Seeds of Kindness

Boys and Weapons

2010-09-24T13:48:00.001-07:00

How did we go from the family with the absolute zero tolerance for guns, not even toy guns, not even water guns, to the family that shrieks happily through the woods throwing pine cones, I mean "sonic grenades" and "frag grenades", at each other until everyone is dead? How?
Plastic light sabers.
The gateway weapon.
So fake, so pretend, so harmless. So fun.
And now- now none of the pine cones and bits of bark collected for the nature table are safe. I think I need my own light saber just to protect my armory of horse chestnuts and dried dogwood berries from invading armies of boys come to pillage my sweet Waldorfy treasure trove, er... weapons cache.
I still haven't gotten used to having to make the choice, in my own boy-ravaged home, of a toilet seat that is either always up or always sticky, and now this! What's most shocking is that now I join in, and run, laughing and trilling just as loudly as they, flinging "grenades" and cheering "strikes".
And just like that, we've become, I guess, a family I wouldn't have let my own past tense boys play with.
All because of light sabers.
Light sabers and delicious, most serious, epic, hours long hot summer battles of boys in the park, scores and scores of boys, forming battalions and hierarchies, marching in formation, falling in battle, being revived, soldiering on.
Blast you, insidious light saber of doom!

The D-Day Piper

2010-09-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Bill Millin, the bagpiper at Normandy, passed on recently. We didn't know him, but oh! the tears sprang forth anyhow all across our house when the Economist arrived this week. Here's his obituary, you can read it too.

And we're back!

2010-08-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! Apparently the birthday month really took it out of me, huh?
Well, in reality, we've had a most exhausting year, with sickness and over-workedness leaving no room for much else but simple maintenance.
But I'm back. We're started the new school year- this is week three already, and it's going great. Avery's so independent and interested, Miles is excited to have his own school time each day devoted just to him. Ansel is, well, Ansel, and pretty much happy for any scraps of attention a third kid can get.
Ah....

Month of Cakes, Done!

2010-03-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

Carrot cake, Lemon Cake, Banana Cake, Applesauce Cake, Chocolate Cake, Carrot Cake, Brownies.
UGH!
No... more... cake....

For a year.

Right?

Gearing Up

2010-01-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

... for the Birthday month.
I've still got a couple weeks before the 26th and the official start, but it's coming FAST.
Avery will be 10.
Then Papa's birthday four days later.
Ansel will be 1.
Then five days later Miles will be 4.
And eleven days later is my birthday, though who is kidding who here? By then we're all sick of birthday cake....

Speaking of birthday cake- everyone wants carrot cake, but that won't do- it's just too much of a good thing. But everyone deserves to have their choice of cake on their birthday, at least, right? And so I start my subtle campaign to convince the members of the house to change their tastes and minds. Oooh! Look at this picture of a cake! Doesn't THAT look good?! Wow! I'd LOVE to try that kind of cake....
So far... only Ansel has caved. He was chewing on a picture of a banana. Which clearly means he desires banana cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday, don't you think?

And then the parties... Avery always had these big, well organized and attended parties, with hand sewn party hats and homemade pinatas. He's chosen simpler things the last couple of years- a special dinner, a trip to OMSI in Portland. I have no idea what he wants this year, but hopefully it will be in that vein.

Miles has never had a real kid party, and this won't be the year it happens for him. I'm thinking a joint Ansel-Miles birthday party. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is the 12th of February, a Friday, right in the middle between Ansel and Miles. A good day for a party. And Mary Todd Lincoln was well known for making a special sweetheart's cake for old Abe, so that's a logical tie-in.

The problem with combined parties, of course, is that you're really just adding in another cake, since everyone needs a little celebration on their real birthday too.

And so... we're still at four carrot cakes in four weeks, plus a banana cake and a butter cake.

I guess we're all getting elastic pants for our birthdays, there's just no way around it.

Reasons to Homeschool: Harried to Happy

2010-01-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

Morning could be hectic and harried for us- if we had to get everyone washed, dressed, fed, bundled up, out of the house and to school, daycare, work on time. They could be, but they're not, because we don't HAVE to be anywhere but right where we are.
This morning, when I felt obliged to give the baby an impromptu bath to wash the fistfuls of crusting-in mush and browning banana smoosh out of his hair, and the three year old decided to strip naked in the hall and take a running dive into the tub (no one in my house can stand missing out on a bath) I felt just a little put out. This wasn't on the schedule for the morning. But they're so cute, you know, so sweet. How can you stay grumpy with two little ones in the tub? All those bubbles and splashes, soapy clean smells and giggles. When the nine year old decided to join in the fun it just felt perfectly, well... perfect. Two little ones in the tub, warm and shiny, a big one perched in the corner, serenading (guitar practice without threats or shouting, check!) them with his entire play list while they danced and laughed, well, I was just glad to be home, free to enjoy such a lovely unscheduled and unplanned moment.
How many of those moments would be missed if we were caught rushing off to our important days elsewhere? How sad would it be if a baby's 6-grain hairdo were enough to start everyone's day off wrong (too rushed, late for school, late for work)? Those moments, simple and unstaged, are the ones that fill our family memory-bank, easy and quick to pull out on rainy days and hold on to during troublesome times. And so grateful are we, to be present here, filling our bank with memories we share, gathering moments of grace together.

Outsmarted

2009-12-22T22:48:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, in a mad rush of trying to finish up a sewing project that wasn't working well, nursing the baby, tidying up the family room (and the epic mess of post-fort-deconstruction AND an entire box of party crackers and a block of cream cheese-don't ask), presents to wrap, and a shower still to take:

Me Miles, if you touch that drill (toy) one more time before the family room is tidied up I will take it away for the rest of the day.
Miles Okay, I'm sorry. I won't touch it.

Fine. Except that he quietly went upstairs and came back down with ziploc sandwich bags on his hands, and picked up the toy drill and started back to his "work".

Me Miles, I told you not to play with that drill.
Miles No you didn't Mama. You told me not to touch it. I'm not touching it, see? I'm being really careful. I'm really not touching it one bit.

Oh my. He's three. And my head hurts.

For Jennifer

2009-12-11T13:26:00.001-08:00

Because I was reprimanded for not keeping up with my blogs over the last month or two, and told in no uncertain terms that people want to know everything, even what we eat breakfast:

pumpkin seed cranberry granola, whole milk yogurt(organic), fair trade french roast coffee, whole milk (organic), canned pears (remember our pear canning session?! They're being eaten up like you wouldn't believe!), Emergen-C tangerine.

Everyone happy now?

Seriously, though, everyone is well (knock on wood) and happy (again, the wood....) and I'm elbow deep in cleaning and cooking and baking and preparing and we've got a birthday party and a Swedish supper party, plus a tromp up the mountains to find two trees, a church play for Avery to prepare for, a million gifts to make, lots and lots of good stuff to get to work on. I feel like the whole last month was lost to our weeks of sickness and despair, and now we're all jolly elves on double time!

So no worries. No good stories yet, but that's just because we're too busy to get into trouble!

Pirates

2009-12-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

My brother has a big boat that just happens to be in dry dock right now, in our very state, instead of Alaska. So we went to visit him a few weeks ago, before everyone got sick and everything in our house broke (Did I mention the stove broke on Thanksgiving? Did I?!). One of his crew members was there, working, when he arrived- a very sweet girl with tight black jeans, a striped shirt under a sweatshirt, severe black hair, some facial piercings and tattoos. She seemed quiet, nice, and smart, though she was mostly working hard most of the time we were there.
ANYWAY...
Yesterday Miles came running to me in the midst of the epic boat-fort building game he and Avery were engaged in, wanting, no NEEDING, to know the name of "Uncle Trevor's Pirate".
Uncle Trevor's Pirate?
Trevor's leg is broken, he was in a cast when we were there, but it didn't seem like a peg leg, did it? No one had lost an eye or a hand- no patches or hook-hands were seen. Finally I figured out he meant Shannon! Trevor's girl-crew member. His "Pirate". Of course.
Because ships have pirates. Duh.
And who else but a pirate would make gold look so fierce?
I wonder, should I take my kids out of this poky little town more often? Should they know that pirates aren't the only people with piercings and tattoos? How embarrassing will it be when they go off to college and think their dorm mate is a pirate?

Miles

2009-11-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

I've been so lucky to have my wonderful Mom and a talented physical therapist Aunt here helping our family out during this difficult time. I really don't know how we'd have managed without my Mom here, holding fussy sick babies and cleaning up puke, taking temperatures and making chicken soup, exuding confidence that everything would be okay, that Miles would pull through.
Miles, you know, is 3 years and 9 months old, full of fire burning bright, the one who jumps headfirst into every experience, and pulls all the rest of us along with him. He is so funny and sincere and beautiful that he gets by with a lot that a more serious, less antic-filled kid wouldn't be able to get away with. Of all my boys he's the one always in the center of the action, making everyone laugh, causing trouble, and smoothing things over with his incredible sweetness and generosity. He is healthy and strong, positively glowing with youthful health and rosy cheeks, sparkling blue eyes and cheerful laugh. Glowing, I tell you.
But Miles is the one I always secretly worry about. Always. I imagine it's because of the worry of my pregnancy with him (preterm labor and 4 solid months of bedrest) and how sick I was after he was born, at least that's what I tell myself. The other boys, though of course I worry, I feel more confident about, healthwise. Miles is the one I am sort of irrational about, the one I really have to talk myself down about. Every bruise might be a sign of some awful thing, leukemia or a clotting disorder. Every cough whispers pneumonia. I know it's crazy. I talk myself out of it all the time, or else we'd be in the emergency room more often than we already are (and Lord knows we're there for legitimate reasons often enough that it's a joke among our friends).
So you can imagine how I was feeling this week, with Miles trying to recuperate from an appendectomy and swine flu at the same time, lying in his hospital bed pale and feverish and still, not wanting to eat or drink, not wanting to talk or watch TV or even respond to us. I spent the whole time talking myself down, trying to trust that he would be well. And he is.
He is well. He is bouncing off the furniture, climbing the walls, shrieking and laughing and running around. You've never even know he'd been sick, except around the edges. That raggedy cough, a low grade fever that hasn't gone away just yet, the quickness to anger, the quickness to tears, the length and restlessness of sleep-times.
And so, last night, when my Mom and Aunt were talking about all the phone calls between the extended family, and how worried everyone was, when I asked "Why was Grandma crying?" they were shocked. As though I didn't understand how dangerous this all was, how close we'd been to Miles slipping away from us. And I couldn't correct them. I couldn't bear to just say that I have lived four years with the constant fear of him slipping away, and I am so used to constantly telling myself I am being silly, he is fine, HE IS FINE, that the knowledge that other people, rational, reasonable, intelligent people were as worried as I was more than I could deal with.
But he is fine. He is funny and sweet and energetic and you wouldn't know he'd been so sick. And I feel no choice but to keep on reminding myself of how fine he is.
He is not slipping away anywhere. He is jumping off the couch over a giant pile of cushions and onto the coffee table. He is running away and laughing, and I am so grateful. Running away laughing is as good as in my arms. He's definitely not slipping anywhere.

... and holding... again

2009-11-18T15:18:00.000-08:00

Yep. Holding my breath again, just waiting for this week to end.
Thursday Miles developed appendicitis, Friday was spent at the pediatrician's office (first thing in the morning) and the emergency room (the rest of the day). Who knew the health insurance companies require preapproval for CT scans, unless it's an emergency room doc? Yep. So, ER, then surgery. Is anything more heart rending than a three year old being rolled away to the operating room screaming and holding his arms out to you? (If there is, don't tell me, please!) My Mom arrived just after the surgery, and thank goodness- having three adults meant someone could stay with miles, another could stay with Avery and Ansel, and the third could do errands and travel back and forth.
Saturday started with Miles spiking a fever and developing a cough, and getting sicker and sicker. Guess what? Swine flu, that's what. And we all got it.
The pediatrician at the hospital prescribed Tamiflu for us all, which definitely seems to help shorten and lighten the impact. But it wasn't the nicest way to learn that we have an entirely separate $600 deductible for name brand prescriptions, and that for the four of us (plus the last three days dosage for Miles) would cost us $412. Cash.
Some dear friends turned their house over to us and the convenience of having a crash pad directly across the street from the hospital was a blessing. Especially since the hospital has a ban on visitors under 14, which meant that the nursing baby couldn't come in to the hospital, and I had to leave Miles' bedside to take care of the other boys.
Back at home Miles has asserted his anger at the pace of his recovery in many dramatic and awful ways, shouting and throwing and generally acting out. Including kicking the computer off the couch and killing it. We just got word from the shop. Dead. With the whole entire year's worth of school lesson plans painstakingly written out but not backed up. When will I remember to do that?
I won't even mention the pipe under the sink bursting and making a big mess everywhere.
Or the baby's ear infection.
Anyway, I'm glad I took that good long breath last week. I needed it more than I knew.
This week seems to be all about holding it again. Holding and hoping.... please, God, let nothing else go wrong, at least not this week....

A Good Deep Breath

2009-11-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

Ah! Doesn't that feel nice?

I realized, in the midst of messy house, screaming children, unfinished school work, yet-again-still-at-work-way-too-late-husband, utter exhaustion and unbidden tears streaming down my face at a simple question ("How are you?") that I've been holding my breath through all the busy-ness, celebration, and even the simple routines of autumn. I've missed out on really being present for my favorite season, my grounding and hearth-warming season. I have been holding my breathe so long and tight that I've started floating away, my head in the clouds, busier imagining all the brighter futures we could have instead of doing my work, making THIS life, here and now, as bright and beautiful as possible. Unfortunately children and housework, school work and all of the day-to-day couldn't join me on my dream-tour, and had to make do here on earth without me.

I've been holding my breath for fear of crying out loud at the terrible prospect of MORE job losses, ones that could directly affect our little family, ones tied to the whim of voters. Holding my breath for fear of saying out loud all the ways I've been worried. One person in the family being stressed out is enough, and worry is my husband's job. My job is eternal optimism, unshakable confidence that it will all work out just right, no matter what IT is. Anxious weather watching, sunny-day umbrella carrying, that's his job. Silver lining shining, pot of gold finding, that's mine.

But election day is over, the voting is done, all those opinions have been counted. The sales tax that pays 1/3 of the office budget passed, overwhelmingly. Overwhelmingly! Jobs are a little safer, for awhile anyway. Mortgages can be paid, groceries bought, Christmas and oh! all those birthdays maybe not so bleak. I can breathe.

I can take a deep breath, let it go, take another, and come back down to earth. Back down to the house full of boys and chores and laundry. Landing on a mountain of laundry, it turns out, is a pretty soft landing after all, and is a great vantage point for scoping out rainbows' end. And silver linings are a lot easier to see when the storm clouds are just passing over, not dumping down on your head.

I can take another breath, an even deeper one, one full of gratitude and thanksgiving. Here I am, here we are, and it is wonderful, right here and now!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T07:10:00.000-08:00

Avery as "Teen Vampire". Scary was his top priority this year.

Miles as "Spider". Miles was adamant about his costume choice- every single time he decided!

Ansel as "Gnome". He wasn't very excited about his costume for some reason....

In any case we had a great time, some good friends and family came over for pizza and trick or treating and it was all just good, easy fun. big boys running from house to house, little kids trailing, everyone falling to a deep sugar-coma sleep and waking up WAY to early this morning. Yay for Halloween!

Sneak Peek

2009-10-29T14:44:00.001-07:00

Yep. Ansel is going to be a gnome for Halloween. Ridiculous! You just have to wait for the rest of the pictures, though- and not just because I'm madly working at them while trying to pack for an out of state birthday party quick trip and clean the house for out trick-or-treating party scheduled to commence right bout the time we get home....
And it's been raining and the drier is still broken, and we haven't carved our pumpkins yet....
But, oh! my house is full of cute little gnomes, so I'm as happy as can be!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

The Grandparents from Iowa usually visit at just the right time to go to our favorite pumpkin patch- Thompson's Farm in Naches, WA. The farmer is a funny guy, and he seems to spend his spare time fixing up old tractors, collecting farm implements, and building pumpkin cannons. Awesome! All our favorite things in one spot! It doesn't hurt that he always has someone making and selling pumpkin donuts right there. Grandpa ate 2 1/2 dozen before he tackled the 4 dozen he bought to go! The boys were in awe. And have stated their desire to be grownups so that I can't stop them from eating 30 donuts in one afternoon. Moms are so mean like that.

Did You Know?

2009-10-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

111 pounds of grapes dries down to 4 gallons of raisins?
It takes about 30 minutes to pick that many grapes, and almost 3 days to dry each batch.
Black Manukka grapes make the world's best raisins.

Not New Furniture

2009-10-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

The Iowa Grandparents are visiting right now- here with time for punkin chunkin, costume making, fall decorating and Halloween preparations. And in the spirit of preparing the house for their visit we recovered the dining room bench (which was tweed plaid with a giant rip so the boys could easily stick spaghetti fingers in and pull off bits of foam, you know, for fun) and the chairs (which were blue and purple chevron from 1942, probably, and, well, at least 50 years of stains). It was time.
And Joann was having a sale- I got two yards of decorator fabric for $12, instead of the $60 they were marked. And as much as I don't like Joann (for their ads, mostly- there are those emails nearly every day, and then the fliers that come way before the sale starts so I think I'm going to get that thing I want for 40% off until I get all the way to the register, past the aisle of candy, with three crying, fussy, antsy children- it's lame. Costco does the same thing.) it is practically next door, and there are always cute fabrics. And good deals.

