going about the business of living

You know what I mean right? You come into these phases of life where, well, LIFE just takes over. It just IS. And it rolls on. And the doing of it all, well, its all consuming.

This is where I am.

If its not stoking the fire (BURN, BABY, BURN!) then its out giving the chickens hot water to combat the sub zero temps, then running inside, with stinging cheeks (yes, THAT COLD) to stoke the fire again, then to the kiddies to read a story (we are currently doing Animal Stories by Burgess, and Greek gods and heroes, both on mainlesson.com) or do math, or play a game (the kids are obsessed with games this winter, Uno, Go Fish, Checkers, Scrabble, Candyland...I am NOT a game person. SMILE. Okay, ONE MORE ROUND. SMILE)

Oh, and then there is miss baby toddler. Miss baby toddler is terribly terribly adorable right now and terribly terribly busy and terribly terribly a lot of work. She is teething, those big bad molars in the back, and refuses to nap unless she is in the car or in the Ergo on my back. And she is ridiculously verbal. So there is no second guessing or ignoring of her wants. ("I want my milk, mama." She says, pulling at my shirt. Well then.) I've never been a blogger mama with a baby this age. Little miss was a tad older when I started. And I gotta say. What with the homeschooling and the chicken/fire tending. And the Miss Baby Toddler chasing. Well, lots of living, less time for blogging. As it is, it is now 10:23. Baby toddler miss is finally asleep. Dada just came and sat to talk and I was literally like, um, I'm talked out. Please, just leave me to my celebrity gossip site! (Come on though, its the post Golden Globe gossip run down. Best ever!) Isnt that awful of me? Talked out. Totally in "go mode" for 14 hrs. I cant do more than that. Mama needs her own thoughts now. Mama no talk. Mama ALL DONE.

School is going, and going well. Turns out its quite the relief being done with the alphabet story. Now we can just go ahead and learn phonics and practice reading. We are making readers of his favorite stories from the fall. The first was The Fisherman and His Wife, by Grimm Brothers. Next we are doing the one about the fox, from the letter X. He is super into it. Writing ACTUAL SENTENCES. I love to think of him having a little collection of books he wrote himself by the end of the year. Then the Greek god myths, which he begs for more of. And then our little gnome-y math stories. And I am going to start a book, "A Child's History of the World" soon. And French. And I was gonna do some basic science too. Maybe later?

Okay. In any case. Clearly I am tired. Clearly I have a lot on my plate. What mom doesnt though, right?

In any case. In any case. In any case.

Life is being lived.

And I sit in front of the crackling fire, rocking my baby to sleep, and yes, its a good life to live.

anti-recipe #56 roasted cauliflower

So I'm in a really bad mood. And it's about cooking. We've totally been the family that cooks two meals, kids and adults, and I'm tired of it. So a couple days ago I thought, no MORE. And I made the kids eat whatever it was I made. They wouldn't. We gave them bread and milk before bed. And an extra large bowl of Cheerios for breakfast. The next night dada worked late and I totally made two meals again. Noodles and veggies for them, plus peanuts and chocolate chips and canned fruit for dessert. Roasted cauliflower and gluten free pasta with spinach, bacon and blue cheese for us. So tonight I'm like, darn it, kids totally eat fried rice, why shouldn't mine??! So we made them. Little miss, in the super picky 3 yr old eating phase, refused. Little man ate his, then wanted more food, "something else please" then spent a goodly amount of time crabbing about how he wanted the frozen store bought bread, not the lovely fresh homemade kind on the counter. We won that one. And now, little miss is going to bed with no dinner, just a glass of milk. Dada is doing the dirty work (I'm just blogging about it ha!)

Anyway, all that to say, roasted veggies are a favorite, for us beleaguered parents anyway, ha.

It's incredibly easy too.

Here is what I did the other night.

Rip open bag of frozen cauliflower. Pour in pan. Toss with 1 TBS of olive oil and sea salt. Bake at 375 for approximately 45 minutes, maybe an hour. Toss a few times while roasting. Eat. YUM.

My other fav is tossing cut up sweet potatoes and carrots with olive oil, honey and sea salt. Really super good. You can also use squash for this, with carrots.

Other ideas...potatoes, obviously. Broccoli and other mixed veggies are great like this too. Parsnips? Dada has done this before, doused with truffle oil, cause he is fancy like that.

So, there you have it. Roasting vegetables. Do it.

for the kiddies

Every now and then I try to be "nice mom" you know, as opposed to mean grouchy mom (said with a winky face guy here).

