Stella's Birth: Peace and Love :)) What's Your Favorite Stella birth pic? Vote!

PICTURE #1 (above)

PICTURE #2 (above)

PICTURE #3 (above)

Want to vote for your fav of the above 3 pics? Post in the comments. Also, looking for a good title for the picture. Thanks!

Many faces of Marina the Mermaid

Here are some of my favorite pictures of 3 year old Marina. She is so fun to take pictures of so I have a lot!

Above: As a mermaid

Above: as a princess, let me note that she dressed herself entirely, including her bead shoes

Above: as herself?

Above: as princess again, I played around with this pic as I liked it so much i tried it out in b & w

Above: as horseback rider, she actually wore pants, as in overalls (!!!!) for horseback riding, of course not pictured. Now this is noteworthy. Pants have NOT been a part of her personal wardrobe since I used to pick out her clothes . . . when was that? At 1 1/2? Yeah, a while ago! She must really like her ponies!

Above: HERE IT IS: PANTS!!! Usually it's tights and dresses, the longer the better.

Maxwelton Beach in October

Sunny, but coooold! Needed the leg warmers

Hmmmm, should I climb up the top of the slide with my shoes on or off?

Stella laughs with her nose in a hee heh heh. Very cute in person, and you can see it how she scrunches up her nose in the picture above. She also loves the swing and is daring to get pushed higher and higher. She paused in mid-swing to talk to me--about what I do not know, but it sounded quite a bit like the intonations and chatter I had been carrying on with Ellen and Marina. Baby Stella sure does have her own dialogue and expressions to add to an outing. She sounded quite intellectual and maybe even a bit mocking . . . :)))

Herbed Clay Pot Chicken with Apples and Baby Potatoes

The apples, potatoes and herbs in this recipe add a unique and very October taste to the chicken. If you cook the chicken for more than 2 hours your apples will be mush, but the flavor is wonderful. If you prefer to actually eat the apples too, not just use them as flavoring, add them 45 minutes before taking the chicken out of the oven.

For the herbs I used garlic (pressed), diced rosemary, and fresh thyme. For one chicken you will need about 5 garlic cloves, 1-2 TBS diced rosemary, and 2 TBS fresh thyme (take leaves off the sticks). The herbs may be stuffed under the skin (on the breasts) and be sure to save a little to sprinkle on top of the skin.

Above: Here is the chicken, apples, potatoes, and herbs. Use some olive oil to rub the clay pot with prior to placing chicken in as it will prevent the skin sticking to the sides, which is rather hard to remove! Cook the chicken, depending on size and oven temperature: 1-4 hours. Be sure to check the chicken to make sure it is cooked thoroughly. The clay pot method of cooking ensures that the chicken will be very tender.

October Ground Turkey, Squash & Lentil Soup: have dinner prepared for days!

Here is my Halloween soup! My rainy-windy-cold-need to heat the house and tummy kind of soup. This soup has a beautiful orange-yellow color and is thick because of the lentils and squash. The lentils, which are very small and pink, become puree just by cooking them. This soup is overall very hearty and great for a chilly autumn day. I actually made this soup to heat up my house. I started cooking it at 1pm and finished at 6pm. Not as hard as it sounds though! I cooked the chicken bones for several hours in the soup water to flavor it and add lots of nutrients. Makes about 4- 4 1/2 quarts of soup

Ingredients:
rain
wind
cold house
hungry family
lots of fall vegetables
noodles or rice
Halloween quickly approaching
urge to have an easy dinner on hand for several days in a row (or lunch or breakfast)

You'll need:
4 1/2 quarts water
MEAT
1 pound ground turkey
1-2 chickens (without meat, leftover from another meal, you can freeze the bones and use them later)
VEGETABLES
1/2 winter squash, peeled seeded and chopped small
5 carrots
3 celery
2 red onion
8 very small red and white potatoes (1"x 1" or so) or make up for bigger size by using fewer
2 head broccoli: chop stems and separate from heads
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
5 cloves garlic
LEGUMES:
3 cups of the small pink lentils
HERBS:
sprig of rosemary, thyme, and two bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste (or soy sauce)

I separate ingredients by how long they take to cook so start by cooking the chicken carcasses for 2-4 hours in a 5 quart soup pan with 4 quarts of water. Cook it on low heat so that it is simmering slowly. Add sprig of Rosemary, thyme, salt and two bay leaves. Cook until 1- 1 1/2 hours before dinner, then strain out bones and add below ingredients (chopped to approx the same size):
squash
onion
carrot
celery
lentils
potatoes
broccoli stems (save the tree tops for later)

Cook above ingredients until soft then add (approx 15 mins before din din). Also, if you are cooking noodles, begin now. Noodles are a great addition to this meal!

broccoli heads (chopped small)
mushrooms (sliced)
garlic, pressed or thinly chopped
ground turkey, formed into small balls

Cook at a simmer for 15-20 minutes, or unitl ingredients are tender, and in the case of the turkey, cooked all the way through!

Allow time for the soup to cool before serving.

Above: Soup with noodles and Mr. Mobley's tahini sauce

The noodles were a hit for both kids, as was the soup!

The Miracle Kitten: a starving stray kitten comes to life with lots of love, heat, and kitten formula

Kitten, with heating pad set on hot and all bundled.

