I have been looking for a friendly photography community to join for inspiration. This past week I joined the weekly photo challenges at iheartfaces. Anyone of any level can join. To enter, photos can be posted to a flickr account, a blog, or the iheartfaces community web site.

Usually a human face must be visible in each entry. But I happen to be starting on Pet Week. Today, a pet face must be visible.

The photo I chose is of our quiet little girl riding our horse. My daughter is usually so serious, but her countenance completely changes when she has a chance to ride, with her daddy leading the horse.

Although this picture does have my daughter in it (you can see her pink boot), it really focuses on the horse’s perspective. What is he thinking? And what is it about him that has made my daughter so happy?

This photo was entered into the I Heart Faces photo challenge – http://iheartfaces.com

So I’ve decided to take another break, just to see what wonderful things might happen again! 🙂

Actually, that’s not the real reason.

The real reason is that my husband has invited lots of people over to our house for a party this Saturday.

If you know me at all, you know I’m not feeling remotely calm right now. There will be tons of people here, many of whom I’ve never met.

If you know me at all, you know my house is in no condition for a party:

I’m not now and never will be a social butterfly, not even a social caterpillar. I do love parties – as long as I can be the one observing through a “lens” of sorts. I’d even rather refill punch bowls than be the hostess. Trying to make small talk run smoothly sends me straight to my cocoon.

(Would any social butterflies like to flit on down here to come throw this party for me? Please?)

So, while I gear up for this, everything is on hold until Sunday or Monday, at which time I’ll have a major blog catch-up day. If you see me on here before then – if you come for a visit and suspect I’m lurking on the site – tell me to shoo! And to go mop the floor!

In the meantime, I will leave you with a couple of sneak previews for the Sunday/Monday catch-up day:

Annie’s tagline: “Next year, I’m planning on telling my husband before I order 40 chicks.”

Is this a “turnabout is fair play” kind of deal, Annie, in response to the bucket calves he bought??!

From Julie’s world… This time of year is like one perpetual party that she has to throw, with baseball-ballet-friends’ wedding showers. My little shindig pales in comparison to the things she’s managing right now. This blog is supposed to be fun for us sisters, so she’ll be back when it feels like a joy to take a break and write a post.

And from my corner… I’ll be posting about preventing lying in young children. Not that it’s especially a joy to write about that… But it will be a joy if anyone can chime in with some good advice that helps!

I have Mom’s Three By Fives set up to post automatically each day, but I’m skipping the pictures. The picture in the right sidebar will stay the same, but it will link you to that category, not to the individual posts.

In the meantime, from all of us: Please have a wonderfully happy Easter Sunday! Enjoy the risen Savior, your family, and some fine spring weather!

See you in a few days, when I’ve been resurrected, so to speak, from this party’s (calamitous?!) conclusion.

So I picked up some popsicle sticks at Wal-Mart in hopes of giving this a try. Ever since then, my oldest daughter – who had never heard of them, either, but who was enthralled with the sound of the phrase – has been begging me to make them.

“Mom, can we make cake pops now? Cake pops, please? Cake pops?! CAKE POPS!”

It is fun to say! Try it five times fast.

My husband and I are hosting a party this weekend (more about that tomorrow). I’m very nervous about it. There will be kids there, so I decided that now might the time to give the cake pops a trial run. I had visions of posting beautiful rows of white candy-coated popsicles with Easter-colored sprinkles on them.

So, to begin:

I baked the cakes, one white with sprinkles, the other chocolate. I’m baking at 7250 feet, so cupcakes are the best way to go for me. (I learned this the hard way shortly after we moved here, when I tried three batches of brownies on the day I was supposed to bring a dessert to a party. I ended up taking the version that was least deflated in the middle, after smothering it with thick frosting.)

The kids had a lot of fun crumbling the cupcakes into a bowl.

This is where things started to take a downhill turn. I had hoped to make white sprinkly cake pops, but the Funfetti frosting I bought actually was chocolate, not white. I also added too much of the frosting at first.

They don’t call me Calamitous Cook for nothing. Actually, no one calls me Calamitous Cook, but if they did, it would be justified.

Oh well. I just added more chocolate cupcakes to the mix and changed the plan: Chocolate cake pops! Yum!

Then the kids helped me roll the mixture into cake pop sized balls.

I did some adjusting before we continued to the next step:

Ah, order. Uniformity.

