It was certainly a busy night! Even though the main dish was a repeat, Tarragon Chicken (a favorite to be sure), egg noodles, spinach salad with orange vinaigrette, corn, and bread. The place was packed with the two brand new babies, four tweens, 2-two-year-olds and an almost one toddler. Not to mention the 15 adults (24 in all for those counting). In a moment of wisdom, we made sure the big kids all had their snow gear and I brought sleds. Those four tore it up outside and weren’t quite ready to come in, but were definitely hungry when supper was called!! The two-year-olds, for the most part, played well together, but the former youngest of the group was not happy about being unseated as the baby, and she let us all know about it (not to mention she was already miserable and crabby due to teething). The background noise for the majority of the evening was this poor girl wailing at the slightest thing (she also had been doing this at home, so I really wasn’t torturing her, just everyone else).
The first of the babies to arrive managed to spit up profusely enough to require an entire wardrobe change and as her Aunt I was only too happy to help out.
Second to arrive the next little miss was insisting that she was, in fact, being starved, as the panicked look of the new Daddy tearing through the diaper bag indicated there was no nipple for the bottle (the new Mommy had a pretty good poker face).
Hello! Congratulations! She is beautiful!
Thank you, she is a little hungry right now. (New daddy tearing through diaper bag at lightning speeds). I wasn’t able to breastfeed like I hoped, so we had to switch to formula and everyone is much happier.
Well, that is why we have modern medicine and nutrition, healthy Mama and healthy baby.
Exactly.
I can’t find the bottle top anywhere, we must have left it at the store.
I am sure there is one here that will work.
(Looking through the diaper bag and trying to quietly devise a plan)
Here you go, this is a slow flow, it should even fit right on your bottle.
Oh my gosh, thank you!
Not a problem, been there!
The other kids are just heading outside to sled.
Ok!
Just so you know, that butter was amazing.
Haha! Isn’t it great?
Hey!
This soap is for you, I got the new labels done!
Awesome! Thanks!
Hello! Is that the new baby? Oh! TWO new babies!
I’m sure Grandma will get lots of time to rock, hand her here.
Where is your husband coyote hunting?
Behind our house, his dad and brother and law came over.
Are they a problem around here?
Oh yeah, and these little jerks will come up right by the house. If they stayed out in the back of the property I wouldn’t mind them so much, but not by my house.
Have you heard about the Coy-wolves?
Oh yea, they are around here.
Are they really?
I thought they were just up in the U.P?
No, they have been spotted in the lower too.
So they a wolf that crossed with a coyote, and they are big like a wolf but not scared of people like coyotes?
Right, they are not good.
Next time he goes, let me know I just built a gun I’d like to try out.
Will do, you can come try it out across the field anyway.
Dinner is about ready.
(pounding on the door to outside)
HEY! Time to come in!!!
AWWW…. Just 10 more minutes?
No, dinner is ready, get in here!
Can you give her some noodles? Maybe that will help.
I need to get here a little earlier, get pictures while they are cooking, that’s where its at!
That would be pretty awesome!
Why is she crying?
She wants the wine. You can’t have wine, honey.
(Sobbing on the table)
You can have juice, do you want juice?
Nooo!
Can I just give her the wine? You can’t have wine.
Ok, can she say prayers?
OK EVERYONE!!! SHE’S GOING TO SAY PRAYERS NOW! Get it girl.
BLESS THIS HOUSE, LORD WE PRAY, KEEP US SAVE BY NIGHT AND DAY! AMEN!
AMEN!!
I like it, to the point.
That’s my girl, loud!
This looks amazing.
Can we get the bread down here?
No.
Aww
Where’s your husband?
He’ll be here, just getting out of work late again. They are working on building a restaurant for the assisted living facility he works at rather than just another cafeteria.
Wow! That’s a great idea! I should do that! (One new daddy had covered the baby with his napkin so he didn’t drop food on her. The second followed suit)
Did you eat?
Yeah, I ate mostly noodles, and bread and corn and a little chicken.
I’m done too, dinner was really good, but I didn’t like the salad.
That’s ok, I didn’t either.
What do I do with it?
There is a trash can under the sink, you can scrape it off in there and put your plate in the sink. Thanks for trying it.
Save your fork! Everyone has to save their forks tonight if they want dessert!
Congrats on the baby! What is her name?
That’s unique, where did you come up with that?
Remember, from the woman I had met traveling?
Oh, that’s right.
I really thought someone would have guessed it, it was a name in a movie and its Wendy from Peter Pan’s middle name too.
It’s been quite a few years since I actually read Peter Pan.
Do you want to hold her?
No, I don’t hold babies, I just look.
Can you pass the wine?
There isn’t much left.
Maybe I can talk my wife into making a wine run?
Sure, I can do that.
Grab the other bottle too!
So, you’re about my age, do you like The Princess Bride?
