Category Archives: Housewifery

Week in the Life 2011, Tuesday

Tuesday

~We had a visitor this morning, the neighborhood cat that Galen has christened ‘Ginger Cat’.  Ginger Cat let Galen pet her for the first time ever, and quite a bit more.  They played and snuggled together outside for nearly half an hour.  They are very good friends now.  Not even Rosebud running out and squealing with wild excitement disturbed them.  After kitty had left, Màiri Rose decided that she should be called ‘Baby Cat’ instead and a heated argument ensued.

ginger cat

dew

~More cooking for the boys this morning.  This time the herbed almond bread that they make so often.  Màiri Rose, who was feeling fussy at the time, decided that she only wanted certain herbs in hers and not others, so they made her her own little loaf.  She is so clearly their little darling.

gathering herbs

baking

brother and sister

~Over breakfast Elijah was talking about how he’d hit a baseball through a window a couple of months back.  He concluded the story with, “and we never played in that spot again….except that we did.”  Then he told the story of Iain and him inadvertently hitting a ball into a bush which, unbeknownst to them, contained a hornets nest, with painful results.  And that story concluded with, “and we never played in that spot again……………………..except that we did.”bath

~I took a hot, hot lavender bath trying to ward off an impending migraine.reading

~The fixing of remote control cars was on the agenda today.

car

~I’ve been messing with all kinds of crazy braids and things, now that my hair is getting long again.  Today was a dutch-lace, half-crown braid, heavily rumpled by laying down to read to little ones at nap time.

queen anne

crown braid

birdbath

~Màiri Rose got a piece of a cornstarch packing peanut stuck up her nose.  I had to bride her with a frozen strawberry so that she would let me extract it with fine tip tweezers.

playing a game

Asian slaw

tiny crocs

~Galen took it upon himself to harvest a big bunch of violet greens to have with dinner.

violet greens

Elijah tree

~More thunderstorms late in the afternoon.  Steve is convinced that God doesn’t want him to cut the lawn.

laundry

~We opened the next to the last jar of green tomato chutney from last summer to have with our chicken, green and yellow beans and violet greens at dinner.monopoly

~Màiri only changed her clothes four times today.  I think that may be a record.

bedtime

~Galen insisted on wearing long sleeves and pants, all in black (well, some navy blue, but it’s best not to mention it), so that he could be a gorilla.

bedtime 2

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Books, Food, Gardens, Housewifery, Kids, Life, Our Little Home
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Summer Meal Planning

I finally got around to working out my summer meal plan, just last week.  For more on the hows and whys of seasonal meal planning, see this post.

peas

Summer 2011 Meal Plan

Sunday: steak or chicken fajitas on lettuce wrappers :: steak or chicken, onions, garlic, peppers, olive oil and lettuce

Monday: kale and sausage soup :: home-made chicken broth, kale, tomatoes- I have enough canned ones still from last year to get us through until local ones start coming in this year, sweet Italian sausages

Tuesday: roasted chicken, mashed cauliflower, and peas or green beans (depending on what’s available at the farm, peas now, green beans soon!) :: a whole chicken, cauliflower, home-made ghee, coconut or almond milk, peas or beans, spices

Wednesday: salad :: lettuce and/or kale/wild greens/sprouts, olives, avocado, sauteed onions, optional sardines

Thursday: salmon cakes, baby bok choy :: salmon, fresh herbs, a little almond flour or arrowroot, onions, garlic, bok choy

Friday: Swedish meatballs over broccoli :: ground turkey, onion, nutmeg, allspice, ghee, chicken stock, a bit of coconut milk or almond milk, broccoli

Saturday: turkey roast and coleslaw :: turkey roast, cabbage, carrots, sometimes I add in some radishes or baby turnips, fresh dill, raw apple cider vinegar, lemon juice

Sunday: honey mustard meatloaf with green beans :: ground meat, home-made honey mustard, onions, garlic, green beans

Monday: chicken skillet soup or lentil soup ::  for css- olive oil, onion, garlic, chicken, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, red wine, for lentil soup- lentils, carrots, garlic, onion, zucchini

Tuesday: “chicken dippers” and broccoli :: chicken breast, potato flour, cayenne pepper or chili pepper, broccoli, home-made mustard

Wednesday: kale salad :: sausage, onions, apples, kale, apple cider vinegar, olive oil

Thursday: skirt steak and bok choy stir-fry :: variation on this recipe

Friday: coconut shrimp, broccoli, plus beans for the non-seafood lover :: shrimp, coconut flour, shredded coconut, oil, broccoli, perhaps a bit of ghee, some sort of beans

Saturday: roasted veggies and erm, some sort of protein (there always seems to be one day that I don’t quite figure out, but somehow it always works out in practice) ::  whatever veggies I come home from the farm and erm, protein….

