still digesting

We had a lovely Thanksgiving, hopefully everyone else did too. Six adults, three college kids, three teenagers, one toddler, two dogs and an enormous amount of food. I read somewhere that the average American eats 5,000 calories on Thanksgiving Day! Wow! While I don't think we ate that much we certainly had an abundance.

I think one of the reasons this holiday resonates so much for me is because it is getting together with loved ones, eating a wonderful, seasonal meal, and relaxing, playing games, reading books, talking, all great down time activities.

While the day after is a personal horror (I confess to having shopped a couple of times on Black Friday but truly don't like it and avoided it like the plague this year and hope to continue to do so from now on) the overall holiday has not been over commercialized. There's only so much one can do with food after all.

We did receive a Happy Thanksgiving card which shocked Steve and he asked, in a horrified tone, "We're not sending THOSE are we?" To which I replied no.

I'm sorry to say that I'm seeing signs of Christmas already though. After Halloween the decorations went up, the music and lights have started and I dread the countdown to overconsumptive excess. But I'm not going to think about that right now, I'm going to bask in the warm glow of a fun family Thanksgiving just a little while longer.

the first

snowfall of the year. More of a sleet fall really but it's white and it's sticking so it counts. Definitely late for a first dusting. The funny thing is that the maples are still in full flame colored leaf and the calary pears are still firmly green leaved. Wonder what will happen.

Looks like I brought the rosemary in just in time. Most of the garden is done for the year, just a little more trimming to do, hopefully after Thanksgiving.

popping in

I haven't posted in a very long time. Life has been full and busy and good. Lots of wonderful things going on. As I get ready for Thanksgiving I find myself thoughtful and meditative about all that I/we have been blessed with.

I confess that I miss blogging, I miss some of the "routine" things like Grateful Grains and Tackle-It-Tuesday (boy could I really use one of those right about now!). But I know that with the ebb and flow of my life I will at some point get back to it.

On the sad news front I have to report that my farm share is over for the year. We're very sad about it. Last Friday was the last pickup. It was a good one though, the haul included a large bag of spinach, celeriac, beets, potatoes, red cabbage, red onions, garlic, hot peppers, parsnips and lacinato kale. Mmmmmmmmmm. I have a freezer full of goodies from this year's share plus a bunch of jars of canned goodness. I'll miss seeing the farm folks every week and miss the peaceful serenity of picking in the fields but I know it will come again next year.

Goods new abounds however:

S & V are coming home from college this week! I am so excited to see them. It's hard to believe the last time I laid eyes on them was in August! Of course it's also hard to believe that they are both in college. I'm not sure how that happened, they were little not so very long ago. V is bringing a guest; the Japanese exchange student from her college is coming with her. It should be wonderful and we are looking forward to meeting her.

D won an essay writing contest for the Veteran's Day assembly here in town. The Veterans Association is giving her a $50 savings bond and two people called to ask for a copy of the speech. I'm trying to get her to let me post it here. Only two essays were chosen, it's really an amazing achievement.

My knee is almost completely healed. I can't sit on my knees the way I used to but with stretching and yoga I am slowly gaining back some of the flexibility I had and believe it will all come back.

We (ahem...read Steve) finished ripping out 1/3 of the garden in the back. It's cleared and grassed over and looks much better. Steve also managed to get one of the two terraces in the middle section done. The other will be done next spring. Then to clear the final third and rebuild the walls around the two sections we are keeping. We (and this really does mean we) also managed to rearrange the "vegetable" garden (don't know why we still call it that since it no longer has vegetables) and it looks much better. It should also be easier to maintain now that everything is more clearly grouped. Unfortunately I forgot to plant my elephant garlic this year so we won't have any next year; we will have garlic from the farm so it's not a total loss.

We got to see my brother and his family last week. It was great to spend time with them. My brother was so helpful and converted some old family VHS stuff to DVD. Much better. Tobi had a great time playing with his cousin dog, the neighbor dog, and the dog down the street. He was sad for two days after we got home! While visiting them my sister-in-law very kindly took me over to the farm to visit my niece's 4-H cows. They are both Jersey's; Pumba is the sweetest, jumpiest, silliest little thing. I got great enjoyment out of watching my niece trying to walk Pumba with Pumba jumping in the air, legs splayed at different angles, and then charging in the opposite direction pulling my niece after her. Bittersweet, her other cow, is going to be bred as soon as she is in heat. Truthfully she is so small I was surprised to discover that she was old enough to breed. This pretty lady is t-i-n-y. I bet she'll make a cute calf though.

