Getting There

What I've been up to.

Thank you sincerely to everyone who offered their encouraging comments on my lost post. Obviously I've been feeling a wee bit frazzled lately. A teething baby will throw off the schedule in just about any home, I suppose. And Chris has started a new job where he is away for long hours every day. Yet, I am learning to manage this new life with four children. I am learning to pace myself, to take time to recharge myself, and most importantly to engage the children in the work that needs to be done.

I decided to declare a no-school week this week--instead we are having a Life Skills Week. The time I would normally spend "doing school" with the children--about 2 hours per day, usually--I will dedicate to teaching the children how to help me more around the house. Today I worked with the boys for a while ensuring they knew how to put their own laundry away and tidy their room. Later today I will teach Kira how to do laundry. And the week will continue like that. I hope that this will be a good investment of time and that things will go at least a little bit smoother in the future.

Yesterday too, when I planted some garlic in the back yard which I had sprouted, I made sure Owen helped me. (I know, it's rather late to be planting garlic in Canada, but I had a whole bag full that was going to go bad before I could use it so I figured, might as well give it a shot! I put some cloves in a container with wet paper towel, and almost every clove sprouted within 24 hours.)

I pulled out the few straggly chamomile plants I had to make room for the garlic. There were a few blossoms on the chamomile, which strangely were the nicest and largest blossoms I've had so far. But there were only a few, not even enough for a good cup of tea, so out they came. I am sure the chamomile didn't grow very well because of the lack of sun in my back yard--for that same reason, I'm sure the garlic won't grow well either, but it's fun to experiment anyway.

I am going to try my best from now on to involve the children in my daily tasks. There is just no way I can comfortably manage our family business, take proper care of the home, cook all our food from scratch, tend to the baby, and facilitate the children's education besides, all by myself. I need to learn to delegate jobs, and ensure everyone in the house is resposible for their own messes.

But enough about that. I also wanted to mention a small sewing project I did for Halloween. Owen wanted to be Toad, who is character in the Super Mario universe who looks like a toadstool. I was rather proud of myself that I whipped up the right kind of hat at the last minute with some scrap fabric, although since I was making it about 5 pm on Halloween I had to glue on the red dots instead of sewing them by hand. Here is Amy modeling the hat:

In other news, I harvested my humble herb garden a little while ago, and some bunches of sage, lemon balm, rosemary and oregano have been drying on my clothes line in the back hall. It makes me so happy to see bunches of herbs drying! I'm not sure why, but it's just a happy sight. (No basil; my plant was huge, but it all withered away after a light frost we had one night. That's what I get for procrastinating.)

Remember my post on Unplugged Sunday? Well, we have been continuing this, and I must say it has been wonderful. I really enjoy having a day free from electronics. The house is so quiet and peaceful, and we have been doing some really fun activities in place of television and computer. My husband, for example, helped the children make their own board game. It's based on the video game MarioKart, which is ironic I know, but they have all been working hard on the game and it's such a joy to see the whole family work together on a project. (And fun to play together, as well).

Of course, with a seven month old girl around here, a lot of cuddling has been going on. Amy's older siblings all adore her and sometimes fights break out over who gets to cuddle with her! I guess there are worse things children could argue about. And I guess I understand. She's pretty darn cute.

(That's milkweek fluff on her shoulder--we had just gotten back from a walk!)

Life is full and good. :)

Making Brown Sugar.

I apologize for the pause in posts--I had planned on posting on Monday, but on that morning I got the news that my father had had a heart attack. He is fine now! The hospital has taken excellent care of him, and he expects to fully recover. We are so happy and relieved. However, needless to say, I was shaken by this event and forgot about my blog for a while.

I was in such a worried, fretful state on that day. I knew I had to pull myself together for the children, so I did two things. The sun was shining brightly, so I went outside with the baby and harvested some herbs from the garden. Nothing is more soothing to me than working in the garden.

It's also so pleasing to see bunches of herbs I grew myself hanging to dry.

And then of course, I did what most women do in a time of distress--made food. In this case, chocolate chip cookies. I almost used up all the brown sugar, and instead of adding it to the shopping list this morning, I decided to try making some of my own.

Did you know the brown sugar you buy in the grocery store is in fact refined white sugar that has had some molasses added back into it? I found this info on Wikepedia:

Brown sugar is often produced by adding cane molasses to completely refined white sugar crystals in order to more carefully control the ratio of molasses to sugar crystals and to reduce manufacturing costs.^[1] This also allows the production of brown sugars to be based predominantly on beet sugar.

