living light and DIY

During this pandemic (our family is now entering week 9), it has been nearly impossible to get any alone time, but observing each of us, I am learning so much. Speaking about myself only, I have noticed that I flow in and out of a mix of emotions, even in the course of a day. We have been fortunate, so far, and I feel guilt, privilege, and gratitude all rolled into one untidy bundle. I, like many, have found this whole event to be stressful, but there are some things we are doing that keep us busy, ease some of the stress, and feel productive.

Growing an edible garden. With a small yard, we are growing in scattered little plots.

We are in a part of Northern California where our shelter-in-place orders have been extended through May 31, with uncertainty beyond that. These weeks at home have had difficult and joyful spots, growth and regression. Among the positives, however, have been the space and necessity that we lean into our more resourceful, DIY tendencies. As I said in my previous post, I am choosing light; seeing the brightness of this time and living more lightly on the planet. (It is one way I manage my anxiety.) Living lightly is something M and I have always aligned on, but I had been feeling like we had drifted in the past 5 years or so. (We spent an entire year buying nothing new when the kids were younger, but that would be so much harder now!)

 Homemade sauerkraut and homemade yogurt.

Sheltering in place has shown us a few things.

It quickly became clear to us that our tendency to be prepared was helpful. Preparation has been a tool I have used for years, initially because being prepared saves us money, more recently because it saves us time and addresses environmental risks (earthquakes and wildfires) and food allergies and sensitivities, and in shelter-in-place, it has saved us from additional worry.

As more and more people have jumped into urban homesteading, it gave me an awareness of how much our family already does ourselves, and if there is an urban homestead wagon, we were already on it.

Muffins and granola. We make granola weekly and the recipe is my gluten free version of a recipe I brought home from summer camp when I was 12.

I have enjoyed the challenge of making things work during this time when zipping out to buy and telephoning to hire haven't been options. Within the first 3 weeks of shelter-in-place, we had multiple things break. Between us, we had the skills and resources to repair or work out an alternative. This time has had me reflecting on lessons my grandparents and parents shared, and the phrase 'use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.' We are not lacking for anything, but I certainly don't want anything to go to waste and I am extra eager for us to take care of what we do have. These desires are emphasized by the desire to avoid contact with others.

The reasoning is bizarre and unprecedented, but the resulting resourcefulness and simplicity are welcomed, and the decreased environmental impact is so very good.

Line dried laundry and plastic bags (washed and reused, yes). Do you see rags hanging there? We use a lot of cloth; rags, napkins, towels, feminine, and when we had babies, diapers. We have used cloth wipes, too, but we do use toilet paper when it can be purchased.

The photos in this post are a sampling of simple actions and recipes we were already using long before this pandemic. In addition, we have a chest freezer to stock on on sale foods and bulk cooked meals. We are crafty and make things we need through woodworking, sewing, other fiber arts, and more. (Yup, we have made masks right along with everyone else!)

While we had chickens for years, we don't currently. We talked about getting chicks last year, but didn't have the bandwidth. We do now, and so chicks are on their way to us. We have cleaned out the coop and are excited for the coming additions to our little homestead. We keep trying new things, too. I just made a batch of rice milk and while I bake a lot from scratch, I want to try making my own gluten-free sourdough starter for gluten-free sourdough bread.

I hope to look back on this time and see the creativity, the light, and the need for less that resulted from it.

What roots have you returned to during this time?

toffee (again!)

This is a post previously shared on my former blog and posted again each year. This is such a favorite that I receive multiple requests for it each year. 

 

Toffee
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Butter an 8-inch square pan. spread the chopped nuts in the pan.
Heat the butter and sugar and boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture darkens and just begins to smoke, approximately 7 minutes.
Immediately pour the mixture evenly over the nuts and sprinkle the chocolate chips over this.
Cover the pan with a cookie sheet to keep the heat in and melt the chocolate.
Spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee layer. If desired, sprinkle more chopped nuts into the chocolate layer. Score while still warm, unless you don't mind irregularly broken pieces. (I don't mind them.) Refrigerate until hard.

