Food Storage Gone Crazy!!!

We got bit recently with the sudden and intense desire to give ourselves better space for food storage.

We have this coat closet under the stairs that has gone through a few transformations since we moved in. It used to hold the vacuum and the big ol' stroller and some coats.

And then it held the vacuum and some bags of canned vegetables and some other random food items, and 72-hour kits.

And then Kenn decided to cut out the wall in the back, so we could use the space right under the 1st flight of stairs, so he did, and now that's where we keep all the Christmas stuff and the 72-hour kits.

But it STILL wasn't good enough! Because even though we had bags of wheat and flour and canned goods and water bottles in there, I couldn't get to anything, and my pantry was overflowing. SO, we bought shelves!

It's awesome! There's 3 shelves on each, and enough space under the bottom one to fit a case of water bottles, and each shelf-unit holds 160 pounds!!! So I got to move a BUNCH of stuff out of the pantry, which looks a million times better now. And now, the closet holds the vacuum and extra chairs and NEATLY ORGANIZED FOOD!!!

And, as if that wasn't enough, Kenn also got me baskets for potatoes and onions!!! Now, hopefully, they'll get more air while they wait to be used, and they won't go funky on me.

So now that there's all this nice storage space, what do I do?? I make jam, of course! Sprouts had mangoes and blueberries for cheap, so I stocked up and did a double batch of mango freezer jam, as well as a double batch of blueberry jam that I canned.

(that orange one in the front is orange marmalade that I did back in January)

I also made salsa a few weeks ago from tomatoes and jalepeño peppers from our garden, and it made alot so I canned a couple jars. Look at me go!

Recent Funny Stuff sans Photos, and then some photos stuck in randomly

--Caleb was reading "Curious George and the Halloween Party" to Beckett, and it is adorable to hear the story told in his own words. He's actually pretty good. :) "'Hey, that's not a ghost! That's a monkey!' said Betsy. And they were hungry, they wanted to eat some apples in the apple pool (bobbing for apples). And they got presents, and they were animals. The End."

--We went to a team party for Kenn's work last week, at a park on the lake in Austin. We took some watermelon with us, cut into triangle slices, and Beckett just could not get enough. Since we were outside and he was all messy anyways, we just let him walk around and eat it, although I held it mostly. Every time he took a bite, he would get this big grin on his face and give a little "mmmmm!" sound, and the watermelon juice would run ALL down his chin, onto his shirt (which is now stained, but it's totally worth it), and every time I got up to throw the rind away, he would follow me and sign 'more' while saying "Mo mo? Mo?" I think he must've had about 7 slices. And no, I didn't get a picture, but I promise it was adorable. :)

--Caleb keeps saying to me, 'Right you are, ma'am!' and to Kenn, 'Right you are, sir!' No idea where he picked that one up.

Caleb ran towards me one day when quiet time was over and said "Come see what I made!"
So I went to look, and this is what he'd done. He was QUITE proud of himself. :)

--Caleb and Beckett got some suckers at HEB last week with the balloons, and I must've been in an amazingly good mood because I let them eat them. So how did they eat them? They laid down next to each other on the kitchen floor, of course! All the rest of that day I kept finding sticky spots on the floor

--Caleb said to me the other morning, "Mom, I need Jesus to help me read this book!" I said, "ok, buddy, then say a prayer." So he did! He said, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for this day. Please let Jesus come help me read this book. Say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." It was awesome, and really hard to not laugh out loud. That kid is adorable.

Caleb and Garrett were hanging out in Caleb's room a few weeks ago during quiet time, and they found this Superman costume that I bought at a garage sale a few years ago. Apparently, it now fits them both, because they wore it back and forth that day, and Caleb put it on every day for a week solid. At least Halloween is figured out for ONE kid.

The boys were still hungry one night after dinner, and I was, too, so I got myself a carrot, and they decided that looked good. Who knew they'd ask for a healthy option?

Beckett has been doing this a lot lately, pulling his ears out. It looks really funny when the light from the window is coming in behind him, and his ears look like they're glowing.
Hard to get on camera, though.

He also likes to show you where his nose is.

Old School Style

Last summer when we went to Michigan, I spent some time in my parents' basement going through all the books they still had from when I was a kid, taking out anything I loved and wanted to bring home for Caleb and Beckett. There were a LOT of Berenstain Bears books, which Caleb has recently fallen in love with, and a few other really old-looking books, very 80's style. :)

So today during quiet time, Caleb had come out of his room to use the lavatory and on his way back to his room he decided to get a book from the shelf. He grabbed this.



Seriously old school, right?? You guys remember these books? You could SEE the pictures while you HEAR the record and READ the book. :) I love that he's getting into famous literature so early, but the best part was as he stood in his doorway, he opened the book and something fell out of the very back. He held it up to me with this confused look on his face, like 'what is this?'

It was the record! Can you believe it?? Over 20 years old, maybe more, and the record is still in the back of the book. I started laughing when I saw it, and Caleb looked at me and said, 'Can I come downstairs and watch it?"

I was like, 'Buddy, this isn't a DVD. It's called a record. You listen to it." And I was going to say, "y'know, like we listen to a CD in a CD player," but then I remembered that he's never seen a CD in a CD player. He's only ever seen iTunes and my iPod and the iHome.

So I described a record player, and told him you put the record on and put the needle on it and then you hear it, you listen. And he said, "Yah, let's do that!"

I about died. I was like, "Sorry, kid, mommy and daddy do not have a record player."

Anybody got one laying around we could borrow?