The key is to start with the veg recipes and then to work through all the chicken broth based ones and then the beef so you can have a chicken roasting in the oven for more broth and the chicken breasts while the first soups cook. The thing that makes Mark laugh is that I’ve devised a way to prep the ingredients common to most recipes (garlic, carrots, celery, noodles, rice, tomatoes, etc) all at one time so when I start the morning our kitchen counters look like the worlds best farmer’s market.

With our work schedules, and two tiny people wanting (and deserving any of our spare time), I try to cook like this every couple of months and just fill the shelves of the basement freezer. I just bring them up the night before we want them so they can defrost in the fridge.

You can see the recipes for most of our favorites by using the link in the top nav, feel free to use the comments below to request an email set to be sent to you.

Which brings me to the question of the day. Would you like to get a once a month newsletter emailed to you with recipes and craft projects and other cluttered pantry topics in it? We often get requests from companies to review their products and sometimes those come with coupons we can share this way if you’d like. Let me know via the comments and if enough of you are interested I’ll set it up (it will be free, but we might have to put an add or two in it to help pay for it)

My favorite of their selections is the blue pony, I did turn away the stuffed butterfly that Elena tried to include, but the pony would indeed be able to carry us if he showed up.

After we played with the bevy of toys we built roads with our blocks and then built an entire city using leggos and blocks. This was the first time Zhanna took imagination play and really locked into the theme and built on in (she most often takes a story line and then runs it back to one she prefers)

The field trip today was to the museum of science and industry- full size train, actual airplane to climb through, it’s a Mecca of transportation.

Later this week we’ll ride the “EL” with stops at a favorite bakery.

Art projects and cooking posts related to our theme will be posted later this week.

I’m not certain how long she was calling out for me, but I didn’t hear Elena until after she had gotten sick in her bed and then become basically hysterical. (really is there anything sadder than a sick, cold, sad child who thinks she can’t find her mommy?)

We have a monitor set up in their room, and a receiver on my nightstand. But I didn’t bother to bring it downstairs with me because the girls sleep through the night on such a regular basis that it’s only real purpose has been to hear the early morning “I need to go potty” refrain.

Both girls still stay in their beds until we come in in the morning, as if they were in cribs and can’t get out. That has always seemed like a good thing, until tonight. Elena needed to get up, but was afraid too. Once she was feeling better and calm again we talked about it being ok to get up and open her door if she needed me. Elena nodded her little head and said she would, but it was clear she wasn’t going to really do it.

And now? Why am I writing a post after midnight? Because even though, once I managed to get her bedding changed and to get her cleaned up and in fresh “jamas”, Elena was ready to go back to sleep. She has a new fear. “mommy didn’t hear me crying”. So about every 20 minutes since 10pm she has woken up and performed a test of the emergency broadcast system (Elena Broadcast to be precise.)

I’m laying here in bed using the monitor to hear her breathe and hoping that the last test at 12:20 am was enough to prove that when she needs me I really will come. But I’m not betting on it.

The dining room? Not so much with that fourth coat of paint. I can only hope that the stuper brought on with 24 hours of flights Mark will have just completed will be enough to distract him from my almost completed surprise when he arrives in the morning.

This has been a test, only a test, if this had been a real emergency you would have had no idea what to do. We now return you to your regularly planned sleep cycle.

So, that was 9:30pm.

First it was a cat that suddenly needed to prove his prowess as a hunter by “capturing” a small stuffed Koala and carrying it up the stairs to lay at my feet. He was of course yowling the entire way. That was 11:15pm

Then it was the tiny voice of the 3 year old over the monitor “uh oh I’m wet”. Sigh, I knew that last glass of water was a mistake. Naturally the clean sheets and were down in the basement laundry room. Ok. I can do this. Calm sad and oh so groggy child down, get to basement, get child cleaned up and changed, get bed made, get child back to sleep. All while doing everything possible to keep from waking 4 year old zonked out in next bed. That was 12:45am

From there it was the natural result of all that hubbub. Just as I got back into bed, and settled down, the dog decided he had to go out….NOW. Ok. Back downstairs. Stand next to the freezing door and wait for him to stop playing in the snow and come back inside so he can bring his snow covered feet back to my pillow. That ended at 1:30am

Ok! Now it’s time for bed….a few hours of sleep and then…the SOUND.

