We’ve been having flurries off and on here today. We’re waiting for it to warm up a bit before making our regular trip to the garden center.
I’ve appropriated the table that we usually use for home schooling for the kid’s clothing week challenge. An hour of sewing a day for a week. I’m excited to finally be working on some projects that I’ve had on the back burner for a bit.
It was sunny for the first time in ages yesterday, sunny and windy. So very windy! Hard to capture it in a photo. It made for very quick line drying.
We’re making kites this morning. And chocolate. And stone bridges across the creek.
Network Solutions is still having some serious issues. Including the inability to upload pictures. For posts I can point to them elsewhere, but it looks like I could be without a banner for a while.
I took this picture two days ago as I was thinking about cultivating spring on the inside even if it’s not quite ready to make an appearance outside. I’ve suddenly found myself sick of the paper snowflakes and window stars and ready to move on to other things.
I’ve had less patients for winter this year. I think it has something to do with all of the time we spend house hunting over the summer and fall. I don’t think I managed to soak up my quota of vitamin D or the stock of sunny experiences that carries one through a long dark winter.
Then yesterday Mother Nature countered with the double whammy of the largest snowstorm of the season and sickness in the house. Well, ok then. I concede. Winter is not done with us yet.
I spent the morning in the kitchen with the well ones, while the sick ones rested in bed and Steve reported in to work from a make-shift office in the living room.
A double batch of nettle and red raspberry leaf chai and two kinds of almond flour scones (blueberry and orange vanilla, I modified this recipe), cheered up the scene a bit (the sheets needing to be changed twice in so many hours, did not).
I appreciate the efforts of my shamrock, with it’s blossoms managing to open just a little even though it is so cloudy.
I spent much of the afternoon reading to the sickies.
We have one well one here who has little tolerance for the atmosphere of a house with sick people and one sick one who has no tolerance for the process of getting well! We are hearing lots of “I’m bored!” from a child who is otherwise never bored.
Steve and I have been encouraging him to take this time to think and dream. He’s not really one for introspection normally, and quiet and still do not come naturally to him. That’s what this time is for; hibernating, hunkering down, digging in deep. And maybe, just maybe, it’s just what he needs. The seeds of inspiration and the clarity of dreams take root so.
As for myself, much of the busy work of the day was spent lost in a day dream of my own. I had an epiphany regarding Iain’s birthday sweater for next year. And I’m pleased to know that now that I’ve found the one, I’ll have a nice long head start on it. And somehow in the scattered bits of sleep last night, I found the inspiration for a new recipe as well.
A little bit of doing and lots of dreaming, that’s what February is all about.
I think all weekends should be three day weekends, don’t you? Really, two days aren’t enough. By the time you are done finishing up everything from the last week and preparing for the next week, it’s Monday morning already. That extra day is needed for actual down time or recreation. Sadly, I think my chances of convincing corporate America at large of the virtues of a three day weekend are pretty slim. Oh, but I will take them, whenever they come my way, in all of their extended glory. This time it even got extended a bit further in a way because Steve worked from home today on account of the weather.
So, what’s so great about long weekends?? TIME! Time to be together. All of us, some of us, doing something, doing nothing. This one was extra fabulous because we actually managed to pull off a relatively kid free at home date night, complete with yummy dessert and a movie. We pulled the futon mattress into the fireplace room (otherwise known as what will be the office, or my studio, if I can only convince people to humor me in referring to it as such, but what currently passes for the least set up room in the house). There is nothing quite so blissful as quiet time by firelight with the one that you love. You would think that after nearly 12 years now, I’d be sick of his company, but I’m not a bit. He just keeps getting better and we keep getting better. It’s ridiculous really, how giddy he still makes me.
Monday, our bonus day (!), we took the kids ice skating. It was really Galen’s first time on a real for real rink, not just an uneven puddle in the yard.
I took Baby Roo for a joy ride around our CSA, in a borrowed wagon.
We had a salad that I packed in the car. I’m somewhat obsessive about salads at this time of year, I just find that I crave them, especially with arugula. Now that there are winter greens coming in from local farms (thanks to green houses and hoop houses), there is no reason not to go serving huge salads all the time.
We ate on the way to the garden center. We get the kids little gifts for Valentine’s Day every year and this year we decided to let them each pick out their own little houseplant. Something to cheer up the house a bit. Our old house was a notorious killer of house plants. They couldn’t take the extreme temperature changes and spotty watering. We lost many of our favorites in the years that we were there and now seemed as good a time as any to replace them.
It was so good to be surrounded by green and growing things! We came home with primroses all around. In the future I must remember the importance of having flowers in the house during the winter months. It makes life seem ever so much more pleasant. I used to grow paper whites every year (why ever did I stop??) and force forsythia of course because we had such huge clumps of it at our old house. I think primroses are going to be the new February favorite from here on out.
