Staycation 2011

This year, in lieu of a traditional family vacation, we opted for a 'staycation'. We did the math and reasoned that a seven-day-long plan of staying in the area and visiting local places would be about 50% less expensive than just two days at a vacation destination. So we opted to stay home, sleep in our own bed, and not have to pack any luggage.

And so, I bring you, the 2011 Knapp Family Staycation: 

Day One: San Francisco

This was actually our first trip to San Francisco in five years, and the first time with kids. Our previous trip was a really bad experience, so we never wanted to go back. It was only because friends urged us to try it out again that we finally relented and decided to give SF another try. We're glad we did because we all had a lot of fun. 

Taking the early morning Baby Bullet train to San Francisco. The kids were thrilled to be on the top deck. We were thrilled that the trip only took one hour since it only made about five stops along the way.

Watching and waiting for Muni. Riding public transit was half the fun of our trip. During our visit to San Francisco, we rode a high speed train, a light rail train, a bus, a streetcar and a cable car, and the kids were thrilled with each ride.

Exploring a boat on Hyde Street Pier.

Concrete slides of Golden Gate Park. Quite possibly the longest and fastest slide our kids will ever ride.

Day 2: Gilroy Gardens

Mark took the boys to Gilroy Gardens in the afternoon while I stayed home and had some time to myself. I used the time to clean, catch up on laundry, nap, and read. 

Look at how fun things can be when Daddy takes kids to Gilroy Gardens!

Riding a worm orbiting an apple core.

Dinner with Daddy at a local Mexican restaurant. From what I hear, the kids absolutely loved this place.

Day 3: San Francisco again
We enjoyed the first day so much and only got to do a fraction of the things we wanted, so we came back for a second day.

We took a boat tour of the bay and went underneath the Golden Gate bridge. The kids were really excited to see the bridge the first day we came to San Francisco, but it was so foggy that we couldn't see it at all. They were pretty bummed about that. So they were excited to go close to it and underneath it on the boat.

Tommy has been asking to go to the beach for a few months now. We found this little beach area right by Ghirardelli Square and the boys had a lot of fun playing in the water. There was a man nearby making a sand sculpture of a mermaid, so the boys were inspired to make their own sand castle sculptures.  

Playing with sand at the Exploratorium. This was an amazing place for kids to play and learn. It's a little too old for our kids' ages, but I can see ourselves making many visits here in a few years when they can understand the exhibits a little better.

Blowing bubbles at the Exploratorium.

Waiting for a bus.

Taking a late train home from SF. We tried to be on the 6:30pm train home, which would put us at our house by 8:00pm, but we missed it by an hour. So we ended up pulling into to the station at San Jose at 9:00pm. Tired kids and tired parents (and I'm sure tired commuters) were very thankful for the peace afforded by the tiny edition of Cars on my iPhone.

Day 4: Gilroy Gardens again

For our second trip to Gilroy Gardens, we took two of our nieces. The kids had a ton of fun together, and we learned that taking four kids to a park isn't much different than taking two.

Day Five: Monterey

We went down 17-Mile Drive because it has several diverse beaches, all within a few miles of each other. There are sandy quiet beaches, rocky cliffs with loud crashing waves, and everything in between. The boys loved exploring each beach, playing in the sand, climbing over rocks, and exploring tide pools.

The seagulls were fearless and aggressive. They actually stole food right out of Benji's hand while we were sitting at a table eating our lunch. And I'm sure doing things like this (feeding them out of our hands) aren't helping!

Exploring tide pools. Tommy was afraid this crab was going to hurt Mark and wanted him to put it back in the water as soon as possible.

A trip to the beach isn't complete without burying kids in the sand.

Click here to see the full photo album of our Staycation 2011 adventures.

7th Anniversary

Happy 7th anniversary to my love and my best friend! 

Photo by Benji

Gilroy Gardens

Our family took our first trip to Gilroy Gardens this weekend! 

Getting a pre-roller coaster pep talk.

Obviously still not too happy with roller coasters. 

