The Party's Over!

Let me just say that I have really, really enjoyed this party! I think my new blog is officially broken in. I started out being really good about commenting on everyone's comments, and I must apologize for slacking off the past few days.

As you know, we are getting ready to go on a long and bittersweet vacation, as we visit my parents' home in New York one last time before they sell it (bitter) and move down here (sweet). You can read all about that on Day 3's post here. I have been trying to get ready for this trip, prepare for our support group's annual kick-off (which I just got home from), get ready for a new year in American Heritage Girls, help my brother sell his fabulous peaches, and just hop along with regular life.

All that to say: I appreciate all of you who've come to my party and played along! I have read each and every one of your comments, been to your blogs to see your posts, and smiled a lot. You all are great!

And so without further adieu, I announce my top 3 Party-Goers:
#1: Suzanne from God is Good
#2: Leah at Courtney Family Happenings
#3: Marbel at Two Kid Schoolhouse

Each of you will be receiving an amazon.com gift card in your email box in the next few days! Don't panic if you don't get one right away; remember, I'll be on dial-up!

Again, thanks to everyone for coming to my party. Now I've got to finish packing, water the plants, and put in my Rainbow Resource order so it's waiting for me when I return. Oh, and that cleaning the house thing? It's not happening.

Housewarming Party Finale!

This is the last housewarming party day here at SmallWorld! I am headed off for vacation in two days, and I have a couple of different homes to think about while I'm gone. The first, of course, is my actual home; the second is my blog, SmallWorld at Home, and my guest house, SmallWorld Reads. I have not reached the level of blogging in which I am prepared enough to do autoposts, nor do I have a guest blogger. I thought a bit about asking my friend Blogless Leigh to be my guest blogger, but, um, she is self-acclaimed to be computer-challenged. (Also, she is mourning the loss of Scrabulous on Facebook.)

Anyway, I will have internet access at my parents' home in upstate New York, but it is dial-up and takes eons to do anything. Randy has already scouted out places that have free Wi-Fi in my hometown, and found two: the public library and a pub. Starbucks and Panera have not yet (and probably won't) come to my tiny town. And on top of all the internet issues, I'll be very busy relaxing on the lake, helping my parents pack, and videotaping every nook and cranny of this place that has been my home since I was 11-years-old. (Read more about that here on Day 2.)

All that to say: my blogging will be sporadic in the next 2 weeks.

And that leads me to my Day 4 Party Favor.For today's Housewarming Party Final Day Party Favor, just answer some or all of these questions in the comments for 10 points (and yes, I really am keeping track!):

* When you go away on vacation, do you feel the need to clean your house before you go?
* What are your favorite snacks to take with you on a long car trip?
* Do you listen to music or books-on-tape while traveling, do you read (if you are the passenger), or just stare vacantly out the window? (Please don't tell me if you read while you're driving.)
* Does your house smell weird when you come home? Do you light candles and open windows, or is that just me?

That's it! And remember, you can always do the
Week-long Gifts (leave me a comment to say you've done any or all of these, each time you do)
1. Mention SmallWorld's Housewarming Party on your blog, and you'll get 5 points each time you do!
2. Put my party sign on your blog somewhere, and you'll get 10 points.
3. Subscribe to SmallWorld and get 2o points! (How to subscribe: look on my sidebar and click on the button that says "posts" under the header "subscribe.")
4. Cut and paste the day's Party Favors on your blog for 10 points each day.
5. And by the way, you can jump in the party on any day, and you can even go back and do the previous days if you missed them the first time around! Our door is always open to new friends! See Day 1 here.
See Day 2 here.
See Day 3 here.

Thanks for coming to the party! I'll be posting winners sometime tomorrow!

Housewarming Party Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of my Housewarming Party! Part of my motivation in having this party was that I thought I would be spend time working on my sidebar, organizing entries, adding links, and all that kind of good stuff—kind of like putting all those pictures up on the wall of your new house. But I haven't quite gotten around to that this week. Instead of working on my blog, I've been doing things like playing croquet and making chocolate chip cookies.

Croquet is so much fun! We used to play this all the time when I was a kid. My brothers are ruthless players; I haven't taught my children any of their made-up rules, like ways to knock your opponent's ball a mile away. We play nice croquet. Our lawn is kinda lumpy and once in awhile you have to dodge dog poop, but that just makes it more interesting.

Here is a photo of the amazing cookies I baked this evening. Are they not the most pathetic things ever? They are very reminiscent of my Amish Friendship Bread. I believe I left out 1/2 c. of flour. As you can see with the ones to the back, I did add more flour and the subsequent batches began to resemble cookies eventually. Of course they are still delicious, and everyone is feeling nauseated from chocolate overload.