I decided to include a list of ingredients with my plans this time.  I really love that for the most part, all of the ingredients are rather obvious.  The meals are exactly what they sound like; good, basic, wholesome food.  As with last time, most nights I’ll probably throw together a quick salad or steam some greens, if greens aren’t already featured with the meal.  I feel like I did a pretty good job utilizing seasonal produce and using mostly local ingredients.  With the exception of the coconut and almond milks.  Every time I buy them, I feel like it’s such a shame, especially knowing that we have cheaper raw milk, readily available, just up the road.  But not everyone in the family can handle that, in fact, most of us can’t.  And I’ve thought of skipping anything milk-like completely, but honestly, we are very limited already and we like a bit of something creamy every once in a while.  So, I cook with it a couple of days a week.  And otherwise I feel fairly content with the plans I’ve managed to make.  Everyone has been pleased with the dinners so far (phew, no flops!), so I don’t think I’ll need to do much, if any editing.  Perhaps just the usual little bit of shifting the produce selections with the season as different things become available in our farm share.

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Food, Herbs, Housewifery
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Spring Meal Planning

asparagus

Beginning this past autumn, I started creating a seasonal meal plan.  I’ve done variations of this in the past, but I never found a system that quite worked for me.  After 2+ seasons, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve finally found something that will work long-term and it is such a relief!

It’s just dinners for right now.  Our breakfasts went from having a specific menu for each day of the week to being in complete disarray now that we have, once again, been forced to eliminate certain staple breakfast foods.  Lunch is mostly leftovers or something relatively easy, so that we don’t interrupt the flow of our school day.

My plan for dinner is this; two weeks worth of seasonally appropriate, mostly healthy and fairly easy meals that I’ll just keep on making until summer.  It’s worked well so far.  One thing that I’ve really loved is that this plan has allowed me to make better use of our CSA share because I plan the meals around it (the currently season is the only one where that isn’t really an issue.  Our winter share of root cellar veggies just ended and the regular season doesn’t start until late in spring).  We do start getting a little tired of the same dinners towards the end, but usually when there is only a week or two left, so the timing is just about right.  And the new season’s meals, by default become that much more inviting!

I try to stick to a general rhythm for the week; Sunday is beef, Monday soup, Tuesday chicken, etc.

Knowing that I’ll be making the same meal two weeks later, I’ve started doubling some recipes and freezing half, which means I actually get nights off from making dinner, without wasting money or compromising nutrition.  And can’t even begin to tell you how much easier it is to make a shopping list or what a relief it is to *always*, *always* know just what’s for dinner.

food

turkey apple sausages, steamed kale and peach smoothie (so nice to still have peaches in the freezer!)

Spring 2011 Meal Plan

  • Sunday: beef- we get half a beefer from a local farm, so this could be any cut from the freezer really; a steak, stew, roast, and then vegetables to go with it of course.
  • Monday: asparagus or green bean soup (depending on what’s more readily available)
  • Tuesday: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and greens- I might make gravy to do with this, open a jar of chutney or thaw one of the last jars of pesto to mix things up a bit
  • Wednesday: salad w/turkey and a homemade creamy dressing
  • Thursday: leftovers…it seems that after brainstorming 13 dinners, my creativity was stretched to it’s limit.  So, leftovers it is for now, but maybe one of you has a fresh and brilliant suggestion??
  • Friday: coconut curry chicken and veggies
  • Sunday: burger salads-so this is how I eat burgers- I fill my plate up with all sorts of lettuces, plop my burger on top and then pile on whatever toppings sound good.  Is it just me?  The kids like for theirs “salads” to be wrapped in rice tortillas.  This week’s “burger salad” had onions, avocado and radishes.  yum.
  • Monday: carrot soup
  • Wednesday: salad with fruit and nuts, roasted chickpeas on the side
  • Thursday: kale and potatoes, sweet Italian sausages
  • Saturday: mustard chicken-this is my very simple adaptation of a chicken dish my mother used to bake.  Basically you place your chicken breast in a baking dish spoon on a mixture of mustard and mayonnaise (we use grapeseed veganaise, due to egg allergies).  I then top it with a mix of salt, pepper, almond flour and sesame seeds.  I like to serve it with steamed and seasoned broccoli.

