Cultivating Home

What I wore

2012-01-28T22:48:00.006-05:00

Eyeglasses from zenni optical - $12

Thrifted cotton scarf - $1 Scarves are a wonderful and favorite accessory of mine to wear when I know I'll have to nurse a babe in public. Much more discrete than pulling out one of those apron things and hanging it around my neck

Purple cotton tunic, thrifted - $2

Adriano Goldschmied jeans, thrifted - $2 I'm naive. I had been looking for a pair of jeans to wear under tunics/short dresses and picked these up. They are wicked comfy because they have a thin maternity elastic band at the waist. No, I'm not expecting...When I googled the tag several months later I had sticker shock. $198! I prefer two bucks.

wedding band

sterling silver hoop earrings - $3 garage sale find

Italian black leather riding boots - $60 ebay. I nearly choked buying these but was slightly comforted when I saw Nordstrom carries them for $325.

This outfit explained sorting and reducing mixed numbers, danced to pandora with a fussy teether, went to the library, read C.S. Lewis, cooked meals, nursed the babe, amused toddlers, swept an ungodly amount of kid litter off the floor, did mega laundry... I mentioned to Sean this morning, as I stared down in wonder at a dirt pile containing crayons, dust, actual dirt and a lot of it, a fork, knex, canning jar lid, various papers, a few socks none of which matched, thread, yarn... that perhaps I should blog the piles I sweep up. I don't think most people could comprehend the possible size of swept piles in our house. And this is with daily sweeping! (You better believe I swept out the dust bunnies from underneath that chair up above before I let the camera click!)

What I wore

2012-01-28T00:42:00.004-05:00

Why? Because...
A) dressing for even the most ordinary of days should be fun and
B)I receive quite a few questions as to the how and why of what we wear, and
C) I get to pretend to model and look as completely awkward as I feel. :)

Thrifted vintage wool skirt - $2
Thrifted vintage cream sweater - $2
Orange tights from TJMaxx - $3
Born brown leather shoes - (I think) ebay for $15
Jewels - tungsten wedding band and earrings made by me

This outfit did kitchen scrubbing, homeschooling, thrift store perusing and grocery shopping with my fabulous six-pack of kiddos, nose wiping, nursing the wee one, curry making for dinner... The temperature outside was 2 degrees and snowy in the morning and warmed up to 23 degrees in the afternoon.

The papa made bench

2012-01-25T08:30:00.004-05:00

We needed a bench. A sturdy non-tip-able, safe-for-kiddos, one for the long farm table Sean built. Seating is a hot commodity here when we have friends in and it is so much easier to comfortably seat a large group of people with benches.

The Papa took a beautiful, hand cut 220 yr old beam that was in the garage and sawed it into sections for the bench legs. It hurt my heart to see it cut but I'm happy to see it having a purpose. Old wood and especially good old wood is such a thing of beauty. I love the whole industrial/country blend of decorating and the chunky beam legs are just right. A friendly neighbor gave him the fabulous long board for the top and the papa put together the bench pieces with wooden pegs, taking time to rub in linseed oil to finish it.

Bench number two will be here soon.

Book Review

2012-01-24T02:39:00.000-05:00

Loving the Little years: Motherhood in theTrenches by Rachel Jankovic was sent to me by Canon Press to read, with no obligation regarding the review.

The author if this book has small children all under kindergarten age, living in the trenches of motherhood of which she is writing. I appreciate that the the author admits motherhood is not easy for her and it should be known that this is the perspective from which she writes. When then author writes that it is her problem that there are so many kids and not her kids fault (ch. 10, pg. 49) it bothers me because no children need to hear that they are a problem. I appreciated her encouragement to watch out for our kids souls and take time to know them but then found myself frustrated when she wrote that organization often comes with "neglect and hurt" on the part of the children (ch. 10, pg 51). These two need not be mutually exclusive.

All in all, this was one of my least favorite mothering/parenting books but perhaps it would be helpful to mothers deep in the trenches and finding it hard to catch their breath. I'd recommend The Mission of Motherhood and The Ministry of Motherhood over this book.

Book Review

2012-01-23T14:08:00.003-05:00

Jesus, My Father, The CIA and Me: A Memoir of Sorts by Ian Morgan Cron was sent to me by the publisher to review and with no obligation to give a positive review. Having read Chasing Francis, by the same author, I could not wait to settle down and read this one. I was not disappointed.

Ian tells of his tumultuous and often sadly hilarious (I had tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks reading portions to Sean) growing up years with an alcoholic father and shares his journey to Christianity. It is a poignant and extremely well written book that I've already passed around. The only reason I gave it four out of five stars is because I disagreed with a few of the authors theological statements. I still heartily recommend this book.

My little Rosie the Riveter

2012-01-23T13:52:00.001-05:00

2012-01-20T22:12:00.002-05:00

"The key to successful homeschooling with toddlers is preparedness."

To read more about how we homeschool with toddlers in tow, you can check out this article on Heart of the Matter.

Morning

2012-01-20T12:53:00.006-05:00

We've been enjoying the sweetest and juiciest grapefruits this past week. Sean says they taste like sugar's been poured over them...

Addie enjoyed some off my spoon too.

Before the papa left for work, Chase held him in this long, I'm-not-letting-go-of-you embrace. Which reminds me of how I cling to my heavenly Father each day and how He is the not-letting-go-of-you sort of embracer.

In our house, boxes are turned into all sorts of things. I'm sure they are in your home too, if you have littles. This is a boat turned high and mighty throne.

These days, Chase is not without his turtle, who, this morning was hiding in his shirt. I was informed that he was nursing and needed to go back inside.

This boy loves animals and I don't believe he's ever met an animal he couldn't woo into loving him. Fern is three months old and is an Australian cattle dog, also known as a Blue Heeler. Her parents live on a farm not too far from here where the farmer tells them, "go get the cows" or "round up those pigs" and they do exactly that.

Fern is an excellent puppy, herds our poultry and tries to herd the children. We are smitten with her.

Look at this fabulous puzzle I found at a church thrift shop for $1! It is genius. The pieces move about but do not come free from the board. No lost pieces and the toddlers are amused with it. It is even safe enough to lend out since the pieces stay put.

We have burned wood for our heat but this year we replaced one stove with a coal stove. The coal is mined in PA and is very reasonably priced since it doesn't have to be shipped far. Burning coal is just about the same cost as burning wood, with a lot less work. A LOT less.

A hopper in the back of the stove feeds the coal in throughout the day, keeping the house warm even when we are not home. It doesn't have that lovely wood smoke smell, but thankfully we still have the woodstove burning cheerily in the living room at the other end of the house. That is where I'm sitting right now, kiddos eating baked pumpkin with butter and cinnamon and sugar hot from the oven in the room next to me. Our afternoon is just beginning, Annaliese is home from skating with friends, spelling and math lessons have begun and the littlest two are down for naps.
Have a beautiful weekend,
Hannah

In the Shop

2012-01-17T19:09:00.007-05:00

Sewing is a relaxing, much loved past-time that creeps its way into Saturday mornings and late nights. I also have a soft spot for vintage linens and fabrics and have too many of both and so, a few wee girlie skirts for sale, just the kind our girls love, a blend of old and new.
Payment is through paypal and I'll take the first request at cultivatinghome at uticasystems.com.

Edwardian Apron Skirt with vintage cut work embroidery, 100% cotton

size: 6/8

length: 18.5 inches

waist: 20-30 inches

$14

Lemon Sunshine Skirt w/ vintage cut-work embroidered linen, 100% cotton

Size: 5/7

Length: 17 inches

Waist: 18-26 inches
$16

A Wee Green Lass skirt

Size: infant - 9 mos.

Waist:18

Length: 9.5 inches

$10

Snow White with hand tatted lace trim, 100% cotton

Size: 3/5

Waist: 18-22 inches

Length: 14 inches
$16

All seams are either flat-fell, French, zig-zagged, or serged. Gentle cool wash recommended. Sizes are approximate, please take note of the measurements for best fit.

Monday Things

2012-01-17T07:23:00.001-05:00

Federal holidays are one of my favorite things, with all due respect to MLK and the Presidents and veterans and Jesus... because Sean is home.

Being self employed, he must be present and open when his clients are, and federal holidays are the only days the office building is closed and he's home. Home is so much better when he's here.

We did Martha's pumpkin pancakes again, gluten free, which simply means I divide the total cups of flour it calls for by 3 and use a third each of buckwheat, rice, and potato starch.

Works out yum every time.

We ate on some of these vintage Corelle plates. I'm newly converted to Corelle and Fiestaware since discovering so many dishes are still made with lead and cadmium in them. My pretty blue and white ones had it and so out they went. The kids love finding Corelle for me at the thrift store. Last week we found a few of these vintage Corelles and a few cute-as-a-button vintage Corelle strawberry mugs for .49 each.

It may be 17 F out this morning, but by the time I get around to my coffee, it is usually cold and so I pretend it is supposed to be that way and throw a few ice cubes in. I do love an iced coffee.

The sun has been shining clear, even with the cold, radiating right through the old glass on the windowsill and onto Addie, fishing out her cereal. And, yes, I realize eating out of plastic is pure yuck for ya too. Anyone know of nice no-spill kiddo snack bowls?

Both her vintage dress and wool sweater were thrifted and I love them so. She a bundle of warmth this morning.

All those pretty rows of stitches I didn't have to knit.

