Mexico

The house is clean, the bags are packed, and 5:00 is going to come early tomorrow. We're headed to Cancun, Mexico for a week's relaxation and adventure with my family. I'll be back after the new year. So enjoy your down time between Christmas and New Years, and have a wonderful week.

Homemade yogurt

I love yogurt, but it can be expensive. Especially if you buy it in those cute little individiual serving cups with the foil lids. Store bought yogurt often has preservitives, stabilizers, thickening agents and loads of sugar. And talk about excess packaging. Thankfully yogurt is very easy to make at home, and no, you don't need any fancy equipment. Just a quart sized jar, a few tablespoons of prepared yogurt (either store bought or from a previous homemade batch) and a place to keep it warm.


If you're using store bought milk, you'll want to pasturize it first, to make sure there are no organisms present to compete with the yogurt cultures. Put 1 qt of milk into a small sauce pan and heat to 180*, stirring frequently. If you don't have a thermometer, this is not rocket science. Just heat it to just before it boils, and then turn off the heat. Let it cool down to about 110*. If you're using raw milk, just heat gently to 110* so as not to distroy the benificial enzymes in the milk. Once the milk is at about 110*, stir in about 1/4 cup of prepared yogurt. For your first time, it's fine to use store bought yogurt. Just make sure you get one with live active cultures. Dannon is a good brand that's easy to find. I like to use Brown Cow, found in Whole Foods or the healh food section of a regular grocery store. It's easiest if you stir a little milk into the yogurt first, and then stir the thinned yogurt into the rest of the milk. Then pour it into your quart sized jar, and rubberband a towel or coffee filter over the mouth of the jar.


Now all that's left is to find a way to keep it at about 110* for the next 8-18 hours. There are several methods for doing this. I have a gas oven with a pilot light, so I just pop it in there and leave it. Similarly, if you have an electric oven you can put it in with the oven light on. Beware with using your oven, if you need your oven to cook dinner, remove your yogurt before preheating your oven or you'll kill your culture. In my last apartment my oven didn't have a pilot light or an oven light, so I had to get a little more creative. I bought a heating pad (like for a bad back) for about $9 at a drug store. I would put my yogurt on the heating pad on low, and cover the whole thing with a dishtowel for insulation, and this worked fine. Some other methods are to use your crockpot on the warm setting with water surrounding your jar, or using a small insulated cooler with warm water, of find a yogurt maker at a thrift store and let it do the incubating. I haven't tried any of these, but have heard good results from people who have.

The yogurt needs to stay warm from 8-18 hours. The longer you incubate it, the thicker and more tart it will be. I usually aim for about 10 hours, but the process is flexable. When it's done, just pop a lid on your jar and toss it into the fridge. I like to flavor my yogurt as I'm eating it, so that I always have plain yogurt in the fridge for starting my next batch. I like to stir in maple syrup (as in the first photo) or honey. You can also use jam for fruit yogurt, and it wouldn't be bad with a little chocolate syrup if you're feeling particularly naughty.

Menu Planning 12/21/2008

Menu planning is one of the areas of homemaking that I really struggle to keep up with, but it makes such a difference when I take the time to do it. Menu planning serves so many purposes. It saves a lot of money by utilizing what you already have on hand and reducing the amount of waste. It saves time spent trying to decide what to have for dinner and being prepared with things that need done ahead of time. It saves frustration of not having advanced steps ready (ever forget to soak the beans or pull the chicken out of the freezer to defrost?) and it makes scratch cooking so much easier.