If you have an iPhone, find the “boing” sound effect and turn your volume up as high as it will go. If you don’t, try to remember the sound from Road Runner cartoons whenever a large metal spring was used to fling anything over a mountain {{{BOINNNGG}}}.

I woke up to that sound echoing over and over again up the stairwell. At first all my groggy head could conjure was the idea that a smoke alarm with failing battery was going nuts. But it was so strange
{{BOINNNGG}}}
{{BOINNNGG}}}
{{BOINNNGG}}}

When I finally found the old model iPhone we gave the girls to play games on (in a toy box under the dolls) it was on the last round of alarm from a setting that showed “count down 12 hours”. It would appear that one of the girls was playing with the clock timer function at 2:30pm. Since that was 2:30am when it went off.

Ummm ok, maybe if my heart stops racing I’ll try to get some sleep before the morning starts.

I did eventually get a few hours in, but the girls woke up early and there is no snooze button for that.

Method:
325 degree oven
Drain liquid from Ricotta
Beat cheese with the sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs, cornstarch, and extract. Then ad the cream to the mixture and fold in the almonds.

Pour into prepared crust and bake for 1 hour. Cool slowly (in oven with door open works well)

There are lots of ways to do this, but regardless of the “school of thought” that we choose to follow it will be really important to document all the lessons and skills that we cover so that the transition into “notathome school” won’t be frought with scary administrators testing the girls or making them redo any grades.

That is really what this section of the blog is all about. We are going to use it primarily to track and plan and document the learning, discovery and imagination building that we do around here.

I’ll include any resourcess we find really helpful and, whenever possible, the actual lesson plans and guides for any one interested.

The comments section and discusion forum pages are open for anyone who has suggestions, ideas, or even questions. We welcome you to start a topic and for others to join in. Some of the best ideas we’ve used so far started as tips shared by friends.

The only trouble is trying not to eat what we make for the girls…

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

INGREDIENTS
3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
1-1/2 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter
3 ounces sour cream
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F ( 175 degrees C).
Place potatoes in a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain water, and add cream cheese, butter, sour cream and heavy cream. Mash until creamy using a potato masher. Spread evenly in a large baking dish.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is golden brown.

Several Categories:

1.Dry milk (powder) – this is a great and sort of cheap way to bulk up foods you might already be feeding your children.

powdered milk contains 33 calories per tablespoon

Add 1 cup to 1 quart fluid milk for drinking and cooking (we are gkept a pitcher of “special milk” to add to anything that needed milk)

• Add 1/4 cup to 1 cup cooked cereal, such as oatmeal or cream of wheat or our favorite Malt-o-meal
• Add 1/2 cup to 1 pound ground meat or turkey when you make hamburgers, meatloaf, chili, etc.
• Add 1/4 cup for each 2 cups of flour used when making pancakes, waffles, or bread

2. Heavy Cream – whipping cream

depends on the brand you use, but we’re talking about 50 calories per tablespoon which is major!

we successfully put this into:
hot cereals like malto-o-meal (when cooking and as a spoon full on top to cool it down a bit)
chocolate milk (yes cream added to whole milk)
home made puddings (but if you get carried away it becomes vanilla cream and children make faces)
1/4 cup of heavy cream in mashpotatoes makes them deadly for mommy and daddy but oh so tasty

Recipies

MEATLOAF
(makes 12 toddler servings)

1-1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
4 tablespoons wheat germ
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 eggs, plus two egg yolks slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
1/4 cup fluid whole milk

Thoroughly mix all ingredients, except 1/2 of the can of soup and fluid milk. Shape firmly into loaf and place into shallow baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Blend remaining soup, fluid milk, and 2 to 3 tablespoon dripping. Stir, heat, then serve over loaf like a gravy.

The ongoing goal of getting the girls somewhere on the growth charts leads us to seeking out the highest fat and calorie ways to cook even simple dishes…It’s really hard to balance the goal of weight gain with the overwhelming desire to give them only the most nutrious of foods to make up for the first years of their lives.

Life is hectic, not more than I guess you’d expect for a family with two toddlers, two dogs, and a small corporation to run. But hectic, none-the-less.

We are struggling to help the girls eat enough calories, They both lost more than a pound while sick. But every day we get a little smarter about how to hide heavy cream, butter, protein and other treats in food.

Toddlers are notorious for loving a food one day and then hating it the next. It keeps us on our toes, and bends our patience, but generally we are managing the mine field that is meal time.

