Garden goodness: Preserving it all

My apologies for the delay in getting a new post up, friends.  It has just been busy around here.  Mark and I were able to get away for a few days last week, just the two of us, which I am so thankful for. We stayed at a bed & breakfast, took long walks together, watched the Olymics, watched a movie, read our books, prayed together, ate great food, and rested well.  It was delightful.

Prior to that I did a lot of dehydrating.  Lots of apples.  And then I made some applesauce:

Have I ever shown you one of my favorite things?  THIS is my making-applesauce friend:

You just slice the apples (removing the core, but leaving the peel on), boil the apples in a bit of water for a few minutes until they're soft, and then dump them into this sieve thing, and use that wooden mallet to shove them down and to the sides, add cinnamon and sugar to taste and you get applesauce. 

I also made some jam and did some canning:

 

Our garden is growing lots of green beans right now.  I wasn't up to canning beans, so I used this method again to pickle some vegetables to keep in the fridge. This year I did carrots, green beans, onions, cucumbers and peppers (the carrots and green beans were the only thing from our garden.)  

We're also getting tons of these delicious Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes, which I've dried and frozen whole and eaten fresh.  But my VERY FAVORITE way to eat them this summer is to roast them.  Slice them (or any other tomato from your garden) in half and put them on a cookie sheet (on parchment paper or silpat).  Peel some garlic cloves, slice them, and throw those in there, too.  Then add some fresh herbs.  Basil or thyme is what I have, so that's what I've done.  Then drizzle a bit of olive oil on the top of it all, sprinkle some salt, and roast in the oven for about an hour (at 250 or 300 degrees).  This makes them all mushy and yummy, like a paste.

If you have a baguette or some crusty bread or crackers or anything like that?  Grab that, spread on some goat cheese, and then dollop some of your yummy roasted tomatoes on the top of that and you will be SO HAPPY.  Yum.

Later this week I will get back to my Evaluating our School Year homeschool series.  Which feels weird since I'm actually beyond that, now, and am in full-on planning mode already for next year, but I will press on.  ;)

Oh!  You may notice some changes here on the blog- with design and layout.  I'm working on changing it but it will be wonky until it's all settled.  Bear with me. 

Love to you all,
~Stacy

Breakfast Of Choice

I'm sure I've mentioned that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I almost always eat different things than the kids-- I'll make them muffins or scones or pancakes or coffee cake, but I rarely eat those things for all the calories (except those Raspberry White Chocolate Scones.  I ate TWO).  So if I can squeeze in ten minutes to make myself breakfast and about five minutes to eat it, I am a happy girl. :)  This is much easier when I'm not trying to homeschool, also, so summertime is such a treat for me.

Now you get to hear about my Breakfast Of Choice for the past several days.  I'll keep eating it as long as I have ripe tomatoes in the garden and crusty bread, because YUM.

I take a piece of french bread or sourdough and toast it.  While that's toasting, I head outside to pick some fresh tomatoes (these are Sungold) and some fresh basil leaves.  Then I spread or crumble some chevre cheese on top of the toast (maybe 1-2 tsp), and fry up an egg or two and dump it on top of the toast.  I then slice the tomatoes and snip or tear the basil on top and then top it all off by drizzling some balsamic reduction over it all.  It is so delicious.  And it makes me so happy.

Is your mouth watering?  Do this. Or some variation of it.

My kids had breakfast cookies, which they were quite happy about:

I even added mini M&M's.

Monday's Garden Walk

Photos and a short garden tour

Strawberry bed #1  Waiting for some weeding attention.  ;)

Mark and Ella, working on a puzzle.  I love these two.  

Sourdough bread, the last time I baked it.  But does anyone remember when I was bemoaning my sourdough bread rising problems?  This is that same recipe, right here.  And look at that rise!  I was so proud of myself.  (Now that we're in this trial period of eliminating gluten, I really miss baking bread.  I tried a g-f bread recipe this past week and it was so disappointing. I couldn't even finish one slice.  There's just no comparison.)

Our side yard-- all green and flourishing.  I love this little area, all overgrown with ferns and hosta and bleeding hearts and peonies and other perennials.  One of the reasons I love this area so much is that we did it ourselves (see back to this post), and I remember what a fun family project this was.

Peonies!  Peeking over the picket fence.  These make me so happy.

Tomatoes in the galvanized buckets, strawberries in the planters, a little pot of thyme.

Our strawberries just a week ago, when they were first beginning to ripen.  (For the past few days we've been able to pick a handful of ripe berries per day!)

Strawberry bed #2 (and my toes), as I wonder what happened to that dead section 

in the center of the bed.

