A His and Hers Birthday Celebration

We're in "morning after" mode here at the moment, meaning a slow moving, tired mama, lots of playing with new presents and cake for breakfast (with plans for leftovers for lunch!).

I think that the party went well for the most part. There were, of course, the usual assortment of mishaps...there was the neighbor who decided to come over and introduce herself an hour before guests were due to arrive ("so nice to meet you, but we're rather busy at the moment...", "oh, I'll just stay and chat for a bit..."), the full blender that I managed to accidentally turn on, sans lid...the frosting that outright refused to thicken, and a certain variety of cupcake; moist and lovely the night before, but glued to the liners by morning (one child actually returned his to me declaring that it "didn't work"), a pinata that refused to die, in a too small room with a too long stick, and a whole, whole lot of noise (quite a bit more then several of the adults could stomach to be honest). But there was also a lot of sledding and a lot of laughing, and a lot of friends that we haven't seen in a long time, all together at last. The kids had tons of fun and amazingly few things broke, so I'd say it was a success. One eight year old approached me at the end of the day, looking very earnest indeed, and said in a confiding sort of tone, "I just wanted you to know that this was probably one of the top three parties I've ever been to." So there you have it!

His:

Brownies and double chocolate cake in a woodland night theme.

I looked more into those India Tree natural food colorings and in my irritation at the price ($30 for food coloring? Seriously??), decided to get creative and come up with my own: blueberries, strawberries, bee pollen, and (don't tell the kids!) spinach.

Hers:

A bunny carrot cake with lots of fruit and cupcakes topped with "rosebuds" (raspberries and mint leaves).

The bunny cake was not my best work. I've made much nicer, but it was thrown together at the last minute (see "mishaps" above) and I didn't have enough frosting to do it right (and the frosting that I did have wasn't really the right consistency, again, see above.) and I never did find those toothpicks that I was going to use for whiskers...

I'll be back with another home made Christmas post tomorrow!

Scenes

Little glimpses of everyday life.

Thanksgivings Past

This Thanksgiving, I found myself thinking a lot about my second ever post; our first Thanksgiving in the Little House. Three years and 604 posts later and we have a different baby at our table this year. While packing over the weekend, I came across the sweater that Iain was wearing in the photo from that post. I pulled it out to try on Galen. It was small on Iain in that picture, that was probably the last time he wore it, and it's big on Galen now, but a close enough fit that it's worth keeping out.


So, so much has changed in that time. Too much really.
~photo by Elijah~


Thanksgiving was the first holiday that we shared together in this house and if all goes as planned, it will be the last.


I guess that kind of brings us full circle and I'm not really sure what more to say about that. I don't think that there will ever be another Thanksgiving that feels so profound as that first one here. I hope and pray that I'll always appreciate what I have. That I will always be grateful.


As I sit here typing and thinking of all of this, I have a quiet hope, for a quiet and contented life. One where I never forget the joy of wellness, of life and of health, of family and togetherness, but my hope for our future is one of kindly whispered reminders; not the stark, cold reality of nearly loosing everything to really learn it's worth. A few years of calm and peace. Let us never forget. Let us always know our blessings. Oh, but gently please, gently.

Burning the midnight oil...

Another in a string of late nights, surrounded by boxes just beginning to be packed, trying to track down Christmas presents (and still debating where to have them sent), setting some time aside each night to knit away on Iain's sweater, and then fill in the blank with whatever else needs to be done to get us through the following day/week/month. I have a feeling that there will be many more nights like this before all is said and done.


Tonight I'll be working on the sewing project that I started last night and need finished for tomorrow. But today, today, is Fair Day. Every one's looking forward to it. I've just set the crock pot with a stew since we'll be gone all day....late veggies from the farm, some local grass fed beef, kombu, some beef broth I made earlier in the week, a bit of red wine. The house will smell so good when we get back and it will be such a relief not to have to worry about dinner. Now I'm working on filling up a bag with food to eat out....green crispies, toasted almonds, frozen blueberries, leftover chicken, a bit of squash, bananas with carob dip, and whatever else I can think of between now and the time we leave. It was really a lot easier to go places back when we could eat out!

