Cotton, Wool, and JT

The first batch of caramels of the year were made today.  It was an attempt to lift the melancholy.  I blame it on the funk.  The caramels were only temporarily and mildly successful.  (But oh so good while it lasted.)

I've decided and am ready to declare that I am not interested in either doing what it takes or trying to attain a successful blog.  (Obviously.  Ha!)  It's time to acknowledge that this blog serves no other purpose than to meet the need of my infrequent desire to write things out.  And it's a pretty mixed bag at that.  (But, if for some reason you should feel compelled to stick around, be my guest!)

Due to a first-ever run-in with yeast rash on the baby girl this summer I made the jump to cloth diapers.  I've always loved cotton, it's always been a favorite, and now I love it even more.  These diapers are amazing.  I love cloth diapers.  I have a supply of Thirsties covers and I started out with two woolies.  But shortly in to my experiment I began to favor the wool soakers.  (My love, awe, and respect for wool has grown and now rivals that of the cotton.  It's truly amazing and until you diaper with it.. wow.  I'm a natural fibers type of gal, through and through.)  Since then I've knit two more soakers and added the green longies to the mix, too.  (I unknowingly knit those wool pants for the babe in utero and now they're fitting her and coming in quite handy.)  There are two more pants and one more vanilla about to be in the works.  Good thing I taught myself how to knit three years ago.

I really like the website iusenfp.com.  I appreciate the work of the guys that run 1flesh.org and I am definitely on board with what they are trying to do.  But I cannot stand their slogan:  bring sexy back.  Ugh!  Yuck!  That is not what it's about.  All I can think of when I hear that is Justin Timberlake.  And I can't stand him.  Or his music or his message or anything else about him other than the fact that he was made by God.  Why would they use such a trashy motto?  Ugh.  I get it, I get it.. they're trying to appeal to the young, modern crowd.  They're trying to make it hip and appealing.  Sex sells??  Maybe they really like Justin Timberlake?  I don't know.  Call me old-fashioned.  Call me a grouchy curmudgeon, I just don't like it.  I guess it's good if it is reaching and appealing to the young, target audience, but to me, the message of true love; sacrificial love; real, self-giving married love is just so much more, so much better, so much higher than that.  I can't help but feel they're cheapening it.  But really, if they were going to go that route, couldn't they have at least used a U2 or a DMB song?! 

Speaking of the righteous movement for the masses, I've also really been enjoying the New Wave Feminists For Life.  They're the real deal when it comes to actual feminism.  I like it.  (you can like them on fb if you're into that sort of thing.  same with the two previous sites.)

We've gotten three weeks of lessons under our belts so far.  And this year I have two students!  One in second grade and the other in kindergarten.  In many ways, I've found that having two students is easier than one.  Now there are only two other children to mind while focusing on instruction with the others, instead of three.  And instead of having just one to focus on and wait for, I have two that I can bounce between while doing the instruction.  Quite surprising!  Though it's only been three weeks, mind you....

We planted our garden again this year and had a nice turnout.  There were a few new additions this year:  dry beans (Jacob's cattle.  or something like that..), asparagus, mint, a new heirloom variety (winter density, I think, it's a head lettuce, somewhat of a cross between bibb and romaine--love it.), and limelight hydrangeas added to our yard border.  We don't have a fenced backyard, so I like planting as much as I can to form a natural fence.

Unfortunately we've been struggling to regain health for at least a good month now.  All four of the children have been sick.  Three of them have been on antibiotics and one of them was put on allergy medicine in addition to that.  Thankfully, though, I feel like we've finally turned that corner and have started back in the right direction.  Hopefully we'll have some nice weather and some healthy children with which to enjoy this upcoming fall season.  Here's hoping that you do, too.

The Garden, the Harvest, and Why My Husband Called Me Dr. Flox

This was my husband's birthday cake. This is the exact opposite of everything the rest of this post is about. (I'm guessing he liked it, though, since he is the author of this photo.) ;)

I've always been interested in being healthy and in eating healthfully. Lately, however, because of the book that turned my head inside out, I've been feeling a bit like a mad scientist trying to accomplish this goal.