I always plan my weeks meals around what I already have in the pantry. First I check the upstairs freezer for any leftovers that need used up. Right now I have pork roast, chicken breast, turkey, and pinto beans in the freezer already cooked and just needing thawed and thrown into a recipe. If there is nothing suitable in the kitchen freezer, I check the downstairs freezer. It has whole chickens, one turkey, a few potroast cuts of beef, a little ground beef, and several packages of boneless skinless chicken breasts. I also plan for leftovers to be rolled into other meals. If I roast a chicken at the begining of the week, I plan at least two other meals that week that use cooked chicken such as soup or cassarole. AllRecipes and RecipeZaar are great websites for finding recipes to use what you already have in the house. Durring my weekly grocery shop, I shop to stock the pantry and freezer, not for specific meals. If there are a few ingredients or spices that I need for something specific I'll go ahead and pick those up, but I don't buy a whole meals worth of ingredients in the week that I make that meal. This saves a lot of money because I try to plan meals that use spices I typically have on hand, or just buy small amounts of spices/ingredients if it's something i don't use often. Also, say I was planning a chicken meal that needs boneless, skinless chicken breasts. These are usually $4.50/lb making them a fairly expensive (to our family anyway) cut of meat. But several weeks ago they were on sale for $1.88/lb, and I got 6 packages. So now I already have chicken in the freezer and don't need to pay full price. So I plan all of my shopping trips around what's on sale, and I plan my menus around what's in the freezer.

This weeks menu:
I have pork roast, cooked diced chicken breast, and pinto beans in the freezer that I pulled into the fridge to defrost.

Sunday: Pork roast with gravy, sweet potatoes, peas
Monday: Crockpot pork and beans, popcorn cauliflower, applesauce
Tuesday: Chicken noodle soup, bread, kale
Wednesday: Christmas Eve dinner with family
Thursday: Christmas Day dinner with family
Friday: BBQ chicke pizza
Saturday: we leave on vacation. Cancun here we come!!

Call to Action!

The CPSC & CPSIA have passed a new law to go into full effect February 10th 2009 requiring extensive testing for hazardous chemicals on all items manufactured that are intended for use by children. This sounds like a good idea on the surface. I mean, with all of the lead paint recalls and scary stuff coming out of China, who's not for stricter regulation and more rigorous testing? When it comes to children, you can't be too safe. Or can you?

The problem with this law is that the testing is required to be done by the manufacturer, and no exemption or allowance is included for size of business. The tests we're talking about can cost up to $5,000 with the average being around $500. And they need to be performed on every component of every item produced. Even large businesses are struggling to meet these new testing requirements, but small businesses and work at home moms don't stand a chance. Moms that sew boutique children's clothing in their homes, dads that make wooden toys, and small manufacturers would be required to test every button, every spool of thread, every bolt of cloth, every can of paint that is used in the production of any product intended for children. At $500 a pop, this puts most of us out of business.

Not only does this include small businesses and work at home parents, but the re-sale of children's items are subject to the same testing requirements. In addition to mandatory testing, the law states that any children's items produced before Feb. 10, 2009 that have not been tested will not be able to be sold. To sell the like new Christmas jumper that your daughter only wore once without complying with the mandatory testing would be considered a felony punishable by thousands of dollars in fines and jail time. Toy stores like Larson's and Sprout Soup will have thousands of dollars of unsellable inventory just sitting in their stock rooms.

The law extends even to foreign countries who wish to export items to the United States. If they don't comply with the testing, the US won't let the items in. In light of this, many terrific companies of wonderful, quality children's toys and clothing are going to stop shipping to the US. They just can't afford to. And don't think that a law like this could never be passed in the US. It already has. The best we can hope for now is to get an amendment to either provide exemption based on business size, or to put the burden of testing on the raw materials manufacturers. Require the cloth manufacturer to test, and then the sewing mamas can buy already tested/approved materials to work with.

Feb. 10, 2009 is being referred to as "National Bankruptcy Day" by many businesses and manufacturers. Please help us by making your voice heard!

Sign the petition:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/index.html

Change.org

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

The Handmade Toy Alliance has provided a sample letter and listed contact info for your Congress Person and Senators:

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

National Bankruptcy Day Site:

http://nationalbankruptcyday.com

Write to man who sponsored this bill and send him an item of yours that will be illegal to sell after Feb 9th, 2009 in protest.