You know, I can’t say I have watched the entire movie to make judgment call. Hubby loves it though, and his buddy.
I think I’ve watched it enough to recite most of the lines.
Him too.
Anyway, I was reading this book: The Princess Bride and Philosophy: Inconceivable! It’s pretty good.
Awesome.
Did you know Andre the Giant drank like a 5th or more everyday?
Wow! Why?
I guess just the weight of him caused him so much pain.
That’s kinda sad.
Hey, how do you decide what makes it into your blog?
Primarily what I can remember.
We’re having a pretty good discussion about Mexican food down here.
Well, I mean we’re talking about Princess Bride, c’mon.
Did the kids want dessert?
You guys raise bees?
Yeah, I just got done making lip balm with the wax.
That’s amazing, how much property do you have to have?
Not much.
So how does it work?
Well, our bee’s didn’t produce much honey this year, apparently, our queen isn’t mean enough.
Really?
Yeah, they have done research that more aggressive hives produce more honey. The witchier the queen, the more honey gets made.
So, we need witchy bee’s to get lots of honey.
How do you get a new queen?
Do you know how bee’s mate?
No?
It should be like this in all species…..
So the worker bee’s lay drone eggs, which when the hatch are these great big male bee’s. They’re kind of slow and not really good workers. So the queen when she’s ready flies up to the top of the hive and flies around for like 9 days. And the drones fly up there and do their thing. At the end of the 9 days, the queen comes down and lays the fertilized eggs. Those get the Royal Jelly, that’s what makes them become the new queens. At the end of the season, the female worker bees kill all the males.
So who mates with the worker bee’s to hatch the drones?
No one, those eggs aren’t fertilized.
So how do they hatch?
It’s a type of A-sexual reproduction, they must not need the sperm to grow. (side note, the geek in me had to look this up, the correct word is parthenogenesis)
So when the new eggs hatch, how do they decide who the new queen is?
Well, basically they hatch and fight it out, the winner takes all. Then the old queen leaves with part of the colony and the new queen keeps the hive.
They can also swarm.
Right, if something happens to the hive or it gets to be to crowded they queen will leave and you’ll get a swarm.
Is that where you see the bee balls?
Right! It looks like there is a structure there, but it’s just all bees.
So is your honey raw or how do you process it?
We just filter ours through a bunch of layers of cheese cloth, we don’t heat it or anything.
So does yours crystalize? Because I see some raw that crystallizes and some that doesn’t….
It depends on how much they filter it I think, how much debris gets left in it. That’s what causes crystallization.
How are your worms by the way? Any babies?
I think so, I went and re-did a bunch of their stuff and there were more worms than I remembered.
I’m trying to do projects that promote sustainability and recycling that people can do even if they live in an apartment, like the worms, you can do that anywhere.
We know someone that has worms in her kitchen.
Awesome, and I read that they really like cardboard, so like the non-greasy half of a pizza box is perfect.
Oh! I remember I found a bunch of re-growable kitchen scraps on Pinterest!
Awesome.
So you’re selling your soaps online now?
Yes, on Etsy, I am hoping to try a Jewel weed soap this summer.
That’s what the Natives used for poison ivy, you know.
Yep, and you can make it into soap and it still works.
Isn’t that amazing you can preserve that into soap?
I think we are missing a kid?
I can find mine, but not sure where your’s went.
(hiding in the bathroom)
Do you have to go potty?
So is that a new dance?
No, this is an almost 10-year-old dance.
Is that the one that was crawling under the seats on Sunday?You know, I remember our kids were always perfect and quiet in church.
This is the one.You know, I remember our kids were always perfect and quiet in church.
You know, I remember our kids were always perfect and quiet in church.
(Laughing)
Right, I remember your son especially being quite!
Did she have to go potty?
She did, she actually went, I feel like I need to make an announcement or put a banner up or something.
You should, that one loved the attention when we were working on it.
Hey, everyone, she went potty!
YEAH!!! Good job!
You know it’s funny you were talking about her name being from a movie (I have now captured the other little baby for a bit). If she was a boy, we were going to name her Luke… because I was sitting there all huge watching Star Wars, not that I’m a particular fan, but I just happened to like it at that moment.
I feel like I should say something Biblically profound for you to write down. I have been studying the passage Proverbs 13:24, about sparing the rod and spoiling the child.
Ok.
So the author of those passages uses a lot of shepherd related theme, and the shepherd uses his staff to guide his flock right?
Right.
So by sparing the rod, sparing guidance you are essentially spoiling the future generation. It’s not about physically disciplining, but about guidance.
Well, that certainly makes more sense. Spoiling isn’t interpreted as the child being a brat, but about missed information. I like it.
And at this point, the volume of my youngest had reached epic proportions, there were a lot of conversations all over the place and I couldn’t hear a one. So we put on our jammies and packed it for home. Darn teeth anyway!
The Tuesday Table 