It's time I admitted it...I am always whining about how I don't have any free time, and I just have to come to grips with the fact that much of the free time I could have is spent reading blogs. There. I've said it. I am addicted to reading blogs.
This might not seem like such a bad addiction, but for someone like me who succumbs very easily to "compare and despair" syndrome, it's a hazard. You see, I like to read blogs by poeple, mostly other moms, who are doing all the things I would like to be doing - having tons of children, homeschooling them, keeping a tidy house, being a good wife, cooking all whole foods from scratch, and making all gifts and household items by hand, all the while keeping the household budget balanced and her spiritual life enriched. Adn don't forget the one or two books she has published as a result of the faithful band of blog reading groupies she's built up pver the months of writing!
I first visit these worlds of unattainable perfection looking for tips and encouragement. I want to know how to make a whole food snack, or I wonder if anyone else's children are bickering as much as mine are. I want to know if I am parenting correctly or could be improving. Why reinvent the wheel, I always ask. But I quickly end up with stinkin' thinkin', as FlyLady would label it. If they can do all that, why oh why can't I???????!!!!!!! Probably because I spend all my extra time reading their blogs instead of doing things I could then blog about!
I would love to get to know the women who write these blogs. I am blessed with many wonderful friends here where I live, but not many of them long to live the handmaid life I moved up here to live. Without resources and support down the road, I find I am glad to have my cyber friends to turn to. I am happy to contribute to their success by becoming a fan, and I hope to enjoy their ranks!
I think these blogs are so great, and I would love to share them with you. So, here's a short list. Pour yourself a cup of tea and waste some lovely time with me.
More later...Jarret needs me to help him with killing chickens and the baby is awake.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
All Hallows Eve Approaches!
Only a few more days until Halloween and I still have a bit of sewing to do for Riley's Obi Wan Kenobi costume to be complete. Thanks be to God, a friend came through with some Indian dance costumes for Rose to wear - she is really into Bollywood right now - and so I didn't have to sew her costume. If I had, I'd be a wreck and so would my house (ok, more of a wreck!). I promise to post pictures here once I am finished.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Wasting Time...
That's what I have been doing a lot of lately. Now, a lot of you who know me might be thinking, "How could she possibly have time to waste?" But, it's there, and I'm wasting it.
I'm not really talking about time in general, but time that I would like to use to do something not related directly to my job as a wife and a mother - writing, for instance. It seems I have just been going at full speed ahead, trying to get the clean clothes out of the baskets and the hot food onto the table. While I am doing those things I am thinking of things to write about. And I do come up with a lot of really good ideas! But when the quiet time to arrives at the end of the day during which I could gather my thoughts and put them on paper, and perhaps even manage to see some of them to an editor (who'll send money in return!), do I write? No!
I organize my desk, finish up the cleaning, check out Facebook, read some blogs on the kind of cooking and organizing I will never have the energy to do. Sometimes I spend hours looking up freelancing jobs that I tell myself I could never get because I don't know enough or don't have the time to write. Why don't I just use that time to write? That, friends, is the unanswerable question. But I am determined to conquer this and to spend some quiet winter evenings writing away, and I'm sorry, but you'll just have to bear with me and my ramblings! Come along...it's going to be a fun ride!
I'm not really talking about time in general, but time that I would like to use to do something not related directly to my job as a wife and a mother - writing, for instance. It seems I have just been going at full speed ahead, trying to get the clean clothes out of the baskets and the hot food onto the table. While I am doing those things I am thinking of things to write about. And I do come up with a lot of really good ideas! But when the quiet time to arrives at the end of the day during which I could gather my thoughts and put them on paper, and perhaps even manage to see some of them to an editor (who'll send money in return!), do I write? No!
I organize my desk, finish up the cleaning, check out Facebook, read some blogs on the kind of cooking and organizing I will never have the energy to do. Sometimes I spend hours looking up freelancing jobs that I tell myself I could never get because I don't know enough or don't have the time to write. Why don't I just use that time to write? That, friends, is the unanswerable question. But I am determined to conquer this and to spend some quiet winter evenings writing away, and I'm sorry, but you'll just have to bear with me and my ramblings! Come along...it's going to be a fun ride!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
A Year and then some...
I was looking over the photos from last spring and I can't believe it has only been a year since they were taken. I know it sounds cliche, but I guess all cliches have some basis in the truth or we wouldn't say them so often. It feels more like ten years have passed, rather than one. If I wasn't so tired right now, I would post some pictures to illustrate my point, but for now, you will just have to take my word for it. The kids have grown up, and there is another one on the way!