The bench.

The top of the bench. Take a good look- by the time you see it in person it will indubitably be covered in spaghetti smears.

The fabric for the chairs.

And one of the chairs, finished!

Not quite the new dining room furniture I really want- 52"diameter round Mission or Shaker style pedestal table with leaves, simple little smooth (no grooves for goo to get stuck in) wooden chairs- but way cheaper and less hassle.

Socks for Avery

2009-10-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

Lengthened, fiddled with, unraveled and "knitted" by a certain three year old, finally done. Um, not that he ever actually wears socks, but, well, Moms are funny like that.

Here's Lookin' At You Baby

2009-10-15T14:53:00.001-07:00

8 Months, 4 days! How did it happen so fast? But there he is- crawling and reaching, sticking every little thing in his mouth, reaching tiny fingers in places I never even think of, let alone clean. He loves his brothers, laughs and shakes and squeals when he sees them, works hard to be where they are, to eat what they eat, to be a part of the action. He seems in such a hurry to be big like them. Silly Ansel- don't you know Mama LIKES having a baby in the house?

Sick. Fair. Rain.

2009-10-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

Home, sick. Fevers, chills, sore throats, queasy stomachs, blood shot eyes. Poor Avery went three days without eating a single thing. Aaron was home before bedtime twice this whole week. There aren't any groceries, the house is a disaster zone, laundry is piled to the ceiling in the laundry room (where IS the maid, anyway? oh right, it's just me) and the huge box of peaches that I haven't gotten to yet is starting to smell a little... ripe.
Bummer.
I'm just hoping maybe it was swine flu and we're safe now?
Luckily he recovered just in time to go to the fair, though he didn't feel up to going on any rides that Miles wasn't also big enough to go on.
Bummer.
Well, there's always next year.
And, as usual, the last two days of the fair were rainy, grey, and cold. October is here and with it the first bites of winter coming on.
Bummer.
Oh well, we had fun, at the fair and all summer, and at least everything is getting watered really well for the end of the season, with no effort on my part. I always feel a little decadent and ridiculously suburban, turning on the underground sprinklers to water the LAWN. Seems like there's probably lots more important things in the world that water could be used for than grass. Maybe if my front yard was filled with vegetables....
Oh well, there's always next year!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Bopsie!

2009-09-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

What kind of birthday dessert do you make for someone who has recently lost 87 pounds and is still in the losing stage? Of course, everyone knows the ideal birthday cake comes in two forms- a high, light carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and marzipan carrots in a layer or "dirt" made from crushed up Newman's Own Ginger-O's, and the Chocolatey-chocolate-chocolate kind. Period. But, you know, there's something about making a birthday cake that the birthday girl will actually eat that is rewarding, too. And so:
Grandma Bopsie's Peach and Raspberry Pavlova Birthday Cake:
meringue
Beat three egg whites, 1/4 t. cream of tartar til frothy, slowly add 1/2 c. sugar. (I thought this would be delicious with some ground pistachios, but I was at Grandma's house, and she didn't have any....) When it is stiff and glossy spread the sticky mixture out in a circle, or several little ones, or a heart shape, or bone shape for Halloween, or whatever takes your fancy, on parchment paper, bake in a 275 degree oven for 60 minutes, and then let cool in the oven.
Top with sliced fruit, sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve with whipped cream or ice cream. Or top with whipped cream (or ice cream) and put the fruit over that. That's what I would do, normally- we were just trying to keep calories and fat lower, and served the cream on the side.
It was a hit. Miles thought it was like eating a cloud. Grandma Bopsie was very happy with her pretty, light birthday dessert. Yay!

Capturing the Sun: Marigold Salve

2009-09-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of using the harvest, enjoying the last summer sunshine, making do and making at home, Miles and I created a little homemade marigold salve.

He went out and picked marigolds himself, and washed them, took the petals off, and put the stems and heads in the compost, all by himself. I wanted to use beeswax, and almond oil, but we were out, so we raided the cupboards and came up with nearly a pint: unpetroleum, shea butter, coconut oil, Weleda baby oil, honey. Miles dumped all this stuff in a pan.
Next in the saucepan: all those lovely, sunshiney marigold petals. Miles picked, washed, and plucked petals himself. We brought our concoction to a boil, then simmered for half an hour. Marigold and honey scent filled the house. Then we strained the mixture into a jar, and let it cool. It is a lovely orangey-golden color, smelling flowery and a little bit sweet. The salve itself is soft-ish and melts right in to Miles' eczema-raw arms. Oh! How he hates having lotion rubbed into his skin! This is just perfect for after baths, and Miles is certain it is full of goodness, sunshine, "strongness" and bravery, perfect for Michaelmas coming up, the waning of the sun's season, and all of the things little boys need extra courage to face. "It's like a sunshine hug!"

This was my first attempt at making salve, and it was super easy. I'm thinking, of course, of all the variations to try: maybe something with all that mint outside, what about the lemonbalm, the echinacea? I have comfrey, too! Rosemary? Lavender?

Where Did We Go?

2009-09-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

Can you guess where we were? Here area few clues:
1) We camped out, with COLD nights and warm days.
2) We met a lot of people from all over the world.
3)We hiked around lots of clear, cold lakes, with colors ranging from milky white, all the blues, even jade green.
4)Everywhere you look are rocks in red, green, and white, exactly matching all the mountainsides around.

5)Alpen-like vistas and Swiss-themed lodges kept us thinking "Heidi", chasing mountain goats and singing "The Sound of Music" tunes all day long. (Yes, I know The Sound of Music was set in Austria, but still, who can argue with "The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music" as a mental soundtrack to this adventure? Who?)

6)"U" shaped valleys, anyone? Anyone guess where we were yet?

7)Of the 25 glaciers left in the park, all are expected to be gone by 2020. 2020!

8)Water from those glaciers flows to three different oceans- the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic. I think it's amazing to stand on the ridge of the continent and think of all the directions available, and that with just a step one way or another, the path is determined.

Hooray! You got it! Yes!

We were camping in Glacier National Park in Montana.

We had other adventures too, I'll tell you later! For now, just know we're home, we're safe, the old Volvo has mysteriously expelled a semi-truck's worth of clothes and books, boots, swimsuits, snowsuits, rainsuits, camping supplies, dirt, cocoa packets, and sleeping boys all over the driveway and house.

Tomorrow we wash and organize, re-enter the world of work and school, chores and schedules. Tonight we'll leave the windows open, though, and sleep one more night with our dreams in the mountains, trailing off in every direction, to all the corners of the globe.

Good night.

The Rhythm of Our Days is Over There...

2009-09-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

I made this neat table, our rhythm/schedule thingy, and tried to post it here, but it didn't work, so here it is, on the homeschool site, even though it's not strictly homeschool....

We're off on a grand adventure this afternoon. I'll tell you all about it later!
Hopefully I won't forget the camera, OR batteries!

New Friends and Old

2009-09-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

Miles describing his new friend "She's nice. She's a good burper. A REALLY good burper!" and his old friend "She's my best girl. Best in the world!".
Just take a moment of grace for you friends, old and new, and appreciate their many talents, would you? Even burping.

Oh Darn It!

2009-09-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

I was showing Avery some dumb-but-funny you tube video a friend sent me, which I'd seen and thought would add a moment of lighthearted fun to our day, and he started reading a link title somewhere on the web page. A title that included the "F" word. The real one, not what had passed for the real and still forbidden word in our house until just that moment. I hadn't even noticed it!
I sort of jumped and yelped, "Don't read that!" and tried to exit as fast as possible. Although, I suppose, the damage was already done. And shouting didn't help the situation.
His big eyes filled with water, threatening, just threatening to spill. He didn't know it was a bad word. I reassured him I wasn't angry at him, I wasn't angry at all. Just shocked to hear it from his mouth, surprised it was there in the first place for him to see. He still felt bad, all afternoon, from the unexpected encounter with ugliness, the bad taste in his mouth. The loss of innocence, I suppose. He couldn't quite articulate, except to wonder why people would say something that makes them feel so bad.
Remember being a kid? Being curious about all things grown up and forbidden, but also how raw and terrible those nibbles can be, when we're nowhere near ready for the taste of them? 'Cause, darn it, I do, and it's just as painful on the grown up side, watching the little injuries, watching childhood tear away, bit by bit.

Easiest Summer Landscape Fix

2009-09-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

The sunflower! Who doeasn't love sunflowers? Cheap, easy, fast growing, drought-hearty, invincible, cheerful, and self-sowing.
The first spring after we bought this house there were some sunflower self-sown starts in the garden, and a little problem of the big low deck needing something around it to keep a new toddler from thinking he could walk off the edge. Perfect! Our deck is surrounded now by sunflowers, self-sown, and they grow around the sand pit, too, making it a shady little hidden place all summer. Along side the driveway, where nothing was growing and I never water? Sunflowers, cheerful sunshine faces bobbing along in the breeze, peeking over the fence, saying hello to all who pass. There's always one or two who make it through in the veggie patch, and they are always mammoths, with stems I can't get a hand around, and huge flowers, bobbing over everything like massive, benevolent scarecrows (and at least as effective as the straw and overalls variety!).
Their charm doesn't end with summer, either. As the seeds ripen they become a forest of standing, waving, living bird feeders. Even after we pull them from the ground the fallen seeds attract birds, all winter long. And somehow, beyond amazement, there are always still way too many popping up again in the spring, pushing eager heads up and out, searching out the sun with us winter weary citizens. Because of sunflowers we've been able to delay rebuilding the deck, installing irrigation, rebuilding the fence, doing all kinds of more expensive landscape fixes!
Unfortunately my efforts to harvest the seeds have ended poorly, but still there is hope, and my own nest full of hungry birdie-mouths eager for "homemade" sunflower seeds. Maybe this year!

No more diapers?

2009-08-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

As the mother of an infant, diapers are always on my mind. Or in my hand. We've gone through different systems over the years, bouncing back and forth between cloth and disposable, wraps and pull on pants, all in ones and homemade felted wool covers.

This time around Avery is in on the action, too. He's a champion diaper changer (and fetcher from the laundry liner, too!). But here's his idea, better than disposables or washable cloth diapers:
A Baby Bidet! Perfect, right? Oh, wait, you can't quite picture it?
Imagine a softish vinyl or plastic "diaper" (maybe Crocs material?) with two hose attachments. When the baby messes, or just needs a clean-up, you attach the "in" hose to the sink faucet (or a water bottle if you're out) and the diaper, and you attach the "out" hose and hold it over the toilet. Picture it now?
Brilliant, eh?
You may say it's not practical. Call it the wishful dreaming of a 9 year old boy, but I say he's not the only one dreaming of a day without diapers going to the landfill OR the washing machine. And, you know, I think it's pretty cool that I even have a 9 year old boy who THINKS about diapers, you know?
And if I see this in the One Step Ahead catalog alongside the silly changing table pee-guard, at least I hope the credit goes to the right kid, okay? (And if anyone buys it, well... all parents start out as silly first timers....)

Brown Boxes

2009-08-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

A goodly stack of them were waiting for us when we came home from a long weird weekend in the mountains. It's our favorite time of the school year- the end of summer, with last minute desperate dashes for fun all intertwined with school year plans getting more and more detailed, flushed out, projects and field trips in the works, book lists for the library getting compiled. Shelves being organized and reorganized. And boxes. Lovely brown boxes arriving in the mail, full of the things that mean school to us- some math workbooks, sometimes, sure, but a big stack of blank lesson books to fill with beautiful pictures and examples of our learning, new packages of colored pencils and beeswax crayons, lots of books to read and absorb, some games to play, a year's worth of "work".
I just realized about five minutes ago that I have a whole order, those math workbooks, three science kits, and a writing program, that I didn't put through yet! Wow! I tried, there was some problem, it slipped my mind. Oh well, I'll do it now and they'll be here eventually. It's not as if we're lacking school materials to get started with!

Free Museum Day!

2009-08-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

Do you know about Museum Day 2009, when you can get free admission to museums just by printing off an admission ticket from the Smithsonian magazine's websitesite, right here? No, not just the Smithsonian museums- yeah, I know those are always free. If I lived in the DC kind of Washington we'd be there all the time. But we don't. We live in the other kind of Washington. Where Seattle is. Hey! Speaking of Seattle, the Experience Music Project is there, and guess what? They're participating in Museum Day! Uh, not that I'm going with the little ones, but it's a perfect kind of big kid and Papa rock and roll thing to do. For free, instead of the usual $15 for each ticket. Check it out- even if the EMP isn't your thing, there's lots of other Museums around the US participating.

Fake-ipes

2009-08-15T10:35:00.001-07:00

One of the things that lately makes me tear at my hair and moan "O! what is the world coming to?" is the absolute abundance of "semi-homemade" or even "not-a-bit-homemade" recipes out there. There was one in the paper this morning- a store bought graham cracker crust, cream cheese from a package, sweetened and mixed with cream, topped with sliced fruit. Seriously?
I'm sure it tastes good, but REALLY? this needs to be documented as a RECIPE?! Really?
It's like cookbooks with a "salad" section full of dishes that start with a package of JELLO. Please. Aren't we smarter than that? Can't we do better?
Don't get me wrong- I'm all for quick recipes, things that are yummy and healthy and easy for those times when we're busy and tired and still have to feed our families. Fine. I have a recipe for a gluten free 15 minute pizza crust that we all really like. But it doesn't start with opening a box of anything. Dishes like that are TECHNIQUES, not recipes, I think.
I have a bunch of ways to turn a box of Annie's mac and cheese into a meal, but, you know, Annie has the recipe, I just have some techniques to add to it. Like grating summer squash, carrots, and onions, or adding black beans, salsa, sour cream, avocado, cilantro.
For the record I also make a delicious home made mac and cheese, and I may share the recipe sometime. Rest assured it doesn't start with "open a box of mac and cheese...."

Yogurt, Take Two

2009-08-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

I've said before that we eat a lot of yogurt. About a gallon a week. I did a whole post some time back about making yogurt in the crockpot, which is so ridiculously easy, and so much cheaper than buying it, even in the big Nancy's yogurt containers I used to buy every week.

But then I melted the electrical cord to my crockpot, so it was out of commission for a couple weeks. Avery and Grandpa Randy fixed it, but it seemed like it was working better than it had been before- well, hotter, or faster, or something. The milk was getting cooked to the bottom of the crock. And let me tell you- yogurt with little chunks of burned milk in it is not a taste sensation you'd want to repeat! And pouring $5.49 in organic milk down the drain makes me sad. Very, very sad. Heating the milk on low worked better, but oh! so slow. So unbearably slow. So I started buying yogurt again. Ugh. I hate buying things I can make better and cheaper at home. Which is one reason why we hardly ever eat out unless we go to the city. Don't even get me started!

Then I remembered my friend Jennifer- she makes it in the cooler. So easy! Not quite as easy as the crockpot method, but more predictable, at least with my hyper-functioning crockpot. Just heat up the milk to 170, place the pot and all in the sink (or my big blue basin) and dump some ice around to cool it quickly, skimming off any skin that might form. Stir in the yogurt starter (and honey and vanilla if wanted), pour into containers, place in a cooler with jars of hot tap water. In the morning- lovely thick, creamy, smooth, burned-milk-bitless yogurt. Hooray!

Walk and Talk, Mama

2009-08-11T00:36:00.001-07:00

I always forget to post all the silly, sweet things my kids say. The things I really do want to remember. Well, no more!
Today at the Y, waiting for Avery's swimming lesson to finish, Miles asked for a carrot, took a bite, looked up at me and said "Let's walk and talk, Mama." So, of course we did, back and forth in the hall, munching carrots. "So how are you feeling? How was your day today?" He asked me.
Little man!

First Block Done!

2009-08-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

Well, prepared. I've been struggling all summer with this Man and Animals lesson, one of the important ones of the fourth grade , and I've finally finished up my planning, got my head wrapped around the ideas, at least to apoint that I'm happy enough with. Here it is! Hooray!
And now, on with the rest of it- Vikings, poetry, zoology, here I come!

My Summer Boys

2009-08-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you how many hours we spend "driving" old tractors and trucks and forklifts and excavators. With permission, of course. For some reason that eludes me, this is an endlessly fascinating activity. Well, it's free, and plentiful, around here, what with all the farms and such.

Avery doing the concrete work for his play structure, at the beginning of the summer.

Amazing how gorgeous babies are, huh? It's a good talent, they have!

Miles, in a petulant pose. Or maybe it's more like a Save the Children pose or something.

Miles loves holding his baby. He is torn, always going back and forth between wanting to be a big boy like Avery and a baby like Ansel. It's a hard decision- Avery gets to use electric tools, and ride his bike in the street alone, Ansel gets to nurse and be held whenever he wants.

Miles at the Sprinkler Park- a favorite place this summer.

Baby cuteness!

A pretty typical sort of pose lately- Avery playing it cool, Miles hamming it up, front and center.

More ham!

Miles found a tree he could climb on by himself. A great day!

Next summer he'll be running around, following his brothers, getting into trouble. This summer he's still mine, and he still stays pretty much where I put him. And he's still entertained by looking up and talking to the leaves and clouds and breeze.

Beaver masks. They wear them all the time. Thank you Artsvan!

Miles at swimming lessons.

Avery's play structure, almost, almost, this close to done! Good work, eh?

