Forest of the Plains

On Sunday Jacob rolled from front to back for the first time by himself. He looked rather surprised! (No repeat performances since.)

Yesterday morning Jacob woke up with a bit of a tooth sticking out of his gum. There are three more teeth that aren't far behind. We almost forgot to brush that bit of tooth before bed, but luckily we remembered!

Saturday will bring Jacob's first taste of vegetables. Will it be peas or green beans?

What a big week!

About a month ago the windchill was below 0 and I was looking for something to bake that could be taken to another family. I stumbled upon this recipe and thought it sounded decent. Was it more than decent! I always make notations beside each recipe as I try them, and beside this one is written "rather addictive when warm". The recipe notes that these bars freeze well. I suppose they might, but there won't be any left to freeze if your willpower is like mine!

From Simply In Season

Winter Squash Bars

Beat together in bowl:
2 cups winter squash or pumpkin (cooked & pureed)
1.5 cups sugar
.75 c oil
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
.5 tsp salt

Mix in:
1 c flour
1 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

Pour into lightly greased 11x17-inch jelly roll pan. bake in preheated oven at 350F for 25-30 minutes. Yields 24 bars (or 4 servings if you opted to bake this instead of making dinner. After all, it has whole wheat flour and pumpkin - it's very healthy!)

The one day when it's okay for everyone to be wearing the same color!



It's difficult to see in the picture, but Jacob's shirt says "Baby's First St. Patrick's Day 2007" and has a shamrock on it. You can see more cute pictures of Jacob here.

Our local high school's boys basketball team is in the state tournament and won their first game last night. You can read all the exciting details here. Go Bluebirds!

This afternoon the Purdue men's basketball team is playing in the Big Ten tournament. Let's hope they manage to win. Or at least play decently. Boiler Up!

I’m going through Jacob’s toys today and boxing them up according to their recommended age.
Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to give a child toys before the recommended age. It’s very amazing to see how accurate those recommended ages are. For example, Jacob has a pop-up toy that is rated for 9-month-olds. While he can almost operate it himself, it will be much easier to play with when he can sit up and he is scared of the noise when popping up occurs. There have been several toys that he’s ignored and then is suddenly interested in, and that interest happens right around the recommended age. So we have to think about both his cognitive development as well as his emotional development when choosing toys.

I had forgotten just how many stuffed animals Jacob received when he was born. He has 6 teddy bears, 2 penguins, 1 monkey, and 1 chick. He also has a crocheted bunny. Of these, he can safely play with two of the teddy bears. The rest will have to wait until he’s three because of choking hazards. (I admit I bought one of the unsafe penguins for him!) I had thought the crocheted bunny would be okay, but he’s managed to gum through the yarn and I’ve had to pick it out of his mouth. Oops!

Anyway, back to the teddy bears. Almost all of them came with a note saying, “Every little boy should have a teddy bear.” I’m wondering if this is because boys stereotypically shouldn’t have dolls and the bear is a good “masculine” replacement? Does anyone in blogland know a real reason? I’m very curious!

Sometimes my cell phone works perfectly at home. I can walk throughout the house and talk without worry. Other times it drops calls like they are hot potatoes. Better yet, sometimes it won't even ring when I get a call and hours later it will beep that a message was left.

At least our land line and answering maching always work.

I remember the good old days when we lived in an area that was well-covered by all the major cell phone carriers. Never a lost call then AND we were close to Indianapolis's largest mall. Ahh, the memories!

Since we are the only residents along our mile of road (except for some goats and coyotes), the post office requires that our mailbox be on the next road over. That means it is .8 mile from our porch to the mailbox.

We recently learned that Post Office Regulations do not allow our mail carrier to deliver packages to our porch because the porch is more than .5 miles from our mailbox. In order for us to receive a package mailed to our street address:
1. The mail carrier leaves an official form in our mailbox notifying us that there is a package.
2. We must drive to the post office that is 11.4 miles from our house.
3. We then present our official form to the desk clerk and receive our package.

We do have a Post Office Box in the town where John works, a different town than our local post office. It is much more convenient for us to get mail and packages at our PO Box. Dealing with the larger post office isn’t as easy.

So, this is my round-about and lazy way of asking people who mail us things to use the PO Box instead of the street address. Thanks!

I was shocked to see the top story at cnn.com this morning was about a charter bus carrying students from Bluffton University. Usually Mennonites don't make it into Top News. I don't personally know anyone from that bus, but I bet someone I know does. Spring Break will never be the same for these guys.