I chuckled to myself when reading my most "recent" (If you will) post, and how I went on and on about using things up and making everything from scratch. Lately, I have been wondering how I'm ever going to have time to get the laundry folded and put away, much less baking our bread and whipping our butter. We do still get our milk from a nearby farm, but that practice too, alas, may come to an end, as baby number 5 makes his or her presence more known over the next few months. The farm has become so popular that Farmer Frank (as Jack has dubbed the farmer after a beloved library book) has had to add another day to his weekly distribution schedule and I had to wait in line for 45 minutes today to get my measly 5 gallons of milk! This is no mean feat when you are seven months pregnant. On top of that, it's a 40 minute round trip drive to get the milk. So Jarret and I estimated that we paid about $5 a gallon for the milk, all things considered. As mush as we love the milk, this is too rich for our budget! So, we may just have to streamline the milk-getting right off the to-do list. I actually am quite relieved and amazed that Jarret and I are on the same page about this. Usually, I am the one wanting to throw in the towel on something that was fun for awhile, but the rural charm of which has long since worn away for me. He keeps at it a bit longer. But, I have tried to warn him that this summer will not be like the others.
You see, all our other babies were born in the depths of winter, when we had nothing better to do than keep warm and try to sleep. This is after all, what you try to do in the winter. But this baby is due when things just start to warm up around here for Jarret. And while I am looking forward to taking things at a slower pace (that is one of the wonderful things about babies, they give you an excuse to slow down a bit) summer is Jarret's time to live out loud and I think he will have a hard time tempering his summer self. I am not worried though. Jack is an outdoors-man like his father, and the other three are big enough to tag along pretty much anywhere. So if I am left on my own with Baby most of the time, I won't find that too bothersome at all.
Enough on that for this evening.
I have thought a lot about this blog over the past year (again, I can't fathom that a year has passed!) and I realized that I need it to do more for me. So, if you will indulge me, I will let you in on my plans. I am going to use this space to write about whatever strikes my fancy - crosses my mind while I am mopping the floor or ironing Jarret's shirts, or tending the kitchen woodstove. That could mean a family update, but it could also mean an essay on the wonders of my faith and how I am sharing it with my family, my latest feats in the kitchen (and failures too, of course!) or comments on my favorite or current books and magazines. I just need a space to vent, and if you want to share, by all means, you are welcome here. I just ask that you keep your comments thoughtful and polite, because one thing I have noticed over the course of the past year is that everyone seems to have a place where they can think out loud, if you will, and they all seem to have an audience. I have gained much from reading the thoughts of these people, seeing how they live their lives in different and similar ways from the manner in which I live my own. I figure I have just as much of a right to speak out. So, hang on to your hats because here we go!
I chuckled to myself when reading my most "recent" (If you will) post, and how I went on and on about using things up and making everything from scratch. Lately, I have been wondering how I'm ever going to have time to get the laundry folded and put away, much less baking our bread and whipping our butter. We do still get our milk from a nearby farm, but that practice too, alas, may come to an end, as baby number 5 makes his or her presence more known over the next few months. The farm has become so popular that Farmer Frank (as Jack has dubbed the farmer after a beloved library book) has had to add another day to his weekly distribution schedule and I had to wait in line for 45 minutes today to get my measly 5 gallons of milk! This is no mean feat when you are seven months pregnant. On top of that, it's a 40 minute round trip drive to get the milk. So Jarret and I estimated that we paid about $5 a gallon for the milk, all things considered. As mush as we love the milk, this is too rich for our budget! So, we may just have to streamline the milk-getting right off the to-do list. I actually am quite relieved and amazed that Jarret and I are on the same page about this. Usually, I am the one wanting to throw in the towel on something that was fun for awhile, but the rural charm of which has long since worn away for me. He keeps at it a bit longer. But, I have tried to warn him that this summer will not be like the others.
You see, all our other babies were born in the depths of winter, when we had nothing better to do than keep warm and try to sleep. This is after all, what you try to do in the winter. But this baby is due when things just start to warm up around here for Jarret. And while I am looking forward to taking things at a slower pace (that is one of the wonderful things about babies, they give you an excuse to slow down a bit) summer is Jarret's time to live out loud and I think he will have a hard time tempering his summer self. I am not worried though. Jack is an outdoors-man like his father, and the other three are big enough to tag along pretty much anywhere. So if I am left on my own with Baby most of the time, I won't find that too bothersome at all.
Enough on that for this evening.