And that’s it.  Fourteen days worth of dinners to be repeated from now until summer.  And a much more relaxed mama.

Now if I could only get breakfast sorted out…

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Food, Housewifery, Life, recipes
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the first room tour

stove

We were only in our last house for a short while before we started to suspect that we wouldn’t be staying long, which wasn’t really much of an incentive for taking the time to really make it our own.  Even though our stay here may only be brief as well (possibly as little as a year), continuing to live half in and half out of boxes without feeling at home, would surely drive me insane.  We were very lucky to find such a wonderful house, and I fully intend to enjoy our stay.

shelves

I was thinking a lot about Nicole’s post here, where I wanted to start, and where to go from there.  The kitchen just seemed like the logical choice for us.  I spent a solid week and a half scrubbing everything down, unpacking boxes, putting things in cabinets, then moving those same things to drawers, before trying them in yet another cabinet, playing musical cupboards throughout the room and trying to get everything just right.

one

Slowly but surely, one room at a time, I hope to get somewhere….somewhere closer to “home” and “settled”.

flowers

I suspect the hooks below were originally intended for stockings, but my beloved cast iron collection is occupying them now.

hearth

I should really get a close-up of the artwork on the wall above.  It’s the silhouettes of my three boys, made by Simply Silhouettes.  I had them made as Christmas gifts for the grandparents last year, and since an extra copy was only $10, guess what found it’s way home to me??  I love, love, love it.

table-this one

I’ve been cooking a lot lately.  Not that I don’t normally, but without really meaning to, I seem to be cooking even more then usual.  By Friday of last week, I was forced to serve combination of leftovers for two meals in a row because all of my pyrex containers were full and I had no room left in the refrigerator!

front

I still plan on doing something about the mini-blinds.  They displease me.  I need to get the kitchen set all put together nicely for the little ones.  And I still need to pull out the box with my Grandmother’s plate in it.  It doesn’t quite feel like my kitchen without that little talisman hanging over the door.

sun

But other then that it’s just perfect.

windows

in action

And just in time too.  One afternoon last week found me dancing around the kitchen, to the soundtrack from ‘Big Night‘, with a basket of fresh herbs, a bottle of red wine and a great big pile of tomatoes, which can only mean one thing…

tomatoes-cropped

it’s tomato sauce time!

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Food, Housewifery, Life, Our Little Home
12 Replies

still here

I’m still here.  I don’t think I want to give up the blog entirely, I’m just reassessing, trying to figure out what role maintaining this space plays in my life right now.  For one thing, I think in the future I’ll be posting less, maybe one or two posts a week instead of five or six.  But like I said, I don’t know quite where I’m going just yet.

side steps

Sleep has actually been one of many things that’s been keeping me away.  As a life-long night owl, I’ve been working hard to switch my rhythms.  Early to bed and early to rise.  It really suits our life so much better and I’m finding it suits me as well.  I really can’t quite describe how pleasant it is to wake up, and be ok with being awake, rather then forcing myself out of bed because the children are getting up and feeling achy and miserable and somewhat resentful.