Furrowed brows...trying to figure out how the race cars work.

Spinning fun. Mark and I were sick just watching them.

Ben at 3½

You're three-and-a-half, but you say that you're four when people ask you how old you are. You insist that you answer this way because that's what size clothes you wear, but really it's because you're always trying to find a loophole so that you can be the same age as Tommy. The other day on the playground, a few people asked you how old you are and you said, 'size four!', and of course, they thought you meant that you're four years old. You didn't bother correcting them.


You're a fun-loving little guy and you're usually happy and cheerful. You're still just as physical as ever, and you often get along well with other kids who like to be physical, even if they're one or two years older than you. You're still adventures on the playground, as evidenced in this video, which is just a small glimpse at your skill as a monkey:

Books: You're not really into books, but you'll sit and listen when it's time to read a book. You're enjoying Daddy's reading of The House at Pooh Corner and A Cricket in Times Square.


Food: Peanut butter and honey sandwiches remain your favorite food.


Shows: Since the television hasn't been on in months, (except for a rare occasion when other kids are over and we put on a movie at night), I'm probably going to retire this category, at least for summer time. Ever the warm weather came, I decided to keep the TV off so you kids could find creative ways to spend your time and not keep begging me to watch a show. It worked, and you haven't asked me to watch a show in quite awhile.


Toys: Tools, anything that can be made into a tool. Drums, and anything that can be made into a drum. Tinkertoys frequently become hammers or percussion instruments. But mostly, you play outside and find things to do and games to play with your brother. You really love Tommy and much prefer to do whatever he's doing.

Activities & Skills: You're able to ride your bike completely on your own now, and you don't need us to help you push off. You love to sing. Frequently throughout the day, you'll find a few sticks (see Tinkertoys, above) to bang together and will parade through the house singing praise songs. You can only remember a few words of most praise songs, and then usually inaccurately, so your songs end up sounding something like this, "Nothing our God can do!.....Nothing our God can do!....Nothing that we do!..." (The real song goes, "My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do!")


Behavior: You used to be incredibly stubborn, especially when it came to obeying a simple instruction like, "Clean up your blocks." You seem to have left most of your stubbornness behind in your second year. 


These days the behavior issues we have with you are more about the heart. For instance, a little while ago we had a situation where a boy hit you with a stick. He was disciplined by his parent and then he apologized to you, but you refused to forgive him. After praying about it together and talking about it, and then praying and talking some more, you eventually forgave him happily. But getting to that point was a lot more work than I was expecting! 


New things: You recently started pronouncing your "L" sounds correctly and clearly. It's sad in a way, because it means no more hearing the words "bwankie", "wuv", or "pwaybround".


Other stuff: You don't like to do work. If I ask you to put to do what you think is too much work around the house, you'll whine and say, "But my aaaarms don't wooooork!" or "I don't know hoooooow!" We're working on this. You also don't like to walk long distances, but you've gotten a lot better about this in the past few months.


You like to help in the kitchen and you're getting really good at cutting fruit and vegetables with a butter knife. Often I'll give you a pile of carrots or zucchini to cut and you slice everything up for me. You're also learning how to make scrambled eggs.

You really love people. One day you told me, "Mommy, I like to say hi to people because I love them." I believe you! You always say hi to people wherever we are, whether it's a really strange-looking man on the sidewalk downtown or an employee stocking shelves at Target. You're friendly to everyone and ask them about themselves. I have a feeling you're going to be a compassionate and friendly man when you grow up.


You insist on looking at books upside down. You know the right way to look at books, but you like them upside done for some reason. Whenever I fix it for you, you turn it back the way you had it.


I'm looking forward to your 4th birthday, because you'll finally be four and then I can finally stop lecturing you on the importance of telling the truth. Unless, of course, you start insisting that you're five, since you were already four. 

Garden

My garden is exploding. Well, most of it. Some things like my strawberries, zucchini, and bell peppers have gotten a slow start I think because we've had unusually cool weather this year. But everything else is thriving and giving us lots of things to eat. It's been amazing to watch it grow so quickly. Some days we don't get out to the garden to look at it, but when we finally do it surprising how much it's grown in just a few days.

