The Lake, a Bunny, and Cucumbers

Apparently we haven't spent enough time lakeside yet this summer, because we're off to spend time with some family out at Knut's grandparent's lake cabin today.  Honestly, I'm exhausted just thinking about it, but if there's one weak spot in my "just say no" plan to running around all summer tendency... it's the kids' cousins.  I had such close, tight relationships with my cousins, and I want so badly for my kids to have the same.  They love hanging out with their cousins, and I just love that.  I have a really hard time saying no to cousin time.

We drove to Fargo yesterday to look at a rabbit for Silje.  My parents gave her the money to buy one for her birthday.  She has been so particular about the breed, that it's over a month past her birthday and we still hadn't found one.  I had found one holland lop (the breed she wanted) in a classified ad for the right price, and had arranged an appointment for us to see the rabbit yesterday morning.  With all the kids packed up for the mini road trip, I texted the lady selling the rabbit, and let her know we were running about 15 minutes behind schedule.  She texted right back that she was sorry that she forgot to text me, but she sold the rabbit the night before.  However, she had a half holland lop, half fuzzy lop bunny for us to see, if we wanted to.

I was annoyed and upset, but remembering all the times I forget to message people back, I told her I understood, and that we were going to look at a few other rabbits first, but would it be okay if I texted her if my daughter didn't like the other rabbits and she still wanted to see the one she had left.  Anyway, the lady said she would be home all day, and just come on over if we wanted to see it.

So I decided since I'd promised the kids a trip to Fargo, we'd just go.  The pet store there said last time that they expected some Holland Lops in any day, and just going there cheers Silje up.  When we got there we saw they had gotten many new rabbits, but no Holland Lops.  Silje fell in love with a Netherland Dwarf bunny, and said "let's just get this one." She does this thing, where we decide what she wants before we go shopping, and once we get to the store the money burns at her, and she feels that the worst travesty is going home without buying anything.  Contrast that to me who feels its a travesty to go home with something you don't want.  Not to mention, the pet store bunny was $5 over her budget.

I told her that we should think about this bunny, and come back next week.  If she still wanted it once we got home, when her head was clearer, I'd bring her back.  Once we got to the van, she started to cry.  She had been waiting so long for a rabbit, she felt that she'd just bring any one home at this point.

I asked her if she still wanted to take a look at the half holland lop/half fuzzy lop from the classifieds lady.  It's the closest thing we've found to what she wants.  She said she did.  So I texted the lady again, and a few minutes later we were in a really nice neighborhood, looking through a rabbit hutch near a playground and Silje saw "Muffie."  It was love at first sight.  I could see from Silje's face that this was the bunny, and it took her less than a minute to say "I'll take her!"

The lady we bought her from was so nice.  She just smiled at all the kids, and said, "I was the oldest of 5 kids too!  We lived on a farm, do you live on a farm?"  I said, yes.  She looked at Silje and said, "I hope you intend to show this rabbit in 4H.  I just loved being in 4H!"  Silje told her all about some of her 4H fair projects.

Then this lady told Silje that she put herself through college through 4H.  She said technically she got scholarships, and got a part time job, and those 2 together paid cash for her tuition.  But her whole childhood she saved up her 4H winnings, and by the time she got to college, all of her living expenses for 4 years were paid from that fair savings.  She told Silje she should save up everything, from every blue ribbon to every auction, and stick it in a savings account.

When we got home, Muffie entertained the kids for hours as I got some dill pickles set up for fermenting, using a new recipe from The New Midwestern Table cookbook that is my new favorite.  Our cucumber plant accidentally got pulled up by one of the kids thinking it was a weed.  Fortunately, Knut's aunt has cucumbers growing like crazy this year and has been giving me bagfuls of them.

We have to wait at least 6 weeks to taste them.  I'm torn between making more with this recipe, or traditionally canning the rest of the cucumbers.  I won't know for 6 weeks if we like them this way.  Well, we'll see.  I don't have time today anyway.  The lake is calling.

Yarn Along

I'm about an inch away from finishing the second arm.  Sometime this week I hope to connect all the pieces together, and then the real magic happens.  Sigh.  If only summer weren't so busy.

I'll admit, I'm loving my garden this year.  It's just so beautiful, and the food is unbeatable.  I'm getting so much canned, frozen, eaten that basically nothing is going to waste and we'll be eating preserved garden produce easily into next summer, if not beyond.  Food is everywhere.  I'm giving away, and have already started lining up people willing to take some of our squashes and pumpkins that are growing like crazy all over the garden.  I'm staying up late every night in my kitchen trying to finish up the day's work so breakfast is doable in the morning.

These days I'm working on dill pickles, and canning the raspberries into dark chocolate raspberry sauce for ice cream.  (Recipe here...for the sauce, not the pickles.  Oh my goodness, it's to die for.  I substitute dark dutch process cocoa powder for regular cocoa powder.  Yum!)  There is just so little down time.  At camp last weekend, I got a few inches of knitting done on the sleeve, but even so, I tried to allow myself to just sit and be as often as I could. That's why you go to camp.

I look ahead at our schedule, and see very little downtime in the next month as well.  I'm trying not to get upset about that, and just embrace the season for what it is.  My parents are coming up for a visit soon, and I know my mom's heart is usually to give me some down time, but when they end up getting here, all I want to do is just sit on the couch and drink tea with her in any spare moments I can pry the kids away from her.  My tomatoes are going to be crazy then as well, so even sitting and drinking tea when they are here might be a pipe dream.

