Tweet tweet

I have never tweeted before. I do have a twitter account that I created long ago to enter a contest, and somehow I have strangers following me even though I've never used it. I just don't get the concept. And who needs twitter when you have facebook? I mean, on twitter you can only fit in 140 characters, but facebook can fit a lot more. But just for fun, here is what today would have looked like in tweets:

7:05am - Alarm went off just as Ellie woke up. I pretended to be asleep and told her she could play in the playroom, then I snuck onto the computer.

8:45am - It's so hard to tear Claire away from Ellie to take her and Grace to preschool. Ellie always tries to sneak out with us.

9:15am - It is ridiculously cold outside! Too cold to take the kids grocery shopping. We'll have to make do with what's in the cupboard.

9:55am - Time for my very important meeting with the assembly chair (and neighbor) about taxes for the assembly. LOL

11:45am - Ellie is hiding in the closet with her friends, hoping I won't find her to take her home. Will Nina notice if I leave without her?

12:01pm - I get to spend the afternoon with the sweetest and happiest baby I have ever known. And the kids love her too! :)

12:45pm - Time to take my kids to school! I love Tuesdays and Thursdays :)

2:10pm - Washing dishes and watching The Bachelor on the computer. What? I already watched all the episodes of Scrubs and washing dishes is boring

3:15pm - It's a little warmer now (10 degrees), so Coraline and I will walk to pick up Ellie and Rowan from school. Hey, why is that fire truck ...

3:16pm - ... and those 5 police cars sitting in our neighborhood?

3:34pm - Birthday party again? Come on Ellie, can't we play another game today? I am just stuffed from all your imaginary lemonade and butter cake.

5:00pm - Dinosaur Train, I love you! Thank you for entertaining my kids with your funny antics and dinosaur facts.

5:15pm - Researching homeschooling ideas. Love the idea of the "workbox system." http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/

5:45pm - Dinner of pita pizzas and sweet potato fries. This is what you get when you don't go grocery shopping.

6:05pm - Rowan is imitating everything Ellie does, including crossing his arms and pouting. How can he be so cute?!?

7:33pm - Bedtime for the Tatum tots. Free time for the Tatum parents :)

8:15pm - Intrigued by the idea of living in a yurt. Neighbors, would that be a viable idea for living on the goat farm? http://www.yurtinfo.org/

9:00pm - Mash a banana in a bowl, add a spoonful of nutella. Scoop in some strawberry cheesecake ice cream, and you have a perfect bedtime snack :)

9:43pm - Why have I never watched the show Modern Family before? This is hilarious!

10:06pm - Time to update the blog!

How do you deal with this??

On Wednesday I spent 3 hours running errands (translated: shopping) while Jason stayed home with the kids. When I came home, Ellie came running out with a wooden fire truck. That I had stored away in a box (which admittedly is in the living room waiting to go down to storage) for Rowan's NEXT birthday. This is how the conversation went.

Mom: Ellie, how did you get that?

Ellie: From that box

Mom: But how did you get in it?

Ellie: We took off the tape.

Mom: Ellie!

Ellie: Rowan did it too!

Mom: Where was Daddy?

Ellie: Sitting right there on his computer.

Mom: Let me put that back. Ellie!!! (as I see that another toy in the box has been taken out of the plastic shrinkwrap). Did you open this toy?

Ellie: Rowan did too!

Mom: Well these were supposed to be toys for your birthdays, but now you've seen them so I can't give them to you!

Ellie: It's okay, we won't remember them on our birthdays.

Mom: Did you take out all the toys? (there are probably 10 toys/games for birthdays)

Ellie: I don't think we saw all of them.

Mom: Maybe I'll give them to other kids for their birthdays.

Ellie: You can't, we already opened them. You can't give opened toys to other kids.

Mom: Ellie, you can't open boxes that are closed. That means we don't want you in them.

Ellie: Maybe you shouldn't put them where we can see them. Then we won't open them.