Nicola's edited additions: I don't usually stir constantly. A reader commented about butter separation. When she did so, it had never happened to me. It subsequently happened once. I believe it was because I started with frozen butter and let that melt and begin to bubble before I added the sugar. Make sure you put these in the pan at the same time, room temperature. If you like hard toffee, make sure you cook it long enough. (It begins to have a slightly burnt smell.) If you like softer toffee, don't cook it as long. The 7 minute marker is helpful, but I find it takes longer, and after you have done a handful of batches, you will also notice the mixture thin and darken slightly.

from The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn

learning period 2 of 2018-2019

I really haven't been blogging much and when I have, it has been more of a documentation and sharing of our homeschooling than anything else creative or economical. I shared learning period 1 and "our 168" (hours per week) in October and didn't post in November at all!

I am back to share a little about learning period 2, which was October and November. Here we are in December and time is zipping by always more quickly than I would like.

October and November were filled with numerous atypical appointments. December, in addition to all the celebrations, will have its fair share of appointments too.  I love the winter holidays, but I am slow to get into them right now, because I am dragging a bit and worn from our inconsistent rhythm. I need to create something to look forward to in January, when appointments are done, new rhythm can be made, and that helps ease the bleakness I tend to feel after the holidays.

Can you tell we did a block on chocolate? I had intended for this to be more of a math block and began with Marsha Johnson's History of Chocolate guide, but one book lead to another, which lead to maps (we love Map of the Month) and history and science. So we did a little math, but we learned more about the history of the Americas, how chocolate was made originally, how it is made now, how it spread in popularity, and we taste tested various chocolates. We even made chocolate. This was a wonderful block!

Social studies: We studied the history and geography of chocolate. We studied early U.S. history a little more through various avenues...our American Girl 4-H project, reading Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, and through the Constitution class Lala Bug took through our charter school. The class had them exploring different parts of the Constitution, choosing a topic, writing a paper, and giving a speech, as well as multiple quizzes. Between her love of history and 4-H speaking experiences, Lala rocked the class.

Math: Teaching Textbooks for Brown Mouse, Khan Academy for Lala Bug, games, and Key To... series workbooks for both kids. We are more consistent with math right now and all I can hope is that it is enough. Brown Mouse took a math class through our charter, where they covered a lot about ratios and fractions and Lala Bug, of course, knit a lot and continued writing knitting patterns.

Language arts and Writing: We are loving Brave Writer for language arts and writing. This second learning period we read and worked through the Arrow guide for Frindle by Andrew Clements (just a fun book) and we are working through Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes right now. The Constitution class Lala Bug was in gave her the extra writing work she needed and for Brown Mouse, we are working through a reading and spelling support program called REWARDS, which he is having success with.

 

Science: Lala Bug took a personal interest, deep dive into the history of the U.S. exploration of space, particularly the moon, which, of course, covered a lot of science, as well. The interested began with the book Countdown: 2979 Days to the Moon by Suzanne Slade, which was excellent. We also explored science during our chocolate block and Brown Mouse took a Nature Detectives class through our charter. He really enjoyed that and because of our weekly nature studies, he really got a chance to shine, sharing some of his knowledge with his friends and teachers.

Nature plays a big role in our homeschool, with time spent weekly exploring and monthly at the farm with 4-H. This past month, our state was heavily hit with devastating wildfires. The smoke from the fires blew our way and settled to stay for a couple of weeks. It affected our ability to be outside and made for some interested observations, recordings, and conversations.

Moving into December and the new year, I need to take some time to re-evaluate where we are and where we need to shift. We have toured several schools now and I have also attended more discussion groups about homeschooling high school. It is time for us to begin putting in applications for high schools and our family to sit down and discuss wants, needs, goals, and plans. Lots ahead of us!

learning period 1 of 2018-2019

The year before last (how was that so long ago?!), I shared about our homeschool year, one learning period at a time. We homeschool under the branches of a charter school that we love, and the charter follows us in two-month chunks, called learning periods. Learning period 1 was August and September. Here is a little snapshot of the launch of our year!

Nature study weekly; I had planned for Fridays to be our nature study and library day, but several weeks in, although desired and beautiful, it wasn't so smooth. Walking alongside me one week, my wise little guy says to me, "Mamma, what do you think if we do our nature walks on Monday mornings? Maybe they would be better for starting the week." And he was right! It doesn't matter what school or work we human beings head into each week, MOANday mornings tend to be hard. Nature walk has been a much gentler start to the week and we have cherished slower home rhythm on Fridays.

I am realizing that, while I am deeply inspired by Waldorf as my home teaching and parenting foundation, our best flowing "us-school" days are perhaps a little more unit study-like. (That term makes me cringe. I don't know why.) This year, I am using Brave Writer Arrow and Boomerang guides for writing mechanics and grammar, something with which we needed to become a little more consistent. I chose to start us with Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, the 1956 Newbery award winning biographical novel of Nathaniel Bowditch, written by Jean Lee Latham.