Out at camp, I had a chance to go through yet another book that I'm previewing before I assign it to Silje.  This one is Do Hard Things.  Do you remember the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye ?  That was written by Josh Harris.  This book was written by his younger twin brothers.  They wrote this when they were teens, for their peers.

I like how they lay a good foundation of grace in the beginning of the book.  It's NOT "God want's you to do more" or "You need to do hard things for God to love you."  No, the message is loud and clear:

"You were made for more than what the world has to sell you."

It shares a very interesting history of the word "teenager" and where the concept of this in-between world between childhood and adulthood originated.  They say it goes back to child labor laws, which were laid in place to prevent children dropping out of school and going to work in horrid, unsafe factories where many of them died or became permanently maimed.  It goes back to requiring "kids" to be in school longer.  Basically, both of those changes are less than 100 years old.

In the previous generations, adulthood, or at least expecting kids to start acting like adults started when you went through puberty.  This book talks about the pendulum swinging over to the other side of teens viewing the high school years as years to party.  The attitude of entitlement begins, and problems of drug and alcohol abuse arising from teens who are frankly bored with life become prolific.  The position of "teens" changed from that of a producer to that of a consumer.

This is a book rooted in Christianity, so those coming from a secular perspective might be annoyed by the constant referring to God.  I love the message, so far.  It's good for people of any age: God has saved you.  He died so that you can live.  So live.  Stop wasting your life.  God has a purpose and calling for you.  It's not all about being happy.  It's not about serving yourself.

As I have been discussing this book with Knut, I realized it all boils down to how we view work.  Is work a blessing, or a curse?  If you make your children/teens work, are you blessing them, or cursing them?  Of course nobody wants to swing back to the days where 7 year olds were shipped off to factories.  That is not the kind of work 7 year olds should be doing.  But what sort of work should teens be doing?  I don't attempt to give a whole complete thought on "what is work" because the topic is worthy of a whole book.

But I do believe that work is a means of giving dignity to people.  Participating in various charities makes me firm in that belief.  Of course, there is a time and a place for everything, and extremes are bad places to live.

I am no more eager for my children to grow up any faster than any other mother.  However, I want my kids to know the dignity of work.  I want them to know it before they leave this house.  I don't want to hold them back from all the things they are capable of doing.

Anyway, I'm off to look at a rabbit with Silje.  She got money for one for her birthday, and we might have found one that she likes.  So I'll have to leave my work tangent there.

Also, I'm linking up to Ginny's blog, but there's a good chance she may not host the Yarn Along today.  One of her dear friends, a mother of 4 little kids, and 21 weeks pregnant with her 5th child died very suddenly due to a wasp or bee attack and allergic reaction, and her unborn child died as well.  Please still do stop by the website, and find ways to help the grieving family there.  They are in our prayers as well.

I'm Blessed

Elias at the sling shot range.

I asked David to take a picture of me doing the slingshot.  He got my elbow, which is pretty close.

We just got back last night from a long family weekend away.  We returned to a place very special to me.  I worked out at this camp 16 years ago.  It can't be that long, but I did the math twice, and that's what the calculator says.  I just had a service job.  I cleaned dishes and toilets, and helped out in a number of jobs.  It still holds my heart as my favorite job ever, besides the one I have now.  My "bosses" back then still work there now.  Really, they were more like mentors with high expectations than bosses.

In the last 16 years, the camp has continued to grow, and has had a chance in recent history to expand their property on the lake, and take on new campers.  Silje and David have had a chance to go multiple times, and next summer will be Elias' first chance to go by himself.  I have been able to attend their quilting retreats in the spring twice, though it doesn't always work out for me to go.  This place is a sanctuary for me, and I hope will be for my kids as well.

3 times a summer, they hold a family camp, where whole families can rent cabins and stay out there.  Since we normally go down to Arizona to visit my family for vacations, we haven't done this, as we can't exactly do 2 vacations a year.  But Elias and Solveig really struggle with carsickness, and we decided to let them get a big older before we take the big road trip again.  I hope next year.  We need to figure that out because my sister and her family are moving from Phoenix to San Diego, and so now our family will be split.  So it's very likely our next family vacation will be in San Diego.  We just haven't even gotten to the point of discussing it, so we'll see.  My brother lives in California too, and has just flown to meet us at my parents in Phoenix when we go.  But now with 2 siblings in California, that may be our new meeting place. Then again, I'm longing to go to South Carolina these days too…but that's another long story.  We also have plans for a trip down to Florida, as we have family dotted the whole way down there, and the same out to Oregon.  Not enough time…not enough time.

At any rate, we decided to spend our vacation differently this year, and we spent a long weekend out at Bible camp, for the first time as a whole family.

--I was blessed that the little ones actually slept well, in beds that were not their own, in a strange place.  Well, Ingrid woke up early most days, but overall, we slept.  That was my main concern.

--I was so blessed to sit and eat full meals prepared for me.  With the food prep and dealing with the garden produce this time of year I was longing to leave the kitchen and just not look at it for a few days.  

--I was so blessed by sunsets on the lake, hearing loon calls, sipping tea, talking with old friends.

--I was so blessed with humility.  Yes, humility.  I had gone to one of the sessions on parenting, and afterward, went to go pick up the little ones from the nursery.  Knut would have gone with me but was dying to go on the adventure course.  I didn't think my back could handle it, so I picked the parenting class.  Anyway, I went to pick up the little ones since my class was done first.  We started back to our cabin so we could get a diaper change for Ingrid, and put the other kids' crafts there while we were eating.  Elias didn't want to put his craft there, and Ingrid wanted food, not a clean diaper, and Solveig was along, but not crying.  She was too delighted with her craft.

