Rural Icecapades

We've never had such low temperatures for as long as we've had them in the ten years we've been here.  We are on our second arctic blast--or third, perhaps, as we just had a two day respite with temperatures back to the 40's and even the low 50's yesterday.  It will be cold again today.  But Saturday, although not bitterly cold, still gave us a bit of snow on the ground and the ponds were still frozen.  Bret took the kids out to play.

He called me on his cell phone and said, "You need to come down here with the camera and take some pictures."  I obeyed.

Slaps and sweets

"schiaffi e dolci"...I believe that is what Padre Pio once said, referring to the way in which God trains us towards holiness, much in the way parents use punishment and reward.  This Lent has been punishing--today was another really exhausting, challenging one--but it hasn't been without "sweets".

I overcame my dislike of the cold this morning and went out with Gemma and Dominic before breakfast to take pictures of them playing in the snow.  We haven't had a decent snowfall all winter, but here we are, only weeks from the official start of spring, and we finally have enough to pack a few snowballs together.

Having been out of the house all day yesterday, I had quite a list of things to get done today.  I took a shower after coming in from playing and taking pictures of the kids.  After breakfast and bathing the two littles, I did laundry, cleaned the coffee maker and the tea kettle, took out our vitamins for the week (we take a lot of vitamins around here), made a half gallon of Bret's Pu-Ehr Tea (good for high cholesterol) and was about to vacuum my bedroom when I noticed that the vacuum wasn't working.  I could see what was wrong, but couldn't fix it, and Bret was out picking up feed and hay.  I grabbed our second vacuum, a lightweight stick vacuum that the kids use, and that wasn't drawing up the dirt either.  So I abandoned the bedroom.  I finished a batch of butter and baked a cake for tomorrow's dessert.  I was taking a break and leaving a comment on someone's blog, when my backspace key died.  This was a Big Deal for me, as I am not a brilliant typist, my method being something like, "three spaces forward, one space back."  I wore out the backspace.  It wasn't a sticky key; it felt as if there was nothing beneath it.  I figured that perhaps it was a blessing in disguise:  I would write a lot less and go into fewer dull details, as in this paragraph, per example.

And I cooked my brand new water kefir grains.  Just as they were beginning to ferment, I cooked them.  I had them in the oven with the light on to keep them warm (our house is at about 66 degrees in winter), and when I was preheating the oven for the cake, I forgot that they were in there.  I still feel a bit sick over it, as I had been waiting a long time to order them.

But God is good and without my doing anything about it, my backspace key started working again.  And I had mentioned to Una that I felt in the mood to watch an episode or two of the old Mission Impossible, and without knowing what was next on our Netflix queue, that is exactly what arrived today.  And no one is sick, so I'll get to go to Mass and confession tomorrow.  All good things.

Year's end

A long overdue trip to the library 

The bustling metropolis of downtown Scottsville, KY

Dominic has lost two teeth in two weeks!

Just checking in, as I've been on something of a Christmas hiatus.  We have been having chill, grey weather, and thus have been taking advantage of the joys of home and hearth.  The kids have been doing a lot of drawing lately (Gabriel is making up his own board game), reading books from the library and watching movies.  We are sipping tea and cocoa and chai, nibbling Christmas cookies and fudge. And as I write this, I am watching the extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring,with the hope and intention of watching all three parts of The Lord of the Rings before we pick up school again on Monday.  I've actually been looking forward to doing this for months, geek that I am.  Watching the movies is not always a quiet affair in this house, and I refer here not just to the young and loud members of our family, but to the fact that we are all so familiar with the books and films that there is almost always a running commentary going on with various views, comparisons, insights and analysis .

I have not done a lot of reflecting today on the year past ; nor have I spent much time projecting into the future.  If I have any resolution for the year ahead, it is to try to live in the moment more; to live mindfully, not letting precious moments blur into oblivion whilst my mind is on other things.  At nearly 50, I don't feel that I can be all that frivolous with my moments.  It seems that when I do reflect on the past year, my overall impression is just that it zipped by with breathtaking speed.  I want to gather my moments thoughtfully and savor the very best of them, as one would do with a box of special confections.

