28 December 2014
We are traveling, traveling...
Check back next week for your regular installment of Barhorst Brewed. :)
21 December 2014
December 14-21
Two weeks ago, especially the second half of the week, was ridiculously busy.
You may recall that Steph and I started an Etsy shop. Well, said Esty shop exploded in business over the last month, presumably because of the holiday. We nearly doubled our total orders in the time from Thanksgiving until we went on vacation December 15. Because of this, I had 13 sets of snapkins, 6 car roll-up travel maps, and 1 custom Pomeranian golf club cover to make. I sewed and sewed and sewed, only taking breaks for all the other things that were happening in my life.
What other things? Let's see... The church had a cookie walk, for which I baked 32 dozen Spritz cookies and 40 dozen Austrian chocolate balls. I also helped roll 50 dozen gingerbread men and 40 dozen rum balls. The cookie walk took place on Saturday, December 13, so I was at church all morning arranging tables and selling cookies. Then I had to leave for rehearsal because my concert was the same day.
Yes, the Lima Symphony Christmas Concert is the same day as the cookie walk. A bit of poor planning on the part of the cookie walk, since I'm not the only member of our (rather small) parish that is in this concert. That's the best day for it, though, so Elesha and I just leave the cookie walk early for rehearsal. I had a rehearsal Friday night, another Saturday afternoon, and then a concert Saturday night. All went well and I happily went to bed that night knowing that the only thing left to do was sew.
...Except that we didn't have enough cookies to cover all the preorders that were made. Sunday afternoon and evening were spent spooning out 12 dozen lemon ricotta cookies and rolling approximately 700 buckeyes. Monday was dipping buckeyes in chocolate and packaging preorders until they were finally done. THEN back to the sewing. ...With a brief hiatus Tuesday afternoon to babysit Carrie's three boys while she dropped off preorders at local businesses, because it's quicker to do all that running in and out without three carseat-dwellers in tow. :)
In the midst of all this craziness, Jacque came down to surprise me for my birthday and stayed for a couple of days. She and I chitchatted when she wasn't being required to dance or read or play hide-and-go-seek with her nieces. She was instantly accepted by the girls as one of their own (although Gretchen had a change of heart for part of the second day) and Olivia gave her the tour of the house. By the way, the "house" according to Olivia apparently consists only of the playroom. Jacque painted Olivia's nails and watched Tangled with her, thus further cementing her favorable position in Olivia's eyes. Gretchen spent the first lunchtime trying to convince Jacque that she was actually Billy and then, having finally accepted the fact that this was, in fact, Jacque, spent the rest of the visit saying, "Not Billy. Jacque." and laughing to herself.
Bryan and the girls gave me Blue Moo for my birthday. It's a compilation of Sandra Boynton songs, complete with pictures, lyrics, music, and a CD. If you don't own it, you're missing out. This CD has been the only thing playing in our car since I opened it a week ago and it is fabulous. I'd list our favorite songs, but that's practically the whole album, so you should just check out the link. Click on the picture of the cover to look inside. You will not be disappointed.
Gretchen's most recent words: backpack, candle, Jacque, Justine, please, booger brain, ate well, candy, lunch, juice, grapes, wand, raisins. Gretchen is one of those children who repeats every word she hears, so she says a lot of things once, but not all of them stick. Olivia didn't repeat things this much, so I was beginning to think that the constant repetition was a bit of hyperbole used when stereotyping toddlers. It's not.
A lesson learned: The best mode for taking pictures of toddlers is Sports mode. The pictures don't try so hard to focus and generally come out less blurry.
A fun thing to do: Watch two 3-year-olds and a 5-year-old try to assemble Mousetrap.
Now we're at Bryan's parents' house for the holidays. We'll be here until Christmas Day, when we travel up to Michigan to visit my parents for a few days. Let the craziness begin!
A few pictures:
You may recall that Steph and I started an Etsy shop. Well, said Esty shop exploded in business over the last month, presumably because of the holiday. We nearly doubled our total orders in the time from Thanksgiving until we went on vacation December 15. Because of this, I had 13 sets of snapkins, 6 car roll-up travel maps, and 1 custom Pomeranian golf club cover to make. I sewed and sewed and sewed, only taking breaks for all the other things that were happening in my life.