And the colors in my broom which make what could be considered as drudgery, not so. The best broom corn broom ever. I'm a convert to broom corn brooms also.

Sunday Afternoon

2012-01-16T08:42:00.000-05:00

:an afternoon spent north with the kid's grandparents, friends, a huge bowl of fresh fruit thrice refilled, crocheting dishclothes, story sharing, picture drawing, laughing at babies, hot coffee with cream and cake, and enjoying the warmth of the woodstove and just being with people whom we love.

Phone pics

2012-01-16T04:40:00.000-05:00

Delicious, creamy, local cheddar. Family size.

Because you can't start a good habit too early, Adalia has been enjoying her bottle of warm tea each morning, usually a chamomile blend.

7 yr old Aiden's stack of pumpkin pancakes. We like Martha's recipe and make it times 4. These were demolished and the kids were asking for more.

Best kiddo plates ever. Non-toxic, indestructible (virtually, I'm sure my boys could come up with several ways to destroy them), easy wash and I get to enjoy sorting their food by color, which makes my heart happy.

According to Aiden, this is a "mortal and pestle". Sad to say, only one linguist friend on FB caught the error of his wording.

Our family loves Settlers of Catan and this Christmas my sister and brother in law gifted us the Germany version. We broke it open with said sister and brother in law, and enjoyed a few rounds with homemade hot chocolate and Annaliese's Lazy Dazy cake.

Light

2012-01-14T21:34:00.006-05:00

The shadows fall long by mid afternoon here in the middle of New York state and if I've woken when the light begins to dip across our bedroom floor, I've slept too late.

Words to keyboard to blog post come hesitantly these days and I wonder, why not just end it, why not just give it up? Is it just another commitment; another thing to do while children grow like weeds into pants an inch too short and the eldest daughter sprouts lovelier and lovelier by the day?

Why force my thoughts into acceptable words, double check that I haven't left any cause to offend anyone, make sure to keep a little left out, that bit of the sacred that belongs to just us as a family, and wonder still: what do I possibly have to share that isn't drivel?

Every year our church has a time of fasting and prayer set aside in January. In what is typically and without fail the bleakest and darkest time in our surrounding environment, we view the darkness and bleakness in ourselves and plead our souls His light.

Our children have LED flashlights they received as gifts and these flashlights, it seems, are invaluable on a homestead. They routinely search out a wayward turkey roosting in the drain ditch, or the torn up old garden, or on a fence, or anywhere but in the coop where she should be. They shine in my face in the middle of the night, held by a child taking a bathroom trip, highlight the cobwebs strung across the basement beams, seek a hider in a closet, or find unmentionable atrocities underneath the sofa while in search of a small missing shoe.

God's light is like this in my life right now. There is a lot of searching and sorting through my heart, shaking and sifting, leading and guiding, putting things as they should be, sweeping out of those unmentionable atrocities from underneath the sofa of my soul.
I feel His spirit saying:

be still

be quiet

hold fast

hold tight

while this inner house of mine is searched and rumbled and shaken about.

I am comforted by knowing that it is Jesus at work in me, sorting out junk and scrubbing floors caked with crud and finding old shoes and ill fitting dresses in dark closets, which may sound cliche, depending on one's background, but is the solid, strong truth of things in this season. I'm beginning to feel like one feels after a good, solid cry and the gasping for air and shaking shoulders and snot running is gone and there is that huge, amazing feeling of relief and a brighter outlook is shimmy-ing over the morning hill in rose and yellow hues splayed across the sky.

Well, honestly, maybe I'm still at the wiping snot stage but I see those pretty hues rising.

Thank you, for frequenting this little nook of mine. I don't know that I like what it is and I don't know what it will be but you're welcome to hang on for the ride.

Hannah

Bookshelves to Built In

2012-01-04T05:20:00.001-05:00

When we bought this house five years ago, this is what the shelves in our living room looked like- sporting an army green wall behind them.

I tried to fiddle with the placement of the shelves, since the previous owners had a large screen tv mounted on this wall. Eventually I was able to add in a few more shelves and paint over that green. But it always looked unfinished to me. Like shelves stuck on the wall instead of the bookcase I imagined it to be.
The metal bracket thingies holding up the shelves were visible and you could see gaps where the shelves were cut a bit too short.

This past weekend, as Sean was busy speaking a bit at our church's four services, and the kids all were getting over colds, I knew long days of being at home loomed. And so, after picking Sean's brain for what pieces of wood such-and-such by such-and-such length were called, and making my list, and measuring many times over, Aiden and I made our trip, he thrilled to be pushing the cart around the store.

It was not an inexpensive trip ($149) , but much due after five years of staring at that wall and wishing for even shelves.

While Addie napped and children played, this is what I did:

I attached 4 1x3's to the existing vertical boards holding the shelves. This makes the whole bookcase look sturdier and hides those metal brackets and short shelves.

I also added crown moulding and base moulding and four additional shelves.

With one of the brackets that holds up the shelves, I was able to get a paint match for painting the trim and new shelves. I love using my husband's power tools but I must say that the most difficult part of the project was cutting that moulding on the far left around the existing chair rail, crown moulding and baseboard. Sean helped me with those cuts. When everything was dried/screwed I filled the gaps with white caulk and painted.

I am so pleased to have this project finished, more shelf space for books and some of our best wooden toys.

As far as bookcase organization goes, I have shelves for history and geography, shelves designated for science topics, two for young children's fiction, one for books the children and I are currently reading as a part of our lessons, and a few for homesteading/homemaking topics. We have a large quantity of historical fiction and non-fiction which fill other shelves. And of course a shelf for the record player and records so my children grow up knowing just how wonderful vinyl is and how you have to dance soft-footed to it so as not to make it skip. :)

Thornton Burgess

2012-01-03T18:39:00.004-05:00

We're listening to the stories here, absorbing so much wonderful-ness about the creatures God created and the antics of the animals in the stories by naturalist Thornton Burgess.
With a pack of his fancy papers, Aiden (7), has been crafting some of the characters from the stories, doing a fabulous job, and Annaliese (11) has been busy drawing squirrels.

As a side, the wise blustery character, Old Mother West Wind, counsels and educates the creatures of the forest. As we listened to her tell Peter Rabbit that she had given him such long hind feet for hopping, Ella (5) tipped her little blond head and said to me, "oh, mama, that means she doesn't know God made Peter Rabbit. That's sad, isn't it?" and continued on with her playing as we listened.
And so our afternoons fall, as of late, with a little happy dose of Peter Rabbit and Reddy Fox.

New Year's Walk

2012-01-01T23:01:00.007-05:00

The wind was picking up and drops falling, and I cozy by the wood stove, when he, who is the papa, suggested a walk through the fields. It is New Year's Day.

I do not know what to write. I certainly have nothing eloquent on my lips regarding the calendar change. When I think of the year past, I recall a lot of difficult times. I also fondly remember the good. All in all, it was a year of uncomfortableness and stretching.

I am glad to see it gone.

In the past I've made wordy lists of resolutions, or sometimes chosen a significant word to mark hopes for the coming days and seasons. Thinking this year and spending many heart moments during the day asking of God, these are the scriptures I feel He intends for me to hold to this year. I know you, my readers, come from all faiths and all paths, but I hope they will tug at your heart too.

"The Lord is my portion and share, says my living being:

therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him."

Lamentations 3:24

"For whatever was thus written in former days was written for our instruction, that by [our steadfast and patient] endurance and the encouragement [drawn] from the Scriptures we might hold fast to and cherish hope."

Romans 15:4

"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Philippians 2:12-13

"Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet;

but one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained." Philippians 3:12-15

"...I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service...

I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me."

Philippians 2:16-18

Warm wishes and sincere prayers for a happy new year to you all.

Hannah

Lost and found

2012-01-01T15:04:00.002-05:00

I thought my laptop had eaten my file of vacation photos from Labor Day weekend. Actually, it did. Bleh.

Two days before Christmas I began clearing out my memory cards. The older two kids were in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and I wanted to make sure I had enough card space to record it. How thankful and bleary-eyed-happy I was to find a treasure of unerased photos from our little jaunt to the sea!

Almost There

2011-12-28T15:47:00.002-05:00

My baby sister (okay, not such a baby anymore), Katie, and her sweet husband, Josh, are getting ready to welcome their first babe into the world. Katie's hoarding cute cloth diapers and knitting up a storm! We cannot wait to meet little Lyla and I had a LOT of fun taking some maternity portraits with her recently on the grounds of a beautiful old mansion.

2011-12-24T22:21:00.001-05:00

Spoons

2011-12-19T20:12:00.002-05:00

The Nativity

2011-12-17T23:13:00.002-05:00

We unwrapped the thrift store nativity pieces one afternoon at nap time, when I sensed my little fellow needed some special time with me.
He put the characters where they needed to be. Shepherds on a hill of rumpled blanket overlooking a plaid flannel sheet Bethlehem. Wise men far off in the East at foot-of-bed. Mary and Joseph in a quilt cave. He listened intently as I quietly told the story. I sincerely love how he is grasping the season this year.
Later, the nativity moved downstairs to the dining room table. I feel it is too precious *not* to be played with and I think you'll enjoy his little three year old addition to the creche scene:

Processing Day

2011-12-15T20:18:00.003-05:00

After it hung in cold air for four days, some friends came over to help us process the hog.