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5949146

Bobby L. Rush (D)

Washington Office

2416 Rayburn HOB

Washington, DC 20515

phone: 202-225-4372

fax: 202-226-0333

We are the music makers...

Ode

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamer of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties,
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

A breath of our inspiration,
Is the life of each generation.
A wondrous thing of our dreaming,
Unearthly, impossible seeming-
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.

They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising.
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broke,
A light that doth not depart
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man's heart.

And therefore today is thrilling,
With a past day's late fulfilling.
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of tomorrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for it's joy or it's sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.

But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing;
O men! It must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
A little apart from ye.

For we are afar with the dawning
And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
Intrepid you hear us cry-
How, spite of your human scorning,
Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
That ye of the past must die.

Great hail! we cry to the corners
From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers,
And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
And things that we dreamt not before;
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

(1844 - 1881)

Simplifying Christmas

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I love being warm and cozy inside under an afghan with a cup of tea while the snow is falling outside. And I love any holiday that brings family together to eat. But Christmas time brings with it it's own set of frustrations and stress, especially in light of my journey into simplicity. There's the stress of finding a gift for everyone on your list. There's the stress of dividing your time between families. There's the financial stress of everything that goes into Christmas: the gifts, the decorations, the tree, charity, etc. There's some stress in juggling the traditions you grew up with as a child with the ones your spouse did, and the new ones you want to institute in your young family. All of this works together to make a joyful holiday somewhat complex, and that's the opposite of what I'm striving for.

We are not a religious family, and as such we do not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. This in itself both simplifies some things and complicates others. Most of my family celebrates Christmas as the Christian holiday and birth of Jesus, and when we celebrate with our family we join in their traditions. Although my children are still young, this does open up the door for some deep conversations on why we believe what we believe, and why it's different than what Grandma and Grandpa believe. The flip side of that coin is the secular, industry driven consumption fest that masquerades as a holiday for much of America. This is something I strive to avoid at all costs as it goes against everything I believe in and am trying to accomplish in my family.

So how does one keep Christmas meaningful without religion or buying into the consumer driven holiday? Brad and I have talked a lot about how we want to handle Christmas in our family, what it means to us, and what we want it to mean to our children. We're working hard to instill some traditions that are in line with our beliefs both spiritually and environmentally. We stress Christmas as a time to celebrate family, be thankful for what the previous year has been, give back where you can and to cherish the people you love. We're having fun creating our own family traditions. Brad is learning Christmas carols on his guitar to sing as a family. Every year we've gone as a family to pick out a live tree and wreath for our door, and decorate it as a family. This year Owen had a blast "helping" me make a gingerbread house. (If you've seen that post, I admit I didn't let him help very much. Maybe next year.) And as the kids get older we would like to start volunteering over the Christmas holiday. My first thought goes to a soup kitchen, but it would be fun to let the kids choose a charity to give their time to also.

We've gone the fairly simple route with decorations this year. We do always get a live tree and wreath. I love the energy of having live plants indoors. I love the scent of pine every time we walk in or out of the house, or come down the stairs. We do minimal holiday lights. We do have lights on the tree, but even when we own a house I don't think we'll do a whole lot of landscape lights. They require electricity to run, many of them contain led, and they're expensive to maintain as they often need to be at least partially replaced each year. Also we don't buy themed ornaments for the tree. Our tree is very eclectic, with ornaments from my childhood, our first married Christmas, and gifts from friends and family over the years. I like that you can tell the story of past Christmas's at our home by the ornaments on our tree. Every one is special, and I know where each one came from. I remember as a child how much fun it was to unwrap the ornaments at Christmas and we would talk about when we got them as we put them on the tree. That's something I want for my children. This year I had my heart set on a rosemary tree for the kitchen table. I was going to decorate it with popcorn and cranberry strands and tiny salt dough snowflakes. But I've had the hardest time finding one, all the nurseries I've checked (well OK the one nursery I checked) and both Whole Foods here in town are sold out. I've decided it's not something to stress about. I'll start earlier next year and get one before they're gone. Then provided I don't manage to kill it, we'll have fresh rosemary all year, and a little tree to decorate the following Christmas too.