I have thought a lot about this blog over the past year (again, I can't fathom that a year has passed!) and I realized that I need it to do more for me. So, if you will indulge me, I will let you in on my plans. I am going to use this space to write about whatever strikes my fancy - crosses my mind while I am mopping the floor or ironing Jarret's shirts, or tending the kitchen woodstove. That could mean a family update, but it could also mean an essay on the wonders of my faith and how I am sharing it with my family, my latest feats in the kitchen (and failures too, of course!) or comments on my favorite or current books and magazines. I just need a space to vent, and if you want to share, by all means, you are welcome here. I just ask that you keep your comments thoughtful and polite, because one thing I have noticed over the course of the past year is that everyone seems to have a place where they can think out loud, if you will, and they all seem to have an audience. I have gained much from reading the thoughts of these people, seeing how they live their lives in different and similar ways from the manner in which I live my own. I figure I have just as much of a right to speak out. So, hang on to your hats because here we go!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Homemade Happiness
I have a few rare minutes of quiet since Riley and Jarret went to the feed store in search of chicken feed, Jack and Molly are sleeping, and Rose is at a friend's house, so I thought I would get at least one of the many blog posts that I've been mulling over down on "paper." Whenever my good friend Kim updates her adorable and creative blog (www.pairslices.blogspot.com) I am motivated to get to mine. I think I will have time to get at least one post up before I have to get to my noodle-making for dinner, which brings me to the theme of my post - homemade!
I have to admit that I am indulging in a bit of bragging here, but I have to say that I am quite proud of my efforts to stretch our grocery budget and keep our diet healthy and local by making as much food as I can from scratch. I have also been working on that Depression-era philosophy: "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without," and learning how to turn leftovers into other scrumptious entrees and desserts, like veggie soups and bread puddings. Some of my latest endeavors include:
I've been making butter from the cream that rises to the top of the milk we get raw from a nearby farm. Put it in the blender for about 8 minutes:
Strain the buttermilk out and press the butter with a spatula while running it under cold water:
And then put it in a nice bowl. I would love to find an antique butter mold to use.
The More with Less cookbook has some great recipes for buttermilk pancakes and biscuits, so I feel I am truly using everything to the fullest. And the food tastes so yummy! My next projects will be to work yogurt into my weekly schedule. I already have made it from time to time, but I would like to stop buying it and just eat homemade stuff. And next month Rose and I are going to learn how to make cheese at our homeschool group Little House in the Big Woods book club.
While the Molly is busy helping me in the kitchen, Rose tends Jack or helps with other chores and Riley has been helping his dad with the wood splitter. Aren't they so cute together?
Well, the timer is going off and it's time to make noodles....For dessert tonight - bread pudding, homemade ice cream, and topped with homemade hot fudge sauce. Enjoy!
I have to admit that I am indulging in a bit of bragging here, but I have to say that I am quite proud of my efforts to stretch our grocery budget and keep our diet healthy and local by making as much food as I can from scratch. I have also been working on that Depression-era philosophy: "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without," and learning how to turn leftovers into other scrumptious entrees and desserts, like veggie soups and bread puddings. Some of my latest endeavors include:
A weekly batch of homemade bread. I make two to four loaves at a time. It's easy and so yummy! I am wearing out my kitchen-aid mixer though and have had to go with kneading by hand, which is a great upper body workout!
I found a recipe for making English muffins in a cookbook my sister-in-law, Kara, recommended to me : More-with-Less Cookbook. It's wonderful and very helpful for cooking on a dime. The muffins are so pricey in the store and we love them for breakfast. They were not hard at all. You make the dough and let it rise, roll it out and cut it with a glass or a biscuit cutter, and then let them rise again: 
Then you cook them in a pan for 5 minutes or so on each side. I love my cast iron!
And here they are - don't let them cook too long! Oops! But it still tasted good.
They even look like muffins from the store on the inside, after being split with a fork. (Those are our farm-fresh eggs in the background.)
I found a recipe for making English muffins in a cookbook my sister-in-law, Kara, recommended to me : More-with-Less Cookbook. It's wonderful and very helpful for cooking on a dime. The muffins are so pricey in the store and we love them for breakfast. They were not hard at all. You make the dough and let it rise, roll it out and cut it with a glass or a biscuit cutter, and then let them rise again: 
Then you cook them in a pan for 5 minutes or so on each side. I love my cast iron!
And here they are - don't let them cook too long! Oops! But it still tasted good.
They even look like muffins from the store on the inside, after being split with a fork. (Those are our farm-fresh eggs in the background.)
I've been making butter from the cream that rises to the top of the milk we get raw from a nearby farm. Put it in the blender for about 8 minutes:
Strain the buttermilk out and press the butter with a spatula while running it under cold water:
And then put it in a nice bowl. I would love to find an antique butter mold to use.
The More with Less cookbook has some great recipes for buttermilk pancakes and biscuits, so I feel I am truly using everything to the fullest. And the food tastes so yummy! My next projects will be to work yogurt into my weekly schedule. I already have made it from time to time, but I would like to stop buying it and just eat homemade stuff. And next month Rose and I are going to learn how to make cheese at our homeschool group Little House in the Big Woods book club.
While the Molly is busy helping me in the kitchen, Rose tends Jack or helps with other chores and Riley has been helping his dad with the wood splitter. Aren't they so cute together?