Today was that day. Okay, for 15 minutes at least. I saw this marble run made out of tubes from paper towels, etc, on Pinterest and I thought, hmm the kids would like they, I should make that. So we did.

It kept the kiddies occupied for approximately 22 minutes after we finished building it.

Ah, but what blissful 22 minutes they were! Ha!

It was fairly simple to make, but we should've started higher to use more tubes. In any case, just gather up some tape, boxes, and tubes, and a couple marbles and go for it! Oh, we did two separate starting points so they could race.

the dreaded update

It's been awhile since I've indulged in dreaded photos, so, here they are.

I've added a few beads recently, simple wooden ones.

Anyway.

cozy saturday and rainbow silks tutorial

Dada just left with all three kids in tow...to go to Costco...on a Saturday...by himself...did I mention the three kids part?? He is my hero.

And so I sit. In my pajamas. In our cozy family room. Next to our cozy wood stove. AHHHHH...

Technically I am supposed to be working on school planning. I've made a masterful excel spreadsheet for school, and now I'm filling it in with the resources and ideas from 700+ pinterest pins on school topics. Yikes, right? Its been fun though, to see it all coming together, planning our unit studies around the seasons, or things we plan on doing this summer (going to see Mount Rushmore! Perfect for a study of the presidents and US geography!)

I am a homeschool geek mom.

So, yes, technically I am supposed to be doing this. But for now. I am drinking in the silence. The wood stove is crackling next to me. The sun is streaming bright and shining. The house isnt clean but, eh, it'll wait.

Silence. Oh.... Quiet. The giggling happy noises of kids are happy too (less so when they are screamy whiney noises, which we have had a lot of post-holidays. Do your kids do this too? Its like we are detoxing over her some days...) But silence is a special kind of happy tonic for mother's in the trenches of the little years.

Ahhhhh.....

my chair

 

So. I am loving our little family room these days, especially sunny days. It is cozy and bright and happy. We have couches made out of pallets, with twin mattresses on top. Perfect for jumping on, beating up, late night lounging with a sleepy baby in my arms, and yes, for visitors too. Then we have our little gnome world set up. Which yes, is for me more than anything. And our school corner.

prayer flags my brother brought back from tibet

what any floor should look like on a saturday morning



kicking back in her pooh chair

this is her latest face, stinkface we call it, where she whines, and
says adorable things. her latest (kind of amazing for a 15 month old, we think)
"i want bacon too!" ummm...also things like,
"evah-deen (her version of her name) want dada".
or "my dada go home, hug evahdeen"
its kinda crazy.
 

fuzzy pic but, dont you want to lounge there??

alphabet and season tree on the wall.

 

And then dada made a playstand (with plans to make another for a little fort) and I dyed some raw playsilks for it for Christmas. I love to imagine it as a little rainbow cubby space for the girls especially, once its finished.

I LOVE these playsilks. They are so bright and happy. You would pay like 25$ for these at a store (Sarah's silks being the most popular) I bought mine from the Dharma Trading Co. for maybe 6$ for the bigger size, and dying them was literally the easiest thing in the world. LITERALLY. (My Cali girl past coming out there, sorry. HA.)

I would show you pics of the dying process however, it unfortunately occurred when I had morphed into a crafting for Christmas ogre, Christmas eve, late at night, while holding a sleepy feverish baby (no seriously, I was HOLDING HER, ASLEEP. Yes. I was crazed.) which then led to a late night discussion with dada over my craftying zealotry this Christmas, and perfectionism, and letting things go, and well, etc.

So I have no pictures.

But I DID get the silks finished in time. And they ARE beautiful.

So.

Here is how I did it.

Get three pot, filled with water, bring water to a near boil. Add a glug of vinegar to each. Then add a few drops of red in one, a few drops of yellow in another, anda few drops of blue in the third. Turn off your burners. Place an end the red and an end of the silk in the blue, yes, at the same time. If you want less of a line and more of a blended effect I'd recommend dipping the ends in and out so there isnt a line of color. Now, after maybe 15 minutes of soaking, dipping, slowly carefully take the empty middle section and pull it into the third pot, with the yellow solution. Push enough of the red and blue section into the yellow so you get green and orange, but leave a good bit of red and blue out of the pot too. After 15 minutes of yellow soaking carefully pull the whole thing out, into a bowl, and rinse out in cold water. Now lay flat to dry.

THAT IS IT!

I made one a bright vivid rainbow (yes redundant of me), this was he first silk, obviously, and one more of a pastel-y one, with the leftover dye. To make pinkish instead of red, like I did, just add one or two drops of blue to the red pot. Then I added two drops of green to the blue pot, to get more of a turquoise. Proceed as above.