As evidence of the motivational powers of chocolate, it was at about this point in the process when my 10 month old learned to climb onto the table for the first time. I’ve never seen him so determined. He repeated the feat for the popsicle sticks, the melted chocolate, and everything else on the table.

I melted the baking chocolate in the microwave. Bakerella uses candy melts, and if I do this again, I’ll try those instead.

Then I set out the very small amount of Funfetti sprinkles that came with the frosting, making another mental note to buy extra sprinkles next time.

The light was dwindling outside, and since my food pictures look ghastly after dark, I started working quickly… taking risks… leaving my camera strap dangling off the edge of the table…

I dipped the end of each popsicle stick in the chocolate, then stuck it into the cake ball.

Then I dipped the cake ball into the chocolate. As instructed, I tried not to wiggle it around too much so as not to loosen the popsicle stick. After letting the excess chocolate drip off the cake ball, I stuck the popsicle stick into the florist’s foam I had purchased.

A few seconds later…

Seriously??! Do I need to sand these popsicle sticks to get the cake pops to stick to the top?

I tried adjusting the mixture by adding more cake, then trying more frosting… both of which yielded even worse results.

It was right about at this point that the 10 month old pulled my camera off the table and crashed it onto the tile.

And it was right about at that point that I was ready to burst into tears.

This is precisely why I can’t understand why people love cooking (or baking, which usually isn’t this bad for me).

So then I decided to make cake balls instead of cake pops.

I only had the mental fortitude to make nine of these – just enough for a few photos.

I had half of the batter left, so I decided to make up the rest of it into frosted cupcakes. Meanwhile, I mentally was berating myself for not being able to do anything right, for not being a normal mom who loves to bake treats, and for thinking I could handle staying home with kids. What good am I in the world if I can’t even successfully make cake pops for my kids?!

Not that I am ever overly dramatic about anything.

It wasn’t until I had gone through all of this that I remembered one key step:

Put the rolled cake balls into the freezer for 15 minutes; then move them to the refrigerator while preparing the candy coating.

Oh.

It’s amazing what one small piece of information can sometimes do for a person’s outlook on life.

Yes, I’ve picked you to adopt my baby.

Yes, I’ll come clean your kitchen after you make cake pops.

After the second batch of cupcakes came out of the oven, I gave it another go:

Bingo!

I got sixteen successful cake pops out of that experience.

Whew! I’m not sure I want to attempt this again for the party, but I’m back in business as far as conquering the kitchen goes.

I promise that cake pops would be very easy for people with normal cooking ability. Bakerella has a how-to video on her Amazon site. While you’re there, if you’re extra crafty, you can buy her book and learn all kinds of ways to turn cake pops into fun, impressive creations!

For the next post I am going to attempt I Am Baker’s hydrangea sculpted cake! Just kidding!!!

This year’s garden, with mulch pile waiting:

garden

There are several different types of mulch available, including straw, tree barks or chips, peat moss, compost, pine needles, newspapers, and commercial (usually black) plastic or fabric roll-out mulch, just to name a few!

In order to decide which is best for you, you need to decide what your purpose is for your mulch. Most mulch is used around plants to:

1) stop sunlight from getting to weeds so that they won’t grow,
2) slow down evaporation so that the plant retains moisture longer,
3) keep plants warm and protected over the winter, and
4) warm up gardens during the early spring (black roll-out almost exclusively).

I’m looking at my notes and thinking the best way to give you the information is to just go down the list of mulches and chat a little about them.

straw

Straw is best used for over-wintering veggies and “straw”berries. It is not heavy, does not absorb moisture well, and it is a wonderful insulator. It is fairly cheap and easy to come by. It can be used to mulch garden paths, or around just about anything. Keeping it damp will help prevent it from blowing away. It can get matted and moldy, along with being slow to break down, which is fine for paths, wintering, or plants that are permanent, but I would advise against use in the garden and opt for compost, instead.

peat moss

I honestly know little about peat moss as a mulch, except to say that it helps lower PH in the soil and needs no composting. It seems to be a wonder for retaining moisture when it is mixed in with the soil, and is recomended as a light layer over newly planted seeds. I will spread some over my garden this fall before I till, but it is not cheap and is not a quickly-renewed resource.

Pine needles, wood chips, and tree bark are all attractive and durable mulches. They work best in beds that have permanent plants, bulbs, or annuals that are transplanted in. These mulches should not be mixed in with the soil. This is the most lasting mulch, but not good for gardens (except for paths).

