How To Build A Soddy

We have made it to the homestead in my Westward Expansion class and to celebrate I built us a sod house. While it may not be as well made as a pioneer home, it probably tastes a whole lot yummier! I was thinking this would also be a great cake to celebrate Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday on February 7th.

Here's how you do it...

Step 1: bake one or two pans of brownies

Step 2: cut the brownies into "bricks"

Step 3: lay your foundation and stick them to your cookie sheet with a thin layer of chocolate frosting. Don't forget to leave a space for your door. Otherwise how will you get in?

Step 4: spread a layer of frosting on top of your foundation and build up your walls until they reach the desired height. Don't forget the frosting between each layer to help them stick and don't make them too tall or your walls will fall in on you while you sleep.

Step 5: now you will need to construct a roof from lightweight cardboard cut to the size of your soddy. A cereal or Noodle-Roni box works nicely.

Step 6: now cover the roof with a piece of foil (you don't know where your Noodle Roni has been)

Step 7: cover the entire roof with a thin layer of the chocolate frosting and then place carefully on top of your walls. It is very important to put the frosting on the roof before you put it on the house.

Step 8: every soddy has a grassy roof, after all it was made of grass. (that's why Laura's cow stepped through the roof) So mix up a bit of coconut and green food coloring in a bowl for your grass. Sprinkle the grass on the roof and around the sides of your soddy for a nice golf course quality lawn.

Now your soddy is complete! Cut it up and enjoy and be very grateful that you don't have to live in one!

Is It Summer Already?

Yesterday was one of those days that makes it acceptable to live in the NW. The high temp on this lovely Saturday was 82! Yes, you read that right, 82! We almost broke the record of 85 set back in 1943.

It would have been the perfect day to take our boat out on the river, but God gave us blue skies and sunny temperatures for our church work day. I had a list of things to do inside, but it was too perfect to be organizing past VBS curriculum or drilling broken pencils out of pew pencil holders.


So we worked outside instead. The church looks great and we got sunburned. But we have our base tan all ready for summer now and the church is all ready for a paint job.


I wish I had taken "before and after" pictures. You had to see it before to truly appreciate it.

getting rid of the last of the ivy to make room for the new fence

laying out weed block under the wheelchair ramp

we found this basketball buried in a shrub next to our sign. It had grown about 4 feet past the edge of the planter. (they wondered where that ball had disappeared to)

shoveling the last of the barkdust

our church sign (the shrub on the right is where we found the basketball. We had to use the chainsaw to trim them back to inside the planter)

Passover Seder

Last night was my 2nd Annual Growing Up Where Jesus Lived Passover Seder. We had almost 40 guests there to celebrate Passover (a little early) and enjoy kosher desserts with friends.

The evening starts off with a Jews for Jesus video called Christ in the Passover (I highly recommend it!). Then we all move downstairs for our seder. We don't do a whole meal, but instead eat dessert where the meal should be. The kids enjoy cleaning all the leaven from the "house" and searching for the aifikomen (a piece of matzah) for their prize. I am not sure they enjoy eating parsley dipped in water with the salt content of the Dead Sea or feeling that burning sensation in your sinuses after you've eaten kosher grated horseradish. But we had a lot of fun!

It is amazing to see once again how God was preparing His people for Jesus' coming in the celebration of Passover! If you ever get the chance to go to a seder or have one, you should.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the room all set up, but I was so busy I forgot. But here are a few I remember to take during dessert...

the head table

waiting in line for desserts

enjoying dessert

one of our guests even dressed for the occasion (he even remembered that Jews take their shoes off when going to the Temple or entering a house)

Next year in Jerusalem!

Fort Vancouver

Today we went to Fort Vancouver on a field trip for my Westward Expansion class. I hadn't been there since I was about 8, so it was like being there for the first time. The weather was very chilly and wet, but we had a good time. It's always good to be with friends.

Fort Vancouver was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company was was never a military post but a trading post. It was like the mega mall for all of the surrounding area and the end of the Oregon Trail for many years. None of the current buildings are original, because the fort burned in 1866.

It was a great lesson in local history!

inside the fort walls

the view from the tower

the fur storage room (it was full of bales of over 200 pounds each!)

inside the trade store

the blacksmith shop

carpenter's shop

inside the jail house (Will said this was his favorite part)

the infirmary

These are the rooms in the Chief Factor's House. It housed the managers' families at the fort, Dr John McLoughlin and his wife and Sir James Douglas and his family.

the gentlemen's mess, where the men ate

the McLoughlins' bedroom

a pictoral history of religion

the ladies' mess (the seperate room where the women ate)

the Douglas children's room (I love the fold up beds!)

the Douglas' bedroom

this sampler hung outside the bedroom (notice what the verse at the bottom says)
Cecillia was the youngest of the Douglas' 4 surviving children

a beautiful vanity in one of the bedrooms

the boys were fascinated by the well at the fort

the huge ovens in the fort's bakehouse

Challenge Night

Tonight was our Challenge Night for our co-op teams at Friday School. It was an opportunity for the kids to rack up points for their team. They had lots of activities from relays to acting our nursery rhymes to costume designing to worm slurping. It's amazing what you'll do for another 100 points. It was noisy but lots of fun, too.

Team Fox

ready to race

Inara and Riley are watching the show

ready for the blindfolded Skittle challenge

t.p. fashion show

This was Zack's favorite challenge...

Bag Lady

I'm not sure I want that to also be the title of my newspaper obituary when I die, but it is potentially becoming a reality. I'm sure the boys feel the same way about hearing "what do you think about this fabric for a lining?" as I do about "don't you think that Link is the sweetest character on Brawl?". We all just smile and nod because we love each other a whole lot!

The boys love Super Smash Brothers and I love making bags! I made 5 bags just this week! (you can see better pictures of them at our Etsy store in the next few days) And the boys are coming up on almost 120 brawls in only 4 days!


The denim bag is made of the boys' old jeans and is embellished with flowers my sister made. I added extra pockets to the outside of the messenger bag and made a second messenger bag for a friend. (I don't have a picture of it, but she picked out great fabric with the perfect button and it turned out really cute!) I am currently working on the perfect way to attach the larger binky bag to a belt as a special order for a friend of mine who wants it to carry her phone and her keys. I have one sitting on my shelf waiting for inspiration, which may have come from the ladies at Family Nite tonight. Thanks guys!

It is so much fun! I spend all kinds of time thinking about ways to change a pattern or make it better. I ponder what styles look best in what fabrics. But it's not like it's become an obession or anything. Ok, maybe I've let dinner get a little too done because I was wondering what button would look best with chartreuse houndstooth. But it's not a problem (yet). :o)

These are the stacks of fabric I have compiled so far that will soon become my new "favorite one so far".

So many ideas, so little time...

Ready To Rumble

After months of anticipation and daily (and I mean DAILY) visits to the on-line Dojo, Super Smash Brothers Brawl has finally arrived at the Leingang home. To say that the boys are excited is an extreme understatement! But I have to say that all the knowledge that they have accumulated has paid off. In only a couple of days, they have already unlocked new characters and classic Nintendo games.

It is not only fun but has proven to be the perfect bribe, I mean motivator, to get the boys to do all kinds of things. The last two mornings, everyone has been up and out of bed before 7am in order to play as soon as they get up! The most shoking part of this is that they even convinced me to play. :o) How could I not play the most popular game of the century???

playing with dad

playing with mom

Saturday morning brawl (note the time of 7:05 on the dvd player)