What other things? Let's see... The church had a cookie walk, for which I baked 32 dozen Spritz cookies and 40 dozen Austrian chocolate balls. I also helped roll 50 dozen gingerbread men and 40 dozen rum balls. The cookie walk took place on Saturday, December 13, so I was at church all morning arranging tables and selling cookies. Then I had to leave for rehearsal because my concert was the same day.
Yes, the Lima Symphony Christmas Concert is the same day as the cookie walk. A bit of poor planning on the part of the cookie walk, since I'm not the only member of our (rather small) parish that is in this concert. That's the best day for it, though, so Elesha and I just leave the cookie walk early for rehearsal. I had a rehearsal Friday night, another Saturday afternoon, and then a concert Saturday night. All went well and I happily went to bed that night knowing that the only thing left to do was sew.
...Except that we didn't have enough cookies to cover all the preorders that were made. Sunday afternoon and evening were spent spooning out 12 dozen lemon ricotta cookies and rolling approximately 700 buckeyes. Monday was dipping buckeyes in chocolate and packaging preorders until they were finally done. THEN back to the sewing. ...With a brief hiatus Tuesday afternoon to babysit Carrie's three boys while she dropped off preorders at local businesses, because it's quicker to do all that running in and out without three carseat-dwellers in tow. :)
In the midst of all this craziness, Jacque came down to surprise me for my birthday and stayed for a couple of days. She and I chitchatted when she wasn't being required to dance or read or play hide-and-go-seek with her nieces. She was instantly accepted by the girls as one of their own (although Gretchen had a change of heart for part of the second day) and Olivia gave her the tour of the house. By the way, the "house" according to Olivia apparently consists only of the playroom. Jacque painted Olivia's nails and watched Tangled with her, thus further cementing her favorable position in Olivia's eyes. Gretchen spent the first lunchtime trying to convince Jacque that she was actually Billy and then, having finally accepted the fact that this was, in fact, Jacque, spent the rest of the visit saying, "Not Billy. Jacque." and laughing to herself.
Bryan and the girls gave me Blue Moo for my birthday. It's a compilation of Sandra Boynton songs, complete with pictures, lyrics, music, and a CD. If you don't own it, you're missing out. This CD has been the only thing playing in our car since I opened it a week ago and it is fabulous. I'd list our favorite songs, but that's practically the whole album, so you should just check out the link. Click on the picture of the cover to look inside. You will not be disappointed.
Gretchen's most recent words: backpack, candle, Jacque, Justine, please, booger brain, ate well, candy, lunch, juice, grapes, wand, raisins. Gretchen is one of those children who repeats every word she hears, so she says a lot of things once, but not all of them stick. Olivia didn't repeat things this much, so I was beginning to think that the constant repetition was a bit of hyperbole used when stereotyping toddlers. It's not.
A lesson learned: The best mode for taking pictures of toddlers is Sports mode. The pictures don't try so hard to focus and generally come out less blurry.
A fun thing to do: Watch two 3-year-olds and a 5-year-old try to assemble Mousetrap.
Now we're at Bryan's parents' house for the holidays. We'll be here until Christmas Day, when we travel up to Michigan to visit my parents for a few days. Let the craziness begin!
A few pictures:
14 December 2014
10 December 2014
Bonus Post: 30 Before 30 Update
A record of my 30 Before 30 progress thus far.
1.Genuinely surprise Bryan at least once. February 15, 2014
2. Record the psalms. --Siblings, when are we going to do this?
3.Run a sub-2:00 half marathon. April 6, 2014. 1:54:30
4.Sell at least one thing I've made (at the Farmer's Market or on Etsy). --May 17, 2014. Steph and I set up an Etsy account and my first order was for the matching squares that I made William for Christmas.
5. Learn Spanish. --I listen to Spanish CDs while I run on the treadmill, so I'm making progress here. --Progress has slowed since my race in April ended my daily treadmill runs. I need to get motivated to keep learning. --Progress has picked up again, thanks to smartphones and the duolingo app.
6. Record all 6 cello suites.
7. Sew Christmas and/or Easter dresses for the girls. --I have patterns! I'm waiting until the girls are bigger to make them.
8. Minimize (eliminate?) the need for disposable products in our house.
9.Have a compost pile. --We have a bucket that we've begun collecting scraps in and the pile is growing.