Another way we're trying to simplify this year is with gifts. Brad and I got each other one large thing apiece that we've been wanting. We've gotten a few small things for each of the boys, and one larger gift for them to share. I got many of their gifts used. They're young and won't care yet, and buying used keeps things out of the landfills as well as decreases the demand for new production and all of the environmental hazards that go along with it. I've also made a lot of my gifts for family, either on my sewing machine or in my kitchen. This year my dad, who is an accomplished carpenter, has undertaken to make gifts for everyone. I have never been more excited for a Christmas gift. I've been given a hint as to what the boys are getting, and it's everything I want for toys for them. Hand made, quality, open ended, imaginative play. Now there are so many people that love my boys, and you can never have too many people who love your children, that it stands to reason they will probably receive some gifts that I would not have purchased for them. We have a small apartment, and really don't have a lot of room for extra "stuff". So what to do when well meaning people bestow upon you the gift of clutter? If it's something for the boys and they truly love it, it stays regardless of whether I would have chosen it or not. For anything else that just doesn't work for our family, I feel fine donating it to a charity like Good Will. I believe that the people in our lives truly give out of love, and would be sad if I allowed a gift that we couldn't use to remain in the house causing stress just to make them feel good. I know that if I give a gift that didn't work for the recipient I would rather they pass it on to someone who could use it than to keep it and wish they hadn't.

I'd love to hear more ideas. What have you done this year to keep Christmas simple? What are your favorite traditions?

Gingerbread!

When I decided I wanted to make a real gingerbread house this year, this is what I had in mind. Something beautifully elaborate and detailed, down to the little candy candles in the windows and a snowy landscape that Santa himself would be jealous of. Well I looked a pictures and got ideas and recipes. I went to the grocery and got decorators icing, toothpicks, and more different kinds of candy than anyone could actually put on one gingerbread house. You should have seen Owen's eyes as I loaded up that shopping cart. I don't think he's seen that much candy in one place in his three years on this earth. I'm sure he thought mom was off her rocker, but who was he to question his good fortune?

Ever frugal, I cut my templates from empty cereal boxes. I mixed my ginger bread, rolled and cut all of my pieces. They looked surprisingly good. Here is the recipe I used for the gingerbread:

1 C butter, softened
1 3/4 C packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp dark molasses
1 1/4 C granulated sugar
6 eggs
6 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp each ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground allspice

1)Cream butter and sugars. Stir in eggs and molasses
2)Sift all dry ingredients together separately
3)Mix dry ingredients into wet until just combined, don't over mix
4)Knead dough on floured surface until completely combined
5)Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour
6)Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut template pieces
7)Bake on greased cookie sheet for 15 min at 325*, cool completely

I cut windows into the gingerbread when it was hot out of the oven. When all the pieces were cool, I put crushed butterscotch into the window pieces and baked them at 350* for about another 5 minutes on a foil lined baking sheet. Here's the window pieces with the crushed butterscotch candy:

And the windows once they were melted:
When everything was completely cool and ready to assemble I mixed up a batch of royal icing. I wanted most of the house to be edible, so I just used this for the construction, and used a butter cream for the rest of the decorating. Here's the royal icing recipe, and be warned, this stuff dries like cement, so work quickly and clean up as you go.

1 lb powdered sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
3 egg whites

Beat slowly until stiff peaks form

And the butter cream recipe:

1/2 C white shortening*
3 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 tsp clear vanilla*
1/4 tsp almond extract*
3-4 Tbsp milk or hot water

Beat shortening and flavoring for a minute, then slowly add half of the sugar, mixing well. Add half of the milk or water and mix well. Add the rest of the sugar and just enough water for the desired consistency, either spreading or piping.

*I used butter and regular vanilla, so my butter cream came out off white. I don't mind, I think it's pretty, and I hate Crisco, so there you go. I also left out the almond extract as I didn't have any, and I still think my icing tasted pretty good.