*sigh*

* in defense of Jason, the kids have often gotten into mischief while I'm on the computer too :)

Winter fun

See this little guy? We befriended him for a while by leaving nuts just outside our balcony door. The kids love watching him eat with his little paws. He was even starting to get semi-comfortable with us. That all ended one day when as he was heading for the nuts, Rowan smashed a monster truck into the balcony door right in front of the squirrel. Bye bye little squirrel, it was fun while it lasted.

This morning we woke up to this odd sight.

We have never seen ice spikes on the trees before!

Like the view of our front yard? Some of our neighbors built this happy snow family :)

Ellie really loves playing outside in the snow. Finally! But Rowan is still young enough that it is not fun trudging through snow up to his knees. So, we play outside a little bit, but most of our fun is inside :) The kids received this earth-friendly dishes set made of recycled milk jugs for Christmas, along with some wooden food. They love playing picnic and restaurant, so today Ellie and I made this menu for her restaurant by cutting out pictures of food, gluing them on paper, and labeling them. I love Ellie's creative spelling, like "mufin," "ches," and "petzza."

Hmm, looks like I need to take some pictures of the kids actually playing these games :)

Back in the swing of things

Now that we are back in town, and have a working car, I have started to bargain shop again. There is a lot of clearance going on right now, with stores getting rid of excess stuff after Christmas. I did miss out on a bunch of it, but there are still deals to be had. Today I went to the bank (to deposit months of checks, oops!), Kohl's, Einstein Bagels, Michael's, and Target. I bought: a 4 pair set of thick socks for Rowan, a fabric play food set, a pair of snowboots for Rowan, a pair of snowboots for Ellie, 3 other pairs of shoes for Ellie, a play wooden rolling pin, two wooden castle 3-D puzzles, a pack of 3 wooden pegs, and a bagel with cream cheese. For all of that I spent less than $20. Woohoo for coupons and clearance!!



Here are the wooden puzzles and pegs. Rowan and Ellie each painted a puzzle, I painted the pegs, and then Jason and I raced to see who could put together the puzzle first. They were hard to figure out! You had to punch out each piece, but carefully because the only instructions were to match up #1 with #1, #2 with #2, etc. Then there were diagrams of all the pieces and each slot had a corresponding number. By the middle of the puzzle, it was so dang confusing that you just figured out which piece went where without the stinkin' diagram (please pardon my language). Well, Jason barely won the race :)

To show you the size of these peg dolls, here they are next to a AA battery.

It was a fun afternoon craft. I doubt the wooden castles will hold up for long, but I will be buying more wooden pegs to make more dolls, since the kids fell in love with them!

Tatum tots

My friend Keeley coined this phrase for our kids, and I love it! For those of you who haven't heard, we are adding another Tatum tot to our family sometime around August 1st, 2010. Which means I am about 10 weeks pregnant now, with 30 weeks to go. And boy has it been rough so far! It seems that with each successive child, my "morning sickness" gets worse. This time around I have already had to have i.v. fluids and now have a prescription medicine to help with the nausea/vomiting. Taking the medicine was a hard decision for me, because even when I am not assisting in a human being's growth, I am pretty anti-medicine. It takes a major headache lasting for hours for me to take an ibuprofin. But once the nurse convinced me that being dehydrated and not retaining any calories was worse for my baby than any potential slight risks from medicine, not to mention the fact that I wanted to hide the pregnancy until after my sister's wedding (and I didn't want to vomit all over her beautiful dress), I decided to take the medicine. I am taking the generic version of zofran, and it is not a miracle drug, but it does seem to take the edge off the nausea. So, I still feel sick all day, but the vomiting has definitely decreased. I'm just hoping that this pregnancy will be like my others, and that the sickness will leave around week 14 :)

We were naively, ambitiously hoping to not reveal the news to our kids until we knew if it was a boy or a girl, so there would be no room for, "But I want a sister!!" Because as I predicted, Ellie is already clamoring for a sister. But the kids know and are extremely excited for a new baby. Rowan thinks the baby is residing in my belly button for now, but Ellie has everything figured out already. "Mommy, when will the baby in your uterus come out your vagina?"

