Makings

There has been quite a flurry of making around here lately. Unmaking too, as the cat on the baby laundry pile proves. I guess we just prefer to create instead of clean. Can you blame us?

When we were in Oregon during the fall, K and I had gathered a bag full of walnuts from Walnut Hill (at our beloved school) for the purpose of dyeing yarn. I forgot about the walnuts for awhile but then found them again at the end of November. K wanted to make a dye bath immediately so we researched how to do so. We found quite a few different recipes and tutorials for making walnut dye but K and I ended up choosing the fermentation method in this book. The walnuts sat in a bucket fermenting (the book said at least 3 weeks) until last weekend when we finally opened it up and made our dye bath. It was an intense dark brown but the dye yielded a beautiful warm honey brown. I'll share photographs once it's dry.

The children has all been immensely enjoying a new part of our baking rhythm - grinding our own grain in a grain mill Grandma gave them for Christmas. Little L, especially, loves to grind the grain. I swear he could go on for hours! This wonderful gift has inspired us to grow some grains in our garden this year so we can enjoy bread truly made from our own hands from seed to finished product. How great will that be? I just hope we have enough space to grow enough for this endeavor.

And what is a post without something pregnancy/baby related (at least this month)? The children and I are also working on some baby bum bath salt (a natural remedy for diaper rashes). We made our chickweed, plantain and calendula infused oil and now just have to add the rest of the ingredients. Funny thing about our infused oil - I don't know what I was thinking but I put it outside in the sun for a solar infusion like we normally do (as indicated in this book), forgetting that the current temperatures are below freezing. My oil became solid so we brought it back inside and did a double boiler infusion instead.

I was hoping to finish up the baby bum bath salt today but when I opened the Epsom salt that I had purchased a strong smell came from it. I checked the ingredients and there was fragrance added to it. I hadn't come across that before so I never thought to check the ingredients when I picked it up. Oh well. So our salt soak is on hold a couple days longer until I can get to the store again. Now what else can I find to make whilst avoiding the laundry?

Makings

Looking after those who are lost

The calendar says autumn is here. My heart says autumn is here. Yet the weather does not seem to comprehend and is still acting like it is summer. I think it is teasing me. I so look forward to the autumn stillness and slowing down so I am acting as if the weather is cooperating as much as I can. I have been digging through baby clothes - months ahead of time, I know, but I thought it best to take advantage of the current sunshine and hang them outside for some fresh air and stain removal. These clothes have been through three babies (some even more than that as they were hand me downs) so they need lots of sun time. This is also giving me the chance to take inventory of what we have and what we need. A lot of the baby clothes really need to be replaced (due to aforementioned use) so I am making lists and budgeting in preparation (baby kind of blew our no spend challenge for the year but that's okay!!). Baby woolies and pilot caps are definitely a must in my book. Our woolies are really stained but still useful. I do hope I can swing getting this sweet miracle baby will get a few new wool shirts before February, though.

Our garden is still growing like crazy, even though I have already started pulling a lot of it up. We decided to keep the flowers that we can use for dye baths and medicinal purposes in as long as possible. I have been trying to keep up with them and harvest at least every other day now. Surprisingly some of the things we planted in the spring are just now starting to come to life. C's morning glories bloomed for the first time today. Oh, our garden is a bit wacky.

Just a couple days before the feast of Saint Francis, a sweet little lost dog made it's way to our home. K said he was sent to us by Saint Francis. She loved it so, if you couldn't tell by the photos. We would love to have a small dog, maybe someday we will, but that would not work with our current big dogs. Especially Paw Paw. To him, all little dogs are yummy snacks. *sigh* That adorable little pup ended up spending the whole day with us as we searched for his owners. We missed out on homeschooling that day but I think the lesson of looking after those who are lost was far more important.