So all of this chit-chat is bringing me to my 4th and next-to-last Party Favor.

Party Favor #4
For today's Housewarming Party Day #4 Party Favor, just answer this question in the comments for 10 points. Feel free to elaborate on your answer!

If you are going to a party, would you rather play games or would you rather sit around and chat and snack? Let me put it this way: If there is a game of Pictionary, for example, going on in one room, and in another room several people are talking and munching on chips (or normal-looking chocolate chip cookies)—and you have a good friend in each of those rooms with whom you feel comfortable— which room would you join?

That's it! And remember, you can always do the
Week-long Gifts (leave me a comment to say you've done any or all of these, each time you do)
1. Mention SmallWorld's Housewarming Party on your blog, and you'll get 5 points each time you do!
2. Put my party sign on your blog somewhere, and you'll get 10 points.
3. Subscribe to SmallWorld and get 2o points! (How to subscribe: look on my sidebar and click on the button that says "posts" under the header "subscribe.")
4. Cut and paste the day's Party Favors on your blog for 10 points each day.
5. And by the way, you can jump in the party on any day, and you can even go back and do the previous days if you missed them the first time around! Our door is always open to new friends!
See Day 1 here.
See Day 2 here.
See Day 3 here.

Thanks for playing! I've been enjoying all your answers! I may just send the winner a box of my own special cookies....

Housewarming Party Day 3

Welcome to the third day of my Housewarming Party! I sure do get distracted, don't I? I don't know how the days pass so quickly. I get so involved with finding old friends on Facebook that I forget about my family blog real life.

But back to the party. I know that this is supposed to be a festive event, but I need to wax nostalgia for Day Three's Party Favors. For the past decade, the kids and I have been going to my hometown of Geneva, New York during the first two weeks of August. Dr. H. usually goes to a big botanical conference during this time, while we spend 2 weeks with my parents at their home on Seneca Lake. This is the house we built and moved into when I was in sixth grade. It's not my childhood home; I think of it as my coming-of-age home. And my coming-home home.

Everything about it is amazing. It's not fancy, but it's roomy and bright. Functional and comfortable. Three stories and a beach on one of the Finger Lakes. As my father says, "a swimming pool 700 feet deep, 2 miles wide and 35 miles long." And don't get me started on all the memories the house holds for me. I can't think about that right now.

'Cause here's the thing: this will likely be our last visit to my home on Glass Factory Bay Road. My parent have bought a house down here in Tennessee just a half mile down the road from us. Of course we are thrilled about that; we've wanted them to do that for years. But, well, that means they have to sell their house in Geneva.

And that means my kids won't grow up skipping rocks in Seneca Lake and going sailing early in the morning while the wind's still good. This is the last summer they'll spend all day in the lake, jumping from big rock to big rock. Next year my daughter won't be sleeping in the bedroom where I tallied up the months my boyfriend(s) and I dated; she won't put her clothes in my dresser or walk barefoot across my shag carpet.

For today's Housewarming Party Day #3 Party Favor, just answer some or all of these questions in the comments for 10 points (and yes, I'm keeping track!):
* Do you have a special childhood home or did you have several homes?
* Do you imagine that your children will someday "come home" to your current house, or do you see yourself moving someday?
Want to tell me anything else about a home to which you were especially attached? I'd love to hear it!


That's it! And remember, you can always do the
Week-long Gifts (leave me a comment to say you've done any or all of these, each time you do)
1. Mention SmallWorld's Housewarming Party on your blog, and you'll get 5 points each time you do!
2. Put my party sign on your blog somewhere, and you'll get 10 points.
3. Subscribe to SmallWorld and get 2o points! (How to subscribe: look on my sidebar and click on the button that says "posts" under the header "subscribe.")
4. Cut and paste the day's Party Favors on your blog for 10 points each day.
5. And by the way, you can jump in the party on any day, and you can even go back and do the previous days if you missed them the first time around! Our door is always open to new friends! See Day 1 here.
See Day 2 here.

What's for Supper?

"What's for supper is" certainly in the Top 5 of the most taxing questions ever asked. In fact, I can't think of a question that jolts my nerves more, other than "Have you seen my overdue library video?" or "Do you know where my shoes are?" Many, many years ago I resolved to eliminate this one stress in my life by creating a weekly menu and shopping according to this menu. I have been fairly consistent in keeping up with this system for years, but the weekly menu had a downfall: it required asking the question, "What would you like to eat this week?" before each grocery list could be made. Usually Randy would say something helpful like, "I can't think of anything right now; I'm not really hungry"; Laurel would say, "Beans and rice"; Jesse would say, "Steak" (2008 update: Jesse doesn't eat red meat anymore); and Duncan would say, "Candy."