I passed Silje on her way to the dining hall where we were all supposed to meet, and told her that if she saw Daddy, to tell him I'm at the cabin, and he needed to come help me.  Ingrid had flung her body in such a way in my arms that my neck just hurt and I needed him to help.

She told him I was at the cabin, but forgot to mention I needed help.  So Knut and Silje and David just got in line for lunch.

I got the diaper changed, through the screams, my head began to pound as I felt a serious headache coming on, and tears started to warm my eyes.  I was more scared of how bad it could get then hurt.  Elias was overtired, and I walked with the 3 little ones, slowly, slowly back to the dining hall.  Knut didn't come.  As we got close, I was hurting so badly I just sat down and let Elias and Solveig run the rest of the way as they could see Daddy in the food line in the distance.  (It was a picnic that day.)  Ingrid was just screaming at me, and I just couldn't will myself to go up to the line with so many tears in my eyes, and feeling so weak.  I didn't want anyone seeing me like this.

Thankfully, one of the amazing staff people saw me, and asked if she could help.  Ingrid went straight to her, and she carried her over to Knut, and told Knut I needed some help.  More staff jumped in to help Knut with the kids who all needed a cup or their food cut, etc.

My old mentor/boss came over to hug me for awhile, as I told her how much I struggled being weak in front of my kids, and other people.  I told her how I just hated being limited physically like this, and I didn't like having to constantly admit to people my weakness.  I hate picking out which activities I think my neck can handle, and saying no to activities I love.  She just spoke so much Scripture into my heart.  She talked about how when we are weak, God is strong.  She talked about God's grace covering all, and how God is using my weakness to teach my kids the things they need to learn.  He is equipping them through my weakness.

--I'm blessed that I have weaknesses, because my kids need to see that.  They will be blessed through it.

--I'm blessed with the special moments I got with each of our kids while we were at camp.  Knut got to take some canoeing, I got to take some to the slingshot range, David won the carpet ball tournament.  The little girls spent hours at the playground and enjoyed some parachute games as well.   I had a special moment with David when he just needed some prayer, and I got to point him to our great God.  The same opportunity happened with Silje during sunset overlooking the lake, when she needed reminding to bring her cares to God, and I just got to sit and pray with her about the things weighing on her heart.  I was so blessed to be there.  I already see in both of them that they get frustrated with their weaknesses and limitations as well.  It's a human condition.

--I'm so blessed to come home to our animals, raspberries, flowers, work, and just this life I love so much.  As always, as much fun as vacations are, coming home and sleeping in my own bed is one of my favorite parts.

How has God blessed you this last week?

Yarn Along

My "cozy morning sweater" is moving right along as I'm nearly halfway through the second sleeve.  I'm really, really getting excited about this one.  I can't wait to join the sleeves to the body and finish the yoke.  We have some lake days coming up, and I plan to bring this along.  While I doubt I will have a chance to knit lakeside, as I'm often chasing kids, I'm usually the one the little girls want in the cabin when they're sleeping.  So I will likely have some nap times just sitting in the cabin, waiting for them to wake up.

I'm reading Sally Clarkson's "The Mission of Motherhood" which has been extremely convicting.  It talks about the design and purpose of motherhood.  I feel like it's almost an updated version of Edith Shaeffer's "Hidden Art of Homemaking" which was another book I loved.  If anything, this books stresses the importance of motherhood, and how the role of mothers impacts the whole family.  It's convicting because not a single woman could live up to this original design.  That is why I love the grace-breathing words of Sally, continuously pointing us to Christ, and the work he has done.  Still, in a role where it's easy to get sucked into the lie that it doesn't matter what we do, and no one cares, or notices, the truth of the purpose of a mothers role comes through loud and clear in this one.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along, where others share what they are knitting and reading.

County Fair

I'm not sure if the 4th of July or the County Fair is a bigger deal in this house as the highlight of summer.  This is our second year bringing 4H projects to the fair, and I felt like we went this year with some realistic expectations, and experience under our belts.

4H is a club common in the country (though not excluded from cities) where kids show animals and projects.  It took me an a few years to grasp the range of projects that could be done.  Now that we have a better understanding of categories, we were able to bring a lot more projects this year, and interview better for them.  The kids are interviewed about their projects and are awarded either a blue or red ribbon, depending on the quality of their project and interview combined.

Silje brought 8 projects this year, and was awarded 8 blue ribbons.  The girl who interviewed in front of her with some amazing wool projects, and was her age got 3 grand champion ribbons, which was exciting since we got to see that happen.  So now Silje is trying to brainstorm a champion-grade project.  David brought 3 projects, but he's in the cloverbud class, which is the younger kids.  It's his last year as a clover bud, and next year he will be judged in the older class with Silje.  Cloverbuds basically practice interviewing and bringing projects.  They get used to the process, and the judge usually gives them hints on improving their projects for the next year, and gives them an inside look on how the judging is done.  He got his 3 rainbow participation ribbons this year.

They get money for their projects too, and their checks will be mailed out later this fall.  This is one of the biggest income generators for our kids for the year, so they really put their hearts into it.

Silje's projects were:
-A fairy garden terrarium
-2 flower bouquet arrangements
-2 framed, completed stamped cross stitch projects
-2 pieces of pottery from their pottery class
-A framed painting she did of her cat Starlight, and her 2 kittens

David's projects were:
-A poster explaining his tree project with a tree to have on display
-A Lego starship he built from his imagination
-One of his pieces of pottery from their pottery class
(He was limited to 3 projects, in this class though if we had animals to show it could have been more.)

