Monthly Archives: December 2007

Little Grains of Sand

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Funny how some ideas keep coming back to you isn’t it? Cindy’s post about Little Grains of Sand is one of them.  It is easy to get sidetracked by the incredible projects and studies that abound in cyberspace. It is easy to underestimate your own efforts and find them lacking in comparison. In your frustration you may forget that:

"Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the beauteous land"

I reminded myself of this very thing lately.  Reality is there are many claims made on my time on a given day. There is little left over for Barnum and Bailey homeschooling. I cling to the promise that time spent reading aloud, snatches of poetry recited together, and short but heartfelt discussions are planting seeds which in time – perhaps a good deal of time – will mature into a glorious garden.

Once again we have resurrected Morning Time.  Not day-long, teacher-led lessons and no elaborate commentary. Just art, music, lit, scripture and us. : ) A welcome oasis to invigorate and encourage. Something to chew on as we do the dishes and fill the water buckets later in the day. Hopefully, something to inspire and light our paths as we journey towards heaven together.

Simple living – the mortgage

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Seems the one thing holding most people back from following their dreams is the house payment. You can pay off credit cards, drive an old car but what about that house debt hovering over your shoulder?  For most of us this is the final frontier. It looms large and can seem an insurmountable obstacle.  Rhonda Jean has explained how they conquered the mortgage monster here.

Ten Mistakes I Made as a Parent

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What she said….

More or less anyway. Wholeheartedly agree with #1. Had I known my reproductive faculties would be required to perform so long and so well I would have taken the utmost care.  It is a temptation even now however not to feel shame when people tsk and make comments about how they never rested so long after birth or how so and so was up and RUNNING with the other children days after birth.  Falls under "All things are possible but not all things are profitable." Stay home. Lay down. Enough said.

#2 – my olders were colicky as well. Not so the latter kids. Not sure why though.

Frustration and perfectionism were problems in the early years here too.  My children would likely snort and say "early years?". We watched home videos of when Alannah was born 13 yrs ago. Sigh. Had I to do it again I would have gone ahead and just snapped the pictures with Zachary trying to make the baby smile instead of scolding him ad nauseum about turning towards the camera and not getting grass stains on his knees. I swear I would.

#8 and #10 – yep.   And I regret disregarding my husband’s concerns about same. He had perspective I needed.

And ah #5 – disciplining out of embarassment vs out of conviction.  Right up there with living vicariously through your children. Don’t do that.

I am sure my list would look different in some ways. In many ways it would be the same. Someone has to be first and we never walk the same road exactly the same way twice. Obviously the later children have the benefit of our early trial and error. I hope the older children had the benefit of unequaled zeal and enthusiasm. I have loved every moment of motherhood despite the mistakes. Every single moment!

Let ‘er rip!

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The snow that is. ‘Cause that’s one of those things that pretty much will whether you ‘allow’ it or not isn’t it? We got our first dump on Sat/Sun. It was actually good timing. It coincided with the first days of complete and total wellness for our bunch. We spent ALL of Sunday afternoon sledding. Not the downhill variety mind you since we have no slopes for that. This was more due to the good fortune of my children having an incredibly indulgent father who is really a big kid himself.

Monday Allen and Asher left in the wee hours for the airport for a short trip. We headed into town to stock up before the next batch of snow which we expected last night. (and therefore canceled our evening activities) The snow itself held off for a few hours but it was just as well. We had a series of unfortunate events, not uncommon to rural living. Should you ever wistfully swoon over a romanticized vision of ranch life let me describe a typical winter day in our life. : )

We canceled piano and scouts as I said, and rather reluctantly because we missed the last few weeks due to the creeping crud.  And we have recital this weekend. It’s one of those things. If we had stayed in town then certainly the snow would have started mid-lesson and we would have skated home with the four wheel drive vehicle unavailable. Since we canceled, the snow held off. Luck of the draw.

