Valerie's Room

This is Valerie's room.  Valerie is one of Pea's two favorite dolls. The other is a Waldorf doll named Buttercup Anne.  Pea talks about them like they are her children.   Notice the hammock in which Valerie is sleeping (It's a baby bonnet my mom knitted for Pea a ways back) and the block basket.   She set it up in our living room.  It was so cute.  Now it's in her closet.  Even cuter, but dark.

And really, why would I buy this child a ton of toys?  She doesn't need them and makes her own. 

Cold Season

We are all in various stages of nasty head colds around here.  Pea had hers forever, but is finally feeling better although she still has the goopiest cough, and Dumpling is miserable.  His nose is snotty, his voice sounds funny, and he too is hacking.  And demanding medicine.  Which, besides tea with a lot of honey, lemon and ginger, I can't give him.  And I feel sort of helpless.

So I made chicken soup tonight.  Not really because I thought either child would eat it, but it made me feel like I was doing something to fight the vile sickness.  I always make stock after we roast a chicken(we get ours at our Tailgate Market), and freeze it in Mason jars, which most of the time do not break.  And then I make soup, which our kids refuse to eat for the most part (unless there is sausage in it.)  But tonight, they ate it. (I offered nothing else.  Haha!)  Pea even asked for a cup of broth, plain, and drank it all up.  I have such a virtuous Mama feeling now.

Here's how I make stock:
I cut up an onion or two, as much celery as I have on hand-the leafy part is the best, two or three carrots, and any kale stems I have, throw them in with the very picked over chicken carcass and maybe some of the juice from the cooking, put about 10 cups of water (okay, I made that up--I just fill the stockpot up maybe 2/3 full--it doesn't really matter) and, the most important thing, according to Cynthia Lair (Feeding the Whole Family) is some brown rice vinegar (or whatever vinegar I have on hand-apple cider, white, probably not balsamic though) because that is supposed to helps release the minerals from the chicken bones, and you know, minerals are good for you. (This isn't very scientific, but it appears that people should have calcium).  I usually crush some garlic and then put that sucker on to boil, then leave it on low for a long, long time--usually overnight.  Then I strain it, and pour it into my beloved Mason jars. Sometimes I put them overnight in the fridge and try to skim the fat off when it cools, but usually I just stick them straight in the freezer.  And if I do it right, and don't fill them too full, even if it means using an extra Mason jar, the Mason jars don't break.

And then, when my children and/or husband is sick, I can whip it out of the freezer and make a mean chicken soup which my children will (might) eat and I will feel like I have done something to make them feel a little better.

Dessert Night and a Yarn Along of Sorts

Wednesday night is dessert night around here.  (I still remember how to spell dessert by remembering that you want more dessert so dessert has two esses....)  It's kind of fun.  Lately, pumpkin has been the theme as I finally cut open this absolutely huge and totally beautiful pumpkin and cooked it, and got about four quarts of pumpking puree.  I think the pumpking was called musque d'orsay--it was a cheese pumpkin, the vines of which were extremely long and put down roots every foor or so.  The vines stayed totally healthy, but I either planted it too late or put too much compost down, because only two reached full size before the frost (although there were many baby pumpkins--it was totally heartbreaking.)  We made pumpkin cake--I kind of fudged the recipe--I think it called for three eggs, but we ended up with five because Dumpling really, really likes cracking eggs.   It turned out really well, and I wish I had it but I tend to fudge things and then not know how to make them again.

Jesse has ordered a cord for the camera, and even a new, better camera, so soon there will be pictures here, but I just thought I would report on what I am knitting right now.  I have three projects on the needles, which feels about right.  One is a pink hippo for Pea's Christmas--it has to be top secret and only knitted when she is not around or asleep, but it is coming along.  I have the head and body, one ear and the beginning of an arm.  And then I have a sweater in very chunky varigated green and blue yarn for Dumpling, as he was sure that the sweater I finally finished for Pea was for him, and an elf hat for Pea, in, yes, pink.  I will put pictures up here when I actually have a way to put the pictures on the camera up here.  Soon.  I am going all high-tech. 