Sean used a reciprocating saw and a meat saw to slice down the backbone. We had trouble with the reciprocating saw getting too hot - you can see the white fat as he cuts in the photo below.

The meat saw, which we purchased at a restaurant supply store and also used on the cow Sean butchered last year, has a blade that easily bends and was a pain to use. We haven't found a better saw option.... but in the end, between the two, it was done.

Friends held the feet while Sean sawed. The carcass next to the hog is a deer, as it is also hunting season here.

We split the hog into sixths to bring inside. The two front shoulders, the side slabs, and then the rear legs.

Skinning...

I found a recipe for a white sausage that I wanted to try. It must have been a poor man's version of sausage, made with oats and traditional sausage spices like pepper and sage and the ground fat from around the kidneys mixed it. We had trouble with it bursting when cooked, but it was very good and tasted just like sausage, even the texture.

Bacon!

The kitchen was sausage central and the dining room was the chopping, slicing and break-down local. We used the KitchenAid grinder attachment and an antique manual one that our friends brought over. We have a KitchenAid sausage stuffer, which stinks and so we bought a 5 lb. manual one from amazon, which works great. While the KitchenAid grinder works quickly, I did not like that it was too loud to talk over, which is not a problem with the antique manual one. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for one.

Salami!

With three children and five adults, it took about eight hours, from clean kitchen to clean kitchen. We made over eighty pounds of breakfast sausage and salami, thirty-five lbs of bacon, about forty pounds of ham. With chops and ribs and all we got between 180-190 lbs of meat.

After the last post, I received a lot of questions, which you can follow in the comments. If there is anything else I can share, just ask.

Hog Harvesting

2011-12-13T21:21:00.002-05:00

This was our first year raising our own pork. You can meet Snitzel the pig here and read a little about the fun she added to our lives. This is also fair warning that if you are squeamish, to click away, as I'm sharing some photos of hog-to-pork-to-feed-our-family.

We are so amazed at how fast a hog grows! In just nine months Snitzel weighed about 320 pounds, fed mostly on vegetables and a little corn.

I was brave and watched the slaughter because I figure if I really want to do this, raising meat for my family, I need to accept and process the entire life cycle . Sean ended up dispatching the hog with a 9mm shot in the brain. He then cut her jugular vein so she bled out. And that is the very pretty-fied version of how things happened. You can thank me for leaving out those photos. :) However I could not resist sharing this one of Sean, who didn't realize he had carnage on his face. Love his baby blues.

Sean used the little tractor to lift the carcass out of the mud and onto the grass .
Our friend Mark, who came over to help, and Sean, stood by the hog to give an idea of just how large our hog was.

Sean hosed the hog down until she was nice and clean.

Next was the problem of hair. I never knew hogs were so hairy before raising one but you learn something new and wonderful every day, eh? The three main options for hair removal are scalding, skinning or burning. We (said loosely here as I stood with the camera) - well, we burned the hair off with an propane roofing torch 'cause we're classy like that.

Sean torched and Mark scrubbed off the burnt hair. If you are thinking this couldn't have smelled pretty, you are absolutely correct. I retreated indoors.

After the burning and cleaning, Sean gutted the hog, cut off the head and hung it (the hog, not head) in the woodshed, where it stayed for four days in the cold air. We have always found the aging of meat like this to greatly improve the flavor as it gives the muscles time to relax and the rigamortis to work its way out.

I always get asked a few questions whenever I share about raising our own meat, which I'll share, but if you have others, feel free to ask away.
1.) How do our kids handle this?
Our kids were very involved in the day to day care and loving of our pig. They have grown up with understanding the complete life cycle of animals, from birth to reproduction to death, no doubt the same as generations of children before them.
2.) How involved are the kiddos in the slaughter?
Because of the possible unknowns with shooting an animal, we keep the kids indoors while an animal is shot and bled out and then they are as involved as they'd like to be. Annaliese usually will take a cautious peek and the boys are as elbow deep as they can be, Ella too. Our friend Mark's two small kiddos were here too. Sean showed all the different organs to the kids and they watched the hog being gutted and hung. Anatomy at it's best.
3.) Why take the time/hassle to raise your own meat when there are grocery stores and prettily packaged portions of meat?
There are three short answers to this. First for cost effectiveness. From one hog we harvested almost two hundred pounds of meat for about $1.25 a pound, with that cost spread over nine months. We pretty much know everything she ate, which is our second reason for raising our own meat. I recommend the book Nourishing Traditions for more on this subject. I also wanted to learn how to raise my own meat, to learn skills that have faded away from popularity but are valuable. Might seem crazy, but such is me. I love knowing that our hog had a happy life, lots of belly rubs, that it was talked to, had lots of earth to plow and grubs to find and veggies to eat.

It was with Thanksgiving in our hearts

2011-12-10T20:17:00.005-05:00

that we gathered at the cabin in the north woods on Thanksgiving Day. Our little family, my Dad and step-mama, sweet friends, and my brother in law and his daughter.

Our turkeys hadn't quite filled out enough, or enough as I wanted, and so a free-from-all-yuck store turkey and venison were our main fare with a long table full of delicious sides that mostly my step-mama made, and she is a wonderful good cook.

Chase kept watch at the window, mouth and fists full of carrot sticks and dip, waiting for everyone to arrive. I am thankful for this boy. I am thankful God spoke so clearly to Sean's heart that He wanted to give us another son - and then we had Chase.

I am heart brimming over in thanks for this man.
For his loving leadership in our home, for his love for me and our children, for God's grace and keeping of us through those difficult times in life.

The cousins had so much fun with each other on our long we-ate-too-much and making room-for-dessert hike through the woods to check on beaver ponds and enjoyment the peaks of color the forest gifted us with.

Like this color. Can you believe that is an au-natural straight from the woods color?

Fresh, to plant at home tree. A bit of green and a wonderful scent. I am thankful for this boy and his adventurous spirit and compassionate heart.

There were sneaky snowball wars with the bit of white lying in the woods and lots of running ahead and slipping behind trees unnoticed, to surprise fellow travelers.

On and on we walked on trails loggers made years ago and Sean cleared again with the tractor this summer. On to explore a cozy nook in the woods: a hunting blind perfect for imagining as a playhouse.

The woods of the Adirondacks are always arms brimming over full of beauty, even in winter. Lichen and moss, intricate tree bark detail, animal tracks and rushing creek sounds vi for attention.

I am thankful for this girl, my firstborn, for the gift of her life and her growing-in-grace years and her friendship. I have the best eleven year old ever.

We watched for beavers in their new ponds and mounded stick and mud homes, appreciated their new work on their dams and wondered at that such small creatures can move the course of rushing water with their diligent work.

I am thankful for my Dad, that my kids love their Grandpa and that he and I, after all the heartache of years past, have an open and honest and loving relationship. I am thankful for forgiveness and the power of letting go.

The boys played with the well pump Sean recently drove into the earth. It pumps out clear beautiful water a dozen or so yards from the cabin. Anywhere there is mud, or the potential for mud, my kids are on it! They do their former mud-pie loving mother proud.

I am thankful for Addie-girl and her life, for being gifted the wonder of life through her eyes as she endlessly points and exclaims at everything she sees that catches her eye.

For Aiden and his braveness I am thankful. For the little big-boy who sidles up to me and asks for a song and to read to me, I am thankful. I am thankful for his love of justice.

We had a lovely at the cabin day, brought home our yearly Charlie Brown tree for some greenery and life in the living room along with happy memories for years to come. For those readers in the USA, I hope your Thanksgiving was lovely too.

Advent

2011-12-08T11:47:00.003-05:00

Leftover scrapbooking paper and watercolors folded into neat little advent envelopes for the kiddos to open each day, with a surprise inside for that day. The older kiddos painted our weathered clothespins. So far we've had pizza for lunch, had a popcorn and movie night, made gingerbread men together, sewed winter cloth napkins, and made some winter crafts. We're enjoying this simple countdown to a grand celebration of Christ our Saviour's lowly and humble arrival on earth.

worth quoting

2011-12-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

“To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labours, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can imagine how this can exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.” ― G.K. Chesterton

2011-12-01T15:31:00.000-05:00

2011 Homesteading
1 Hampshire/York piglet which turned into 180 or so lbs of meat
1 lb. muenster cheese
many gallons kefir
136 lbs of beef
14 pints pickled beets
40 quarts pureed tomatoes canned
200 dozen eggs
18 quarts canned wax beans
19 pints Sunshine Squash
2 pints carrot pickles
2 Polish x pullets - one survived
20 lbs of tallow
20 loaves of gf bread, an area I need to improve
22 quarts Italian Roma beans
3 cayuga/khaki campbell ducklings - given to a friend for meat
3 pints bread and butter pickles
4 pints low sugar strawberry quince jam
5 gallons raw honey

beeswax, unweighed
72 lbs of venison
5 lbs homemade beef hotdogs
5 lbs. fresh pasta
5 pints strawberry quince jam w/ honey
approx. 70 lbs frozen strawberries
6 araucana pullets - all were killed by wildlife
6 gallons maple syrup
6 quarts canned carrots
6 quarts dill pickles
7 quarts lard
7 small sunshine squash
8 quarts kimchi
8 quarts spiced pears

Tinkering

2011-12-01T09:22:00.002-05:00

I know every mama thinks their child is brilliant... but, really, the middle man-child amazed me this morning when he took a broken Thomas train, some wire and a battery and crafted a homemade *working* fan out of it all. How precious is that carefully drawn and cut out cardboard fan blade? Its sweetness melts this mama's heart.