I think this season is going to be a practice in moderation for me. I'm going to have a lot of letting go to do to ensure that Crazy Mommy doesn't rear her ugly head. As it is, Steve's had to talk me down a couple of times already (and I haven't even mentioned that notion floating around in the back of my mind of making an entire quilt for Iain before his birthday).
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I got called away from this post this morning, and now I'm coming back to it at the end of the day (or, well, technically, very early the next morning). The Fair was nice. It's seemed somehow smaller and less impressive this year. I did a bit of holiday shopping, somewhat at Steve's urging, as he's all but convinced me that I really can't make all of the children's gifts this year (I'll admit defeat in not making them all, but I'm still holding out on at least making some).

I got Galen a beautiful little wooden cutting board. I'm so excited to think about how much easier it will be for him to help me in the kitchen once we move into the next house! I got some lovely plant dyed wool for his birthday crown as well. And a duck! Oh, I couldn't resist the life-sized stuffed duck. He's still all about the domesticated fowl. Funny, funny boy. Sadly, I smuggled it home, only to discover that the repurposed sweater that it's made out of still smells like perfume! Bah humbug. It's on the porch at the moment. I left Steve (who is a very early riser), a note asking him to bring it in and hide it in the morning. Maybe if we keep up with the nightly airings it will be ok in time for Christmas??

Darn. And I thought I was doing so well.

Squash Muffins

Breakfast yesterday morning.

I think these muffins are the ultimate saving grace of the gluten-free baker (diary-free too, and if you use Egg Replacer instead of the eggs, as I do, it's egg free as well).

Ultimate Gluten-Free Squash Muffins

1/2- 1 cup Maple syrup (depending on how sweet you like them)

4 eggs beaten

3/4 cup oil

1 1/2 cups Water

2 cups pureed squash

3 cups rice flour (brown or white, whichever you prefer)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine all of the wet ingredients in one bowl and all of the dry ingredients in another. Blend together. Bake at 350 in an ungreased pan. Muffins take about 20 minutes, bread is around an hour, cake is somewhere in between. Keep and eye out because it varies from oven to oven. This makes around 24 muffins or two loaves of bread. Leftovers freeze well.

Enjoy!

We're off to a concert today, featuring two of my very favorite performers. I can't wait! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

A Halloween Piñata

A new addition to our usual Halloween celebration this year was a piñata made by one Mr. Elijah Rain.

It turned out really well, I was impressed!


This is the first piñata that I’ve ever been called upon to fill. I grew up with ones full of gum balls, tootsie rolls and junky little plastic toys, so this required some thought.

Here’s what I ended up with:

• Little baggies with lumps of clay
• Colored pencils (some regular, some metallic and shimmery, some chunky for and built for little hands)
  
• Some of my chocolates
• Roasted pumpkin seeds
• Gum (the stuff I mentioned here)
• Raisins
• Stickers
• Glitter glue
• Goji berry and orange white chocolate (which was wonderful AND a gorgeous bright orange!)
• Nuts and dried berries

But my favorite thing was these little blank books that I made, simple though they are:

I’m on a big fancy paper kick at the moment. I love all of the fun and inspiring prints out there. The covers for these (which all have a coordinating print on the inside) came from an autumn inspired craft paper pack that I found on clearance at the craft store.

I wanted to add in green chips and popcorn, but I didn’t get around to making them. A friend suggested polished rocks and gem stones and another mentioned bouncy balls, both great ideas, but didn’t have time to get any. I was kicking myself for not thinking to add packets of some of the seeds that we gathered from our garden. I thought about those little gnomes made of a felt cloak stuffed with some wool, but that was one of the treats a couple of years back and my family has just received some fresh ones, so I filed the idea away for the future. Maybe whistles of some sort? Or kazoos? I thought bells would be fun. Friendship bracelets? Honey sticks? Small felt animals?


I should have ample opportunity to use all of my ideas. Iain already made a piñata for his birthday in January (let’s just hope it holds up well in the attic) and Galen just announced that he wants one for his birthday too. So, if anyone else has any inspired ideas, put them out there because I’ll be needing them!