Fever

2009-08-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

It is hot outside, still. 106 today, maybe? That was the forecast.
But all thoughts of the miserable out-of-doors are gone by the wayside, pushed out by this burning hot little one in my arms, whose own temperature is competing with the sun's work out there. He is so miserable he only wants to be held, and so hot his little curled up body leaves a heat imprint even when he's not in my arms. My chest and neck and cheek and arms feel sunburned, even though we've not been outside today.
Sometimes he tries to smile, at his silly brothers, maybe, but the weak little wobbly smile dissolves in moans. Is there anything in the entire world more heartbreaking than a baby moaning?
Well, we're home, staying away from the picnics and swimming party of our weekend plans. It is so hot out there I would be glad to stay home, in the air conditioned, drawn shade cool of my house. I would be glad, if only it weren't so hot, here in my arms.

Snow Cones!

2009-07-26T22:05:00.000-07:00

We capped off a great weekend in Seattle with a visit to Greenlake, a good hour at the playground and snow cones- the boys' first!

Ansel did not get one, however he is very interested in food, and watches with eagle eyes whenever there is eating or drinking happening. Snow cones involve both!

Thank you Friends!

2009-07-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

I am feeling much better.
The weather is not any cooler, but I am. Papa's project at work is over, so there's a little breathing room coming. We've got a fun weekend planned, and today I got filled up with a chance to talk with friends, while the boys ran and ran and played and got their energy out, despite bloody noses and the heat. (Will there ever be a day Miles has a bloody nose and I don't immediately worry that he has leukemia? Why does my heart stop sometimes, watching him? He is so healthy, so VITAL, so full of life.) Then, to top it all off, my smart, funny, lovely friend Tracy made supper for us, and all we had to do was show up and eat and it was wonderful. Almost as good as a heavy summer rain. How nice to have a friend who knows just what I need, and welcomes us at our worst- cranky, sweaty, and tired, then sends us home happy and full, even with a plate of food for my husband? Tomorrow I'm making supper for all of us, and I'm thinking this is a nice thing- a night off, a night on.
Another friend and I were talking about how nice aspects of living in a kibbutz would be. Hard and monotonous work are always easier shared. Why are barn raisings such fun, or shelling peas and pitting cherries with company nicer than doing it alone?
I've been thinking I would love to have a place to spend the summer- the shore or a lake, little cottages and all the Moms and kids, Dads on the weekends, big packs of kids running around and keeping each other busy. I guess I want to live in a tender coming of age movie or something!
In the meantime I will keep living here in the desert, and I will keep counting my blessings, my friends.

Eating The Rainbow (Miles style)

2009-07-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

Miles, our candy-crazed sugar-fiend, made a picnic for us, following all of the advice about food groups and "eating the rainbow". Perhaps not quite what the people at Today I Ate A Rainbow had in mind, but hey, color sorting is educational, right? Doesn't that make up for the complete lack of nutritional value and toxic levels of artificial colors and flavors represented by this rainbow? No, you say? Really?
Well... don't you at least like my metal TV-tray plates as much as I do?

Over the Wall

2009-07-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

I hit "the wall" this week. Smashed full force, face first, knocked flat. I work really hard at maintaining balance, rhythm, keeping the house clean enough, the kids educated enough, fed enough, clothed and bathed and entertained enough. And I guess I do a pretty good job, most of the time. But there comes the summer, and day after day after day temperatures too hot to bear gracefully.
"I need something to cool me down!" Miles cried the other day, after riding his bike around the deck a few times, "The outside has a fever, I think." In deed. The whole darn world has a fever right now, it feels like.
And I am from the land of sea and spray, foggy green and gray, rain and moss and shade. Of course it's not the weather's fault, or even this place's fault- for goodness sake, I know that!- it is my fault, I know. I should plan better, or at least not let summer take me by surprise every single year, but still, knowing it doesn't fix it, does it? For somehow I always think I'll be the winner- I'll be able to be creative enough and productive enough that summer heat won't slow me down, not this year. And then I crash right into that wall.
There was even a story recently about how temperature affects GDP- no surprise that higher temperatures mean less productivity, less money. If it happens for whole regions of the world, whole countries, I guess I shouldn't be shocked when it happens in my family, huh?
So...I'm maybe not quite over the wall yet, but almost. In the most resigned and beaten way. Today we get up, wearily, maybe, but UP, and tidy house, work on our projects, meet our friends, play, eat, relax. Try to enjoy the summer, help each other over the wall, carry on.

lower case learning

2009-07-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

I have a new blog, just for school stuff. That's why I started this one, of course, to keep all the homeschool ideas and curriculum plans organized, but it hasn't worked out that way. This is more about our lives and how we're figuring it all out than just about school- although when you homeschool I'm not sure you ever really aren't "doing school". Anyway- the new blog is called lower case learning and it is just school stuff. Really.
If you want to know the minutiae of our lives, you're in the right place. If you don't really care about that, or you're just dying to know exactly how our school days are structured, how many chapters of which book he read, how many science projects we did, or how our nature study is progressing- well, go there!
In either case, Welcome, and I'm happy to meet you and share these conversations about life, kids, and learning (theirs, and ours)!

The Nicest Weekend (given the circumstances)

2009-07-20T09:36:00.001-07:00

Just to set the scene- Papa's been at work A LOT this week- we haven't had dinner with him excpet once, and that was the only night he was home before the boys went to bed. Plus, it's been boiling hot and awful lately- too hot to play outside without water going, and with two little ones we can't very easily go to the pool or the river to play. So.
Saturday.
The boys and I went to see the 3-D movie "Up". So fun! Miles had never been to a movie before, and he was amazed! Everything is so... larger than life on the big screen! He did not care for the 3-D glasses, but he did great, and had a lot to talk about after. I splurged and got a big popcorn and soda and actually bought candy instead of trying to sneak it in, and we had a respite from hot, hot glaring sunlight, for awhile. Cool, dark, sweet. The baby slept, nursed, and looked around and laughed a bunch. It was nearly $40- a huge splurge (and somehow shocking to me- has it really been THAT long since I've been to the movies?!) but it was a fine treat after another long, hot week.
Sunday.
You know how nice it feels, when you're out in public and a stranger compliments you on your children's behaviour and manners? It's nice, of course, for them to get acknowledgement from people outside the family that they're doing the right thing, and it feels nice, as the parent, to have your parenting choices affirmed like that. It can totally make your day.
Well, at the fruit stand near our house we received just such a compliment, followed by the gift from a stranger of box seat tickets to the Bears (our minor league baseball team)! A compliment followed by baseball tickets pretty much had us grinning ear to ear the rest of the day! what a delicious surprise! What fun! Which game to choose? The boys are already talking about nachos and ice cream sandwiches, Boomer the Bear, and ice cold sodas.
We had plans to catch up on chores, which didn't really happen, though we did get our grocery shopping done. And I used some chicken I had already cooked to make a sort of yummy sweet and sour apricot chicken with brown rice and cucumber salad on the side. We brought some in my cute metal tiffin container to Papa at the office.
Then we headed to the park, for the first night of this summer's Outdoor Cinema Series. What could be better than sitting on a blanket in the dark, in the park, eating carrots and popcorn and milk duds with your three boys, watching The Muppet Movie on a giant inflatable screen? For free? So, so fun! We got home at 11:05 pm, and were all in bed by 11:15, teeth brushed and sticky faces washed. Sweet dreams for Rainbow Believers.

Oops... It's Gone (Broccoli Slaw)

2009-07-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

I got inspired by the Broccoli Slaw at Smitten Kitchen and made it for supper last night. It was going to be a side, for a picnic supper, but I never quite made the rest of the supper, so I just gave it to the boys as a side, with some slices of chicken I had already cooked and in the fridge.
Of course I didn't have all the ingredients she calls for (well, I pretty much only had broccoli, but that's the way it is when you have a meal plan and don't stick to it) so I winged it. Anyway, it was so delicious I ate a ton last night and all the leftovers for lunch today, and I want more for supper. Also, I ate it faster than I could take a picture, so you'll just have to make it yourself to see it. But it looks nice, all green and red and orange and creamy.
2 heads of broccoli, shredded or sliced in the food processor, 2 carrots, shredded, 1 sweet onion, diced, 3 stalks celery, sliced thin, a bunch of grapes, chopped, tossed all together with a dressing made of 1/2c milk, 2T. lemon juice, 2T. apple cider vinegar, 1/3c. mayo, 1t. mustard, 2T. sugar, salt, pepper, shaken or whisked smooth before being poured over. Then I topped my salad with some of that sliced cold chicken. Yum. Just how I like to eat when Papa isn't home- easy, cold, and just one dirty plate each.
Hey! Do you think it's bad to eat ice cream for supper when it's 100 degrees out? What if you eat ice cream for supper while watching Leave It To Beaver reruns with your kids AND you all just pass the carton and a spoon back and forth, instead of making dirty dishes? I'm not saying that's what supper looks like tonight... I'm just wondering... you know... for a friend....

Summer By The Numbers

2009-07-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

Apricot syrup, blueberry jam. Jars full of summer- they even LOOK like sunshine, don't they?

This past week by the numbers:

320 books removed hastily from shelves as water seeped up through the carpet underneath. And then neatly put back, in tidy groupings which lasted about 1/2 an hour. 320 sighs from Mama.

180 pounds of cherries: picked, washed, stemmed, pitted, frozen, dried, fruit leathered, and soon to be jammed. I am SO done with cherries this year! Well, as soon as I make that jam, and some more fruit leather-it is delish, even if we are weary of cherries.

160 minutes we lasted at the Folklife Festival before we were too wilted and cranky and tired and in need of air conditioning and dim rooms and icy, slippery glasses of lemonade.

102 degrees Miles was for no apparent reason.

101 times I thought he might have West Nile Virus- all those mosquito bites on the 4th of July?

100 times I convinced myself not to freak out about it.

99 degrees when we went to Folklife this weekend. Cooler than past years, but really awful heat to bear just the same. Even with ice cream cones and a giant slip and slide powered by a fire hose and a big hill.

80 pounds of blueberries: picked, washed and sorted, frozen, jammed.

75 times I've thought about weeding the garden.

40 pounds of apricots: washed, pitted, canned, turned into syrup. More to be found, picked, dried, and made into fruit leather. Do you know anyone with an under appreciated apricot tree?

18 trips down said slip and slide.

12 pounds of raspberries: picked, washed, frozen. More to pick from our own bushes and made into jam. And dried whole, for granola. Maybe more to pick, over the mountains?

10 pm- average bedtime for boys this week of late nights, weird schedules, and innumerable chances to help Mama out!

7 tomatoes picked from our plants and eaten with silly happy grins on our faces. It's summer!

5 minutes spent weeding, er... making a completely unnoticeable dent in the overgrowth of weeds in my poor garden. Oh, it's sad. At least I had the foresight to plant the tomatoes on the edge, so they're first weeded! If that counts for anything, I don't know.

3 times our basement has flooded now, for 3 entirely different reasons. Still, it's three times pulling up carpets, getting out shopvacs and renting giant dryer-fans, pouring baking soda and vacuuming it up, tacking carpet down and putting everything away again. 3 can be a pretty big number, sometimes.

3 jars of strawberry jam eaten already. Guess I need to make more if we're to have any this winter!

3 lunches made entirely of ice cream. Shhh! Don't tell Papa!

2 plastic safari hats overflowing with candy brought home from a birthday party.

1 tired Mama.

Nature Study 1B Wasps

2009-07-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

Following up on our first Handbook of Nature Study lesson, we learned a little bit about wasps this week. Wasps are related to bees, but are not hairy like bees are. Wasps are solitary or social- those are the ones that build those paper pulp nests, like the one we saw on the slide the other day. Only the females have stingers. Some live on nectar, but others are omnivores, and eat carrion along with their sweets. Some wasps are parasitic, and they lay their eggs inside caterpillars, then when the eggs hatch, they eat the caterpillar from the inside out. Totally awesome, apparently. We did all agree that using parasitic wasps for pest control was way cooler than using toxic pesticides. Though I guess we don't want close encounters with either form of insect control!

Nature Study 1A Cottonwood

2009-07-09T14:43:00.001-07:00

Cottonwood Seeds. Photo from Land Arts in an Electronic Age.

We learned a little bit about Cottonwood Trees this week, after seeing a little farm COVERED in the fluffy cottony spiderwebby seeds, and seeing them at the Ahtanum Mission. Avery was interested to find out that Cottonwoods have light, flexible wood, often used to make those round cheese boxes, matches, paper, cheap plywood, snowboard cores, and perhaps most excitingly, the "bones" of Buster, the crash test dummy on the TV show Mythbusters! Apparently cottonwood breaks under the same pressure as human bones. Good to know, good to know. Another interesting thing about cottonwoods is that they can sprout roots from buried limbs and trunk (and vice versa) making them good at holding sand dunes, and one of the few trees able to survive a sand dune existence.

Also, cottonwoods are Poplar type trees, and like to grow in wet areas. Around here they are found down in the little valleys and canyons along stream banks.

Righteous Indignation

2009-07-08T23:44:00.000-07:00

is what I miss most, not being a renter. The indignation about any interruption or broken thing was definitely easier than actually having to deal with and fix all those problems!
And I'm not really complaining- I love my little house and my beautiful little street and neighborhood. I love building equity, and not dealing with landlords with alcohol problems. For sure!
But still, when we're staying up all night sucking water out of the carpet in the basement and renting those giant air blowers AGAIN it's hard not to be a little nostalgic for the days when we could deal with any house problem by building up some good old righteous indignation and firmly demanding our right to live without technical difficulties. And to leave and come back and voila! everything is fixed. Just exactly the way we said it should be.

I'm Just Sayin'

2009-07-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

In honor of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, which is happening this week, a little unspiration from the hopeless, demotivatating folks at despair, inc. But I'm warning you now- you shouldn't be sitting in your nicest chair, 'cause you're gonna pee your pants laughing. I'm just sayin'.

Nature Study 1

2009-07-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

We started our new Nature Study program today. We're using Anna Botsford Comstock's The Handbook of Nature Study, and the guidance and some of the ideas from The One Hour Challenges at this website, plus our regular nature science stories, like these, and these, as well as made up ones and Native American stories.
Avery's drawing of a Clover flower. It doesn't show up well in the picture, but in his book it is sweet. Diminutive, but isn't clover, really?

We had a picnic under this tree. What a great way to start a nature study outing!

One of the original old apple trees still growing and producing on the Mission grounds.

I think this is the seedpod of an American Sycamore tree. There are several at the Mission, providing beauty and shade to the park grounds.

Wasp nest under the slide ramp. The boys watched closely for some time.

Miles' nature book drawing. He finished pretty quickly then spent some time moving piles of dirt around and poking them with his apple wood stick.

My page. We were sitting directly under one of those ancient apple trees, so it seemed natural to draw that. Ummm... not that I'm a fabulous artist or anything, but it's fun to all sit and draw together. And we were using these cool Lyra Aquacolor crayons, which draw nicely like rich, soft crayons, then magically turn into a watercolor painting when you brush with water!

Our two topics for further study are wasps and cottonwoods. We'll spend a bit of time this week finding out about those things.

St. Joseph Mission at the Ahtanum

2009-07-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

To start off our new Nature Study program, based on the Outdoor Hour Challenges and The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, we went to a new park. Well, new to us anyway! St. Joseph Mission at the Ahtanum, also known as Ahtanum Mission Park, is lovely, quiet and pretty, clean, and serene. There are apple trees, the creek, grassy areas, picnic tables and shelters, a swing set and slide. It is shady and cool and wonderful on a hot day, far enough out of the way to feel special, different.
The church building, still used for services, is simple and sweet and pure. I love little churches like this- just plain pews, altar- it feels like it's easier for God to hear our prayers than in a fancy, ornate building. Like everything is laid bare, honest and clear.

The relief telling the story of the Mission. The figures are not adult life-size, but they are just about the size of Miles.

The Memorial Pillars. The boys weren't all that interested in the names and dates, but did find it fun to squeeze between the tall stones.

Avery, looking very teenager-y to me. I can't stand it, sometimes! What happened to my little baby?

Miles in the teepee. There's another one, more like the indigenous shelters- covered in tule reed mats. The boys liked this big one, though, because it had some decorations from a party inside.

The little cabin where the priests lived and services were performed before the church was built.

Ansel, getting chubby and loving the sun, the grass, the outdoors. What's better than a day at the park?

The Mission was built in 1852, at the request of the Yakama Indian Chief Kamiakin. He brought meat to the starving priests, who began teaching the Yakamas farming, and began working the land, digging irrigation canals, and growing squash, corn, wheat, melon, and potatoes. The priests also taught the Indians French, Latin, and English, and compiled a dictionary of the Yakama Language. The Mission was burned to the ground during the Yakima Indian War in 1855, when US soldiers discovered a cask of gunpowder hidden under ground. It was reestablished in 1867, when the first apple orchard in the Yakima Valley was planted there.

Waldorf 4th Grade: Man and Animals

2009-07-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

I am in the midst of preparing for the upcoming school year- we'll have a Fourth Grader and a Preschooler, plus the baby, so I want to be as organized and prepared as possible. This summer I'm reading the Norse Myths, researching curriculum choices for the workbook type things we'll use, and trying to get my head around the 4th grade lesson blocks usually called "Man and Animals" or something similar. Sometimes it's called zoology, which is what I've been calling it.