The language acquisition continues to grow at an astounding rate. Zhanna is no longer using any Russian words and mostly speaks in 4 or 5 word sentences. (often they include the words “Zhanna wants or Zhanna no like”). Elena can name dozens and dozens of animals and objects but is still speaking without many consonates so we spend a lot of time doing charades to figure out what she wants or doesn’t want.

We broke into the Pixar collection and in the past week have watched Nemo and Cars at least twenty times. Both girls are very concerned that Nemo didn’t listen to his daddy and then got lost. Zhanna is particularly indignant about the mean car that pushes the others in the movie Cars. It is pretty funny to see and hear the girls tell the characters to be nice.

More soon, we are just trying to get into the swing of the new year.

Here is a fun pic of the girls finally figuring out what all that chalk in the playroom is for. I wish I could have snapped a shot of their faces and hands afterwards- a rainbow of chalky goodness!

And here are some shots of their first hair cuts (we won’t count the crooked attempt mommy made to get rid of the mullets they were sporting when we got home) they sat in little cars and watched movies while getting their new sassy do’s. It was crazy.

1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup baby rice cereal (dry)
1/2 cup fruit (any type)
2 teaspoons honey
1 tbls heavy cream

Mix all ingredients together in a blender and blend on high until smooth.

1-1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
4 tablespoons wheat germ
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 eggs, plus two egg yolks slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
1/4 cup fluid whole milk

Thoroughly mix all ingredients, except 1/2 of the can of soup and fluid milk. Shape firmly into loaf and place into shallow baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Blend remaining soup, fluid milk, and 2 to 3 tablespoon dripping. Stir, heat, then serve over loaf like a gravy.

Yesterday we set a household record… Not for the number of Dora the Explorer Pullups we changed, nor for the increadible number of times each girl climbed the coffee table to jump on the big sofa (our version of an indoor jungle gym), and not even for the staggering amount of food being consumed.

The record goes to Elena for earning no less than eight separate time outs in one day. Well, let’s be clear, the time out process of being sent to sit in a corner and ponder what breach of social contract you may have committed, is sort of lost on a two year old.

So, time out is actually time in. Small child sitting in mommy or daddy’s lap arms flailing and loud loud screaming (how can something so small have such big lungs?!) it takes a minute or two but then she calms down and sobs a bit and then says “sorry mommy” with a quivering voice that breaks your heart.

I’m not sure if it was a full moon or just the one month reboot or just one of those things. But boy oh boy. What a looooong day.

Last night we followed our usual routine (sesame street watching after diner, some play time with the many toys downstairs, clean up time which is mostly everyone tossing toys back into the baby jail, potty time, change into PJs, sitting/squirming through Daddy reading Good Night Moon- both girls making kitty sounds and declaring each item on the pages theirs “Zhanna Mush” “Elena Brush”, as much cuddling and kisses as we can get away with,, then into cribs and under covers all the while saying ‘nite ‘nite to every toy and item in the room using the new found English words for almost everything)…but for the first time after we put the girls in their cribs to go to sleep and shut of the lights and walked out….nothing….silence….no super sad crying. We sat by the baby monitor and listened to Zhanna doing her little singsong chanting to sleep, but both girls were out in the land of zzzzzzzzs in less than five minutes. Peaceful…..

Today we are loading the car seats and girls into an IGO car and taking advantage of a big sale at old navy. Many of the little outfits we bought them are starting to be too tight!

Zhanna has been wearing her backpack around the house since she saw her first episode of Dora the Explorer. It tends to be filled with toys…and she likes to dance with her whole body to the intro theme to sesame street – I think her moves are the actual definition of “childlike abandon”.

Elena is using her own spoon now and most of her food actually gets in her mouth. She has taken to body hugging both dogs and giving them kisses on a regular basis (they seem confused but amiable to all the attention). We are fully into potty training now with the “reward” being that Elena wants to wash her hands.

At dinner we still find ourselves saying a sentence that no other parent has every uttered: “girls if you finish all your mac n’ cheese mommy will let you have some peas.” We are seriously bribing our children with veggies to get them to eat whatever the main course is. “carrots for dessert if you finish your dinner” actually works, and to solve the protein issue we are starting meals with a cooked egg white like it is an apetizer. Nutty!

Some new pics:

The girls spent a fair amount of time figuring out just how far an old school slinky could be stretched.

And Elena showed us that even tiny children can try to open doors if it means getting to take your baby doll outside to play on the slide.