The kids' club also had to volunteer one morning at the food stand which earns money for the 4H program.  They mostly had to wash tables, as the older kids in their club make more of the food.  They also helped fill some simple orders.  While they were at the food stand, the 3 younger kids and I walked through all of the barns and just had fun with all of the animals.

I've learned over the years that toddlers rarely stay in the stroller, and they scream if I just force them to.  I always end up carrying them AND pushing the stroller, and it's too much on my body.  So I just put Ingrid in the Ergo carrier, which is nice on my back, and since she snuggled into me all morning, I don't have any pictures of her.  I have bunches of Elias and Solveig, though.

The baby animal barn was a favorite.

The ducks and geese were THE favorite.  I found that surprising for some reason.

Of course, Solveig was delighted at the 4H club that decorated their horses' stalls in the "Frozen" theme.

Oh, there were so many other fun things.  I won't bore you with our endless "vacation pictures."  On the last night of the fair, the kids used the money they saved to buy some wristbands and go on rides.  Silje and David have much stronger stomachs than I have!  I will say that a good time was had by all, and ideas for next years projects are already in the works.   I made it home the whole week without buying a lamb or bunny or anything.  Knut counts that as a victory.

I'm Blessed

We did the county fair last week.  When your kids are in 4H, it's not just a matter of visiting some booths and going on some ride.  There are weeks, if not months of preparation for projects, and then days of judging, volunteering, and of course rides.  Our judging days were cut down to one since the red fox took our fair chickens.  They must be a certain age to show, and our current layers are too old.  Frankly the others were too young, but we were planning on bringing them anyway.

Anyway, I have so much more to say on the fair, as it's such a highlight of our year, but I'll leave that for later this week.  Today I'm counting my blessings.

(Silje during the judging of her fairy garden.)

-My kids did just great at the fair.  They were helpful and polite.  I was so proud of them.  There has been several days this last week where I'm just soaking in and loving the ages my kids are at right now. We've had massive meltdowns this week due to fatigue and fair food, and general busyness, but those were just small moments.

-My car insurance requested that I be seen by a different chiropractor of their choice for evaluation.  They brought in a guy who lives 3 hours away, and told me to meet him at my local hospital, where it took them 50 minutes to find us a room for the examination.  Knut happened to be able to be home that day, so I left him with the kids and sat in that waiting room for them to locate a room for us.

(I have no idea how my appointment went.  They guy was really nice, and basically took some specific measurements of my range of motion and such.  He said he was going to send all those measurements to the people who requested them and that's all he knew.)

Anyway, I got 50 minutes of uninterrupted knitting time in the waiting room.  What a big surprise blessing!  It's so hard for me to find moments like that.

-I'm likely getting an iPhone today.  About 30-50% of my calls and texts have not been getting through to me over the last year or so.  We've complained the our server, and they gave us a discount, but did not fix it.  We're switching companies today, and Knut wants to upgrade me to a smartphone.  Since my laptop is Mac, it would make sense to stay with that so they can sync up.  He's mostly decided to stick with a regular cell.  His job is very hard on phones.  I've been pretty resistant to jump on the smartphone bandwagon the last few years.  It just feels so excessive for my needs, and I see many people who have them just stare at them all the time.  Not that I'm judging, because I know I am the same way.  That's why I didn't want one.  I didn't want the temptation in front of me.  I know how addicted to stuff I get.

But our internet often will go out for a day or week without notice, especially in the winter.  There are very few internet options out here in the country.  I run a pattern business, and it's been tricky when I lose my internet and I have emails that need to get out to editors or customers.  Hauling all the kids to the library so I can write an email doesn't exactly work.  So we decided it would be a good idea for me to have this backup.

Anyway, Knut talked me into it, thinking there's some features that will really help me with my job of mothering, keeping the house and homeschooling etc.  I guess there are some great apps.  Right now our kids are only allowed to go on the iPad and computer for game time on Saturday and Sunday, and I don't think my iPhone will be an exception to that rule.  In fact, at least to start off, I don't plan on them using it at all.  So other than kids' games, I would really love if you readers would recommend some apps for me.  I'd love to know what's good out there.

-The raspberries started to kick it into high gear at the end of last week.  I'm planning on canning some more raspberry syrup for pancakes.  I also found a recipe for raspberry chocolate syrup for ice cream that can be canned.  I don't plan on making any jam out of it, as I'm already overfilled with jam from the strawberries.

-The big kids offered to help out around the house so much this week (they were constantly trying to convince me to go back to the fair) that on Saturday I had the opportunity to really do some deep cleaning on our school shelves and cabinets.  I spent hours reorganizing and purging things.  The room feels so clean and clutter-free now.  Again, I have some fun pictures to show you with what I did for school prep next year, but that's for another, longer post.

To finish out this completely random post today, I'm sharing a picture of our Cheetah-girl, to make you smile.  Remember, you're blessed too.

Yarn Along

I got a surprising amount of knitting done this week.  My evenings were clear for the most part after the kids went to bed, and I force myself to sit a bit.  The kids are old enough to shell peas during the day, so my fussy garden things that used to consume my evenings in years past are now being handed down.  I'm working on the right sleeve for my Cozy Morning Sweater.  I'm pinching myself a bit on how well this sweater is coming together.  All my charts are now complete, and it's a only a matter of finishing up the knitting, and then finishing the grading the pattern for various sizes.  That's always the tricky part.

I'm still working on my homeschooling preparation for this fall.  I've been completely enraptured with How to Teach your Children Shakespeare.  This is not directed towards homeschoolers, but parents in general.  I studied Shakespeare in college, but have no idea how to make it interesting for the kids at their ages.  This author started having his children memorize passages of Shakespeare starting around age 6.

