Getting There

January Reading.

I have come to love January. It's such a quiet, contemplative time, after the rush and busyness of the holidays. It also feels like the perfect month to spend some extra time on the couch reading. I particularly love to make myself a nice hot tea after dinner (Chris bought me an expensive Thermos mug so my tea can always be hot like I like it) and sit a spell with a good book.

Can I share my current reads?

With Owen I'm reading Little House in the Big Woods at bedtime. Although most of the time he reads it to me. I think I must have read this book at least 6 ot 7 times by now in my life, but it never tires me. The details of the Ingalls's pioneer life in the Wisconsin woods are so fascinating, and often quite entertaining, too. We just finished reading the chapter where in the dark, Ma thinks the bear in their corral is their cow, and gives it a good smack! And meanwhile Pa, who is making his way home through the dark woods, thinks a dead tree is a bear, and gives it a good smack! Ha ha.

We have also been reading a book we got through interlibrary loan - Ingri D'Aulaire's 1946 picture book Pochantas. It's lovely, much better than the overly sentimental and romantic Disney version of the story.

For fun, light reading for myself, I've picked up The Story Girl by LM Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables. I have read virtually all of her books. Although sometimes I cringe at the sheer cheesiness of her writing (she often described it herself as "purple prose"), I love it all the same. I really enjoy the trip to a simpler time and a beautiful place - rural Prince Edward Island in the early 1900s.

I'm also slowly moving through my new cookbook, The Art of Simple Food. This is a wonderful book. The first part has easy to read lessons on every aspect of cooking good, simple food - making your own salad dressing and sauces, roasting meat, baking bread, etc. The second part is recipes. All through the book Ms. Walker gives the simplest possible recipe, then afterward a list of possible variations you could do. She encourages creativity in the kitchen, which is an approach I like. I know this is a cook book I will refer to many times over the years.

Also in the instructional sphere, I'm leafing through a book which is reissued from wartime Britain - Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps. A lot of the information is outdated, but it's entertaining if nothing else, and I can tell there is some good common sense advice in there as well, since when it was written (in 1941) people were very concerned with not wasting anything, and doing the best you could with what you had. Which is always good.

I'm happy to say that I'm starting to feel more up to extra activities where homeschooling is concerned. For a long time I was pregnant or caring for a newborn, and I just didn't have the energy. But lately I have been able to organize some of the "other" activities that make homeschooling fun - frequent art projects and regular nature walks, to name two. To give me inspiration for our nature study, I have been leafing through The Handbook of Nature Study, which is a classic often used by homeschoolers, originally published in 1911. I also have been reading Discover Nature in Winter, which has lots of wonderful ideas, and Your Backyard Wildlife Year, which is full of ideas for attracting wild creatures to your back yard.

Is anyone else have some interesting reads going right now? Please share! :)

 

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. :)

Apple Picking.

I've been itching to take the children apple picking lately. Last year, we didn't go until mid-October and it was disappointing trying to find decent apples on the well-picked trees. But throughout September I have been hesitating because we've been having so much rain. Every day I keep thinking either that it will rain, or that it will be too wet from the rain we had the day before.

Then yesterday I was reading in Mrs. Sharp's Traditions (a lovely book about creating family traditions and memories, which I will review soon) a page on family outings. The author was talking about how important it is to sometimes surprise children with a spontaneous outing, and I thought to myself, enough worrying already, let's just go!

Chris was agreeable, since worrying about the weather is just not something he does (I could learn a few lessons from that man). So this morning we were off...and wouldn't you know, that the day was just about perfect! Cool but not cold, breezy, mostly sunny...it started to sprinkle just as we were heading towards the van for the return trip. And the orchard itself was quite dry.

The farm we went to is a bit of a drive away, but it's so nice there.

They have a hayloft absolutely stuffed with straw where the kids can play...

And a little shop selling caramel apples, muffins, sausages and of course, apple fritters.

The trees were very heavily laden--we certainly had no problem finding enough apples this year!

 
Amy slept soundly the whole time. Have I mentioned that she is a whole six months old already? She looks huge to me, sleeping there in the stroller...times goes too fast.

It was a beautiful day and a lovely outing. I'm so glad we went, and made some new memories, and I didn't listen to my silly fears about mud puddles. As a bonus, when we got to the farm we met another homeschooling family, also with four children, who were just leaving, and we chatted with them a few minutes. It's always fun to meet other homeschoolers.