10. Play with at least 2 professional orchestras. --I play with Lima, and I'm looking for auditions with other orchestras.
11.Go 7 days in a row without letting my temper get the better of me. February 14-21, 2014 I'd gotten 6 days in a row a couple of times and then finally made it 7 (nine, actually). I'm finding it easier to take deep breaths and move on, and I have a chart to keep track of my progress. Next goal: three weeks. That's how long it takes to form a habit, right?
12.Make an honest attempt at clean eating/real food. I've done some research and tried some substitutes and reached a comfortable point. Do I care enough to use butter instead of margarine? Yes. Do I care enough to buy coconut oil regularly? No. Whole grain noodles and brown rice most of the time? Yes. Completely eliminate sugar? No. Homemade bread? Yes. Whole wheat bread? Sometimes. But often I appreciate the airiness that I can only achieve with a little bit of white flour.
13. *Skipped because knowledge by some of my readers could skew the results.* April 5, 2014
14. Go on an overnight vacation with just our family.
15.Grow a garden. My garden is progressing nicely, although technically we haven't seen any actual vegetables yet since they still have a month or so before they reach maturity. The leaves look beautiful and healthy, though!
16. Write a book.
17. Sew a skirt that becomes my favorite.
18. Volunteer to host campout. --We tried to do this for 2016 campout (and even thought we'd succeeded), but apparently we didn't tell all the right people, so someone else is doing 2016. We will be trying again for 2017. :)
19. Go through RCIA. Edit: Arrange to talk to a Catholic priest several times. RCIA won't answer the questions I have.
20. Attend Seekers' Group (similar to RCIA, offered by the Orthodox church in Lima). --Bryan and I are attending this every Tuesday and I have no reason to believe we'll quit before it's finished.
21. Complete at least 3 things on my (ever growing) Projects List. --I think I finished one, but now I can't remember what it is!
22. Start a soup kitchen.
23.Make pectin-free jam. Make up the recipe. --August 18, 2014. I made peach jam with almond and nutmeg.
24.Go on an overnight vacation with Bryan -- no kids. --September 25-28, 2014
25. Use up all the coupons Bryan gave me (I still have some from when we were dating). --Slowly but surely coming along.
26. Learn one of the 3 big concertos. --I have music for two of these. Now I just have to practice. --Practice is not happening as much as it should. :(
27.Arrange a regularly recurring get-together with the Lima folk. --Second Thursday of each month is "go to Lima" day. We've successfully done this two months in a row, so I'm crossing it off.
28.Have a religious conversation with Bryan that doesn't end in tears. --July 27, 2014. Nothing was solved, but I didn't cry.
29. Make a new friend.
30. Improve a stranger's day.
31. (Because I thought of one more and it kind of fits in with several of the above goals) Join a co-op.
1.
2. Record the psalms. --Siblings, when are we going to do this?
3.
4.
5. Learn Spanish. --I listen to Spanish CDs while I run on the treadmill, so I'm making progress here. --Progress has slowed since my race in April ended my daily treadmill runs. I need to get motivated to keep learning. --Progress has picked up again, thanks to smartphones and the duolingo app.
6. Record all 6 cello suites.
7. Sew Christmas and/or Easter dresses for the girls. --I have patterns! I'm waiting until the girls are bigger to make them.
8. Minimize (eliminate?) the need for disposable products in our house.
9.
10. Play with at least 2 professional orchestras. --I play with Lima, and I'm looking for auditions with other orchestras.
11.
12.
13. *
14. Go on an overnight vacation with just our family.
15.
16. Write a book.
17. Sew a skirt that becomes my favorite.
18. Volunteer to host campout. --We tried to do this for 2016 campout (and even thought we'd succeeded), but apparently we didn't tell all the right people, so someone else is doing 2016. We will be trying again for 2017. :)
19. Go through RCIA. Edit: Arrange to talk to a Catholic priest several times. RCIA won't answer the questions I have.
20. Attend Seekers' Group (similar to RCIA, offered by the Orthodox church in Lima). --Bryan and I are attending this every Tuesday and I have no reason to believe we'll quit before it's finished.
21. Complete at least 3 things on my (ever growing) Projects List. --I think I finished one, but now I can't remember what it is!