In this book, he outlines 25 passages of Shakespeare's plays that are perfect for children's memorization, and outlines how various things in each passage to teach kids about Shakespeare from the stories in his plays to what various words mean.  I've always studied Shakespeare from a literary perspective, but this author sees Shakespeare from a theater perspective.  I'm learning a lot just from this change of perspective.  Things like how Shakespeare outlines the speed and tempo of the lines through syllable placement makes these readings seem almost musical.

I'm now at that place in planning for the year when I realize I cannot do all the things, and I must decide which things we will do this year.  The good news is, we don't have to learn everything this year.  It's okay if we learn things next year too.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along,

I'm Blessed

I hate activities.

What a great way to start out this post, right?  I'm smacking you with honesty.  I want to be a hermit.  I want to spend my days at home, and not have to go anywhere.  I want to invite people over to my house, at my convenience, one at a time.

Alas, not everyone in my family is like me.  In fact, life in general isn't about me, is it?  I like to think it is, but that is not the life God has called any of us to.

Thankfully, last week after we finished up another summer activity week, I looked at this coming week, and the new activity going on this week as the kids are bringing all of their 4-H projects to the county fair and such, and knew I would be losing my mind just about now in preparation and running here and there, and so I called up one of my friends to babysit for me for a bit today so I can get some time alone to mentally prepare for the "did you pack this in the car, and I can't find my shoe, and hurry up we're 20 minutes late, and she colored all over my project, and what's for supper, and did you call the insurance guy yet?" sort of week.

As my mom always says, it's not that introverts don't like people, and extroverts like people, it's that introverts get their energy being alone, and spend it being with people, and extroverts get energized by being with people and spend their energy being alone.  I get energized by being alone.  So today I actually scheduled it in on the calendar.

I'm so blessed to have a friend who is serving my family this way.  Community is amazing, truly.  Maybe the hermit thing is overrated.

Knut spent Saturday making our front porch not squishy to walk on anymore.  It still could use a new coat of paint and sealer.  But now all of the support boards that were rotting are new.  The old boards were put back on top, and the rest is for another weekend.  I'm so blessed to have a husband who helps out in these ways.  I got a lot of meals in the freezer this weekend in preparation of another week of being gone during supper-prep hours, and massive amounts of garden harvesting and preserving overtaking my kitchen.  I think that will make a big difference.

Not that long ago, I was talking with Knut's aunt.  We were just chatting and she asked how I was doing, and I said busy and tired.  She told me that she always remember when her mom (Knut's grandma, now about 95) was gardening and preserving and just being the on-call support person for Knut's grandpa on this same farm, she always lost a lot of weight in the summer.  Knut's grandma is a slim person to begin with, but the exhaustion took it's toll every year on her.  I don't know…somehow this comment made me feel better, like I was in good company.  Plus, I know she loved it, as much work as it was.  I remember not that many years ago (7 maybe?) she was my neighbor 2 doors down as we were renting and waiting to move out to this old house.  She was still crawling around on the ground, hunting strawberries in her patch until her kids decided she's probably too old to be doing that.  They were right, and literally had to dig up everything otherwise the thought of good food just sitting out there would drive her mad.

She and Knut's grandpa remain my favorite neighbors around here.  Oh they bless me.

I'm learning that happiness is a mood.  Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.  It goes along with love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self control.  Life is crazy right now, and I am tempted to look back at lazy days when the family is snowed in, reading books by the fireplace, but it's all a lie.  I'm being dumped with blessings right now.  One of the reasons I'm so crazy busy is our garden is producing so much food.  Seriously, how can one complain about the work of managing too much food?  With much abundance comes much work.  What's that proverb?  Something about empty cattle stalls require no cleaning?  I'm blessed with kids, with food, with friends, with work (yes that's a blessing too!).  I'm blessed with rest and encouragement from loved ones, and big smiles from my little ones every morning.

How have you been blessed?

Handful Harvest

(Starting at the strawberries and going clockwise)

The strawberries are finally beginning to dwindle.  There's not more than 20 strawberries left in the patch to be picked over the next few days.

My herb garden is doing well besides being full of grass.  I hope to dry several herbs for cooking and teas this year.  I picked a handful of thyme to dry.  I love using thyme in chicken broth.

Only a handful of peas are ready, but in a day or two we'll have buckets.  The kids were delighted to eat them raw right out of the pods.  It is by far their favorite summer treat.  I wish that I would have planted more.

I picked a bunch of mint to dry too.  I'm hoping to dry it for peppermint tea.  This is my first year growing this, and I'm glad I decided to keep it in a pot and not put it in the ground as it's growing like crazy just like everyone says it does.  We've been putting some in water, in sun-tea, and it's great chopped up in a fruit salad.

The raspberries bushes just had a handful ready, though it will be small buckets in a few days as well.  It's just so barely starting.

Last but not least, the chamomile is in bloom, and I intend to grow my own chamomile tea for this winter.  It's another first for me.  These miniature daisy-like flowers smell so delicious, I hope they'll keep coming because this isn't nearly enough.

Although these little bits and handfuls of harvests aren't much for putting away (besides the herbs), and we're just eating them as we pick them, I must admit this little bit of a "breather" is just what I needed.

Yarn Along

I've finished up the Lady Pearl Sweater, and I'm working hard on the Cozy Morning Sweater.  The Lady Pearl will get written up next week, and then off to the tech editor.  So far that one is actually on schedule to be published next month on time.  Yeah!

