The City Museum

If you ever go to St. Louis, go to the City Museum.  The free zoo and science center are tempting, but really, go to the City Museum.

'Museum' is really the wrong word.  It's not a museum where you quietly walk through and look at things and read the small print next to the display to figure out what it is you are looking at.

It's a very unique climbing, playing, exploring, crawling, jumping, running experience.  You may want to bring your knee pads.

This is part of the outside.

It's several stories of climbing and sliding through tubes, airplanes,

and very strange structures suspended in the sky.

It was a little high for me.

Paul and Peter maneuvered through every part of it.

Here's how their website describes it...

"The dream of professional welders everywhere, MonstroCity is an interactive sculpture where kids and adults (who wish they were kids) can crawl, jump, climb and bounce their way through an exciting jungle gym of inspiration." 

 

Reuben and I attempted it, then went back to the ball pit.

A giant ball pit.

One for six and under

and another for seven and over.

Don't think about the germs.

They loved it.

Here is an example of an indoor climbing structure.

Peter was fearless the whole day.

Peter disappeared through this tunnel and Reuben went after him.

Then he got a little nervous.

Loving big brother came back and encouraged him through.

Here we are on the ceiling.

In the Whale Room there is a spiral climbing thing that disappears up into the ceiling.

 Here it is.  That spiral in the middle.

We didn't want to lose the kids so we went up too.

Hard on the knees.

But neat to sit on the ceiling.

The Monster Slide, going down a couple stories.

Later in the day, Peter and Paul found a cave that led to a spiral staircase up ten floors,

which took them to a spiral slide down ten floors.

Reuben and I hung out on the ground level.

But we all did this slide here.

And I have video from this trip too,

but it won't load.

Ugh.

Let's pretend...

Here's footage of me squealing sliding down
the Monster Slide.

"Aaaahhhh,  heeee heeee, weeeee, ooohhhh, phewww."

Here we have the Skateboard Room - Reuben's favorite.

A room full of skateboard ramps.

No skateboards.

Just lots of running up and down

and sliding about.

I was amazed at his endurance.

"Hi Mom."

pitter patter pitter patter

up the half pipe

sit down

slide down.

Up again and down again

over and over,

head first

and sideways

and laying down.

Now over to this other ramp that looks 

like a big mixing bowl.

Around and around

whoops

stumble and slide.

Climb up to the top where the big boys are

and bravely slide down into the bowl.

White shirt is now forever gray.

Pretty funny to watch, yah?

Check it out next time you're in St.Louis.
They're open till one a.m. on Friday nights.
A different crowd than we were with.

Tell Me the Truth

Really.  I can take it.  I need to know why people don't come when we invite them over.

Does our house smell and I don't notice it because I live in it?

Are my children overly annoying and you don't want them interacting with your kids?

Are you worried that my cooking is too weird and unMidwestern?

Are you afraid that you won't be able to leave until you are submersed in baptism?

What is it?

You say you'll come.  And then you don't.

I just want you to know that it makes me very sad.

If you have no intention of coming over when we invite you, just tell us.

Don't make me plan and shop and cook and clean for nothing.


Remember in yesterday's to-do list, I was getting ready for today's cookout?  Yeah, they couldn't make it.

So, if you have any tips, any suggestions, any advice... You're on the outside of my life.  You have a better view of why people say they'll come and then don't.  I'm ready to hear it.  What is it?