I wish everyone a happy and peace-filled new year with many, many joyful moments!

How many days 'til Christmas?

That's the question I have to answer several times a day...

I'm fading fast here, people...it's that wicked thief of sleep, insomnia, and I have managed to run all day--well, I ought to say drag around all day--on three hours of sleep.  I awoke to the sound of Gemma using the bathroom at 1:30 a.m., and that was it for me.  I prayed for a while, took some homeopathic stuff, played a few games of Spider Solitaire on the computer and tried to return to sleep.  To no avail.  I finally got up at 4:10 and did my morning prayers and reading, and finished a hat for a friend's grandbaby.

Now I am yawning every half-minute, and wondering if the kids will have scrambled eggs or oatmeal for dinner.  Whatever it will be, I won't be cooking it.

The past seven days have been a flurry of packing up Etsy sales, making gifts, knitting gifts, wrapping gifts, last-minute ordering of gifts, baking cookies, mailing cards and making space in my workroom for "Christmas Central".  Today I was forced to slow down.  I moved through the day in slow motion, tidying my yarn stash, wrapping a few things, baking some easy cookies.  I listened to this CD and dozed off in my chair for 15-20 minutes.

The snowflakes above were made using the instructions here.  Really easy and fun for the kids to see, although the boys immediately began to think about dropping Lego men and other things into the solution.

G'night, folks...

Christmas is...for the birds?

This morning I worked at getting down the boxes into which I store the Christmas decorations.  I took down the Christmas cards and put away the Advent wreath and a few of the Christmas things.  Tomorrow I will take down the tree, although I hate to do it...I rather love our little Christmas tree.  But with school starting on Monday, I figure I should put our living room back in order.  I might keep the nativity scenes out until February 2nd (Candlemas).

After three days of bitter cold, I finally heard a bird this morning.   The weather being mild and clear, I thought it a good day to do our Christmas for the birds...taking a cue from Ginny, we got together a few sundries and made a fine mess.  Gemma and Dominic used chenille sticks to make little rings of Cheerios, and Gemma even discovered on her own that she was able to push the wire through the cranberries.  She ate a couple, too.  I thought for certain she would spit the first out, but she didn't even make a face and even ate a second one before declining the offer of a third.  We rolled pine cones smeared with chunky peanut butter in birdseed, too, and hung these up, and I even made a bird feeder out of an old distilled water jug.Couldn't get hold of the suet, as Bret hasn't been able to make it to the butcher.

  So far no bird has yet noticed the fine repast, but I've no doubt they'll find it in time...if it doesn't rain and spoil it all!  

A Happy Feast of St. Nicholas to you!

Yesterday was a challenging one--abysmal rain all day, cooped-up kids bickering incessantly, a long to-do list and then, as I was preparing throw in a load of laundry, start the dishwasher and get started on dinner, the water pump went out.  No water.  It was going to be dark soon, and it was nearly milking time.  Bret tested the switch and the fuse, and went to dig in the back of the house to find the wiring.  Not fun to think about, working with electricity in a driving rain.

Bret told me to tell Sebastian that he would have to milk Nuala on his own.  Now, Sebastian is 10, and he has been going out with Bret to help with the milking for the past few weeks.  He had a scare a couple of weeks ago when he forgot to tie Nuala up and she finished her bit of grain and decided to leave the barn, knocking Bret off his stool and onto his back.  Sebastian was stricken with self-reproach, and had a hard time going out the next day.  Anyway, Sebastian had never milked on his own without Bret standing by, so he was rather pale as he went out, like one on his way to the guillotine.  I sent Una out just to give him company and moral support.

Bret tried to fix the problem, but in the end had to call an electrician, who will be coming out here this afternoon (yes, I have been doing everything with some gallon jugs of stored water).

Before bed last night we made ready for the visit of St. Nicholas.  The kids cleaned their boots and I made some last minute preparations.

I think my favorite family St. Nicholas tradition has become the writing of the note from St. Nicholas, which has been done for the past three years.  Oddly, I really do feel that I am inspired by the Saint to write the things I do.  These notes of encouragement usually focus on what the child has been doing well this past year and an area where the child ought to seek to improve.  There are little precautionary admonitions and praise for growth in one area or another.  I save these so that the children will have them to look through one day.