Black plastic is used for warming the soil and for extremely excellent weed-control. They make biodegradable black mulch now, which is wonderful for putting down on freshly tilled soil. (Tilling brings up the weed seeds.) By the time it decomposes, most of the viable seeds are dead. This obviously works best (or at all) for transplanting. Just cut an ‘x’ in the material, pull back flaps, and plant. Watering needs to be either drip irrigation, or go and water in each ‘x’.

reason for mulching paths

Above, I am needing to kill the burmuda grass and dandelions on my garden paths.

black mulch

To cook and suffocate the greatest number of weeds on the paths, I am putting down black plastic.

Compost is my favorite mulch, since I can till it in every fall and it works wonders all year. It lets water in easily, is mostly broken down already, and will greatly enhance the soil by next spring. It is expensive to buy, unless you have a source. You can make it, but I haven’t taken on “extreme composting” yet.

My watermelon hill before I mulch:

before watermelon

Above, I have dug a trench around the hill to hold moisture.

after watermelon

After I mulch the watermelon mound with compost, the trench is mostly filled in but will still retain water. I left only a small sprinkling of compost on top, since the plants have not yet emerged. Once they get a little bigger, I’ll mulch around them.

yard clippings

My second favorite option for mulching is yard waste. It works as a mulch, but it will easily break down into compost by next year IF I till it in this fall.

Note: I highlight the ‘if’ because anything woody (carbon based) needs nitrogen to break it down. In a compost pile, this just means to mix hay or twigs (carbon) with grass clippings or other “greens” (nitrogen). In the soil, however, all of the natural nitrogen will be tied up, breaking down the carbons, until the process is done. So, if you till in straw, leaves, or little twigs, make sure to give your soil a good six months to break it down, or your plants will be starved of nitrogen.

tulips in mulch

Here I have used the yard clipping around the tulips.

Whatever you use, try to keep your mulch 3 to 4 inches deep.

Last note before I let you go. Mulch attracts pill bugs (rolly-pollies) and slugs. They love the moisture and the taste of your plants. The ONLY solution I have found, and I have tried many, is beer and tuna!

beer and tuna

Empty the tuna can, rinse, and fill will cheap beer. Then dig a hole for the tuna can in the garden, so that the lip of the can is flush with the ground. Empty the can every few days. If you have a big problem, just use more tuna cans with beer. I haven’t found anything else that works!

This is more than just a brief, passing phase. In the house, she crawls around looking for bowls of milk. When she takes a bath, she’s a catfish. When she gets hurt, she cries, “MeOW!”

This is serious.

I wasn’t worried until one day when she was “reading” her Bible to her little sister. She announced very clearly, “The Bible says…” (fingers pointing to chapter and verse), “Jesus will get us a cat.”

It’s not the cat obsession that worries me. It isn’t even the thought that this might lead to her first crisis of faith, when she learns that unexplained disappointments get mixed in with the miracles.

It’s that I’m not much of a cat person – I don’t really want a cat. What worries me is the nagging thought in the back of my mind that my daughter, as a child, might have more sway with Jesus than I do!

I fear…

…I’m beginning to wonder whether there might be a cat in our near future.

It’s a happy coincidence that our preschool reading program begins with a story about a cat.

Last year I discovered the Now I’m Reading series by Nora Gaydos. We’ve found it to be perfect for the very earliest readers.

Each book begins with a simple phrase. Through the first several pages, the phrase is repeated, gradually expanding into a sentence along the way. The story reaches its (happy) conclusion in the second half of each book, using slightly faster-moving sentences.

This pace is nice for my kids. It works.

The kids are not old enough, though, to advance through the whole book in a day or even in a week. We slip the book into a pocket chart and focus on one page and one new word at a time.

You can find the series here, if you want to read what happens to the poor hero of this tale told entirely in monosyllables. (P.S. Gaydos also offers several series for older readers.)

My younger daughter is still learning her letter sounds and is not ready for Now I’m Reading.

When the twins were 18 months old, Julie tipped me off to www.starfall.com. It has an interactive video for each letter, which was extremely effective. (Julie also suggested starting with the letter O. Easy to recognize.)

Rather than teaching the names of capital letters, Starfall emphasizes the sounds of lower case letters.

That makes a lot of sense, when you consider that most of the words we read are lower case, and that we generally don’t use letter names when sounding out words.