What To Do

 

• Buy hoops for the homeschool PE class I'm teaching.  They gave me a budget of forty dollars.  Twelve hoops cost fifty dollars.  I have twenty-five students.
• Call everyone I know in town for donations for the library's Soup Supper fundraiser.  I am in charge of it this year.  Want to make a crock pot of soup?  No?  How 'bout bringing in a box of crackers?
• Plan my aforementioned PE class.  The first day is at a park because our regular building is unavailable.  Will there be electricity for my CD player?
• Pack and buy food for upcoming camping trip.
• Build up mental toughness to camp.
• Clean house, plan menu, and shop for cookout at our house tomorrow night.
• Should probably mow the lawn too.
• Teach third grader how to diagram sentences with adjectives and adverbs, how to read aloud in a clear audible voice, and how to say the days of the week in Spanish and Turkish.
• Teach preschooler that there are more letters in the alphabet than just R,E,U,B, and N.
• Exercise in some form.
• Remove dead plants and weeds from our two vegetable gardens and start thinking about what one plants in a fall garden.

That sounds about good for today.

The Evening Pie

I am eating pie.

Why?

Because a friend gave me a bag of peaches tonight and told me,

"It's enough to make a pie."

As if to suggest that making pies is something I do.

He thought I made pies.  So I went home and made a pie.

I just recalled that his wife and granddaughter both won ribbons at the fair this year for their pies.  So women making pies is the way his world turns.

I guess if I had been proper and whatnot, I would have refrigerated it so that it wouldn't collapse like that when I cut a slice for myself.  I don't know.  Maybe that's not proper.  But it seems like preventing a cave-in would be a proper pie-maker's goal.

My goal was to eat it warm.  So that's what I'm doing.

Wouldn't vanilla ice cream be nice?

The neat thing is that when I took my piece out of the pie pan, the pieces next to it, on the right and on the left, slid down into the spot where my piece was (see top photo).  So I'll need to go back and get the rest of my piece that was kindly donated by my neighboring slices.  I love bonus bites.

Mmm.  My belly is warm and cozy.

But if you were to walk into my house you probably wouldn't smell delicious peach pie.  I think more domineering is the scent of burnt pie juice from the bubbling over action while baking.

I was smart enough to put this below the pie because I had a hunch it was going to bubble over.  This is actually the second cookie sheet.  The first one started to smoke in a fearful way, so I pulled it out and put in this one.

What I should have done, and you're probably suggesting it to me in your thoughts right now, was put foil on the pan.  Then the clean up would be done and the smell gone.  I don't know if the cookie sheets can be saved.  They're soaking in vinegar.  Because it's an acid and should eat all that burntiness off by morning, right?

Right about the time of my Morning Pie.

The Morning Paint

Reuben's morning request today was to paint.

So he painted.

And painted

And created so many masterpieces that I had to

take down my laundry to make room.

And yesterday he tried on Peter's glasses.

Ha.

Show Me the Money

I've got another post 'processing'.  It's been processing for two days.  Because it has video in it and our internet connection is jumpy.

So today I leave you a snipit of otherness.

I'm babysitting friends' kids (adding stress to our lives, not huge stress, but less simple than before) in order to attain the goal of buying Peter and Reuben plane tickets to Korea.

As it happens, Nolan's parents are going through a somewhat unfriendly divorce and as a part of that, they are depending on the other one to pay me for my childcare services.  So I may never make a collection of payment.  They are my friends.  I am sad for their situation.  And Nolan has super easily meshed into our afternoon playtime.

Another friend mentioned that I watch her five year old daughter two days a week, all day.  That was going to be the bigger chunk of income toward our plane tickets.  But she decided to send her to another friend's house who has a daughter and is watching another little girl.  Makes sense, since we are currently a little-girlless home.

So, I had a good plan.  And now I'm thinking maybe God provided these possible income sources to get us to commit to bringing the boys to Korea.  He thought the boys should come.  Now we get to trust Him to provide a different source of plane ticket provisions.  This is an exciting situation.  Have you waited on God to provide a specific need lately?  It's neat.

Just yesterday someone handed Paul five hundred dollars as a random act of kindness, so said the card.  Last week Paul and I prayed together specifically for five hundred dollars to attend a conference in Chicago for people who want to work in Trky.  Very exciting.  And confirming of plans.

