the spinach

One of the things I hate the most is food going to waste. It is a twofold problem [which is so much worse, twice as bad if you will, than a one-fold problem]: Not only are you just throwing money away, but you're also throwing away good foods. It drives me bonkers. And yet, it is a problem I find myself dealing with entirely too often. Sigh. 

The two most common culprits are potatoes and leftovers. Potatoes often get overlooked because our place for storing potatoes is... not particularly intuitive. Leftovers get passed by until it's too late because, with seven people, having enough of a certain leftover to make a meal for everyone is tricky. Usually a one person amount is left and then... forgotten. 

The classic "bought it and forgot it" item, however, is probably produce. Since produce is so expensive I really try to not let those lovely things go to waste. It still happens sometimes though, and that is when I get the most bothered and feel the most ashamed [which sounds silly, but humans are silly]. 

So, onto the spinach. 

I found a beautiful thing of spinach at Costco. It was probably $5 or $6, nothing outrageous but still considered a little splurge-y since it's not a regular staple purchase. And what made it a little more excessive is that I would really be the only one who wanted it. I am not a spinach person, but I do like it in scrambled eggs and tossing it into soups and onto pizzas. The trick to it not going bad before you can get through it is to freeze it. As long as you don't want to use the spinach for salads [ew], freezing it works beautifully.

Now, the best thing to do is freeze it immediately upon getting it home. And the worst thing to do is tell yourself, "I'll freeze it a little later." Obviously, if I did the best thing, I would not be writing about it. So yes, I did the worst thing. Day after day passed of me reminding myself that I needed to freeze the spinach and day after day passed of me telling myself I'd do it a little bit later. Before I knew it, a week and a half had passed, maybe two weeks. I knew then that my window of opportunity had passed, but when I looked in the fridge, the spinach still looked good. It was a Christmas miracle.

Knowing I had been gifted a wonderful second chance, I got right down to the task of bagging the spinach for freezing. But as soon as I had grabbed a handful of the seemingly still fresh spinach, I knew I had been deceived. Yes, somehow the very outer layer of spinach (around the ENTIRE container) had not succumbed to the soggy, smelly, old spinach state, but every leaf hidden inside had. My disgust was great, but the disappointment and shame at my irresponsibility was greater. I woefully tossed the entire thing in the trash and hoped the smell of it would not attract attention. 

And this is where things get silly. 

I didn't tell Jason I had had to toss the spinach. Now, it's pretty normal for people to not go broadcasting all the shameful things they do to others, but it's very much not normal for me to not spew all the things to Jason at his earliest convenience, shameful or otherwise. So clearly I was feeling extra bad about this spinach fiasco, but I pushed it and the slight feeling of deception about it out of my mind and went on with my life. 

You'd think that would be the end of the matter. The trash was eventually taken out. The spinach was gone forever. There were fresh new foods in the fridge to use up before they spoiled. Life happily chugged along. The spinach was no longer a problem. 

Except for the nightmares. 

It absolutely sounds like a joke, but over the next week and a half I had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR separate dreams where the spinach made an appearance and I had to keep shamefully throwing it out and deliberately choosing over and over to not tell Jason about it. It was absolutely ridiculous. 

So, after realizing how crazy my brain was going to be about all of this and how, at least subconsciously, guilty I must be feeling about not telling Jason about it, I immediately told him all the things. He laughed at me. And the dreams stopped. 

Goodbye, spinach. You will not be missed.

1000

The blog has been woefully neglected. This post is not an indication that the neglect will come to an end. This post is merely an attempt to show my annoying All or Nothing mentality who's boss. Also, it is to celebrate one of the kids' accomplishments this year. Thus, somehow, the small humans are simultaneously the reason I have neglected the blog and also the reason I am un-neglecting it for today. Kids are really something.