We're heading off to my in-laws for Thanksgiving. Should be a lot of fun. My brother-in-law and his family with be there. So we are going to be 13 people, one a just-walking toddler, two dogs, and an upstairs under construction. Should be fun.

I hope all of you have a wonderful, happy, safe, blessed holiday and that you are with those you love.

cookies

In a vain attempt to conquer my sugar addiction I have once again banned all cakes, cookies and candy from the house. Unfortunately this means that my family suffers along with me. After lunch today Steve wistfully looked around for a cookie so I made a batch. This recipe is based on those found in Small Batch Baking but they have been modified to fit our whole grain baking lifestyle.

Chocolate ChocoNut Cookies makes 10-12 cookies

Preheat oven to 375F

mix together:
6 T. fresh ground flour (I used hard red and spelt)
2 T. sucanat
2 T. cane juice crystals
1 heaping T. Ghiradelli Sweet Ground Chocolate
1 t. ground flax seed
1/4 t. baking soda
pinch salt

add in:
2 T. + 2 t. melted butter
2 T. egg
dribble of vanilla
mix well

add in:
2 T. coarsly chopped dark chocolate (I used 80% dark)
2 T. coarsly chopped walnuts

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet
bake 8-11 minutes
let cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet
transfer to wire rack to cool completely
enjoy!

still here

but taking a break.

Thanks to all who have emailed wondering where I am. I made a decision over the summer to go back to school. I know, I know...send two kids to college and decide to go back yourself...what was I thinking?

I'm studying to become a Nutritional Educator and have to say that I am really enjoying using my brain cells in this new (old) way. Having to write papers, do homework, listen to lectures, read about and learn about all sorts of new and interesting subjects; it's all very cool. Doesn't leave me much time for blogging though. I'm still trying to visit my favorite blogreads but have come to accept that posting is probably not going to happen for a while.

For those who read (and comment) thank you!! I will be back, I just need to reprioritize and refocus for right now.

hum

I did something today I've never done before. I joined the church choir. I was surprised at being asked to join because I am haunted by the memory of 5th grade choir when I was politely told that I was tone deaf and perhaps I would prefer orchestra. So although I sing I do so fairly quietly and hope no one notices. Later in life I was told that I was a combination of alto and mezzo but with only half a range, useless as far as the other person was concerned.

Well guess what!!! It doesn't matter. Not only did I have a whole lot of fun, the choir master put me in the alto section and seems to think I sing pretty well. I was able to not only stay in key but to keep my descant going properly with the melody and the drone going at the same time. Wow! I'm so excited about this, what a wonderful activity for me and a way to participate more in my church, I like that.

produce update

Went to the farm this week and got my usual haul of goodies. We are sure enjoying all this fresh food. Luckily this week we were able to again "help ourselves" to saucing tomatoes. I love this!! I took 15 pounds home with me in addition to the bag of corn, the bag of veggies and the basket of tomatoes, herbs and flowers. How fortunate we are to have access to this farm.

I took the 12 ears of corn and parboiled them, cut them off the cob and froze the kernels to use in the winter.

Cooked another batch of beets but left this one out to be eaten since D has discovered that she likes beets.

Made 3 quarts of tomato juice (the best tomato juice you will ever drink if I do say so myself) and 8 pints of barbeque sauce. The sauce tastes a little sweet for my taste but then again it's not meant to be eaten by itself straight out of the pot. If I make the recipe again I think I will also add more garlic as I didn't think there was quite enough.

Canning can be hard, hot sweaty work but we are always grateful for what we have once the canning season is over. As I was making the sauce and the juice I was reflecting on how very grateful I am to not have to feed my entire family with the results of my labors. If I had to grow all the food and then process it to ensure we had enough to eat I'm afraid we might starve. Although I produce enough for us to enjoy for the year and a little to give away as gifts I certainly do not produce enough to be our sole source.

My Mom has her business Creek Road Crafts and has at this point in the season made, I think, 300 jars of preserves. That's a lot of preserves.

