Everything Grows

A generous pile of basil from the garden of a kind neighbor.

A sunflower amongst the weeds in our untouched summer garden.

Some surprise squash right out of our compost pile!

Maryanna's bangs.

And mommy's tummy!

How excited we all are as we prepare to welcome a new baby this coming winter.  I recognize this as a great joy, responsibility and blessing, and I am humbled.  

It is hard to believe I am almost half way there, I can barely remember those dark days in June where my head was spent under a pillow for most the day then pop out at 10:30 pm only to make crazy requests of Paul like a grilled cheese, tomato, avocado sandwich or hot miso soup and gyozas take out.  The kind man provided and never complained as I neglected household duties in the face of constant Netflix streaming.  

The boys are hoping it'll be a brother and of course the girls are already convinced it is a baby sister.  But we're not going to find out this time, we'll wait for the surprise.  

And now you all know why I made chicken liver pate', I was just craving it.    

Sound of Music Singalong

For Maryanna's birthday we got to participate in the Sound of Music Singalong at the historic Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.  It was suggested you come in costume for this event so we did the best we could.  My sister in law Eva and Peter were the most authentic ones there dressed in real Bavarian costumes.

They were invited up on stage to parade their costumes before the show.  Eva looked just like Maria with all the little ones trailing behind her.

We enjoyed the gold leaf pipe organ before the show.  

Then sang our hearts out with the crowd as the words of all the songs appeared across the screen.  Clara really belted it out as did my nieces and that was a joy, Maryanna was admittedly pouty as she thought she should be the only one singing on her birthday.  

The entire audience was given confetti poppers that were let off when Maria and Captain Von Trapp finally kissed.  That was really fun.  The whole event was really fun, every time I looked over at Eva she was both singing and cracking up, as was I.  

Before the show we celebrated Maryanna's birthday at Ben & Jerry's where the kids shared a Junior Vermonster sundae.

Maryanna also redeemed her free birthday cone because there is nothing like "sugaring up" on a birthday.  This was memorable celebration!

New book, new dress with no space to sew

Marie' sent me this new sewing book from Japan the week I was moving.  All I could do was look through it once then pack it in a box.  But with a little girl's birthday approaching I had to pull it out and find a way to sew even if I had no space to sew.

My plans are to set up the sewing station in our basement.  But right now the basement looks and feels more like a dungeon so I'll have to wait until we can paint and get new flooring before setting up.  I don't mind sewing in the basement because I'm a very messy sewer and down there I can leave it out undisturbed.  For this week though I've set up right in the heart of the home in our living room, it was messy and I think that motivated Paul to start working on the basement.  

It was tricky cutting and tracing on the floor with children running and crawling on top of everything.  For that reason I made a few errors along the way.  George did something funny, I had my little bowl of pins on the floor and he was sitting quietly for quite some time.  Maryanna discovered he was taking the sewing pins and poking them into his diaper like a pin cushion.  It gave me the shivers when I saw it but he was fine and quite amused.  I should have learned to keep the pins up high after last year when Henry had several sessions of acupuncture and would stick my sewing pins in his arm and head every time they were left out.  That really gave me the shivers.  Anyways, I really need my own sewing space and hoping it will happen before the end of the month.  

Here is the dress I got done for Maryanna's birthday.  It is a two piece dress but can be worn with or without the top skirt.  Maryanna picked the fabric out from my stash, it is a lovely yellow calico cotton that my sister in law Gemina sent me from B&J's in New York last year.  It was my favorite design from the new book and I'm happy that both Maryanna and I love it.  She has worn it two days in a row now.

This dress is hanging in the girls bedroom and I'm just itching to paint it.  Or maybe I'm just itching from all the mosquito bites, either way the mosquitoes are still bad and I'm spending more time indoors than I like so I may just get started on the painting project.  Here is the dress on, and I'll post more with her birthday report.

Chicken Liver Pate

This post may not be pretty but I promise it is yummy.  Clara was completely straight faced as she watched me handle the livers, here she is mashing together a bit of cloves, fresh nutmeg, all spice and cinnamon for the recipe.   

Last Spring I enrolled in an online cooking course for reversing food allergies and chicken liver pate is now one of my favorite dishes.  Cooking with liver was definitely outside my comfort zone so it was nice to have the online support of the cooking class, I may have never otherwise tried it.  I'm glad I tried it because it was simple to make, is dense with nutrients and tasted delicious.

So if you have the guts.....start with 1 lb. chicken livers.  I get my from our cow share farmer who pasture raises her chickens and does not feed them GMO feed.  I probably wouldn't make this with just any chicken liver, find a good source, in the near future I hope to be raising our own.  Here's what they look like:

  

Be sure to rinse them, pat them dry and cut off any veins or extra fat.  After that put them in a food processor with 1 large egg and process for about 30 seconds.  Meanwhile melt 1/2 cup butter in the food processor (good pastured butter), let it cool a bit then add it to the mix along with 2 tsp Celtic sea salt, a bit of pepper and a pinch of the spice mixture mentioned above.  Pour into well greased ramekins and place in a baking dish filled half way up with warm water (like baking a flan).  Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes or until firm.

Let cool and chill over night or serve at room temperature with crackers.  I did not have crackers on hand so I used a romaine leaf and it tasted great!  

George ate it by the spoonful and finished off half a ramekin, this growing boy probably needed it.