I don't know if the brands sold in my area are made from beet sugar or cane sugar. I hope not beet sugar, since most sugar beets grown are genetically modified varieties. However, even if the sugar I normally buy comes from sugar cane, it still has been refined, and I much prefer to use organic, unbleached sugar in all my baking.

I have been buying organic "white" sugar for some time, but I have never seen organic brown sugar anywhere for sale. So, time to try it myself! I took two cups of organic sugar and mixed in 1 tablespoon of dark organic molasses. I was suprised that the resulting sugar was so dark and rich tasting.

In the photo, the homemade sugar is on the left, the store bought "dark" brown sugar is on the right:

I think this sugar will be lovely for baking, although I might have to add more white sugar to get a product my children will eat on their oatmeal. Since it is so easy to do, I will certainly continue to make my own brown sugar. I know that any kind of sugar isn't healthy--but I know that if I am going to make cookies anyway, it's healthier to use only organic sugar that has never been bleached. And I think that the cost of this organic brown sugar is about the same as the small bags of processed brown sugar in the grocery store.

Has anyone else ever tried making brown sugar?

This year's "harvest."

I couldn't help but put quotation marks on the word "harvest" in the title of this post. Last year my efforts at being an urban homesteader were very disappointing--I couldn't even manage to grow a few potatoes. So naturally I figured this year would be better...but I'm not so sure it was!

We did grow some string beans along the fence that did pretty well--we got enough beans for about 3 of our family meals. That's good, since I used leftover seeds from several years ago. And I have left many pods behind to dry out so we can have seeds for next year (although as I'm not sure what kind of seeds they were to begin with, I don't know if they're really sprout. I figured it was worth a try since it would cost nothing.)

And I did get a good amount of calendula for my healing salve. I filled a jar of extra virgin olive oil with dried calendula blossoms. It's been sitting in my back window for a couple of weeks now, and I think it looks so pretty and golden! I have some plantain leaves drying too, and once they are dry I'm going to top up the oil and add them, too.

I planted a number of chamomile plants but the harvest here was pathetic to say the least. I was hoping I would get enough to make tea for the winter...not quite! I think the chamomile must have loathed the damp and shady conditions in my back yard, because I only picked about a hundred tiny tiny straggly little blossoms...so after I dried them I added them to the oil for my healing salve, since the plant is known to be soothing to the skin.

I did make one single cup of weak tea, using a handful of chamomile and some lemon balm leaves...I found it funny. Some day I will do better than this! Some day I will have a lovely sprawling herb garden bursting with bountiful tea-making ingredients...just not right now.

My yarrow plant didn't get big enough to blossom, and my lavender died outright while it was still tiny. We only got 2 miniscule and sickly looking sunflower blossoms from the seeds we planted--so much for the cheerful bouquets the seed packet promised me! My stevia plant grew in leaps and bounds, but now I am not sure what to do with it because the word on the street is that the dried leaves taste terrible...

I am now working on drying some sage, basil, rosemary, and oregano for winter. I would have loved some thyme (which is delicious in my favourite winter meal, beef stew and dumplings) but couldn't find any plants this year. Maybe next year I'll order some seeds.

I planted four parsely seedlings, and they stayed ridiculously tiny! So much for that...

And then, for the pièce de résistance...behold our 2011 tomato harvest in its entirety:

Since the weather has gotten colder and frost has become a possibility, I picked these green, and tossed the plants (with disgust) into the dumpster.

Needless to say, seeing pictures of other people's enormous harvest of juicy red tomatoes has got me feeling a little jealous!

But I know it will not always be this way. Some day I will have a "real" garden...I just have to acquire a much bigger one so there are bound to be at least some accidental successes. We are hoping that maybe we will not be here in this virtually yard-less house by next year's growing season...So I will just keep hoping and praying, that this will be the last year I will have to try to grow things in a shady patch the size of a postage stamp.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation.

August has been a pretty laid back month for us, for the most part. The weather was lovely (not as hot as July) and we had some really nice times.

One fun thing we did was go blueberry picking with Grandma and Grandpa. The pickings were rather poor, it being near the end of the season, but I did get a good enough amount to freeze for snacking and smoothies. No blueberry jam or pies this year, though.

And after picking, Grandpa took us out for lunch and then for a romp at the lovely park at the Leamington marina.

I did buy a bucket of cherries at the grocery store and made jam, so my shelf of jam jars is looking respectable again. Too bad I didn't have the time or energy to give pickles a try this year. Next year, maybe.