Bottom line is that I am grateful for the produce, the knowledge and the skill to keep this "craft" alive. And also grateful that I can do it because I WANT to and not because I HAVE to.

wow

This is a creative and very organized Mom. Of course I don't think college kids want you making book covers much less those that match their book bag and I KNOW that 8th graders don't. But it's still very sweet.

grains of gratitude

Started by Christine. It's been a while since I've posted one of these.

Today I am grateful for:

A wonderful sermon at church and a great coffee hour afterwards. Funny moment, I met my 9th grade math teacher there! That was a blast from the past. Even funnier was introducing D to him -- she thought that was just too weird.

A good walk with Tobi. He loved getting out and even got to see his friend Colby who lives down the street. I got in a walk before it rained.

A lovely harvest of blackberries and raspberries from my garden. So delicious.

Quiet time spent with S this evening. I'm going to miss her once she heads back to college.

AC - it has been hot and humid the last few days and I am so grateful to be able to sleep in cool comfort -- which is where I am headed now.

free camera

See that cute child? What about the adorable puppy? How would you like to be able to take pictures like that? Well...no guarantee that you can but DevDad is giving away a free camera and some accounts to SmugMug.com, allowing you to try to take such wonderful photos. Mike is a SAHD (Stay at Home Dad) who works from home to be able to raise his daughter Alex. I apologize for the borrowing of the photo but it was the only way to illustrate the point -- hope that's okay.

Of course this post is a shameless plug, who wouldn't want to win a free camera, not to mention one of those power user accounts? If you say it's not you I won't question that statement, better odds for me.

As for the rubber duckies Mike? I vote you write everyone's name on a duck, dump them in the tub with your adorable Alex and whichever one she picks is the winner. It would help if the duckie's name started with an M and ended with an A but I'm sure she can figure that out with a little help from you.

new toy

Isn't that cool?

h/t to Ima on (and off) the bima for this link. Build one yourself at Spell with Flickr.

saturday special

Oooh, another meme....

This one is The Saturday Special which I found via Ask Laane.



1. Quiet evening at home or Out on the town?:
Quiet evening at home...I don't have the energy for a night on the town these days.

2. Watch a movie or Reading a good book?:
Can I pick both? Depends mostly on my mood but I will confess to a preference for books.

3. Order a meal or Cooking one yourself?:
I love to cook.

4. Going for a walk or Taking a ride in the car?:
Walking is a great form of exercise and something that I like to do, especially if there is nice scenery involved.

How about you?

catching up

One thing about being away is the backlog at home. I'm still catching up on podcasts and blogfeeds. It's great because I get a huge feed at once and bad because I get a huge feed at once LOL.

I'm also once again pruning through, trying to bring my blog reads down from the 176 currently on my list. Oh my goodness is that hard. I like them all for different reasons. Part of the problem is that I keep adding new ones! I love these little communities that form through blogging, if only I could read faster.

cool calendar

h/t to Lifehacker

for sharing this link to make dodecahedron calendars.

wmfw - project notebooks

I just handed off a notebook to a friend of mine who has young children. It was from when my children were young and we don't need it anymore. In it I kept all sorts of ideas for games, projects, craft ideas, snack recipes, anything to do with the kids. A lot of those ideas became family favorites like how to make a mini-journal out of one slip of cut/folded paper or how to make origami animals. But now she can use it and I'm on to making other notebooks.

As adolescents my kids aren't that into projects with mom but I have some ideas for when they do want to do stuff together. Fun crafts, interesting projects, little games, they're all in there, just geared toward bigger kids.

I have a project notebook full of decorating ideas for the house and future houses. I go through it regularly and reshape it room-by-room to keep the ideas flowing and to see where my 'home thoughts' lie.

I also keep a separate notebook with the girls awards and certificates and clippings from the newspaper. I'm not one of those moms who keeps a lot. School papers? gone. Projects from elementary school? gone. I just don't have space for all of that (well, I do really, but it's overwhelming to try to keep up with all of the paperwork from the past let alone all the junk we own).

Each of these notebooks doesn't get added to very often but when I need them they are there and that works for me.

To see what works for other folks head on over to Rocks In My Dryer.

hp7

I've finally started reading, I know I'm a little behind the pack on this but it's truly the first opportunity I've had. Wow I'm enjoying this book. Unfortunately I didn't follow my usual pattern of reading from the beginning before I read the new book (because I don't have that kind of time right now) however I am finding that I remember certain things from past books and can appreciate some of the foreshadowing that goes on. She is a very complex writer when it comes down to it, lots of interwoven story lines.

