Gardening

We started seeds.  Way.  Too.  Early.  This year we watched the Christmas parade in sweatshirts. There was practically no winter weather.  On a freakishly warm day in February we spent a few hours rebuilding our raised beds.

Then in March we started seeds, and right about the time they should have been planted out we got a snow storm.






As soon as the April snow melts we'll take these babies outside.

Library Haul 12/9/15

I have a backlog of pictures from library hauls that I never got up onto the blog, so here is the super late picture of some of the books we used to study some earth science.

Right around this time, the boys also vetoed ancient history and decided that they would rather study American history.  I think it was inspired by the Little House audio books we were working our way through.  When I told my husband about our change of plans he complimented me on my flexibility. I tend to get "attached" to my plans.  I still tried to work through the facts in chronological order, rather than skip to the 1800's.  And these are some of the books we started with.

Bedtime Poetry

On "good nights", when I have my act together and I finish the bedtime stories without falling asleep or losing my temper, I like to end the day by standing in the hall between the boys' and girl's rooms while I sing a handful of songs and read poetry.  I generally sing the same four or five songs, but I've been rotating the poems to try and give the kids a diverse smattering.  I try to get in two poems a night, chosen to coincide with the season or a holiday.  I read the same ones four or five times before moving on to the next selection.  Some of the poems we have covered this year are...

     All by Robert Frost
Mending Wall
Birches
After Apple Picking
The Road Less Traveled
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
    
     From the Random House Book of Poetry for Children
A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore
I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford
From: A Christmas Package by David McCord
Harvest Home by Arthur Guiterman
August by John Updike
The Months by Sara Coleridge
When All the World is Full of Snow by N.M. Bodecker
Our House by Dorothy Brown Thompson
One Day When We Went Walking by Valine Hobbs

Library Haul 10/16/15

The kids were given a choice of topic for this one.  They picked inventions/machines and oceans.  Here's what we actually checked out.

 Reading practice.  Chosen by me, with their tastes taken into consideration.

 I thought that a couple of days measuring and recording our findings could only do us good.

 Two of the three invention books we checked out.  The other one might have made it up into the bedroom.

Three of our ocean choices.  Another one about salt marshes is probably upstairs as well.  I highly recommend any Arnosky books for nature lovers at this age.  The book Shimmer & Splash is one of his.  He also wrote the Crinkleroot books.

Bread Recipe

For the last four years we have made most of our bread at home.  At first we used a bread machine, but when that bit the dust we started making it by hand.  Besides the fact that I can't leave the house during the process, I don't find it any harder.

Because our kids don't eat meat and they are on the picky side, we use the bread to add foods to their diet that they would otherwise turn up their noses at.  Each child has a favorite type of bean and they all eat peanut butter, but that doesn't seem like enough protein variety to me.  Since we generally stock cooked beans in the fridge I make sure that I rotate the type of bean we use in our bread recipe.  Same story with nuts and seeds.  Monday's bread might feature chick peas and walnuts and Wednesday's bread could have black beans and pumpkin seeds.  If I have almond flour on hand I usually sub some of that in, too, in place of regular wheat flour.

Each recipe makes two small boules.

10 ounces warm water
1 cup beans
1/2 cup nuts or seeds

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup of ground flax
scant tbsp bread machine yeast
1 tsp table salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp blackstrap molasses or honey

Blend the first three ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth.  Add to other ingredients and knead in the bowl for 2 to 3 minutes.  Cover with a warm damp cloth for 30 minutes.

Knead the dough another 2 to 3 minutes, split in two and shape into boules.  Oil a baking sheet and sprinkle cornmeal on it.  Place the boules on the baking sheet and cover with a damp cloth for 45 minutes.

Uncover the dough and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Once the oven is hot, bake the bread for 40 minutes.

I find that this recipe makes a hearty, reliable sandwich bread.  I always feel better about the kids eating bread when we make it ourselves and can control for things like oil and preservatives.  The only trouble is not eating it all myself.  ;)

Noms

Just some pictures of what meals are looking like around here.  Our farm share started about a month ago and I couldn't be happier with it.

Carrots in looove...

Literally eating my salad out of a serving bowl.

Salad and homemade bread with this tahini dressing.  I never use oil in it.  I sub in extra lemon, water or veggie broth.

The kids have been bagel obsessed lately.  I joke a lot that we're glutenarians.

Anniversary Weekend

Last weekend my husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a trip to Vermont.  My mother and stepfather gave us two nights in a hotel with some travel points that they had accrued, and they took the kiddos for two nights.  Sometimes I can't believe how lucky we are.

So Friday we handed the kids over and hopped in the car.  We used the Happy Cow website to hunt down a vegan restaurant in Burlington and we were so happy with the one we found.  Revolution Kitchen is a small, maybe 10 table place, with delicious, local veggie food and we loved our Friday night dinner so much we ate there again on Saturday.  Two words.  Maple.  Cake.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and trekked up Camel's Hump mountain.  We took the Forest City trail up and Burrows down for a roughly four and a half mile round trip hike.  The day was perfect and the views were gorgeous.  I bet we only saw twenty other hikers all day, which was a refreshing change from Mount Washington, which we typically do once a year.  Climbing four hours and then waiting in line with the bus tourists for a bathroom stall is so anti-climactic.  In light of how nice it was to have some mountain time to ourselves, I think we'll change our Mount Washington plan this August and try a less popular spot.

Driving back home we were hatching schemes to move up to Vermont and I have to be honest, I've been head-in-the-clouds daydreaming about old farmhouses and giant vegetable gardens for days...