Today: Meals and School

This morning I was up early-- our days go so much better when I am-- and exercised, had a quiet time, and showered.  The girls were arguing because one daughter (lets call her Daughter 1) wanted the little pink shorts for her doll that were being worn by my other daughter's (Daughter 2) doll.  So of course Daughter 1 just took them off and began putting them on her doll.  I instructed her to give the shorts back-- don't take-- and instructed my other girls to please try to find Daughter 1 something she would be happy having her dolly wear.  Then, after that pronouncement and mid-way through my shower, I re-thought that, remembering the verse "It is more blessed to give than to receive" and wondered if I shouldn't have gone the other way and instructed Daughter 2 to just let her have them.  Aagh.  I don't know.  By the time I was out of the shower, Daughter 2 had shared half her doll clothes with Daughter 1 and they were both happy (and Daughter 1 had apologized for taking them), so I guess they worked it out.  I went and commended Daughter 2 for sharing and told her of the verse I'd thought of in the shower; and how happy I was that she had been generous. 

Then I went to prep dinner.  We're having Peruvian Chicken tonight.  Chicken with paprika, cumin, lemons and garlic cloves, with sweet potatoes.  Sounds good, right? Anyway, I had to cut up a whole chicken, which I'm not sure I've ever done before.  Generally I buy them whole and go this route.  As I was cutting into the chicken with my very dull knife, I was muttering about how it's no wonder people don't usually do this, and it might be the very last time I do.  Sheesh.  Thank you, butchers everywhere.

Photo from the cookbook Meals Made Simple, p 116: Peruvian-Style Chicken

(If we like this recipe-- it's a new one; we'll see-- I already plan to revise it and do the whole thing in the crock pot next time around.  I just like to try to follow instructions the first time.)  Anyhow, all those pieces of chicken are currently marinating in a bag in the fridge and it looks to be delicious.

We gathered at the table for breakfast at around 9:15, and the kids ate leftover Rhubarb Pound Cake (sans some lemon zest, and with yogurt and cream cheese and sour cream (in place of *just* the sour cream)), because that's how I roll.  (In that I use what we have on hand, and we were low on sour cream but had some yogurt, but low on yogurt but have cream cheese.)  It was scrumptious.  And they had leftover egg casserole, too.

my oft-used recipe for Rhubarb Pound Cake

Then we started morning time.  We read from the Bible-- about Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and Jeremiah this morning, read Proverb 16, sang four verses of the hymn There is a Fountain, read our poems (Bilbo's Walking Song and The Cow), and prayed together.

This morning's prayer list:
-Abby's theater performance and upcoming surgery
-our friends who are on a road trip
-another friend who is struggling with several auto-immune diseases and who is going on a strict diet beginning today
-for our Compassion child in Ecuador, her and her family's safety because of the recent earthquake,
-for the presidential election-- (my two littlest girls praying fervently for God to soften the hearts of those running; for them to follow Him.)
-for the refugees

We moved into the living room and did picture study-- our second from Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, where Ella described the painting to the others, who listened, then asked questions.  Then they all got to look and comment.  (While Ella was describing, I was in the kitchen making my breakfast, then I ate it while they were all looking at the painting.)

Then I read-aloud from Peter Duck (#3 in the Swallows & Amazons series) while the kids drew or colored or played quietly.

Mark stopped in for coffee as I was reading aloud, and the kids headed outside shortly afterward for outside time.  After seeing Mark out and making myself a latte, I started writing this post.  And smelling these lovely peonies from the garden that adorn our table:

I called the kids in after about half-hour, and Isaac asked if he could stay outside because he was working on something. He's been whittling with his knife.  [Update: Wow!  He just came in and showed me what he made!  I'm impressed.]

Isaac's knife, carved from a stick.  He just needs to sand the blade to smooth it some more.

The rest of the kids are indoors now and working independently from the list on their clipboards-- math and history and cursive and such things.  I'm amazed I haven't been interrupted twelve times, but alas, I haven't.  So I'll get to publish this post and then make the rounds and check in on everyone, then maybe respond to some emails and clean the kitchen and then it will be time for lunch.

I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

Photos of our yard/garden

Look, photos!  (I just uploaded them straight into blogger (thank you, Tamara, for the idea), so the technical issues with Flickr/Yahoo remain, but I can do photos this way, so I'm thankful:

Garden planted, 2016 | carrots, pole beans, sugar snap peas, sunflowers, tomatoes, swiss chard, romaine, kale, spinach, cucumbers and rhubarb there on the bottom right.

The kids happily playing in the sprinkler while we also water the strawberries (in two raised beds, behind the girls, and in planters along the patio) and raspberries (along the fence).

New-to-them pool for the season.  They love it.

