Are you sick of my grandkids yet?

Yesterday was a scorcher, but we decided to try to play outside anyway. The north side of the house was the only place that was bearable. I missed the perfect "kids at play" shot by milliseconds....

...because Josh decided to throw a pout.

 He didn't want his photo taken.

Haha, I won!

Daniel found Charlie's skateboard and rode it up and down the path.

And sat on it, looking cool.

We ventured down to the bottom of the driveway to water my roadside flowerbeds. As soon as we were done we dashed back into the house.

I spent most of the day feeding the little blighters.

My grandchildren are not (how can I put this nicely?) tidy eaters.

And they are always hungry.

When Bethany got here in the afternoon, she said Your kitchen floor looks just like mine.

Er, yes. There's a reason for that!

This lovely splotch under the bar stools...

...is Dan-o-nino yogurt.

Peach flavour, if you must know.

Natalie said Nana, look how much is on my spoon!

Plop!

The darling girl has not yet perfected the art of eating over the plate.

Daniel slept in Charlie's room. Before he went to sleep, he had to have a fan blowing on him, country music on the clock/radio, and a night light. In the morning, all four kids were sitting on the bed, playing Simpsons' Uno and singing along to country music. The room was a mess, with clothes and backpacks and blankets all over the floor. I chuckled to myself as I went about my business.

Later, Daniel came out and told me that he had tidied the room for Charlie.

My heart melted.

These kids love their Charlie.

Later, as part of the never-ending culinary fiesta, they all wanted popsicles.

The only kind in the freezer were not premium models, but all except Josh decided they would suffice.

Josh decided to pout.

Fine, I said, I don't care if you don't want a popsicle.

He relented quickly, but it was too late.

You'll have to do something to help me if you want one now, was my edict.

So he cleaned his teeth.

Nope, not good enough.

He picked up the Legos.

And got his popsicle.

Daniel loves his Nana's bread, spread with butter and peanut butter.

And cut carefully into four pieces.

And then they went home.

Morning magic

Four little munchkins are keeping me very busy this morning.
Bethany and Chris are off celebrating their tenth anniversary.
We won't even talk about bedtime last night.
It was a zoo.
I was hoping to fall back in bed after Jeff left for work, but, one by one, they all awoke.
Yawn.
I remembered that the drip hose has been slowly hydrating the grape vines for the last two days.
So much for my water bill.
So I went outside to turn off the tap and found some pretty sights in the morning glow.

That's all I got folks!

The two big ones are watching Mirrormask, a particularly hallucinogenic movie.

The two little ones are playing legos.

I think I shall attempt a little proneness, before the children ramp up into full gear.

Goodnight sun

Saturday, late:

Last time I posted sunset pictures, my lovely old neighbour watched me climb the mound from her front yard. 

She probably thought I was crackers! 

Tonight, I got a phone call shortly before sunset.

You'd better come out, I think it's going to be a good one.

So out I went, trusty Samsung in hand.

Hi Denise!

Up the mound again.

Tiptoeing between the gopher mounds on top, all the way to the edge for the best view.

Sightings at the Pow-wow

I often get a kick out of the things people search for that direct them to this blog.
Today's weird one was Singapore looking for grown-up people that take out the trolley and can see the nanah.
Wow.
I can think of nothing to say about that.
Do you think they were really looking for me?

This morning, Jeff and I decided to not be slugs and take ourselves over to Grand Ronde (pronounced, we found out today, round) to the big Annual Pow-wow. We were not disappointed. Here are some of the sights from our day.
This...

...is The Most Awesome Drum I Have Ever Played. And I have played a lot of drums. The vibration runs all the ways from the top of your head right down to your tippy-toes. Not only that, it is positively beautiful. I want this drum. It was, I think, a mere $1,900. 

The lady on the left, Linda Silvers, is the artist, and her talent is multi-faceted. 

Many of the dancers were happy to be photographed...

...but these two young ladies asked, a little snottily, I thought, what I was going to do with the photos.

?

Why, then, do they parade around if they don't want to be photographed?

This sweet chubby papoose sat next to us and made eyes at us while drinking from his bottle.

The Grand Entry went on for a long time and was very noisy.

The costumes were spectacular...

...the drumbeats hypnotic, and the dancing contagious.

I almost got up and joined in.

But I'm feeling a little creaky from weeding yesterday.

Here is my very first YouTube video, so that you can hear the jingles for yourself. You might want to watch it on full screen so that you can see the cute kids.
And the wild man in yellow.

Let me be brief....

Monday, the day after Mum left, I was kind of hoping for a quiet day.

Instead, we had the underwear wars.

Children chasing each other, screaming through the hallways and slamming doors...

...and running away from the camera-bearing-Nana.

Thomy was too modest to remove his t-shirt and Kenzie was above it all.

Don't ask me Why?

It just was.

Redemption and meanderings

For the last week, I have been feeling rather put out. Here I was, spending precious hours on deep, thoughtful blog posts for you, my gentle readers, and no on was commenting on them. Well, hardly anyone. Not that Jenny and Mari are hardly anyone, but you know what I mean. But then, when I logged in just now, I saw that there were TEN comments that needed moderating. Usually I get an email, but it seems that Blogger arbitrarily decided to quit notifying me. So now you are all published and I LOVE YOU!!!!! Thank you thank you, kisses blown and adulation accepted!
YOU LIKE ME, YOU REALLY LIKE ME......

Well.
Anyway.
Back to meandering.
Oh, that's right, I was!