Teaching science has always been my biggest worry point- Avery LOVES doing experiments and lab work, I don't, so much. I love going outside and watching bugs and flowers, but don't really care what they're called or why, he can barely watch for a moment without the desire to KNOW burning him up and into a book. And here we are. Fourth grade. The start of real science, not just nature stories, for Waldorf kids. The unfolding of the child's sense of inner and outer selves, of objectivity, and the BIGNESS of the world. I don't want to mess that up! And I am completely at a loss. What to do?
The Waldorf curriculum tells us that animals are specialized, one-sided. Really perfectly adapted to their task, but only made for that one thing. Animals fall into one of three categories, or embody one of the threefold human traits- they are either thinking, feeling, or willing. Humans, in contrast, are imperfect, but embody all of these traits, plus one other: we are created upright, with hands and arms that are not needed to move us, like animals, but free to turn to service for God and humanity. It doesn't sound too bad (or maybe it does, depending on your perspective) but I am having a problem taking it all in. I just don't really GET it, I guess, and I'm worried that in my attempt to teach something I don't deeply understand and believe that I will not do justice to the task, or my child. I can see a glimmer of how it might be beautiful and true taught by a real Waldorf teacher, someone trained in and understanding of this material. Unfortunately I keep getting stuck with it all feeling forced, like poor science, mixing of holy and earthly things I have no business messing with.
I feel comfortable teaching the animals in tidy groups: you know, mammals, reptiles, mollusks, birds.... I feel comfortable with the idea that humans are upright and special, able to think and feel and do, and that we have a responsibility to care for the world we've been given (or given to, maybe?). I feel comfortable saying animals embody the willing aspect of humans, but the feeling and thinking? I guess dolphins are thinkers, but aren't they still more will-full? Does the octopus, with that huge head, really think more that follow instinct? Surely the jellyfish is more instinctual, yet it is sometimes taught with the "thinkers".... I don't know, and I'm having a hard time getting comfortable with this lesson, I guess because of exactly what I don't know.

The Octopus: a classic Waldorf embodiment of the "thinking" characteristic of the human.

The Eagle: who soars like our thoughts, who attacks prey as we "attack" an idea.

The Lion: embodies "feeling" with strong use of all the senses and that powerful heart.

The Snake: no limbs, all digestive and torso- another "feeling" animal.

The Sea Star: looks like our hand, a clear manifestation of "will".

A Steer: like oxen or a bull, strong and made for work, exercising one's will.

The Fifth of July

2009-07-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

The day after is starting out quietly. Homemade granola, fresh picked raspberries. The Sunday paper. First load of cherries out of the dehydrator and the second load in. Wimbledon and skittles with Papa. Later the Farmer's Market, grocery shopping, setting grains to soak for bread tomorrow. Making cherry jam. The 80 pounds of pesticide-free Johnson's Orchards Bings and Rainiers we picked Friday sure went fast! Laundry. Yogurt making. Yard mowing and weeding.

The Day: The Fourth of July was sparkly, hot, silly, fun! A perfect birthday!

Cherry Festival at the Fruit Place: pit spitting contest (45 ft!), cherry pie eating, cherry tasting, hay ride, tractor sitting (why oh why is sitting on a tractor so amusing for little boys?)

Attack!

Finished!

Can I use my hands now?

Going to the reservation to buy firecrackers: a big pack of sparklers and a few Roman Candles to save for some wintry, snowy, safer night (Why oh why do boys love fire and explosions so? And why oh why do grown men revert to absolute boy-hood around the Fourth, so that Moms have to turn nervous and shrill and ruin all the fun? Why?)

Supper with friends: So relaxing and nice. Amazing to watch all the kids, usually asleep by 8 (or earlier) stay up, and up, and up! Barbecue beef, delicious German potato salad, coleslaw, corn on the cob (Miles ate three!). Moms talked and took care of babies, Dads and older kids watched and sang along with the Schoolhouse Rock songs about America. Miles woke up this morning singing the Preamble to the Constitution. Papa might have gotten a little misty singing along to "The Great American Melting Pot". It's possible. Three year olds running in and out, up and down, riding trikes and spring horses, eating watermelon and cherries. Thrilling, scary, exciting, beautiful sparklers. So, so good. Happy Independence Day!

Fireworks: Much debate, a final decision. With lots of bug spray, plates of raspberry shortbread bars, we'll brave the mosquitoes, the crowds, the late hour, and make our way to the Arboretum to watch the fireworks. It was great! The little ones who'd never seen fireworks were entranced, heartbroken when it was over. Baby Ansel, dressed head to toe and covered in a wrap on my chest was unmolested by mosquitoes (though I was prepared to retreat to the car if necessary). The rest of us were under attack (though Papa and the boys not so much as me, luckily). It really is unheard of in this area- it's awful. And yet, no one wanted to leave. The excitement of fireworks was worth it, and the pure joy of watching little faces so entranced, so amazed, was pretty great. Even if my arms, shoulders, back, legs, feet are swollen and itchy and hurting today. It was a great day, yesterday, the Fourth of July!

Neglectful Parent, Happy child

2009-06-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

Today, at home:
The three year old gathered nails of various sizes, a hammer, a screwdriver and screws, safety goggles, and asked if he could do some "banging and working, like a factory man" on our friend Andy's amplifier. Uh... NO! (but I'll help you in a moment, find something you can hammer). Not wanting to wait for me to get off the phone he went outside, found some scrap wood, and set up a little work bench in the shady corner of the deck. Bang, bang, bang, and away he goes.
This morning, at the park:
The nine year old really wanted to check out the free kid's art van project being hosted by the local arts' center, but he was worried about going halfway across this little park by himself, being that far away from me. It's nice to have kids that know to stay close, not to just wander off. I can't chase in three directions at once. But he is NINE. And the art tables were in sight of the play structure where the little kids were playing. It was SAFE!
Yesterday, at Fred Meyer:
I let the nine year old take the three year old into the men's restroom at the grocery store, without a supervising adult. I stood guard right outside, with the baby. Men and boys came and went, and my two were still inside, spending a long time carefully washing their hands, taking turns with the air dryer and tearing off paper towels. Things I always rush them through. Things they like to do. I could hear their voices, happy and good. A man and his little son went in, and I heard my little boy's cheerful voice chattering away. My boys came out, the nine year old proud I had let him go, and hadn't made him come to the women's room with me (as is usual), the three year old excited that he'd had "a nice talking" with a grown up Daddy in there. Hmm.
Yesterday, at home:
The nine year old made lunch for everyone (as he does at least a couple times a week). He chose mac and cheese- from the box with the bunny on it- and cut cucumbers, and strawberries. This is a non-event, almost, he is so used to the routine of cooking, so careful about the stove and knives and boiling hot water and steam.

I think it is interesting that the older boy is, while hardly timid by nature, clearly worried about "stranger danger" and safety rules, and has always been so, while the younger one is more worried about the possibility of not being allowed to do everything his much older brother is, and finds rules a detail not worth piffling with. Partly this is personality, partly birth order and spacing, I think, partly my emphasis on making the world safe enough for my first born and the fact that I've spent the second child's life just trying to catch him as he falls from cliffs I didn't even know existed before he figured out how to fall off of them!

I am conflicted. I want to raise adults who are fearless and bold, who will follow their hearts and change the world, who will speak their minds and know themselves to be true. I want them to grow strong and free in the light that surrounds them now, so that they can take their place in the world still bathed in the light of God and Love. But I worry- is my concern that I do everything possible to ensure that they REACH adulthood compromising the quality, not just of their childhoods, but of their adult hoods?

2009-06-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

This is what I'm eating, right this very minute. The last bit of homemade pistachio ice cream, which was rich and wonderful with the chocolate ice cream for our Turkish dinner party last week, but is beyond wonderful, beyond anything you can imagine, with fresh juicy organic strawberries.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

Ping! (Strawberry Jam)

2009-06-29T22:25:00.001-07:00

Is there any lovelier sound than the "Ping! Ping!" of jars sealing after their hot water bath? I think not. This is my first attempt at canning jam, since the boys only just decided they LIKE jam. Some of the strawberries we picked over the weekend skipped the freezer and turned themselves into jam.
I made 6 pints plus a little more, with 13 cups of strawberries, crushed with the potato masher, 5 cups of sugar (instead of 8, because I ran out, oops!) and three boxes of low-sugar pectin (instead of two, since they were all passed their expiration date). It doesn't go bad, though, I don't think, and I put in the third box since maybe the potency was affected, and since I didn't have nearly enough sugar for the recipe. I figured either way it would be okay- if it was syrupy we could always eat it with ice cream, or pancakes, if it was too firm it could be good filling for strawberry oatmeal bars or something. I processed them for 5 minutes, and everything sealed up fine. And the extra little jar I made for a tester turned out perfectly, amazingly. Not too sweet- it tastes just like strawberries, not sugar. The boys ate it for lunch. With spoons. Really.

Our Weekend, A-L (no, not Z- it wasn't THAT busy!)

2009-06-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

We took a little trip over the mountains to Seattle. I guess its been raining over there quite a bit- everywhere we went people kept asking if we were enjoying the sunshine. That's just not a question people ask each other over here. It would be like asking random strangers if they were enjoying being alive or breathing air. Because the air is nearly always sunny here. And enjoyable.

In fact one of my favorite things about going to the west side of the state is the greater chance that my kids will get to actually use their raincoats and rain boots. Well, they do use their rain gear- rubber boots are awesome for little boys (no straps, no laces!), and Avery wears his raincoat as a costume for his Evil Scientist persona. But, you know, they've actually had rain gear that has NEVER been used to keep water off of their bodies.

But no, it didn't rain.
They didn't wear their rain gear.

Here's what did happen, though:

A) I thought of an awesome photo project- pictures of people driving or riding in cars! Except I'm not sure how you'd do it. Pictures I take from cars always look like they were taken from behind a pane of smeary moving glass. But maybe, if I put the thought out there, maybe somebody else will do this project, and I will buy the book and be really happy.

B) We rediscovered why Newman's Own Ginger O's are the perfect road trip cookie. I can't explain it, they just are. Try it for your self sometime.

C) We went straight to our favorite U-Pick strawberry field:Dues Berry Farm north of Everett. They were flooded this winter and thought they'd lost all the berries, but to their surprise strawberries are there. The great thing is, they don't use pesticides or anything, and the strawberries were only $1 a pound. The bummer is, they weren't expecting berries, so they didn't weed or anything, and we picked pretty hard among thistles and something else, something allergy-inducing to get 18 pounds of tiny berries, which just isn't that much. And really expensive when you take into consideration the $35 in gas to get there.... Anyway, we still love the farm, and next year is their 100th year! so we're happy about that. And the strawberries are awesomely delicious. Even if I was sneezing so much the rest of the evening that I got a nosebleed, which hasn't happened in forever.

D) We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant, which we'd vowed never to do over there, given how many delicious, authentic Mexican restaurants there are here, and how few delicious restaurants of any other kind there are here. Except Rusillos, and a few others... not that we eat out very often anyway. Three kids, no money... easier, cheaper, and usually more delicious to stay home. But this restaurant, El Rey, in Lake Stevens is very yummy and authentic.

E) Rented Bolt on DVD. Because even though my parents finally have digital cable, there's still nothing on. Bolt was cute. A little scary, but cute. About an hour too long for Miles, though.

F) Ansel rolled over. Again, and again and again. And started scooting forward. Directly to the edge of wherever he was (bed, lounge pad, other bed, rug). No, baby, no! Don't grow so fast!

G) I thought of another book to write. I'll call it Neglectful Parent, Happy Child.* Don't you just want to buy it already? (I have a theory about self-help books- I think sometimes people are just looking for the easy way out, they're hoping to spend $20 to have an "expert" tell them that what they're doing is fine, or that doing nothing but watching TV and being self-absorbed is great. And, you know, I could cash in on some of that crazy, lazy stuff.)
No, really, I had the idea for this book because of the raspberries- I didn't even cut out the old canes last fall, and this year there are SO MANY raspberries they're coming out our ears. I dashed out to pick a bowl full before we left for Seattle, and an hour later everyone else came out, and we ALL picked for another half an hour. At least. And Avery is happy to do grown up things by himself- make lunch, mow the lawn, start a load of laundry, fix the doorknob, Miles happily plays with his little cars or tree house toys for hours, without me, and makes up little songs to sing, and Ansel finally rolled over all by himself when I was not even in the room. You see? A little neglect is, apparently, good for children. And raspberries. Believe me, I'm an expert. * I guess there are some people who already live this, without my telling them how. Can you imagine? Parenting without an expert opinion like mine?! Well, they call it raising Free Range Kids, and their trust in their own children and the universe at large is lovely. Not so much where I can let myself go, at least not all the way, but nice. Trusting. And at least it adds some perspective to the decisions we make all the time as parents: when can my child go to the public restroom by himself, walk to a friend's house, go to the library alone? Check it out. Tell me what you think. Where do you draw those lines, and when do you redraw them?

H) We went on another letterboxing adventure, in these cool old woods, and spent quite a bit of time tromping around, finding the THREE! stamps that made a picture. It was fun. Muddy and woodsy and all things good. Except for the nettles. And something scared or hurt the baby, who screamed and screamed and screamed and cried and cried and cried. He who NEVER does that, hardly ever really fusses about anything. Poor little one. He seems fine now, though, so hopefully nothing permanent!

I) More berry picking, at Biringer Farms this time. 54 pounds total. They were having a little strawberry festival. The boys played with Grandma while we picked. Played, watched a church group puppet show and ate pulled pork sandwiches and somehow got orange and strawberry soda-colored mustaches. I don't know how....

J) REI. One of our favorite stores. Avery is in awe of the climbing mountain they have, and is already begging to go back so he can climb. Instead the boys got new Keens (on sale! these ones, matching! the last pairs in their sizes!!), checked out all of the tents, over and over again, tried all the water filters, tried out their new shoes (and their old ones, too, just to see) on the hiking boot test-trail thingy in the middle of the shoe department. And we got a new buckle for the baby back-pack. Which Ansel will be able to go in pretty soon, I guess. Weird, him getting so big and growing up so much. I'm starting to feel nostalgic for his baby days, and he's still only 4 months old. What does that mean?

K) Home. The boys all slept over the mountains and across the desert. They woke up as we were pulling into town. Hours after we'd PLANNED to be home. Granola and strawberries for supper, at 9 o'clock.

L) And I should be thinking other less productive thoughts, but I can't wait for May to come around again (May seems to be my fertile month, as evidenced by the boys all being born within a two week span in late winter....)

Cherries

2009-06-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

Our pie cherry harvest is in. We have a bowl full. Enough for cherry muffins in the morning. They're beautiful and just sweet enough to eat, but delicious and glowy red cooked. If only wishing were enough to make it grow faster and produce more! 'Cause around here, life is a bowl of cherries. Just one small bowl a year! For five of us.

We'll eat them for breakfast in the form of:

Tart Cherry Muffins melt 8T. butter, beat in 1c. sugar, 2T. almond paste (for homey recipes it's just almonds ground in the food processor til smooth with an equal amount of sugar) then 2 eggs. In another bowl stir together 1c. whole wheat flour, 2c. all purpose flour, 1T. baking powder, 1t. baking soda, 1/2t. salt, and then beat the dry mixture into the butter mixture in three allotments, alternating with 1 1/2c. vanilla yogurt. Stir in 1 1/2c. chopped sour cherries. Bake in a sprayed standard muffin tin at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, less if using a mini-muffin tin.

Construction 3

2009-06-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the structure now. Phase three- floor attached with hole for trap door.

Looking up through the trap door from below.

Who Are You Trying To Impress?

2009-06-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

Who are you trying to impress?
Are there visitors that get you in a frenzy, cleaning the house top to bottom, biting your nails hoping the children don't say anything untoward, bringing pretty but impractical or uncomfortable dresses up from the back of the closet, searching out complicated, impressive recipes?
Does an upcoming dinner party get you panicky, hoping everything comes together, praying that everything looks right, that the children don't spill or break anything?
Do you work harder preparing for a visit from a distant friend or seldom seen relative than for your own husband and children?
Do you throw toys in a basket and shut off rooms when your neighbor pops over but let your husband come home at the end of a long day to trip over toys and laundry not yet put away?
Do you refuse your friend's offer to help wash up the dishes only to later refuse the time to play a game with your children while you clean up on your own?
Who are you trying to impress?

It began to seem a little uncomfortable to me, some time ago, to put so much energy into trying to impress others. I mean, I like our friends, I want them to be happy and comfortable at our house, in our company, but if I had to choose, wouldn't I rather my family feel comfortable and happy at our house? If I only ever really clean the house when there's company coming, isn't that kind of dishonest? If I wear pajamas and spit-up shirts unless we leave the house or someone comes over, isn't that kind of weird? It began to feel important to me that I shouldn't be putting more effort into impressing others than I was putting into impressing my own family.

I don't mean to say my husband comes every evening to a freshly pressed wife with high heels and a lipstick smile. I'm no Stepford Wife, to be sure.

But I am mindful of the impression I am making on my family. Do I want my children to think that getting dressed is too hard a task to accomplish on a normal day? Do I want them to have the impression that the way we live and keep our house isn't good enough for others? Do I want my husband to think he has to work all day and then come home to more work? Do I want him to have the impression that I value him like a box of mac and cheese, but value a dinner guest like a crown roast?