So after assembly and decoration (and barely making a dent in all the candy I bought to make this thing) Here is the final product!







Not quite magazine cover worthy, but not bad for my first try.

WallabyBags and Rosie Cheeks

So here an entire week has passed and I have barely mentioned what it is that I do. Well, other than mother, cook, clean, sew, can, and thriftshop. I have a shop on Etsy with recycled wool longies and diaper covers, and WallabyBags. The brand name for my longies is "Rosie Cheeks", and, well, they kind of speak for them selves.

I also do wrap style Velcro closure diaper covers.

Wool makes such a great diaper cover. It's anti microbial so it doesn't need washed after every wear. Just air it out between uses and the lanolin in the wool naturally neutralizes odors. It allows air to circulate to baby's bum, so hit helps cut down on diaper rash, and it is a natural fiber, which many moms like to keep next to their baby's skin.

I also designed and produce the patent-pending WallabyBags. In our home we have switched to reusable almost everything over the past couple of years. We use cloth diapers, towels, shopping bags and the thought of cloth tp is playing in the back of my mind. My husband might not go for that though. But we still went through a lot of plastic baggies. I pack my husbands lunch every day, and several days a week the boys and I are out around lunch time and I try to pack ours as well. I knew there had to be a better way. And thus was born the WallabyBag. They're laminated on the inside with polyurethane so they're water proof and keep your sandwich fresh. They fold over the top like the old school sandwich baggies to keep snacks contained with out Velcro to catch and hold crumbs, and they have a flat bottom to stand on their own for easy snacking. I put everything from peach slices to cheerios in these. I use them in the fridge to store cheese or cut veggies. My aunt had me make her several large ones and she uses them to store washed and cut greens for salad. And the best part? They're machine washable and dryable.

Thanks for taking a minute to check out my stuff. Hope you like it!

Thrift store adoration

I love thrift stores. Thrift shopping is one of my favorite things to do. And thankfully, the boys seem to enjoy it too. It doesn't hurt that we usually cruise the toy section first so they each have something to hold and keep them entertained while I peruse the aisles. Thrift store shopping is like a game, or a treasure hunt. Discovering the diamond amongst the lumps of coal. For best results, go often. Inventory is turning over every day so there's always something new. I've been on days were I toured the whole store and left empty handed, and I've gone on days where I filled my cart with treasures. It's hit or miss, but it's worth going often. My favorite thrift store has a half off day on the last Tuesday of every month, so I'm there at least monthly. I find like new items, new-with-tags clothing for the kids, and really cool vintage items on a regular basis.

In addition to finding cool stuff, it can't be denied that thrift shopping is a very frugal endeavor. I buy about 99% of clothes for myself and the boys at thrift stores. I rarely spend over $1.99 for a shirt or pants. If you know what to look for you can often find designer clothes for pennies on the dollar. I routinely find Gymboree and Children's Place for a dollar or so, and have even found boutique clothing like Hanna Anderson. In years that I don't have the time or inspiration to make them, I can find great Halloween costumes there. And as I mentioned in Sweater: Deconstructed I never try clothes on at the store, but for $.50 I can afford to make a few mistakes. In general about 75% of what I bring home works really well for me.

I also look at items in the thrift store as raw material for crafting. I get wool sweaters and felt them for longies and diaper covers, I use vintage or jersey sheets for fabric to make clothing and hand bags, I refashion clothing items into something new and different. And if I find something that just doesn't fit and isn't worth my time to alter, it goes right back into the donation box and I take it back to the thrift store next time I go.