The Cozy Morning Sweater has been my most complicated pattern I've written to date.  I'm not sure if it  will sell well because of that, but on the other hand, it might just be my favorite design I've done thus far.  Maybe there will be others out there who want to do something spectacular.  It's a bit of a gamble.  I have the body design completed, and the yoke charts completed.  Now I need to work on the sleeves, because the sleeves will be connected to the body and the yoke will be finished circularly all in one piece.  So now I'm working on the charts for the sleeves.  The yoke chart took me way too long, so I'm dreading working on the sleeve charts.  I'm loving knitting this, but there are a few complex parts and so I need to set aside time without interruptions to chart it.  In the mean time, I need to find something simple to knit while I'm just hanging out in the evenings with Knut.  I seem to have this knack for having a lineup of projects needing writing/charting/math attention, and whipping through the stockinette portion of patterns.  I have a babysitter lined up for a morning next week to devote totally to working the math all out.

I'm reading Tom Sawyer in preparation for school next year.  I'm not sure if I've read this all the way through before, but I'm reading sections aloud to Knut as they're just too funny not to share and we're both just cracking up.  The chapter of the whitewashed fence…oh my.  What a literary treasure.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along.

Garden Update

We joke in this house that I have a bit of a black thumb.  I have a history of killing plants.  Over winter, I was talking to Knut about how I was dreading this year's gardening season, which surprised him.  I love fresh grown food.  I do enjoy many aspects of the garden.  It's just…when you're married to a farmer…there's just so much pressure.  My garden always has masses of weeds in it.  I remember how terribly teased I was the first time I planted seeds and gasp! my rows came up crooked.  Farmers don't like crooked rows.  It was a major moment where my "city" shone through.  Our garden is right off of our gravel driveway, and all the farm's semi trucks, and several farm vendors drive past it throughout the gardening year.  The pressure to make it "farm worthy" was just too much.  I just began to loathe it. It got to the point that Knut wasn't even allowed to mention weeds, or anything negative at all in the garden without me bursting into tears.  And believe me, there was plenty to point out.  Remember I have a knack for killing plants.  Except weeds, that is.  I'm great at growing those.  I'm a pro.

It was during those cold winter conversations when Knut gave me such freedom this year.  I think he saw I was ready to throw in the towel to gardening in general because it had lost all joy.  This year, we're doing it my way.  If I want to plant the rows in squiggly lines, as long as it gives me joy than do it.  If I want to experiment with a new gardening style, then seize the day.  Just do it.  Try new things, new varieties, be fine with failure.  Enjoy the journey.  His encouragement brought lots of change this year.

We planned to move the garden to a different location, for a bit more privacy, but more importantly, to get the garden out of the whipping wind.  Knut suspected that the soil in our garden was quite nutrient deficient and that's why there were certain crops I just couldn't get to survive.  This lower garden had been repeatedly tilled, and I would like to move to a mulch/no-till garden in the future.  In fact, I was able to move some of this garden to the mulch style of gardening and so far I'm loving it.  So the plan was to cut into the grass up near the chicken coop a new gardening space in more French style beds, with a "companion gardening" twist to it.  Companion gardening, I read, was planting certain crops together that benefit each other.  It allows for denser spacing, and therefore, less weeding.  Sounds good.

(The "old garden" this year)

The "old garden" I'm slowly turning into my garden for perennial crops like strawberries, raspberries, and this spring I planted several cutting flower bulbs.  Those 3 crops should take over the garden within a few years, but in the meantime, we planted several of our "old" crops down there because the garden we dug up by the coop was smaller than I expected, and I could use a bit more space.

What was funny was that last year the garden pretty much went to seed as my back and neck were throbbing from my injury and I just couldn't keep up.  This spring, close to 15 tomato plants came up in their location from last year.  I know we should have dug them up.  I don't need 15 more tomato plants. 6 is a good number for me, and that's what I bought.  Knut left them there, though, and said we can just swim in tomatoes.  Surprisingly, I'm totally fine with that.  "Whatever dude."  That's my mantra to this year's garden.  He's uncertain whether or not they'll even produce tomatoes, but I don't see why not.  If anything, they're deterring weeds, and doing their duty there so far.

We normally don't plant potatoes, but this year we have 3 big rows of them.  Again, we needed to put something in the empty space that the perennials would grow into to protect from weeds, and this will be a special treat.  I do love garden potatoes, but Knut tends to struggle with his weight a bunch when I serve them, so I rarely do.  I'm not sure how his ski season will go if I serve him all these potatoes.  People might be getting them for Christmas or something.

The big thing that has helped this year is that Knut has been much more on top of the weeding than I have ever been.  Maybe it had something to do with the frustrations of machinery not working when it was supposed to this spring, and waiting for things to get fixed.  He was just out there a lot, and the garden looks better than it ever has.

(part of the "new garden" this year)  

He even wanted to add his own experiment to our new garden, which looks kind of crazy this year.  I'm certainly taking note as to which of these new gardening techniques I like and which I don't!  He had seen on one farm tomato plants staked by having supports run above them, and had their heavy limbs tied up for support.  He wanted to try it, and I said, "why not?"  This is where I planted the tomatoes that I bought for this year.  The tomatoes that came up randomly in the old garden will be staked the old way.  So it's basically the new garden is turning into our very uncontrolled experiment garden where we're trying out every gardening technique we've ever wanted to all at the same time.  It's a blast.  I love being a gardening rebel.

I'm Blessed

We celebrated the fourth with pie at the lake as usual.  I'm getting pretty much strawberried out.  I'm having some friends pick from my patch this week, as I cannot possibly hold anymore.  I can tell the patch is starting to wind down, but there's still lots there.  Raspberry picking will start this week.  The peas will likely be ready as well, and maybe the green beans.  