Random updates and some technical issues

Well.  I was all set to write a new post a few days ago and went to upload my photos to Flickr (so I could then pull them into my blog post; because that's how I do it) and suddenly I can't get into my Flickr account.  Lovely.  So... no photos.  You'll just have to imagine the photos.

Arghh.  Stuff like that completely stresses me out.  I had a good system, for *years*, and now all of a sudden they've changed something and I'm locked out.  I am SO not technically minded.  And I don't know what to do other than to email the customer care department (done) and pray that God will help me to figure that all out.  (A similar thing happened to my YouTube account, years ago.  We had changed our email and in all the notifying of various companies about the change, I forgot about YouTube, and so I lost access to my account because it was no longer linked to my former email.  I spent MONTHS trying to figure that one out.  To this day, there are all these sweet videos on there of my kids when they were little that I can watch, but not access.)  It breaks my heart and it's what makes me hate technology.  I don't always know all the rules and then suddenly it's out of my hands and I can do nothing about it.  And also, you can never reach an actual person about these things and I hate that, too.  Anyway.  I'll stop rambling about my woes.

* * *

We've been busy around here.  We planted our garden this past weekend (imagine photos here), which feels so good to get done.  We've had a uncharacteristically warm spring, and our weather feels much more like summer, and we could have planted a MONTH ago, but because of all that was going on with Isaac, such things fell by the wayside.  But now our garden is in and we're checking it daily for those first little plants.  This year we planted a patch of sunflowers, pole beans, sugar snap peas, carrots, romaine, spinach, kale and chard, tomatoes and cucumbers.  Our rhubarb is flourishing and providing us with all sorts of delicious baked goods, our strawberries are green and growing, and our raspberries and blueberries are coming along, too.

We bought a backyard pool for the kids and they've been happily splashing around. (Imagine more photos here).   I've been able to hang laundry on the line again, which I love.  It feels like summer, except, um: Hi there, SCHOOL.    We still have 9 weeks left.  Yipes.  So we've just been doing as much as we possibly can outside: read-alouds, morning time, painting, and nature study. And then go-get-your-books-and-a-blanket-and-find-somewhere-in-the-yard-to-do-your-schoolwork type of school.  Mommy will be right here, outside with you in case you need help.  ;)  And we're all loving it.

When I'm exercising, and not listening to music, I have been listening to:
~Sally Clarkson's At Home With Sally, with Kristen Kill
~Matt Chandler's sermons from The Village Church.  He's recently been doing a series on Family Discipleship that I've enjoyed.

Isaac has been well, and from all I can tell, healing in all areas.  Then this morning he told me his stomach was in pain, and he had joint pain again in his fingers.  OH.  So.  I quizzed him on everything he ate yesterday and can't determine what might have brought that on, so we'll keep waiting, watching, praying and taking notes.


Love to all of you!
~Stacy

Five snippets from my ordinary life

1. The other night I was asleep by 9:30 and slept till 5:30.  I was awake briefly and then went back to sleep until 8:15.
(This NEVER happens.)
(It is entirely possible that it's been since ELEMENTARY SCHOOL since I've gotten this much sleep.)
(I am not exaggerating.)
(I am still in shock.)

One of my issues is that if I wake up during the night for any reason (a child with nightmares, a husband who might possibly snore sometimes a very tiny bit, (Doesn't that make it sound so nice?)), my mind flips on and then I cannot go back to sleep.

So, a normal night's sleep for me is that I go to sleep very very late (say, 12:00), and then I wake up in the 3 or 4 o'clock hour and cannot go back to sleep for the life of me.  Sometimes I will doze back off to sleep after tossing and turning and trying for hours, so I may tag on another hour or so, but...  I average about 4-5 hours of sleep a night.  It's crazy, I know.  (Am I the only one with this problem?)  Sometimes I just get up and just embrace the fact that I'm awake. (Mark found me in the kitchen baking bread at 4:30 in the morning a couple of weeks ago.)  Most of the time I'll journal or read until I feel sleepy again.

That was a LOT of sleep, and I consider it a huge gift. 

2.  I am halfway through the book Oliver Twist.  I've always wanted to read it and have owned it for years but have just never delved into it.  (The only other thing I'd ever read by Dickens was A Christmas Carol, which, honestly- I do not love, and which, most likely, is what made me hesitate on reading anything else of his.)  Until now.   And--- I love it.   The language and the characters are so rich, and it makes me love Dickens and want to read more.  Dickens delights me with the longest, most detailed sentences, and I am now ever so fond of him.

3.  Ella and I have been so blessed to go to a couple of concerts together lately.  Recently we saw Sara Groves and also Rend Collective!  Loved them BOTH.

4.  Have I told you about this recipe for French Bread Rolls?  If I haven't, it's only because I've been too busy baking them.  If you want an easy roll recipe, use this one.  They turn out beautifully and your family will thank you.  I promise.  And then beg you to make them again.