Thrift shopping is not only good for my personal pocket book though. It is environmentally friendly and good for the community as well. Buying used not only saves me money, but it keeps things out of the landfills, and it decreases the demand for new manufactured goods helping to limit factory emissions. When I declutter I have little time to take pictures and list things on craigslist or deal with a garage sale, so any usable items I'm getting rid of go to the thrift store. I probably could make a little money trying to sell some things, but it saves so much time and headache to donate, and I feel good about giving. A lot of thrift stores support charity causes, so the money I spend there goes back into the community. Proceeds from Good Will go toward education, training, and career services for people with disadvantages, such as welfare dependency, homelessness, and lack of education or work experience, as well as those with physical, mental and emotional disabilities. Last year, local Good Wills collectively provided employment and training services to more than 1.1 million individuals. Salvation Army provides toys for kids at Christmas, coats for the homeless, food for the hungry, help for abused women and children, care for the elderly, and many other social services. Volunteers of America (my favorite thrift store here) provides services for children and families, developmental disabilities, elderly, emergency services, employment training, health care, homeless, housing, and much more. Be sure to check into the thrift stores in your area to see how they give back to the community.

Some of my best finds at thrift stores include a Thomas the Train play mat for my 3yo, a like new pressure cooker, some terrific clothes including an emerald green cotton/lambswool sweater and an 8 gore long skirt that fits perfectly and is very flattering, a spider costume for my 1yo for Halloween that was like new, some great vintage sheets, and every year I stock up on cookie tins for giving home made candy in.

If you've never stepped into a thrift store, I strongly encourage you to give it a try, you never know what you might find. And if you already shop at thrift stores you can feel good knowing that you are not only saving money, but are doing a good thing for the environment and the community.

Applesauce Adventure

I love fall. I love apple season. I love apples. I know the harvest season is now over, but I discovered that one of our local orchards still has Gold Rush apples in storage so I picked up 20# for apple sauce. If I had to choose one tree to plant on our land when we buy a house, this would be the one. I love things that double task, and there's nothing better than a plant that provides both shade and sustenance. These apples are the best tasting apples I've ever tried. They are very flavorful, sweet and tart. And properly stored they keep until June of the next season. I also picked up some Golden Delicious from the grocery to round out the apple sauce. I was looking for a sweet apple so I didn't need to add much sugar, but if I were to do it again I would opt for a more flavorful apple like Jonathan.

The above picture is a great example of the franken-fruit developed by the commercial grower. I happen to know that these Golden Delicious were shipped to Ohio all the way from Washington state. And that is rare, because usually you have no idea where fruit in the grocery is from. Compared to the Gold Rush, the Golden Delicious are frankenishly huge, and unnaturally pristine. And wouldn't you hate to be the person who's job it was to put that little sticker on every single apple? The Gold Rush apples are smaller, and not nearly as pretty, but in all the chopping I did I really came to appreciate the natural beauty in the imperfect apples. And the difference in the flavor is amazing. Biting into a Gold Rush apple is like taking a swig of fresh apple cider. The Golden delicious were very bland, with a bitter skin and almost no flavor. So buy local and organic when you can, it really makes a difference.

So here are three batches of apples all going at the same time. I had my three largest pots on the stove, and I still had three batches after these were done. I need to keep my eye out at the thrift store for a larger stockpot. I'm really not one for recipes or measuring. I'm a "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda girl in the kitchen, but I can give a general run down of how I turned these beautiful apples into yummy applesauce. After all of the apples are cored and sliced, they went into the pan with some water in the bottom, a stick of cinnamon, a dash of salt, a squirt of lemon juice (really brightens the flavor of the apple sauce) and some Sucanat (natural cane sugar). The lid goes on and they simmer for about 20 minutes, until all the apples are good and mushy. A quick turn through the food mill, which you can see in the second picture (thanks Rachel for letting me borrow it) and you've got this:
A huge pot of applesauce keeping hot while waiting for the water bath to come to a boil. If instead of canning it you let it continue on the stove, you get apple butter.
This stuff is so good it really should be illegal.

Thirty pounds of apples and 14 hrs later and I can sit back and gaze admiringly at my apple sauce. I turned out 7.5 quarts of applesauce, and 3 pints of apple butter. I think I'm in apple heaven. This process wouldn't have take nearly as long if I had a canner that could handle more then 4 pint jars at a time. One more thing to keep an eye out for a the thrift store.