I have to say, having our children home with us all the time provides such a great opportunity to beat the crowds and do outings like this when all the other kids are in school. We have been to this same farm before on the weekend and it was rather crazy...but today it was downright tranquil.

Next to the eating area there was a bin filled up with cut apple wood, which I assume was going to be used for somebody's wood stove or fireplace. As I passed by it, I got a sort of shivery feeling all over...I know, it sounds a bit melodramatic, but--that bin of firewood seemed to represent country life to me, and for an instant I pretended that I was in our own yard and that bin of firewood was for us. And I thought of how right that would feel, to be storing up fuel for the coming winter.

Living in the city, having only one vehicle and limited funds, I don't get out into the country nearly as often as I'd like. But each time I do, I am reminded that yes, that is the life that I want. Someday....

A walk by the river.

Yesterday was the first day of school for public schools in Ontario. Since we homeschool, I usually like to do something fun on this day to ensure my own children feel they are getting a good deal. :)

We were all set to spend the day at the beach--wouldn't that have been nice? But alas, the weather was quite cool and breezy. Much too cold to wear a bathingsuit! Somehow, our weather has jumped from the hazy days of August right into the cold winds of October, overnight! Today is cold again, and windy and rainy.

But yesterday, I wanted to do something outside, so we took the children down to the Windsor riverfront to play and explore. The highlight for the boys was a huge 1911 steam engine which is preserved there.

The fence around the steam engine was covered in morning glories--so pretty.


Amy was looking cute in a wool vest knitted by Tonya. (I won the vest in a giveaway on her blog last summer!)

We spent some time watching the container ships travel down the Detroit River.

We stopped at a playground...


And walked down towards the Windsor/Detroit bridge.

Owen found a sculpture that was in the shape of a steam engine.


It perhaps wasn't as much fun as a trip to the beach, but it was a nice, relaxing afternoon all the same. I love taking leisurely walks all together as a family, when there is no time limit and nowhere we have to go afterward.

I feel a change in the air...

We're well into March now, and perhaps it is purely psychological, but the air feels different to me.

With less than a month to go to my due date, my energy is returning, and I suddenly feel an urgent need to organize the house even more than before! I have already washed and sorted all the baby clothes, and I have even laid out an outfit for either a girl or a boy. (We are expecting a girl, but hey, you never know.) It's nice that we have a collection of newborn clothes and receiving blanekts stored away for either gender, so I don't have to buy anything new for this baby.

Seeing those little clothes sitting there on the change table, I can't wait to meet our new little one.

I've gotten extra organized with homeschooling, so that things won't fall apart when the baby arrives. I have been working hard planning out the reading schedules for the rest of the school year (we use a literature based curriculum), and I have even planned out the booklists for next school year, so I won't have to do this in the summer. Yesterday, I popped into my favourite used book store, Juniper Books, and picked up a stack of children's books for a good price to add into our studies--some Newberry books, a lovely old illustrated book of Bible stories, and a bunch of science books. (I also got myself a really cool old cookbook, but I'm saving that for another post!).

Owen has already read all of these science books over and over. I wish now I had gotten more, they were so cheap. He's just a little sponge and soaks up all the science facts he can. It's so much fun to watch him grow into such an inquisitive little fellow.

Another thing I've done is ordered some herb seeds from Mountain Rose Herbs. I can't wait to get them and start some seedlings in our back window like last year. I'm ready to see some greenery!

It is not only the impending arrival of spring and of a new baby that has put a change in the air around our house. I haven't talked about it much, but we've really been struggling financially lately. And we cannot qualify for government benefits because we own a small business (I guess they figure that makes you wealthy, har har). But earlier this week, just when we were feeling that our situation was truly hopeless and that we might have to just shut down our beloved family business in order to qualify for assistance, a phone call arrived that changed everything. Chris is going to be starting a new job on Monday! After months of looking for employment with no luck, this is wonderful for us. Not only is it a job, but it's with a growing company that we know has excellent benefits, so if he does end up getting hired permanently it could be so good for our family. Please everyone, keep your fingers crossed for us that it works out.

I'm sure we'll get more snow, and spring isn't quite here yet. But today a gentle rain is falling, and I feel content about all the changes that are coming.

The rhythm of home life.

It's amazing how I have changed. When I was younger, I craved adventure and world travel. Now, at the "ripe old age" of 32, I find that my perspective has changed completely. Theoretically, I would still like to visit many places in this big world, but for the most part, I am happiest at home.