Example #1: My very first soaked flour (whole wheat) pancakes. They were fried in coconut oil and they were delicious. (For soaking I used water mixed with whey I got from the yogurt I made. Crazy, right?)

Walnuts and pecans soaking to later be dried in the oven. (Another very weird thing I couldn't believe I was doing.)

My homemade sourdough starter getting going along with a cup of tea that was used to grow my own kombucha scoby.

Let's see. Raw milk on the right. Lacto-fermented red sauerkraut behind the Brita. I love my vintage suntea jar that was pilfered (with permission) from my gramma's garage!

And below from right to left: homemade yogurt in the bowl, farmer's-market-bought kimchi, homemade feta chunks center (in salt brine), jar of whey, homemade kefir, piima cream, and homegrown and cured sun pickles. The more recent water kefir is missing from this photo.

Back to the realm of what can be considered normal.

A few of the jars of our garden tomatoes that I canned amongst our garden onions. Our baby red potatoes are on the left!

A snapshot into our deepfreeze featuring the Georgia peaches from the peach truck; our local, handpicked cherries; local blueberries we went to pick ourselves; garden green beans; and local, grassfed, organic beef.

Our upstairs freezer: more garden beans and tomatoes and local foraged blackberries (THANKS BETH!!). (Among other misc. items not pictured-)

My little beauties. This is my little treasured sweetheart of the garden.
(An heirloom variety for northern climates that I pinned all my hope for my first successful watermelon harvest on. It came through for me!)

These little babies did not. But I believe that it was due to a mold-type stuff that was on the zucchini originally and then spread to these melons. I think it was caused by all of the rain/moisture we had this year. ? :(

Overall garden pictures. The corn turned out okay but not awesome. Everything else did fairly well, I'd say, except for the tomatoes. The plants all turned brown and died way too early. I think it was probably blight, but I'm letting myself be not 100% sure out of a desire to avoid the truth and fear for next year's tomato crop.

So. Now you know. My kitchen is full of homemade/cultured/fermented probiotic foods. I have been growing and feeding and babying bacteria on purpose. In my kitchen. It's very weird.

Oh, and did I mention I attended a cheesemaking class this summer? I feel like that's also very weird. Cool, but weird.

Whole, healthy food to the Nth degree. Don't look at these unless you're not afraid of being warped. Food Renegade. Nourished Kitchen. Nourishing Days. Cheeseslave.

To name a few.

Here It Is

This is the first zucchini from our garden! I was also able to harvest and prepare two summer squash. And I would be absolutely remiss if I didn't point out that our very first ripe tomato of the year is in this picture. Yes, it's an Early Girl!

My little helper posing with our harvest, the summer squash cooking in the pan.

Gardensong

Oh, and what a beautiful melody it is. We, as the gardeners are simply the harmony to God's handiwork. I'm getting so addicted to the tune through this whole process:

Our modest beginnings

The first (elating!) signs of life

Phase two: the expansion (The first half was done over the course of a week+ with a shovel. When it was time to do more planting and expand the garden to its real, full size we used a much easier and quicker method!)

Our extremely dedicated helper (in the as-yet unplanted corn section)

Then came the addition of the fence. A little too late, as it was in reaction to seeing our crops being nibbled away! There are way too many rabbits in this town.

This is the garden about a week ago. Plus, on the left in the shade (along the East side of the garage) is our potato/flower/mystery plant bed.

Potato flowers

A hiding flower amongst the mystery plants. They volunteered in the corn section before I got any of the seeds sewn. So, rather than tear them up when preparing the soil I transplanted them here in the hopes that it'd be butternut squash (from seeds that happened to be leftover in our compost). They're flowering now, so hopefully I'll find out soon. Also, more has come up in the corn since it's planting, so whatever it is I've got a lot of it.


Our heirloom lettuce mixture, onions, and leftover raddish plants thrown down in the walkway. It's been an exceptionally wet June, so it helped it to not be quite so muddy.