Sweater: Deconstructed

And then reconstructed to fit much better.

I get 99% of clothes for myself and the boys at the thrift store. I love my thrift store. I have so many good things to say about thrift shopping that it deserves it's own post. Soon. But today we're talking about a sweater.

It's a beautiful sweater. The colors are so earthy and warm, perfect for fall. I love the rolled neck line. I hate the fit. I can never try things on at thrift stores because I always have a baby on my back and a preschooler in the cart and honestly, for $.50 I can afford for a few things to not fit quite right. Usually things that don't fit get turned around and immediately re-donated, but I thought this sweater deserved one last chance. It's a size Large, and I need it to be about a medium. I had already taken in the side seams by about two inches, but it fit very poorly in the shoulders. It really needed to be taken apart and overhauled. So here is what I did:

First I took out the serging from the previous attempt at taking in the sweater. Then I created a new arm scye about an inch inside the old one.

Next I trimmed the excess from the sleeve. Here are all my pieces once they've been cut down to size:

I also opened the sleeve about half way down the arm. The sweater was baggy under the arm too so I made the new arm scye a little smaller. When this is sewn up it will blend gently into the rest of the arm. Then I opened the sweater flat, and pinned the sleeve to the shoulder, right sides together.

For most projects that use the serger, I don't bother to sew before I serge. It's an extra step and I have very little patients. But for a project like this I do sew first. That way I can try it on before I serge. A single sewing machine seam is a lot easier to rip out then a serged seam if for some reason it's not quite right.



I tried it on at this point, to make sure the shoulder seams were in the right place. You want this seam serged before you sew up the side seam and underarm, so better to make sure it fits now. Once you're sure the seams fall nicely, go ahead and serge or zigzag stitch this seam.

Next you'll sew and then serge the side seams. Start at the hem and sew toward the armpit. Once to the point where the body meets the sleeve, line up your seams and sew on into the arm seam. Side seam and under arm seam are done in one long seam. Again you may want to try it on before you go back and serge this seam.

To finish your seams, thread all of your loose threads through a large eye needle and thread back through the first half inch of serging.

And you're done!!

Keeping Warm

Brrrr! The weather here has taken a sudden turn for frigid, and my hands are cold. I hate cold hands. What to do? Ah yes, make mittens! But I hate mittens. And I don't have the confidence in my knitting yet to attempt honest to goodness gloves, plus all I have in my yarn stash is worsted, and that would make a pretty bulky glove. The solution? Fingerless mittens!

I used the Evangeline pattern available on Ravelry. I love the cables in this pattern. Since my baby has the chicken pox and I can't really leave the house, I raided my yarn stash for some suitable wool. This is either Payton's or Lion brand wool, I don't remember. It was almost a soaker, but got frogged due to being short a few yards to finish the project. And yes, I discovered this when I was just a few rows away from being done. Since the yarn came from my stash, I am considering these gloves essentially free. I love free stuff. So now it's fingerless mittens for me. This project knitted up in just two days, which is pretty fast for me. Winter, here I come!

Chicken Pox

My baby has the chicken pox.
It started with one spot in his diaper area on Friday morning, and has since developed into a full blown head to toe case. He's doing remarkably well for how miserable he looks. Surprisingly, my three year old does not have them, even though he was exposed at the same time. Yes, that's right. I'm one of those moms who purposely exposes her kids to diseases in hopes to get them out of the way when they're young so we don't have to worry about it later. I'm well aware that there is a vaccine for the chicken pox. So far it is the only vaccine that we have decided to forgo.