Cool, cool, cool. Now I'm going to have to make time to re-read the whole thing (whenever).

jars and jars and jars

Today was sort of cool and rainy. With all the produce I had from the farm it seemed like a perfect day to make stuff. So make stuff we did. Steve helped from start to finish and we have now added significantly to the pantry:

3 pints of cucumber pickles
5 pints of zucchini pickles
8 half pints of dilled carrots
5 quarts of tomato sauce
3 quarts of shredded zucchini in the freezer (too tired to make more pickles)

Whoof! That's a lotta work. But it all went well and we had fun working together in the kitchen. Sasha was our official taster and pronounced everything satisfactorily edible. Next week there'll be more......

stitch stitch stitch

It was so much fun to be back at Stitch Sisters. We laughed and joked so much, it's a wonderful way to spend the evening.

The charity blankets are coming along. The multicolored one is very pretty, and is still making the rounds of the group. The aran blanket is almost done, a few more squares and then it can be assembled and presented to the Dream Come True Foundation. We're thinking about ideas for another charity project when this one is done. I really like that we have a lot of personal knitting and great interaction time but that we also have this one communal charity project every year. This is our fourth year as a group and our third charity knitting project. It's also kind of neat to pick a different organization or effort each year to support as I think it keeps everyone's interest up. If we were doing the same thing all the time it might get a little wearying after a while.

Tonight we were joking about having a lock-in meeting. We would all come in our pj's and knit until we dropped. Of course we would have to be careful to put down our needles before we fell asleep or we might wind up having to call 911. In our small town half our members have husbands on the Volunteer Fire Department. It might be embarassing to wind up with one of them on the phone, "And what is the nature of your emergency?" "Well...we have someone here who fell asleep and impaled herself on a knitting needle." "Phyllis, this isn't funny, don't bother me at work."
"But I'm not joking."

Of course when half the town shows up and we're all in our jammies the picture of startled knitters in pj's and curlers might wind up on the front page of the Small Town Gazette. Hmmmmmm, perhaps we should rethink this idea. But in the meantime we'll continue to enjoy our Tuesday nights.

foodie day

Today was definitely a foodie day. It started with my co-op pickup this morning. I have recently joined an in-town food co-op. Once a month a truck comes to the local church and delivers our order. I haven't been ordering huge amounts but can see the possibility for doing a lot more of my shopping this way. It saves time, gas and is frequently cheaper than the cost of similar items at the grocery store (especially for the vegan items for D). One big score today was a case of her favorite cereal



Barbara's Wild Puffs. No artificial ingredients, organic, tasty. What more could you want.

This afternoon was farm day. In the rain, not pouring but definitely coming down steadily. Even though we all know I am a wimp when it comes to rain I picked anyway; I wasn't going to miss out on all those luscious goodies. Pick your own was plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, herbs, flowers and sunflowers. The share was carrots, watermelon, corn, garlic, onions, summer squash, kale, peppers, yukon gold potatoes, kohlrabi. Plus they had a "help yourself" box of saucing tomatoes. I brought home a full grocery sack which will be made into sauce soon.

As soon as I got home I sliced up the plum tomatoes and three red peppers and set them to dry in the dehydrator. Next was making two batches of pesto. One for tonight's supper and one to keep for sandwich spread in the fridge.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to do some canning and make pickles. I'm also planning some yummy meals like Portuguese Potato and Kale casserole. Love this time of year, it's so delicious.

off and running

We dropped V off at college this weekend. As we drove up to the college Steve and I resisted the temptation to try to shove last minute parental admonitions into her ears. She's going to learn, or not, on her own at this point and it's part of our job to let go.

Obviously she was far more ready to let us go. We realized that if she hadn't needed us to hike her stuff up to her fourth floor dorm room we probably would have been dismissed three blocks from school. "No, it's fine, just drop me off here. I'm sure I can find my way around, why don't you head back home; don't worry about me, I'm fine." The age-old parent-young adult conversation as they wend their way into the world of higher education.

We did manage to leave her with one very important piece of information as we finished dinner together (a true test of parental love, paying to eat dorm food with your child instead of going out for a nice dinner in a restaurant): always take a pice of fruit when you leave the dining hall. Other than that, I guess she's on her own.