Posted in From my kitchen, Homemaking, Moderation and Economy on Apr 26th, 2010
HUMMUS! It’s my favorite, thrifty, last-minute dish when the kids need a savory snack, or we need to bring a side-dish to a get-together. It’s always a hit and goes great with crudite, chips, falafel, bagels, you name it!
Homemade hummus is so easy and frugal and delicious, I can’t understand buying a teensy little tub [...]
Posted in Spinning on Apr 25th, 2010
The first batch of Easter-egg dyed yarn is off the wheel. Not a bad attempt, and I can see a lot of improvement from the beginning of one bobbin to the end of the next. And the girls enjoyed drafting from time to time, or putting a foot on top of mine and helping me [...]
Posted in Building Community, Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Apr 23rd, 2010
Slowly, slowly, things are taking shape in the garden. Last Saturday, 9 volunteers came to help pot up summer squash, plant potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and continue dig up bamboo for the future raspberry bed. And earlier, I was able to get 25 donated asparagus crowns planted.
Baby leeks, onions, basil, cilantro, parsley and thyme are all [...]
Posted in Learning, Playing/ Free Exploration, Spinning on Apr 20th, 2010
We’ve been studying a lot about map reading and map making, and yesterday afternoon I brought out a huge sheet of posterboard and let the children create and label their own “treasure map”. (Little Hen’s idea is to re-create the map in real-life in the backyard and then use their map to find the “treasure”. [...]
Posted in Crafting, Learning, Playing/ Free Exploration on Apr 9th, 2010
Look who decided to help himself to the craft supply box while I was attempting to make dinner (and the girls were having a tickle war).
It’s hard to believe that Tum Tum will be TWO next month…he’s outgrowing so much of his sweet baby-ness. I loved watching him drawing intently and singing to himself all [...]
Posted in Locally grown, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Apr 5th, 2010
On the upper left, a “cage-free organic” egg from the grocery store. On the lower right, an egg from Plucky, one of our hens. (I’d hate to add in a factory farmed egg – it couldn’t hold a candle.)
Now, which one do you think is the way a chicken egg is supposed to look? Which [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, Nature Table, Our home, The Gift of God on Apr 3rd, 2010
Preparing for our celebration of the Resurrection tomorrow:
The children’s baskets may be put out awaiting little treats from a certain visitor, but our hearts and minds are fixed the redemptive joy of tomorrow.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, Homemaking, Locally grown, Moderation and Economy, Working the earth/harvesting its bounty on Apr 1st, 2010
A few quick pictures Firecracker and I took in the garden yesterday afternoon:
The chickens having a grand time in the compost bin.
All sorts of things are germinating – peas, peas and more peas, chard, kale, mustard greens, beets, lettuce, poppies, sweet peas, calendula, artichokes, chives, parsley and basil.
The garlic and shallots we planted last [...]