22. Start a soup kitchen.
23.
24.
25. Use up all the coupons Bryan gave me (I still have some from when we were dating). --Slowly but surely coming along.
26. Learn one of the 3 big concertos. --I have music for two of these. Now I just have to practice. --Practice is not happening as much as it should. :(
27.
28.
29. Make a new friend.
30. Improve a stranger's day.
31. (Because I thought of one more and it kind of fits in with several of the above goals) Join a co-op.
07 December 2014
November 30-December 7
Gretchen has a name for herself: Kiki. We're not quite sure how she came up with that (perhaps because we call her Gretchy?), but that's her name. Mommy, Daddy, Lolly, and Kiki. In addition to providing a name for herself, Gretchen has picked up the words boot, other foot, bed, hungry, silly, bark, eat, up, and down.
Olivia has begun covering her hands with her mouth as she laughs at something that she thinks is particularly funny. I'm not sure where she picked this up, but it always makes me laugh, too. Gretchen thinks this is a great trick, so now we sit at the dining room table and try to finish meals while both of them snicker into their hands.
Gretchen is in a copycat stage. If Olivia is doing it, it must be fabulous. The most obvious place that this happens is the table, as Gretchen is still perfectly content to play by herself. Anything Olivia says or does at the table, though, is fair game and is generally repeated at top volume by Gretchen. Olivia tries to use this to her advantage by saying things like, "I think Gretchen said 'cake'" and hoping that Gretchen will pick up the refrain.
The other day, Olivia sang "Five Little Speckled Frogs" in its entirety. She even counted down correctly. This would not be unusual, except for one tiny detail: I've never sung that song before. I have no idea where she heard it to begin with, let alone enough times to have it memorized.
I have stacked the perfect Candy Land deck. Competitive until the end, it allows the younger player to get all the picture cards (in order!) with just enough colored squares in between to facilitate color and number recognition without inspiring boredom in either party. ...Until the third or fourth time through, when the adult knows how it's all going to play out. :)
Steph and I met at the old house on Saturday and painted, touched up, and staged everything. I think it looks better, and Bryan and I are hopeful that the extra touch will help it sell more quickly when we do finally get around to listing it. (Yes, you read that right... Our old house is still not listed even though we've been moved out for three months.)
The running was short-lived. :( When I went to run on Monday, I only made it five minutes before having severe stomach pain. I assume it's just a ligament thing, but have put the running on hold until I can double check and get recommendations for a solution. I have already resigned myself to the solution of "don't run until Hippo is born."
Pictures:
Olivia has begun covering her hands with her mouth as she laughs at something that she thinks is particularly funny. I'm not sure where she picked this up, but it always makes me laugh, too. Gretchen thinks this is a great trick, so now we sit at the dining room table and try to finish meals while both of them snicker into their hands.
Gretchen is in a copycat stage. If Olivia is doing it, it must be fabulous. The most obvious place that this happens is the table, as Gretchen is still perfectly content to play by herself. Anything Olivia says or does at the table, though, is fair game and is generally repeated at top volume by Gretchen. Olivia tries to use this to her advantage by saying things like, "I think Gretchen said 'cake'" and hoping that Gretchen will pick up the refrain.
The other day, Olivia sang "Five Little Speckled Frogs" in its entirety. She even counted down correctly. This would not be unusual, except for one tiny detail: I've never sung that song before. I have no idea where she heard it to begin with, let alone enough times to have it memorized.
I have stacked the perfect Candy Land deck. Competitive until the end, it allows the younger player to get all the picture cards (in order!) with just enough colored squares in between to facilitate color and number recognition without inspiring boredom in either party. ...Until the third or fourth time through, when the adult knows how it's all going to play out. :)
Steph and I met at the old house on Saturday and painted, touched up, and staged everything. I think it looks better, and Bryan and I are hopeful that the extra touch will help it sell more quickly when we do finally get around to listing it. (Yes, you read that right... Our old house is still not listed even though we've been moved out for three months.)
The running was short-lived. :( When I went to run on Monday, I only made it five minutes before having severe stomach pain. I assume it's just a ligament thing, but have put the running on hold until I can double check and get recommendations for a solution. I have already resigned myself to the solution of "don't run until Hippo is born."
Pictures:
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