Molly Piper

I found this on the table this morning.

This past weekend we took the family to central Wisconsin for a few days away. Now that we have a school-aged kiddo, our time away has to coincide with fall breaks and such–still getting used to that.

We left Wednesday night and I drove while everybody slept. I typically do the lion’s share of driving on road trips. I don’t mind it, I can stay awake pretty well, and then I don’t have to be the one turning around every 10 seconds to hand something to a kid in the seat behind me.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, which was just what we needed. No internet connection, friends. NO INTERNET CONNECTION! (Which I believe is directly responsible for us getting 9+ hours of sleep every night. Glorious!!!)

I found out that Orison’s a kid after my own heart, a true lover of Little House on the Prairie DVDs (which Morrow calls “House on the Fairy”). We watched a good bit of Season 1 together.

Funny about my love for Little House… I thought it was horribly boring as a kid and never watched it. But then after I was married and had Orison, Abraham went back to school full-time (and was working full-time). Needless to say, I had a lot of alone time that year and a half.

Since it was in the days of yore (pre-Netflix and streaming video, dontcha know), I had to busy myself at night with these things called DVDs. A friend of mine owned all the seasons of Little House and convinced me to take the first set.

I had no intention of liking it, but then how can you not shed a tear when the man who can’t speak makes a bell for the church with the help of all the children of Walnut Grove? Or when Pa makes a prosthesis for the girl with the limp? How does that not get you right.there????

Anyway, just thought I’d confess publicly that I’m a Little House junkie. And I’ve turned one of my sons into one, too.

(He’s kind of a sensitive kid, but I have to say both Abraham and I were a little shocked when he started openly weeping and lamenting during Stuart Little when Stuart decided to leave. He also laughed the hardest I’ve ever heard him laugh during the final wrestling scene of Nacho Libre.)

In other news…

-The twins went on their first hayride at the local pumpkin fest thingy.

-We played a lot in the yard because the weather was sublime.

-The kids went crazy in the open cinder block basement at night.

-And did I mention that I slept 9 hours each night?!?!

It was a super good weekend. Hope you all had a good one, too!

Remember a looooong time ago when I posted a tutorial on how to use Google Reader? (Actually, why would you remember that? Dumb question.) Anyway, I posted about it a long time ago and you can read it if you want.

I still use Google Reader for subscribing to blogs, but just recently discovered something nifty about it!

I was scrolling through my “All Items” view, and Abraham pipes up, “Hey, did you know if you hit “J” it’ll take you down to the next post?”

I tried it, and wow are my scrolling fingers ever-so-glad I did!

Of course you’ll still scroll through a post you actually want to read but if you see the title and it doesn’t interest you???

Just “J” it on your keyboard and you’re onto the next!

[flickr photo via photosteve101]

And I’ll throw in one bonus tip for you, just because I like you:

If you accidentally pass one up and go, “Doh! I actually wanted to see that one!”, no worries! Just “K” it on the keyboard and you’ll go back to the previous entry in your feed!

Cool, huh?

Do you have any Google hacks I/we should know about? Do tell!

A friend tweeted about this SNL skit and so I watched it. It has Melissa McCarthy in it. ‘Nuf said.

Recently  I had the distinct pleasure of meeting my online friend Marla Taviano!

Marla was in town for a speaking engagement and found a few minutes to stop over at my house and chat! It was a blast. I’m sooo glad it worked out for her to come!

We sat in the gorgeous fall afternoon and talked blogging, speaking, life, schooling… like old/new friends.

Then all too soon, it was time to go. Which of course means “Get a picture! We have to take a picture!”

Then we started talking about how funny it is to meet people in real life from the internet and how they always surprise you in some way or another–height, voice, accent, hair (aHEM… Shaun Groves). It was at this exact moment that I turned to her and said,

“Yeah, I knew you’d be tall. How big are you?”

Then *SNAP!* goes the camera.

Thankfully we had a good laugh about it. Marla has a sense of humor (thank GOD!) and didn’t get offended by my blunder. I guess I’m so used to talking to toddlers that I forgot I was talking to an adult!

The internet has made the world so small in some ways. Personally, I’ve had good experiences meeting people from the internet, which was such a scary no-no thing 10 years ago.

I’ll never forget hearing about what BooMama said right before the Compassion Bloggers reunion last December.

(And you have to conjure up your best deep-South accent)

Well, y’all…time to go meet up with a bunch of people we met on the internet…”

Have you met up with online friends in real life (IRL, if you will)? Does it still weird you out?