Grocery shopping

So, I always post my amazing shopping deals. But what about my not-so-amazing deals? Today, for the first time in a long time, I actually did my entire week's grocery shopping in one day. Usually I go to each store when I am in the neighborhood. Here is a not-amazing, but more typical shopping trip.

First, I went to Super Target:

2 boxes Kashi Crackers $3.98 - $3/2 coupon = $.98 for both boxes
2 boxes Pepperidge Farms Baked Naturals crackers $5.00 - 2 $1 Target coupons - 2 $1 regular coupons = $1 for both boxes
1 Steaz (organic tea) $1.09 - free coupon = $0
1 Simply Lemonade $2.04
2 Amy's Organics frozen kids meals (I'm ADDICTED to these!) $6.58 - $1/2 coupon = $5.58
1 cooked rotisserie chicken $4.99 - $1 Target coupon - $2 off any deli item coupon = $1.99

Total = $11.59

Next, Copps (our grocery store):

On Wednesdays, Copps will double 5 coupons $1 or less, if your total is $25 before coupons.

Arnold's Naturals 100% whole wheat bread $1.99
3 3/4 lbs Roundy's Natural chicken breast $7.63 - $1 off any meat coupon doubled = $5.63
2 Quaker rice cakes $4.00 - 2 $1 coupons doubled = $0
2 Quaker mini rice cakes $4.00 - 2 $1 coupons doubled = $0
1.10 lbs bananas $.43
1.27 lbs apples $1.26
Clearanced white chocolate-covered pretzels $1
2 gallons skim milk $3.78 - free milk coupon = $1.89
Kraft singles $1.66
3 8oz. Sargento shredded cheese $4.98
1 Jennie-O turkey 8.24 lbs price matched to $.39/lb $3.21 - $2 off a turkey coupon = $1.21

minus $.20 for using 4 reusable bags
minus $5 for a previous deal on Kelloggs cereal

Total = $14.85

Finally, I went to Trader Joe's:

2 bags veggie & flaxseed tortilla chips $4.78
dixie peach 100% juice $3.69
strawberry/Kiwi 100% juice $3.49
2 jars salsa $3.38
2 liters sparkling water $1.78
honey plantain strips $1.79
blueberry whole wheat frozen waffles $1.99
strawberry cereal bars $1.69
4 lbs organic gold potatoes $3.29
organic baby spinach $2.49
1 lb. bag organic kiwi $1.99
organic baby lettuce $2.49
organic baby carrots $1.69
organic broccoli slaw $1.99
corn tortillas $.99
whole wheat flour tortillas $1.99
whole wheat english muffins $1.69
white whole wheat flour $2.99

Total = $44.19

Grand weekly total = $70.63

Of course what I buy each week is different, but it averages to about $60-80 a week. It all depends on what's on sale, what coupons I have, and what meals I have planned for the week. I'd say this is a pretty average trip though. See, I told you I didn't get EVERYTHING for free or pennies :)

Meet the new additions to our family

Today we welcomed two new members to our family:



Meet "People" and "Tinkilie." Yes, those are the names Rowan and Ellie picked for their bears they "built" today at Build-a-Bear. People is Rowan's bear, the lighter-colored one, and Tinkilie is Ellie's bear. They are both in only underwear because 1) Ellie wears underwear to bed so now her bedtime buddy matches, 2) Rowan is now potty-trained and loves underwear, and 3) The clothes are expensive! But the underwear is "only" $3.50. Speaking of that, Ellie wanted every outfit in the store for her bear, so she would love to get some outfits for Christmas ;)

I think they make good bedtime buddies, don't you?

Quotes

"Mommy, I must be smarter than you, right? Because I'm the smartest person in the whole world!" - said Ellie on our walk to preschool this morning.