I haven't got any of it really figured out. I'm still thinking about it.
Sometimes he comes home and trips on the fleet of toy cars, sometimes we have toast and cheese for supper. Sometimes I want my husband to know how hard it is, keeping a home and children, homeschooling and doing so much by hand. I almost always want him to come home and jump right in, because it never ends here at home, and while I don't want him to have the impression that he is responsible for EVERYTHING, I do want him to have the impression that he is important to us in everything we do. I don't want him to have the impression that the work I do isn't demanding, but neither do I want him to think that I don't feel grateful for the opportunity to be at home, to do this work.

Sometimes we have elaborate supper parties, sometimes I even clean up before hand. I love cooking and planning parties, and it is fun to share food and festivities with friends. I don't want our friends feeling uncomfortable, that everything is just so, that we've gone too far out of our way, that they can't make themselves at home or that the broken dish is a big deal, but at the same time I don't want them to have the impression that they're not special to us, that we don't value them the light they bring to our lives, that they aren't worth a little extra effort.

The last couple of supper parties we've had and the last couple of week+ long bouts of company that we've had have all been really fun, mellow and comfortable. I've tidied up, found recipes, cooked, but also shared the responsibility, and let our guests help, make themselves at home, and be comfortable and useful. It's gone really well, certainly for us, and I'm pretty sure for our guests as well. But still, there's the question, lingering around.

Who are you trying to impress?
How do you balance the whom and how and what of the impressions you're making?

How To:: Remove Gum From Hair

2009-06-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

When your 3 year old drops his gum on the baby's head and tries to pick it but somehow smashes it in a little more, then tries to rub it off... what do you do?
In all of the years I've been a parent I've only once had to deal with this- and I just chopped a little bit of hair off- the boy had just given himself a lovely little haircut so I figured another chunk missing wouldn't really be noticeable. But the baby?! He hardly has any hair as it is! I wouldn't be able to cut it if I wanted to, it's so short. After a few moments of panic, a few attempts to tease it off his head, a few exasperated sighs and one under the breath "Oh, Miles, what next?"I found the solution.
Oil, it turns out, is the key.
I poured a little bit of the Weleda Calendula Baby Oil that I love so much on his head, let it sit a few seconds, then gently brushed the gum out with an old toothbrush. Good as new.
I think any oil would work- olive oil, canola, the usual kitchen staples. But almond oil with calendula and chamomile makes removing gum from your baby's head seem luxurious, almost spa-like. Guaranteed.

edited to say: And the next day, when you put the baby back down in the exact same bouncy chair without remembering it's still got gum all over it, and then later you pick up the baby and he smells curiously minty and his poor head is curiously gum-covered once again, know that a washcloth with a little oil poured on it, and rubbed gently over the baby's head will remove the gum with far less mess than pouring oil on his head and using a toothbrush. Really. But please, just clean the chair, right? We don't want to this every day, do we?

Letterboxing (In Less Than 20 Steps)

2009-06-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

We just recently learned about letterboxing, and have been waiting for an opportunity to try it out. Today, with a suddenly empty afternoon ahead of us and nappable time abandoned, we decided to give it a go. Here's how it went:
1) Check this map for locations near us and the clues.
2) Drive to the craft store to find the cutest tiny notebooks, one for each boy.
3) Realize I've forgotten the paper with the clues written carefully down.
4) Drive home, get the clues.
5) Drive to a particular park-like area on the other side of town. In rush hour.
6) Realize I've forgotten the bag with our stamps and ink at home.
7) Decide not to go back for it.
8) Try to talk the kids into a trip to Dairy Queen instead.
9) Get denied. In no uncertain terms. We have a mission, Mom. Jeesh.
10) Follow the clues, one by one, til we come to the spot where the box is hidden. Guarded by an army, navy, and air force of vicious blood thirsty mosquitoes.
11) Fight through like the men that we are. Find the box.
12) Run, screaming, like the children that we are, with the box, halfway across the park-like place trying to get away from the swarms of mosquitoes covering our bodies. Biting us through our clothing.
13) Give up. Stop. Drop to the wet grass and dump everything out. Quickly stamp our books with the hidden stamp and the hidden book (with our thumbs, since we haven't got our stamps, and they are at least a personal reflection of who we are, right?). Dump everything back into the box, swatting mosquitoes all the while.
14) Send the 9 year old soldier back to the front lines, so that he can hide the box back in it's exact same location.
15) RUN! to the car, pile in as quickly as possible.

16)Realize as we're driving home that there are no less than 10 mosquitoes in the car anyway. Biting our ankles as we go. Why do they love ankles so?
17) Drive home.

18) Realize that in the flurry of the stamping and attcking you wrote the wrong date in the hidden book. DO NOT GO BACK TO FIX IT. Sorry, girl scout troop. I was only 4 days off.
19) Count mosquito bites. Give up after 20. On one kid.
Amazingly the baby seems to have only gotten one bite. The rest of us are covered in swollen itchy welts. In the 8 years I've lived here I've never once been bitten by a mosquito in town. Until this spring. They're awful. AWFUL! This isn't Alaska after all. It's supposed to be one of the perks of living in the desert, for crying out loud.

Letterboxing, though, seems to be super fun. We're excited to go again, to find all the hidden little places around here, and to hide our own boxes. It's like a scavenger hunt. Like geo-caching for kids. No GPS required. Though we do want a GPS unit, and to try geo-caching too. If, you know, you have a unit you want to give to a poor deserving family. So we can take it far, far away from where the mosquitoes live.

Window Cleaner

2009-06-23T11:58:00.001-07:00

This is the mirror in the upstairs bathroom of my house. I think it's quite cute, except for the damage all the way around the edges. I hear that comes from ammonia, which is in lots of commercial window cleaners. Which is one reason why I don't use store-bought window spray. Uh, that, coupled with the fact that I'm too cheap to buy something I can make for almost-free, and the fact that mostly the boys clean the windows in the house (which might also explain why the windows are all smudgey except for a wavy bit of clean right along the bottom).

Anyway, my neighbor and I were talking about homemade cleaners. I shared my recipe for laundry detergent, and she told me about the window cleaner her Aunt always made. And the next day she brought me a bottle of it and a recipe card. How nice is that?

What's even better is how well it works. Without ammonia. For hardly any money. Here you go:

Lady Lee Window Cleaner

In a gallon jug pour 3T. Prell shampoo (or any cheap shampoo- VO5 works fine, I'm sure Suave or something would do just as well and it's always on sale for 99c a bottle) and 1pint rubbing alcohol. Fill with water, then pour into a spray bottle. Don't add more shampoo than called for.

I know it isn't as "green" as plain vinegar window wash, but I've never been impressed with vinegar for windows- it does fine, I guess, but not better than soap and water, and this solution is no-rinse and works really well. And smells better than vinegar, to me at least. And it's cheap. Like me.

*Okay, okay, I suppose I SHOULD have cleaned the mirror before taking a picture of it, but I didn't. Get over it.

Brothers

2009-06-22T14:53:00.001-07:00

Just a little boy-cuteness, in case that's what you needed right this minute.

Construction 2

2009-06-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Triangles for strength and stability.

Concrete footings poured and cured.

Turkish Dinner Party

2009-06-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

We had some wonderful friends over for supper and had a great time. Originally it was to be a casual picnic in the park, but I kept thinking I wanted to do Turkish food, particularly this soup that Papa really loves, so we moved plans to our house. Then I kept adding things that I wanted to make, or try. In the end it was kind of a feast, really fun and colorful, with grownups sitting around the table, eating and talking, while children ran and played, ate, fussed, talked, chased each other all around.
It was such a lovely evening and I had so much fun planning and cooking that when everyone left and I looked at the kitchen full of dirty dishes and actually smiled at the piles- cleaning up after just reminds me of how nicely everything turned out, and how much fun we had with our friends, how nice our town is, how cozy our house and delicious our life. Ah!
Here's our menu. The only thing I would do differently is adding in another vegetable- sauteed spinach or carrots or something.
Karkade turns out the way of making hibiscus punch that I thought I invented is pretty close to the Middle Eastern version, called karkade. Easy enough.
Elma Cayi (Apple Mint Iced Tea) I couldn't tell from looking around online if this is even really an authentic Turkish drink or not, but I made up a version and it was yummy, light and refreshing. If this first day of summer had been hot and, well, summery, it would have really hit the spot. Over a grated apple, 4 tea bags and 4 stalks of mint pour 8c. boiling water, let steep several minutes, then strain, pressing on the apple and mint to press out the last drops of water. Stir in 1c. honey, and pour into a large pitcher with 4c. ice. Stir to melt, pour over ice to drink.
Hummus our friends brought this, and it was delicious, but here's my recipe: 2c. of garbanzo beans, 1/2c. tahini, 1/4c. lemon juice, 1/4c. extra virgin olive oil, 1t. salt, 1 garlic clove, 1t. cumin in the bowl of a food processor and process til smooth. Add bean liquor or water as needed. sprinkle with paprika.
Pita Bread mix 1/2c. warm water, 1T. yeast, 1T. sugar in a small bowl and let sit til foamy, then mix in 2c. water and 4T. olive oil. Mix 2c. whole wheat flour, 4c. all purpose flour, 1T. salt in a large bowl, then add the water mixture and knead til smooth and elastic, yet still quite soft. Cover, in an oiled bowl, til double, knead lightly and divide into 16 balls, cover and let rise. Preheat oven to 500 degrees, with a pizza stone if you have one, and roll the dough balls out to 1/4" thick, bake on the stone for 3-5 minutes, til puffy and lightly browned.
I've never made pitas that consistently "pocket", which never much bothered me, but the boys suddenly love pocket bread, so I guess I'll be trying to figure that out. I hear The Frugal Gourmet's recipe is fool-proof, which is about how I need all my basic recipes. Hopefully the library has his cookbooks.
Ezo Gelen Corbasi (Red Lentil Soup) In a big pot heat 2T olive oil, 2T. paprika, 2T. mint til bubbly and fragrant, then add 1 1/2c. red lentils, 1/4c. rice, 1/4c. bulgur, and stir to coat. Cook 1 minute, then add 1 minced onion, 3 minced carrots, 1 chopped tomato, 2T. tomato paste, salt and pepper to taste, and 6c. stock (beef or chicken or veggie, or even water is fine). Bring to a simmer and cook til rice is soft and lentils are mushy, about 45 minutes. When ready to serve heat 4T. butter, 1t. paprika, 1t. dried mint in a small saucepan til melted and fragrant, remove from heat, add 2T. lemon juice, and drizzle over the top of the soup, either in a tureen or individual bowls.
Tossed Green Salad our friends brought this, too. It was yummy and nice to have some fresh, local, crisp and tasty veggies.
Lamb and Vegetable Kabob but we grilled them. Yum.
Yogurt Mint Sauce 2c. yogurt, greek style is best but plain is fine, 2T. dried mint. That's it. With the leftovers you can make that Turkish Yogurt drink by blending the minty yogurt with water and a dash of salt, and serving over ice. Or dip veggies and pita in it, either way, it's good.
Filo Sesame Cigars this was simple- just sheets of filo dough with butter brushed on, sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon, and sesame seeds. I would make them again, since they're so easy, but I think honey and crushed pistachios would be good, or cardamom like Andy suggested. And I would just do one sheet of filo per roll, instead of two, so they'd be thinner (more cigarette than cigar).
Pistachio Gelato Inspired by Saveur magazine, here. In a food processor finely grind 2c.pistachios, then process in 1c. sugar and 2c.cream. Try not to eat this mixture all with a spoon standing in front of the food processor. In a large pot heat 4c. milk to just below a simmer. Whisk together 2c. milk, 1c. sugar, and 6T. cornstarch, then whisk into the heated milk, add the pistachio cream, and continually whisk over med heat til thickened and cornstarch taste has gone. Pour into a bowl and cover, pressing plastic wrap directly onto surface. Chill. Freeze according to directions of your ice cream freezer.
Really Rich Chocolate Gelato This is directly from Saveur magazine, right here. I doubled it and added cream, but it was the same otherwise. 4c.milk, 2c. cream, 11/2c. sugar, 11/2c. cocoa powder, 4T. cornstarch.
Egg based ice cream have always been my favorite, but these two cornstarch recipes knocked my socks off. I'm going to experiment a lot more this summer, I think. The cornstarch makes a nice thick, smooth base that freezes up quickly and nicely, and ice cream that is smooth and thick without the trouble of making an egg-custard.

Radio Wonderground

2009-06-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

Is our favorite! We used to listen to Northwest Public Radio ALL the time (like, turn the radio on at 7 am and don't turn it off until bedtime), but for some reason lately our reception isn't good on the kitchen radio, which is where I always listen to the news- out of the kids' ears and attentions. Besides, only having classical music all day would be lovely, if they played a bigger, more diverse selection of classical music. I mean, really, is there a reason to hear "Pomp and Circumstance" any time other than graduation season? Really.
So now we listen to Wonderground Radio, streamed through the computer, when we need to change it up. This station plays a mix of "kid" music and grown-up music, folk and rock, indie, jazz, blues, but it's all appropriate for children and not so saccharine sweet or "cute" that the grown ups can't take it with wanting shred stuffed animals with their teeth. If you know what I mean. And best of all, in the evenings, they play wind down music, perfect for background sound for baths and quiet play, evening chores and teeth brushing.
Check it out!

Sleep

2009-06-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

Oh my! My friend Lisa Russell just wrote about sleep, and her family's completely joyful lack of a bedtime. I completely admire her seemingly laid back approach to parenting, home schooling, life. She works hard, but keeps a great sense of humor, and is the kind of parent I always wanted to be. But I'm not. That kind of parent. Calm, mellow, quiet, cheerful. And I tried to respond in the comments section, but my comment was turning into an essay, so I decided to be nice and move it over here. Because really, our bedtime is foundational to the happiness and goodness of our family, and I just can't keep it to a handful of words.

When we had just one child he went to sleep whenever he wanted. Which was never. Really. Papa would get home from work when he could, we'd eat supper, read stories, hang out, have a bath, hang out, read more stories, go to bed, talk and talk and talk until eventually we all fell asleep (usually parents first!). Variations of a theme, including working on peace/political campaigns and the only child sleeping under desks, behind signs, and in his play tent in the corner of a campaign office. Somehow or another we ended up with two children (then three) and tried to keep up the same lifestyle, same crazy busy life, same erratic hours, but it just didn't work.

Neither of the boys sleep past 7am unless they're sick, no matter how late they've been up or how tired they are. When Avery was 6 or 7 I got so tired of backtalk I sent him to bed every day for a week at 8 o'clock. And the results were amazing! Suddenly my child had an appetite, his old sweet demeanor, energy to play outside and run around for hours, attention for his schoolwork.* It was really a clear and immediate change. By the end of the week I was convinced that "bedtimers" knew what they were doing, and we happily joined their ranks!

Our family works so much better with a consistent bedtime, because it lends itself to a consistent rhythm to the whole day. Papa knows the boys will be in bed at 8, so he makes a bigger effort to come home for supper by 7. We eat together most of the time, then get ready for bed and he helps them to sleep. It's early enough that he doesn't fall asleep with them too often (or if he does, he wakes up with time still to do computer work or watch a show before he really goes to bed). If he's not home I lead them through the bedtime routine, and they go to sleep on their own. Those nights, when Papa does finally get home, he has a quiet, peaceful house to come home to, to relax in, he can eat supper without being climbed over, we have a chance to talk together without interruption of little people, and we might even watch The Daily Show together! Those weeks when he's working late every day the boys' bedtime is even MORE important to me- it's my only time alone, to think and plan and organize for the next day. The boys don't wake up any earlier with an earlier bedtime, but they are well rested and cheerful in the mornings, ready to jump into the day. If it were only up to me I'd send them to bed at 7, because I think they can use even a little more sleep than what they get now, but I know the possibility of getting Papa home an hour earlier each day is NOT likely, and the children don't get much time with him as it is.

And we do make exceptions. We're not the strictest bedtimers there are. Right now is So You Think You Can Dance season, so we stay up to watch that. We might have a picnic in the park for supper and play late, or have friends over who stay past bedtime, but for the most part bedtime is 8 o'clock, and we can all count on it. I can schedule school time knowing that we'll all be up, ready, and willing to work at 8, which means we can be done with schoolwork by lunch time, we can fit in a morning walk, then play time and activities in the afternoon. I like having a plan for the day, and the kids do too. I also like having the ultimate punishment at my disposal- before we had a "bedtime" I couldn't ever send them to bed early for misbehaviour, and now I can (even if I don't very often). It's nice to have a Hail Mary pass, or Ace in the Hole, or whatever metaphor works best.

Whenever I hear parents talking about not getting enough personal time, getting sick of their kids' bad behaviour, wanting to create a better rhythm for their days, struggling to get everyone going in the mornings, having to wake their kids up, not having time with their spouses, the very first thing I think of is look at BEDTIME**. It's my best advice to struggling parents. Not a particular hour for every family, but a consistent routine and consistent bedtime for each person in each family.

*I know Lisa isn't talking about her kids being sleep deprived, she's letting them more or less choose their own hours, and they get the sleep they need, but I couldn't ever figure out how to keep them from waking early AND staying up late. And her family doesn't need to get up early, where ours does, and her family has to eat awfully late in order to eat together- they're just kind of on a later schedule than a lot of families. They're on restaurant schedule, after all.