Look at those eyes! (above) The kitten's eyes looked so strange until recently: pain, lack of connection to reality, like it left its body . . .

There must be something about having so many cats at our farm that just drew this kitten in. . . we have a litter of kittens right now and a few cats from a previous litter, so we have 10 cats right now! The litter and their mom are living in the barn. We plan to keep a few as barn & mousing cats.

After a long, exciting and stimulating morning with friends riding the new ponies and a few emotional break downs from so much activity, I was happy to sit in my fav chair and relax watching the girls play with toys, hugging a cupo of coffee. The phone rings and I think, nah, too busy relaxing for a phone call, plus, I've had my share of socializing for the day!

It was my friend Ellie asking for advice as she'd found a stray kitten, looking very bad nearly on her doorstep. I was immediately at attention. I am always game to try to help a hurt animal. In this case we had kitten formula sitting around and I loaded that up, some mauka honey in case the kitten had injuries and some small animal bottles. Marina was very excitd and carried the "doctor" bag out to the car in anticipation.

When we arrived I was shocked to see how dead the kitten was looking! It was writhing to the touch, no eye contact, glassy eyes, barely breathing and COLD. I had Ellie get a heating pad and turn on her heat. We held the kitten wrapped in a towel by the heater and readied the bottle with formula and water.

The kitten wouldn't even open its mouth. Teeth clenched I had to drip the milk onto its teeth holding its limp head just so to get it to swallow. Fearing it wouldn' make it through the night I took the kitten home and within hours it was lapping milk from the bottle, turning its head from side to side, even standing up! As we speak, it is purring at being touched and looking lively. What a transformation! It was apparently starving to death, and the love and milk and heat revived it.

Luc's a sucker for a poor stray cat too ;)

Marina and me, enjoying being mamas

Drinking from a bottle

Wow, looking lively babe, and milky

Whidbey Children's Theater, Martha Murphy's Preschool Class Performs the Jungle Book, Langley, WA

Martha Murphy puts on a wonderful theater class for 3 to 4 year olds (and older too). Marina has been in the class for the past 5 weeks. The session ended and another 4 week session begins next week, tuesday at 1 pm to 2 pm. Parents get to leave kids and get a cup of coffee ;) during class. I highly recommend this class! Checkout the Children's theater online at: http://www.whidbey.com/wct/. Martha is wonderful with the kids. She uses their input and includes them at their level while making everything fun, sticking to a theme, and stretching them to play new and interesting parts. At the end of the sessions, the kids put on a play for the parents.

Pictured below is the fall class' presentation of the Jungle Book

Even 9 month old Stella watched the action on stage, pretty good seats, huh?

The children show how they respond to Martha saying "pin drop": drop your heads and be still and quiet.

Chloe is a Jungle woman (pictured on the stool) and Caelen and Marina are mermaids. Yes, there ARE mermaids in the jungle :)

Question and answer time for the kids (above)

Fun at the Pumkin Patch in October, Sherman Farm, Coupeville

We met up with two other families to enjoy the pumpkins at the Sherman Farm in COupeville, a 30 minute drive from Langley. Well worth the experience, with or without kids, as there are many different types of pumkins and squash for sale, for very little money.

It sure was fun to watch the kids enjoy the pumpkins and each other.

Danny, you are getting so big!

I think it is quite impressive how many kids are engaging with the camera at once (or at least nearly so). Notice Baby Stella is in a pumpkin cage ;)

See? $1 for a squash!?!!

Pretty cool hay bale pumkins. These pumpkins also lined the road on the drive over.

There was even a straw bale play area near the parking lot. We played a lot here, and took a lot of pictures.

Marina chasing Jeanne. She can run (Jeanne)! I don' t think Jeanne or I put away our camera the whole time. Too many cool photos-to-be.

Susan (with camera too :) and Chloe play in the straw. It became much more wild than this . . .

Yes, like this! Lots of throwing straw! I love this picture of Ben

Also, If you like ice cream there is a great ice cream parlor in the downtown near the water. We enjoyed some ice cream after our pumpkin adventure.

The Bayview Farmers Market in October: A Lively Affair

It was a beautiful day for the market! Sun shining and a chilly breeze on the 11th of October. Lots of vendors showed up to sell their farm produce and crafts. I like the eclectic variety that can be found at the Bayview Farmer's Market, from the art to the produce to the soup and sprouted nuts, there is a lot to choose from!

Fruit Tarts and coffee

Fresh baby beets and beet greens. The beet greens are wonderful, they taste like spinach and are wonderful in soup, stir fry, or salad. Also try the greens baked in polenta!

Peaches and a lot of other fruit at the market: plums, apples, pears, and more!

And of course: Tomatoes!

Sprouted beans and nuts sold at this booth

Beautiful hand knit scarves, the colors were so inspiring . . .

hand made wreaths

Mr. Mobley's soup and sauce! If you haven't tried the tahini sauce, it's a must. Great on rice, vegetables, salad, and more (or so I've heard). Check him out at: http://mrmobleys.wordpress.com/

A variety of flowers to choose from or oogle at (like me)

More sprouted nuts, seeds, and beans, as well as other farm produce and baked goods