Only about 3 years away from half-retirement...it's one way to look at it.

This morning, I complained to my husband that this whole stay-at-home-mom thing is hard. Everyday mundane things, like the never-ending piles of laundry and dishes (I was looking at sink full of dishes from last night even though I ran a load last night. Hmmm...). 

So, he said to me,

"Honey, you are only about 3 years away from half-retirement!"

I said, "half-retirement?", just puzzled. 

He said, "Well, in about that time our youngest will be school. And when you clean the house or whatever, they will stay the same way for about 8 hours till kids come home. Isn't that great?"

I knew why I married to this guy. 

 

 Oh, by the way, isn't this a beautiful flower? I took it a couple of weeks ago when it was nice and sunny out. (I know it's totally out of contents here, but this photo just made me feel more peaceful.)

In a meantime, for about another 3 years, I will keep my spirit up for raising these fun crazy kids who I absolutely adore, and try not to focus too much on those piles of dishes and laundry....

Because, honestly, there is no way I can keep my house clean with this monster K.

He is just too much fun.

Belated Eggstravaganza post

How long ago was Easter? My artist friend V invited me to her house for Eggstravaganza again. I got to meet a locally famous artist at her house, and oh my, I had so much fun. We, adults, colored and decorated eggs while we visit. But this is not just simple soaking eggs in colored water....it's pretty serious. It's all fun, but you know, we'd spend at least half hour or so per egg. I decorated 3 eggs in 2 hours...

 Here is a pic of V's collection from past Eggstravaganza.

 Not a good shot, but my battery was dying on me...

 Eggs drying on egg drying board she made (I think she pinned on grid-drawn form).
Again, not a good pic *sigh*

 And these 3 are the one I made this year. I probably should have done them in emptied eggs, but I didn't think much...oh well. 

The look was going for the blue was the Ukrainian folk art of wax-and-dye method. V even had the kit to do it! But it seemed involve a bit too much. So I went for crayon-and-dye method instead.  I was really happy how the cherry blossom one turned out to be though. Isn't that pretty???
It's a lot of crayon-and-dipping-and-drying. Every time the egg came out the colored water, it revealed another layer of color...oh, it was so therapeutic!

This is the photo of eggs my family decorated. Kids tried crack-and-dye, tape-and-dye, marbleizing tech with oil, and crayon-and-dye methods. 

K decided to go with dye-and-stick-and-crack-and-sqeeze method....

Having a good time, either you are young or not-so-young, that's the whole point of Eggstravaganza!

Sunday Popcorn

This was our weekly menu one week. This was one of those many weeks that I didn't fill out the entire week, and as you see, kids helped themselves. It is nice to have a 1st grader now who knows how to write and loves to help his sister.  And in case you can't read, here is what's written;
Monday: Bacon Pasta
Tuesday: Teriyaki chicken (I probably should post on my cooking blog that I have not updated for a LONG time, but at least I know one of my sisters-in-law would love it. The problem is that I don't measure...but that's another story)
Wednesday: White Lasagna
Thursday: Teriyaki Burger (J's favorite)
Friday: Chocolate pancake (M's request)
Saturday: Pasta (one of the very few items M would eat)
Sunday:  Popcorn

That's right, popcorn for dinner. That's what we do. Or I should say, that's what my husband's family have been doing for many many years. I don't know how many generations, but I know wherever we live, our family is having "Sunday Popcorn"

I believe Sunday Popcorn started back in a farm where my husband's grandfather grew up. For a leisure, his family gathered over bowls of popcorn and enjoyed each others' company, because, well, popcorn is pretty cheap.

I think it's wonderful. It's not a trip to Disney World. It's not a fancy dinner. It's a family time. We gather together and visit. We usually have, in addition to popcorn (because popcorn itself really doesn't fill you up), cheese, fruits, and juices. Sometimes some treats if someone was up to baking something. Tonight, we had yummy fresh salsa, freshly baked zucchini bread, and no bake cookies. 

We adults visit while kids play together. No fight (except between siblings) among cousins. Someone is always watching over little ones. With that many kids (at least 16 kids of ages 2-14 today), you can play pretty much any kind of games.

So, that's why we have Popcorn on the menu. Not that popcorn is their favorite dinner item, but it's a fun family time together with their cousins.

That's our Sunday Popcorn.
And that has been on our menu most of Sundays, and will always be.

I am content

This photo is nothing to do with this post. But it adds some love to it.

About 5 years ago, I left my full-time job and became a full-time mom with a part-time job. I hated it. I didn't know what I was doing. I struggled, A LOT. Many things, both good things and bad things, happened this past 5 years. I think I made a post back when I started liking it.

I would love to say that now I am content. I am content where I am, who I am, what I do, what we do as a couple and family, how we do things, and a lot of things...I feel just content. Well, most of the time.

It could be because my baby is now a little boy who can understand what I say most of the time and able to follow direction if he wants to. And he is capable of somehow somewhat communicate between his baby signs and his increasing vocabulary in Japanese and English (sometimes it's a guessing game). His sleep schedule is set, so my schedule is kind of set. He tells me "NO!" a lot. But I know he loves me. Oh how much he loves me!