Looking after those who are lost

Experimental

Baking day seems to have transformed into "experimental cooking day" as of late. This change has helped to revive my interest in cooking and that's something my whole family is happy about. I have been in such a rut with our meal plans that it's really put a damper on my cooking and our eating habits. I have been analyzing and overthinking what we put into our bodies far more than normal and it has left me feeling a bit helpless with the budget we are on right now (still waiting for that house back in Oregon to sell, but we just got an offer so I am praying it works out!) I am trying to stay grounded and focus on what is affordable and feasible for us at this time.

A couple of new favorites we found from recent experiments were Vegan "Deviled" Avocados With Chickpea Filling and Amanda's cracker recipe. I foresee the deviled avocados appearing on our lunch table quite often in the near future. I generally don't like avocadoes unless they are in something else but these are delicious! Do they taste like real deviled eggs? I really couldn't tell you, I never was a fan when I ate eggs as a child but you must try them for yourself. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

We made four batches of Amanda's cracker recipe but added our own topping to each one. The first batch was sea salt and sesame seeds, the second batch was the girls' concoction of cinnamon and agave nectar and then the third and fourth batches were sprinkled with sea salt and Italian seasonings. We enjoyed all of our variations but the Italian was the favorite by far - especially with a cherry tomato on top. Yum!

I also managed to get a few photographs of K's 8th birthday sweater (from last September). Of course, I didn't realize that she had it on backwards until after I took the photos. It's pretty obvious, too, with the short rows at the neckline. Oh well. You still get the idea, right? It was hard to capture it's beautiful turquoise color, but I think the fifth photo down (the one of the owls close-up) might be the closest to the actual color. I am quite smitten with the blues and greens in it. I used a skein I had leftover from my babywearer poncho.

Oh, and K is wearing my copper penny hat, another older project that I never got any pictures of - probably because it involved me having to be in front of the camera, something that doesn't happen nearly enough...

Experimental

Little ones can help, too! (and we did it!)

I recently gave K the job of vacuuming some of the rooms in our house and she seems to be enjoying her new responsibility. In fact, I think her enthusiasm has spread to her younger siblings (never a bad thing!), as you can see in the pictures above. Little L felt the need to vacuum part of the kitchen after the dogs came up for a bit. I think the dirt in the photos proves his point, need I say more?! He took out the vacuum on his own, had me plug it in and then got to work. I need all the help I can get if we are to get this place ready to sell, so I welcome the help with open arms. Now if only I could find a way to get them to want to do it more often...

In other news -
The fundraiser for my friend's daughter has come to an end. I am so very happy to know that Aayla will be able to get the help she needs. Thank you to all of you that helped out!! A note from the organizer:

"As I'm sure you're aware our fundraiser is now complete- and we exceeded our goal!!! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Hopefully Aayla will have some answers soon, and we'll post a video of her running wild and free :) We did it!!!
Much love, Emily"

Thank you, thank you! I'll be back next week after a couple of fun adventures we have planned over the next few days. See you then!

Little ones can help, too! (and we did it!)

a little rhythm in our home, please!

Looking through some of my latest entries on here I have hardly mentioned any of our Waldorf ways. I am now suddenly feeling like I have turned my back on my Waldorf roots. While that isn't necessarily true as we still live our lives following Steiner's teaching, I haven't made an effort in posting about them. Today seems like a good day to start. I sat here staring at a blank screen for quite awhile trying to become inspired and think of something to write about. The truth is, I am just in this mood of sadness and self pity. That's not anything I want to spend much time thinking about and I doubt anyone would want to read about.
The other night I called Kevin at work and asked him if he could bring me home some chocolate. He asked why, I said I was having a rough day. I think I even made some comparison with my chocolate habit to people that drink away their misery with alcohol. (Even after all these years I am still stuck in my old punk views of staying straight edge.) He wanted to know what was so wrong but I couldn't really say as I didn't even know. He reminded me that I called him only a few hours earlier excitedly telling him about positive things happening in our home. Then I remembered he was right and that our day really was great! I was just stuck in a moment that I couldn't get out of.