A Middy Cut

2011-11-23T16:13:00.008-05:00

I have had one, yes ONE, good haircut in the 4 yrs since my friend and hairdresser moved out of state. One hairdresser I tried was halfway through cutting my hair when she confided she was legally blind. For REAL! I could not make this stuff up!
I asked another stylist for a bob and walked away with a sterotypical short "mom" hair style. I instantly looked ten yrs older and much less-cuter for my husband.
After that, I just trimmed the ends myself, avoiding trying to find a new stylist.
Below is my hairs a few days ago when my in-laws were in town. (They gifted me a Ninja blender - the thing is awesome!)

Well, my friend (and hairdresser) moved back to little 'ol upstate NY and since my favorite way to wear my hair is in sort of 1940's styles I sent her a diagram of a long Middy cut from the era. It looked like gibberish to me but she is brilliant and deciphered it and modernized it a bit so I can wash and wear it.

I've found that longer hair is so easy to care for and keep nice (than short hair, having had both lengths). My husband also prefers the more feminine looking-ness of length. My hairdresser had curled my hair but this little half updo took about two minutes with just a few bobby pins and keeps it out of my face all day. On busy days I quickly braid the rest of it into a side or back braid or a bun at the nape of my neck. Youtube has been a huge source of hair style inspiration for me. I don't consider doing my hair as vanity but see taking time to learn how to do my hair as a way to glorify God by looking presentable and look cute for my husband (and it just takes a few minutes, like I said).

Tea

2011-11-15T22:12:00.003-05:00

A warm afternoon, tidying and primping the yard and porch.

A cool evening.

Tea with Sean, home from work.

Black for me, cream for him.

Boy Decor or The Boy's Room

2011-11-06T13:51:00.003-05:00

I've been asked before about our children's bedrooms and since this is the neatest our boy's room gets (and I'm okay with that) I'll share some photos. If you take liberty to imagine k'nex, legos and playmobil's scattered around the floor, you'll get a more accurate picture of life in the boy's room. As a rule, toys stay out in the toy closet, but you know how it goes, a few always wander.

(Boy treasures. Wooden sailors and an old typewriter.)
First, our boy's bedroom began life as two teeny bedrooms in an addition on the back of our 1791 home. The room below has a tin ceiling so perhaps that gives a date. This is also the same addition that Sean found carpenter ants in, causing him to replace a fifty foot sill-plate. It is also a part of the house that was unheated when we purchased our home. We took out a crumbling chimney, loads of lathe and plaster and layers of wall paper, the wall between the two small bedrooms and one closet and were left with a nice space for the boys. Sean used tinted venetian plaster on the walls, painted the floors and when we were quoted $3,000 for someone to drywall the ceiling I went into frugal mode and hung bead board paneling and I love the way it looks.

(beadboard paneled ceilings and schoolhouse style fixtures.

I am amazed, absolutely amazed, that these have survived the boys. :)

This corner makes me smile because it is all our son's treasures hung by the boys on hooks that made up the interior of the closet we took out. I spy a bb gun, fishing bag, a string drying some mint leaves, an acrylic by Andrew, kite, bow and arrow, cow skull among the boy decor.

Vintage paint by numbers make my heart sing. Lucky for me, my boys think they are pretty awesome too.

On vacation, Andrew found this fishing net washed up on a remote beach. We hung it from a beam and Chase is showing off how it gets daily use.

Their beds are twin mattresses and one and a half pallets for a base and reflect their individual tastes. I love this. And yes. Yes we need to hang moulding around the new windows Sean put in. This is real life, not a magazine.

The OCD part of me wants to straighten the blind and re-take the photo below. But who has time for that?

Love my boys. Love their boy-room.

The Escapades of Snitzel the Pig

2011-10-30T20:09:00.007-04:00

Snitzel the pig, my nemesis, my humbler and mortifier - the small homestead animal I so dearly wanted, visions of inexpensive nitrite free sausages and breakfasts with bacon in my mind.

A few months back she somehow manipulated her way out of the electric fence while we were at the cabin and our *oh-so-very-nice-and-very-undeserved* neighbors woo-ed her back in with a piece of pizza.

The second time she escaped we were home (thank you, merciful Jesus) and milk being her soft spot I was able to get her back in with some of that. I immediately went out and bought the big-boy electric fence, enough to hold back a massive crowd of beef cattle, the country farm store personel promised me. We strung it three layers high. Stinkin' pig.

And so, headed back from the cabin again tonight, after a lovely and lazy afternoon spent celebrating Addie's birthday with lunch and Grandma Pam's delish pumpkin spice cake, back in range for cell service, some punks threw a handful of stones at the van as we drove through the city. Picking up his cell to call the police, Sean noticed a message from our neighbors to the right... and then...from the neighbors two houses on the left.

"Dear, God..." I whispered into the dark as the immediate sence of forboding overtook the atmosphere of the van. Snitzel the pig, all 240 pounds of her, was loose roaming our country road, chowing through the neighbors lovely pumpkin display, getting her head stuck in their table saw. Their table saw! The table saw INSIDE THEIR GARAGE! Mortified. I am completely mortified. One neighbor called to say they saw her skipping down the middle of the road, carefree and footloose.

I pulled this mugshot of her off of facebook, running up our neighbor's steps.

Sean's run out now to replace the pumpkins, Snitzel is once again secure and in holding, and one unnamed-for-their-protection child will be having a few extra chores this week for unplugging the electric fence (on purpose and with good intentions) before we left this morning (and failing to plug it back in).

I am thinking bacon and hams and chops are coming soon.

Grandma

2011-10-25T22:10:00.000-04:00

Vibrant lipstick in a shining gold or silver roll up tube. She was never without it and as little girls she'd dab some brilliant rose hue on our lips, me and my sisters. Bubble baths and fancy powder on the bum afterwards and crisp sheets that had been ironed down the hall with the family gallery splayed against both sides. And the smell. Her house never smelled anything but fresh and wonderful.

She was raised partly by an English grandmother which accounted for her impecible manners and the collection of beautiful china in her cupboards. We learned Rummi at her dining table or on the back porch in cooperating southern weather. Little girls shouldn't gamble and so we played for dimes or m&m's from her stash.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner had cloth napkins and matching placemats and tablecloth and napking rings, always. When we were little we could chose from the vast assortment of colored napkins and shaped rings and pleated edged placemats.

"Now, Darling..." she'd begin a sentance, next to me on her sofa, as she rubbed my arm and asked about life or boys then later marriage, then great-grand babies.

My grandmother never hid her feelings. She was not flagrantly moody or emotional by any description, but we all knew whether or not something met her approval. My husband, she loved and all the great grand-babies too.

Rifts within our family, she did not love, and implored me to mend them, quoting scripture to me. :) It was such a hard time for both of us and I felt sad relief when she later learned the truth of things. She was a true matriarch of the family.

When I flew down with our firstborn for her introduction to my grandparents, Grandma flew to me arms wide at the gate, tears streaming down her bright eyes, lipstick perfect, outfit coordinated. Grandma never dressed in old lady clothes or orthopedic shoes. A few years back she clucked her tongue at having to set aside her bright heels and vast array of sandals in colors that shamed a rainbow, but still, hers were not old lady shoes.
When we visited, she let me dig through her photos and ask a thousand questions, absorbing family history. Her in a gorgeous outfit she knit, Pop-Pop and she standing at the alter in a dress she borrowed from a girlfriend, Pop-pop in a TB hospital for two years, her waitressing, raising three boys in the mountains while Pop-Pop taught history, her mom passing away from a brain tumor, tea with her ladies every week at the hotel (which I fondly remember attending with her, though I recall the hotel's coffee cake being dry, funny the things you remember), the one time she went camping with her boys, the first time women were "allowed" to wear "slacks" and so on and so on. I would ask over a photo and she would make a curve in the air with her manicured hand, diamonds flashing, bracelets gently clinking and say, "oh that... that was the time..."

I have so many lovely memories of my Grandma. I love that she sang loudly in church but could not carry a tune, her reverence for taking the Lord's table, her generous but wise spirit, her potato salad, her excitement over the phone, calling to tell me of "a deal" she got at Belks - an extra 75% off an already reduced ticket which bought her a pair of "slacks" at $2, that into her eighties and with cancer she still hung laundry on the line, that she loved my Pop-Pop all her life and took care of him until a few weeks before she left for heaven.

In our last conversation, and I knew it would be the last, I told her how proud I was of her, what a good job she did taking care of Pop-Pop, that I loved her and that I would talk to her soon.
I am so thankful, so very,very, that I have a huge memory bank of memories from my Grandma, and some photos from her albums. I wish these memories onto my kids and so we've been telling lots of stories the last few weeks, mulling over photos and smiling happy smiles at the life of a beautiful, strong woman who I am so thankful to have known.

The Adirondacks

2011-10-23T12:54:00.003-04:00

The cabin we often visit and that I often mention as being "north" is in the beautiful Adirondack Park. We stayed overnight on Friday, laden with good foods and cozy clothing and books to read fireside, expecting a sunny Saturday of being outdoors, clearing some fallen tree clutter and so on. The continual deluge of rains had us roasting our hotdogs and marshmallows in the wood stove and sent us on a scenic drive around Piseco Lake instead.