We left a candle burning to greet St. Nicholas.  And, of course, he came.

Rice-filled heating pads--in the nick of time!

We had our first snow this morning, just little flurries drifting, and I couldn't capture them with the camera.  We are enjoying hot tea, cocoa and chai, spice cookies, candles and these wonderful rice-filled heating pads I made this weekend for each family member.

They were easy to make and are so appreciated by everyone.  About half an hour before bedtime I begin putting them in the microwave to heat, but I am thinking that I might just stick the whole lot of them in the oven on low for half an hour and be done with it!

Here is how I made them:  For each pack, I used about 3 1/2 lbs. of cheapo rice from a discount grocery.  I poured it into a big bowl and added about 1/2 tsp. of lavender essential oil (for Gemma I used about 10 drops of chamomile essential oil and just about 5 of lavender).  I stirred it up really well to distribute the oils, and then poured the rice into a sack I had made from and old sheet.  I made sure all seams were sewn double to prevent rice-leakage.  The finished dimensions were about 7 1/2 by 15".  Then I made a second, decorative cover.  I guess I could have made them removable and therefore washable, but my main reason was for identification purposes and to give a second layer of protection from leaks.

These take about six minutes on high in the microwave to heat up, but our microwave may or may not heat very well; I've no way of knowing.  The packs stay warm under out covers for several hours.

Just for the sake of comparison, I made my husband one with cherry pits.  These are much lighter and better for putting on a muscle ache, since they don't feel like sacks of concrete!  Two pounds of cherry pits filled up a sack of the same size, took only 3 minutes to heat in the microwave, but was pretty much cooled off in under an hour.  Also, they smell amazing!  But for warming the bed, we will stick to the rice bags.

When life gives you snow...

...make Snow Cream!  We have been having, along with the rest of the eastern Unites States, unusually cold weather and several inches of snow.  Even though we have been avoiding most sweets on all days but the Sundays of Advent, all that pristine snow outside and an abundance of cream in the fridge made the prospect of snow cream irresistible.  Here is how we made it:

About a gallon of fresh, clean snow
1 1/2 to 2 cups of whole milk, half and half or heavy cream (I can only vouch for the heavy cream!)
a cup of sugar
one teaspoon of vanilla extract

In a pint jar, shake up the cream or milk, the sugar and the vanilla.  Pour over the snow in a very large bowl.  Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix together until the cream is thoroughly integrated.  Enjoy!  The flavor is just like vanilla ice cream, but fluffier.

A busy week and works in progress...

It has been a bit of a whirlwind week, what with a wedding last Saturday, the first Sunday of Advent, Gabriel's birthday, our Goddaughter's birth, the exhibit by Una and Sebastian's art class, making ornaments for our Jesse Tree, setting up our little seasonal shelf for December and making things for Christmas.  Whew!

Here is our Advent wreath this year.  Having to use an artificial wreath this year has made me determined to plant some fir trees on our property!  And holly shrubs.  And ivy.  As for the red candles, they are all that we ever used when I was growing up in Germany.  I never heard of pink and purple candles for Advent until I moved  to the U.S.A.  But I will get my act together next year and we will roll some beeswax candles for Advent.

Here is our seasonal shelf set for December.  I am hoping to have St. Lucia done by her feast day, and I still need to hang paper snowflakes as we cut them.

Besides all the knitting I am trying to get done, here is the project I am most excited about right now.  I have been meaning for years to replace the kids' cheap, junky, made-in-China Christmas stockings with something more befitting a family with a "handmade-is-best" philosophy.  Anyway, I have 6 kids now and only 4 of the  lousy stockings, so something had to be done.  The moment I laid eyes on this vintage-looking fabric, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I would make stockings, and use tea-dyed muslin for the cuffs, and embroider the children's names on them.

Some works-in-progress:

And two completed stocking, lacking only hanging loops:

Okay, this post has taken up enough time--back to school, crafting and baking (right after I check out a few other crafty posts on Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday)!

Snow Day!