I haven’t done a “Blogs I Read” post in a really long time. Time to change that!

I’ve been telling my friend Jill that I want to link to her blog for ages now! I’m just waaaay behind on all my blogging goals, so here it is at long last.

If you like children’s literature (or your kids do), you should check out Orange Marmalade.

(Jill is the third from the left. Aren’t they a great-looking crew, by the way?)

Why you should check out Orange Marmalade:

• Jill’s really smart about lots of things, including children’s literature.
• Jill has had a faithful career as a home school mom to those four kids, and they did lots of reading together.
• She showcases a wide variety of books for kids, most of which I would’ve never heard of without her!
• She offers suggestions for poetry, nonfiction, holidays, etc.
• She writes thoughtful posts about plot and why she likes the book.
• She usually includes what age she’d recommend the book for.

So hop on over and check out her literature selections for kids. I think you’ll be really happy you did.

I’ve heard about a million theories about how to avoid crying while chopping onions. Unless you’re like my mother, who doesn’t cry when she chops onions (I didn’t know that was even possible), you’re looking for something that actually works.

Perhaps you’ve found something already, but personally I don’t want to have to hunt down my goggles every time I need to chop an onion. Or one of these:

I want little effort, lots of payout.

I’ve been browsing articles about why onions make us cry, and it’s a about some crazy acidic compound in the onion being released into the air and irritating the lacrimal glands (the ones that produce tears). “Very scientific, Molly…”

So what you’ve been waiting for… (the imaginary voices ask me all kinds of questions that I feel obliged to answer publicly)

“How do you do it, Molly?”

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you…The Molly Piper Onion-Chopping Method!!!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• lungs
• a mouth

As soon as you’re gonna cut that bugger, start breathing deeply in and out through the mouth ONLY. Focus on mouth breathing for the entire time you’re cutting and working with the onion. Rinse your knife, cutting board, etc. as soon as you can and you should be good.

(Note: this may be one of the few times in life that being a “mouth breather” is acceptable.)

Also, I use my Pampered Chef Food Chopper pretty religiously when I chop onions, just because it’s faster. I quarter them and chop the heck out of them! (That might be my favorite Pampered Chef item of all time, but that’s probably another post.)

If you deviate back to nose breathing, you’ll start crying. Just get back on track with the mouth breathing and the crying should subside. This has been my method of choice for years now, so I hope it works for you too!

Do you have an onion-cutting tip to share? Let’s hear it!

This morning when I was taking Orison to school, Morrow was hanging out with our nanny. He told her, “I hear the ferlickity truck!”

Any guesses?

After a few more questions, she deciphered that he was saying recycling truck!

Later in the morning he was telling her about a movie and kept talking about the “Colosorus.” [kuh-LAH-suh-rus]

He was talking about a rhinoceros! Cute!

He also says “Tamorine” for submarine. And he has “tamorines” on his Pull-Ups (which he’s still using. Because he’s still not fully trained).

All of these things are too cute for even this Speech Language Pathologist to correct, except maybe that potty thing (still working on it-ARGH!)!

Also, if you know me in person (IRL if you will), you know I’m a word-clipper. My BFF Danielle and I have been like this since college. It’s a mother’s pure joy to know her children are following her example.

Morrow’s been known to use “fave” for favorite and “Sars!” for sorry.

Be still my heart. This kid is too much. I think I might cry tears of joy the first time he uses “adorbs!”

[photo via]

I broke one of my cardinal rules, friends. You know, the ones that you yell at all your other family members for breaking? And then, one day…you do it?

Okay, here it is:

I opened a 2nd gallon of milk when there was already another open.

[GASP!!!]

This is a serious infraction. Serious.

My OCD can hardly handle this.

What are your household cardinal rules? Ever broken one yourself?

I think it’s good to have rules. I also think it’s good for me to break my own rules sometimes, because then it destroys that I’m-so-awesome-at-following-rules pride thing that I can so easily go to (have you picked up that I’m a “good girl”?)

It seems like often when I’m about to RAGE with anger at someone in my family about SOMETHING they did that they SHOULDN’T do (leave a wet towel on the floor, open 2 milks, leave dirty clothes lying around) I’ll find a pair of my dirty underwear on the floor within minutes. Minutes.

Welp, that’s a pride-buster.

I’m not saying that happens every time and I’m always super patient and gentle with other people when they don’t follow my rules, I’m just thankful for the times I do have some victories from God to give grace to the people I love most.