"No Mommy, talk Daddy!" - said Rowan with a scowl after I vetoed his request for cookies before dinner. Apparently he was talking to Daddy, not me.

"Do you have a baby in your tummy?" - Ellie asked our neighbor, who is NOT pregnant.

Same day - "Thomas, your hair looks funny." - said Ellie to our neighbor who shaved his head that morning.

"Looks... like... apple juice!" - said Rowan, as he looked into the toilet he just peed in.

So you think YOU can dance?

Here is the future winner of SYTYCD 2023



Yes, this is the same song Ashlyn and Bryson were recently seen dancing to. Tara, do you listen to disney radio online too? :)

Playtime fun

Rowan just being silly, and Ellie playing with a friend (who is from South Africa!).

Tatum Tidbits take two

Since everyone liked the last tidbits I posted, I thought I would post some more. It's much easier to write a blog this way too!

- Rowan woke up with a dry diaper this morning, woohoo! We're still working on the daytime training though.

- Ellie made a new friend yesterday (a semi-neighbor we hadn't met yet) and had a playdate at her house this morning. When I asked what time to come pick her up the mom said, "Really, whenever is fine. Let her eat lunch here; we're staying home all day." I was tempted to leave her until dinner, but figured I should go pick her up at 1:00. After all, the mom also has 6-month-old twin boys!

- I bought a spouse membership to the university's gym system. I also take yoga at our community center on Thursday nights. Maybe I will actually exercise regularly now :)

- We went to McDonalds for dinner tonight. Usually everyone buys items from the dollar menu, but tonight I bought kids meals for the kids just for the toy inside. They have awesome American Girl tiny books with little paper dolls inside. Ellie will love them!

- Ellie is signed up for ballet and indoor soccer this semester, and is currently taking Spanish classes at the library. I think that's pretty well-rounded. The start and stop dates of all the classes are staggered so she will only be taking one class per week. Rowan will be taking a swimming class, since he spent the summer watching Ellie take a swimming class and saying, "Rowie nurn (turn) now! Rowie fwim!"

- I am now the treasurer on the Assembly board for our community, and the president of Ellie's preschool board. Yikes!!

- We can't wait to start getting income again once school starts!!!!

End of summer fun

Yesterday we drove 40 minutes to Lodi, WI, where our good friends live. They have 2 girls the same ages as our kids, and our kids have a lot of fun together. And Lodi has a free pool and kiddie pool perfect for warm summer days.

Ellie hoarding all the pool toys


Enjoying the chilly water on a warm day


Go duckie, go!


Goofy little boy. On a side note, he wore undies throughout this entire day, no diaper!

Can you tell Ellie is thrilled to have her daddy back home?

Ellie and her best friend

Remember this slide from Starline? Well, they have one in Lodi, WI too :)

What other fun can we cram into the last days of summer?

Are we slowly turning into vegetarians?

No, I don't think we could really give up chicken and fish, but we do eat a lot less meat than we used to. Not only can it be healthier, if you can make meals with well-balanced meatless proteins, but it is better for the environment to eat less meat (mainly red meat). See here: http://www.good.is/post/red-meat-is-bad-for-the-environment-the-chart/

On that note, today I made these meatballs for lunch, which actually shouldn't be called meatballs, because there is no meat in them. Hmm, nut/yogurt/bread/cheese balls? Does anyone have a good name for them?

From: http://www.choosingvoluntarysimplicity.com/theres-no-meat-in-our-favorite-meatballs/ Notes in italics are mine

The Ingredients
1 cup finely ground walnuts
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup yogurt cheese or drained cottage cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon salt

And:
2 cups seasoned bread crumbs… I make my own from 6 slices of bread and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons dried parsley, and 1 teaspoon each dried oregano, basil, and garlic powder… OR (as specified in the recipe) 2 cups purchased seasoned bread crumbs

And:
3 or 4 whole raw eggs


My Method — Preparing the Ingredients

The taste and texture is what “makes” these meatballs, so how the ingredients are prepared is extremely important.