Left to right: Onions/shallots/leeks, chard, strawberries, zucchini, bell peppers and broccoli. Along the back fence is spinach and snap peas.

Here's our broccoli in all its glory.

My favorite thing in our garden: leeks. I started them from seed back in February and transplanted the seedlings in the garden in April. They looked really pathetic and I didn't expect them to grow at all, especially because we had a lot of rain right after I planted them and it looked like they got washed out. But to my surprise a few months later, I had leeks growing! It brings me joy every time I go check on them to see them growing strong.

This is what I'm doing with the plethora of carrots, chard, and spinach we're getting: washing, cutting, and freezing. We have a chest freezer which is almost full of bounty we've been collecting and freezing from farmer's market, our garden, and family's garden. I had originally had dreams of learning to can and preserve, but after reading about it (and other's experience) I decided it's too much work for me right now. So instead, I'm saving everything in the freezer to be used for soups and smoothies later. It's going to be a yummy winter.

June In Our Family

I haven't updated our blog much because, well, there's not much going on with us. We've been mellow around here. So mellow that I haven't bothered to pick up my camera to document how laid back we've been. If I do take a snapshot, it's with my cell phone because it happens to be the closest thing to me. 

Our days have flowed into each other so that there are some mornings that I wake up and it takes me a few minutes to remember which day it is. And that's a good thing. Because it means that we don't have anywhere to be (most days) and we don't have anything we need to do beyond the basics of living.


I still wake up early to run and to spend time with God, but after the boys wake up our usual morning routine has dissolved into whatever we feel like doing. If it's a warm sunny morning, the boys might feel like playing in the sandbox, even though it's only 7am and they haven't had breakfast yet. Most days, we have breakfast and then the boys head outside for the rest of the morning. It's amazing what kinds of things they find to do when we don't have anywhere to go all day. 


So, pardon the picture quality, but do enjoy a sampling of our little adventures from the past month.

Tommy and Ben all geared up for a 'venture, as they call it. They packed up their little backpacks with random toys from around the house, grabbed their sunglasses and hopped on their bikes to go see what the great big world had to offer (in our back yard). They came home about 15 minutes later complaining they were huuungry and asking when it was time for peanut butter sandwiches.

Our first family s'mores night of the summer. We put the boys to bed at the normal bedtime of 7:30pm, then got them up an hour later for a surprise marshmallow cookout in our backyard. After stuffing them with s'mores, we laid on the grass and stargazed for awhile, until it was the parents' bedtime. Then we all went to bed.

The boys asked permission to use some of Mark's tools, nails, and scrap wood (don't worry, they know how to use tools properly!) We found them attempting to construct Noah's Ark on our back patio. This kept them busy for over an hour. 

We celebrated Father's Day and Grandma's birthday with an egg and balloon toss at the park. Amazingly, no kids got egg on them, though the eggs didn't last very long. It was certainly entertaining to watch a bunch of preschoolers try to toss eggs back and forth to each other.

One Saturday we had a trip to Monterey to go to the aquarium. We had lunch on the wharf and got the kids a treat at the candy store. Almost a month later, they still speak with awe about the giant lollipop they saw in the window (Benji got a much smaller version and Tommy got cotton candy).

The boys resting on the couch together with a snack. I think Ben is trying to balance Cheerios on Tommy's head.

Painting a mural. This is the best kind of art project: give 'em a huge piece of paper, three colors of paint, some brushes, and let 'em have at it. They even cleaned themselves up afterward.

My adventure: I finally realized my dream of finding a recipe for bread that is quick, easy, and yummy! (Hey, I like to dream big). Next on my list is to try the healthy version of the recipe which uses whole wheat flour instead of white. I'm just waiting for a key ingredient to arrive in the mail and then all my bread dreams will come true.

