I can’t believe it. 1 month of Montessori school and Little Mister is reading! (That sounds a little like bragging. Sorry.) I am amazed at how different pace at which children choose to learn. Mini Mister has been interested in letters and the sounds they make before he spoke sentences. On the other hand my daughter who could care less about the ABC’s is almost 4 years old and just recited an entire book to me last night. And I am astounded at how flexible and porous the five year old mind truly is. When I taught literacy skills to inner-city adults, one of my students, who was in his 50s, took 9 months to master what Mini Mister did in 1 month.
So in this vein, we’ve started a new family tradition. Reading. I realize so many parents say, yeah, yeah. We’ve heard the experts say reading to your child 20 minutes a day is best. And we used to try to fit that in when we could. But the growth we’ve seen in our children from their school projects and just that little bit extra at home is outstanding, and it has upped our momentum for more.
We read as a family at night just after prayer and before bed. In Mama and Daddy’s bedroom. All five of us. The kids get to pick 1 or 2 books each and the parents get to pick one as well. Pie Pie joins us too. Sometimes Mini Mister will read. Sometimes Little Miss will recite. And sometimes the parent will just read.
I am looking forward to making reading more fun with some of the tidbits I am learning in the on-line course I’m taking presently called Playful Learning Spaces by Mariah Bruehl. Creating a fun, cozy, safe place to read is one of my goals. Supplying interesting and varied reading opportunities is another goal of mine. And encouraging the kids to use what they’ve read in their everyday life is yet another goal.
I’ve always read for pleasure, what ever genre was my interest at the time. I love biographies, crafting, cook books that give you a little portal into different cultures and cuisines, books about homesteading, and stories about being a Korean-American. I’ve always kept these little written treasures to myself. Now I hope to share my love of reading and inspire an interest in the written word in my children. It is my hope that reading will open the door to so much more learning than I am able to give them in this lifetime.
Goodness I am so behind when it comes to organizing the kid’s photo albums. Heck, I haven’t even completed my wedding scrapbook. Now with number three on the way, I am in kind of a sleepy panic. (Sleepy because I still haven’t been sleeping well. And a panic because, well, with less than five weeks until we meet this new little one, there is no way that I am going to complete Mini Mister’s latest album. This one for Little Miss took me a year and a half.)
This album, to be published by Blurb.com, is for Little Miss’ first two years of life. There are a little over 900 pictures on 325 pages, with all the little notes I could manage to remember. I know that there were so many other little quotes, cute moments, and wonderful tid bits I forget and would have loved to have document here, but my memory didn’t pull through. Plus, enough is enough right?
Now, on to Mini Mister’s latest album. That would be from his 18 months to his current 4 1/2 years old. YIKES. And Little Miss already has another year of photos to document. AND, there is this new baby whose first months of life is sure to be filled with snap shots.
Isn’t amazing what the digital age has done? I believe my baby photo album contains something like 30 pictures of me before I turned two years old. How is it that I was able to shoot more than 1,000 of each kid? Really, are they that much more photogenic than moi?
Blurb is a book publishing software and service. Their easy-to-use downloadable software helps you lay out your book, what ever kind you choose. Then you upload the book to their site and order it. This 300+ page book in hardback form is currently about $90. This may seem like a lot, BUT, it is actually fairly economical when you consider what it would cost to print out 900 photos. Shutterfly currently charges a discounted 10¢ per print with their annual plan. After spending $90 on prints, and $29.99 for their Annual Plan fee, there is the cost of all those album books as well. I figured I’d just get it all done at once and pay a little less.
Whew. So two years are done. Only two more albums to go.
The Kindle makes it way too easy to stay up late and read before falling asleep at night. Many-a-groggy morning follow a late night, “just-one-more-page” indulgences. But I’ve been devouring these farming memoir novels with an insatiable appetite! (My latest interest.)
I just finished The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball. In short, this wonderful piece is about her first year farming, figuring it out, and falling in love with dirt. I was so in awe of her aspirations to create better food, to bring together a community, and learn everything she needed to know in the process. Some parts a tad gruesome. Some parts are mind-opening. In my opinion this read is definitely a recommend.
The other topic on my literary mind is cooking with vegetables. I am so tired of the short-order cook thing. One meal for Little Miss, another for Mini Mister, and yet a third for me and my husband, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner – everyday – is just too much. For anyone, including the short order cook.
