I know, I know.  5 people have told me in the last 3 days that I should blog more often.  Here’s what I’m doing these days:

1.  Elsie is turning 3 on Friday.  I wasn’t going to have a birthday party.  Now there will be 20 kids plus their parents and our extended family there.  It’s a Wizard of Oz themed bash, and I’ve been cutting, pasting, cooking, shopping and sewing for the party…so far!!

2.  I joined the Zion Church Arts Committee.  We organize events like art shows, concerts, etc.  We have a book lecture and art exhibition called “God in the Gallery” on October 18th.  Guess who’s in charge of food?

3.  Zion’s Fall Fest is on the 26th of October.  I’m in charge of/singing in the bluegrass band.  We haven’t practiced yet

4. We throw a super big Halloween/Reformation Day party every year. And my costume kicks butt this year. As does the children’s.

5.  Tess will turn one (!!!!!!) on November 6th.  I have to do something for her 1st birthday.  This time I’m seriously only inviting close family and making some cupcakes.

6.  Another Zion Art deal - Matthew Smith and Indelible Grace will be at our church on November 20th.  Also in charge of refreshments for the band.

7. I teach sewing lessons every Thursday night.

8. We’re going to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, Dallas for Christmas, and our dear, dear friends are coming into town from Japan for Christmas, but mostly just to go to/be in a wedding. I’d like to have a New Years Party as well in there.

So, bear with me. Once the weather cools we will be spending more time inside, so that will be more accommodating to blogging. Until then, my friends…hang tight.

Here’s Tess’s 10 month pictures from JC Penney a few weeks ago. They have improved by leaps and bounds.

Two weekends ago we visited Mike’s Uncle Doug and Aunt Scherry in “the country”. We left bright and early in the morning and didn’t come home until late at night. We picked fruit off of fruit trees and vegetables out of the garden. We rode on of their 24 horses, visited a farm house that they purchased in foreclosure a few years back. I’m in love with that property, by the way. It’s 14 acres of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen. It’s got 4 or 5 out buildings/barns, a large garden, a place where a Summer Kitchen once stood, a 2 stall garage, a creek, a miniature forest, it’s all fenced in and it has a 5 bedroom two story farm house to boot. I’m in LOVE, I tell you!

Here’s some pictures from our adventure. Enjoy!

Elsie was the first to ride. Nobody’s surprised, I’m sure.

Elsie like being up there but didn’t like that Daddy and Uncle Doug had to be there, too.

Pete was way less scared than I thought that he would be. He really liked being on the horse.

This is Pete asking Uncle Doug if Chester knew how to go fast. You can see a video of Chester going fast here.

Elsie was taking pictures just like Mommy.

Mike did a great job riding Chester.

Like Father, like Son…Mike had to go “fast”, too.

I look a bit like a Narnian warrior. I have on a Moby Wrap which Tess was in until I got on the horse. I decided it wasn’t best to ride a horse while having a baby strapped to you. I should get an award.

Pete at the end of the day.

And Elsie at the end of the day.

New photographers who love their jobs, new managers with (gasp!) management training, new lights and photography equipment, and a touch of professionalism = GREAT PICTURES.

Well, there you go. They probably read my blog.

It’s official…we are a home schooling family. This past Monday we started a very loose preschool program with Pete.

I have some workbooks that build on each other, 6 in all, that we got at the home school curriculum fair back in August. The first book is learning how to follow directions and take your time, then we’ll move on to cutting and pasting, left and right, opposites, big bigger biggest, etc. Pete had nothing but good things to say about it to Mike that evening at dinner.

We have school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons while the girls are sleeping. It works for our schedule. It take about 30 minutes or so, which is just right.

Mike hung our chalkboard and did a fantastic job.

Here are some pictures from our first day. Enjoy!

So, Mike and I went on a bike ride with the girls to Food Net this past weekend and as a bonus we got to bring home some almost-too-ripe food.

When I got home and surveyed our treasures, I noticed that we had 2 avocados, a tomato, some jalapeños and a lime. Yay! Guacamole! Ole!

No pictures this time…we ate it too fast!