I sighed every time I looked at the two tiny green tomatoes that will apparently be the sum total of our tomato harvest this year. (The other plant, although it is quite large, has zero tomatoes.) Then, a few days ago, one of my children broke off the upper tomato. (And then Owen exclaimed, "Now we won't be able to make spaghetti sauce!") So now, our 2011 tomato harvest = 1 very small, very green tomato. *sigh*

I picked the single zucchini that we got from the garden, and made a big chocolate zucchini cake--which I neglected to cook all the way through (oh well).

We planted sunflower seeds this year--and we got only one flower. It was tiny, to say the least. Yes, it was a dwarf variety, but the seed packet said the plants would reach 20 inches tall, and our plant couldn't be more than 6 inches. Not very impressive.

The garden wasn't all bad though. I've gotten a nice harvest of calendula for my healing salve--it's impressive how long the plants seem to be flowering!--and the pole beans we're growing against the fence are producing lots of tasty beans.

I actually have a surplus of calendula now, and I wish I could bring them into the house as cut flowers--but the stems seem to be covered with aphids as well as various other tiny bugs. I wonder if this is a common thing with this plant? I thought plants in the marigold family were supposed to repel bugs!
But enough about the garden. The past few weeks, I spent a lot of time smiling at the sight of my youngest, who has discovered how to bounce in her jolly jumper...

And bounce, and bounce, and bounce...

My parents gave us a highchair for her, and I can't believe how big she looks, sitting in it! So much for that newborn thing...it apparently lasts only about 5 minutes.

Well, that's about all that we've been up to. Nothing really much, which is just fine for this sleep deprived mommy.

Please dear readers of mine, tell me what you did on your summer vacations!

My sad excuse for a garden.

I had high hopes for my little back yard garden this year, but alas, I think I mostly just screwed up.

I got my seeds started way too late, and everything got off to a late start. I think I will be lucky at this rate to have a few tomatoes and a handful of parsley by September.

I also didn't do anything to amend the soil we put in the raised beds, and I think that was a mistake. The soil the condo provided was obviously not very good. Everything except for the pole beans (which will grow like wild fire in any circumstance, as far as I can tell), and the weeds of course, is growing painfully slowly this year.

Here you see the pole beans (which must be 12 feet tall by now, literally), with some stevia and calendula in the corner of the bed and the rest...weeds! It's starting to look like a jungle out there. The condo has a landscaping company cut the grass (including in everyone's back yard) on Tuesdays, but I keep forgetting to unlock the gate. (We can't leave the gate unlocked anymore, because last year when we did that every single toy our children left in the yard or sandbox was stolen.)

Also in that bed is some very pathetic, straggly looking chamomile (next to it is a sunflower Owen planted that seems to have been eaten by something, what I don't know.)

And some pathetic, straggly looking yarrow.

There used to be lavender in this bed as well, but it withered away.

On the other side of the yard are some culinary herbs which were bought as plants. I should be able to dry a bit of sage, basil, oregano, and rosemary. The parsley, which I grew from seed, definitely not! It's still tiny. Also over there are some more tiny sunflower plants which I think are about to die, and a single zucchini plant--I planted many seeds but only one came up. This plant has many flowers, but they seem to be being removed--by a child or by a squirrel, I'm not sure!

Add to all this less than stellar growth, that we have had a few very heavy thunderstorms recently that have damaged a lot of the plants.

Okay, so it isn't my fault when it rains hard, nor can I help it that our yard gets little sun because of the high fences. And it is difficult to find time for gardening with a newborn around. But still...surely I could have done better than this! Sometimes I think I am quite crazy for wanting to move somewhere where I can have a huge garden, when I can't even seem to decently manage this tiny one!

At least I am learning as I go, making mistakes on a small scale instead of a large one. My puttering around the past two years has taught me that I shouldn't be too laid back about things like amending the soil and getting seeds started at the right time. Gardens don't grow very well if you just do everything haphazardly--only weeds like that kind of treatment. :)

Sometimes I feel like an imposter.

Really, I do. Although we do live simply in many ways, sometimes I feel like an imposter because I am writing a blog about self sufficiency, and yet I live in a small (and ugly) city house with a backyard that is only about 150 square feet. I have books about homesteading in my sidebar, yet I don't feel that I homestead at all.

Sometimes I wonder, why would anyone read my blog? What do I have to offer, when there are other bloggers out there that can showcase their chickens and goats, their cellars full of home canning, their children roaming through the woods and hiking up mountainsides, the homemade quilts they whipped together, their cozy woodstoves in the winter? I have none of those things. When I started this blog I hoped that maybe by now we would be living out in the country, but it hasn't worked out that way.