I truly love going about my daily routine of childcare, homeschooling, laundry, cooking, crafting, and working on the family business...it's all here, all at home, in this house filled with love, where we are together. It's comforting and familiar and I feel that I am right where I belong.

The children "doing school" in the morning.

Lately, especially, since our family business has been very busy with the holiday season, I have felt so grateful to have a daily rhythm to our home life. I find it immensely helpful to have a routine to our days. I never sat down and wrote down a schedule; it's just a pattern that gradually developed over time. I enjoy following the same routine every day, trying my best to weave the unexpected happenings into our regular domestic activities. Without a routine to start with, I imagine our days would quickly get very chaotic.

Vegetable soup and grilled cheese for lunch.

I really never thought when I was a young thing filled with wanderlust, that tasks such as hanging laundry, cooking food, adding and subtracting apples with a 5 year old, or even sweeping the floor could bring me such satisfaction. But most days, as long as I can manage to stay on track with my tasks, I do feel satisfied in my work.

Jasper playing in Daddy's sawdust.

What I like the most about our home life is that with Chris currently working full time on our family business, and with the children being homeschooled, we are always together. I feel so blessed that when the children are young, we have this time to be with each other. Although  we are living in the city, and not on our dream homestead, I still feel that we have a very good life, and it's getting better all the time. Because really, nothing matters so much as being together.

Thick and Rich Pumpkin Soup.

Recently we took a trip to a local pumpkin patch with a homeschooling group. We came home with four little pumpkins--pie pumpkins, the kind which are too small to carve.

The children promptly decorated their three pumpkins with washable marker.

These pumpkins are still sitting on display, so first I decided to bake my own pumpkin, which was the least decorated. :)

I'm not sure how one is "supposed" to cook a pumpkin, and I didn't feel like looking it up, so I just cut my pumpkin in half, removed the seeds, and put the two halves cut side down in a baking dish. Then I baked it at 350 degrees for a little over an hour, until it looked done. The skins peeled away easily, and the good pumpkin flesh that was left I put in the fridge until I decided what to do with it.

I decided to make pumpkin soup for lunch the next day, since I love soup for lunch, especially vegetable soups, and with a sudden nip in the air in these parts, hot soup is an especially desirable lunch.

After perusing a plethora of bizarre recipes online, containing everything from coconut to ravioli (although not in the same recipe!), I decided to just wing it. This is what I came up with.

Laura's Thick and Rich Pumpkin Soup

1 onion
3 tbsp butter
2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 can chicken broth
1 cup evaporated milk

Chop the onions and cook gently with the butter until soft. Add all remaining ingredients except milk. Use an immersion blender to create a smooth consistency. Heat just to the boiling point; add milk, and heat through but do not boil. Serve garnished with fresh parsley.

This soup is very thick. If you prefer a thinner texture, you can add the full can of evaporated milk, instead of only 1 cup, or you could even add water.

This soup was delicious. I enjoyed mine in a wooden bowl that Chris recently made. When we sell these in our shop, we don't really recommend using them for wet things like soup--but I couldn't resist. There is something about the sight of homemade soup in a wooden bowl that just pleases me. It looks so rustic, and timeless. Add a wooden spoon in (which I didn't have) and it could have been a meal from 1000 years ago. :)

Anyhow--I made this soup with baking powder biscuits, which were delicious dipped in the soup. Here's my favourite recipe for biscuits:

Easy Baking Powder Biscuits

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
2/3 cup milk

Stir together dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the milk and stir until dough sticks together. Add another tablespoon or two of milk if needed. Knead dough a few times until it sticks together. Pat out and use a biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.

Place on ungreased baking pan and bake at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Serve immediately with butter.

With homemade applesauce for dessert, this makes the perfect fall lunch.

I'm back, with several things to say.

I can't believe it's Labour Day already! September means "back to the grindstone" for most people, myself included. Homeschooling is starting up again, our Etsy shop will start seeing the Christmas rush very soon (if last year is any indication) and I've also come back to my blog. I suddenly feel very busy! The lazy days of August are over.

The first thing I wanted to say (besides hello!) is that August was a bit of a wash for me. I had so many interesting projects planned...but then (haha) only the next day after I "went on vacation" from my blog, I found out that I was expecting our fourth baby early next Spring. Oops, surprise!  And pretty much immediately after that I started feeling...not so great. All of you out there who have experienced pregnancy know what I'm talking about. Suffice it to say I have not been my usual energetic self, and my brain has turned suddenly into rice pudding.