I could never have imagined the journey Nat would take us on. We were gripped by his story ("Just one more chapter, Mamma!") and how he quietly, yet deeply affected history. We were then hurled through time, backward from Nat to Galileo and forward from Nat and onto the west coast for The Coast Mappers and a tour of a modern ship, the one my brother works on. This one chapter book had us eagerly chasing math, science, history, writing, and language arts, and had the kids making connections and expressing curiosity and excitement with what they were learning. This is fuel for the homeschooling mama soul.

 Along with our read alouds and all-things-Nat, the kids did regular math lessons, another subject we had become inconsistent with. Brown Mouse is very happily engaged with Teaching Textbooks now. He worked his way through the free trial and into a full membership for the year. Lala Bug has been doing Khan Academy, supplemented with Key To... series practice booklets (which our charter school provides). It feels good to have math anchors without push back. I do think the year that I backed off and made math more about play and living experiences made a huge positive difference in math attitude now.

So much cooking and baking, below. Lala Bug got interested in and immediately skilled in baking cakes in the spring, and we always meal plan and meal prep for the week, so a lot of cooking and baking has been happening around here, particularly with September being full of birthdays.The praise "this is the best cake I have ever had!" is positive feedback Lala Bug has loved hearing, and since we are gluten-free bakers, that was encouraging to me.

Soccer is successfully and joyfully underway, 4-H projects and charter classes are beginning this week, and probably the most meaningful things we are doing right now is going through a series of appointments for the unique needs of one kiddo and health-related challenges I have been having. For this reason, alone, the success of our basic weekly rhythm has been so encouraging to me. We are now moving onward into learning period 2. We are studying chocolate and its origins, the constitution and natural history (both through our charter classes), and excited about the playful learning of 4-H.

I hope your learning year is starting smoothly and joyfully!

camping

This weekend, my brother, M, the kids, and I went camping. There are some amazing places really near us to camp and we finally took advantage of one. We had a wonderful time soaking in some nature. I was a little worried about not having some home time after a string of intense days for everyone, but it was the perfect medicine.

 Incredible sunsets and beautiful views

 And to think I sarcastically said to M "Do you think you brought enough firewood?" Umm..barely. It was chilly and we enjoyed our thrift store camp chairs pulled up cozy close!

TJs ad anyone?  

 Wild turkey running by!

 

What can I say? We camp in style.

 

 Beautiful view, beautiful girl, beautiful Eucalyptus bark read for fairy house making.

 We saw so many native and non-native plants the kids and I knew. It was special listening to them point them out to M and Uncle S. Above, pineapple week, from the chamomile family.

This boy really wanted to fish!

I hope your weekend gave you a little dose of peace!

52: 16

52 weeks of photos. A special moment during the week of April 16, 2017

summer learning

It is almost July and we have already nodded our heads to summer solstice, but I am only now catching up with the last month or two of spring and the fullness of the end of the year. Ours is not the typical fullness, although it had some aspects of your mainstream end-of-year wildness, including a ballet performance. Mostly, tiredness and a lack of desire to be online has caused my absence. Here is a post to bring me up-to-date!

Following our Alaska trip, Little Brown Mouse made a model of a glacier. This was self initiated and completed.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful at the end of May.

Lala Bug really wanted to make flower decorated cupcakes. So she did.

Above, Little Brown Mouse finished up his homemade go-cart, so he brought it to the last soccer class so all his friends (and tall big sister) could have a ride. 

We have just passed through the time of year when homeschoolers start asking one another "Do you school through summer?" For us, it is a grey area.

We school through a charter that supports homeschoolers. As a result, our "school" has a scheduled beginning and end time. Sort of. We are required to report to our charter school during the months school is in session and we do not receive money for activities when school is on summer break. Otherwise, I can be flexible with our schedule. For example, as long as we have work samples to submit for August, I can keep us on a "summer schedule." And, of course, I can keep schooling into June, despite our charter year ending before Memorial Day.

The kids asked if we could bike ride to a local historic site to do the Junior Ranger Program. Umm...yes!

Annual blueberry picking with our friends in the (California) central valley. Delicious!

Holy cow, we had a lot of plums again. So many another massive branch broke. We spent a day picking, pruning, cutting, freezing, and jamming.