That's all our otherness for today.  The boys are packing up their agent costumes and supplies to go to Nana's house.  It's Paul's day off and we're headed out of town.  Or it wouldn't really be a day off.

And my parents are coming out to visit in October.  Isn't that sweet?  It's beautiful here in the fall.

The State Fair

Each year our local library gives us free tickets to the State Fair.

So we go.  And we went.  And we liked it.

We park in the free parking and bring our own food, so it ends up being a very economic outing.

Seeking shade in the trunk.

 

The highlight this year was the Rodeo.

(Last year was the Lumberjack Competition.)

Waiting for the bucking bronco rider to come out of the gate.

One of the boys' favorite part is the farm area where they pretend to be farmers.

Here they are collecting eggs.

Now feeding the pig.

He's supposed to feed it the corn and soybeans we got out of the grain bin.

Reuben thought it would like an egg better.

Our farmer friends said they feed their pigs eggs too.

So we're good.

Planting a pretend seed.

Step to the other side of the fence and

harvest the veggie from the seed you just planted.

Pedal tractor

Sadly, Peter is too tall.

Get some wool from the sheep.

Then sell all your farm goods and receive play money that you can buy a treat with.

It's neat how they take the kids through the whole cycle of

work = goods to sell = money = food on your table.

Look at this really tall statue.

We checked out the Lego 4-H projects.

Encouraging Peter for future project ideas.

Rube found this trapeze and was freaking us out with his fearlessness.

Maybe to circus school he'll go.

A fun day.

Now kids are all back in school and our pumpkins are ripening and the nights are getting cooler and I'm wearing pants today.  Sad, sad goodbye to summer.

It Was Tasty

The Kim Bop Report...

I cut up and laid out all the filling options so we could each make our own Kim Bop.

We learned how to make Kim Bop at Camp Kajok last month.

You lay a big sheet of seaweed on a bamboo mat and add your fillings.

Then you use the mat to help you roll it up.

I'm a rolling for Reuben.

Then we used a bread knife to slice the log.

Reuben's were very colorful.

Now, here's what I suggest.

Open another tab and click to www.matkearney.com.

His songs will start playing and you'll have a nice soundtrack to the video below.

Then come back here and watch the video.

This is five minutes of Kim Bop making by us.

It does have some narration,

so don't turn Mat up too loud.

Dinner

We're making Kim Bop (aka Gim Bop) for dinner.  Want to come over?  You can roll your own.

Ours will have the seaweed wrapper and rice, along with avocado, egg, cucumber, and ham.  Because that's what we have.  And like.

If you care to read about it...

Gimbop is considered one of the most popular and nutritious Korean meal. It consists of rice and strips of vegetables, egg, and meat, rolled in laver (dried seaweed) and sliced. This is a popular snack or lunch with its ingredients being very variable. Popular ones include bulgogi, spinach, pickled radish, and eggs.

At first glance, gimbop often resembles a Japanese maki or a sushi roll. However, there are a few differences between the Japanese sushi roll and the Korean-style gimbop. The main difference is that Japanese sushi rolls are rather minimal in ingredients. Sushi rolls usually consists of just tuna or salmon within the roll whereas gimbop contains a variety of ingredients (vegetables and meat). Also, while the Japanese use raw fish (sashimi) in their sushi rolls, Korean gimbop do not contain any raw fish. Lastly, Japanese sushi is often dipped in wasabi while gimbop usually has sesame oil.

Korean 101: Gim refers to the sheets of dried seaweed, and bop is the Korean word for cooked rice.
 