You know it’s a little thing, but lately I’ve found myself experiencing moments, flashes, of transcendent joy. I guess that’s not such a little thing after all. To be perfectly honest, there are moments of sadness too. I think I kind of had to numb myself to make it through some of the last several months and I’m really glad to be coming out of that space (even when it means coming to terms with certain sorrows as well). It feels good to realize that my heart is unfurling again, like a butterfly from a cocoon now that the necessity of hibernation is past. It’s good too, to very clearly know and feel that all I really want or need out of life to be happy is being with these people that I love. If I just get to do that; to be with them and have them stay healthy and well, I think that I may just be that happiest woman alive. Really and truly. Not just because I’ve been so blessed with their presence, but because I am further and profoundly blessed with knowing just how wonderful that truly is.
Last week, after the big kids left, Galen got a haircut (then he promptly rumpled his hair all up) and we sifted through some fabric because I had a different sort of project in mind. I was thinking that it was about time that the Goosey Boy had an apron for all of his baking adventures.
While he stuck together packing peanuts from a package that arrived earlier in the day (you guys know that if you moisten those biodegradable cornstarch ones, you can stick ‘um together to form all sorts of interesting creations, right?), I set to turning an old pajama shirt of mine into an apron for my little guy.
These were actually my very favorite pajamas. They fit just right and had sweet white piping around the edges. Steve got them for me our first Christmas together. Last year the pants tore, this year it was the shirt and the time came for me to retire them for good. Though in looking back, I’m realizing that I got 12 years of wear out of them. That’s not too shabby!
I used some brown linen to finish it off. I’ve been loving the combination of brown and red lately, very warm and cozy.
We tried this bread for the first time (pictured above). I’ve been experimenting with almond flour lately and this one was well received.
This was one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year (and yes, the combination of birthday and holiday posts is going to take me right on through to February I suspect). A friend of mine made gift packs of her home made cleaning products, along with a recipe book of sorts for various cleaners and a guide to getting out different sorts of stains. Her husband works at a book bindery, so it was all done up very nicely.
I’ve been making my own cleaning products for many years now, though I will admit that the making of my own laundry detergent suddenly became a very low priority after moving into the Little House. This was enough of a spark to get me back on track. I think I like her laundry detergent recipe better then the one that I used way back when and now that I have it right at hand, I’m all set. The ingredients are so much safer then those of any commercially available alternatives, it works just as well and costs a whole lot less.
I tend to make my cleaners in a haphazard manner. I keep certain key elements on hand; baking soda, borax, white vinegar, a “natural” dish detergent and castile soap. I use table salt from time to time and occasionally herbs or essential oils to scent or fortify my blends. From there I mostly make things on an as needed basis. If I’m cleaning the stove top I’m likely to dump on some baking soda, maybe add a squirt of soap, sprinkle a bit of water on top and get to scrubbing. I’m finding that having her soft scrub on hand is a nice change of pace, it’s somehow more official and makes the job just a wee bit more pleasant. I think I might go back to preparing things in advance as I have in the past.
Do you have a favorite natural cleaning product recipe?? Feel free to share it in the comments! For me, I always keep on hand a spray bottle of 3 parts water, 1 part vinegar, with a squirt of dish soap and a few drops of tea tree oil. It’s the perfect disinfecting all-purpose cleaner. Happy (and healthy) cleaning!
The pajamas are coming along, though sadly, I suspect today is going to be a loss sewing wise. I’m almost done all the pajama pants, I finished a bonnet (ideally I would love to add a bit of embroidery…), and one robe is complete, with the patterns traced for two more.
Maybe today is a day for baking? Maybe it’s just a day for rest. I know that it’s a day to step back, take it easy on everyone and see where we end up.
Tonight I’ll be working on the sewing project that I started last night and need finished for tomorrow. But today, today, is Fair Day. Every one’s looking forward to it. I’ve just set the crock pot with a stew since we’ll be gone all day….late veggies from the farm, some local grass fed beef, kombu, some beef broth I made earlier in the week, a bit of red wine. The house will smell so good when we get back and it will be such a relief not to have to worry about dinner. Now I’m working on filling up a bag with food to eat out….green crispies, toasted almonds, frozen blueberries, leftover chicken, a bit of squash, bananas with carob dip, and whatever else I can think of between now and the time we leave. It was really a lot easier to go places back when we could eat out!
I got called away from this post this morning, and now I’m coming back to it at the end of the day (or, well, technically, very early the next morning). The Fair was nice. It’s seemed somehow smaller and less impressive this year. I did a bit of holiday shopping, somewhat at Steve’s urging, as he’s all but convinced me that I really can’t make all of the children’s gifts this year (I’ll admit defeat in not making them all, but I’m still holding out on at least making some).
I got Galen a beautiful little wooden cutting board. I’m so excited to think about how much easier it will be for him to help me in the kitchen once we move into the next house! I got some lovely plant dyed wool for his birthday crown as well. And a duck! Oh, I couldn’t resist the life-sized stuffed duck. He’s still all about the domesticated fowl. Funny, funny boy. Sadly, I smuggled it home, only to discover that the repurposed sweater that it’s made out of still smells like perfume! Bah humbug. It’s on the porch at the moment. I left Steve (who is a very early riser), a note asking him to bring it in and hide it in the morning. Maybe if we keep up with the nightly airings it will be ok in time for Christmas??
Darn. And I thought I was doing so well.