The walnuts must be ground very finely, almost to the “nut butter” stage. (The food processor does this in a couple of minutes.) Chopped walnuts won’t give the meatballs the right texture. For those of you with a Trader Joe's, I used almond meal

I grate the cheddar cheese separately in the food processor until it too is very finely grated.

The yogurt cheese is made from my own yogurt, drained overnight in a colander (in the refrigerator). I used (also from Trader Joe's) plain nonfat greek yogurt, it is thick enough without draining overnight.

I chop the onion, cook it until it is transparent, and then run it through the food processor until it is pureed… this gives flavor but no chunks of onions in the meatballs.

I make the seasoned bread crumbs from six slices of dry bread and oregano, basil, parsley, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese, pulsing all these ingredients together in the food processor until the crumbs are very fine. (The original recipe called for purchased seasoned bread crumbs, which probably would not have Parmesan cheese as an ingredient. We really like the addition of the Parmesan cheese.)

Making the Mock Meatball Mixture

Combine all of the prepared ingredients… walnuts, cheddar cheese, yogurt cheese, onion, and herb-seasoned bread crumbs… in a large bowl. Add the salt, basil, and sage, and mix well. At this point, before you add the egg, taste the mixture and add more herbs, salt, etc., to suit your taste.

Next, add the eggs… one at a time… and mix them in thoroughly until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed. How many eggs to add depends on the size of the eggs and the dryness of the bread crumbs. You will want the mixture to be the same consistency as for regular meatballs or meatloaf. Be careful not to add too many eggs and make the mixture too wet.


I shape the mixture into meatballs that are slightly less than two inches in diameter. The original recipe then went on to bake the meatballs in tomato sauce for 35 to 40 minutes. I bake my meatballs in my homemade spaghetti sauce (tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, and garlic), but before I add the meatballs to the sauce, I bake the meatballs in the oven on a baking tray until the outsides of the meatballs are lightly browned. I think browning the meatballs adds to both the flavor and the texture, although this was not in the original recipe

We ate some alone without sauce after browning them, and the kids loved them. Jason didn't even mention that they tasted different until I told him there was no meat in them. They held up well in the sauce and seemed like normal meatballs with the spaghetti. Personally, I think I will make them and serve them plain to the kids; I think they tasted even better that way. They look more difficult to make than they really are, I promise :)

Like sister, like brother

For the past few months, Rowan's main goal in life has been to copy Ellie. Whatever Ellie says, Rowan says. Whatever Ellie does, Rowan does. Sometimes this is cute, like when they both chant, "Go Mommy, go!" as I bike them up steep hills. Sometimes this is annoying, like when they are jumping on either side of me on the couch screaming like monkeys.

The other day, Ellie thought it would be funny to put her shorts on her top and her shirt on her bottom.


Then of course Rowan had to do it too. Well, he tried.


And he tried.


And he tried. Some things he just can't do as well as Ellie.

Did you notice Rowan is now wearing undies? He is doing a great job at potty-training. At home we are usually safe, especially if I make sure to prompt him every so often to go at least try. We haven't tried leaving him in undies when we leave home though. Maybe we should, since at the park yesterday he stopped playing, ran over to the grass, opened one side of his diaper, and peed. How could I not praise him? Now peeing standing up, that is one thing Ellie cannot do.

But they can both make muffins in their swimsuits.

Ellie has been begging me all summer to let her ride her bike without training wheels. I told her she had to wait until daddy came home so we would have someone to watch Rowan while she practiced (but really I just didn't want to run back and forth with her bike). But now that daddy is home, she's got us out there running back and forth. Do you think she is padded enough?

And of course Rowan has to be just like Ellie :)

Now I'll leave you with two videos of Ellie biking. Don't laugh at the parents struggling to keep up and keep her balanced at the same time!