Not everyone was eager to try it though.  When I consulted with Eva's mother about making this she gave me some really good advice.  She said make it as a very special dish just for yourself and when the kids see how much you are enjoying it they may ask for a taste........but only give them a little taste and remind them it is a special treat you made for yourself.  Eventually they may actually beg for it and you will eliminate the step of having to beg them to eat it.

Revenge of the mosquitoes

Our lovely days of napping outside, running through fields, fishing and hanging laundry came to a halt last Saturday as huge swarms of mosquitoes hatched and forced us indoors.  Above is a giant one that made its way inside and met its fate face to face with an orange fly swatter.  These are called gallinipper mosquitoes and were featured in the local news this week. 

I don't know how to explain how bad its been.  Just getting (running) the kids into the van they each suffered at least 10 bites on their faces.  Paul stopped by a neighbors to chat about the problem and found she was cutting her grass bundled in a hooded windbreaker for protection.

Even staying inside we are getting bit.  This is worse than Bear Lake and even worse than my days in southern China.

But we are fighting back with the fly swatter.  I use to train my children to carefully carry insects outside and let them live, but since moving to the farm my ways have quickly changed.  A few weeks ago I was commanding the boy to squash Japanese beetles with their bare fingers and this week it is swatting as many mosquitoes as visible.  Peter has gotten quite good at the swatting and even George is takes a few turns.

Paul was lucky to have spent last week in Phoenix were there was not one in site.  This week he will be experimenting with a garlic oil spray that is suppose to help tame mosquitoes.  

As for the kids and I, we took a trip "into town" to escape from the mosquitoes and enjoyed a  giant banana split.

I'm also upping their vitamin B and experimenting with different remedies like emu oil and purification oil for the itchy bites.........and as for the walls?  They are covered in squashed mosquito guts so I'm going to have to paint soon.  

Boys on Adventure

We had a road trip planned to Utah this week but the slow settling in convinced us to postpone it. We had already arranged for the boys to once again ride the California Zephyr out west with Nanny and Poppy, and after all their hard work moving they certainly deserved the trip so they are off on their very own adventure.  

My heart felt very heavy as I took this picture of them, I can't imagine how it must feel to send a child off to college or on a mission, but I suppose my heart would feel even heavier if I held them back.

William spent the day giddy with excitement saying it felt like Christmas Eve waiting for Nanny and Poppy to pick him up.  He waited ready at the gate for over an hour.

James was a bit more torn and spent the day by my side offering any assistance he could.  He questioned how I was going to get by without him, my most able helper.  I assured him he'd be missed dearly but all would be well for both of us.

When Nanny and Poppy arrived they seemed as giddy as the boys, what a joy and treasure this tradition has become.

The boys promised to carry their own luggage (the matching vintage Orvis bags were a steal at a yard sale for $2 a piece, even with a $30 zipper replacement).  The boys also promised to write in their journals everyday, take or draw lots of pictures and come home with a full report.  I talked to them last night and all is well.  They'll soon be dropped off at Oma and Opa's in Salt Lake City and have a chance to spend time with cousins before they head back home  on the train with Nanny and Poppy.

Meanwhile Peter is stepping up as the most able helper here at home.  This is good for him and I warned him of the risk of getting totally spoiled while the older boys were gone.  He said he didn't mind so we'll be off on our adventure searching for series 5 Lego mini figs.

Setting up the family library

It always takes me awhile to settle into a new home, probably even a year.  Settling into a farm may even take longer.  I have two running lists to help me along the way, To Buy: and To Do: and I'm not sure which one is longer.  I don't expect to clear them all this year but at least they'll keep me focused.

Setting up the family library was high on the To Do list and the older boys were very helpful in accomplishing the task.  It wasn't the quickest of projects because we all fell subject to "bookland" (as my kids call it), getting lost in the pages of our favorite books.   

In our last home books where organized by owner, each child had their own sections and organized them as they wished.  With this move we decided to change that system and adopted a more traditional library system with non-fiction by subject and fiction alphabetically by author.

It took a bit of rearranging to get it right.  The very top shelf was reserved for Paul since none of us could even reach it on a chair.

The homeschool room's built in shelves hold most of the fiction and the non fiction is organized by cube on these Ikea Expedit bookcases.  There are two of them, one for technical stuff like science, math, DIY books, animals, etc. The other contains history, biographies, geography and poetry.  More than curriculum I rely on (and spend money on) a diversified library for my children's education.

Family photo albums, church books, scriptures, coffee table books, really old books and the kids journals are kept on the built in shelves in the living room.

The kitchen has a nice shelf for cook books and the younger kids have their own Ikea Expedit shelf (laying horizontally) full of board books and picture books their level.  There is no picture of this shelf since it is always a mix jumbled with toys, but after listening to Rachel and Oliver DeMille's Core and Love of Learning I just let it be. A tidy bookshelf may be too much to ask of little kids, I'd rather them just enjoy books.

Back to my To DO list, I still haven't set up my sewing station.  Before I do that we (actually just Paul) needs to finish off some stuff in the basement. In the meantime the older kids may have to share their cozy homeschool space with the clutter of my sewing.  Taking down wall paper and painting is also on my To Do list but it keeps getting pushed to the bottom.  

As for my To Buy list, I'm on the look out for some new (or very used) night stands that would hold a nice pile of bedtime reading material because our family library is one that typically extends to anywhere one finds a cozy spot.