**BTW- I am pro-family bed, attachment parenting, all that good stuff. But I have recently realized that attachment parenting doesn't have to mean "attached to Mama 24 hours a day". It can also mean attached to Papa and the big brothers. Attachment Family if you will. Avery puts Miles to bed when Papa isn't home (and they get sweet sleepy bonding time together), Papa puts both big boys to bed when he is home (and gets to share that sleepy end of the day talk and cuddling), instead of me getting everyone to sleep on my own (and then trying to sleep in the mad hot jumble of limbs and dreams and blankets) like before the Bedtime Revolution.

White Beans

2009-06-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

White beans are in my menu rotation every 4th week. I make a whole crock pot full, over night, and in the morning they're ready to be divided up into neat 2 c. portions for the freezer, and turned into some of our favorite meals.
Like Chicken White Bean Chili. Jennifer has a great recipe. Here's how I do it, give or take: 4c cooked navy beans, 1 large onion chopped, 1 large can chopped green chiles, 2 garlic cloves, crushed, 2c cooked chicken, chopped, 1T. cumin, 1t. California chile powder, 1t. smoked paprika, 1/2t. crushed red pepper, 1t. oregano, salt and pepper to taste, chicken broth just to the top of everything, cook in the crock pot low heat 8hrs. Serve with sour cream, grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, cornbread. Of course this is another recipe I double (at least) and freeze.

White Stripes Bean Salad. (Not quite Salad Nicoise) This is what we're having for supper tonight. Make the dressing first. Whisk together 3/4c. olive oil, 1/2c. lemon juice, 1/4c. honey, 1 minced shallot, 1 minced garlic clove, 2T. minced basil, 1T. minced thyme, 2t. minced oregano, 1t. dijon mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover a flattish serving dish with washed, torn lettuce (or arugula or watercress if little children won't fuss), tossed with 1/4c. of the dressing, then make "stripes" of the rest of the ingredients, nestled in the greens. 4c. white beans, 2 can solid tuna, 1 red onion, sliced, 1/2c. black olives, 3 medium tomatoes cut in eighths (or cherry tomatoes), 6 hard boiled eggs chilled and cut in quarters, 1lb new potatoes, cooked and tossed with 1/4c. of the dressing and chilled(or use a pasta, like bow-ties). Drizzle the rest of the dressing over everything, and sprinkle 2T. capers over it all. Pretend you're French. Sit at a little ironwork table and read a fashion magazine while eating this salad.
It seems like a lot of work for a salad, but you don't need to do anything else for supper, except maybe put out a baguette you biked home with from the bakery, and some wine. And you can do everything in advance. In fact, the cooking stuff you HAVE to do in advance, so it'll all chill, and the chopping you might as well do while you're cooking, so by the time supper comes around it's as easy as anything to compose your lovely salad, sit down to your lovely table, and enjoy your lovely self.

White Bean Dip. In the bowl of your food processor dump 2c. white beans, 1 crushed garlic clove, the juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste (3 T. maybe to start). Process til it's as smooth as you want. You can easily change the flavor up with fresh herbs or roasted red peppers. Thin as wanted with reserved bean liquor or water.

Cassoulet. I've only made once the authentic way- it was delicious, but also about $40, and thus way out of my price range for a single supper, and a lot of work, and thus out of my range as the mother of three young children. I mostly cook by instinct and memory now. But it was delicious, so if you've the inclination, or a cheap source for goose or duck, this is a mouth-watering recipe and article. I do love Saveur magazine!

Black Beans

2009-06-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

Does anything indoors smell better than a pot of beans simmering away? Well, maybe (cinnamon rolls, roasting turkey) but I do love the smell of the house on bean day!

I've taken lately to soaking beans all day, and cooking them in the crock pot all night. That way they're ready in the morning to cool down before I portion them out (2c- about the same as a can of beans) and freeze them, and there's still time to reset the crock pot with the beans that I'm cooking with that day. Plus, the house smells full and yummy all night, so everyone sleeps really well and the boys wake up HUNGRY! and eat a good breakfast.

Lately I've been cooking beans on rotation: Black beans, Navy beans, Garbanzo beans, Pinto beans. I used to just cook black beans or white beans, freezing the extra, but I make hummus all the time and it seemed silly to keep buying those little cans when it is so easy and frugal to cook a big pot and freeze can-sized portions. And then the boys started asking for pinto beans, and refried beans like they get at Mexican restaurants, and I, being the indulgent Mama that I am, decided to add them in to my rotation too.

BLACK BEANS- We often just eat them right out of the crock pot, with a little sofrito-ish sauce (onion, garlic, tomato, green peppers, maybe some chorizo) mixed in, served with rice and sprinkled with cilantro and lime juice.

Black Bean Confetti Salad-in a salad bowl whisk the juice of 1 lime, 3 T. olive oil, 1T. honey, 1t. cumin, 1/2t. California chile powder, 1/2t. salt, 1/4t. cayenne, 1/4t. garlic powder. Then dump in 2 c. black beans, cooked, 1c. corn kernels, 1c. sweet onion, diced, 1c. red or mixed bell pepper, diced, 1c. cilantro, chopped, stir it all up, cover and chill. We like this salad for summer suppers with a big pile of lettuce, some chopped tomatoes, avocado, shrimp sometimes, salsa, sour cream. It's also yummy as quesadilla filling with melty cheese, as a dip for tortilla chips, or a side dish for grilled chicken or fish.

Vegetarian Black Bean Chili- Dump all together in a crock pot: 4c. cooked black beans, 1 large onion, chopped, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 2-3c. mixed bell pepper (or 1 160z. bag of frozen stir-fry peppers), chopped, 2c. corn kernels, 3c. tomatoes, chopped (or 1 28oz. can), 1T. olive oil, 1T. cumin, 1T. chile powder, 1t. paprika, 1/2t. cayenne, 1/4t. cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste. Add water just to the top of the pile, cover, and cook on low 8 hours. To serve ladle into bowls, top with chopped cilantro, chopped tomatoes, grated cheese, avocado, sour cream, salsa.

I always make a bunch of chili and freeze half. Then we eat supper and still have leftovers for lunches. Or I might use the leftovers to make Chili Pie- pour leftover chili in a baking dish, top with cornbread batter (I use organic masa harina so no GMO issues and more nutritious) and bake. Serve with all the usual chili toppings.

Black Bean Dip- Couldn't be any easier! In a food processor put 2c. cooked black beans, 1t. chile powder, 1t. cumin, 1t. onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne to taste. Process til it's as smooth as you like. This is a great alternative to refried beans, an easy healthy dip for veggie sticks and tortilla chips, a good base for nachos and burritos. You can mix in grated cheese, sour cream, or salsa if you want to.

Project::Magnetic Chore Chart

2009-06-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

After some fiddling around with different methods, different kinds of chore charts, we've arrived here, at the side of the fridge in the kitchen hall:

Both charts are simple- just 12x12 pieces of card stock, divided into a "To Do Today" column and a "Done!" column. There are a bunch of chore tags to the side- the focus area of the day (Living/Dining, Bedrooms, Family Room, Bathrooms, Kitchen, Garden, Outside) that we all work on, and specific chores or responsibilities (pjs on, empty hamper, set the table, clear the table, etc.).

It's working pretty well. Avery still tries to find things NOT on his chart to do, which is nice, and sometimes tries to negotiate out of the thins on his chart, which is maybe not as nice, and Miles is happy to see what his jobs are without needing help to read. He likes being able to see with his own eyes that he has jobs that are just his to do, but he also likes knowing that he and his brother have some jobs in common, too.

Anyway, another project down, and another tag moved to the DONE! side of my own mental chore chart. Hooray!

Construction

2009-06-11T11:39:00.001-07:00

One of Avery's scale drawings, showing phase one of the construction project. In Waldorf schools the 3rd grade class often culminates in a building project- a house or shed, something like that. Throughout this year Avery's learned about the history of shelter and geographical considerations in construction, the process of designing and building. Friends of ours had a house built, and Avery's watched the process with great interest and even helped with some hammering and things.
When we were looking for a house to buy he REALLY wanted one with a tree house, but that didn't work out. And while we have several trees, none of them are really suitable for a tree house. Next best option: a raised platform, a simple structure that will be adaptable and expandable.

This corner of the yard held a trampoline before we moved in, and there hasn't been grass there for years. Perfect for a fort. The top part will be a platform, with a railing around. Avery would like a ladder and trap door, a zip line, Miles wants a slide and a steering wheel. I'd like to enclose the bottom for a little play house, or make a giant metal-pipe-banging-chime thing. We'll see. That's the beauty of a simple structure- it can become what we want it to be. First things first, though- Concrete footings, a floor up there, a railing and a ladder.

Organization::Library Thing

2009-06-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

Oh, my! I LOVE Library thing! I only just started, but here's the deal: you input all of your books, add your own tags (toddlers, mama-aya, nature, borrowed, loaned....) and comments (loaned to so and so, chapter 3 great for plant cycle lesson....) and you have the option to rate books, give away books you don't want, write reviews and view other reviews, compare your library with others, all kinds of fun, I mean, organizational tools.
I've been trying for a long time to figure out how to organize all our books- not nearly enough shelf space to do it neatly and categorically, and, really, lots of books are good for more than one category, right? So I'm just starting out, but this will work, I think. I'm tagging books with subject and age-group tags, so, for instance, when I'm looking for books to fill out a lesson on animals in winter I'll be able to search my library by preschool and elementary groups as well as season (winter) and subject (animals). The math books I just loaned, well, I'll know who to look for when I want them back, and the stack of science books I've borrowed, well, I'll know who to avoid until I'm finished with them! Just kidding... if you want them back now I'm happy to return them.

Yakima Day Trip >>Toppenish

2009-06-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

Toppenish Washington is a dusty little cowboy town on the Yakama Nation Indian Reservation. They're most famous for the murals all over town, and they hold a "Mural in a Day" festival every year. This year it coincided with a car show, much to Avery and Grandpa Dave's happiness. The guys, checking out the cool rides.

The Mural in a Day Festival. There are 70 some murals in this little town, and you can take a horse drawn trolley ride to visit the murals or stop by the visitor's center and pick up a free walking tour. Each option takes about an hour.

The newest mural, being painted.

One of my favorite murals. "All Aboard" by Bill Ross.

The Northern Pacific Railway Museum turned out to be a great visit. The guys enjoyed checking out all of the old equipment and even taking an imprompto trip on an old train, touring the engine they're renovating now, and exploring all the nooks and crannies full of railroad memorabilia. The train museum puts on a Rail and Western Art Show in August, the Whistlestop! bluegrass festival in late August, haunted train rides in October, and a Santa train and model train displays in December.
Avery working the switch.

The train they took on a little joy ride.

The Yakama Nation Museum and Cultural Center is right in Toppenish, and is a great museum of Native American history and life. There are many different cultural events, a restaurant, RV Park, and Casino. The museum itself is a valuable resource and the displays are quite engaging. It is open Mon-Sat 8-5, Sun 9-5, and fees are $5 for adults, $3 for children and seniors, $1 for children 10 and under, or $12 for families.

The American Hop Museum in Wapato, the town between Toppenish and Yakima, is another interesting visit. Hops are big business in the Yakima Valley, with 75% of the nation's hops grown right here. Hops are used in making beer, and are one of the earliest crops grown by European Colonists in America. Admission is $3. I don't think I'd take little kids, unless they were particularly curious and well behaved, or information about hops was somehow important to them, but it is an interesting museum for agricultural history buffs, and beer lovers.

More our pace is the Folklore soda factory and shop, right downtown at 9 N B St. Call ahead and schedule a tour of the factory and arrange to come on a bottling day. (509) 865-4772

In the fall, winter, and spring the Toppenish National Wildlife Sanctuary is a nice place to view wintering ducks and geese.

And Toppenish and Wapato are both so close it's easy to do these things one at a time, and really savor a simpler field trip, instead of making a day out of it.

Yakima Day Trip >>Goldendale

2009-06-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

If you're ever in Central Washington wondering what to do on a yet another sun drenched day, consider going here: The Goldendale Observatory State Park. There is a 24.5 inch telescope, one of the largest public telescopes in the country. During the summer programs run from 2-5 and 8-midnight Wed-Sun, and admission is by donation! It's about an hour and 20 minutes to Goldendale from Yakima.

Goldendale Observatory State Park

Avery acting as a gnomon for the Human Sundial.
Just down the road a few more miles is the famous Maryhill Museum, home of Rodin's The Thinker as well as a huge permanent collection, tons of interesting and varied travelling exhibitions, workshops, and festivals. The museum is open every day from Mar 15- Nov 15, from 9-5. Admission is $7, seniors are $6, children 6-16 are only $2. The sculpture garden, picnic grounds, and parking are free, and it's just a few minutes down the road from Goldendale, overlooking the Columbia Gorge.

Avery, Columbia River, barge, big rock.

To make your day trip complete stop by Washington's Stonehenge, a full-size replica of Britain's Stonehenge (but intact), built as a memorial to soldiers lost in World War 1.

Grandpa Dave, trying not to lose his cap to the wind.

On your way back to Yakima stop at our favorite little gem, an unexpected surprise as you drive through the forest, 12 miles north of Goldendale: St. John's Bakery, a lovely little Greek Bakery, coffee shop, restaurant, and religious gift shop. They're open Mon -Sat 9-6. You can arrange visits to the Monastery, and Orthodox Christian families are allowed to stay overnight with prior permission. In any case you can munch koulourakia all the way home while you look for some of the wild horses on the Yakama Nation and try, just try, to smooth your windswept hair.

Yakima Valley Trolley

2009-06-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

We've been having fun with the Relatives from Iowa. The Rising Star's father and stepmother are visiting- they rode the train (Amtrack) from the Midwest and have, oddly enough, spent quite a bit of their vacation with us riding trains, too! Today, after a visit to the Yakima Farmer's Market, Papa's office, and our favorite bakery, Essencia, we went to the historic Yakima Valley Trolley at South Third Avenue and West Pine Street near downtown Yakima. For $15 we purchased a family pack of tickets, enjoyed some good conversation about old trains and trolleys, took a ride on the trolley, and got some fun pictures. We've gone on the trolley before- at Christmas time they have Santa Claus and candy canes- but the relatives hadn't, and we always enjoy ourselves.

Grandpa Dave.

Papa.

Avery.

Miles.

We were excited to hear about some of the goals for the trolley organization- they have the wire now to replace the copper wire stolen by meth addicts a few years ago, but they expect it will take tile the end of the summer before the have all the permits and can get the Yakima-Selah run going again. That would be a lovely little trip. We can't wait.

There's also some planning happening to secure funding and approval to extend the run up to Franklin Park and the Yakima Valley Museum (and the Soda Fountain!) and all the way into downtown to the Convention Center (and the hotels!). That would be delightful, and really tie together a nice package for tourism and our town's history. How fun for the folklife festival and other events that would be!

We also found out that the trolleys can be chartered for just $110 an hour, year round. I'm thinking that sounds like a fun birthday party activity for three boys I know who all have practically the same birthday! What do you think?

This afternoon they're at our friend's retirement party at the Historic Rosedell Mansion Bed and Breakfast, just down the street. It's the only B & B in the neighborhood, and we've been quite pleased to watch the progress as the new owners have worked hard, restoring and caring for their showpiece home.

Running

2009-06-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

Not the best picture, but there he is- Avery finishing his first running race! It was a really fun kids marathon organized by the Yakima Hardcore Runners Club. The kids had to run 25 miles over the past couple of months, and today they ran the last 1.2 miles as a race, and all the kids got ribbons and t-shirts and goodie bags! Avery is quite pleased with his ribbon and pedometer.

What fun!

Summer Plans

2009-06-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

Alarm Clocks? no time for them!
Beach Jetty Island, Ona Beach, Hood Canal, tide pools, beach glass, shells
Balls soccer, tennis, rubber band, beach
Cook Out barbecues in the backyard, campfire cooking, solar oven s'mores
Camp Mt. St. Helens, Cooper Lake, Bumping Lake, San Juan Islands, Oregon Coast
Can (rhubarb, asparagus) strawberry jam, cherries, pickled green beans, peaches, cucumber pickles, tomatoes, ketchup, apricots, plums, blueberry jam, fruit syrups, pears, applesauce, pickled beets, salsa
Castles sand, sticks, stones
Combine Demolition Derby in Lind, WA
Compost what can I say?
Construct a play platform in the backyard for Avery's 3rd grade building project
Draw alphabet and number wall cards for the fall
Garden there's weeding and pruning, harvesting, and admiring to do
Grass to cut, to weed whack, to water, to sit on, sleep in, and roll all over
Floorcloth for the dining room floor- I'm tired of picking food out of the carpet
Organise books using LibraryThing
Paint the kitchen (and then tile the back splash and floor, reface the cabinets, rebuild the shelves over the stove, and replace the counters)Who am I kidding? Paint!
Play and play and play
Party like they'll only be 9 and 3 this one summer- bubble party, science party, craft party....
Practice Avery's guitar, Miles' inside voice, Ansel's everything, my patience, Aaron's relaxing
Radial Travel how many places can we go in a day from right here? Make a wheel map!
Swim Franklin Pool, lakes, swimming holes, Naches River
Sew quilt, skirts and tops, branches and birds, school organization bags, bedroom curtains
Swing the best $20 ever spent- nothing to do but watch them fly!
Splash water spray parks, beach, sprinklers
Scrapbook hmmm... everything since 2004....
Summer House the weekend use of which we won at a church auction last fall
U-Pick there's all kinds of things to pick- cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, blueberries, apples, raspberries, strawberries, pears....
Unpack the garage- it's been two years and it would be nice to have the space for a workshop area, a dart board, and the freezer
Write my book idea, their pen pals, preschool curriculum for fall
Whittle Avery is old enough to start, I think... i think...
Walk and walk and walk. Cowiche Canyon, the Greenway, Naches Peak Loop, Boulder Cave
Worry less
Wonder more!