This fall I got smart and made a list of all of our favorite supper choices. I keep this in my "menu" section of my 3-ring binder, right after the "grocery list" section. When it's time for grocery shopping, I pick out a few things myself, then hand the list to Randy for his picks. I don't necessarily pair a certain supper with a certain day of the week, except for those couple of days when I know I will need a crockpot meal.

And so, here is our list. With over 50 choices, we're doing pretty well, but we add things to the list regularly as we remember old favorites or find new ones.

Grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and corn
General Tso's Chicken
Chicken and Rice Soup
Ginger Beef
Tortellini Stir Fry
Tomato Chipotle Soup
Chuck Wagon Soup
Chicken with 40 Garlic Cloves
Black Bean Stoup with sandwiches
Vicki’s Favorite Chicken with Grapes, Couscous and Roasted Asparagus.
Calzones
Lasagna, bread, salad, broccoli
Beans and rice, tortilla chips, quesadillas
Chicken and vegetable kabobs with rice or spicy noodles
Bread, cheese, and deli meat with salad
Chicken with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, corn
Pasta salad with grilled chicken and french bread
Rainy Monday Beef Stew
Spaghetti and meatballs, veggie
Tilapia with rice and veggie
Fettucine Alfredo with bread and veggie
Chili over rice or Fritos, cornbread
Salmon, baked potatoes, veggie
Kung Pao Chicken
Hamburgers, baked beans, french fries
Jambalaya over rice, cornbread
Randy's Famous Fettucine Alfredo
Randy's Famous Sunday Night Fried Rice
Grilled drumsticks, potato wedges, veggie
Home-made pizza with salad
BLTs, corn
Hawaiian grilled pork chops, rice, pineapple, corn
Spicy pork cutlets with fried potatoes
Smoked Turkey quesadillas
Tortellini Chowder
Ranch Style Chicken
Mexican Lasagna
Taco Soup
Greek Pasta Bake
Tacos, rice, corn, Mexican layered dip
Fajitas, chips and salsa, rice, corn
Chicken piccata or marsala, mashed potatoes or pasta, veggie
Vegetable, bread, and cheese night
Fruit, bread and cheese night
Enchiladas, rice, refried beans
Pork chops and rice
Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Chicken roll-ups
Shrimp on the grill
Pasta Primavera
Baked ziti, salad, bread
Pork loin
Pot roast
French onion soup with sandwiches
Baked potato soup with muffins
White chicken chili with chips
Chicken tortilla soup with quesadillas
Penne a la Betsy
Enchiladas
Indian chicken with lentils and rice
Thai chicken or shrimp with rice

APPETIZERS and PARTY FARE
Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip

SIDES
Roasted Cauliflower
Buttery Bread
Spicy noodles
Roasted Brussels sprouts
Applesauce

SmallWorld's Housewarming Party Day 2

It's Day 2 of my housewarming party!! (Actually, this might not literally be day 2, but I got distracted yesterday with things like making pillows, going to the pool, and rearranging furniture.) Thank you to everyone who dropped by, left comments, posted on their blogs, and Facebooked me to say they wish they had a blog so they could play!

Today's Party Favor has to do with front doors, back doors, and porches. For the first 10 years of our marriage, Dr. H and I lived in apartments or rented houses. In Iowa we had the bottom half of a big old house, so we got the big front porch. Every evening (except from October-April when it was —88 degrees) we sat on the porch and waved to neighbors as they walked by, chatted with friends, or just listened to the corn growing. It was idyllic. We always had two requirements for our home, when we bought one: a big front porch and sidewalks.

We did finally finish graduate school, get a job, and buy a house, which we love. But of course, we don't have a big front porch or sidewalks. We have lovely flowerbeds with benches and a small, pretty porch that Jesse painted for us last summer. And sidewalks are scarce in this city unless you live in one of the historic districts or a brand new subdivision.

So my Party Favor for today is simple:

Day 2 Party Favor: Your Entrance
All you have to do today is answer these questions in the comments:
• Do you have a front porch?
• Do you have a welcome mat?
• When people come to your home, do they enter by the front door or the back door, or does it depend on who they are?

That's it! And remember, you can always do the
Week-long Gifts (leave me a comment to say you've done any or all of these, each time you do)
1. Mention SmallWorld's Housewarming Party on your blog, and you'll get 5 points each time you do!
2. Put my party sign on your blog somewhere, and you'll get 10 points.
3. Subscribe to SmallWorld and get 2o points! (How to subscribe: look on my sidebar and click on the button that says "posts" under the header "subscribe.")
4. Cut and paste the day's Party Favors on your blog for 10 points each day.
5. And by the way, you can jump in the party on any day, and you can even go back and do the previous days if you missed them the first time around! Our door is always open to new friends! See Day 1 here.