North

2011-10-21T08:36:00.002-04:00

Orange and golden glowing, the woods hugging the dirt road welcomed us north. North to the cabin for a few days of repeat visits, a suburban stuck waist high in mud, us all carrying firewood the papa sawed and split into the cabin, babies napping while the older kids and he built a hunting blind out in the big woods, carrot cake for the birthday babe, a deluge of rain and washed out roadway to the cabin, hugs from grandparents who live a whistle down the way...
We're headed up again this weekend.

A birthday week

2011-10-15T14:03:00.003-04:00

In my arms she lays here, bare foot slung up over my shoulder while she nurses, a smudge of coal on her left cheek from where the papa tickled her with his beard and covered her in kisses, her squealing and signing "more" and he, fingers and hands and blue jeans covered in black soot, installing the new coal stove in the kitchen.

I remember last year, a chilly fall day, she was due a week earlier and had not come and with my midwife on notice, I faithfully glugged the slippery oil down to help her come. Next night she did, pink and red and noisy. We could hardly hear ourselves above the hollers. This week she'll be one year old, how time flies in the face of life. Now she is round cheeked and even rounder thighed and particular about doling out affection and hilariously funny when she is over tired, peels of deep belly laughter rolling in waves at the slightest provocation.

I am asked all the time by nervous mothers, expecting their second child, if it is possible to love the second child as much as the first, or will the second child play second best or if I still feel the thrill of new life holding a new babe in arms all these babes later. I've loved nine children in our home now (foster babes included), and have six for keeps for a little while, and I still love and worry endlessly about the ones who left, and still feel light as air and wear an impossible grin when I've found we're expecting another child. Love is a supernatural, not-of-this-earth thing. Love multiplies. It isn't divided or sorted or handed out in portions according to earthly measure. Such is its beauty.

Happy birthday week, Sweet Addie-girl. Happy birthday.

Respite

2011-09-27T14:12:00.000-04:00

Hello friends,
I've decided to take a break from FB and blogging for a while until things around here get settled and sorted. Family comes first before writing and I need to invest a little more into family right now. I appreciate you all and will catch up soon-ish. :)
Hannah

The Five Little Peppers

2011-09-26T14:39:00.001-04:00

I'm over at Raising Homemakers today, writing about a favorite childhood book of mine and homemaking in rough economic times. Come join in!

Just a bit

2011-09-20T22:03:00.008-04:00

of what we've been enjoying:

Exploring here:

Ancient Egypt exploration.

Every once in a while we'll take a library morning, more than just our usual browse and pick up. I'll announce it in the morning and prepare a list of research assignments for the older children and computer places for them to explore that I've screened ahead of time. We also liked these math games here.

Reading this: (photo via amazon.com)

A fabulous, fabulous story which also happens to encompass early New York history. I read this aloud to the kiddos, editing a few portions I deemed too violent/gory, mostly pertaining to the treatment of captives by the Mohawk natives. We finished this afternoon and we all give this a hearty recommendation.

Coloring:

These lovely virtue alphabet coloring pages. The littles love them!

Cutting:

These historic paper dolls.

Painting these:

And chalking these beauties: a bit of which can be seen in the recent harvest photos.

Cider

2011-09-19T21:04:00.003-04:00

After dinner, we wade the grasses, the milkweed, the thistles. Small hands grab at low hanging branches, greedy for the knarled fruit, dropped into backpacks by brothers and sisters, before moving upward and onward to the next ancient tree.

Later we stand huddled in the dimness of the fading day. The grinder churns out spray of apple and when the steel pan is stacked high it is hand scooped into cotton and slid under the press. Turns at the red crank are envied. Two kids to turn the crank, two to drop apples into the grinder with papa. Liquid gold, tart and chill with the evening air, pours forth. Five pairs of small hands dart in with cups and mugs, covert sips snuck in between carrying and pouring and funneling and entertaining baby in her stroller.

Bottles and jars and jugs from the pantry, saved through the summer are filled. When all sticky fingers are washed, and cozy pajamas put on, six pretty gallons line the counter. On some, caps are loosened and left to harden on the pantry shelf for apple cider vinegar.

It is dark and we are tired when Sean recalls the forcast for rain. Potatoes line the tables outside under sheets, drying for storage and need to be put in bins and brought in before the rain. We grab for them in the dark and roll them into our hands, into the bins, and heave and ho, stack the heavy bins into the pantry, uncovered during the night, covered during the day. The ones pierced by the pitchfork or not quite so perfect for storing are kept aside, to eat soon. In the dark as our hands chase rolling potoatoes, I laugh at the thought of the life we live. Crazy seed to pulled from earth to filling bellies at the table all winter sort of life. Backs aching, arms strong.

Finally, yes finally, work done, he whom I love pours me a cobalt glass of cider and we settle in with some BBC for the evening, house quiet, kiddos asleep, Bear the dog at her sentry post at the front door.

A Heavy Harvest

2011-09-16T09:48:00.004-04:00

This morning autumn is in the air. While the kids load up the bucket of the tractor with greens for the pig, Addie Girl gnaws on a thick carrot in her highchair and I quickly slice jalapenos into round rings and drop them into waiting hot pint jars.

(onions: white, red, and yellow)

(honey dripping off the comb and into a pot)

Last night we cooked two pots of beets, peeled and canned those then shredded and chopped carrots to freeze for winter carrot cakes and warm muffins. Sean made up a huge beautiful glass jar of cultured carrots. Again now, Annaliese is shredding carrots for freezing and I am happy to see the end of carrots! {smile}

(dining room, looking into pantry)

(Annaliese and the papa hauling potatoes)

Three bushels of apples wait to be processed into sauce and pie filling and sweet wrinkled dried rings but they have to wait until the tomatoes that line the stair steps up the boys bedroom in bowls and baskets are dealt with.

(canned tomato puree and applesauce from this morning)

Aiden has set to work scrubbing the outsides of some nice orange pie pumpkins a neighbor gave us. The oven is set to roast them before hot packing them into the jars to line the new shelves in the pantry.

(roasting pumpkin)

In between rain we dig potatoes, white gnarled fingerlings that are buttery to taste, deep elegant blues, heavy rough russets and red potatoes so bright you could mistake them for hot pink. The ears of popcorn are ready too and I'll spend time tying them up after the kids pick them. Running in and out of the stalks is our little natives favorite thing to do.

(Purple and red potatoes fresh from the earth)

(a pantry shelf, dried popcorn hanging)
Autumn is a lot of work and I feel the heaviness of it all. Homeschooling takes on a more practical lean these days. In between Saxon math we discuss science and bugs and organic biology in the garden and somehow, I think, this is perfectly right for here and now.

(apples for sauce, popcorn waiting to be peeled, tied and hung

and one sweet little girl-child in the midst)

(canned beets, pickled beets, rainbow carrots and regular 'ol orange ones too)

Busy is the theme of the season, in between slide phone calls to and about my grandparents in NC, both of whom will soon be leaving this old shabby world behind for a far more glorious place. Autumn is so very beautiful in upstate NY but I am sure where they will be makes this all pale; and while I can and stack and skip count with the kiddos, they are never far from my mind. Changing of seasons at hand.

A happy lapful

2011-09-13T03:06:00.000-04:00

Cape Cod Canal

2011-09-12T14:39:00.001-04:00

Windy and bright and beautiful.

Weekly GF Menu

2011-09-11T22:54:00.002-04:00

Monday am - eggs, potatoes, ham
lunch - apple slices w/ peanut butter, yogurt, watermelon
dinner - tomato salad, quesadillas, baked beans

Tuesday am - cereal w bananas
lunch - dilly beans, homemade hot dogs
dinner - homemade tomato soup

Wednesday am - apple sauce, cinnamon scones
lunch- pineapple carrot salad
dinner- meatball and veggie soup

Thursday am - carrot pineapple muffins
lunch- apple and carrot slices w/ nutella, homemade granola bars
dinner -Penne a la Betsy with quinoa pasta

Friday am - fritatta w/ swiss chard, feta and sausage
lunch - gf box mac and cheese, carrot slices
dinner -carrot pineapple salad, gf white sauce pizza

Saturday am - blueberry corn pancakes
lunch- grilled cheese, carrot slices w dip, apples
dinner- Spanish rice and grilled sausages

Sunday am- Oeufs en Cocotte with Lox
dinner - venison roast with root veggies and rosemary

Ten Years

2011-09-11T14:52:00.002-04:00

Ten years ago I was watching Good Morning America, snuggled with almost one year old Annaliese on my lap nursing, my belly just beginning to round out with Andrew. Sean was already at work. Suddenly the news reporters seemed frantic, scared. Onscreen appeared the first tower that was hit and while they were still reporting on "a plane that accidentally crashed" a second plane was seen crashing into the second tower. There was no doubt then that it wasn't accidental. I called Sean and watched all morning as people jumped, crowds of firemen and first responders tried to empty the buildings, and then as they fell and the city was shrouded in thick gray smoke and dust.

We talk to our kids about it now and as I explain to them what happened and the horror of it, the many lives lost, the men and women sick today because of the fumes and dust and gasses their question is always, "but why?". And so we try to explain hatred, which is a horrible thing to let a child know about and I find myself desperate to include grace in the story, convince my children that not all people hate and everyone, whether they took innocent lives or tried to live as peaceably as possible with mankind, need the grace and mercy of a Savior.