Today, November 15, 2024, the kids finished logging their 1000th hour of being outside for the year. Technically, they didn't start tracking their time outside until sometime in February, so I suppose technically they hit their 1000th hour some time ago... But still. At 11:45 am this morning, they officially logged their 1000th hour. Over 1000 hours outside of sunshine basking, puddle splashing, stick fighting, leaf collecting, bug watching, hole digging, mountain climbing, trap making, picnicking, rope swinging, banshee-yelling, frisbee throwing, cloud watching, dirt stomping, book reading, rock washing, seed planting, weed pulling, ball bouncing, bike riding, pine needle raking, muddy water scooping, childhood memory making fun. 

Over 287 days, these kids averaged 3.5 hours outside every day. They went out in the snow, the rain, the humidity, and the mosquitoes. Their record day was July 18th when they were outside for 10.5 hours. They had 87 days with 5 hours or more outside. They only had 32 days with 0 hours outside. They spent 152 hours outside in August (side effect of gorgeous summer evenings) but only 51 hours in June (side effect of being home for only 3 days the whole month). And yes, we kept a spreadsheet for all the fun facts.

It has been a great year.

It sounds dramatic, but taking on the 1000 hours outside challenge this year has brought so many amazing changes to our family. It has introduced so much freedom and independence and peace to our daily rhythm. It has created noticeably stronger bonds of friendship between each and every one of the kids. While it has helped develop resiliency in one, it has taught patience and selflessness to another and increased self-confidence to yet another. It has brought all of us so much joy and contentment.

I am so proud of these kids. 

Well done, guys. You are fantastic and impressive human beings. I love you to the moon!

💙💙💙💙💜

how it happened with a girl

Apparently the new tradition is that I make the new baby post on the first birthday and combine it with the one-picture-from-each-week-for-the-first-year post. So, here is Aviyah's "how it happened" and first birthday post.

We didn't tell anyone we were having a girl. On the one hand, Vermettes were 16 boys to 1 girl for the last 4 generations (which is as far back as anyone remembers). So, most people would assume we were having a boy. On the other hand, it was the first one where we decided to keep it a secret, so some would assume that was *because* we finally had a girl. Never mind that we planned to keep it a secret before we knew it was a girl.

December 2022
Sharayah went to her anatomy scan ultrasound. We figured we were having a boy, but we decided to do a fun reveal for the kids anyway. Sharayah got some red grapes (for girl) and blueberries (for boy) and put eleven of them under eleven cups. There would be five of one and six of the other. The winner was the baby's gender. As the boys picked cups, I was a little disappointed that it looked like some of the suspense would be lost: we were mostly picking blueberries. I thought there were six blueberries, and it looked like through bad luck we were going to pick all six way before we picked the five red grapes. I thought it would have been more fun if we got to five and five and only then did we find the sixth blueberry.

However, we started to get lucky. After blueberry number five, we kept getting grapes. They just kept coming, and suddenly we were down to the last cup. I thought that was that. I was happy we got to keep it suspenseful for the boys, but I thought I knew the last one was a blueberry. I was completely shocked to see the red grape show up. I think I had to ask Sharayah several times if it was right, if we were really having a girl. Then, the difficult secret keeping began.

April 23, 2023
My parents came to town again to help with the kids during baby week. It was the Sunday before final exam week at work for me. I had once again lined up back-up proctors for all of my exams in case the baby came early. We were on our way to one last zoo day before we'd become homebodies for a while with a new baby. When we were almost there, poor Eli seemed droopy and sad. He hadn't eaten his bagel breakfast. He threw up all over himself in his car seat. It was so sad. We were so close to the zoo, and we didn't want to disappoint the big kids, so we decided to try to go anyway and see if he felt better. We bought him a zoo shirt (his backup clothes in the diaper bag were too small because we never remember to update them), put him in the stroller, and tried to make the best of it. He didn't perk up much, but he made it through ok.

Sadly, at home he threw up several more times. Any hopes that he had just been carsick or something were dashed. He was a sick baby, right as we were preparing to have another baby. A very tough day and night.