I am also craving the spring and summer vegetables right now. In the middle of winter. And I am also trying to plan a bit for the spring and summer after the baby is born to try to take advantage of all the summer produce the markets have to offer in the easiest, tastiest ways possible. Complex concoctions after nursing a newborn through the night are not going to happen.
So, after some exasperation and a few words to the effect of “you don’t eat anything,” tossed at the kids, I ordered a couple cookbooks on-line to try to gain some vegetarian inspiration and guidance. Well, I am definitely inspired. Now, to whittle it down to first, second, and third choice.
What’s in my stack:
The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without by Molly Katzen
Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair
The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre
From Seed to Skillet by Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn
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What are you reading?
I am reading a new book. Strike that, I am loving a new book. Making Life Rich Without Any Money; Stories of Finding Joy in What Really Matters by Phil Callaway. He says many thoughtful things about getting to a richer life. (And I haven’t read the entire book, just enough to know that it I am liking what I am reading.) One of the things he points out is, “laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.” I read the subsequent passage and just started laughing. In my sleep-deprived, low state, after dealing with an entire day of very messy diarrhea, I laughed. And so I share that which I found humorous so that you too might laugh if you are feeling a bit low today.
“…we go looking for the funny in the ordinary. I collect things that make me laugh and sometimes read them at the dinner table. It’s surprising how long the children hang around. The latest was a list from a first-grade teacher who gave her students the first part of an old proverb and asked them to fill in the blanks.
“Better to be safe than…punch a fifth grader.
“Strike while the…bug is close.
“Don’t bite the hand that…looks dirty.
“Children should be seen and not…spanked.
“Where there’s smoke there’s…pollution
“A penny saved is…not much.
“There’s no fool like…Uncle Eddie.”
Here is to a good laugh on those gray days.
I am so excited to support a blogger whom I just adore. Shauna, who writes the blog The Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, has just released a new book. Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: A Love Story with 100 Tempting Recipes is a foodie exploration. It is a love story. And it is a cook book; filled with gluten-free, delectable, carefully crafted recipes. And I simply can’t wait to get my hands on it.
In the mean time, Shauna, sent some friends around the blogosphere a few of the yummy recipes in her book to preview, to cook, and to taste. Delicious. Is there another word in response? Oh, I don’t believe there is.
I try to bake like I once did before going gluten-free. I try to take the trepidation out of my fingers as I measure novel flours and mix ingredients together to make doughs and batters that seem to confound a baker’s mind. (Think firm, elastic, smooth, warm wheat bread dough turned to the gluten-free, spongy, pale, starchy-smelling, puckered dough, so sticky, and flimsy that you mustn’t touch it with a dry finger.) I try to squelch the thought “another failure is just cash in the trash.” I try to lose the memory of how gluten transforms into delicate deliciousness in the oven and how it tastes divine in the mouth.
But these gluten-free recipes excited me. And they excited my taste buds. These Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies were smooshy, crusty, moist, and rich. Simply chocolaty divine.
Sometimes I miss “the process” in the kitchen. There is a tangible passion that gets folded into a meat dumpling pinched by hand, a carefully turned croissant roll, or fresh pasta made from scratch.
Shauna satiated that longing for action. Homemade pasta at last. Toothsome. (I never understood what “toothsome” meant when I ate wheat pasta. But I do now. Try her recipe and you’ll know too.) Firm. Tender. And delicious.
I have been sworn to secrecy and I can’t divulge the recipes here. So to try this recipe, Fresh Pasta with Anchovies, Lemons, and Olives, you are going to have to visit your local book store. Though a bit tricky to prepare, with some flours you may have to look up, the results are worth the effort. For someone who is gluten-free for life, these truly delicious recipes open a new door to novel culinary exploration and a very satisfied tummy.
If you are looking to find hope in the kitchen, or if you are seeking a little Dancing in the Kitchen with Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, you have got to go find this book.
I devoured this book. I read it between knitting furiously, embroidering fervently, and doing other weekending stuff. And now I am sad it is all gone.