Mmmmmm! I can't WaIT!

Oh, these lovelies, too. Those first tomatoes can never come fast enough. These are my Early Girls (See? I always buy at least some of these because I think they'll get me tomatoes sooner than all the other varieties.)

Gardening is such an exercise in patience and restraint. It's a good lesson. I think everyone should have a garden and slow their lives down to match its pace. And take a deep breath. And stop looking at the g r e e n tomatoes when you can't stand it any longer.

Here's my little garden. I'm so proud of it!

p.s. If it wasn't dark outside right now I'd go outside and take some new pictures because everything's grown so much in the past week! The beans and zucchini are blooming now, too.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 4)

...1...

Today was a day of sitting in the sun. A glorious, sun-filled, warm day that the boys and I enjoyed outside approximately 90% of the time. :) It was great. It was above 70. I couldn't be happier about it. Literally, this is the first day since the snow's melted that we've played outside with out any misc. articles like jackets, mittens, or hats.

Thankfully, there is some rain in the forecast for this weekend, though. We're currently only around only 50% of the precip. received in a normal year, so everything is very dry and there are county burning bans posted all over the place. Both the rain and the burning ban put a slight damper on one of our plans for the weekend, though. It's been our tradition for the last few years to have our first bonfire party of the season on April 19 (at which we burn the remains of our saved, chopped Christmas tree), but it seems as though we'll be postponing it this year!

But with weather like this, I am not going to be complaining one little bit. :)

...2...

We're on the verge of ripping up some of our lawn for a vegetable garden. I'm feeling like we're possibly a little bit behind on this now that the weather is so beautiful, but it'll get there. We've always had a few select items planted in pots (tomatoes, peppers, herbs) in addition to my planting things in a shared garden with my grandparents. Last year I planted a row of tomatoes behind our garage, but this is the year we'll have our own, actual garden.

I have this book checked out from the library and it explains a different methodology of planting a veg. garden than the typical layout that involves evenly spaced rows. The gardener selects a space 5' x 5' or larger and then plants the whole thing full, incorporating a few stepping stones. There's quite a bit of detail and info on different layouts: which plants go near eachother and why, etc, but you get the main idea.

I'm really excited to give it a try and see how it works!

...3...



Is it simply the nature of four year olds to be scatterbrained and unfocused? I've been wondering this quite a bit lately because I've gotten a little frustrated with my son for this reason. For instance, on several different occasions I've asked him to complete a task that I know he is completely capable of doing (getting dressed, putting away toys) while I go elsewhere to complete a different task. But because I'm not there supervising, helping, or dictating directions, he gets sidetracked or interrupts himself by coming to see what I'm doing three times, etc. So I'm trying to decide if this is just something he needs a lot of work on or if four years old is still a little young to be able to expect task autonomy from a child.



...4...



We still have yet to purchase a van. I'm 34 weeks pregnant. No hurry, right?? ;)



...5...



I am really looking forward to the promised date night in the next couple of weeks before the baby is born.



...6...



Even though those formal date nights don't happen technically frequently enough, my husband and I enjoy checking out seasons of old shows out from the library and watching an episode or two together before going to bed. We just returned season 1 of MacGyver to the library last night, and a few weeks before that it was Knight Rider. Lance just requested a season of Magnum P.I. from the library tonight.



I realize that this is probably making us sound like huge dorks, but it's kind of funny to watch those old shows again. It's funny (and nice) how mild they seem now as compared to much of what's currently on tv! Plus, we get a kick out of laughing and making jokes together about a lot of it.



...7...



We're currently participating in a state-wide study on the health of people in our state that's being conducted by the UW. Part of the study is for the participants to go through an exam with a variety of different tests to assess your level of fitness. My exam was last night and, being 34 weeks pregnant, there were a couple of tests that I wasn't eligible for. I was a little bummed about that since health and being healthy are things that I feel are important and are interested in. Anyway, the thing that I felt the most silly about, though, is the fact that it took two people to accurately be able to measure my hips and belly with the measuring tape! Can you believe it?!



More Quick Takes with Jen!