Tonight I’m sitting up with a sick baby hitched to my back, to keep her upright and breathing freely.  Soon I’ll try to lay us both down, but she hasn’t really slept well in so long, I want her to get some rest first.  I thought I would check in while I have the chance.

pie pan

~My favorite pie pan developed a crack and I refused to let it go.  A couple of weeks ago I transplanted some sedum into it.  It’s filling in so nicely!  Sedum is accommodating like that.~

We’re still settling in.  Still trying to get plants in the ground.  Still trying to get rooms painted.  Still searching through boxes for various things.  Today was our first day of “school” and it went fabulously (the extra effort of juggling that and the sad, clingy, baby aside.  poor tiny girl!).

basket

~goldenrod for our tables on top of oak leaves for our dye pot~

I feel like a bit of a sell-out for loving our new house that’s meant to look like an old house better then our old house that was actually old.  I can’t help it really.  It may have less character, but it’s just so easy. I mean, for one thing there are the closets!  Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve really had closets?!?  Don’t get me started on the closets….  I think everyone in real like would like me to just shut up about them please.  It’s more then just closets, as exciting as they are, everything is just so much less work (if I ever get my hands on the inventor of the laundry chute, I tell you, he/she is in for one big sloppy kiss) and it’s all just so comfortable and pleasant and I’m very, very happy to be here.

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Gardens, Homeschooling, Housewifery, Life, Our Little Home
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Planning Ahead

I’m on a mission.  My goal is to sleep in the month of December for the first time in, oh, a decade or so.  I did pretty well with being prepared two years ago, but what with being nine months pregnant and all, I still didn’t sleep.

yarn

I think many people are surprised to learn how far in advance I start thinking about and planning our birthday and holiday celebrations.  Honestly, I think about these things all year long.  I’m always on the look out for just the right thing.  Thoughtful, homemade celebrations can’t just be pulled out of thin air.  They take time, planning, patience, perseverance.

I’m sure there are many people who don’t see the point in doing things this way.  Not when you can stop in at any old box store the day before and pick up a gift, party favors, decorations, maybe even the cake.

But here is the thing, I want my children to feel cherished.  And I think it takes a commitment of time and effort to cultivate that feeling.  And I want those special times of joy to reflect our values.  I believe in homemade.  I believe in hard work.  I believe in quality over quantity.  I believe in supporting small businesses.  I believe in living lightly on the earth.  I believe in simplicity.  I believe in giving that which will enhance, not detract from one’s health.  I believe in beauty and the deep nourishing act of crafting an object out of love.

So, I plan and I think on this a lot.  I gather things throughout the year, as inspiration strikes. As the kids get older, it’s getting harder to hide things, but I find that my fabric stash is a pretty convenient place to tuck things away.  I think of next year, even while I work on this year.

I have four children now.  Half of them share a birthday and that birthday falls 11 days after Christmas.  It would be so easy to let it all slide.  To make due with whatever can be pulled together quickly and easily.  But I cherish these two children of mine.  I adore them.  So I take the time now, when I have it, for them.

I didn’t know that the birthday sweaters were going to become a tradition, but I think they just might.  I found this pendent when I was making necklaces for the boys at Easter, and how could I not get it for my Little Rosebud?

necklace

I have a big project in mind for Iain, that I may or may not manage to finish (but I know that at least I will start it).

I’d really like to get him an atlatl.  We are friends with a Cherokee chief.  We were at a naming ceremony a couple of months ago and after wards Iain got to try throwing darts.  The man who showed him how said that he teaches hundreds of people a year and that Iain really had an amazing knack for it.  I know the one I want, but it’s more money then I want to spend, so I’m still thinking and looking.  Luckily, I have that kind of time.

I have fabric set aside for the Wee Girl’s birthday dress and I’m thinking on whether or not this is the year to make her a birthday crown.  I’m keeping an eye out for one of those old radio flyer, ride-on scooters.  Iain and Elijah each had one when they were little, and they loved them, but they were contaminated with mold, so we had to get rid of them.  I think it would be perfect for her.

And Christmas too.  I’ve started gathering gifts, ideas, supplies.  I keep a list, a little chart of thoughts as my plans progress, to make sure nothing gets forgotten.  There is much to be done, and much to enjoy.

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celebrations and festivals, crafts, Housewifery, Kids, Life, Mothering, WIP, Yarn Crafts
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A nice place to sit…

this one

This spring, my outdoor rhythm has been somehow, off…  Usually well before now we have a nice pattern going of things we do outdoors and things we do indoors and times of day for each….with the vast majority of the time falling in the ‘outdoor’ category.  But this year something didn’t seem right, we didn’t just fall into our regular groove.  Then one day it occurred to me that it wasn’t comfortable.  There were things to do and stuff to keep us busy, plenty to look at and explore… and sun on sun on sun.  So much sun!  Eight years in the woods and I’m not used to it.  Don’t get me wrong, I like it and the plants love it.  But every time we were out doing our things I would start to feel a bit parched.  And baked.  And oppressed.  And after a time it would drive me back inside.  And make me hesitant to go back out again.  But I never really thought about why.

