A Change of Pace

So updates are going to have to move to Friday probably. It's the one day a week now that I'm generally free - I have class every other day and am not home till about 7:00pm, and I like to keep Saturday and Sunday open, so Fridays it is.

This week has also been a change of pace in that we were very, very busy. By our regular standards anyway. On Saturday we drove up to Manteca to visit Anastasia's family for her grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary.

I know Buddy, that's a long time!

We returned the same night. May God grant many more years to the happy couple!

(And their five sons, and all those sons' descendants...)

Grandma Biggs was a little outnumbered.

After Liturgy on Sunday we went home and cleaned the house to prepare for Anya's parents coming to stay for about a week. Athanasius is now thoroughly spoiled, but is re-adjusting to not always having four adults to wait upon his every whim.

Note to self: remember to bring out camera more during busy weeks, since this is the only "with grandparents" photo that we got that is not bosh.

On Wednesday evening my parents came up too and we went out to Rubios so he had six adults.

Thursday saw us at Chic-fil-a to meet up with Aunt Becca and her two kiddos, first time she got to meet Athanasius. I cut it short by having to be at school. I'm generally there from noon thirty to seven Monday through Thursday now, but this could be my last semester so I have that 'light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel' thing going for me. This semester I'm taking Social and Political Philosophy, Asian Religious Traditions, Anthropology of Religion, Literature of the Old Testament, and Concepts in Quantum Physics. Yes, that last one is a real class on my roster. I apparently have smooth talking friends who can convince me to sign up for such things. It's actually much easier than it sounds...so far.

My tutor gets tired after our study sessions though.

Since it is also Facebook official I'm going to end by congratulating my Brother- and Sister-in-Law on the creation of another little midget to entertain us at family functions. For anyone counting, that brings the current number of nieces and nephews upon which I can potentially influence up to fourteen, plus two in utero (one on each side!).

Anger us too greatly and an army of angry midgets shall be unleashed.

The General.

Until next week, mes amis!

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An Abundance of Armenians...

So I know usually I update earlier in the day, but I completely forgot that today was Wednesday. It's felt like Tuesday all day to me, which is weird because days don't really have 'feelings' but we all know what its like to be a day behind. The worst part is that I start classes again tomorrow so I've lost a day apparently. Ah well.

Of course, his little highness never cares what day it is. He sits around, enrobed, eating bon bons.

This has been a busy week. A busy day really. Today alone has witnessed the building of the garden planter box, though it's still waiting to be filled with dirt.

The other "think I am a little highness who does even less than the real little highness" thinks I've built her a giant litter box.

We've also made plenty of lara bars, which I enjoy snacking on at school (a mixture of dates and nuts). I used to eat them last year but apparently lost my recipe and had to find a new one. This new one turned out pretty good though. We got the chicken carcass from the fridge turned into stock and frozen, laundry done, seedlings started, dishes done, counter cleaned, iced tea made and Athanasius has decided he is going to start the "take off position"

This causes me to kick his legs out from under him. We are not ready for mobility just yet.

Sometimes he'll even do that rocking back and forth thing they do before they start crawling. I think its a threat.

And this happened.

Yep, the spawn is officially five months old. Its been five months since I've been able to say "I've never changed a poopy diaper." Five months since I didn't have to master the "typing with one hand while keeping a tiny fist from pounding my laptop and a mouth full of urp from spewing all over the keyboard" technique. Five months since I've been able to go out without grabbing a diaper bag and checking my shirt for chunky, urped up milk stains.

Not that I miss those days or anything...

That last paragraph took fifteen minutes to type because of this guy, right here.

We also went down to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Wesseler last weekend. It's good to do that because it brings a light to their otherwise socially lacking lives.

Seriously. They play DOMINOES down there. For FUN.

Then we made it back in time to venerate the Hawaii' Iveron Icon. For those who don't know, this is a miraculous icon. Rose-y smelling myrrh beads up from the surface. I've watched it form a new drop and drip down the surface, and fill an entire rather large church with the smell of roses. After being anointed with the oil that rises from the Icon my younger sister was declared cancer free on a Feast of the Theotokos. It's a blessing to get to be anointed with the oil during the Dormition Fast, and on the eve of the Prefeast of the Transfiguration.

It felt a little tacky to take a photo while in line, so this is the best we got.

And speaking of the Transfiguration yes, we made it to the you-pick place, which I think might be closer to Visalia than Fresno - it's in Kingsburg. I recommend it to my sisters. It's got a petting zoo and the kids would have fun probably picking some stuff. It was really cheap too, especially for us. See, as we pull up we see four or five tour buses parked out front, with a HUGE line of people waiting to pay. It seems that this was the day that a tour from Armenia decided to stop in Kingsburg and pick fruit. Why anybody touring America would care to see Kingsburg (no offense to her residents) or to pick their own fruit I don't know. Even outside of the line there were people everywhere. It would've taken an hour to get through that line I think, but luckily it turns out they had a special register open for locals, and because of the inconvenience of having to carry our own box of fruit and not use a wagon they gave us 50% off. Not bad, amiright?

He seemed surprise to learn that food came from elsewhere than just "mommy."

There was even some wildlife!

So after tromping our way down rows of grapes (grape jelly y'all!) and peaches and plums we went back through the treacherous jungle to pay only seven bucks for all this:

Sorry to my non-Californian relatives.

So yes, very busy week.

But some people enjoy those types of weeks.

If nothing else it is helping me sleep better. Unfortunately I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to keep up this blog. You see, the main talent has taken a decidedly hard line against paparazzi:

"I said NO PHOTOS!"

