That morning

That wonderful morning Bear and I braved the howling winds on our walk, Sean spent an hour or so snowblowing the driveway. We are so glad we invested in a used snowblower this year, having paid for the driveway to be plowed in previous years at $20 a pop. With the amount of snow that's been dumped in upstate New York, it paid for itself in one month. We have a loooong driveway.


I love being able to stand over the cook stove, flipping eggs on the griddle and watch what is happening outside, snow blowing, sun rising over the hills, kiddos running about doing chicken and duck chores then sneaking in a quick sled down the driveway before breakfast, coming in to hover by the wood stove, rosy cheeked.


After an almost two month hiatus, our birds have begun laying again. I think they took Sean's threats to send them into the stew pot to heart. Store eggs just don't cut it after tasting these golden mounded beauties. With this weather, the race is always on to find the eggs before they freeze and crack.
We also began to notice Bear becoming a little rounder this winter and found she had become adept at opening locked chicken hutch doors...

On a side note, I've made a healthier variation of this quick bread recipe. I'll share it soon. It is a delicious combination of wheat, rye and white flours.




A few of the small ones of the household are still recovering from various colds and viruses but we're good. Sleep works miracles.
Sean took a few of the boys ice skating this morning so I think I'll go tackle another few loads of laundry while the house is fairly dull!
Have a beautiful day,
Hannah

This morning her paws left a trail beside my own in the deepening snow. No plows in sight yet on our quiet country road, still dark skies around us swirling white, perfectly silent, cocooned.

Animal tracks crisscrossed by our neighbor's home. He, pushing snow out into the road, our early morning greeting exchange carried off into the wind and over the hills.

I love to walk and pray more than I dislike getting out of a warm bed early on a cold morning, piling logs into the woodstoves, quickly drawing winter clothing out of the chilly coat closet and plopping them by the woodstove to warm.

The pull and draw to prayer is calling lately and without distraction or interruption the road lay before us. Over one hill, across a section of blowing fields, past the home of a dear neighbor who has recently buried a spouse, down the next hill.... talking to God as if He were beside me, which I guess He was, still is.

I've prayed plenty of "help me, show me, strengthen me" prayers in my lifetime, focusing instead this morning on prayer for my husband as he leads and guides our family. I love praying for Sean. He is such a good man, easy to pray for, easy to love. Sacrificing a little sleep and warmth on Sean's behalf is not a hard thing.

We turned back into the wind, heads down and walked more quickly toward home, following deer tracks along the side of the road. The snow in the fields is so deep that the deer choose man's route when convenient. I love the settled peaceful feeling prayer brings to a new day.

The kitchen woodstove greeted us in all its beautiful warming glory, little feet padding down the stairs, kettle put on for tea...
Hope yours is a beautiful day,
Hannah

The poorly bed

On this cold, cold January morning the sun pours across the varnished plank floor boards of our dining room, landing on a tousled head of wispy blond hair. She's got a pink popsicle in her mouth, her third Sabbath popsicle of its kind and it's only nine o'clock.


In the past thirty six hours we've done frozen grapes, evening trips trailing orangey-red tail lights down the highway to Target for a re-stock of fever reducers, cool Eucerin baths in the kitchen sink, sippy cups of grape juice and late night trips out into the freezing cold with Papa, sans coat or hat or mittens in seemingly feeble attempts to reduce the furnace blazing away in Ella Catherine's watery eyes. So sad. Very sad.
I miss sleeping, by the way. I fondly remember it and hope to see it again soon. If you look at me cross eyed, I just might burst into tears. Or if I tub my toe. Small things are traumatic minus sleep. Ugh...
We've had consults with medical call-services and on-call doctors and are rotating tylenol and motrin round the clock. I miss our level headed pediatrician. He lives up the road but I can't bring myself to call him as the on-call docs ramble off a list of viruses going around and ask me if my kids are daycare kids. Nope, they aren't. Thanks, anyway.
This too shall pass.
"Isn't it so sad to see Ella sick, Mama?" asked Annaliese Kaelin as we talked about things we can do to bring down a fever. "She's like the sweetheart of the family," Annaliese said with a sad sigh.
"More like the monkey of the family," was my thought, "but sweetheart will do in a pinch."