~Sometimes I suspect that Elijah actually *is* Harry Potter!~

Now, perhaps you’ve noticed that I have a nasty little habit of making the simplest of things exceptionally complicated?

You see, the things is, I don’t like the whole piñata mentality; this rushing and pushing and shoving to grab as much as you can. Kind of puts me in mind of that poor person being trampled to death at a holiday sale last year. I’m just not comfortable with it. And when you are looking at an age range like we were (from not yet 2 to nearly 10), there are very good odds on the little people being pushed aside, with huge discrepancies between treat bags resulting. Beyond which not all of the filler was appropriate for all ages.

Enter The Grand Plan.

I had this idea to turn it into a kind of treasure hunt. I made each child a bag with their name on the front. On the back was a child specific list of star stickers, with each combination matching a prize in the piñata. So, for example, 2 year old Rosa would have the combination for raisins, but not for gum. Each child was to seek out one of each thing on his or her list, with the older ones helping the little ones once their own bags were full.

I know, me and my ideas! A little too rigid perhaps? Too structured? My fear was that a) it would be too convoluted, and b) it would negatively impact the joy and spontaneity of the moment. I may never know. I didn’t exactly get to see my grand plan in action…

On Halloween morning Steve was feeling kind of off, but still running errands and going about his usual business. By noon he was slowing down and not looking so great. At 1 I was optimistically filling the piñata. By two he was unconscious on the futon in the middle of the living space, despite the four kids crowded around him and making a racket. And by three I was calling to cancel. Did I mention that he spent last week in training classes at work, closed up in a small room with two other guys, both of whom currently have children diagnosed with swine flu? Yeah.

notes from the chocolatier

Otherwise known as my kitchen or, more accurately, my oven tucked under the stairs. It’s true, I’m like the culinary Harry Potter. When I run out of room on the cook top, I balance plates and things on the trashcan lid. Thankfully there are fewer spiders, although, with the stairs above being unfinished, people sometimes accidentally kick dirt into the food below.

It is here that I've been experimenting with making my own raw chocolates, in preparation for the holiday season. I was looking for something a little more exciting for Halloween treats this year. It turns out that children do reach an age where they are less then wowed by raisins and popcorn. Not that anyone's complaining really, I just think they would be delighted by something more.

Clearly this batch came out of the molds too soon. I think I’m going to choose to blame the kids for this one. That’s right, it was the kids who were impatient. Uh-huh.

They may look a little funky, but taste tests have confirmed them to be simply divine. In fact, my children have deemed it the best chocolate they've ever had. Granted, their experience in this area isn't terribly extensive, but still... Made of antioxidant rich, organic raw cacao butter and powder and sweetened with agave nectar, they are far more innocent then their commercial counterparts.

I do love chocolate and even strongly crave it from time to time, but I'm not one of those people who has to have it every day. Something about these is so extremely satisfying that it only takes one or two and I'm content; so not the case with conventional candy. Did I just say candy?!?!? Oh, my, no, but this is not candy! It's CHOCOLATE in the fullest sense.

The smell of it permeates our home. It scents my hair, my skin tastes of it; it's all very rich and decadent and sensual you know! Can you tell that I'm immensely enjoying playing 'Chocolat'? Oh, yes. All the same, I don't think that it will be a regular thing, more of a couple times of year, special occasion type ritual. I'm thinking that chocolate making would be a popular addition to our advent activities and since starting all this, I've been dying to make chocolate covered strawberries...hmmm....Valentine's Day?

And what we did with them...

The pumpkins that is!


This is where I left Steve in the kids; all set up to make jack 'o lanterns, while I went down to the other house to wash up.

And this:
is the kind of ridiculousness that I came back up to.

Right.

But jack 'o lanterns were made. I find that there is a year or two where kids r-e-a-l-l-y want to do some carving, but aren't yet ready to wield a knife (or well, their parents aren't yet ready for them to). For those in between years, when painting is no longer satisfying, we've taken to using an apple corer. It works great! Mom or Dad can get it started and the kiddo in question can push it the rest of the way through. The experience of poking those perfectly shaped holes is deeply gratifying to little people and it creates a really funky and unique pumpkin. All lit up it's kind of reminiscent of a disco ball! Even the big kids wanted to borrow the apple corer to embellish their lanterns.