Project::Quilt 1 (In Progress)

2009-05-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

In an effort to remind myself that (1) even basic sewing skills are better than nothing (2) I do get stuff done, almost every day (3) the Garnet Hill catalog is lovely, but I'd feel sad if anything from that store was spit up on, peed in, thrown up all over, or covered in a curious mixture of chocolate and sand, and that yes, in deed, these are things that happen to my bed more often than one might think, if one didn't have a house full of little boys I submit: my very first quilt, a spontaneous quilt, made out of a pile of handed-down mostly teal colored shirts, in cotton and silk, that my mother gave me, and that as much as I WANT to wear them, I just can't. All that teal! But my bedroom walls are teal, and I don't imagine painting will happen any time soon, and besides, even if I can't wear it, I kind of like the color of my bedroom- I just don't want to spend $500 for a new quilt that will inevitably be soiled by my trio of children. And so. A quilt that takes no careful planning, or measuring, that I can just sit down and sew a bit on, randomly picking pieces of cut-up shirts and creating something kind of sweet and certainly handmade looking, sewing, sewing until it's big enough. Did you know king size beds need BIG quilts to cover them? Still, I'm hopeful this quilt will be finished before too long. It's too fun not to work on it, and it's too devoid of my usual excuses for not making quilts to suffer neglect for long.

Project:: 20 years late for 7th Grade Home Ec

2009-05-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

I know this is a cool pattern. All the sewing crafty cool Moms are making this shirt for themselves- the ones that aren't currently nursing are making it as a dress, too. Look! See how cute and cool it is?
I stayed up way too late last night making this exact shirt, in a cute (bargain bin!) navy and white mini-check cotton poplin. Everything seemed so easy, so fast and simple. I envisioned a closet full of this shirt, in dozens of cute prints and thrifted fabrics. Oh! And then I finished, and tried it on. Oh. Maybe I should have taken 7th grade home ec instead of Spanish and band....

Summer Drinks

2009-05-31T15:21:00.001-07:00

Picnic season is officially under way around here. We've had several in the last couple of weeks, and are looking forward to eating out many more times this summer. I've got our picnic assembly streamlined pretty well, making picnics an easier way to entertain than cleaning the house and squeezing everyone into our too-small dining table. Basket by the door with tablecloth, napkins, picnic blanket, flatware and dishes. Simple recipes and cold meals for hot days. And drinks. Well, that kind too, but since I'm in nursing mode and that makes 4/5 of our family unable to drink alcohol (and the other fifth is usually headed back to the office) there's not much point in experimenting with grown-up drinks.
These are our standard family drinks: agua de jamaica, iced coffee, iced tea, orange delicious, homemade fruit sodas, and lemonade.
Agua de Jamaica is a standard of Mexican restaurants, and unlike all of my awful attempts at horchata, it always turns out delicious! I added cinnamon and orange on a whim last week and, well, it's our new favorite! Who cares if it's not traditional? To make 2 quarts: bring 4 cups of water, 2 cups of dried hibiscus flowers, the peel from an orange, and a cinnamon stick to a boil, then cover and set aside 20 minutes. Strain into a pitcher, press the flowers to get all the flavor out, stir in 1 cup of cane sugar (or to taste- less would be fine, or honey is good, too). Add ice cubes to 2 quarts, and chill. Serve over ice. Hibiscus tastes something like cranberries- tart, though the more sugar you add the more like Hawaiian Punch it becomes. The cinnamon and orange help it from being too cloying.

Iced coffee. The boys are coffee fiends. I imagine they got to be preschool coffee snobs from their parents, and the fact that we read The Story of Coffee by Sultan Mohammed (the son in law of some local friends of ours) at least once a week. Even though Avery and Miles both know how to make stove top espresso for me with the Bialetti Moka Express stove top espresso maker (well, Miles doesn't do the stove part, but he does know how to grind the coffee just right, load the water and coffee, and fasten it all up) in the summer I cold brew coffee every day. Because nothing could be simpler, the coffee is smooth and tasty and already cold (so no ice-dilution problems). I pour 4 1/2 cups of water over 1 cup of coarse coffee grounds, put the lid on the jar, and let it sit overnight, or 12 hours. Then strain the liquid through a mesh strainer, pour over ice, dilute with milk or water (or sweetened condensed milk and water, for that Thai iced coffee effect the boys especially like). Yum. And before you give me any grief about children drinking coffee please know that I hardly ever let them drink more than a sip or two. And children used to drink coffee as a matter of course (I guess they used to drink ale and hard cider as a matter of course, too, but we won't go there....) I know I'm a bad Mom, really. You don't have to say it.

Orange Delicious. This is a drink I made up, when Avery wanted one of those mall-style frothy orange drinks. We have this regularly, usually when we have burgers and carrot-apple salad for supper. Crush a blender full of ice, blend in 1/2 cup orange juice concentrate, 1/4 cup honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup yogurt, and coconut milk to the top. Pour into tall glasses, preferably with colorful graphics and bendy straws, and slurp it down!

Water of course is our real standard drink. My friend Nancy has a old school-style drinking fountain in the kitchen, which all the kids love. Think of all the glasses NOT getting dirty in the house with a drinking fountain! And no bullies to smash your face into the spray! Sometimes I put out a big bucket of ice water and an old fashioned ladle, and let the boys drink that way, when we're playing outside all afternoon and I'm sick of running in and out and up the steps every three minutes. Of course, the water ends up seeming a little bit... hmm... old fashioned? Like, un-filtered old-fashioned. Sort of dirty, with bits of leaves and twigs and stuff. Is that a problem? Maybe we need a water fountain outside!

Ansel

2009-05-27T00:18:00.001-07:00

Can you stand it?! Ansel is super smiley- especially when his brothers are around. Avery took this beaut!

And this one, too. Look at those cheeks! He's such a chunk. He's growing up to quickly- I want to savor every moment, but it's slipping away. This age is fun, interactive and adorable, we're all enjoying it immensely, but that tender curled up newborn period is firmly over, and so fast! We have now a serious, studious little boy, much like Avery was a baby. Amazing how strong their personalities are even from the beginning!

Mr Scissorhands

2009-05-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

The newest alter-ego at our house. Mr. Scissorhands. Ummm, well, thank goodness he's just got the canning jar tongs, huh? For some reason Mr. Scissorhands always makes this particular face:

These look like mug shots, funnily. (I really do want to paint the dining room.)

Goodnight Mr. Scissorhands. It's way past bed time. Yep, even alter egos need to go to bed sometimes!

Chocolate Pudding

2009-05-26T23:28:00.001-07:00

Okay, so maybe it looks better in real life. And it definitely tastes better! I finally made a chocolate pudding creamy, rich and just chocolaty enough for the boys, who can use some fattening and think cream is about the best thing to eat. Their favorite dessert may just be whipped cream with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
6 eggs, 1/2 c. cornstarch, whisked together in a big heavy bottomed pot
4 c. half and half, 2 c. heavy cream, 4 c. milk, 1/2 c. cocoa powder, added, then whisked frequently over medium-high heat til the cocoa is melted and the pudding is thickened.
2 t. vanilla mixed in, then the pudding is poured into a bowl, plastic wrap or wax paper lightly pressed onto the surface, then chilled.
Usually I make pudding with honey instead of sugar, milk instead of cream, farm fresh eggs, cornstarch, and a little butter melted in with the vanilla at the end, but when it's made with cream the chocolate flavor is mellowed, and while I may not eat much of it, the boys certainly dug in between canner-loads, and I expect they'll be happy with that for dessert all week!

Asparagus

2009-05-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

Ah! Spring just keeps coming on, doesn't it? We're flooded in asparagus here. As always it's hot and summer feeling now- as much as I love asparagus I'd hate to have to pick it all day long. That's brutal work. It makes it a little unbelievable that I can buy it bulk for 79c a pound.
We bought almost 70 pounds yesterday. Today the boys and I prepared 40 for pickling and froze 30 pounds. With Papa's help (after work) we had 26 quarts canned by 9:30, and the boys were desperately hanging on to "help" and perhaps not so coincidentally avoid bedtime.

Here's how I did it: 40 pounds asparagus, washed, ends snapped, then trimmed (we put up the trimmed bits- they're just as good, just not as pretty). I put 1-2 garlic cloves, 1 T pickling spices and sometimes 1/2 a jalapeno in each quart, then stuffed in the garlic spears. Filled almost to the top with boiling hot brine (2 gallons vinegar, 2 gallons water, 4 cups pickling salt), then processed in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. All of them sealed, though one jar did break in the canner.

It feels good, filling the house with food for winter. Canning, even preparing asparagus for freezing, is kind of a pain with little kids- my impatient part wants to just DO it, but they love to help, love to know they're needed, and so it becomes a project to last all afternoon and evening. But it's worth it, I think. They're learning to rely on themselves and their own hard work to get what they want and need, I'm practicing patience, and they went to bed tired but proud.

"I'm sure we'll see him again"

2009-05-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

This is what the emergency room doctor said as he was clearing Miles to go home last night (well, this morning, technically, but whose counting hours?). I thought that was kind of pessimistic, but then this is the same ER doc we've at least twice, no, I'm almost 100% that he's helped us three times in the last year- when Miles got into the bottle of adult extra strength Tylenol someone left in reach and possibly un-child-safety-latched, just a few weeks ago when Miles had the fever of 105 for a week and we had two trips to the ER in two days. Perhaps the doctor feeling confident that we'll be back was just common sense, but please! At what point does an ER doc call child protective services? Five visits in a year? Six?
Anyway, this time Miles fell off a twisty slide he was climbing up, and dislocated his elbow- though I thought it was broken, and Papa thought it was a bruised arm and a tired boy. Once the doc got that elbow back in place it was only a matter of minutes before Miles was cheerful and amazed, happily waving and chattering to everyone in the hospital. Whew!

In other news- Papa came through with a really cool new camera to replace the one he killed last weekend. Thanks to Avery's careful research, heartily voiced opinions on the technical merits of DSLR , and careful reading of all of the lcoal store fliers and sales ads, they found a nifty little camera for me. I'm ready for summer photo ops!
We picked up 60 pounds of asparagus to pickle and freeze. 79 cents a pound, I think. A hot and steamy afternoon, family-canning style.
And it was 50% off everything at Value Village, and the boys are fully outfitted (except sandals size 3 for Avery) and they're ready for summer photo ops too!

Now I need to get chores done and somehow, someway, find a little time to figure out how to actually take pictures with my new camera! A fun kind of thing to find time for, I think. But at least now I can safely say, "I'm sure you'll all see us again!"

(Not My) Family Photos

2009-05-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

In honor of my recently deceased camera: so many awkward family photos I can't take right now. We're enjoying other families and their photographed moments. Take a peek- you won't be able to stop looking, I bet....

Vimeo

2009-05-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

Vimeo is my newest time-waster. I love it! It's like you-tube but cooler, and all the videos are user created. They're artsy and funky and fun. Way too fun. Check this out- my two favorite playthings at once- vimeo and tiltshift! We've been waching it over and over.... it's kind of like schoolwork, right?

Washington Weekend>>Hood Canal

2009-05-17T23:42:00.001-07:00

I grew up in the rain, in the lush, soothing green of the coastal northwest and Alaska. I think I considered myself more Cascadian than anything else most of my life. I know I rather snobbily thought the "Midwest" was bordered by the Cascade Mountains on the west wide and the Appalachians on the east. Now, of course, I live in the dry-side of Washington, and while my kids are probably the only ones in town with full raingear suits, they rarely wear them, never in our own town, and they've missed out on some of my childhood loves. Puddles, for instance, and the wonderfulness of jumping and splashing in them. Rainy days that last for days. Storms coming in off the ocean. The beach in the spring and fall, when it's empty and cold and gray and you feel like the last child at the end of the earth. Tidepools. Silent forests with thick, spongey floors and undergrowth and a million hidden hideaways. Ferns covered in rain. Taking shelter under a giant moss covered tree in a sudden downpour. Waking up to the sound of rain. The feel of your skin against a wet raincoat. It's true- they mostly think raincoats and boots are for dress-up.
Anyway, the weather was beautiful this weekend over on the Hood Canal. sunny and warm and perfect. Not rainy a bit. Here are some pictures- the few I took before my camera was the victim of a murder- well, accidental homicide, at least.
Ferns, unfurling. I grew up eating new baby ferns, called fiddleheads. A wet-side of the state spring treat. Now I'm rarely in the presence of ferns, and even more rarely somewhere I can pick them to eat. But I always like looking at them.

Our before supper treat Saturday night: fresh oysters, cooked in the shell in the campfire. Avery tromped around the Hood Canal with our friend Bob and found a bunch of oysters, they cooked them and we all ate them. Aaron's "trying to acquire" a taste, Miles isn't bothering- there's plenty of food that tastes good outright, I guess. Avery ate four, I think, and could barely eat supper he was so full. Mmmm. Food you hunt or gather yourself is always the tastiest!

Miles, refusing to look at the camera. Hmmm. I mean, Miles, looking angelic.

Avery, who spent the whole weekend making silly faces for the camera. This was the best I could get. He was proud to show me the oysters cooking, and excited to try one.

And, you know, the usual ridiculous baby picture. Because we don't want to leave him out, but he's almost always on my chest, in the wrap, and so I can only pictures of the top of his head. Which is sweet, but really. He makes the funniest fleeting faces, we're trying to capture his absolute chunkiness- we've never had a chubby baby before- and he's so delicious!

Fun Stuff~~Shadow Play

2009-05-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

This is the cutest idea. The kind of thing I love to do, but rarely manage to ACTUALLY do. Besides my husband broke my camera this weekend- who knew you weren't supposed to WASH digital cameras to get little boy smears off the lens? Who knew? Anyway, enough about me- what's your shadow doing? Check it out!

Rhubarb Time

2009-05-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

After dandelions and lilacs the next big garden harvest is rhubarb. And we've been madly harvesting. Avery loves to help- he gets to use a knife and whack off the leaves. Really, what's more fun than standing in the dirt and whacking things with knives? His enthusiasm is not diminished by the fact that he doesn't like rhubarb one bit. Actually no one in the family much like rhubarb, except me. And I love it. It's beautiful, for one thing. Big and lush and vibrant, when everything else in the garden is just peeping up in little green notes, there's rhubarb, shouting out from the corner. Hooray! It's spring!

This year, so far, I've made the usual rhubarb sauce- just cleaned and sliced rhubarb stems (no leaves-they're poison) and a cup of sugar for every 6 cups of rhubarb, simmer 20 minutes or so til it's all soft and mushy. Delicious with homemade yogurt, or ice cream, on pancakes, in muffins, by the sneaky spoonful when no one's looking. Mmmm! Spring in a spoon.

But I decided to try making rhubarb syrup this year too, and boy! am I glad I did. A rhubarb treat Miles and Aaron both like, even if Avery doesn't quite. I chopped up a bunch of rhubarb-12 cups, probably- and added 3 cups of sugar and 6 cups of water, and simmered that 20 minutes or so, til it was soft and mushy, then strained it through my mesh strainer. The loveliest pink liquid filled 4 quart jars. We drank this all weekend, syrup and sparkling water and ice. But if you were in the mood I'd think some rhubarb cocktails would be divine. I'm thinking black currant juice, vodka, rhubarb syrup, or rhubarb syrup, mint, white rum. Or rhubarb and sparkling wine, like a mimosa, only pink! We had rhubarb pie and rhubarb muffins, too, though I didn't make them.

Here is a recipe I'll be trying tomorrow. If you've never been over to smitten kitchen you should hop over right now! Anyway, this rhubarb coffee cake looks amazing.

I think I'm going to harvest more rhubarb and make jelly. I bet my kids will even like it, come winter and the blahs. A little spring time on their toast will start the day right, I think.

I always think of all those pioneers, relying entirely on themselves to survive, and how wonderful the fresh, tart, awakening flavor of rhubarb must have been. A long winter of dried or canned fruit and vegetables, and finally the spring and the emergence of fresh things to eat. Rhubarb, I think, tastes like salvation. Well, at least if you sugar it enough!

Fun Stuff ~~ Tiltshift Maker

2009-05-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

Tiltshift Maker is super cool!
This isn't the best example- I have a simple little camera and never take pictures of anything but my children, so I didn't have a lot to work with, but tiltshift changes the focus of your photos so that they kind of look like miniatures- check it out, their examples are cool, and, I'm excited to go tak pictures to try it out with.
Anyway, this is a photo my brother took, of some little town in Alaska-the focus of the original was the bay freezing up, but with tiltshift it becomes a little make-believe village. Well, look at their examples, and try your own photos. It's fun and its free! And besides, who doesn't need a new wa to waste time, and another reason to stay on the computer all night long. Really....
Here's the original- iced over bay, plain little village, buildings.

Project:: (Organic Valley) Bandanna Pants

2009-05-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Another project completed! Instead of spending the morning walking with my friend Jennifer walking (talking) while the kids run and rack up miles for the kids' marathon we stayed home and Avery and I did a little project. We used the Blue Yonder tutorial for bandanna pants, and two super cute bandannas from Organic Valley that were free at the Seattle Green Festival last year. Avery did all the sewing machine work, and I did the pinning. Pants for brother, for free!