The kids began barn chores while I was unloading groceries. We realized how vital Asher is to our manual labor equation. We had to pair up to lift the giant cooler out of the van, to move the frozen water buckets,and to convince the buck he wanted to be inside. Yet do those things we did. (You wouldn’t have expected to have to convince a creature to be inside when it is 13 degrees would you?) Aidan ran in to report a dead hen. She was a victim of the cold and poor judgement apparently and not from foul play, no pun intended. Alannah took that fairly well. We all (children included) sort of whisper that type of news then close our eyes and cross our fingers that she will not come unglued. She raised this batch and has strong feelings about poultry. Aidan, in his best "I am a very big man" voice, further volunteered valiantly to remove said chicken to the dumpster. I kept my composure and nodded in agreement that this would be a splendid service for him to perform. Inside I was doing back flips and making another mental note of how much we miss Asher.

The temperature was dropping rapidly since the wind kicked up so Alannah and I set to work getting the shop light set up in the well pit.  This is one of those crucial tasks that mean the difference between running water and a second mortgage to the plumber.  We got the cords unrolled and the light to the pit then wrestled with the big wooden lid and again sighed thinking fondly of dear Asher. The whole ordeal would have been much better done in daylight but such is life. Between us we slid the cover over enough to realize there was water rapidly filling the well pit. Should you not have a well pit, let me explain that this is where the machinery that pumps the water from the pipes in the ground into the buildings resides. There is a pump and a huge pressure tank and enough electrical do-dads that you would really prefer NOT to see water in the same space. Not outside the pipes anyway.

After a quick phone consult with my dear husband we went to check the cistern. The cistern is a huge holding tank which protects us from variations in water pressure which can be a problem in semi-arid locations. It has a sensor which calls for water from the well when the water level drops to a given point. Apparently the sensor had been stuck on ON and continued to call for water until it overflowed. This was actually a relief. We kicked off the sensor and quickly dumped little boys into baths and ran laundry which served the dual purpose of running the water down and getting everyone clean should the power kick off later.

The wind kept up all night alerting me to the need for more weather stripping on the upstairs storm door which sounded eerily like a tea whistle for many, many hours. I know this because Tess is cutting one year molars this week. I am fairly certain that teeth erupt only after dark. The combination of tea whistle and baby dancing can make for odd twilight sleep and odder dreams.

Alas it is morning now. Time to make the donuts as my mother used to say. People are up and scurrying around and so must I. We were scheduled to take our new doe in to the vet for her exam but I suspect we will reschedule that once more. What I most wish for is to curl up on the couch and read Hillyer to the children over hot chocolate. Just as soon as the milking is done….

Slow and Steady

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Not sure how to explain it but my family has an uncanny knack for getting sick during major holiday seasons.  Perhaps it is timing – Christmas falls in flu season.  Perhaps we are out more than usual making preparations.  Perhaps just bad luck.  Whatever the case we have been flattened. Slowly. One by one. At lest for 48 hrs. In a home with 10 people that means it can take weeks to see every resident well again.

The mama finally went down Wednesday night. You know it’s never good when the mama goes down! The kids were a big help and I am on top again enough to brace myself for the Daddy’s big fall which promises to occur shortly judging by his appearance this morning. : /

Given this series of events our holiday prep is proceeding in fits and starts. The tree is up. Every few days it gets something new. First came 3 dozen gingerbread goats. I am not sure how I feel about them.  Very country.  And despite making them with no sugar they are still edible apparently.  I wasn’t thinking that they look and taste very like dog biscuits but Wally pointed that out right quick.  Next came a grapevine garland. It had been draped over a window and now wraps around the tree. We found some burlap cheap at Walmart’s fabric section.  A length of that is bunched around the bottom of the tree. Very rustic. Not sure I am rustic but the tree is. <g>  We added the gold painted pinecones a few days later. Quite nice.  We printed off a template to make paper stars from vintage-y paper so that will be our next project. Who knows what this tree will look like when we are finished. It has provided lots of crafty afternoons this year however and has been a relatively stress free process.

Funschool is on hiatus this month while we prepare for Christmas and generally attempt to keep our heads above water. I am hoping to get the Flickr updated in the meantime and get some pictures posted here as well.