With these gigantic pumpkins all scooped out there were lots and lots of seeds for roasting:


I tend to do something different with these every year. This year we did them up in olive oil, curry, and sea salt with a touch of cinnamon. My kids all love curry, so it seemed the way to go.

And from the flesh we had...pie!


I can't give you a recipe for the filling, unfortunately. It was very, very good though, made with coconut milk and maple syrup and just the right combination of spices. I promise that in the event that I ever have running water again, I will have loads of recipes to share, but for now... the prospect of having addition dishes to wash, just to have exact measurements, well, let's just say it's too much. When I can just eye-ball it and get everyone here fed, I do.

I can, however, give you a recipe for the crust I used (because my vitamix has the measurements already marked out, right there on the side).


Almond Crust

2 Cups ground almonds
4 T coconut oil
2 T agave nectar
pinch of salt

Grind up all the ingredients together in a food processor until well combined, but still coarse. Press into the bottom of a pie pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. This makes two crusts.

This was really good in a different, hearty and harvest-y kind of way. I do think that I'm still going to do a more traditional pumpkin pie crust for Thanksgiving though. I'm feeling like, as enjoyable as this was, it didn't quite fulfill my need for that once a year fix.

More Pumpkins

Purchased at the farm stand this weekend:

Four pumpkins, ranging in size from the mini one that Galen picked out for Màiri, to the gigantic ones that Iain and Elijah had to enlist Steve to help carry.

Two squashes for dinners this week; one Hubbard and one Long Island Cheese.

And apples to eat there. (Even though, as I pointed out, we already had apples at home... No one cared.)

In the Month of October

We're having a cozy sort of day around here, with chicken stock simmering on the stove, banana cake baking and a steady fire chasing off the chill (we're expecting snow tonight!). All I really want to do is go work on a quilt, but there is still school work to be done, and an assortment of other chores, but maybe later, if I'm lucky.

Some other things that I'm enjoying this month...


~Another beautiful autumn in New England. It never grows old.

~all of the delicious foods that this season brings along with it.

::Indian pudding about to go into the oven::

~still lovin' this boy in his new glasses. He looks so old! And ssssssoooo much like his daddy.

~loving this boy and the joy he finds in music; that I hear his little voice singing from all corners of the house, at all hours of the day.

~really getting into the planning for the coming holiday season. I've just about finished shopping for our extended family and I'm delighted with everything I found.

~this scarf that my friend Mardi made for me after Màiri was born. I pretty much alternate every other day between this one and my cowl. This is my melody scarf. Not My Melody, *my* melody, that's the name of the colorway. All of the yarns I've ever come across bearing the name 'melody' have always been repulsive concoctions of say, puce, magenta, neon orange, and hot pink or something equally repugnant. But this one is just lovely, with lots of green, which always makes me happy. And she knitted it up so prettily. Very pleasing indeed.

~and speaking of green gifts, you have to see this sweet little pouch that Tai Marie of Small Wonders sent me...
I love it so much! The green, the doily, all of it. I won her giveaway for this fabulous rainbow crown, which is going in the Christmas stocking of one fabulous rainbow loving boy, and she slipped this into the package just for me.

I have to give you a little peek at the inside too...
see those darling little birds? And the fabulous little Nikki McClure note cards?

~And back to that lacy doily, and lace in general, I just bought a bit to trim some winter nighties for my Wee Girl. I'm on a lace kick at the moment and I'm just giddy (giddy I tell you!) at having an excuse to buy some.

~and as for that rainbow loving boy, well I'm still loving our weekly one on one craft time. The rainbow bird is coming along!


~and this little munchkin, well...don't even get me started! Right now I'm really enjoying watching her get out and explore the world. She's been crawling for quite a while now, but she's really getting around these days and pulling herself up on everything and just having a grand old time.


That and watching her trying to eat an apple. It's just the cutest thing ever. And I know that that picture above is blurry, but she was so excited and happy that I had to include it.


~I don't suppose I need to mention knitting, do I? No, I think that probably warrants an entire post unto itself.