Recipe Ingredients

• 1 bunch spinach, steamed
• 2 carrots, cut in long thin strips
• 1  yellow pickled radish, cut in long thin strips
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 piece thick sliced ham or Spam, cut in long thin strips and fried
• 1 egg, fried like omelet and cut in long thin strips
• 3 cups of cooked rice
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 package roasted seaweed sheets

Cooking Directions

1. Stir fry carrots with salt and pepper.
2. Mix radish with vinegar and sugar.
3. Mix rice with the sesame seeds and sesame oil.
4. Place one seaweed sheet on a bamboo sheet.  Put rice on half of the sheet and add 2 pieces of spinach, 1 carrot strip, 1 radish strip, 1 ham strip, 1 egg strip on top of rice.  Roll in a log and squeeze tight.  Use some rice to stick the seaweed together to keep it rolled.
5. Place a little sesame oil in your hands and rub it on the seaweed roll.
6. Put a little sesame oil on knife to cut roll.

Yum.

Our Neighbor, Louise, and Monks

Day One of babysitting went great.  He's a little boy, age five, who got along very with my two boys.  Lots of Lego building and cape wearing.  He'll be back Friday afternoon.

We didn't get very many academic lessons done today.  But, we did put into action some love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and goodness.

 We made some fruit and when someone shows love, joy, peace, etc.

they get that fruit put next to their picture.

 Peter shows a lot of joy.

We've been studying the fruits of the spirit (obviously), and Peter suggested that we share these 'fruits' with our elderly widow neighbor by bringing her cookies and a cold drink.  He didn't know that she recently fell and is in a nursing home.  So to the nursing home we went.

First,we spent the morning baking Louise's Applesauce Cookies during which I told Peter the story of Louise and my Granny...

My Granny lived in G'castle and was friends with Louise.  Louise's family owned a western wear store in G'castle that we pass each time we go there to visit Paul's family.  Because Paul's parents currently live in G'castle.  The same town where my mom was born.  And Paul's dad was born there too.  But Paul grew up in Missouri and I in California.  I think it's sweet how our families have roots in the same small town that we now live thirty minutes from.

So we made Louise's cookies.  And I've been eating them all day.  I had forgotten how good they are.  Moist and soft and sweet, and because the word 'applesauce' is in the title my brain registers that to mean they are lowfat, probably no fat really.  Nevermind the stick and a half of butter.  They have applesauce in them.  And they're so good.

And we shared them and some original artwork by the boys with our neighbor this morning.  A good life experience for all of us.


In other schooling...
   Yesterday we were deep in our history study of monks during the Dark Ages.

 Peter made a Lentil Soup like maybe the monks may have eaten.

 Thanks to Nana for the handy wrist bands that protected his wrist whilst he stirred.

And he made a quill pen and ink (from blueberries)

like perhaps the monks used

and wrote his spelling words.

Spelling is amazingly fun with a quill pen.

And you should make these cookies.  Here...

Louise's Applesauce Cookies

Mix together:
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg

Mix together in a separate bowl:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves


Stir the dry into the wet alternately with 1 cup of applesauce.
Bake 8-9 minutes at 375 on a greased cookie sheet.

While they are baking, make a powdered sugar icing.  I just put some powdered sugar in a bowl and add a tad of vanilla, a quick pour of milk, and a small scoop of butter.  Stir and add more sugar or milk to make a thickish consistency.  Spread it on the warm cookies.  Eat them while they're warm.  Then go about your day and eat a couple more.  Then walk through the kitchen later and have another.  Then smile because you are surprised at how tasty they are, and have one more.

The Adoption Wait and Travel News

When we were adopting Reuben, the wait to be matched with a child was 6-8 months.  Six months came along and the wait was bumped to 12 months.  Things change, people in key offices both in Korea and the U.S. are replaced and have to be trained, families within Korea are choosing to adopt more, and other events happen that slow down or speed up the process for us.

This time, our wait was 12-18 months at the beginning.  Then it was bumped to 18 months. 

THEN, I got an email from our social worker last week giving us an update on the wait times.

She wrote, "We've received 6 referrals since the beginning of July, but three families are still waiting since December 2009."

We have been waiting since February 2010.  So I did some basic math and realized we are only 3 months behind these families and they will be matched any day.  I emailed our worker back... 