Tommy being goofy at the big shoes outside the Children's Discovery Museum. We went there with some friends, and unsurprisingly, I think the kids had the most fun outside the museum, exploring the park and discovering a nearby creek.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to an awesome husband and father. You are an awesome role model to our boys of what it means to be a man who loves his family and works hard for them. I pray that they follow your example when they grow up and create families of their own.

Summer Time

After spending most of the spring in long pants and jackets, summer time is finally here! 

It's time to jury-rig our kiddie pool and water slide together to make a backyard splash park.

Time to slather the boys in sunscreen and kick them outside at 8am to make their own fun.

Time to make homemade popsicles out of orange juice.

Time to drape soaked swim trunks and beach towels on deck railings.


Time to fire up the fire-pit and stay up past bedtime making s'mores with kids.

Time to stay home all day with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Time to sit on the deck swing in the dusk with my honey and talk about the day's events.


Time to have our family meals on the back deck.

I think summer is my new favorite season.

Chickens

Because nothing compares with the electric-yellow yolk of a home-grown egg.

Because pastured, organic eggs can't be bought at the grocery store.

Because fresh eggs from pastured chickens is about 7 times healthier than store-bought eggs.

Because it puts us one step closer to sustainable living.

And because a friend had a rooster they were looking to get rid of...

We're getting chickens!

Starting to build the coop. Mark tells me this is called "framing". 

Benji "helping" build.

Almost complete...

Boys helping to paint. They actually painted all the red seen in this photo. They were awesome helpers. I just had to touch up a few spots they missed afterwards.

Here's a conversation I overheard while the boys were painting:
Ben: "Tommy, I'm done."

Tommy: "I don't think you're done. I think you're just tired of painting."

Ben: "Yeah, I'm tired of painting."

Tommy: "Well, I'm tired too, but I'm still doing it. You just need to do it!"

Completed!

Tommy bonding with one of our baby chicks, currently being raised by Mark's mom.

Chicken secrets.

Stay tuned to find out what's next on the Knapp Farm!

Goatville, Population Two

Ever since we moved on to this property a year ago, we've been thinking about how we can best make use of our back acre of land. Our long-term dream is to be as self-sustaining as we can stand, and to use many of the ideas from The Backyard Homestead by having a garden, an orchard, and varoius livestock. So far we're doing well in the produce category. However, since I never had so ouch as a hamster as a child, I was nervous about venturing into the area of living things. But this week we finally took the plunge and got some goats! Meet our girls Daisy and Swingtail (or Swing for short), three month old Nubian/Oberhasli mixes.

These girls are the sweetest things. They were a bit skittish when we first brought them home, but now they run to us and follow us around like puppies and bleat at us mournfully when we walk away from their pen.

The pen that Mark built for the goats.

The goats' house, which Mark slapped together in a few hours using remnants from the compound. This is where the girls sleep at night to keep safe from predators.

"Swingtail", or "Swing" for short - Tommy's goat. He named her all by himself. The irony is that Swing's tail doesn't actually swing very much. Daisy is much more affectionate and even the slightest touch make sheer tail swish with excitement.

"Daisy", Benji's goat. She's a sweet girl who loves to nuzzle and play with us.

So far the goats' purpose is to be pets and to eat down some of our weeds. We're still deciding whether we want to milk them sometime in the future. Having a supply of fresh, raw goat's milk to make cheese and yogurt with sounds great, but milking a goat once or twice a day and figuring out what to do with a quart of milk a day sounds daunting at this point.

Infertility

"Mark and I are seeing a specialist for infertility."....That is one sentence I never thought I'd say. Infertility is one of those things that happens to other people, not to me. Especially because pregnancy has always come so easy to me. It took us only six months to conceive Tommy, three months for Ben, and zero months for Samuel since he was a surprise. How could infertility happen to someone like me? Well, apparently, it's not all that uncommon for someone like me to become infertile for seemingly no reason at all. It's so common, in fact, that there's a name for it: secondary infertility, which affects about 3 million Americans.