As I sit here sipping my made-by-Sean iced latte in the room where Ella Catherine slept on one couch, I on another, and Chase on a makeshift bed on the floor (Chase is teething too, by the way), I am strangely overwhelmed with thankfulness. Maybe its the high emotional, lack of sleep thing. I am so thankful that our children are normally healthy, thankful for tylenol and motrin, for the caffeine in my latte, for tv shows to watch online at ungodly hours with a fussing teether, thankful for the wonderful, organized, soon-to-be revealed project developing upstairs, thankful for doting, loving siblings hovering over Ella and the one stray moment when one of them thought some whacks on her back would help her feel better. :) I'm thankful for sleep, even though it is far from me and thankful that Sean will be home in a few hours. I'm thankful for warm, soft wool socks and blazing woodstoves and now I'm beginning to sound like Fraulein Maria, so I'll stop....
Have a beautiful, sunny Sabbath!
Hanah

Feathers

Inspired by my Grandmas photo as a little girl, I took one look at Catherine's scraggly toddler hair and got out the hair scissors.

She stood on the toilet in our bath room as I carefully snipped away, shaping bangs and a sweet little bob, light baby hairs falling to her feet.

"Look, Mama," she exclaimed excitedly looking around her toes, "my feathers are falling!"

A favorite photo of my Dad

My Dad knows more about the woods and the life therein than anyone else I know.

As a child, he would often take me out with him into different woods that he was surveying. While we looked for boundary lines and notches in old trees, we would be as quiet as possible, he lifting branches out of my way and stopping now and then to point out an animal print or whisper the name and medicinal use of a certain plant. My Dad always knew how the native Americans used this or that, which tuber was edible (cattails, I recall), the Latin name for a wildflower, what the fox had eaten by its scat....

Those times tramping through the woods are some of my favorite memories with my Dad.

Out on a limb...

Feeling a bit brave today and with Sean's encouragement, I whipped up a tasty potato tutorial for you. If you're not into potatoes, surely you'll enjoy the lively circus-like atmosphere!

Here's what you'll need:
3 large potatoes
1/4 cup flour
salt
black pepper

oil or butter for frying

1 pkg. wild caught smoked salmon
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese
dried dill

Homeschooling with a large family...

(This post was written back in August.)

And I write that very loosely, knowing full well there are families educating their children with much higher numbers than ours.
This week we'll be starting "school" with a three month old, a two year old, almost four year old, six year old and seven year old. Whew! Where did I sign up for this?
Really, just kidding, as I am so thankful for the opportunity to teach our children. We really do enjoy ourselves together!

Here's what works for us:

A color coded daily planner.
One planner and different colored gel pens: Purple writing for Kaelin's lessons, blue for Douglas's lessons, red for combined activities. Our was $7 in with the school supply section. It has big spaces for each day, which I like. Since we are registered through the public school district, keeping these records really is a necessity and a safety net. It keeps me on target also.

Combined Lessons.
From the beginning, I've done Kaelin and Douglas's history and science lessons together. It makes it more enjoyable for each of them and saves time.

Skipping a set curriculum.
I've never found a curriculum that fits our family, having examined many of them. Instead I take the time during the summer to plan out what subjects the children need to learn (state requirements, and Biblical requirements) while taking into consideration how each of the children learns best.

Circle Time.
This begins with practicing together our weekly memory verse and singing together our worship song for the week, both which begin with the same letter - our letter of the week. Last week was letter A, the memory verse was "All have sinned, all have fallen short of God's glorious standard..." and the song was Amazing Grace. We also spend time reviewing the phonics chart, singing the alphabet, learning how to sign the letter of the week, and doing various hand games and songs together. Every child is included as much as possible in this and everyone likes participating!