And occasionally goes out of his way to avoid getting his face splashed all across the 'net.

Comes with the territory of being a public figure, kid.

But we will persevere for as long as possible! The public has rights too, you know!

Until next week!

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A Week for Eats

Well, this week has been a week of food. It started with making ketchup which was waaaay too tomato-y (for those not in the know, I loathe tomatoes) but the next day I tried it on something else and it was amazing, so that recipe gets to stay. It's a quickie too because we start with tomato paste. Tonight I get to make gnocchi with our new potato ricer!

There are no pictures of Caspian eating because his supply of 'on tap' milk isn't really for public viewing, but here are some pictures of him being adorable.

It doesn't take much. 

He gets it from his dad I bet.

And this one just cracks me up.

Yep, food, food, food. Last night we went to the Farmer's Market where I was surprised and amazed to see currants at one stand. A quick smart-phone search told me how much I would need for jam (I LOVE currant jam) but when we got home I noticed they looked different than the recipe's picture. 

Well apparently someone started calling a tiny version of grapes that are used to make raisins "currants" because they didn't know what the word "Corinth" was (the original locale of these grapes) and so these grapes are called currants in America, where real currants were outlawed for like 50 years or something because the lumber industry lobbyists thought it would help cure their lumber of a disease or something. Color me ticked. So ticked that I'm thinking of ordering actual currants just to make jam now even though I can only find them in a 5 pound bag vacuum sealed. 

So instead of photos of jar after jar of delicious black currant jam you get to see one photo of our homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut which looks pretty good but which we haven't tasted because it needs to ripen for several more weeks at least.

It smells really good though if you press your nose up against the lid. 

So no jam yet, but our cherry pitter just arrived and we're going to try to make some cherry pie filling to jar up before cherries go back to being imported and hugely expensive. If anyone would like four pounds of tiny seedless grapes that are apparently only used to make raisins let me know. We both hate raisins. I've been told they're nature's candy, but nature should keep her day job if that's the case.

The happy face of a baby who knows he doesn't have to eat the disgusting thing known as a 'raisin.'

We also are getting geared up for a winter garden (told you - all about food) and were really happy to find a place that sells non-GMO, all organic, heirloom vegetable seeds! For those who don't know what that means (like David last night) it means that the plants have not been genetically altered (no scientists poking around with their DNA and deciding it's still nutritious and safe for me to eat) no pesticides on the soil that the original plants that bore the seeds grew in (and again, not going into our insides) and heirloom means we can actually keep the seeds from the plants we harvest and plant them next year, and again and again. 

In response to this information my mom said we were just a pair of Birkenstocks away from something.  I don't know what Birkenstocks are, apparently some sort of shoe. 

But we're hardcore - we don't wear shoes!

So I need to run to Target today and get some lawn bags to clear out some weeds, and hopefully this weekend my dad will be helping me to build the planter boxes. I'll post pictures when we're all set up. 

Just this morning we had a great surprise too (not the arrival of the cherry pitter). My sister-in-law, Stacia's sister Sharon, finished the blanket she was crocheting for Athanasius and it arrived, and it's seriously cool looking. He seems to love it:

I think he just likes it though because he sees it as the banner beneath which his troops will march.

So that's been our week. Today is the start of the Dormition Fast for us, the two week fast before the Feast of the Dormition, the day that the Theotokos fell asleep in the Lord. Within that fast is the Feast of the Transfiguration, the day celebrating Christ's transforming on Mount Tabor. As a symbol of this 'first glimpse' of the fruits of the Resurrection we bless fruit on Transfiguration, so we're going to try to head down to Stacia's favorite "you-pick" fruit place and get some good stuff for the day. Hopefully you'll get to see that too!

But until next week, for now, g'night!

Told ya' that's where he gets it. 

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She's Late...

Yep, this blog post is late. Sorry folks. You did know that's what I was talking about, right?

I have an excuse! I was feeling under the weather yesterday, either a cold or allergies. I've also been dealing with insomnia for the past week. Hooray for getting to sleep around 4:00am and trying to wake up before noon. That's an improvement though, since I was staying up all night and going zombie-like through the next day as well. We're also trying to stay on top of our housekeeping schedule as we start the latest step in trying to abolish all high-fructose corn syrup, soy, and overly-processed food we can from our diet. Today that meant making homemade mayonnaise, which was very easy, amazingly delicious, and now sitting in our fridge.

We're worried he's not getting enough to eat.

 So it's been a fairly busy week. Well, not busy but full of barriers to blogging. I also lost my measurements for the tux I needed to rent and so had to go get re-measured but got that squared away today.

Tomorrow I'm making sauerkraut!

German babies love sauerkraut.

It's funny what you find out when you don't sleep. For example, you'll die if you go 10 days without sleep, also there's a movie out about Nazis who escaped to the moon after WWII and are coming back to invade a world where Sarah Palin is president. Iron Sky. Sort of meh, parts of it are awesome. Almost a cult classic. Almost.

Some people have no problem sleeping. 

Stacia says her week has been full of the joys of dishes and her favorite web comic. If I were to guess, based upon what she says to me over dinner and what she mumbles in her sleep, she's working on convincing me that the ideal number of children is 20, sooner is better than later, and we also should keep chickens in our backyard.

I know, it's ridiculous. Anyone who's seen the size of our backyard knows you can't keep 20 children back there.

Though Athanasius seems to like the idea of chickens.

I've just been informed that the uber-Geek show "The Guild" has been removed from Netflix. I'm going to have to go deal with this new information now. Next week's post should be as on time as Dudley to dinner, I promise.

Barring more insomnia.

Good night!

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