As an added bonus to Starfall… it has a cat:

If only book and computer cats could be fuzzy and would purr contentedly… We could skip the cat hair allergies and the kitty litter tracked across the floor. Something tells me this wouldn’t fulfill this recent, consuming need in my daughter, though. We’ll have to look for another way through this…

Thanks for keeping us company this morning. Here’s to a feline-free Wednesday. Or make it feline-filled, if that suits you better.

I’ve decided to tuck the photography section into its own little corner (link in the lower right hand corner of the blog). Anyone interested can come peek in, and others who aren’t quite so obsessed with buttons and dials can feel free to pass it by. I don’t plan to feature many of the posts on the front page, just in the little side box.

Meanwhile, my ideas are tumbling over each other again too quickly for me to keep up! That tells me I may be on the right track. 😉

Lately I’ve read a couple of posts about using ambient light to create catchlights in the eyes. In American Mum’s post here, a window is used for indoor shots, while Miz Booshay’s post here suggests going under an overhang on cloudy days and asking the subject to look out at the light.

The photos below weren’t taken on a cloudy day, but the same principles apply. For this type of photo, try for conditions that include:

1) diffused, even lighting across the face (as opposed to shadows or harsh, direct sun), and
2) a light source that creates sparkly catchlights in the eyes.

Indoors, a lamp can be used…

Natural light from a window creates better indoor lighting, if you have the right setup.

It’s often easier just to go outside, though.

In the photo above, my son was standing under the shade of a porch, looking out at the sunlit sky. Compare to the next photo:

I like his sweet expression – I will treasure this photo – but it didn’t catch a sparkle in his eyes.

American Mum points out that another benefit of having the subject look at a light source is that you’ll find yourself in many of the photos! Can you see me (and my shadow) here?

If you don’t have an awning or overhanging porch, the shade of a wall can work. Just make sure the subject is looking out at the light:

This is a great time of year to give natural catchlights a try! Head outside with a sweet subject and enjoy some spring sunshine and warm temperatures.

I’d love to know how it goes!

This vacation could be called “Checklists and Bucket Lists.” My husband’s parents have had, “Take the Family on a Cruise” on their bucket list, and this spring they got to check it off. And my husband had spring break the week before the cruise, so we left home early with our own checklist in hand.

First thing: Go see my brother and his family.

We got to their house in the afternoon, and we only stayed overnight. While my sister-in-law made dinner, the kids rode bikes, scooters, and electric cars, over the ramp my brother built, up and down their otherwise-quiet street, racing, teasing, wrecking, crying, laughing, meandering, jumping. I wandered outside to see their antics, started chatting with the guys, and then it slowly dawned on me that my brother was Up to Something…

He had taken the battery out of a little motor-scooter that he’d just bought, and was sawing a bigger hole where the battery goes. He’d had his son try it out, and decided that it didn’t go fast enough…so he was putting in a bigger battery! MORE POWER!! And then, since it was MY son that was standing there watching him, it was MY son–my YOUNGEST son–that he used as a guinea-pig once he got it set up!

So here’s my little soap-box for moms with boys: Sometimes (a lot of times) a mom’s just got to shut up and let ’em try. Get your cell phone ready to dial 911 if it makes you feel better, but let ’em try.

So he started at the top of the driveway (read: new battery PLUS gravity) and he rode to the bottom, turned, and went down the street, and I was SO proud of him, and so grateful to my brother, and so glad I shut up and let him try.

Next thing: Take the family to Disneyland.

We’re only going to do this once, so we wanted to time our trip for when the youngest one would remember it, and the oldest one would still enjoy it. I think we would all say that we’re glad we went, and we’re glad we are only doing it once. We can now officially check it off the list of things we want to do with our kids before they grow up.

Next: Take the kids to see Hollywood. We just drove through, let them take in Hollywood Blvd from the car windows, and stopped to get this picture.

And we fulfilled one of my daughter’s dreams: To see the American Girl store in Los Angeles. Oh my goodness: We loved it! So many beautiful things to see. While the boys disappeared, the three of us (mom, daughter, and doll) splurged and had afternoon tea at their cafe. Seriously–they have high chairs and teacups for the dolls! Our favorite thing: the little pink box in the picture contains conversation-starter questions on slips of paper, and we took turns picking questions to ask each other. This was so good for our relationship that I’d like to do a tea-with-pink-box with her once a week.