Sure, there is such thing as an "urban homesteader," and many people do it quite successfully...but I don't even seem to have the time to really do that. I was so late getting my herb seedings started this year that they are still just small seedlings and look silly out there in my raised beds. I don't think I'm going to be able to harvest any lavender at all this year at this rate. My two tomato plants are similarly tiny, and the zuchinni...I just planted the seeds a week ago. I was also late even buying my other herb plants, so no sage, thyme, or basil for me!  And I was so excited to have a spice cupboard this winter filled with organically grown dried herbs!

My sewing machine continues to gather dust--so much for beautiful quilt I wanted to make before Amy was born--I haven't even started it! I have noticed that knitting is a favourite hobby with many bloggers, but me? I have never knit anything but square dish cloths, and a very misshapen teddy bear...and I have a feeling that is as far as I am going to get. It's all incomprehensible to me.

I am not even sure if we are going to get a chance to go strawberry picking this year, as it is strawberry season right now and Chris is so busy with work...he's doing wholesale orders for our Etsy shop and also doing other full time contract work as an industrial mechanic on the side! I suppose I could find a way to take all the kids with me...but last year it was hard enough to keep Jasper from trampling the strawberry plants with two grown ups present...I'm not sure if I can tackle that task on my own. (If you knew Jasper, you would agree with me.)

I hope we find a way, because last year's strawberry jam was sublime!

Perhaps others can relate to my struggles, and that's a good thing...I hope I can be encouraging to others who want to live a simple, deliberate life, to concentrate on the things that really matter, to do things for themselves, and yet who don't find it an easy path. I hope so, because sometimes I feel like I am only acting a part, and I feel a little nervous that someone is going to notice that I am not genuine enough, that my life is not as simple and beautiful as I might pretend. Actually, many days our house is chaotic, everyone is squabbling, the VCR gets used more than I care to admit, and supper is something out of a can or a box...Some days I am so frazzled trying to care for the children, get some homeschool lessons in there somewhere, and keep the house in reasonable order, that I wonder if I could even manage a big garden and some animals on top of it all. Although, perhaps seeing something other than asphalt outside my window might help my state of mind, I don't know...

It just seems to me sometimes that I have a long way to go, before I get to the place I want to be. A very long way!

Lemon Balm Tincture.

I've started a dandelion tincture, and in my online reading about tinctures I discovered that a tincture made from Lemon Balm is an excellent remedy for nervous tension. It works better to make a tincture, apparently, then to brew a tea. (This page has some interesting information about this herb.)

So I decided to do up some Lemon Balm tincture as well. This plant has been growing in my back yard ever since we lived in this house--since before that, actually--and although I think I've pulled it all out every year in the fall, every spring it sprouts up everywhere. In fact, it is only the beginning of June and I need to do a clean up in the yard already...so why not make some medicine while I'm at it?

I'm hoping that this home remedy will be helpful in times of anxiety. It's sort of funny to me that people I meet, and often people who read my blog, tell me that they think I am very calm and laid back. I can be calm, and I am laid back about lots of things, but--those who know me well know I suffer a great deal from stress and anxiety--like we all do in this fast-paced modern age. I believe that today, most of us could use a little help calming down once in a while when life seems just a bit too crazy.

This page includes information about making double and triple herbal tinctures:

An herbalist in Austin Texas shared her special way of preparing a tincture that helps her keep her cool in stressful situations. She tinctures fresh lemon balm, gathered before it flowers, for six weeks, in 100 proof vodka. She pours that tincture over a new jar of fresh lemon balm leaves.

 After that sits for six more weeks, it's a double tincture. She then pours the double tincture over another new jarful of fresh lemon balm and lets that sit for six weeks.

 After which she has a triple tincture. She uses: "A dropperful sublingually works absolute wonders for me when I'm stressed out and ready to scream."

If I decide to make a double or triple tincture, it will take quite a while, but if I do I will be sure to let you know how it works! 

Homemade bubbles recipe.

I think the rain is finally over for a while! The weather was sunny and beautiful this morning. I spent some time in the back yard planting my poor little root-bound herb seedlings--rather awkwardly, I must admit, with a baby tied to my front. I hope those tiny plants will survive the rough treatment I gave them today. I am definitely not, and likely never will be, any kind of professional when it comes to gardening!