Recently a sweet little girl saw a photo of our children and nonchalantly said, "oh, I know them, those are the kids who hate me..." and though we have acted only in love towards her, the bitterness from the mama has taught her little girl that she is hated. Hatred and bitterness are such horrific things but to see them soaking into children is much the worse. I gently share a glimpse of this story because often times it is so easy to think that a pretty blog must equal a pretty perfect life - but in truth each of us travels roads not to our liking that are rough on our feet and on our hearts.

My children are playing happily in the yard, the air is crisp with hint of autumn, and I'm heading back upstairs to organize the sewing area. I think the point I'd like to make most in this little remembrance and story is that forgiveness needs to be the answer and really is the only path to peace. There is a time for justice in court but there needs to be a time for forgiveness in our hearts as well.
I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday,
Blessings,
Hannah

2011-09-08T22:17:00.002-04:00

Is it a season? I ask myself this as water pours off the roof and runs in wavy currents down the drive. I hear the "squilch-squelch" of the sump pump emptying the well room in our basement below my feet as I stand at the stove in the kitchen. It seems between summer and autumn we've been given a season simply called Pouring and here she is. Later, Sean and I trudge in mud deep enough to slip over the top of my rain boots as we slide our mischievous pig's house off its side and onto a pallet and out of the mud. My legs are leaden when I try to step and I try to talk sweet to the snorting, barking, skipping massive pig and convince her I'm not edible.

Was it only five days ago we soaked in the Atlantic sun and burrowed our toes in warm sand?

The little place we rent on this little island we're fond of is about 900 square feet. Maybe. I think I am being generous. Sean and I marveled at how well a family our size fits there and how well we can live in such a small space. I did point out that there were no closets but I suppose if we pared down our wardrobes to five outfits each, we'd be alright. The apartment size combo washer and dryer was working harder than it ever had before, I'm certain.
.

Then we came home. I feel like I came home to massive disorder and clutter - 4,000 square feet of sprawling old farmhouse is a stark difference to the minute cottage we occupy every Labor Day weekend. I immediately bagged up two more garbage bags of stuff and added them to the donate pile because I do not want my time to be owned by stuff.

While the rain beats down we sort summer clothes into keep and donate piles and a few very worn items find their way into the trash. Simplify. Get rid of. Purge. The words pulse in my head over and over. The rain hits in heavy drops "ping!" ping!" on a metal bucket under the downspout off the pantry. I hear the town trucks out on the road digging out the ditch as quickly as it fills with runoff from the field next door.

I ask myself if I am becoming neurotic. Perhaps instead of a show about hoarders, they should make one about people who compulsively get rid of things. I eye a pair of loved Mary Jane wedges briefly before slipping them into a quickly filling bag. I've had them for eleven years.

Counting the pillows in our living room, I stop at eleven. Eleven? Who could possible recline on eleven pillows? Or need eleven pillows? I spend more time than I care to mention asking kiddos to put the pillows back on the sofa, back on the chair, please don't use those pillows as skates, please don't cover your baby brother with the pillows, please take down your pillow blockade, please put the pillow in the wash because it has a footprint on it... and so on. Toss, toss. Into the bag.

Tomorrow I will work on filling my sixty-seventh donation bag. And smile while I do.

Stars in his wake

2011-09-07T09:03:00.000-04:00

From my phone

2011-09-06T20:43:00.002-04:00

Often times, my iphone is the nearest to grab when I need to take a quick photo. Here are some recent ones - food and babies are hot topics round here:

Art by the Sea

"I'm just holding her so she doesn't fall off..." 3 yr old Chase on why he stood for at least five minutes with his arm around his sister Ella (5) on our recent weekend at the beach. I was cooking breakfast and they were supervising on the kitchen stool.

Veggies from the garden for the green curry dish we ate (and liked much) one night.

She hates Baths.

I can't understand it. We've tried warm baths, cool baths to try to trick her into thinking it is a wading pool, baths in the sink, baths in a baby tub, baths in the enamel bath... nothing but misery. Oh-so-sad misery, clawing and clammering her way out.

All we've found is she hates baths worse with bubbles.

Much worse.

Put her in a lake, stream, or ocean and she's happy as a clam. I think perhaps she needs a moving water feature installed. Tough luck kiddo.

Beets for Breakfast

Dinner: Homemade Dutch sausage, Italian style swiss chard greens (with cheese and hot pepper and salami), and beets with balsamic and fennel. It was good.

My friend Sarah gave me a vintage pallet. I love it as our new coffee table and the kids can't destroy it. I think there is some wisdom to decorating with an industrial spin, as is now popular!

Kissing the other baby in the mirror.

How about you. Do you take many photos with your phone?

She laughs...

2011-09-05T21:15:00.002-04:00

I love this photo from the weekend.

It is blurry.

One of our precious and precocious children took it but I love it

because I laugh.

I never used to much.

I didn't understand that in order to know joy, you had to understand sorrow and I braced and steeled myself against that.

Then we had a baby with funky kidneys and then we lost a baby and other life *stuff* with people I love much and then Sean's been not well for a few years and now... now I can laugh.

I wipe tears easily as they flow - but how I can laugh!

A precious girlfriend told me I glow.

I praise God for that.

Tears rolled down my cheeks tonight as Sean and I looked through the family photos we took on the beach with a timer and tripod over the weekend and six vibrant personalities shine through in them - oh, how I laughed!

And I praise God for the wonder of *feeling* things so easily, sorrow and joy, and knowing they are gifts, crazy as that might all seem.

Proverbs 31:25 she is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs at the days to come...

2011-09-03T03:12:00.000-04:00

Always a tea drinker and never a coffee appreciator until a few years ago, now I savor my morning cup of dark, nutty richness. This is how we make it here in our home, in a French press. Isn't this aqua one amazing. It's color makes me smile each morning. Our favorite coffee is from Jim's Organic , called Sweet Love, and my favorite decaf is Sam's Club organic, which uses the Swiss process instead of chemicals to decaf the sweet little beaners.

How 'bout you? Do you take a cup o' Joe or lift your pinky and sip tea. Or - like me - do you savor the best of both worlds?

A birthday

2011-09-01T03:01:00.000-04:00

And a much anticipated gift, which came first with a safety lesson. :) He and his older brother target practiced out back all morning before I finally felt the need to pull them in for some lunch and a lesson in finding perimeter. Studies done and bellies nourished, they headed back outside. Rodents in our area better take notice.

Finally, friends,

2011-08-30T20:42:00.003-04:00

How can we best train our children in the way they should go - speaking to the natural bent God places in each of them (because that really is what that verse is addressing).
This needn't be a long post but here's the scoop. Just as God created our brains to learn in unique ways, He also creates us with a unique purpose. The Bible says, "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord..." And He does know the plans and purposes He has for these babies we hold and raise and teach phonics to and sing silly songs with.

One of our children is very mechanical. He put together furniture as a toddler, explains to us how things work, and tinkers with magnets and gears and batteries and wires (supervised - smile) endlessly. This building, creating, understanding and exploring mind is clearly his natural bent. And so we supply him with mechanical books, appliances to dissect, and put up with lights plucked off our Christmas strands in the attic (he built a light-up fork) and so on.

Perhaps your child does not have such a clear bent, but perhaps they seem happiest in the kitchen, or digging in the garden, or surrounded by tins of paint and rainbows of pencils or talking with people. Encourage this. You can do this even without homeschooling. Plant lettuce by the window in the winter, sprout the pit from your plum, there are myriads of art blogs, art lessons online, books available from the library... education does not have to be expensive! Let your socialite plan the snack menu for having friends over, turn their endless words out onto paper, record family history, write plays and skits and find rhythm in the letters... Let your historian build weapons, sculpt the Great Pyramid in blocks, use paper towel tubes to build a castle, design costumes... This IS education!

And so it goes, I'm told, that little selves enjoy and relish the bent with which they were created, the giftings He gives, on their own way and path to glorifying God with their lives.

And, if someone were to ask you, which I am -what is your natural bent? Please share your thoughts or what you've noticed in your own children.
And what is a post without photos - some tomato puree canning and gluten free cookie baking in the kitchen this evening.

You Were Born for This book review

2011-08-29T21:11:00.001-04:00

You Were Born for This is the title and the title sounds wonderful but I sadly found this book by Bruce Wilkerson to be a lot of animated infomercial style hype, secrets to learn, steps to follow, hoops to jump - all in order to be used by God. Something seems askew. As I read Wilkerson's words describing how to make miracles happen, my stomach was turning. Isn't God in control of the miraculous and anything less than divine, contrived?
I understand a bit where he is coming from, wanting people to be open to being used by God *is* good and a right thing to seek but I found his delivery of this message poor and lacking the whole point of miracles being miraculous for the glory of God, not to make people feel good.

I was sent this book by the publisher and in no way did this alter my review.

Not Back to School pt. 5

2011-08-28T20:34:00.002-04:00

How can I best give my children a life long *love* of learning?

Now that we are figuring out the way God created each of our children to learn - here are some ways you can instill in them a LOVE of learning! Learning is not mundane and boring! If it is - stop what you're doing, don't give up - there is hope! Here are the basic subjects and creative ways to make learning FUN!