Hay ride, anyone? Yes, but it comes at the cost of loading and unloading the hay from the wagon!

 

This girl has been reading a ton. On this day, above, she read 4 books, at least.

Sunset on Summer Solstice (a solstice alliteration) 

We didn't cover all that I had hoped to cover during the official school year, so we will continue to cover those topics, but it will be in a less pressured (self-inflicted as teacher) way. We will read stories and books, but might not do any extensive writing or other project, for example. We will do math and writing regularly, but they won't be long or deep assignments. (Lala Bug has taken to doing Beast Academy for fun, for example, and any writing counts right now.) Today, for example, we had a schooling day, complete with a walk, verses, writing, math, and then the kids got sucked into Mystery Science, which is fabulous hands-on learning fun (that we pay for). It felt like a pay day!

Learning happens all. the. time. (I.e., officially schooling or not, your kids (and you!) are still taking in, learning about, and processing the world around them.)

Summer reading! There are a number of reading programs and we invest happily in the library summer reading program available locally. There are rewards for the kids and, honestly, my kids are motivated just by the sticker sheet involved!

Life lessons. This is a favorite season to practice non-academic skills. I have a long list of skills we want to address with our kids before they grow up and move away on their own. They range from cooking to laundry to keeping a budget to changing a car tire. It is clear when they are or are not ready for a skill. Both kids were heavily involved in picking, cutting, cooking, and canning plum jam this week. They weren't ready to help with this last year.

And then there is the break. We need it. Actually, I think I need it more than they need it. I need the time and space and respite to unwind a little so I can re-center before starting to think about what needs to come next.

Happy summering!

366: 112

April 21, 2016

I haven't written in awhile. Mostly, it is because life gets busy and I like to include photographs and doing so takes time!

Today we had a really good day and I find that, while I used to need to write and share most often when things were hard, now I have a great impulse to share when something is going well.
 
For the last 5 weekdays, large chunks of Lala Bug's time has been spent in front of a computer, putting her attention into the annual standardized testing. To say she was a bit "fried" would be more than fair for this child who has limits in her sensory filtering. She did wonderfully, though, and we did wonderfully supporting her. (The odd schedule, lack of rhythm, and shuttling to and fro affected everyone.)

As a result, today, my only goal was to get us back into our rhythm, without any academic pressure. We had the loveliest day, beyond my expectations. I anticipated some fall out from the intensity of the last week (and that may still come), but today was untainted.

It began with my version of these little magical treasure jars waiting on the table for the kids. They were so well received, with the kids excitedly saying "the fairies left us presents!" After this discovery, the kids eagerly showed Dada their latest 'grasshopper math' game. Together, they made and taped down the 3 times table. I call out problems and they take turns jumping to the solution.

We had family breakfast, sent M off to work, had some wrestle, snuggle, giggle, connection time, and got ready for the day. The kids pulled out Kinetic Sand and mini trucks to play with during morning read-aloud. I wish I had a photo!

We had lunch and then packed up our backpacks (and magical sea glass!) and went to our favorite nearby park for some nature time. We were only there an hour, barely got far, but explored the whole walk to the "quiet spot" Little Brown Mouse picked. I am amazed and pleased with how many plants the kids know.

We plopped ourselves down, did some drawing for a bit, listened to the birds, and then Little Brown Mouse declared he was ready to go home. I think he was eager to return to the Sparkle Stories Nature School story we had paused half way through. Okay! I was happy we had all engaged enthusiastically and found some peace in the time in nature.

Home again, we cleaned up a bit, had some more connected play time and snacks, the kids wrote about their adventure for their sea glass jar, and I let the kids watch a Magic School Bus. After that, Little Brown Mouse practiced ukulele and had a bubble bath while Lala Bug and I got some one on one time making herbal remedies. She chose to make some tea and ice pops for sore throats. I felt loved...I think it was because I have been feeling rough due to allergies.

Before I knew it, both kids were in their bathing suits in the bubble bath together. That hasn't happened in months. (There have been so many changes and so much growth in the past year that there has been a little grieving from both kids. Brown Mouse was missing baths with his sister and what I think started as "okay, I'll hop in because he keeps asking" turned into mutually rolicking fun with bubbles and laughter galore.)

Homemade minestrone and homemade corn muffins (from ground corn from the harvest festival, yum!) for dinner and snuggles and books on the couch with Dada home again rounded out a very sweet day.