Individual Time.
Each child gets individual time with me, going over their lessons for the day. I do like to have as much of their learning as hands on as possible, but worksheets are so helpful on teaching some topics not easily learned otherwise. Time together is also spent practicing reading and reading aloud.

Narration.
For each topic or subject I have the child narrate back to me in some form what we have discussed or learned. After a walk they can do rubbings of the leaves they have collected. After a history story, they can verbally tell me the highlights of the story or draw a picture of it. This gives me an opportunity to clarify anything I need to, making sure they've really learned the topic.

Daily Walks.
What is the postman's creed? Through snow or hail.... Well, I'm not that sturdy, but we do enjoy our walks in just about every kind if weather. Walking after lunch makes the littlest ones ready for a nap by the time we reach home. Walks are so educational, no matter where one loves. In the city, we discussed cars and engines and how buildings are built and how the water gets into the houses and so on. Here in the country we talk about plants and animal tracks and how a well works and how a farmer decides what to plant and what life was like two hundred years ago when this house was built.

Play Time.
I have found that play time is essential in learning. Douglas, Kaelin, and Christopher are so creative outdoors, scheming on how to build traps to catch the ever elusive bunny rabbit, winding grasses into wreaths and ropes, turning winter sleds into trailers pulled behind their scooters and just letting their imaginations roam.

Dough I only have to make once a week?

Crusty, crunchy crust? Tangy sour-dough-ish flavor? I think I'm in love and I'm sharing the love with you here.
Hurry, go mix up a batch of this and make yourself some fresh from the bakery style bread! We've been hooked on it for a while now and it is so good!



Edited to add:
I think they may have conveniently left out a few details so let me run through it all for you.
mix your dough, they give the correct amounts and ingredients. Put it in the fridge for at least three hours to sit. After three hours you're ready.
1.Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
2.Sprinkle some flour over the top of your dough and grab out a portion about the size of a grapefruit.
3.Turn the ends under into a ball.
4.Sprinkle some cornmeal on your wooden dough riser thingie (ha! ha! I use a plastic flexible cutting board for this, waxed paper or parchment paper might also work.) Set your ball of dough on the cornmeal.
5.Let rise. (I think they say 40 minutes?) I've done 20 minutes and it still works great.
Have ready in your oven a cookie sheet, baking stone or cast iron pan. On the rack below that put a tray or casserole dish to hold water.
6.Sprinkle a little more flour over your bread ball and score it with a very sharp knife.
7.When the rising time is up, sprinkle cornmeal onto your baking stone and slide your bread off whatever you let it rise on and onto the stone. Viola! (In case of utter disaster and your dough ball sticks, I have picked it up gently and plopped it onto the stone. It survived and tasted great.)
8. Pour two cups of water into your tray that's under your baking stone.
Put the remainder of the dough back into the fridge and whenever you feel like fresh crusty bread, repeat. It keeps very well. I've also used 3/4 hard wheat and 1/4 white wheat with good results. The batch in the fridge now is with spring winter white wheat that we ground and I think its a new favorite.
Enjoy!

Ha! Ha! Twice edited to add:
Bake in your hot oven for a half hour. After thirty minutes is up, poke in an oven thermometer. I recommend this since everyone's "grapefruit sized" loaves will be slightly different in size. Pull the bread out when the temp is between 190-200 degrees.

In praise of the Altered Life

I took three of our kids to see a local small school production of "A Christmas Carol". It was creative and fun and well done by its small cast.

The line that caught me about dear Mr. Scrooge was that "he lived an altered life".

"Yes!" I thought. "I want to live an altered life!"

Don't you?

(Sean, Annaliese Kaelin and I Easter 2001)

This afternoon Sean is busy organizing, cleaning, and sorting the garage. Not a fun job on this cold winter day but it will be so nice once it is done. The older three children are cutting and taping and making themselves armor and masks while I try to woo the littler ones into a time of napping.

This morning Miss Eleanora Catherine helped me sort through the master bedroom. I am a terribly sentimental person and have been trying to stoically put that aside as I sort literally everything into four categories: use, give away, sell, throw away. It is really ridiculous how many "extra" things I have and it feels oh so good to be thinning out, carrying bags downstairs and sweeping the floor clean.