Sewing away! I love how careful and neat Avery gets when he's in control of a machine.

I usually am really careful about not using my children as living billboards, and I try to keep logos discreet, or off their clothes entirely, but we really do love Organic Valley. They're farmer owned, pastured dairy, and locally sourced. Now that the boys have decided that they like to drink milk we go through a ridiculous amount of Organic Valley milk- it's by far the biggest weekly grocery expense, but completely worth the money (don't say I told you, but you can coupons on their website, and more sometimes if you sign up for their newsletter). I love knowing my children are growing up on completely organic, hormone and pesticide free milk, that the cows are healthy and happy and outside, that we're supporting farmers right here in our own county and state, and, besides, Organic Valley milk is tastier than the others. So there you go- I don't mind using my children as billboards for the companies that reflect our family values. Hey Organic Valley- want to send us some more bandannas?

I see overalls for the baby, shorts for Avery, a skirt for me... what else can we make?

Oh yeah- this fulfills Avery's 3rd grade sewing/clothing project- yet another project I've been feeling guilty about not getting to. DONE!

Project:: Birds

2009-05-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

7 fabric birds made from my scrap bag, one brown velvet branch, most of a bag of pillow stuffing, and 14 little velcro circles painfully sewn in place. One project-COMPLETED! And I still have time to get my 4 hours of sleep!

I was just going to make some little birds to hang on ribbon or fish line for our friends' baby's baptism tomorrow. Then I thought, well, that's cute, but not really much fun for an almost one year old. Then I thought I'd sew a little branch, and sew the birds to it. Then it could sit on a window sill or table and be cute in baby's reach. But again, not quite fun enough. Velcro! I didn't quite think it out in time, though, or I would have machine-stitched the velcro dots before sewing the birds together- I didn't know the sew-on velcro circles were sticky on the back, which made pushing a needle through by hand a major pain in the ... thumb. Why don't I have a thimble? Oh- because I NEVER sew by hand. Actually, if I'd thought it out enough I would have just stuck with a basket of birds and ribbons, to hang or not. Oh well.

This is sort of rustic and kid-friendly, not anything fancy or precious, though I do think the little birds are cute. Hopefully our friends will like it! And I'm going to make a couple more- one for some friends of ours who just had a baby and are big bird-lovers, and one for baby Ansel. With velcro dots machine sewn on before the birds are assembled! And I've actually got about 13 birds already done, including these 7, and a bunch more pieces cut out, so that part should be quick enough. It's just the darn velcro that slows everything down- otherwise this'd be a two hour project!

Brothers

2009-05-08T23:49:00.000-07:00

There are, in the midst of a busy day of chores and school and playing, running and shouting and digging and being "The Loudest Boy of the World, the Viken-Biker" a moment or two when Miles is still and calm and unbelievably tender and sweet. Here is one, captured. Proof.

And just a little picture of Ansel- he's getting so big so fast I can barely stand it!

Projects, Interrupted

2009-05-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

You know Martha Stewart and I are a lot alike.
We both love cooking and baking. Of course, she never does her thing in a tiny rather ugly kitchen whose facelift is rather far down the list of important things to spend money on and so will most likely stay ugly for the foreseeable future, and I'll bet she doesn't have to make her way around two small wooden chairs her boys stand on to help, the highchair with the baby in it (the getting really hungry and already starting to fuss baby), and the other high chair the three year old pulled into the kitchen so that he could reach the upper cabinet where there might be candy hidden, or the sticky place from when he slipped climbing down froom the top shelf and dropped the jar of molasses. I've never seen her do that on the show, anyhow.
We both love crafts. I love finding that all of the fancy homemade card envelopes are gone because my husband was paying bills and I left my card-making basket on the table and there they were, easier than walking downstairs to the office and getting regular envelopes. I wonder if Martha and I are alike that way, too? I bet the people at the gas company appreciated opening that pretty, floral-paper lined envelope, anyway.
We both love making things look just so. But Martha doesn't have little boys taking her cunningly arranged vintage bamboo tray, smooth colored stones, perfect little blue bowl and single white blossom into a soggy mangled mess of crushed petals and shards of shiny deadly blue before she can even take a picture of her little lovely vignette.
We both like to talk about all of the great ideas we have, and all the lovely things we've made. She has people to actually finish her projects for her, and document how they were made so the effect can be recreated, and take pictures so that they'll be remembered long after a two year old with a sharpie comes through the room.
We both have houses full of servants to make everything pretty, just the way we tell them too, and clean up after us when we entertain our celebrity friends by teaching them crafts. Oh. Well, one of does.
But we both only need 4 hours of sleep a day. Really. And I don't even need to have them all at once. I only need 4 hours of sleep, just like my friend Martha. Of course, it is arguable that I might do a little better if I had a solid night's sleep more than once ever 4 years, but I bet Martha wouldn't falter and fail. No, I'm sure she'd finish the projects she started, or at least have them finished for her, no matter how distracted and delusional her sleep-deprived mind became.
And that's the problem, really. I can't give up on a project, and I can't quite admit that I'm not ever going to finish knitting the second little I-cord tie for that adorable little snowflake hat that is now too small for the person it was (almost) knitted for. I am too distracted by real life, and real messes, and these very real boys to finish anything but the essentials, and I'm too delusional to admit that it might be okay if I didn't try to every darn thing myself, by hand, from absolute scratch.

So here they are:
The hat, already mentioned.
The magnetic food pyramid inspired chart. How could I be out of magnetic paper? I bet Martha's never out of magnetic paper.
The magnetic chore management chart. Again, the magnetic paper. I swear I had a bunch of it before I started these projects.
The alphabet photo project I started with the boys a few weeks ago.
More blank cards to give as gifts. Two cards doesn't make a great gift, especially when they don't come with envelopes.
The DNC scrapbook I planned to put together after, well, the Democratic National Convention last August.
Miles' baby scrapbook. Enough said, I'm sad enough about that one.
There's more. Not including the projects I haven't even started, there's plenty more. But do you see how pathetic it is? I can't even finish a list about the projects I haven't finished!

My New Friends Emma and Craig

2009-05-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

Isn't she beautiful? Her full name is Emmaljunga Twin Cerox, but we just call her Emma. As if she were a ship, or some other thing you might give a female name to. She is kind of a tank. Do they get girly names?
I admit to feeling a little weird loving a THING this much, but oh! she's everything I wanted in a double stroller:
1~ side by side seating (wide is easier for me to deal with than long- maybe because I'm wider rather than longer lately)
2~a great big sunshade with an integrated sun/bug mesh for complete coverage (Bugs aren't much of a problem here, but sunshine is, and canopies that don't have full-motion or are aren't really deep are nearly worthless.)
3~ a rain cover (It does sometimes rain here, and we do sometimes travel to places where it might rain)
4~ four big wheels with wide PUNCTURE PROOF tires (increvable, we call them- can you tell we play Miles Bornes all the time?) because our town is less than 25% sidewalked, and covered in goat's heads, those nasty little pokies that wreak havoc with bike-style tires, even, as we've found out, the expensive "puncture proof" tube tires. If you don't find and extract the goat's heads the tires will eventually be shredded rubber flapping around the rims. No fun!
5~ reversible handlebar, so babies face Mom or the World
6~ adjustable handlebar, so Avery can push it as easily as I can or someone over 6 feet tall (not that people over 6 feet tall are knocking down the door begging to push the stroller for me all the time, but still, it's good to be prepared!)
7~ big storage basket (need I say anything?)
8~sturdy construction, because we are awfully hard on strollers. Really. Awfully hard. It's true. Three boys, who'd guess?
9~ fully reclining seats so babies can ride safely and sleep soundly
10~ 5 point harnesses (again, the safety thing)
11~ removable babycots, two of them, that transform into cold weather seat-buntings, because it is often very cold here, and I love the nap-inducing feature of a brisk cold weather walk and a warmly bundled baby! (Plus with a removable baby cot it's easy to take a sleeping baby inside without waking them!)
12~ good looks. She is lovely. By chance she's made of sage colored fabric, my favorite!
13~ nickname "the Volvo of strollers" (We do love our Volvo!)
14~ Sweden. She was made there, by people who were paid a living wage and have good working conditions and health insurance. No humans were abused in the construction of this stroller.
15~ What European strollers are called: prams, perambulators, buggies, pushchairs, and my favorite, sit-strollers.
16~ Oh yeah! It fits through doors. It might be snug sometimes, but it fits. Really. I said a silent little prayer of thanks when I saw the Mom at gymnastics have to take her little ones out of the jogging stroller, bring them inside, fold down her stroller, and then bring it inside. Could of been me, but Emma sailed right through!

We got it off craigslist, from a Swedish family who had grown out of it. It's in great shape- it looks brand new, really. And we got it for about 1/5 of what the original price was, not including the plane ticket! It's such a wonderful thing, now that spring is here and the baby is getting heavier and we're all getting warmer, to be able to go for the big long walks we like without a baby strapped to me, to be able to walk fast and push a stroller that rolls onto curbs and over ruts without pause and is comfortable for everyone. We were saving our pennies, planning to buy a well used jogger type stroller, but knowing a decent twin jogger with reclining seats and a big sunshade and a good sized basket would be, even used, a chunk of change. But now we have this amazing stroller for what we thought we'd get something just good enough! One more reason to have more kids- to keep Emma in our lives!

Lilac Time

2009-04-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

Lilacs are blooming outside my kitchen window, and while dandelions may be the first sign that spring is really here, lilacs are what tell my heart that the long winter is finally over.

Last year they froze just as they were bursting out, and I didn't get a single cutting for the house. But we won't mention that sadness again, will we? The lilacs are blooming, and it is spring. Anyone can see them, smell them, and feel their soul swell, their limbs stretch and strengthen, their own faces turn up to the sunshine.

But aside from their incredible sweet smell and the exuberance of their abundant blooms, lilacs are useful plants, worthy of their own corner in the edible landscape.

Make lilac sugar: This is the simplest thing to do, and flavored sugars are always a fancy little treat. Pick some lilac blossoms, clean and not buggy, and sprinkle them in a jar of white sugar, making a few layers, then cap the jar and forget about it for a couple of weeks. For a fancy tea party make little open face sandwiches with a sprinkle of lilac sugar and a few blossoms chopped into cream cheese, and a few petals for garnish, or use the sugar to make shortbread cookies. Heat up some milk, add vanilla and a dollop of whipped cream sweetened with lilac sugar for a little treat to surprise your little ones.

Lilac Syrup: Heat one cup of sugar and one cup of water to a boil, then stir in 1 cup of lilac blossoms and drop heat to low, cook 12 minutes, and strain the syrup into a jar. Keep in the fridge or freezer. Try this over crushed ice with sparkling water, or use the syrup as a pound cake glaze or ice cream.

You can make jelly, but I've never done it. My children only recently decide that they like jams and jellies, though, so maybe this year....

Lilac Muffins with lilac petals tossed in sugar and added to your favorite muffin recipe.

Here's a recipe for a spring trifle with lilac infused pastry cream that looks amazing. I do love trifle- after all, what's better than cake? Cake covered in pudding, of course!

Some people say lilacs keep bad spirits from entering the door if they're growing near. Mine is right by the back door, so I guess we're safe. Thank goodness!

People used to chew the bark and leaves to help sore mouths, and the leaves can be made into a medicinal tea to help with fevers, ridding the body of worms, and can be used as a general restorative tonic. I haven't used lilacs this way, but I love knowing how every little thing CAN be used!

You can of course get essential oil from lilacs, and make dye from the flowers (green!), leaves (green or brown), and the twigs (yellow-orange).

There was even a story on NPR about phenology (tracking natural phenomena) and using lilacs to track climate change.

Oddly this delightful, sweet flower has a sad reputation. Think of Walt Whitman's famous poem, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd which combines lilacs with Abraham Lincoln's death.

There's an old proverb about girls who wear lilacs never marrying, and a sad story about an Englishman who ruined an innocent girl laying colorful lilacs on her grave. In the morning they were white, as if they too had bled to death.

Most famously, in Greek Mythology, Syrinx (Syringa), a follower of Artemis, and known for her chastity was pursued by Pan through the forest, til she ran to the river's edge and begged for help from the river nymphs, who transformed her into a bush with hollow reeds that made a haunting sound when the Pan's frustrated breath blew across them. He cut the reeds and made the first set of pan pipes.

Maybe lilacs don't have the happiest ending in story, but they'll always signal the happy end of winter to me. And my old friend, Walt Whitman, has a lesser known but lovely poem that sums it up just right: Warble for Lilac Time.

Homemade Yogurt

2009-04-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

We eat a ton of yogurt. Really. Long ago I stopped buying it in those cute little containers, then I stopped getting it in quart containers, even, and moved to the big 1/2 gallon Nancy's Yogurt tubs of plain yogurt. And then my friend Jennifer encouraged me to give it a try, since I already make so much of our food from scratch. And it is easy! And cheap (I'm big on cheap!). And way yummier than store bought.
I have a Rival Crockpot Stoneware Cooker Smartpot, which I think is officially a 6 qt crock, but perfectly fits a gallon of milk. On yogurt day I dump a gallon of whole milk in the crock, turn it on high, covered, for 4 hours, til it's at 180degrees, then keep it covered but unplugged for 4 hours, til it's 110 degrees. While it's cooling I mix 1 c. of leftover yogurt, 1 c. of honey, and 1 T. of vanilla in a bowl, and let it sit out to room temp. When the milk is cool enough I whisk the yogurt mixture in, cover the crockpot again, and wrap the whole thing in a blanket for at least 8 hours. Yogurt! It thickens up more in the fridge.
Sometimes I just make plain yogurt, and then I don't add sweetener or vanilla. Occasionally I've made plain yogurt and added honey and flavoring in after, and that works just fine, and allows you to make a bunch of different flavors out of one gallon batch. My kids mostly just like vanilla yogurt, though, so that's mostly what I make. My Mom has started making yogurt too, but she makes it with 1% milk, and the cooler method that Jennifer uses, and it's really delicious and creamy- WAY nicer than store bought low fat yogurt. Here's what we do with the yogurt:
Make Greek Yogurt so much less expensive than store bought, and more nutritionally dense, perfect for little boys who'd rather run off calories than eat them... I just strain fresh yogurt for a couple hours through a dishcloth or cheesecloth lined mesh strainer, on the counter.
Make Cream Cheese This is just strained longer, several hours, and I suppose is technically yogurt cheese, but that sounds unappealing and my boys are clear about wanting "Cream Cheese". So we have cream cheese, and they eat a lot of it. It's tangy and yummy.
Make Dip With Greek Yogurt or cream cheese as a base, depending. Chopped fresh herbs, dried herbs, minced veggies, or sweet dips, like caramel-cream cheese, or tropical, with food processor chopped dried pineapple, coconut, and dried papaya.
Make Sauce Sweet sauces, for pancakes and fruit salad, with honey or maple syrup, and savory sauces like raita, with chopped veggies and appropriate spices and herbs.
Make Smoothies Yogurt, frozen fruit (I put peeled older bananas and other fruits in the freezer just for smoothies), honey, whatever else is hanging around in reach of the blender. Leftover oatmeal is a good thickener and fiber adder. We're partial to banana-peanut butter-carob, and frozen orange juice concentrate-coconut milk-frozen mango.
Make other stuff I haven't made pancakes without yogurt in years. It's my favorite pancake trick- I just substitute yogurt (sometimes a little bit thinned out) for the buttermilk in any recipe- bundt cake, pancakes, biscuits. I make whole wheat bread by soaking the whole wheat flour in yogurt overnight- the bread is soft and smooth and tangy almost like sourdough. Leftover smoothies turn into popsicles, popsicles are eaten in the bathtub and so the boys get a homemade orgainc yogurt bath. Which has to be good for their skin, don't you think?

My favorite letter!

2009-04-27T15:08:00.001-07:00

Miles is really into Letter "M" these days. He sees them everywhere, all the time. It's pretty great, really. "My favorite letter! There it is!" he shouts with glee, and he's just as happy when it's upside down.

We haven't really done any letter stuff yet- Waldorf kids wouldn't study letters until 1st grade and I'm not in any rush with this kid. Still, he knows his "M"s. He knows their sound, their shape, their place in his heart. He just doesn't always know their name. I'm pretty sure that's why they're called "my favorite letter" instead of just "M".

Washington Weekend>>Winthrop 1

2009-04-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

Aaron had a conference up in the Methow Valley in North-Central Washington, so we all went. My parents even came over to play and help with the kids, and we all enjoyed the outdoors and sunny, windy spring days.
The conference was here, at the Sun Mountain Lodge http://www.sunmountainlodge.com/, which is beautiful and lovely and all. Also expensive and without the requirements I have for travel with three little children: kitchenettes and continental breakfast. Needless to say, we didn't stay there, though we have in the past, when we had just one quiet, calm, and gentle child. And it was lovely, really.
We did go for a couple of little hikes up there, though. It's impossible to NOT want to hike around, when you're surrounded by mountain tops and signs of spring, the sky is blue and the breeze is blowing. How can you keep from running, rolling, shouting, singing?

Miles, ready to get moving. Impatient with everyone else for not being instantly ready!

Spring comes mostly in sage and green in the arid inland northwest, but also in startling points of blue...

and tiny specks of yellow. You might miss it if you're not already kneeling on the ground watching ants and beetles scurrying around.

But it's good to look up, too. There's a big sky up there, and deer around every corner, if you're quiet and still and look closely.