SmallWorld's Housewarming Party Day 1

I love to be the party house. Back when we were first married, Dr. H and I had the gathering place on Poplar Street--first a big, old house and then an apartment. We loved for friends to pop over any time, and meals were, more often than not, shared with several friends. Our thrift-store sofa got slept on a lot, as did our spare bedroom floor.

Nowadays we're a little more sophisticated. We have a dining room table that seats a dozen and a whole lot more food than we did back then. We also have a guest apartment, and most of our thrift-store furniture has been relegated to the basement, waiting for one of our kids to claim it someday for their own apartment. Now our parties are less spontaneous and definitely less frequent. But friends still drop by unexpectedly or by invitation, and I love that. (It helps that we live 2 minutes away from a major retail area.) I always want people to feel comfortable in our home.

So what's all this have to do with my blog? Well, obviously, I need to have a party to celebrate my new home here at SmallWorld at Home! And I might as well invite friends over to my vacation house, SmallWorld Reads, too.

Of course it's traditional to bring gifts to one's new home, and I know you are wondering what to bring. So each day, I'll be asking for something different. And I can't serve you scrumptious hors d'oeuvres and frothy punch, so I'm going to give you gifts, instead.

So here's how it works (you can copy and paste all this on your blog for 20 points plus all the points below!) :

Week-long Gifts (leave me a comment to say you've done any or all of these, each time you do)
1. Mention SmallWorld's Housewarming Party on your blog, and you'll get 5 points each time you do!
2. Put my party sign on your blog somewhere, and you'll get 10 points.
3. Subscribe to SmallWorld and get 2o points!
4. Post the day's Party Favors on your blog for 10 points each day.
5. And by the way, you can jump in the party on any day, and you can even go back and do the previous days if you missed them the first time around! Our door is always open to new friends!

Day 1 Party Favors: Bring Me Food
Cooking is part of my daily life. I don't necessarily love cooking, but I do love food. Occasionally I post recipes here on my blog. I am always looking for new recipes, as we are always searching for that new perfect food.
Your gift to me: Either in the comments here or on your own blog (and leave the link in the comments), tell me about your favorite party fare. What kinds of appetizers or other good foods or desserts are your standbys for parties?

That's all! I am always looking for new recipes, so share your recipe cards!

(What? You want to know about the prizes? OK, here's how this works. One thing that is essential to my home: lots of books. And books are important in my blogworld, too; that's why I have a separate home for my reading record. Following along with the book theme (and, well, because I'm terrible at mailing packages!), I'll be tallying up all your points, and I'll be awarding amazon.com gift cards to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners—just in time for the new school year! So get busy posting!)

Click here for Day 2's Party Favors!
Click here for Day 3's Party Favors!

I'm Getting Ready...

July 23 sounds like a great day to begin my Housewarming Party Week! Be sure to check in every day so I can tell you what kinds of gifts you can leave for me. Oh, and I'll have some gifts for you, too!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new home! The walls are bare and I'm living out of boxes, but I'm ready for visitors. Please be sure to leave your calling card in my comments so I can add your name to my blogroll. I don't want to lose track of any of my friends! And take a minute to subscribe, too. (You can click on the Subscribe to Posts button at the bottom; as soon as I can, I'll get a handier button on the sidebar!)

And you're all invited to my Housewarming Party, coming up soon!

Sometimes I Have Bursts of Domesticity

which allow me to be in touch with and revel in my innate (but not always obvious) crunchiness:

Fruit bounty: cantaloupe (store-bought but local), blackberries we picked at Milne Farm, blueberries we picked from a local farm, plums from my brother's trees.


Pizza: with pesto sauce made from our own basil (2 varieties) and homemade crust. And yes, it is worth the extra $6.99/lb. to buy pine nuts for the pesto.

Pesto Pizza
3 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves
3-4 large cloves garlic
1/3 c. toasted pine nuts
1/3 c. olive oil
1/3 c. parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

1) Put garlic and basil in food processor and mince well.
2) Add nuts and blend.
3) Drizzle in oil while machine keeps processing. Transfer to bowl and add parmesan and season.
4) Use about 2-3 TB on your favorite pizza crust. (Put 3 TB or whatever is left in a ziploc and freeze to use later.)
4) Add any topping you like (if I had it I would add roasted red pepper, mushrooms, artichokes, and roasted eggplant) and finish off with mozzerella and more parm. If the cheese is all you have, it's still fabulous. Cook at 500 for 8-10 min. or until cheese bubbles. Yum. Serve with a salad.