To give a brief history: two-and-a-half years ago we were four months pregnant with our third son when Mark got a vasectomy. We (foolishly) decided that three kids in two-and-a-half years was enough for us. Two weeks after his vasectomy, we lost our son. A few months later, God changed our minds and our hearts about children and gave us the desire for more children. We got Mark's vasectomy reversed and have been trying to conceive ever since. That was almost two years ago.


After trying the old fashioned way to conceive a child for about fifteen months, we finally sought the help of a specialist. We went through a battery of lab tests (both Mark and I) and ultrasounds (just me). After all the tests, the doctor didn't yet have a clear idea of what the problem was. So we tried a fertility drug (Clomid) for three months  to see if it would help move things along. It didn't. In fact, it didn't affect me much at all, besides giving me crazy mood swings one week out of every month. In addition to that other week that gives most women crazy mood swings. After all the tests and after seeing how my body reacted to Clomid, the doctor's best guess is that my ovaries are aging at a much quicker rate than my chronological age - they're behaving as if I'm 40, even though I'm only 28.


There have been a lot of different thoughts and feelings churning around in my head for these past eighteen months. To use a cliché, it's been a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Since the beginning, I've been struggling to be content with my two children and not want any more. I've prayed for a long time that if more children weren't in God's plan for our family, that He would take away that desire. By now I've realized that maybe this was not very realistic, and so I've settled for being content in waiting for God's plan to unfold, whatever it may be. Then over a period of six months God shifted my heart away from yearning to be pregnant - I still desired a larger family, but I would be happy with any child, adopted or biological. This was a huge milestone for me! 


And then, just when I adjusted to being content not to be pregnant, we started the process for Intra-Uterine Insemination (IUI) - a labor-intensive process to get me pregnant. Go figure. I was feeling confused and anxious about everything, to say the least. I was very close to deciding against doing IUI because the odds of success seemed so low and the risks and effort involved seemed so daunting. In a nutshell, the 'work' involves several blood tests to check hormone levels, daily drug injections, and driving 45-minutes each way for almost-daily ultrasounds for two weeks. It was the advice of a few more-mature ladies that convinced me the risks and the work involved were worth pursuing. Our first cycle of IUI takes place this week, and we'll see if it was successful in about two more weeks. We've decided to pursue IUI for only three months. 


The Lord has used this trial to teach me so much about how to deal with life when it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. These are some verses He has used with me:


"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
This verse doesn't say to give thanks only when things are going well. It says to give thanks in all circumstances. So the Lord has shown me what I can be thankful for in our infertility journey: having lots of help with the boys when we have to go in for our numerous doctor visits; Mark's amazing health insurance benefit that covers about 97% of all of our costs. Without his coverage, we wouldn't be able to afford even a single doctor visit, let alone the slew of ultrasounds, medication, tests, etc.; friends who have gone before me in this journey who have given counsel and comfort.


"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (Colossians 3:2)
I need to be reminded on a constant basis that adding more children to my family is not the defining thing of my life. The defining thing in my life is the fact that Jesus took the blame for my sins and now I can look forward spending eternity with Him. Whether or not I have more children is a small blip on the radar of eternity. 


"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." (Proverbs 3:5)
and
"...Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)
When hard decisions have to be made, it is very easy for me to feel overwhelmed and anxious about what the "right" choice is. But when the Lord helps me put my trust in His power to make His will known to me and His perfect plan unfold without my "help", I can let go and allow the His peace to fill my heart.


"Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." (Phillipians 4:8)
There have been plenty of times that I've driven home from a doctor appointment thinking things were hopeless and we'd never have any more kids. Now, this wasn't necessarily true based on the information I'd received. My thoughts just usually lead to the worst possible outcome if I don't keep them in check. Sometimes it's all I can do to just keep running the words, "...whatever is true..." through my head to keep my thoughts in line with the facts that are known. 


In the end, there are a few options of things that could happen:
1. The IUI could be successful and I could get pregnant sometime in the next three months.
2. The IUI could be unsuccessful and I could never have any more children.
3. The IUI could be unsuccessful and God may choose to open my womb and bless me with children at some later time.
4. At some point we could be blessed with the finances to afford adoption.