April 24, 2023
I had to go to work since the baby wasn't coming yet. Eli had a better day, but still threw up once. The other boys still seemed fine. We were holding on and hoping everyone could be healthy by birthday. Due date was 5 days away. Still a tough night with Eli. Then Lucas threw up overnight. It was spreading.

April 25, 2023
Never mind. The other three boys were now throwing up and various amounts of sad and droopy. So many buckets strategically placed around the couch where they sat all day. Thankfully, Eli seemed a little better and wasn't throwing up today. We had some hope that it was maybe only a 2 or 3 day thing, at least the throwing up part.

April 26, 2023
All the boys were varying amounts of lethargic all day. Eli still seemed so forlorn and weak. My parents had been keeping their distance just to be sure they wouldn't catch anything and be unable to help on baby day, but they came over today. Oh, yeah, maybe you forgot, but this is the baby post, not the sick kid post. The due date was the 29th, but overnight Sharayah had begun to feel early signs of labor (we also finished the pre-baby puzzle, which is usually a big sign of baby time). No contractions, but she thought it might be the day. I used that plus the boys all still being droopy as an excuse to stay home since I only had office hours (no exams).

Not much happened on the baby front all day. The boys sat around and we tried to keep them happy. That evening, some of the boys seemed to be perking up a little. But near (early) bedtime, poor Eli was just lying on the floor of the living room and had an explosive diaper disaster. He was so upset and was just lying there. It was a horrible end to a day. It was not the lead up to baby day that we wanted.

Everyone was exhausted, but of course babies come when they're ready. After feeling vaguely labor-ish all day, Sharayah finally started feeling regular contractions around 6. Since the boys were worn out and sick anyway, I started getting them put to bed. Our normal bedtime routine is over an hour of getting pajamas on, brushing about a hundred teeth, reading books, singing songs, hugging, and going to sleep. It's a big job and a team effort. We had sent my parents back to their hotel to eat and rest up in case we needed to call in the middle of the night. Sharayah's contractions out of nowhere were ramping up too much for her to help. I rushed to get all the kids quickly to bed. I had them down near 7 and found Sharayah in the late stages telling me her water broke at about 7 while I was putting them down. Contractions had picked up into imminent-baby range as soon as her water broke. She was filling the tub with water. I started trying to help her through contractions and grab random stuff in between.

Our midwife, Jessica, arrived at about 7:15. Between contractions, I was still frantically gathering towels and I forget what else. At 7:20, Sharayah started pushing. She is so good at the baby part. Aviyah's shoulder briefly got stuck and I was so thankful Jessica was there in time. Aviyah joined us at 7:24. I had barely had time to do any of the various things I had planned to do to get ready during early labor. It all happened so crazy fast. Sharayah had gotten her quick baby, home birth, and girl all at once. (I finally believed we really had a girl.) I texted my parents to let them know all was good and they could sleep peacefully and come back in the morning. Jessica did all the new-baby-checking and we settled in to hold and stare at our new perfect #5. All the awfulness of the week seemed not to matter anymore. She was a perfect baby.

I can't tell you how much we did or didn't sleep that night or for the next week, but I know that newborn time was amazing as always. Sharayah likes to say she was/is a perfect baby/the best baby. At risk of offending the others (we love them all equally), she is the easiest at a lot of baby things. She is a happy potato. She's so sweet and easy-going. She loves her people so much. It's been an amazing year seeing her grow and learn and love her brothers, and seeing them grow and love her. All the boys love being a big brother to a little sister. They all show their love for her in their own ways.

52 photos for 52 weeks

Dear Aviyah,
Happy both birthdays! You've been such an amazing baby. We love how sweet and joyful you are. Watching your glee at watching your brothers is the best. You help our house be so full of love. I never knew how much I needed a daughter, but I know I wouldn't be me if I wasn't your dad. You make me feel a whole other set of feelings I didn't know about. I love you desperately, and being dad to you and your awesome brothers gives my life so much joy.
Love,
Dad