This book is written by Jenna Woginrich who has made great amazing strides toward self sustainability. The possible paradox is that she still works 9-5 for “the company” to pay her bills. But to fill her soul, she gardens, raises livestock, dog sleds, plays the fiddle, sews, knits, and continues to be obsessively interested in all things homesteading. She basically lives the life I’d love to live, eventually, minus a few parts. (I’ll explain those.)
I think it began when our family started raising chickens when I was a kid. Jenna also raises chickens. Hers are, and ours were, egg layers. Neither hers nor ours were “broilers” as they call them. (Aka, for eating.) As a kid, it was my sibling’s and my job to care for the hens. Harsh winters in New Hampshire meant turning on the heat lamp at night. Filling up their grain feed trough daily. Hauling hot water to pour on the icy, sometimes frozen, water feeder. And the best part of the job, collecting eggs in an antique round wire egg basket with handles.
The part about chicken farming I didn’t like was the close-up examination you get of the circle of life. Our chickens were almost like pets. Okay, they were like dumb pets. I remember the day we brought home that noisy box of little birds. (They were full grown, but still really young.) None of them wanted to exit that brown cardboard shelter of safety as we tried to tip them out into their new caged range run.
In short time we had names for them like “blackie”, and “whitie.” (You don’t go getting all esoteric when you are five years old.) We’d rattle the top of the chicken wire cage real loud and those girls would hop on out of their dust holes, or off their perches to come flying out to greet us. (I mean those chicken legs ran so fast those flightless birds were all most flying.) We hand fed them greens from the garden right through the chicken wire in the summers. We’d scold the bullies and console the girls getting plucked by the others. And then we’d lament when one would get sick and die.
The sick one would stop laying. She’d seem sluggish and not move out from behind the feed barrel. And then one day, you’d come through the door and she’d be head-bent over and not moving a stitch. My dad put them somewhere. I don’t know where. And I didn’t care to know. And it makes me feel kind of queasy to think of a death that up-close even as I type these words 30 years later.
Even though I’d say chickens are fairly dumb creatures, I can attest they are living and conscious nonetheless. It is hard to not personify this feathered food source. Especially as a kid.
I know I can’t do what Jenna does on a daily basis. (Help out life and death that is.) She writes in her book about her animals and fine line between natural life and death. I admire deeply that she truly understands our clothing, household items, and food stuffs come from the living. But to get that close to the living and the dying isn’t something I’m prepared to do everyday. Though I am certainly glad to have had that experience as a child.
Today our suburban family is removed. We don’t water and dig for our salad. We don’t help birth the animal that will help us make a sweater. We don’t talk with our steak. And we don’t name the mother of our omelet. We step into our car with our reusable grocery bags and use the gas pedal all the way to the air-conditioned, prepackaged, grocery store. And I mostly like it that way.
But what is the down-side of missing out on the amazing natural progression of things? Do we exploit the environment more? Do we believe man-made is superior to what nature makes? Do we pollute more because we don’ t know where it all goes? By excusing ourselves from nature’s circle of life, by holding our being above the natural progression, aren’t we just shooting ourselves in the foot, so to speak? Even as someone who doesn’t like getting up close and personal with my scrambled egg supplier, I know if I don’t care about and support others who tend to those chickens humanely and sustainably, my breakfast staple is going to be no more pretty soon.
 This is actually one of my favorite cake flavors. I am not a big cake eater…although I love to decorate these pastries. Carrot cake, spice cake, and gingerbread with boiled frosting are my favorites any day. These dense, moist, spicy cakes just satisfy the tongue and the tooth.
I have been reluctant to try much gluten-free baking beyond cookies since my weird chocolate cake experiments. But this recipe developed by The Culinary Institute of America had the secret…egg whites. Egg proteins really create the structure of the cake pastry as the gluten proteins take a backseat. Folding in those egg whites whipped into soft peaks made all the difference between a fluffy moist crumb and a rock hard doorstop.
This recipe is labor intensive. It required three separate ingredient bowls, draining carrot juice, separating eggs, and two 6″ cake pans to bring to life this gluten-free delight. (Can I brag about my cake pan collection sizes 6″ to 14″? But really, who normally has 6″ cake pans?) It took about an hour to make the cake batter which seems entirely too liquid to bake into anything delectable. And it took 48 minutes in my burns-hot-electric-oven to bake the cake. The recipe then calls for letting the cake cool entirely in the pan. When I took turned the cake out, it seemed as if the bottom were a bit soggy, like well, the cake cooled in the pan; condensation pooling under that delicate layer. But now I think the moisture retention was intentional and adds to the tender, if a bit spongy, texture of this very good gluten-free carrot cake.