I can say that right now I could be content with any of these eventualities. Option #2 would be the hardest to deal with, but God will give me the grace to accept His plan. Whatever happens will be within God's sovereignty and will be part of his good and perfect plan for my life. 

One final scripture that has given me comfort, from Habakkuk 3:17-19:


Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
he makes me tread on my high places
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;

Born to Run?

For the last six months, I've been doing a program called C25K, which stands for "Couch to 5K". It's a training schedule that helps non-runners complete a 5K (3.1 miles) in nine weeks. Beginning a few weeks before Christmas, I've been waking up at 5:15 AM, three times a week, to run on my treadmill. However, I've been stuck in the third week of the program for a very long time, unable to run more than three minutes. And my weight hasn't budged downward as I expected. Overall it's been a very dull and sometimes frustrating experience.


The change all started when I walked past a copy of Born to Run at the library. I'm one of those people who can't just walk briskly to my destination when I'm in a library or bookstore (or anywhere that has shelves full of books). I walk slowly and my eyes linger over the titles and  inevitably I find myself snagged by an interesting book. Born to Run is a book that I've heard lots of praise for from friends, even friends who don't care at all about running. I had heard that it's a great story and a real page turner. So I dropped it in my bag and moved on.

Born to Run was written by a journalist who wanted to answer a simple question: Why does my foot hurt when I run? Eighty percent of runners will incur some foot and/or leg injury every year. In short, what he found out was that people weren't meant to run in running shoes. He found a tribe of Native Americans living deep in Copper Canyons of Mexico called the Tarahumara- you've heard of these people: they're the ones that live high up in caves in the side of tall cliffs, accessible only by hanging ladders, and we Westerners can't imagine how they train their kids to stay away from the edge of the cliff. The Tarahumara can run amazing distances (100+ miles) without getting tired. Even their elderly still run distances most people in America wouldn't think of walking on a good day. And the kicker is, they have zero incidents of running-related foot or leg injuries. 


The author discovered that we were designed (he says by evolution, I say by God) to run in our bare feet. When we do, our body receives information from the amazing array of nerves in our feet and knows exactly how to align itself so we don't get injured. Put a cushy running shoe over our feet, and all those nerves are covered up and our body moves in such a way that it ends up injuring itself. We come down hard on our heel, which does long term damage to our legs and feet. Bottom line: Nikes, bad; bare feet, good.


I thought this was all very interesting when I first started the book. My only connection to running was my three-times a week early morning session on the treadmill, where I wheezed my way through a series of ninety second and three-minute runs. Though Born to Run was an engaging story, I didn't see much of a connection to my life.


It wasn't until I finally closed the book that I was inspired to make some changes in my exercise. I decided to ditch my pre-dawn treadmill date and instead go running through our beautiful neighborhood vineyard in the afternoon. I also got myself a pair of Vibram FiveFinger shoes, which would allow me to try out barefoot running.

I have to admit that I tried really hard not to get these because, well, they look plain weird. I looked into other minimalist running shoes (those that have a very thin sole), but the more I read, the more I learned that even those aren't flat enough to get the benefits of being barefoot. And so I decided to throw fashion discernment to the wind and get my feet into these. We took a family trip to our local REI and got outfitted.


The first time I ran in these shoes was an amazing experience. Instead of wheezing my way through three minutes of running, I breezed through four minutes, walked for a few seconds to catch my breath, then breezed through another four minutes. A few days later, I'm breezing through five-minute runs. I've only ran in the shoes four times so far, but each time I do, it amazes me that I barely get winded. 


I'm happy to say that I really enjoy running now. I actually look forward to my runs, instead of dreading them. It may seem unbelievable that one pair of shoes that mimic the barefoot experience can change so much. Check out the book, and you won't regret it.


Here is an article that has most of the books best information in one place:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1170253/The-painful-truth-trainers-Are-expensive-running-shoes-waste-money.html