It’s another recipe post! It’s been a long while, well, a week anyway…so I thought I’d share what’s cookin’ in the Wittmann kitchen.

Put on some good music.

Gather your ingredients. I have bread crumbs pictures, but I ended up using a couple left over hamburger buns. You will also notice that I have 2 pounds of ground beef and 1 pound of ground turkey. Thought I’d shake things up. Plus, we love us some meatloaf, so I made a “1 1/2″ batch.

I dump all of the meat mixture ingredients into my Bosch and let ‘er rip. While measuring the brown sugar, you will get the brown sugar on your hands as you pack in into the measuring cup. I like to take this opportunity to give myself a mini-manicure. I put the tiniest drop of soap and a very minimal amount of water on my hands and scrub until I can’t feel the exfoliating properties of the brown sugar working anymore, then I rinse my hands off. Instant manicure!

Form the mixture into two loaves on a cookie cooling rack that is sprayed with Pam. I put the cooling rack on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil. It makes clean up a breeze - well, at least breezier than it would be otherwise!

After the meatloaves have been cooking for about 30 minutes, take it out and add about 2/3 of the sauce mixture. Stick it back into the oven for another 30 minutes. Watch it carefully toward the end - with all the sugar in the sauce, it can burn if you’re not careful.

I’m serving the meatloaf this evening with mashed potatoes (see recipe below) and some of Nebraska’s finest sweet corn. Enjoy!

1) What in the world am I supposed to do with all these cucumbers? Mike likes the vinegar-sugar approach. Me, not so much. Does anyone have any good recipes that involve cucumbers and don’t taste bad?

I get this every day out of the garden. At least.

2) What is it about the Bee Gees that I love so much?

One of my favorite things to do to make our home “better” is to hang clothes on the clothesline outside. I can fit a good two and a half loads on there. I like it that I get just a little bit tan with very minimal effort. I like it as an “excuse” to get outside with the kids, and still feel like I’m accomplishing something. I like the crispness of our clothes, and especially the towels - which, by the way, are so much more absorbent from hanging on the line. I like watching them dance in the breeze.

I especially like it that I save between $1 and $1.50 on each load I hang outside. For us, it yields about $365- $547 in savings each year!

Also, since I’m super nerdy and apparently have oodles of time on my hands, here’s a video. Enjoy!

Check this out.

Here’s another round of Photo Friday!

The infamous Mine Piper.

My sweet Tess in the bathtub, the surefire way to calm her down. She splashes and “swims” all over the tub. Prepare to be soaked!

Tess is standing in her crib all the time now. I love the way she has her leg pointed out like a dancer. Follow this link to see a video of her standing in her crib.

Tess’s look is starting to be more of a toddler than a baby these days. She’s getting a bit of chubby on her, which means she’s getting ready to grow tall again. She’s saying, “Let me get this straight…” here. She is also signing “all done” and “bye-bye”. She waved to me, while standing in her crib, when I laid her down for her afternoon nap.

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We’ve been doing chores this week. I made up a chart for Peter and Elsie that has pictures down the left hand side and the days of the week across the top. Each chore that is completed gets a sticker, and each day with all chores completed gets a piece of candy - hershey’s kiss, licorice, etc.

Here’s a picture of what Elsie’s bed looks like after she’s made it. I think it’s a woman thing. She can make her bed so well!

I promise that I didn’t help her at all with it! She’s just good!

This Saturday evening, if Pete does the rest of his chores (teeth brushed, toys picked up, help set table for dinner) for the rest of the day and all of his chores tomorrow, then he gets $2. He is stoked. I’m not sure if we will give Elsie an allowance or not. Maybe 50 cents or so. She doesn’t have a concept of money yet.

It sure has been easier on me this week with them doing a lot of their own picking up. It’s also made me clean up better after myself. Pete asked me why there was stuff in the bottom of my closet…OUCH!

Elsie has been way less of a monster since Tuesday. No more bologna, thank goodness. I told her to show me her sweet smile.

Pete sometimes just looks at me like this, and it sort of freaks me out. It usually takes me a moment or two, but I finally realized the other day that this is him showing me that he has a happy heart, as evidenced through his smile. He’s such a good boy!