Knut and I celebrated our 12th anniversary this weekend as well.  I was glad we were able to get away for dinner, as it feels like it's been a long time since we've had the chance.

I need to make a decision about chicks today.  The red fox has taken every last one of our young pullets as Missy had been resting from her surgery.  We have only the 7 full grown layers left from last year.  I'm just devastated about it.  I've been mourning them for a bit, but have to face the facts that we need more birds.  10 will feed just our family, and 20 will feed our family and pay for all the birds' feed.  7 means we're rationing them out so that we don't have to actually buy eggs.  Our coop can comfortably fit 20.  Where's the "I'm Blessed" twist?  There has to be one.  I'm blessed I have options in front of me.  I'm blessed it's merely a decision of how many and from where, and which kind.  Many families around the world would love to be "stuck" with those decisions.

We've unleashed Missy to hunt down the fox at night, though he has still been seen, even once creeping up about 20 feet from Missy while she was napping on the driveway.  We also see evidence in the yard that Missy and the fox were in a fight.  How that fight ended is still unknown.  Missy, of course, is fine.

We've decided to add a rooster to our coop.  I know, I know.  I'm not a fan of roosters.  On the other hand, I'm sick and tired of buying chicks all the time.  Also, I think it would just be one more layer of protection for the hens.  The kids are delighted to start candling eggs, and seeing broods of chicks under   the soft feathers of hens.  It might be easier letting the hens raise their own as opposed to keeping the chicks separated in a brooder.  It's one less thing for us to do, you know?

My canning pantry is getting full, the vegetable harvest will begin this week, new chicks are (again) on the horizon, we begin our 13th year of marriage, there's so many blessings.  I'm eager for some time for us to catch our breath.  I wish I could say that July won't be as busy as June.  I have 2 knitting submissions I was hoping to get done in the next 2 weeks.  The county fair is coming up, and the kids' 4H projects will be due, and the kids' cousins just moved back to town for the summer.  Not to mention, if I thought strawberry harvest was busy, it's just the tip of the gardening season.

I'm blessed to not be bored, idle, or watching everything fall apart around me without any way to stop it like last summer.  I may be up to my neck in life, but I'm not sure I'd have it any other way.

Fermenting Foods

I was first introduced to fermented foods a couple of years ago by my midwife as we were discussing my history of testing positive for GBS (Group B Strep) during my previous pregnancies and various methods to treat GBS naturally.  I had literally never heard of them, until she started naming a few: sauerkraut, yogurt…etc.  I guess there's a lot more: water kefir, dairy kefir, kombacha, and of course you can ferment several vegetables.  Dairy kefir has been my kids favorite, and it has made a huge impact on their health.  Solveig calls it "pink milk" because I get her strawberry kefir.  She also likes "purple milk" which is flavored with blueberries.  Both are found in the yogurt section of most grocery stores.  I am more anxious about getting probiotics into this particular child of mine because she got an awful rash all over her body the first time she was on amoxicillin, and I would really like to avoid giving her another antibiotic ever again if possible.

Enter probiotics.  I haven't tried them all yet (and am a bit scared to) but everything I have tried has been good, so I really shouldn't fear.

Since I've learned nutritionally about good gut health, and how it effects depression, behavioral problems, in addition to stomach aches, acid reflux, etc.  Some studies are now linking it to seasonal allergies as well as a long list of health issues.  I'm learning that your gut acts as a filter to any toxins on your body.  If that's weak, multiple organs can be effected.  I heard that we should be aiming for 85% good bacteria in our stomach and 15% bad bacteria.  For most Americans, it's flip flopped.  Every time you take an antibiotic, all of the good and bad bacteria is wiped out, and you need to rebuild the system afterwards, so to speak.  Otherwise, the bad will soon start gaining on the good and that's when sickness relapse happens.

While I know that probiotics come in pill form, I'm a big believer that food always trumps supplements when it comes to nutrition.  To confirm this theory of mine, one lab test showed that 2 oz of homemade sauerkraut has more probiotics than 100 probiotic capsules.  Pills are fine, but they don't have the same power.  Now, this one is super, super easy to make.  You don't need to eat a lot for it to make a big impact on your health.  However, common store bought sauerkraut is sometimes pasteurized, or heated first to kill off ALL bacteria (good and bad) before it hits the shelves, which kills the majority of the nutritional impact.  So homemade is really the way to go in this area.  Don't worry, it's ridiculously simple and easy and most of all: cheap.

So I've been on the hunt to give my family a diverse offering of fermented foods so we feed that gut lots of different kinds of healthy bacteria to keep that immune system and filter-for-the-body going strong.  I've been looking at fermentation crocks, but they're expensive.  They can get into the hundreds of dollars!  What a crock.  (Hardy har har.)  When researching what a fermentation crock is, you'll find a whole string of websites showing you how to make one, or make do with what you had like they used to do in "the olden days."

Here's what you actually need to ferment vegetables:
1) a container to hold the vegetables and water
2) a food safe weight of some sort to hold the vegetables under that water.
3) some sort of cover that won't allow things to get into your water, but will allow air to be released

That's it.  Pretty complicated, huh?

As food ferments, it releases gas, so you don't want the container to be air-tight or it could "explode" or break on you.  (This often happens in wine making.)  Also, the vegetables will rot if they can be exposed to the open air, so it is important that they don't have access to air.  The easiest way to do that is to push the vegetables underwater.

People get really creative with this, and use plastic Ziploc bags filled with water as weights, and the most common thing is to buy some sort of valve to convert a mason jar into a fermentation device.  That way air can escape but not get in, so you don't have to worry about the vegetables staying under water.