Nell Hill

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So I am a schizophrenic decorator.  As I tell my dh there are a looooot of houses in my head. : )  Some lovely images locked inside there come from Mary Carol Garrity’s Nell Hill’s  shop and the books she has written showcasing her signature style. Back Porch Musing features a photo tour of the Kansas shop  Pat at Back Porch has a very similar style herself. Her home was just nominated as best decorated for Christmas by the Old Painted Cottage. 

 
You can see a picture of a table setting using a covered sugar bowl as an individual soup tureen.  Mary Carol is a big fan of using traditional pieces in unconventional ways.  You likely deduced that is a huge draw for me. <g>  A favorite holiday title of mine is Nell Hill’s Christmas at Home.  Any of her books provide lots of inspiration however.   

Green and thrifty gift wrap etc

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I am not such a hot gift wrapper. I have a hard time getting excited about something that is destined to be torn to shreds.  It is compounded by the fact that we generally end up rock-paper-scissoring who has to finish up the Christmas wrapping late into Christmas Eve….

I am not too fond of gift wrap from a visual perspective either. Much of it fails the cheesey test. I prefer brown paper packages tied up with string. Or ribbon.  Or burlap.  Or….  really anything! I have seen a couple additional wrap options in recent weeks that had me excited about wrapping once again. Or as excited as I am likely to get. ; )  Here goes:

Wrap_br
Brown paper packages. I have saved our grocery bags and laid them flat under my mattress to iron them out. Tie options – burlap strips, raffia, dried flowers, pinecones, tissue paper flowers, decorator ribbon. Brown paper makes really nifty flowers as well.

Blueprint_paper
Newsprint. The plain black and white pages look stunning with bold red ribbon. This image is from Danny Seo, the eco-editor from Country Home magazine. His blog is a wealth of green decor ideas!  While you are at it you can use that newspaper to make very cool paper snowflakes.

Magazine pages as wrap. Ooohh very pretty! But then I would have to cut my magazines…. : /  Ok maybe just the yucky ones. Again – visit Danny Seo! 

finger paint paper.  What else do you DO with all those abstract-ish artworks anyway? 

burlap bags or fabric gathered into a bunch with ribbon at the top. Great for remnants and perfect for those of us who like to be done with our wrapping of odd shaped gifts right quick.

Homemade tortillas

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Tort
I am not a foodie which explains why there are maybe five posts under Chuck Wagon here. This one is an exception however. I got the recipe from a friend over a dozen years ago and made them a few times then stashed it. This year we have resurrected the recipe and treated ourselves to countless batches of warm soft whole-grain tortillas which rival those at the health food store:

2c flour (I use half whole wheat)
1tsp salt

Cut in:
1/2 c shortening (I use oil)

Add:
1/2 c warm water

Knead until smooth and flecked with air bubbles. Now at this pt the recipe says to place in a greased bowl and refrigerate for 4-24 hrs. We have done this chilled and fresh. Actually they are easier to just roll immediately imo.  If you chill the dough then return it to room temp before rolling as thin as you can. Bake on a super hot ungreased griddle for about 20 seconds each side.
Makes 8-10 tortillas.

Home

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We are grounded today. On a Divine Time-Out.  The children have taken turns erupting since Saturday. In a weird way it’s ok though. It forces us to be here and be settled which is my goal anyway. Seems God has a way of pulling us back to our center when we start to scurry. He ‘makes us lie down’.

While on our imposed quiet time I have been devouring the Down to Earth Blog. I have been chewing over Rhonda Jean’s description of the steady pace of her days. She knows what to expect when she begins her days and ends them with hearty satisfaction, looking forward the challenges of a new day to come. About home she says:
"…my home is like my work of art. I hope it will become my masterpiece. I
believe that I have done the best work of my life at home. I might not
have been paid for it, but it paid off in many ways money never could
have."

Indeed it does. How often we look for fulfillment and purpose elsewhere.  How rarely it is to found anyplace else. We have been given such a gift. It is my goal to keep that gratitude foremost in my mind and make the most of it.