Just Rowan being Rowan

A video of Rowan, just being himself. I kept trying not to laugh because he didn't think he could talk to me through the camera, so he kept trying to peer around it. It makes it hard to get a good video, but I still think it's pretty cute ;)

Bean and beef chimichangas

I made these chimichangas for dinner tonight, and they were sooo good! My kids even gobbled them up, and I've had trouble getting them to eat meat lately. Here is the recipe I was given, and I'll show the changes I made in italics.

Bean and Beef Chimichangas

· 1 pound lean ground beef (a tube of ground turkey)
· 3/4 cup chopped onion (left this out)
· 1 cup whole kernel corn (left this out)
· 2 cups salsa
· 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
· 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
· 8 (12 inch) flour tortillas (whole wheat)
· 1 (16 ounce) package shredded cheese
· 1 tablespoon butter, melted (butter-flavored Pam spray)

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drain excess grease, and add the onion and corn. Cook for about 5 more minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Stir in the salsa and season with cumin, stirring until blended. Cook until heated through, then remove from heat, and set aside. (I skipped the veggies and just used salsa, cooking it until it thickened up)
3. Open the can of beans, and spread a thin layer of beans onto each of the tortillas. Spoon the beef mixture down the center, and then top with shredded cheese. Roll up the tortillas, and place them seam-side down onto a baking sheet. Brush the tortillas with melted butter.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
5. Cover with the remaining cheese and bake an additional 3-5 minutes, until melted. (I skipped this step) Serve with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa and guacamole (as desired)


Now, the much asked for recipe for strawberry cornmeal muffins:

Strawberry Cornmeal Muffins

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour (whole wheat)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (substituted Sucanat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk
1 cup chopped strawberries, plus 1/2 cup for garnish

In a large mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add beaten egg, oil and milk, stirring until just combined. Fold in 1 cup chopped strawberries. .

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full, then garnish with a few chopped berries. Bake at 400F (200C) for 20-25 minutes or until testing done.

Allow the muffins to cool before removing from the muffin tin.

Just another lazy Sunday

We had another carefree summer day today. We are so ready for Jason to come home, the only downside is that means our summer is almost over. We've had such a lazy summer that I'm not looking forward to getting back on a schedule.

Today we woke up, talked with Jason for a while on the webcam, ate breakfast, then biked to work at the church nursery. Then we biked back home and played "airplane."



Rowan tried to "airplane" Ellie, and luckily she was gentle with him.

They posed for a sibling picture

And Rowan and I posed for Ellie

For lunch, we made some strawberry cornbread muffins.

And then painted. Yes, I followed my sister Tara's wonderful mothering example and went through all the work to let the kids paint. Of course they loved it, and I found a genius way to hang up the paintings to let them dry.

I used magnets to hang them from the stove hood. Isn't it a great idea? ;)

Then I copied Tara again and gave the kids some shaving cream to play with.

Rowan jumped right in to the fun

Ellie used her shaving cream to wash her doll's hair.

After cleaning up, we went outside to play for a long while. Our building is now full again, so we have lots of fun neighbors to play with.

Rowan likes to give rides

and get rides too!


When we were outside, I put my hand down in the grass, right on top of a bee. Apparently that bee did not like being squished, so he stuck his behind right in my pinky finger. The poor bee flew off and left half his bottom in my finger. I think it hurt him more than it hurt me, although now my finger is quite swollen and hard to bend.

For dinner I made mango fried rice. I think it turned out great, although Ellie wouldn't touch the mangoes, which made Rowan not eat it at all. Once I made him take a bite though, he ate the rest of the bowl. By the time we finished dinner and ice cream, it was time for bed! And now I'm watching the newest Harry Potter movie online. I know, I know, it must have been illegally downloaded, but there's no way I'm going to make it to the theater to see it.

Sunny Saturday Snapshots

Look Mom!


Monkey see, monkey do


Raspberry for you


Secret smile

Beautiful girl

Perfect pout

Fun with sticks (she is getting so tall and slender!)

And more sticks

Rowan on his big bad bike

Local biker's hangout

Creating genius

What a belly (but nothing to rival Ashlyn's)