While I was digging in the dirt, the boys were making a giant mess having some fun with a batch of homemade bubbles I made up recently. It's very easy to do, if you have some glycerine on hand, which I found next to the ready-made icing at The Bulk Barn.

Homemade Bubble Solution

Pour 1/4 cup dishwashing liquid and 1/2 cup cold water into a jar with a lid. Add 5 drops of glycerine and stir gently with a drinking straw. Dip the end of the straw into the solution and blow carefully into the straw to make bubbles.

That's all! No need to import jars of this stuff from China...it's so easy!

Our solution (somehow) managed to get tainted with dirt, and was no longer working properly...so the boys found other ways to play with it. :)

Just don't get it in your mouth! :)

Rain, rain, go away...

Last weekend we had some nice weather, and my husband was kind enough to build a raised bed for me to plant my herb seedlings. The townhouse condo where we live provides dirt for us all to use every spring, and he had some pieces of pine left over from a homemade storage unit we recently dismantled, so it didn't cost a penny.

I meant to get it planted the next day, but I didn't...and then the rain started. The past two days it rained almost constantly. Yesterday afternoon, our back yard looked like a swamp, and my raised bed was just one big box of mud.

Even the common areas in our neighbourhood were flooded...

The rain stopped by this morning, but the gigantic puddles are still everywhere. Needless to say, I have not gotten anything planted! It will be June in less than a week and nothing is growing in my back yard but the chives, spearmint and lemon balm which has come up from last year. I am getting impatient to see my herb garden started.

Heavy rain is not all bad, however. My children went out this morning with rubber boots on to have some serious fun splashing around. My 12 year old was leading the pack, and when they returned she told me that a few neighbours were shaking their heads at them and giving them dirty looks. I'm not sure why. Is it somehow not correct these days to let children splash in deep puddles after a rain storm? It's not like the water had been standing there for a week or anything. It seems to me that splashing in puddles is one of the simplest joys of childhood, no? In fact, I'd probably be out there myself if I wasn't afraid of looking ridiculous...

Anyhow, it looks like I will have to wait for a little while longer to get my garden started. The forecast for tomorrow says...more rain. That's what I get for hesitating!

My poor neglected sewing machine...

I am finding it challenging to adjust to life with a brand new babe, whilst still homeschooling, running a busy Etsy shop, and trying to get a wee bit of housework done now and then. Most days, if everyone gets three meals, is dressed in relatively clean clothing by noon, and gets to bed on time, I'm happy!

I haven't had time to really think about this year's garden, although I did get some herb seeds planted. They are all lined up on my ironing board in the back window, like last year. I just stuck the seeds in some dirt in some styrofoam meat trays, and it seems to have worked very well.  Although I know it is getting late--and my ironing board is full!--I also planted some heirloom tomato seeds and some parsley seeds today, and when I get another few minutes I'm going to plant some red pepper and zucchini seeds. I don't know where I'm going to put the plants (or even the seedlings for that matter) but I'll think about that later!

The calendula seeds (seen below) sprouted very quickly.

Has anyone ever planted calendula? The seeds are just freaky looking! At first when I opened the packet, I thought there was some mistake. But no, this is what the seeds look like!

Although caring for my family is my main activity every day, I have been quite busy with our family business as well. The job we thought Chris was going to start back in March seems to have fallen through, which is disappointing but perhaps a blessing in disguise, because he's been working full time on his toys anyway. I don't know how he could manage two full time jobs. We've also had some custom work to do on top of the Etsy shop--for example, just a few days ago we sold a large order of spinning tops to our local farmer's market, who hands them out to children in the summer.

With all the general busy-ness around here, my sewing machine has been sorely neglected. I look at it longingly when I go into our back room to do up shipments of toys, or to do laundry, but somehow I never get around to using it. In fact, the thread got all jammed up before the baby was born (which is over a month ago now) and I still haven't untangled it. The entire area is so messy too. It doesn't help that when I am back there wrapping up packages, Jasper follows and starts rummaging around through my things!

I know what I need to do is become more competent with the baby wrap I have, so I can wear Amy around the house while I get things done. But I can't seem to get it right--that piece of fabric is just so LONG, and I don't seem to be coordinated enough to arrange it properly. I tried looking on Youtube, but every video shows a different technique and most of them are not for newborns. Well I will keep at it! It would be super convenient if I could nurse the baby while she is in the wrap, too. My sister kindly loaned me a couple of simple slings (the kind that are not adjustable) and unfortunately they are too small for me, since my sister is petite and I--ahem--am not. :)

And speaking of the baby...she is hungry, and so I must away...