It’s funny how things work out sometimes.  All last week I had planned to make snow flakes with the big kids, but they never showed up for it.  As soon as they woke up I would say, “I have something fun for us to do after breakfast.” They would nod and run away outside, and…

Rose’s last ballet performance was yesterday.  It was an intense week with five performances, two on one single day.  She loved it, but it was hard on her, too.  It was wonderful to see how happy she was to be in a real ballet, but a relief now that it’s over.  Her poor cheeks are…

Today was the Solstice – the day the sun stands still.  The shortest day, surrounded by two long nights that nearly swallow the sun – tomorrow we shall see if he is reborn again.It was a quiet, grey day.  We got the first precious drops of rain for weeks.  This fall has been so cool…

This is what happens when a pumpkin pie is unsupervised with a toddler for five minutes…. It had turned out of the oven to be such a nice pumpkin pie.  It had grain-free gingerbread crust and it smelled amazing.  I was just in the other room, lying down for a few minutes and trying to…

We hand-painted some wooden beads to make ornaments with, and they turned out very pretty.  Mirin painted some elaborate ones with sunflowers and holly.  Rose did some pretty blue and purple beads.  Clothilde made one that looks like a reindeer dropping.  The fine paintbrush was in much demand with everyone, even Clothilde. Today is Rose’s…

It is a tradition to make candles for the solstices.  In the summer, I like to think of capturing all the glorious summer light, and in the winter about lighting up the wintery days.  I feel that the dark days are a metaphor for the emotional dark days of life.  In the midst of it,…

How many other 2-year olds get the fermented cod liver oil out of the fridge and dose themselves with it?  Apparently Clothilde is my most hardcore WAPF baby.   I’m trying to remember what we even did this weekend – it’s slowly coming back to me.  My sore arm and shoulder are reminding me that I…

Inspired by my friend Karen, who was giving out samples of AMAZING lacto-fermented brined pumpkin and daikon pickles she was making for the Earthskills fundraiser on Sunday, I made a batch, too.  There were lots of radishes that needed pulled in the garden, and we still have lots of pumpkins.  Some of the Anna Swartz…

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; } We are really sinking in to the holidays this winter. I am keeping the big kids busy, having had a terrible time with them over the summer when I thought a nice, unstructured break would be perfect for them after an intense year of homeschooling. Every weekday we…

Lately I’ve been thinking…..about this space and writing here….. I always thought I would be good at writing on a blog, because I love to write and I’ve kept a journal since I was ten years old.  But something about the public nature of it makes me cringe.  And it really doesn’t help that I’ve…

I wish that I had some beautiful vegetable pictures to show off, but I don’t.  Instead I have this hideous photo of the recently bush hogged garden that, as Ethan said, really just shows off how much junk there was under all the weeds.There’s been a run on the garden lately by what must be…

I am about half way done with the secret Christmas knit – it is going slowly with the tiny yarn on tiny needles, but I really like this pattern.  It helps that I have knitted it once before.  The yarn is beautiful (it’s Madelinetosh) and it’s wonderful to see the two colors taking form together…