When I finally thought about it, I realized that the solution was so very simple…make a place to sit in the shade.  DUH.  I found two chairs that a former tenant had left behind, drug them under a big old tree and it was as easy as that.

rose

I potted up some shade tolerant flowers to make it more pleasant.  Just like that our outdoor life started to work again.  My favorite part is when we all take our handwork out to this very spot in the afternoon.

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Gardens, Housewifery, Life, Our Little Home
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weekend in review

peony close up

purple

columbine

peony

DSCN0175

We saw a snapping turtle, a humming bird, a vireo.  We went for a little hike.  Some of us went fishing and some of us had a little rest.  I did some sewing and started a new knitting project.  There was baseball practice and a baseball game (they won!).  And fresh bouquets brought in (I find the week is always more pleasant when there are fresh flowers in the house, don’t you?).  There was some work in the garden and a trip to town, topped off with a garden tour there.  I made the best broccoli salad and a rhubarb-apple tart.  There is another jar of chive flower vinegar steeping on my window sill, along side 2 dandelion and garlic.  I finished a  novel and started a new tv series (we don’t have a tv, but I sometimes watch shows through nextflix or on-line after the kids go to bed.  I’m currently a couple of episodes into the first season of this which let’s face it, I’m only watching because I have a crush on Patrick Dempsey.  Shhh!  Just don’t tell Steve.  Good thing he usually just looks at the pictures here, huh?  Only, I think sometimes he scans for his name…kind of screwed myself there, didn’t I?  Hey honey, why don’t you just look at the interesting picture of a turtle…..)

turtle

See??  Turtle.  Just keep your mind on the turtle.

And there was cleaning and cooking and errand running and all of the usual, busy family life stuff as well.  And now on to a new week…

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Books, Food, Gardens, Herbs, Housewifery, Kids, Life
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A little bit of everyday

this one~on our way to a baseball game earlier~

Our dishwasher is broken.  I’m spending a lot of time in the kitchen washing dishes.  I’m trying to be mindful and appreciate the view from this vantage point.

bowls~the tower of wooden bowls that Iain made as he oiled each one~

paint~soaking the paint jars~

chives~chive flowers infusing vinegar on my window sill~

I’ve been listening to this a lot lately.  But right now I’m listening to the thunder.  I’m grateful for the rain, even though I am just now remembering the diapers that never came in off the line.  It’s going to be a powerful storm.  It’s really the first one of the season.  I love a good thunderstorm.  It make me feel the way I do while listening to Moonlight Sonata. But I’m checking in often with the little one who is still frightened by them and hoping that he’ll sleep right through it all. No one has been getting much sleep here lately.

********************************************************************

The sleeping through didn’t work out.  He’s now laying next to me here, wearing a sleep mask and listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (‘Spring‘ currently).  It seems to help.

It’s funny how we have the exact opposite reactions to an approaching storm.  I have to remind myself that it’s not safe to go stand out in the middle of it as I would like.

********************************************************************

Back in the morning, and after the storm to finish this post…

The kitchen that I was speaking of so fondly above, isn’t such a happy place today.  I’m getting a lot of flak lately about our food limitations.  All of this was so much easier when our kids where younger, but now we’ve entered the age of awareness and comparisons and it’s hard.  Oh, so hard.  Hard to be hated and despised for trying to keep them well.  Hard to devote so much time and energy and be met with so much frustration in return.  Any one out there been through this and have some words of wisdom?  Or at least encouragement??

knitting

On an entirely different note, I think I have something like 5 finished knitting projects to share, just as soon as I get some pictures.

I’m not getting a lot of traction on my current knit though.  Ever have a project like that?  It just feels like I’m getting no where.  I think it’s because it’s really long rows of lace and I’ve been loosing my place at every little interruption and I’m not far enough along to have the lace pattern memorized.  Perhaps today is the day that this pattern really starts to ‘click’ for me.

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Housewifery, Kids, Life, Mothering, Our Little Home, photography
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