While the small ones sleep, I think I'll go tackle the master bath. Wish me luck! Are you cleaning/organizing/decluttering as a part of the New Year?

Five kids - one closet

The kiddo closet was also due for a cleaning. One giant garbage bag of "donate", a pile of broken hangers headed to the trash, and a pile to try to consign and I am much pleased.

Purging

Clutter-wise, that is.
Having five kids in one bedroom gets a bit tight. Chase's clothing is kept in three baskets in the hallway outside their bedroom and was in dire need of straightening.

Just Temporary

I've post dated some...well, posts, to go up for the next two weeks or so. I hope you enjoy them. Some are old and some new. I'll be taking the extra time to get our home, school lessons, homemaking schedule and my heart in order as Sean and I seek God's will for our family.
Be blessed and see you soon!
Hannah

Haircut Time!

The chicken prayer

(me, front and center circa 1986)

Even before I wrote this post, the future heading of our family and the business had been regularly brought before the Lord, as we sensed a change of seasons in both areas. One thing I highly respect about my husband is his prayer life. He repeatedly kept on praying that God would give him wisdom so that he wouldn't be like our chickens.

This spring we tidied up the chicken coop and decided to move the fencing surrounding it so that the chickens would have fresh grass and some more shading during the hot summer. In the process of moving the fence, we had to move the gate that the chickens go through every night before settling into their coop to roost. It was moved just a few feet.

That first night when we went to close in the poultry for the night we noticed the hens sitting outside the fence where the old gate used to be, even though the new gate was just a few feet away. So ensued a lot of chasing and muttering and chasing as we tried to usher the chickens in through the new gate. This went on night after night after night and for at least a month there were one or two obstinate hens that headed at night to where the old gate used to be. They would run headlong into the fencing, fall back, and charge forward once more, fall back again... all the while the gate being wide open a few feet away.

"Lord," Sean would pray, "Help us not to be like those chickens, pursuing the same thing over and over, hitting that same spot, and missing it. Lord, we don't want to miss what you have for us." (Yes, I appreciate a man who can pull spiritual analogies from homesteading!)

And this, this really became our prayer during a season of uncertainty as we lost business clients and questions arose about Germany. "God, help us not to be like those chickens." In all, I felt like God was shaking things and sifting things and asking "what" our priorities in life were and with what purpose we were living life.

Sean and I and the little ones have so much to be thankful for, food on the table, health insurance for the kiddos, a business that provides for our family even though it is directly tied to the housing market, and the selling of our old kitchen cupboards just this week which allows us to finish up sheetrock in two unfinished rooms.

More than that, the two of us are crunching around and mulling around a specific plan which would allow us to fulfill our desire to work with orphans and families with a few chickens thrown in to boot.

So, in the midst of a crazy economy, and higher taxes (any fellow New Yorkers give an amen!) feel free to borrow our chicken prayer, because I know, that like us, God has specific plans and purposes for your life too.

Why fast?

I love the New Year! The feelings of excitement, change hovering in the air, expectancy, faith... As we plunge headlong into the new Year, our home church is beginning the year with a time of prayer and fasting, which is simply a WONDERFUL time to start the New Year. I always look forward to it.

(I've dug out some old photos this past week that I'll share.... this is a favorite from our wedding.)

Simply put, a fast is giving up something dear to you and spending that unused time/energy focusing on God and in prayer. Our American culture loves food, in fact, we live in an area where it is particularly celebrated. There is food at every occasion and for every occasion and occasions where food is the main event. Obviously, giving up some sort of food, a meal, sweets, etc. COSTS us as a culture. We like food! There are all kinds of different fasts mentioned in the Bible and the important thing here is not which exact dietary fast you participate in but the spending of extra time seeking God's will. In essence saying, "God, I desire you more than __________ (chocolate, sugar, caffeine, that big Italian dinner...)."