In my opinion, this recipe could use a few more spicy additions like more cinnamon and perhaps ground cloves?? It was a bit bland. And the frosting needs a bit more of that smooth cream cheese tang and a bit less sugar. Oh that toddler desert sugar buzz before bath and bedtime, not so good.
I found Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America at my library. (Always a good idea to try out the recipes before buying the book.) Although the introduction to Celiac disease diagnosis in the first chapters scared my socks off (I am not medically diagnosed), I am eager to try a few more recipes from this publication. “Cheers” from the gluten-free blogger who ate carrot cake for breakfast this morning.
a dolly quilt for Sydney’s birthday-to-be Waldorf doll and wooden bed…shhhh it’s a secret. This one is a Chinese coin style and measures 26″ X 21″ with a cotton batting and hand-stitched binding.
a little bit of thrifting, some picked by me, and some treasures collected by Sydney (an avid thrifter in the making.)
another thrifting find, Come Follow Me by Gyo Fujikawa who is one of my favorite child book authors. (The Oh, What a Busy Day was given to us by Ammy.)
 A little bit of upside down.
A make-shift garage which doubles as a letter desk organizer…
Gluten-free yummy blueberry muffins, with sugar on top…
An ominous January sky…though on a 56 degree day.
Gratitude for a hint of warm weather in the middle of winter.
And wonderful mud puddles for jumping in.
 That is January here at home.
 I read her first book The Creative Family, which is full of fabulous creative projects that include the input of family members big and small. I am continually inspired by her sense of inner strength, strong family values, and supreme respect for the earth. Take a peak at her blog if you haven’t already.
I borrowed from the library a copy of Amanda Soule’s new book, Handmade Home , and immediately wanted to create 19 of the 30 projects! So I set to work making hats, one for me (which isn’t yet adorned) and one for my daughter. It was easy, fun, instantly satisfying, and turned out pretty cute? The pattern is in the book.
This is what happened after the “photo-shoot.”
I never thought I would be interested in quilting…but I am. The process of picking colors, fabrics, and designing patterns is so complex yet also inspiring and organic…it really centers me to create in this way. So, I am reading a new book about…quilting. Well, quilted gifts to be exact. Take a look at Joelle Hoverson and Anna Williams’ book Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts . Also check out their wonderfully crafted online journal Purl Bee.
First, the photography is fabulously, cozy, colorful, and enticing. I just wanted to sew every project immediately. The projects are organized by the amount of time it takes to complete them. In my opinion perfect for browsing “last-minute gift ideas!” Projects range from a simple-to-make adorable bird ornament to a more complex project exploring color by designing a stunning color wheel quilt with 52 different hued segments.
My first project inspired by the book is a log-cabin-like baby quilt. You can see my progress below.
Although you usually use a plain woven cotton fabric to make a quilt, I decided to step outside a bit and selected complementary recycled cashmere fabrics for the “log” squares. The quilt back is an organic cotton velour…stretchy, soft and plushy comfy. I am looking at a 100% wool batting to “fill” the blanket.
This “stepping-outside the norm” of quilting by using a non-traditional quilting fabric got me thinking about how else to tweak the quilting process. Perhaps use other fabrics for quilting such as reclaimed wool felt, jersey knits reclaimed from baby clothing, or cotton fabric cut from dress shirts, or polo shirts. Hummm, the thrift-store-inspired possibilities are endless really. Stay tuned for more ideas as they come swimming by!
Oh, and by the way, I haven’t been compensated in any way to review this book. I just picked up and loved it.
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thank you for stopping by my blog  I am a 35 year old mom to a 4 year old son, a 3 year old daughter, a son born in May, and a wife to my life wonderful. I write in this space when my crafty inspiration strikes or when I get to pondering about how we can live more simply and better connect with the earth around us. We are a family surviving the suburbs, contending with commercialism, and getting to a greener lifestyle. Welcome! ~Abbie a few blogs I like in no particular order Permission © Organizing-Life 2009
All images and designs are property of Organizing-Life. Please do not copy any original designs or photography without written permission. Thank you!
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