Vaccinating kids is a very complex subject with strong feelings on either side of the equation. I believe that, in general, vaccines are a good thing. When my little brother was a baby he almost died from haemophilus influenza type B. There is now a vaccine for this and it has saved many parents from the worry that my parents went through. To me, however, the chicken pox vaccine is a little different. First of all, the chicken pox is a very manageable illness and complications in healthy children with normal immune systems is very rare. Yes it's a PITA, and the kids are miserable for about a week, but very very few children die from the chicken pox. Secondly, the chicken pox vaccine is a very new one, and not very effective at that. In the history of new vaccines, many get pulled after several years of use on the general population because risks are discovered that weren't apparent in the development stages due to inadequate testing. I'd rather my kid not be the guinea pig. Also, the chicken pox vaccine is a live virus vaccine. Kids can actually contract the disease from the vaccine, and kids and catch the disease from a child who has been recently vaccinated even if they do not appear sick. And probably my biggest reason for deciding against the chicken pox vaccine is that it is not a lasting immunity like the wild virus. Chicken pox can be a very serious illness to older children, teens, adults, and especially elderly. The extent of the pox is much greater in teens and adults, and the risks of complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis is much higher. I would rather my kids suffer a lesser case as a young child when they won't remember the ordeal and be set for life then get vaccinated as a child and risk being susceptible as a teen or adult when the risk is much greater.

So now that the little one has successfully contracted the chicken pox (we shared some suckers with a friend who currently had them) I am left trying to comfort a very itchy 14 month old. Sunday and Monday he had a bit of a fever, and really just wanted to snuggle all day. Fevers are a body's way of combating intruders, in this case the chicken pox virus, so I didn't treat it with anything other then extra hugs and cuddles. Last night was pretty rough, as he is now quite itchy and had a very hard time falling and staying asleep. To help relieve the itching so we could all get some sleep I did a few different things. First I applied tea tree oil to the spots. Tea tree oil is a very effective anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. While the tea tree oil was setting on his spots I drew a warm bath. I placed about a cup of oatmeal and 1/4 cup of baking soda into a thin cotton dish cloth and tied it shut. I placed this under the running water until the bath was cloudy. Then I popped my kiddo into the tub, and used the oatmeal cloth to sponge all his spots, squeezing the oat milk out all over him. He loved this, and he usually isn't a big fan of bath time. Then I pulled him out, patted him down, and gave him a fresh clean double thick cloth diaper. The itching was soothed enough that he was able to sleep for several hours. My husband repeated the oatmeal bath in the wee hours of the morning, and we all managed to sleep until 8.

And thus has been our experience so far with the chicken pox. Please remember that I am not a doctor, just a mother who reads too much. It is important that you do your own research on vaccines and include your pediatrician in your decisions.

Namaste

Welcome to my Blog

This is my blog. Please come in and make yourself at home. Leave your shoes by the door if you don’t mind. Can I get you a cup of tea or a glass of water? Once your shoes are off, feel free to put your feet up. Let me introduce you to my family. My husband Brad is the love of my life. I met him in my senior year of college, and knew at once he was the one. We were engaged within six months. He’s my hero, and it doesn’t hurt that he worships the ground I walk on. Owen is our oldest. He just turned three last month. He as the sweetest heart you’ve ever seen in a three year old. He’s my big helper. He was a happy surprise, and we were thrilled when we found out we were pregnant with him. Connor is my little one. He just turned one. He has the biggest most beautiful eyes I have ever seen, and his smile can light the darkest of rooms. And we have a cat named Gwenyvere. Brad hates her, but she was part of the deal when we got married so he deals with her. I think she goes out of her way to piss him off though. Evil cat. (I still love her, and she’s soft, so she’s got that going for her.)
Well, that’s the family, and we’re all happy to have you as our guest. Ever since I’ve become a mother I’ve wanted to raise my kids close to the land. I want them to grow up understanding where our food comes from, and how our actions impact the earth. As my dream of land to roam on is still several years away I am striving to implement the urban equivalent. I do my best to cook from scratch, eat local, use environmentally friendly products in my home, avoid consumerism, and simplify my life. In this blog I want to document our journey as we strive to make green lifestyle choice and mindful decisions about our home. Hopefully you will learn something new, teach me something new, and we’ll all leave better people.
Namaste