Isnt this great? Do I love these more than my children? YES. Oh well. Christmas crafty ogre mama learned her lesson. Let's hope I remember it by next year.

 

i resolve...

Yea, its cliche, but every year I really do appreciate taking the last few days of the old year to contemplate changes in the new.

This year, well, we are in a new house. I have a new little person who is no longer a baby but very much a PERSON, with DESIRE and NEEDS and WANTS (mama mama hold you! mama HOLD YOU!) And we are homeschooling. And suddenly my influence on my kiddies feels heavier, more real. And because I dont have a newborn, nor do I plan on such for a good long spell, that makes me go inward a little. Hey there Sara, so, HOW ARE YOU DOING?? You know?

So...here is what I have been contemplating. How about you?

• Getting up earlier...starting the day with a cup of coffee in my chair, by myself, before kiddies awake, makes me so MUCH nicer, having a few minutes to breathe, pee, etc, before the chaos begins. NEED TO DO THIS. Probably starting next week. HA.
• Letting go...letting go of a messy house during the day, not having the perfect craft planned once a week, etc.
• Playing more...relaxing with and ENJOYING my kids more. This sounds trite but its hard for me lately to just turn off like this and just BE.
• Posting more blog posts, with better pictures. What crap pictures I have been offering lately! YIKES. Try to get more bloggy action going. (Advertisers? No idea how to do this...)
• Starting a new blog, something like a homestead-y adventures/Wendell Berry-esque kind of thing. Would you read it??
• Writing more. Period. Working on my abandoned NaNoWriMo project.
• Learning more. Educational podcasts, starting with poetry (I found a series of lectures by Alice Walker) and whats going on in economic theory these days. (Confession, I love economics, half my major in college.) My brain misses thinking.
• Yoga classes, weekly. Time to get June in shape folks.
• Being outside with the kids more. Gardening, chickens, five acres of woods, we are getting this one going already, but its easy to let the days slip by without the effort (and in winter its EFFORT) but its so great for them.
• Gluten free, sugar free. At least for a month or two to detox my body a bit. As soon as I finish off the Christmas chocolate that is. HA HA.

Ambitous maybe, perhaps, maybe, yes, I dont know. Its like, I just need to keep at it. I'm not saying, oh hey lets check it all off the list, you know? Just more of the journey, one foot in front of the other, and all these things are kinda where I am at, I guess.

What about you mamas?

June crafts for Christmas #6

So. I had meant to post my last few Christmas crafts, on Christmas eve, but alas. I did not. So here is a few tutorials. A toddler sword. An egg/garden produce gathering apron (which i love!). And a hobby horse, which is something more stores should sell. SO FUN.

Ok. Its new years day. I'm drinking coffee in front of our fire with a giant mug of coffee while the kids watch TOM AND JERRY. (or "Jeh-wey!" as baby says). I have a new years resolution type post brewing inside of me. More later today.

so this is making a toddler felt soft sword.
this is the inside. some cardboard. some stuffing

crooked, but babies dont care.

insert handles. sew over the whole thing. yes, your
sewing machine can sew through cardboard.
mine can at least.

the inside of the handle

a finished toddler sword

three swords for the three toddlers in my extended family

so here is my latest fun thing. a huge pocket apron,
perfect for gathering eggs or garden produce.
the pic is crap, sorry. but it gives you the general shape of
the front and back pieces

here is the front piece,  with trim around the edge of the pockets
and an iphone pocket. :)

this is supposed to be a picture of sewing the two pieces together.
in any case, sew the two pieces together and then turn right side out,
so you are sewing the sides, except for where the pocket is, and the bottom.
the top of both pieces get sewn into the tie, once you turn it right side out.

this is where, if i believed in pinning, i would pin.
however, i find pinning makes me impatient.
id rather have the patience to sew and have things be a tad
crooked than not have the patience for it at all.
this is also my problem with patterns.
in any case i found out if i sewed starting at the edge
of the apron and then went back and did the rest of the
tie i missed it was quite easy.
i turned the edges in, front and back, to prevent fraying

 

nothing like a nice fuzzy picture of your midsection to make you feel super great.
no baby junes in there, just too many holiday sweets. HA.

so here is making hobby horses for the two big kids.
notice the beer. nothing like crafting on christmas eve while drinking. HA.

little misses girly horse.

put on top of dowel. VOILA.

this is when we told her "what a beautiful princess" she replied "yea, i know. and i'm awesome".
HA