My job

The day started so badly.  First off, I went to sleep way too late last night--I got a book out of the library "to see if Pea would like it," and read the whole thing (it was a chapter book).  She wouldn't have, which was apparent from the second chapter--it's more of a young adult novel, really.  But, did I stop?  No, I had to read the entire thing.  I do love young people's literature. 

Then, apparently Dumpling crumpled up one of Pea's creations, which although certainly frustrating for her, I had to sympathize with Dumpling, as her creation was a toilet paper tube with toilet paper taped to it, left out on the dining room table.  I am fairly certain that he did not do it maliciously.   And when she discovered it, there were a lot of tears and shouted demands of "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"  To which, unsurprisingly, the three year old boy did not respond well.  And frankly, I did not use empathy.  I just couldn't do it.  I told Pea that he didn't understand and there was no point in shouting at him.  Then I ignored it, and gave her some breakfast.   

And then suddenly the shouting and tears were over and they were off, playing hard that their room was a barn on fire, and throwing their stuffed animals and dolls out the window, and running around and yelling various firefighter kind of things until it was time for Pea to go to school. 

On the way home from dropping Pea off, Dumpling said, out of the blue, "I love my sister.  I am glad she is my sister." 

Sometimes my job is just to feed them and let them figure it out on their own, I guess.

Needle-felting Class with Pea

Lately, I have been feeling really, really sad about how fast my children seem to be growing up.  Dumpling has, with the exception of nursing, completely left babyhood, and even toddlerhood behind, and Pea is going to have loose teeth and perhaps go to school all day away from me really soon.  And, hard as it can be, having small children seems just so wonderful that I don't want to leave it behind. 

But yesterday, Pea and I went to a needle felting Santa class.  I made this:

And Pea made this.  (She wasn't really a member of the class, but she really wanted to come.)

It was great fun.  It was a two hour class, and although Pea wasn't up to making a Santa all by herself, she was engaged for the entire two plus hour class, helping me poke, using the instructor's carders to mix red and white roving to make pink, and sharing it with all the other grown-ups in the class, making suggestions about how each Santa should look, and eventually coming up with the idea to make a Christmas tree, and doing it. 

And last year, maybe even six months ago, there is no way that Pea could have done that.  She would have gotten bored, or disruptive, and we would have had to leave early, or I would have just had to leave her with Jesse along with Dumpling.  But now she is totally up for that kind of a thing.  I didn't go to the needle felting class for her, I went for me.  But it was even better to be able to have her there, and to learn and do something together, which we both have a real interest in.  It was kind of exciting, and although we may be leaving early childhood behind, we are surely entering something new and exciting too. 

And I look forward to seeing them grow up, and learning together and sharing more.  It is an exciting adventure.

(I still feel sad about them growing up though.)

On "hiking" with children

We are settling into a new Saturday rhythm now that the local Tailgate Market is over for the season.  We have been going out to breakfast at Louise's, a sweet little breakfast place right in downtown Black Mountain.  It is housed in one of the town's older houses, and they have herbs and vegetables growing all around it, which is, of course, very exciting to me.  Anyway, it's good and not too expensive and local and the coffee is good and it is fun. 

Then we go for a hike.  And Jesse and I have discovered the secret to hiking with (our) children.  It is this: just go somewhere that is already high and walk along the ridgeline. Because, unless the hike is very short, we are not going to make it to the top and see the view.  Five minutes in to the hike, and our kids have things to do and explore that do not have to do with making tracks down the trail. Today, we went up to Ridgecrest.  The trailhead starts with a huge scenic overlook, and you can see the mountains overlapping eachother for miles.  Then we set off down the trail, and walked for, at the very most, ten minutes.  Then Pea plumped down, and began work on her fairy village, which she worked at for a good forty-five minutes, while her brother found sticks, explaining that they were his guns (we watch no TV except for the occasional Caillou on YouTube when Dumpling has not napped) and that he was going to kill the monster.  Dumpling and I walked a little bit farther, and saw a woodpecker, and then Jesse made a little foray.  All in all, it was a great morning.  We got to see a view, and our kids played in the woods. 

Adendum

Pea is currently cuddled up next to me, feeling "Beauty Mark" (Hairy mole on my left arm that she developed a fondness for when she stopped nursing at 22 months).  Even big girl five year olds need  to be little.