Backgammon and "local cookies"

Since we'll be together with some extended family soon, it seems worth offering some words of caution to anyone that might enjoy accepting an invitation to play a game with our littlest.  She likes to win.  A lot!  She doesn't like to lose. At all!  Depending on the time of day and her need for sleep, it can be a minor disturbance or the end of the world.  It works out well when she and Rover play together, as you can probably guess who wins.



Kali got this segment of a recent game recorded while they were spending several hours together Monday while Jason was busily getting the walnut for our bed oiled!  That leads me to another topic of much excitement - if we stay on schedule (a very modified schedule, since we were already about a month off schedule when he started on the bed), we will likely sleep on our new bed Saturday night!  New bed, old mattresses (for now anyway).  I'm taking some time off work around the holidays to boost our progress on both the bed and bathroom projects.  And so far we have been able to free Jason up to make good progress during the day and then enjoy family time and game playing in the evenings.  Last night while we played turkey feet, Jason and the girls plowed through 4 popcorn sampling rounds!  Tonight it's our newest culinary experiment: gingerbread rye cookies.

Ginger pre-harvest

Ginger post-harvest

I don't think I've ever made a batch of cookies where the bulk of the cookie was made with local ingredients.  For this family, that's pretty special.  It's 100% rye that we grew, eggs from our chickens, grated ginger uprooted today from the pot on our piano, and sorghum molasses from our neighbor next door.  There is nothing remotely local about the icing or sprinkles - but I was quite happy to use up 4 mini-containers of icing that have been in the freezer for months...

Well, our Turkey Feet rounds for tonight are over, so I just need to grind the wheat grass for our "shots" before bed.  Kali has even acquired a taste for it.  And we are all feeling pleasant after the game playing since Alida won the last round. I don't think anyone intentionally let her win, but it would be tempting when the last round falls after 9 p.m. because otherwise there are often some tears during the bedtime routine.  Last night they were calmed by telling a story - that of her Grandpa Myers and his days of not necessarily being the best sport (thanks Parcheesi Boy for the good diversion!)

In closing, here is this family getting silly this evening!  On a recent date night with Aunt Emily, the girls wrote with her a new version of a library book regarding underwear do's and don't's.  They did one about socks.  The girls had a lot of fun pretending to put their socks in the woodstove, in the silverware drawer, in the compost, on my ear, and on their elbows today.  Here we are all acting out "Do use a clean sock if you unexpectedly come across a banana you'd like to carry home!"