We boarded our ship the next day. This was an amazing trip: seven days of cruising the Mexican Riviera with beloved family. We spent one day (my favorite) snorkeling and playing at the beach in Cabo San Lucas, and another day (not my favorite) riding dune buggies on trails outside of Puerto Vallarta.

We celebrated a cousin’s birthday with Mickey Mouse,

and a mother-daughter tea party.

Every day, we’d get up, throw some clothes on, and go spend a day doing whatever we liked. The kids’ goal: get connected with cousins as quickly as possible and spend the day roaming the ship. There were plenty of planned activities, if they ran out of ideas. Our youngest loved the play area made just for his age.

I spent a good part of my days reading the stack of books you see here, in our cabin, all by myself, taking breaks to mess with my camera. A little piece of Heaven-on-Earth. One of these books is the one I said I’d write a review for. It’s coming–soon–I promise.

And then, every evening, we’d all get dressed up and have dinner together. We all loved this time of gathering, chatting, and eating wonderful, delicious food. And we got another thing checked off our list:

Teach the boys to wear a tie. My husband tied the two younger boys’ ties, but the oldest one got lessons. Watching this was precious to me: a rite-of-passage, a father-son bonding.

And the happy result:

Another thing checked off: Get a good family photo.

What a wonderful gift Grammy and Granddad gave to all the grandkids. I’m sure they’ll treasure this memory for a lifetime.

A couple weeks ago, my sister-in-law Megan came down for the day. We had tons of fun just hanging out together, and meanwhile, made the most ridiculous portion of cookies I’ve ever seen!

Just the ingredients! To name a few: a whole dozen eggs, 3 pounds of peanut butter, and 15 cups of oatmeal!

It all started because Megan and I flew down to Atlanta to visit Drew’s brother and his wife and kids. While we were there, we got the request to make monster cookies, only then we found a smaller recipe. Our curiosity was stoked, so when Megan got to my house, I said, “That’s it, we’re making for-real monster cookies today!”

We didn't have a big enough bowl, so we used my canner!

and yes, it calls for a full POUND of butter!

We found that mixing butter and sugar just wasn’t cutting it, so we resorted to …

a potato masher!

At this point, it’s still pretty managable.

Megan smiles because it's time to add the two BAGS of chocolate!

However, when it came time to actually mix in 15 cups of oatmeal, we had to get a better angle to stir, plus we took turns.

This way, we could get our legs into it, too!

Finally, everything is in!

The aftermath

It’s all worth it. We gave out bags and bags, fed dozens of people, made huge cookies, and I STILL have some in my freezer!

Super fun!

The recipe was hand-written on a card by Mom. Sorry, I don’t know where she got it.

Mix together well:
12 eggs
2 lbs brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp white corn syrup
1 lb butter
3 lbs (or 6 cups) peanut butter
8 tsp baking soda

Add:
1 lb. chocolate chips
1 lb. M&Ms

Mix in:
12 cups oatmeal
2 1/2 cups bran
(I ended up adding 15 to 18 cups of oatmeal because I didn’t have the bran.)

Drop in large clumps onto a cookie sheet. Make sure you make them big! Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

Enjoy!

Thank goodness roses like to be trimmed. This is like going into the barber for a trim and coming home with a buzz-cut.

Sorry I didn’t get “before” picture. Suffice it to say that we couldn’t see most of this side of the shed, and the tops of the rose branches reached the roof.

My wonderfully patient mother taught me the trick to trimming roses last year. It just so happens that I was forced to trim these roses at the right time of year: toward the end of the dormant season, when the new-growth buds are just swelling.

new growth bud

On each stem that you’re trimming, you want to cut right above one of these buds. This bud will dictate the direction that branch will grow, so you usually want to pick a bud pointing away from the center of the plant. (If you have them all facing in, the rose will grow into itself and get too crowded.)

just cut about 1/8 inch above the selected bud

Be Brutal! Roses (especially well-established plants) don’t mind being cut back at all! This is the time to fertilize, also, if you want to really help your plant. I didn’t, because I don’t have the fertilizer and because roses are pretty hardy.

water

Make sure to water your rose, however. Roses are special, because you really don’t want to water their leaves. They are susceptible to Blackspot if the leaves get wet on a normal basis. Water just the ground around the rose.

Don’t cry over your mangled rose, yet. Wait just a few weeks. You will have a maintained and managable rose, which is a grace to any garden.

Look at what I happened upon as I was walking inside tonight. Just another Kansas evening!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great week.