Well, the timer is going off and it's time to make noodles....For dessert tonight - bread pudding, homemade ice cream, and topped with homemade hot fudge sauce. Enjoy!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Let me just run...
It occurred to me the other day that this is a phrase I should stop trying to wrap my life around. Especially since it now involves clothing at least one child - if not all four - in hats, boots, scarves, mittens, coats, and then fastening them into the car seat; making sure I have diapers and spare pants (for Molly, not me!); making sure the baby has been nursed, that I have my purse, my list and items that pertain to the errand (usually library books to be returned). So you get the idea. I can no longer "just throw on my coat and just run to the library for a minute" while dinner simmers on the stove.
I am trying very hard these days to pay attention to the clock and have a real grasp of reality with regard to time. I am one of those people who drastically overestimates the amount of things I can accomplish in a day or a week or ten minutes for that matter. I don't think this frustrates anyone more than it frustrates me, bless my husband, who is very good about showing up on time, or at least he was until he had to start bringing me with him!
I look forward to the days when I can again throw on my coat and run down to the post office or the library, but for now I choose to embrace the cumbersomeness of my life because those are some awfully cute faces framed by those pesky winter hats. One day, I'll be able to dart here and dart there and I'll be complaining that I don't have anyone for company!
I am trying very hard these days to pay attention to the clock and have a real grasp of reality with regard to time. I am one of those people who drastically overestimates the amount of things I can accomplish in a day or a week or ten minutes for that matter. I don't think this frustrates anyone more than it frustrates me, bless my husband, who is very good about showing up on time, or at least he was until he had to start bringing me with him!
I look forward to the days when I can again throw on my coat and run down to the post office or the library, but for now I choose to embrace the cumbersomeness of my life because those are some awfully cute faces framed by those pesky winter hats. One day, I'll be able to dart here and dart there and I'll be complaining that I don't have anyone for company!
Monday, December 8, 2008
The Blank Page
All through the day as I am doing my regular housekeeping things I think of things I want to blog about. And then, when I sit down to do it, I can't think of anything to write about and am nagged by the thoughts of all the other thousands of things I should be doing (tending the fires, putting away dishes, folding the laundry, playing with the kids, checking my Facebook page!). Of course, this is the case now. So, I'll just post some pictures from the recent festivities around here and spare you my religious ramblings this time! Thanks for indulging me on my previous post, however.
Molly loves her new present from Grandma Jean - Copper Kitty.
Here she is on the phone with Grandma Jean saying thank you.
Our birthday cake...
A trip to see Santa at the Gorham library. Here is why I love this season. Rose truly believes that she chatted with Santa here, and she told him she wanted more Barbies for Christmas. So she was confused when I was looking at some pcitures on Facebook of other people's children with Santa, and heartbroken when she realized that what she really wanted was a Webkinz poodle, and she had told Santa the wrong thing! I reassured her we could send him a letter. Now I just have to remember to have her write it!
I don't know if it's Christmas in the air, a new phase of some sort, or answered prayers (I am sure it's at least a bit of that!), but Rose and Molly have been playing so nicely together for the past couple of weeks. Rose offeres and Molly willingly lets her dress her up and put on her "makeup" some Halloween leftovers I picked up at Wal-Mart for my fashion maven six year old (I don't know WHERE she got that tendency from!). Then I let them play with the camera. It's funny, thought-provoking, and sometimes a bit disturbing what the world looks like through the eyes of a child...
Riley's self portait...
He thought it was hilarious that he took a picture of the back of the cereal box.
All Molly needs is a hair net and a cigarette!
Ah, the beauty of normalcy...
Until next time, life continues on at the homestead...
Molly loves her new present from Grandma Jean - Copper Kitty.
Here she is on the phone with Grandma Jean saying thank you.
Our birthday cake...
A trip to see Santa at the Gorham library. Here is why I love this season. Rose truly believes that she chatted with Santa here, and she told him she wanted more Barbies for Christmas. So she was confused when I was looking at some pcitures on Facebook of other people's children with Santa, and heartbroken when she realized that what she really wanted was a Webkinz poodle, and she had told Santa the wrong thing! I reassured her we could send him a letter. Now I just have to remember to have her write it!
I don't know if it's Christmas in the air, a new phase of some sort, or answered prayers (I am sure it's at least a bit of that!), but Rose and Molly have been playing so nicely together for the past couple of weeks. Rose offeres and Molly willingly lets her dress her up and put on her "makeup" some Halloween leftovers I picked up at Wal-Mart for my fashion maven six year old (I don't know WHERE she got that tendency from!). Then I let them play with the camera. It's funny, thought-provoking, and sometimes a bit disturbing what the world looks like through the eyes of a child...
Riley's self portait...
He thought it was hilarious that he took a picture of the back of the cereal box.
All Molly needs is a hair net and a cigarette!
Ah, the beauty of normalcy...
Until next time, life continues on at the homestead...
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