It could be because this winter has been mild. Having sunny days helps. It lightens up everything, house, my mood, my life.

It could be because my husband is happy at his new position. He is not stressed as much as before. He comes home and is able to relax. We chat and laugh. Oh he makes me laugh. I get never tired of that guy.

It could be....many things. But I am happy to be able to feel this way - content. Not overly happy or pretend everything is fine. Everything is not perfect, but I am okay with that.

When I had J 7 years ago. Many visitors at hospital told me that he was "such a content baby". I didn't quite understand the meaning back then, but I start to understand.

It kind of feels good.

Valentine's Day dinner

 For Valentine's Day dinner, I decided to make pink crepes for fun.

 

Adding a few drops of food coloring and imitation flavors wouldn't be that bad, I thought. So I tried.

I shouldn't have given kids choices, cherry or strawberry flavor. J wanted cherry, M wanted strawberry, of course. "Fine, I'd divide the batter in half and flavor one of each", I thought. So I did.

 

 They looked pretty pink as batter, not so much on the skillet, but sure it was pretty pink on a plate. 

 They smelled like artificial cherry and strawberry. 

I even made some chocolate ones too.

 

But J said to me, "Mom, will you make just regular crepes next time?"  M, who wanted the strawberry flavored crepes, didn't even touch it. K ate total 5 of regular and chocolate crepes, but no pink ones. I guess my pretty in pink crepe dinner plan failed. I don't think those leftover pink crepes will be eaten...oh well. It was still fun to see kids' reaction when they saw those pink crepes. 

So I took one last shot of the Valentine's crepes accompanied with smoked sausage sauteed with pancake syrup (I know it's weird, but J's favorite), and my new attempt on strata. I added sliced oranges to make it more like a descent dinner, instead of just dessert for dinner. 

 

Dessert for dinner? That sounds actually good.....

Speaking of dessert, my dear husband made this:

Chocolate mousse.  

Wow.  

It was delicious.

And it was his first time making mousse.

  

Here is him in whipping action with his recipe reference to the left (i.e. his laptop). 

I love when he works in the kitchen and I get to sit on the couch and watch some PBS show.

Well, hand whipping didn't cut it. After (finally!) he asked me where hand mixer was, he was successfully able to whip up actual mousse consistency stuff. The best part of this is that it was made of just chocolate bar and water. That's it. He found the recipe from a science blog. A SCIENCE BLOG! I didn't know he reads science blog. I thought he was history kind of guy. He said, "I love science. I read science stuff. I just suck at it."  So, that's where he got the idea of making this fancy dessert for his wife on Valentine's Day. What a man.

He loves me. 

I'm so loved.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was M's very first Valentine's exchange at school. She's been loving doing all the fun things, just like her big brother gets to do in school. So, she was really really excited to make her valentine's (She says "Balemtimes Day"). I covered pretzels with white chocolate, M sprinkled the heart-shaped sprinkles. I cut the paper and wrote "To:" and "From:", she wrote all her classmates' names and her names (with help of the class list). I gave her heart-shaped stickers, she decorated the bags and the tag (girls had a lot of stickers, but boys got only one because they were boys).  And, she hand-picked each special pretzel for her friends. She was very proud.

 This is her "pink day" outfit. Pink shirt, light khaki pants with pink ribbon, pink socks, and pink hair. I must say, yes, I am enjoying having a little girl, my own baby doll. :)

 

This is J's. Being a 1st grader and a boy, he wanted to do as little work as he could for his classmate. I cut heart-shaped papers, punched holes. He wrote his names and put Dum Dum suckers through the holes. Above picture shows them kind of shoved in the corner.

But for his teacher, it was another story...(the fancy card above)

He used A LOT of stickers and decorated a card very carefully....

 And it says, 

 Yes, she is a really really good teacher and because of her, his reading and writing skills have improved dramatically this year.

And this was for me. I told my husband that he doesn't have to get anything for me, but of course he did. 

I got chocolate, really really good chocolate! - Ghirardelli dark chocolate series, hazel nuts, camel, and one of my favorites, orange filling. He loves me so much.

Last night, I was instructed to sit and play piano while they had some secret activity going on, so that they'd know where I was for sure. Now, that's just brilliant!

 I love J's "you are the best MoMMy ever!" I hope he will tell me the same when he is 16.

Oh, and this? It's just for fun. K groovin' and dancin' in the kitchen with his big sister's heart-shaped sunglasses. I love this child.

Letter M

 Instead of doing other things that I'm supposed to be doing (we call it housekeeping strike), I decided to make this: Letter M. 
Now it's hung on a dining room along with family photos (one next to M is my grandmother).

 It's 8x8 paper, outlined with letter M, tacky glued with small pearls, mounted on a frame I found at Goodwill for $1.99. Very happy about the result. Maybe I should have used different paper as background, but it's good enough now. 

 

Speaking of family, here is our recent family picture, drawn by my daughter M. Yes, there are 2 of her - one below is real her and the all pink one is her baby doll (18"doll she got for Christmas) named M as well.