I still hold to the truth that simple is often best, and as I was shopping in a kitchen store, and came across Weck jars for the first time, I lightbulb went off in my head that even though these are canning jars, they have every element needed for a great fermentation crock.

a container to hold the vegetables and water
(liter sized Weck tulip jar)

a food safe weight of some sort to hold the vegetables under that water
(a glass Weck lid, made for the smaller Weck jars)

some sort of cover  that won't allow things to fall into your water, but will allow air to be released
(the tulip jar lid and clamps WITHOUT the rubber sealing ring)

Voila.  A fermentation crock.  Under $10 if you use the Weck jars.

Here are 2 different things I've fermented in here with lots of success, though I'm also working on a batch of apple cider vinegar too, and when that process is complete in a few weeks, I'll show you how to do that too.

Sauerkraut:
I'm not a huge fan of sauerkraut, actually, but I'll try anything homemade.  I made this out of purple cabbage just to make it more inciting for the kids (okay, and more inciting for me).

Step 1: rinse and chop up cabbage

Step 2: fill jar 3/4 full of cabbage, and add water with 3 Tablespoons salt per head of cabbage.  (I used less salt since I could only fit half the cabbage in my jar.  I chose granulated sea salt.)  You can add onion and/or apple, or whatever else you want to season with. Some people add caraway seeds for flavor.  Just don't fill more than 3/4 full.

Step 3: carefully place the clean, smaller lid made for the smaller Weck jars on top of the food, inside of the jar, and make sure it's pushing everything under the water.  I pushed down hard to make all the air bubbles in-between the cabbage rise to the top.

Step 4: put on bigger glass lid, and metal clamps (do not use rubber ring that comes with the jar, as it will make it air tight and you don't want that.)  The metal clamps aren't fully necessary as you could just place the glass lid on top and let it be, but I didn't want any of my kiddos tempted to take off the glass top and just play around in there.  The metal clamps are simply extra security.

(optional step here: place jar in a small bowl, because everything is going to expand over the next few days and water might overflow onto your counter.  I may or may not have learned this from experience.)

Step 5: Place on counter in kitchen (room temperature) for 3-5 days, until fizzy bubbles form on top.

Step 6: Move to the fridge and eat as often as you like.  This will last for quite awhile.  (I took it from the fridge for this picture.  That's why there's condensation on the jar.)  Our jar is already half gone after a week.  It's good stuff.

You can also do this with other vegetables like carrots.  This makes for a very tangy snack, and the kids of mine who like carrots and/or pickles like this.  I don't have pictures for this process.  Sorry.

This stuff is gold in my house.  It's truly a must during the flu season especially.  This has been really good on burgers, meat sandwiches, and we've found we really like it on top of pulled pork, or pork chops, as that bland sort of meat could use some kick.

Ode to Weck Jars

Like everyone else who is on Pinterest, I have a love of mason jars.  Luckily for me, I have inherited a whole wall of them.  This year I have a pressure canner, in addition to our big pot for water baths, so I'm planning on expanding all the things I can.  I want to move beyond jellies and jams and get into broths, meats, soups, salsas and vegetables.  I have no more freezer space.

In my research of all things canning, I came across some people talking about "Weck" jars.  I recognized them instantly, because I had seen a few at a kitchen store in the city, and fell in love with them immediately.  I didn't realize back then that they were actually canning jars.  I just thought they were really cute jars.  I had seen them used on a blog to store homemade chai tea leaves as little gifts.

So here's what I found out about Weck jars.  They're the German version of the traditional canning jars.    They've been around for over 100 years in Europe, so it's not exactly like they're the latest thing.  You can water bath can with them, pressure cook with them, bake in them, etc. etc.

The more I looked into them, the more I loved the simplicity of their design and the quality in which they are made.  These things are so cute!  They come in some great shapes, and I'm getting a bit obsessed with them.

The mason jars break from time to time.  I give my canned goods away as gifts, and don't expect the jars back.  My supply goes a little down each year.  So, I've decided that when I replace them as needed, I'm replacing them with Weck jars.  (Of course, they will break just like the mason jars, but I still just love them.)

There are only to "cons" that I have found in using a few Weck jars this season:

1) It takes some extra care to put the rubber rings on the caps before putting the caps on the jars.  It's not hard to do, but it is a bit trickier than just slapping on the cover of a mason jar and screwing it on.  You have to hold the rubber ring on the cover with 2 hands, being careful not to let the ring fall off.  You can try as many times as you like, so it's not like you have to get it in one shot.  It just takes a little extra care.

2) I can't write on the lids with permanent marker like I can with mason jars.  I actually need a label.  Until then, I'm storing my goods in an organized fashion, and labeling the shelves, not the jars.  I'm still on the lookout for labels I like.  I do like that I can see through the lids, and just feel more assured that there is not mold growing, and everything looks fresh.

The additional "pros" that I have discovered since starting to use these jars in canning are:

1) These jars make a super tight seal.  The rubber rings are thick and sturdy.  The metal clamps are the same.  It just feels solid and quality made all in all.

2) I can stack these jars easier than the mason jars.  That may just have to do with the spacing of my shelves in our cold room, but I can fit more on my shelves.  I like that.

3) I like how there is no little curve on the top when trying to get out jelly or apple butter, or anything else.  The straight sides make for less waste and less tedious scraping.

One of my favorite aspects of these Weck jars is that I have figured out how to use them to do some great fermented foods.  I've figured out how to turn them into fermentation crocks without any extra materials or manipulation.  So far I've used them to make fresh sauerkraut, homemade apple cider vinegar and lacto-fermented pickled carrots for some cheap, fresh probiotics.  More on that on Thursday…