Math - math games galore (and here and here and here and here) practical applications of math, math in the kitchen (I was recently sent an ADORABLE math in the kitchen dvd to review - watch for it soon!), math in the grocery store, visual math, manipulatives! Our younger kids use Flip Over Math books which are very visual and our older kids work through Saxon math. Saxon could be very monotonous, which is why I avoided it for years, but a homeschooling mama friend pointed out to me that I am in control of the lessons and I can work them however I like - and so we do Saxon some days but not all, odd number problems one day and evens the next and so one, with lots of games mixed in. Our kids do their Saxon math work on scrap paper so I can re-use the books. I've also not had to pay more than $10 for their books shopping ebay and homeschool used book sales.

Language - journaling, journaling! Journaling covers spelling, language, vocabulary, creative writing! You can either choose to give your children a journal assignment or let them choose what to write about. We switch things up. Some of the things my kiddos have done is: make an acrostic using the letters of their name that describes who they are....write a poem covering their recent Bible reading - Andrew's recent poem was a hoot! All about a wise man who chose to read his Bible. The kids have been reading the a chapter of Proverbs each morning...they've copied portions of scripture of their choosing, illustrated something from our history reading....illustrated a verse from Proverbs.... give the kids some fun vocabulary words, explain their meaning and assign them a number of sentences to write using them. These short stories always come out funny. Our younger kids also play a lot of word and letter games and puzzles but each have their own journal because they want to be like their older siblings. So sweet. :)

Now for the spelling portion, read over the journal entries, no red lines or marks on it, please, just re-write the misspelled works correctly at the bottom of the page and ask them to look them over and see how to spell them properly, if a grammar rule has been ignored you can look up the rule and have them write it out in their journal. We can encourage our kids to use colorful and descriptive language and if they've written rather plainly, suggest some more descriptive language that would convey their thought.

History - If your state doesn't dictate what they have to learn - ask your kiddos what they want to learn! Our kids chose ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and ancient Rome and so we've hopped into ancient Egypt with a mess of library resources and books found on the cheap via half.com. We have hieroglyph stamps and a book that shows in detail a pyramid, a story about a slave girl seeking freedom, and reading about the Egyptians fear of their many gods has brought to life so much from the Biblical account of Moses. Greek food and Egyptian food and Italian food will find its way to our table. We're making maps and finding where ancient cities were on the globe and curling up every afternoon with pillows and reading aloud. We're also wandering down rabbit trails, specifically a book my dad loaned us, a true story about a French boy who was captured by the Mohawk natives in New York, which covers our need for covering New York state history (a state requirement).

Science - when I asked our kids what they wanted to learn about, they asked to look under our microscope more, study rocks and fossils, paleontology, and inventors. And so we're using Jonathan Park for paleontology, visiting a local cave next week, reading biographies about inventors, collecting rocks, and using books from half.com and the library. Rabbit trails abound in science, empty cicada shells are brought inside, a mama duck on our little homestead successfully hatches her eggs, a grub (shudder) is found in a chunk of firewood... Follow every rabbit trail.

Music - we have an ancient piano for lessons and have been listening to some great stories of composers with their music from the library. We're reading about orchestras and I can't wait to get the kiddos to a production of the local city's symphony to see and hear it in action.

Art - I earmark art projects I find online (another reason pinterest is awesome!) and we do one a week. We did this project last week and they came out awesome! So much fun! We also live in an area with several colleges that have art galleries which are free to visit. With a quick check online I can see what artists are being featured and whether the exhibits are kid friendly and appropriate.

Language - for now we're teaching our kids German, since Sean speaks it fluently. We use Pimsler cds, which are very good, in the van on road trips and lots of colorful German picture dictionaries and online games (and here and here and here, also here). We're thinking of having our kids learn another language also, something more culturally useful like Mandarin Chinese or Arabic. That decision is still up in the air but once we decide, we will invest in a Rosetta Stone homeschooling course.

Do you have a favorite resource or method to instill a love of learning? Please share!

Not Back to School pt.4

2011-08-25T21:59:00.002-04:00

How can we best incorporate our goals as a family into our children's education?

Or perhaps, more specifically, our goals as parents.
Here are a few things my husband and I would hope for our family, and perhaps you can refer to the goals specific to your family.

We want our children to enjoy life-long friendship with each other.
This is especially poignant for me because my relationship with my siblings has been often strained. However, I must say, when our sixth amazing, incredible miracle Addie was born, my younger sister was the only family to come. Our kids had an awesome time with their aunt. She took them to the park and cooked oodles of food in my kitchen for us all (no small task when you're used to cooking for two!) That was so special and such a blessing to me.

Home education is great because our kids don't have the mindset that anyone is less interesting or less smart or more smart or more cool because of their age/grade. They relate well to people of all ages, from infants to great-grandmas and yes, they fight and quarrel like all kids, but they are each other's best friends. When one of them is away at a friend's for the day, or at work with their papa, all I hear is, "when is ________ going to be home????" This makes this mama's heart very glad.

We want our children to learn about God in all of daily life so that they can develop their own relationship with Him.
This means God isn't relegated to Sunday and church and the rest of our lives a separate category. The Bible says, "In Him we live and breath and have our being", and this is the way life can be. If the sunrise is gorgeous, we praise Him. If a child loses their temper and speaks harshly, they can be encouraged by a reminder of He who is always ready to come and help when we ask. Clothes are folded, and neatly arranged colorful pencils in a jar can be appreciated because God is a God of order and beauty. The living nature pages of our science lessons fall under His domain too. And math. The thought that, "this is a bit of the wonder by which God makes the universe work", makes memorizing times tables and the way to find circumference more enjoyable (tolerable?) for all.

We don't want to send our children mixed messages.
I'm a faulty human. I fail. I ask my kids to speak gently with each other but when I'm tired and have a headache or am just being a bad mama, I raise my voice, or say "no" too quickly and then get to practice humility and repent. We want our kids to see a genuine faith lived out, with all its ugliness of life overshadowed by incredible grace. We are thankful that we don't have to worry about teaching our kids about faith for a few moments a day and what is squeezed in on the weekend, hoping it *sticks* as they are in a secular environment which is contradicting us for the majority of their moments in childhood. I know there is no formula guaranteeing that a child will love God but I do enjoy knowing that my cards are not stacked against me.

Now, these aren't exactly the reasons why we home educate our kids but they are, hopefully, an example of how homeschooling can be a blessing to the vision of a family. The above photos are from our first official day of lessons. Blueberry pancakes and decaf coffee. My kiddos are nuts about coffee!

Not Back to School pt.3

2011-08-23T17:57:00.003-04:00

How Does this Child Learn Best?

Amazingly and wonderfully, God created us with and gifted us each with a unique learning style. I for one, cannot follow written directions very well. I can look at an item of clothing and figure out how it was constructed or look at pattern pieces and see how they go together, but the written instructions I always toss to the side. When I'm out and about, I mentally re-arrange the furniture wherever I might be and I notice things like the lighting and the colors and font used in marketing.

I came across this quick test which can clue you in to how you personally learn best. I learn best visually, no surprise there. The book on my Amazon sidebar Every Child Has a Thinking Style is great for helping understand the way God has gifted your children. You can probably order it from your local library or find it on half.com.

So why all the fuss about learning styles and how does this play into home education? Simply put, we believe that a learning style is a gift, not a problem to be worked around or a glitch that needs to conform to one style of learning, such as workbooks or note taking off a blackboard. While life certainly doesn't cater to my particular learning style and I don't expect my kids to think it will to theirs, at this young age when there is SO much learning and absorbing taking place, it absorbs so much easier when we can identify the learning style God gave them and use it to His glory and their benefit.

Any idea what your learning style might be?

Not Back to School pt.2

2011-08-21T20:44:00.002-04:00

What is our Biblical responsibility towards our children regarding education? Does the Bible even address public vs. private schooling? Did Moses forget the 11th commandment "Thou Shalt Homeschool"? (giggle)

The Bible is silent regarding phrases familiar with our modern modes of education but it is not silent on feeding us principles that we can use to direct our decision making. It is late on Sunday night and I have so much readying to do to make our FIRST. DAY. AWESOME! (of lessons tomorrow) and so without delving into a huge three layer Hebrew or Greek study, I'll toss some nuggets I hold dear your way and urge you to continue the study on your own.

First, we can read scripture (because it is life GIVING!) and see that God created a basic unit of society called the family. A man was to leave his parents, love his wife, have children and this was how life was to be. A family. Living together, children under the care of their parents. All God's design. Then we skip forward and see that children are clearly a gift from the Lord. God gave children to parents, not to a village or a school board or even to a church. Let's consider together: right now if you were given something you absolutely desire or need, perhaps a dream vehicle, a new post baby wardrobe, a farm (!), or so on, how many of us would really even consider saying, "thanks, but you know I think so-and-so down the road would take better care of this vehicle so they can use it all day, or she would wash these clothes more carefully so I think I'll let her wear them during the day, or I don't want this farm during for eight hours of the day because it might be too much work" - what???? How ridiculous do these scenarios sound to our ears? How much more precious gifts are our children than things.

We can see God's view of teaching taking place in the family unit in Genesis 18:19, Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (also see Deuteronomy 4:9, Deuteronomy 11:18-21) , Isaiah 54:13.

How might these scriptures direct our education decisions for our children?
2 Corinthians 10:5
Romans 12:2
Psalms 1:1-2

I'd urge you to read the wisdom in the book of Proverbs. I like that there are 31 chapters in proverbs because it works easily to read one a day and countless nuggets to include in our walk with Christ.