So instead of charmingly redecorating my sewing nook, painting over the ugly grey in the livingroom, transforming my overgrown garden into a neat and tidy one, and taking long evening walks with the children, I pretty much spent the month of August lying on the couch and trying not to feel queasy. Oh well. Life is full of interesting bends in the road, isn't it?

I am just now, with the fresh autumn air blowing through the neighbourhood, starting to feel more like myself, which I think is rather nice timing considering I'm just about to start homeschooling two children at once, for the first time. And it's hard to be an enthusiastic teacher from the couch.

Another thing I wanted to say is that queasiness aside, over the past month I did enjoy spending less time on the computer than usual. When I dove in head first to the world of blogging, I kind of went nuts, and started following a whole plethora of other blogs, which I always commented on too, as well as writing my own. It was getting out of hand. I don't want to spend a big chunk of my day sitting in front of this screen, even though it is a fun and educational hobby. There are just so many other things I need and want to do that are more important. So I significantly pared down the number of blogs I follow. Mostly I kept the more small and personal ones, the ones where I feel I know the writers, and stopped with the more popular, more "professional" ones that feel less homey to me.

In the same vein, I also plan to write less often on my blog than I was before--probably once or twice per week only. I'll try to make them good posts though! :)

Another thing I wanted to say is that I'll be hosting a few giveaways of our natural wooden toys here over the next few months...so stay tuned, and you might just be able to score something for your Christmas list. :)

Well, I guess that's about all I had to say today...this post feels naked without a picture so I'll tack on a picture of Owen playing in the sandbox. I woke up early one morning in August, to find that he wasn't in his bed...after searching the house to no avail I found him placidly playing outside in the sandbox. I thought it looked like a nice, relaxing Augusty picture. :)

The music of the birds.

After awaking to a beautiful, sunny, breezy day,  I decided after breakfast to take the children to a nearby recreation trail for a nature walk.

The breeze was so fresh, the sun was so vibrant--it was truly a beautiful morning and we all enjoyed ourselves.

 

What I really noticed this morning was the music of the birds. The air was filled with the beautiful calls of chickadees, robins, red-winged blackbirds, sparrows, and a host of others whose calls I did not recognize. It was truly lovely, and I reveled in it.

But what else struck me, was that of the dozens of other people we saw on the trail this morning, walking, jogging, biking, or rollerblading--not one person, literally not one, did not have earbuds plugging their ears. Not one person could hear the music of the birds. I found this sad. This wonderful world we live in offers so much beauty and enjoyment to us, at no cost--all we have to do is pay attention. But so few people today do pay attention to the beauty that surrounds them--they are too busy, I suppose, or too distracted, or maybe it never even occured to them that there was beauty there.

I truly hope that this weekend, all of you out there will take a moment to enjoy one of life's simplest (and probably oldest) pleasures--the music of the birds. :)

Tomorrow I'll be back with a book review!

Simple Pleasures.

Of course as a parent there are so many things I need to teach my children...but sometimes a surprising thing happens and my children teach me something.

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day here, and we went out for a nature walk. We do this regularly as a part of our homeschooling, and my older two children bring along clip boards, and make drawings of things that interest them. This time, Jasper bent down to pick up a plump pine cone...

 

And started throwing it. Picking it up, and throwing it again. Picking it up...you get the idea. He must have thrown the pine cone for a good ten minutes.

(Can you see the airborne cone in the picture above, and its shadow on the grass?) I couldn't help but admire how easily he took joy and fun from such a simple activity as throwing a pine cone on the ground. I couldn't help but feel that he was on to something there. Why can't I live in the moment more often, forget about all the big stuff, and just take pleasure in the little things? Too often I am stressing out over all the things that need to be done, over the mess in the house, over all kinds of things...when there are probably lots of little, simple ways I could find joy and peace. Perhaps not by throwing a pine cone, but by sipping a tea and reading a few pages from a good book in the quiet of my room? Perhaps by watching the sun rise from my bedroom window? Or by listening to some beautiful music?

Not to mention...watching my children play outside yesterday with sticks, leaves and pine cones reminded me that fancy toys are largely unnecessary! I think it's safe to say this rule applies to adults, too. :)