But back to a Waldorf related post: Last week was our second week of summer and our rhythm is slowly falling into place. I didn't plan one (couldn't find the time this year) but things are just coming together on their own. That tends to be one of the best rhythm formulas for us. We ended up going out of our home every other day over last week and that was a great 'inhale/exhale' time for myself as well as the children. I think we will keep that. Of course, each time we go out doesn't have to be anything huge or even all the exciting. It just means we get in the van and leave the house. This could just be grocery shopping or hiking in different woods or it will be more adventurous at times,too. (I have visiting the Mcloughlin house planned for this week.) I think on our days home we'll do our baking and more involved crafts. Still figuring all of that out, though.

You may or may not remember my post last year about my children washing their own dishes, but as much as we all enjoyed that rhythm it fell apart on us as Baby L became more active. We recently revisited the idea with a couple of minor adjustments, like having their very own area set up with wash basins and washcloths we made from an old towel (Thank you Miss Elizabeth for that idea last year!). This way I can be doing the big dishes while they do their own. This might be a good time saver. We'll see how it keeps going. One downfall to it is that Baby L really wants to play in the water, normally that's fine but he would completely dump those basins in a heartbeat.

How about you? How has your rhythm changed now that it is summer?

Oh and for some randomness: I learned an important lesson over the weekend; taking photographs outside in the sun while wearing sunglasses (after you haven't worn any in 6+ years) is not a good idea. All of my photos looked so dark to me so I kept adjusting my camera and when I uploaded all of the pictures later that day they were all ridiculously and unusably overexposed.

Oh and thank you for your thoughts on the backfired post! Looking back now I do have to agree that it was their way of processing our day. Thank you!



A happy and yet sad moment I will always want to remember. Even if I am not to fond of the photograph of myself I am very thankful for the kind passerby who took this.

a little rhythm in our home, please!

Rhythm In Our Home : Family Day

Saturday is our family day. Of course, every day is family day but this is the one day we set aside to spend time together - just the five of us. This day has become even more important and necessary for us ever since Kevin's job (and the need for him to use public transportation) took him away from us during the week. I see him late at night right before I go to bed usually, but our children, on the other hand, do not see him all week long as he leaves before they rise in the morning and arrived back home after they have gone to bed. So you see - the weekend is currently all we have as a complete family.







We used to tie in outside or gardening time on Saturdays, too but again - due to Kevin's work hours, we decided to keep it simple. It does seem that many of our family days are still spent outside in one way or another, though. We really enjoy exploring the forests around us or taking nature walks.



To accommodate the less than desirable Daddy work schedule, I try to make sure that our home is clean and all of my household chores are done on Friday - that way we aren't running around like crazy all weekend trying to finish things up. Plus, Kevin's job is very stressful and he is quite the clean freak (to put it nicely), so he can't relax if the house is a disaster (and let me tell you - it IS indeed a disaster the other five days of the week).





So with a clean house and a fresh start we begin our day with a big, warm family breakfast. All of us work together to make our big meal... well, minus Baby L who is either scooting on the floor or up on one of us, but you know what I mean. The cats are moved safely behind a closed door and the dogs come up to play with us as we prepare our meal (but no more pancakes for them!).



Once we all have full bellies we clean up and then either head out the door (if we are going out and about), or we all might curl up together in our big bed. Either way, we just fully take in and enjoy one another's company. What more could we ask for?!



Please remember - this is just our family rhythm and what works for us at the moment. This isn't meant to be hard and fast rules on how rhythm should go in every one or any one's homes. I just thought to share it because I receive quite a few e-mails asking about our home rhythm, and I also just wanted it documented for myself so that I may remember these times when they are older and/or on to another rhythm.

Thank you, again, for joining me in the rhythm fun! Here is the linky list. If you have a (new or old) link you would like to share about your family rhythm, please enter it below so that we all may see. Then please link back here in your post. I look forward to seeing your inspiration!
Thanks friends!


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Wow! What a great response to the Organic Family Cookbook giveaway! Remember you have until Sunday the 23rd to enter.
Wondering what I am talking about? Look here.

Rhythm In Our Home : Family Day