5.  Springtime is showing itself all around our house-- our camellia is blooming, our flowering trees are blooming, tulips are coming up in the gardens and some of our other annuals, the grass is growing and green, the birds are happily singing, and I am thoroughly excited about it.  I am longing for warmth and sunshine, and more outside time as a result of those two things.  As much as I love our cozy little home with our crackling fire, I cannot WAIT for warmer weather. 

Garden notes and drying tomatoes

I knew when we planted our garden this spring that I didn't want to do a lot of canning.  It's just a lot of work, and I was tired and wanted rest. 

Ahem.  I did NO canning.  Oh, wait.  That's not true.  I think I did up two batches of freezer jam: one strawberry and one peach.  But still.  That's not a lot.  I imagine I'll regret that come fall and winter.  But when it's 80-something degrees in the kitchen, I just cannot get motivated to can.  No way.

I froze a lot of berries- strawberries and raspberries from our yard.  We made several batches of fruit leather.  We ate beans fresh and roasted them up for a few dinners.  We made a lot of tomato-and-cucumber-and-garlic-and-basil-and-feta salads.  YUM.  

 

I still have tomatoes and basil coming out my ears.  So this morning I was up early in the garden and picked a huge bowl of Sun Gold tomatoes (my favorite), and decided to try drying them.  I just sliced them in half (quartering the larger ones), and then in a food processor, blended about 10 leaves of basil and a couple of garlic cloves and olive oil, and drizzled it all over the top of them.  Sprinkled salt and pepper over the top and we'll see how it goes.  But I cannot WAIT to try them.  They look and smell delicious.  :) 

I'm contemplating doing this with my rhubarb.  Has anyone ever tried this?  And I'm definitely making some more rhubarb syrup just as soon as I can get ahold of some cheesecloth. 

End of the Year Thoughts & A Garden Walk

This week stretches ahead of us with literally NOTHING on our calendar: just a whole string of days at home with no school, no evening engagements, no commitments whatsoever.  [insert deep sigh of relief right here]

It's been a busy year.

The past few weeks people have been asking me and the kids, "Are you done with school yet?" (Yes, we were done early last week.)  I kept thinking about it in terms of the *kids* being done with studies and school, and it being their summer break and how happy I am for them....

It took all of last week before I realized how much easier MY life is without the addition of schooling.  All of a sudden I have no school-related questions coming at me from all five kids every day (Where is the pencil sharpener?  Mommy, will you help me with this math problem?  Where's the history book?  Mommy, can I narrate to you?  Mommy, can you look at this?  Mommy, I need some more of these pages printed.  Can you read this and see if I misspelled anything?)  All those types of questions?  Done.  No stack of things to correct in the evenings, no lesson plans to come up with (just yet), no looking at the week ahead to see what we need to accomplish, no writing everything up on the dry erase board each day, no hands-on sitting through a dictation lesson or a kindergarten lesson or a math lesson.  I am sort of stunned at how much is suddenly off my plate.  I seriously feel like a full-time job has just ended. 

For many mothers the end of the school year means they're suddenly ON: the kids are home, you have to keep them occupied for the hours a day they were previously in school.  For a homeschooling mother?  The end of the school year means rest.  Blissful, much needed REST. 

So happy summer break to ME!  And my kids!  :)  And you and yours if you're summering with us.

Care to take a walk with me through our garden this morning?

these are our May-Day flowers from Mark- he always gets all of his girls a flower, and I plant them all together.

You've seen this photo, but I wanted it here for comparison.  This is our garden, right after planting- May 19

and here it is nearly a month later- June 15

beans!- with my grandpa's old bean poles.  those poles make me so happy.

our happy rhubarb- already this year we've made rhubarb muffins and rhubarb coffee cake.  so delicious!

sun sugar tomatoes: these were my *favorite* addition to our garden last year, and I can hardly wait to taste them again!

romaine: probably what we harvest *the most* from our garden: for yummy summer salads

Ella's carrots

cucumbers- and in the back there, some more- amongst the weeds ;)

still some strawberries!

and all sorts of raspberries right now!

so... raspberries for breakfast this morning! :)

pretty hydrangeas- already blooming!

this is my favorite color of hydrangea

my cute Ella- up early and outside reading Rilla of Ingleside

cheery window box

front porch petunias

hanging basket

corn in the back garden.  knee-high by the fourth of July?  NO PROBLEM.

blueberries!- with more raspberries behind

one of our old girls, checking out what I was doing

red geranium on the patio table

the pot of clothespins I use pretty much daily

basket of eggs- waiting to be washed- on our very messy back porch

Eventually they all joined me outside:

Happy day to you from all of us!