maker - and it's completely dairy free. So enjoy!

For all Sorbets, you will need either a food processor (which is what I have) or a blender, a pan and stove, measuring utensils, glass baking pans, and, of course, a freezer. You may find a few other things useful - like spoons! =)

Raspberry Sorbet
7-8 cups raspberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 T. lemon juice
2 cups water

Lemon Sorbet
1 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cup sugar

Raspberry Lemonade Sorbet
31/2-4 cups raspberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/8 cups lemon juice
3 cups water

Start by dissolving sugar in liquids. I do this by putting them all (lemon juice, water and sugar) into a sauce pan and heating just until sugar is fully dissolved. For the Lemon, pour into an 8x8 or 9x9 glass baking pan and move to freezer. For the others: Blend raspberries and syrup together until completely smooth and even. Pour into a 9x13 glass baking dish and move to freezer.

Should you desire to do so, you can stir the mixture every 30 minutes to an hour. I didn't bother the second time I made them. Once mixture is completely frozen (at least 6 hours), soften slightly and cut out chunks. Place chunks - a few at a time - in the food processor and blend (pulsing as necessary) until all chunks are smooth. Scoop out and place into a container suitable for the freezer (I like to place the container in the freezer for at least 5 minutes prior to beginning this process). Once scooped, place container in freezer, process next set of chunks, scoop those and put into same container. Once everything is smooth and in container, cover and freeze.

Hope you have fun! Enjoy!

Adventures for Lynne's Birthday

What do you do when it's a beautiful day, you have family visiting, and it's your birthday? Well, for Lynne that would be have everyone go to the lake. Do you think there were any complainers? Not that I know of - certainly none from my house.

So off we went for a day in the lake - on the lake - looking at the lake. Water squirters were great for water fights - of which, my older boys (Jeremy and Peter) thought they might be able to take on Uncle Adam. Uncle Adam had his own super charged squirters and was able to hold his own.

No trip to the lake is complete without some canoe jumping! Last year it was just the older girls. This year little Olivia wanted to do it too. She was a little concerned when she got in the water, but Gabi swam with her and she very quickly gained her own confidence.

Jeremy and Peter also decided to try it out. I totally missed a picture of Jeremy, and after the first time he decided it wasn't his thing -so he went to the tiny little sandy strip and started digging instead. Peter panicked - totally freaked out about being in water that he couldn't stand up in. Gabi tried to help him, but, of course, he wasnted to grab on to her. So she was instructed to leave him alone and get out of his reach. Hey - we're not totally mean, everyone was wearing a life jacket. But it sure made from some good discussion with Gabi about the importance of not getting too close to someone who is panicking in water.

Peter and Olivia decided it was fun enough to do again - though  neither "jumped" again, but rather just went over the edge.

(And Jacob and I just had fun watching the whole event - along with Marie and Lynne and Adam) 

A favorite part of being at the lake is canoe rides - though there seemed to be few of them this year. Probably because the kids were too interested in jumping out. Never the less, Marie and Adam took Eli out. Then Bob took out his mother - a yearly tradition! And after that Jacob got to on his very first canoe ride ever! He was so excited - and we  had so much fun listening to him sing every song he could think of.

Fun song story: He started with Bob the Builder - which is always fun because of Bob, then sang some oldies and funny songs - like Barbara Ann. The best part was that he wanted me to sing I am A Child of God - which I began to receive the response "I not like it!" I didn't know what he meant since he loves that song. Then Bob started singing it in Spanish. Jacob grinned and said "Yeah, that's the one".

Later, while telling the story to Marie and Lynne, with Jeremy was digging in the dirt at our feet, Marie saiys "What? You don't know all the words after five kids?" - teasing me, of course, to which I replied something like "nope. But my older three do - or at least mostly" - Jeremy piped up with "I do." So Marie asked him to sing it. He started, stopped and then said "I don't remember all the words. Or any actually."

That was the actual birthday - but then we had to celebrate the following day too. So out came the stomp rockets and the gysers. Yes, we do them every year! But this year, there was a extra gyser for Lynne to pull!

No party is complete without cake - of course - and Lynne's favorite is German Chocolate. I made the cake - Gabi made the elephant banner to go on top. It was, of course, super delicious!

To top of the night, we had a little family music recital. Piano pieces played by Gabi, Haley, Beth, Jeremy, Annie, and Peter. Then a recorder piece by Gabi - and Beth tried to do a violin piece, but was really having a hard time since it had been awhile and that violin isn't her favorite. She's so crazy picky about sound. I supposed that will be a good thing later on.

 I do have other pictures - and several of the ones I picked out, for whatever reason, would not load up. I suspect - since blogger keeps telling me to use a different browser or to update (which I can't - we're using a really old computer.. but it works and we like it and so we'll use it till we can't) - anyway, I suspect it has to do with the browser. I'll look into more later. Right now I'm just trying to get caught up a little. Just a little.

(UPDATE: I discovered someone could see a picture that I thought hadn't posted... so I finally sucked it up and check on a different browser... so sorry for the wackiness of pictures. I think I'll try to follow bloggers suggestion and use a different browser when updating and my firefox for everything else.)

Trinidad

 Trinidad was, believe it or not, colder then Patrick's Point - which, by the way, I was informed is indeed warmer in the spring and fall then it is in the summer. Of course, we started with less visible sunlight - lots of fog - which I didn't mind, being that we don't see much of that where we live. With the wind blowing, the fog laying heavily, and the chill in the air, we started out on a little trail up the hill and back down.

We did not all stay together - that would have been difficult as we had some rather speedy kids, a group taking pictures, and a group with a pregnant lady. So, we all went at our own paces, enjoying - or racing through - the scenery.

Notice the wind in that tree above? Well, we went down to that beach - yes, that very one, wind and all. And the kids had a great time. I only got a few pictures as Jacob was ready to sleep. The "castle" that Bob built - you'll see it below with him and I seated in it, was where I sat to hold Jacob under my coat and a towel so he could stay warm enough to sleep. The kids were great at helping Bob build two moats around the initial wall to help make sure the racing waves crashing and running up the shore weren't able to attack me.

We took a break - and found a little shelter - for some lunch at a nearby park - not the playground type. Still, kids are great at being able to find something to keep them busy regardless of where they were. I'm not really sure what game the came up with, but it involved a soccer ball and a frisbee.

Then were was Bob, who took advantage of the situation to catch a few zzzz's - no one could blame him, he'd been up early each morning to take kids to the tide-pools. Of course, he opted out of the third day, since he'd also been staying up late at night AND each of our kids (except Jacob who we felt was too little) had gone once. Others (Marie and Julie) went all three mornings.

And there was more beautiful scenery to enjoy!

Then back into town we went, where we split up. Marie's family headed back down on the super windy beach, while we made our kids walk around Trinidad a little. We went out to the wharf and discovered a hidden beach, much smaller, but much more protected.

Then up to the lighthouse - it was a replica of the real light house still in use today. The bell however, is the real old fog bell - which has since been replaced. Gabi was particular interested in the wall of "Buried At Sea" which included people even to the present year.

 And what would any trip to the ocean, especially a wharf, be without boats - ships - fisher vessels?

We ran into Julie up at the lighthouse, and when we got back to the beach area Jacob was exhausted and Bethie was ready to relax. So I stayed in the van while Jacob slept and Bethie worked on Suduku.

The others head back down on the beach to find Marie's family. They were looking for shells - so away they all went. They saw some neat things along the coast.

It was a nice day!