"So does that mean our 18 month wait just went down to a 9 month wait?  Which I know could slow down again, but we could possibly have a referral in 3 months?"

Later that day she wrote back, "Oh dear.  Actually, Alison meant to write December 2008... not 2009. I'm so sorry about this typo."

My emotions that day were very confused as I figured out our wait had been cut in half and we could be matched in 3 months, and then, not really, our wait is still the same.  Twelve months to go.

It was exciting for the three hours between emails there.

In other adoption news, I am taking on some daycare/babysitting jobs that recently presented themselves to me.  Why comes and what for??  To earn money and save for two more plane tickets to Korea!  I am very excited about this.  

Paul and I have decided to bring Peter and Reuben with us to Korea this time, if I can earn enough for their two tickets.  So, this longer wait until we're matched with a child has its positive angle:  the longer it takes to be matched, the more time I have to earn and save.  Yahoo!

How exciting for them to be a part of this.  I think it will be so valuable for both of them - to know Korea better, to be introduced to international travel (they were both babies when they traveled overseas before), to understand adoption more fully...  They will be nine and five years old when we go, so they won't remember a ton from the trip, but they will know that they went and we will have pictures to talk about and snippets of memories to recall.  We'll call it a field trip.

But, we're not really telling them in case circumstances come up and we cannot bring them after all.  We will know better as our travel date gets closer.  In 2012.  Sheesh.

Yum

Kroger (our grocery store here) is having one of their super fun Mega Deals where I research the deals online, gather my coupons, make my lists, and giddily head to the store.  It's very much like a game and is thrilling when I come home with bags of free items and other things that produced a profit for me.

Last night I made $1.50 when I 'bought' 10 boxes of Crayola crayons.  Last week the freebies were Crest toothpaste, Suave and Right Guard deodorant, Philly cream cheese, and Mentos gum.  Except for the cream cheese, all will go to our church's food pantry or Operation Christmas Child boxes.  See how fun that is?

The tastiest profit I brought home were these new Granola Thins by Nature Valley...

After coupons, a catalina, and the Mega Deal discount, Kroger ended up paying me to take several of these boxes.

I had never tried them before.  My conclusion?  I'm secretly glad no one else in the house knows they're here.  (Paul, just stick to the Chex Mix and we'll be okay.)  They're so good.  They have a sliver of chocolate already spread on the square.  The bite is light and crunchy;  not the 'Oh, did I just break a tooth biting into this?' like some of the other granola bar products Nature Valley makes.

Here's how NatureValley.com describes it...

"Uniquely delicate crispy toasted granola with an irresistible, melt-in-your-mouth taste."

It's nice.  Perhaps I'll have another.

Never mind the Nutrition Facts.

Love

Need a good love story?  I mean a true tale of sincere love?

Read the comment from the last post.

Love from the spleen.  Wow.

Makes me feel kind of bad for causing him so much pain.

Sleeping Reuben

Someday, when I'm low on ideas for a post, I could do a whole post documenting Reuben sleeping.

Here's where I found him today when I went to check on him during his nap...

It took me a few moments to find him.

Funny kid.

He Proposed!

Look!  Can you believe it?

Except he proposed to someone named Katie.

Sweet anyway.

The game was fun.

We got seats on the outfield lawn.

Brought in a quilt and a cooler.

At the bottom of the first the boys were ready for some diversion.

So we walked around the stadium.

And picked up some $1 Cracker Jacks.

And played with the prize inside.

At one point Peter wanted to go play with some kids on the other side of the hill.  I told him I needed him to stay where I could see him.  He came up real close to me, smiled, and confidently whispered, "I know how to protect myself.  You know what I'm talking about?"  Smile, smile.

I think he was referring to the Tae Kwon Do demonstration at Korean Camp.  It seems they instilled a little too much confidence into this little seven-year-old.  "I know how to protect myself."

And, no book folks.  He didn't bring a book.