Yesterday Matt went on a little cooking spree and made homemade yogurt that he learned about from our friend Luke, beef jerky for his upcoming boundary waters trip, and homemade granola (also learned from Luke, from a terrific Mennonite cookbook called "More with Less"). Kristi made some yummy guacamole (she also made dinner, but that is not so exciting). Then today she made dhal, which is an indian lentil-like stew. It is delicious! Today Matt is drying apples and bananas in our dehydrator for his trip. We are not usually so crafty in the kitchen, but we do like to cook when we have the time! Recently we have been on a slippery slope of making things from scratch--hence the yogurt. Matt has always said he would never stoop that low to make his own yogurt because it's just incubating bacteria in milk, and that is gross. But when Luke told him about it, he just couldn't resist, and now we have a very wonderful dish of homemade yogurt in our fridge. If you want the recipe for breeding your own little family of lactobacillus acidophilus in your kitchen, let us know!
We recently signed up for something called "Freecycle." It is like an online classified service (sort of like Craigslist, for those of you who are familiar with that), but everything is totally FREE! Once you join the Freecycle group online in your area (either your city or county), then you can browse all the offers of free stuff people don't want or you can post wanted ads for things you want (though you are supposed to not go crazy with this--they say it is not a wish list). The stuff ranges from broken appliances (maybe someone wants a working part out of it?) to strawberry plants to baby stuff to anything and everything! We placed a "wanted" ad for a breadmaker because ours is on its last legs. And this morning we picked up our very own, only used one time, FREE breadmaker! What a great idea someone had. How many people (including yourselves!) do you think have perfectly good stuff lying around that they don't know what to do with? Somebody else wants it! Check out your very own area Freecycle group at http://www.freecycle.org/ and see what you can get rid of or find!
I suppose you are all looking for a picture or an update on Charlotte. I thought I would sneak in a little bit about the rest of our family and force you to read it before you got to the part you really wanted to read. :)
Charlotte is still our little toothless wonder. 10 and a half months old and still no teeth. Hopefully she gets some before middle school. Although I suppose it will save us money if we don't have to get her braces. She seems to do just fine eating whatever she wants without teeth. However, she does love toothbrushes, so we got her one last week. She is always intrigued with what we're doing when we brush, and she'll open her mouth if we pretend to brush her "teeth." Maybe she won't end up thinking brushing her teeth is torture when she's a toddler??? See below for a picture of her with her beloved gum brush (as daddy calls it).
Recently she rediscovered her bouncy seat. Remember that little jungle-themed chair she used to sit in as a tiny baby? Well now she likes to stand next to it and shake it vigorously to make it light up and play music. It's a fun game. No pictures of that today, sorry.
She's making lots and lots of noise these days. When she figures out how to say words she will probably never stop talking. She does a lot of making funny noises by sticking her tongue in and out while she is babbling. Often she will sit on the floor with a book and talk to herself--she looks like she is reading out loud (in some strange babbly tribal language we can't understand). Check out the video. The best part is right at the beginning.
Charlotte painted pictures for her grandmas for Mother's Day. Here is the artist at work.
Charlotte and her mama on Mother's Day