Last night I went on a little coupon redemption spree at Safeway.
I haven't been using many coupons lately, due to trying to change our eating habits. But I discovered that these granola bars are gluten-free (for Josh and Bethany) and also devoid of any high-fructose corn syrup. So I acquired this snacky stash for $5.42 and also took home a coupon for $3.50 off my next shopping order.
Score!

On Saturday, one of my Mum's last acts in the country was to participate in a parade. She will be 82 later this month and it was the first time she has ever been in a parade.

They're not quite as gung-ho about parades in New Zealand.

It was stiflingly hot, so she and the Fab Four rode in the back of a truck.

Rob's Green Beans were in fine form, almost 160 of us all together. 

We ruled the Tualatin Crawfish Parade!

Yes.

Crawfish.

If you look at the right of this photo, you can see the beginning of our group waaaaaay ahead of us, to the left of the sign on the right.

Got that?

This man goes along with my wildest schemes.

Usually, he even has a good attitude.

Gotta love that in a mate!

I talked him into gleaning blueberries with me on Monday night.

For two-and-a-half hours.

We picked thirty pounds. 

That makes FIFTY-SIX POUNDS for the season.

I dare any of you to beat that.
On the way home I thanked him for helping me.
I guess that's the price I pay, he said.
Pay for what? I asked.
Being married to Sue, was his reply.
Hmph.
Not sure about the attitude on that one!

My Mum is safe and sound at home in New Zealand. It was a bit scary, sending her off to various airports in her state of mind, but she only had one faux pas. I had packed her some fruit and snacks for her waiting time in San Francisco. I knew she would forget she had them so I wrote her a reminder note and put it in her handbag, through which she is always rifling. Well, going through customs in NZ , the fruit-detecting beagles sniffed out  the orange and grapes that she had not found in her bag. My sister and I can only imagine THAT scenario! Luckily, the customs officials must have figured out that Mum has bats in the belfry, because they didn't slap her with the $200 automatic fine. Her comment to Anne? I wish I had known I had the fruit because I was really hungry.

Oh, and Don't tell Susan.

Sigh.

We will not be sending Mum on that trip.

Ever again.

Remind me of that next year, would you?

On a brighter note, I spent this morning at a piano teachers' workshop in Portland, and I have returned home invigorated and full of new ideas and enthusiasm for this teaching year. I also have some ideas for expanding my preschool and senior music groups about which I am very excited. Time to get back in the working groove, after a slightly strange summer.

Oh, and my sister loves her handbag.

Her husband even approves of it.

The JD test, Anne calls it.

His initials, if you're wondering.

AND...

We're having a baby soon. But not too soon, I hope, because Jeff and I have tickets booked for North Carolina for September 17th, and I don't want to miss too many of the early days of our little Elsie's life.

So, there's my life lately in a nutshell. 

A little bit weird, but it's my life.

Feel free to share any of your highlights in the comments section.

Did I mention how much I love comments?

An apple is an excellent thing...

...until you have tried a peach. George du Maurier.

Late summer in Oregon means one thing.

Peaches.

Furry, sweet-smelling, rosy peaches.

Which leads to the inevitable (in my house) peach shortcake.

And I'm not talking about your "strawberry shortcake" of the American ilk here, but a buttery, not too sweet  Australian concoction.

My first job after high school was in a book store. I was like a raccoon in a cherry tree. One of my first purchases was this lovely cookbook. I also bought lots of Dr. Seuss books, but that's another story. It is covered in the heavy duty plastic that covers many of my books from that era. Book store employee, don't you know?  In the last thirty five years, I have spent hours poring over the pictures and imagining the tastes of many of the dishes.

And cooking some of them.

One of my favourite recipes is this one.

As you can see, I wasn't content to stick to apples. 

I mean, apples are perfect for many things, but there is so much more to life than apples.

The strawberry-rhubarb incarnation has its appeal, to be sure.

But this time of year, nothing says "shortcake" like peaches, so here is my version.

I have given this recipe out several times over the years, but I'm reasonably sure that no one has ever actually made it. Which puzzles me beyond belief, because it's so easy.

Peach Shortcake
4 oz unsalted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
2 c flour
1 tsp BP
1/2 tsp salt
3 ripe peaches
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, then dry ingredients. You can substitute 1/2 c wheat flour for white without compromising taste. Mix as well as you can with spoon, then use your hand to knead into a nice, smooth lump of dough. Don't over mix.
Cut the dough in half...

...and spread on the bottom of a greased, 9" round pan. I like heavy-duty aluminium pans, which give a light crust. 

Peel and chop the peaches and spread liberally on the crust. If the peaches look sparse, add another one. Can't have too many peaches in this baby!

Now for the genius part.

Rip off a square of waxed paper. Place it on your counter and pat the rest of the dough out on it in a 9" circle. Then just upend the dough on top of the peaches. It doesn't have to be perfect, because it will rise to fit the pan.

Brush the top of the cake with milk or cream, sprinkle with sugar (sometimes I use cinnamon sugar) and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. The sugar will be crispy and the cake will barely be turning golden when it is done.

Now, for the best part. 

Eat warm with vanilla ice cream, if you want to be a heathen.

Personally, I like it in a bowl with milk poured over it.

For breakfast.

PS: I always double this recipe, because it takes about the same amount of time and then you can share.

PPS: If anyone EVER makes one of the recipes I so lovingly post, I would LOVE to hear about it.