Dessert: blueberry/blackberry pie. Fabulous recipe here, except I use my own pie crust recipe. (Have husband stop for vanilla ice cream on the way home from work.)

On Moving and Memories

So as I mentioned, I've been moving my blog from homeschoolblogger.com over here post by post. I can't begin to express the emotions involved in this process.

Oh wait! I'm a writer! Expressing emotions in writing is something I can do well, actually, most of the time. Or much of the time.

My friend Donna has recently gone through this process in real life. She's packed up 7 years of life and moved across town. In selling her house, she had to do painful things like paint over tiny handprints and leave a pretty pink little girl's room, knowing it'll probably be painted over. She had to toss out loads and loads of stuff and look through all kinds of things that tug on our heart strings: pictures and baby books and tiny outfits. Those things that makes us realize: our children are growing up. They will never, ever be who they were two years ago, or four years ago, or even six months ago. Our lives our constantly shifting.

Just this past month I noticed two things about Duncan that gave me that rush of bitter/sweetness: he no longer says "leh-low" for "yellow," and he has now realized that the stuff he eats in the morning is "oatmeal," not "oap-meal." "Grape-Grandpa" passed on last year; but were he still alive, he'd probably be Great-Grandpa to Duncan now. We have no more baby words in our home.

In our entertainment center, way at the back, we have a couple of shoeboxes full of old videotapes of little Jesse mostly, and some of little Laurel, and about one minute's worth of baby Duncan (that's about when the camcorder died). I can't watch them. I can't watch one single minute's worth of them because I feel too darn melancholy. I know I should get them out. Laurel would absolutely love them. But I can't. Nothing marks the passage of time like looking at old videotapes.

But I can handle the writing. I can handle the slices of life and still-life photographs that make up my world. Perhaps my favorite part of this moving process has been revisiting my Monday Memories. In these posts I've reminisced about lots of holidays; about friends through the years --even way back when and often in what we thought were rockin' outfits; and about pumpkins and flowers. I've watched my children grow: my oldest, my little girl, and my baby. I've remembered highlights from my own childhood, and our early years together. And my family—probably half of these posts are about my brothers, my parents, and my growing up years.

Sometimes people ask me how I have time to blog. The question for me is: how could I not blog? This is the reward. I spend 20 minutes looking for a photograph; I scan it in or upload it from iPhoto. I write about it. And what I'm left with: a moment captured forever. Handprints that can't be painted over.

I'm thinking about starting an actual Monday Memory "Mr. Linky" type deal. Would you participate? Could I be so motivated?

Camping is Good for the Soul

July 12, 2008

Summer Project Completed!

July 6, 2008

This past week I've been attacking my summer project with single-minded determination. Randy and Jesse were gone for the whole week with Group Workcamps, doing amazing things with 350 other teens and adult leaders to help the disadvantaged and needy in a town in rural Ohio. So while they were scraping, painting, digging post holes, hammering, getting blisters, getting wet and muddy, and taking cold showers, I worked tirelessly at home in the air-conditioned kitchen. Duncan and Laurel were absolute angels while I peeled, sanded, spackled and painted, and today we are all enjoying our pretty kitchen.

We added curtains, outlet covers, and a new paper towel holder today. (Who knew it would be so hard to find a wall-mounted paper towel holder in something other than white plastic?) All I really have left is to replace some trim and scrape a lot of paint drippings off the cabinets.

Next project: rip up the vinyl and tile the kitchen floor!

Recipe Box Swap: Spicy Noodles

July 3, 2008

The July edition of the Recipe Box Swap calls for BBQ main and side dishes. Since I know that at any given barbecue or potluck there will be ample beans and deviled eggs, I tend to bring something a little different. Spicy Noodles is one of our favorites. This is great alongside burgers or with any kind of chicken, pork, etc. We find ourselves actually craving this dish. You'll need to prepare this several hours or even a day before you plan to take it/eat it, as it is best cold.

Spicy Noodles

1/4 c. sesame oil
1/4 c. soy sauce
2 TB. sugar
2 TB red chili oil (a little more if you like it really spicy)
2 TB. balsamic vinegar
1 lb. vermicelli or thin spaghetti
1/4 c. sesame seeds, toasted
green onions (optional)

Whisk together dressing. Cook and rinse pasta. Toast sesame seed until lightly browned (about 250 for 10 min.). Toss everything together and garnish with green onions if desired. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (preferably more) before serving.

Looking for more recipes? Check out the Recipe Box Swap!