Sean and I agreed that we could not read what scripture has to say about friendships and push our children out of our home at their most impressionable ages, into an environment where their peers would be the most influential people in their lives. When American children go to school, they are not thinking, "I must get the most education I can today and learn to love learning...", they are anxious to see their friends, wondering what so-and-so will be wearing, waiting to hear about the weekend, wondering if that boy or girl will talk to them...

Finally, friends, there is no place in scripture where we are taught or where we can pull principle from regarding sending our children out as little missionaries, as salt and light, so the saying goes. I suppose some parents might have well intentions to send their children into public school hoping to enlarge their own area of influence and to reach out, but I would venture to state that visiting the same library every week, choosing the line with the same clerk at the grocery store, inviting neighbors over for coffee, volunteering together as a family - any of these would be much better ways to make an impact on our community without sending our children away for the majority of their day.

It is late. Thankfully, my stepmom made me a beautiful iced coffee a few hours ago and I'm ready to tackle what I need to. I hope these thoughts find their way gently into your hearts and give you food for thought. As always, nothing I write here is representative of the church we attend and where my husband is on the board of elders. Our thoughts and conclusions are our own.
Have a beautiful night,
Hannah

Not back to School part 1

2011-08-18T12:45:00.000-04:00

We receive a lot of questions about home education in emails, from strangers out in public, and friends at church. Every home educating family is different, but here is how homeschool *goodness* works for us.

First, we've had to unlearn the public and private school standard ways of operation. There is a reason, besides crammed classrooms, that students aren't learning in America. Two great books on the topic of teaching and learning are A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Demille and Every Child Has a Thinking Style by Lanne Nakone. You can find these on my sidebar along with some of my other favorites for giving our children a love of learning.

We live in NY and have pretty stringent laws governing our home education. We send in quarterly reports and lesson plans for the younger grades and begin standardized testing starting in third grade. This is our fourth year having completed standardized tests - we've used the PASS test, the CAT test and the TAKS test and I find them to be a hoop to jump through and a poor judge of what a child has learned. My public school teachers literally taught from the test the last month or so before it was administered and I am always shocked at how dumbed down the actual tests are. Every homeschooling mamaI know loves it when our kids ace these, I must admit. The current TAKS test, which we've been using because it is available free online, actually gives math formulas at the beginning of the math portion of the test to refer to in problem solving. I don't let my kids refer back to these 'cause I'm such a mean mama. Actually, my kids don't even know they are there.

As Christian parents, we ask ourselves a few things.

1. What is my duty before God regarding my child's education?

2. How does this child learn best?
3. How can we best incorporate our goals as a family into our children's education?

4. How can I best give my children a life long *love* of learning?

5. How can we best "train our children in the way they should go" - speaking to the natural bent God has given each of them.

Those are heavy questions and involve a lot when multiplied times the number of children in a home. But God doesn't call us to the easy and when He sets a job before us He is faithful to equip us. So it is even with home education.

Here's the good news: learning does not have to be boring and repetitive as it was when I was doing year after year of ABEKA (so sorry ABEKA, nothing personal, the appeasing part of my personality reeeaally wants to like you) in private school or either too easy or too difficult, as it often was when I was in pub. school.

Over the next week, I'll share a bit about each of the above questions we ask ourselves and I'll also share practical ways that work in our busy home. I hope you'll all join in the conversation!

2011-08-16T09:16:00.002-04:00

We're gearing up here for our *official* start to lessons. I chuckle writing this and even planning this because we never stop learning, just because it is summer, and math books still get pulled out and lessons sorted through, even in between summer swim lessons and garage sale-ing. But new books to read together, the smell of newly sharpened pencils, fresh glue sticks, and crisp new notebooks for journaling -we all love these things.

I spent last evening printing and laminating our new chore chart, which I'll share here just as soon as I finish with it. If you haven't discovered Pinterest yet, I highly recommend it. I have found such wonderful ideas for fun lessons, organization tips, photos of how to arrange my mass of hair, quick recipes and such on it. Best of all, you can share your finds and photos with friends and see theirs.

We haven't any plans for moving yet, still praying for a buyer for our cabin, but the sorting and donating and tossing continues. I AM enjoying this *less* of things. How about you - any end of summer activities and planning going on your way?

Loving Our Children

2011-08-15T01:42:00.001-04:00

Today, six friends and I are writing a series based on the biblical principles taken from Titus 2:3-5. We pray that the topics discussed will inspire and encourage you to draw closer to God and His plan for womanhood. My small part of today's study is on loving our children.

I tend to think loving our children is something that comes naturally, don't you? Because inherently we believe it should. No doubt the first time we held our warm babies we felt a rush of emotion that we tagged as *love*. But then, perhaps, as long nights of teething came and during our wearing of a groove in the floorboards we realized - love is not simply a feeling, love is a verb. It is more some things we must do, then something we feel. Hence why over 400,000 kiddos end up in our nations foster care a year and why so many adults who never were relegated to foster care still have mommy or daddy issues. Love is a tricky thing.

I imagine Paul leaning back against the hard, damp stone wall of a prison cell, his wrists red and raw in chains, his voice parched, slowly dictating a letter to Titus, thinking of all he had seen and heard, prioritizing what needed to be said to this Gentile he considered a son. I don't believe that if the young wives were already properly loving their children, Paul would have valued including these words, "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." NASB

As mothers who follow Christ, we have available to us a continual, never ending, bottomless spring of life giving love to draw from and use in ministering to our children. It doesn't matter if we had disaffectionate mothers, or absentee mothers, or mothers so broken they were or are unable to minister love to us. We know the true source of LOVE and can dip our hands in it and fill them up to pour out throughout our day. Our own mothers are not our source.

Let's love our children for valuing who God made them to be.

Each one of my children is different and unique. They are funny and serious and meticulous and soulful and fearless in their own right, because God has gifted them as He saw fit. Loving (the verb) our children might mean we take time out of our stuff-we-have-to-get-done to sit with our soulful child who feels everything and help them process through their feelings, highlighting the positive ones and helping them surrender to God the ones that are overwhelming.

It might mean we-who-like-to-be-serious and savor quiet instead turns on a lively tune and dances with the child who's heart is moved by noise and movement. It might mean sitting and explaining a math concept two more times, even though there's other things to be done, because this is important and being available without being annoyed is important - our hands dipping and sloshing into the available waters once more.

Let's love our children by being faithful to discipline them.

We do this because we are urged and encouraged through scripture to train our children , to teach them, to remember that disciplining our children is an act of love. We do not hesitate to follow God in this because of our own past abuses, but put our hand safely in His. We love (the verb) our children by not being too slow to discipline when it is needed, not frustrating them and making them angry with our scolding, yelling, scowls and anger because we do not feel like getting up or putting aside what we are doing to go upstairs or outside to deal with the issue at hand. Instead, hands submerged and soaking deep into the endless well, we reach up and pour out, letting our children know what is expected of them at each unique age and ability, what behaviour is acceptable or unacceptable in our homes, again according to age and ability, thus giving them the safety and security of boundaries.

Let's love our children by letting them see where our own hands and hearts are being filled, by letting them see us hiding God's Word deep within us, by asking their forgiveness when it is due to be asked, by choosing not to lord over them in an air of superiority but remembering always that if even Christ came to serve then we can stoop lower still, to wipe up vomit from the floor without complaint, to pick up yet another toy or shoe, or mud ground into the rug and never be in err. Stooped lower, arms submerged into warm grace, let's love our children (a verb!) by teaching them to value the Word of God, to hold it in high esteem. Let's love our children by showing them that following Christ is the only religion (relationship!) that is a gift, while all other are dues to be paid. Let's love our children by not expecting them to give us what they are not required by God to give: success, happiness, fulfillment, applause, satisfaction, recognition, a sense of self-worth or esteem...

Finally, let's love our children by pointing with our acts of love, not towards ourselves for our own glory, but granting everything to the glory of God. Let's fold laundry to the glory of God, explain that math concept a third and fourth time, cook another meal and wash more dishes to His glory because we can, because we're already aprons soaked in His freely available love and goodness.

For more ideas on how to love your children, consider these verses in I Corinthians 13.
You can read more and soak in more on Titus chapter 2 from these lovely ladies:

The Modest Mom - Chaste.
Our Simple Country Life -Loving Your Husband
The Legacy of Home - Being Obedient to Your Husband
A Wise Woman Woman Builds her Home - Soberity

Raising Mighty Arrows - Discretion
Far Above Rubies - Busy/Keepers at Home

Titus 2 Mentoring Series

2011-08-12T05:47:00.000-04:00

Next week I'll be joining some sweet sisters in Christ, sharing on Titus chapter 2:

June at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Being Sober

Jasmine at Far Above Rubies
Keeper at Home

Heather at Raising Mighty Arrows
Being Discreet

Mrs. Sharon White at The Legacy of Home
Being Obedient to Your Husband

Caroline at The Modest Mom
Being Chaste

Esther @ Simple Country Life
Loving Your Husbands

And I'll be sharing some of what God has revealed through scripture on loving our children! Join us on Monday!

What she made

2011-08-10T05:55:00.000-04:00

We recently celebrated Sean's birthday and each of our kids had a wonderful time coming up with ideas for his gifts. Ella requested candy making for her papa and to see what she made, click here.

(think peanut butter and chocolate goodness!)

Simplifying

2011-08-09T22:19:00.002-04:00

Do this with me.
It really is wonderful.
With even the slightest chance of moving *sometime* in my future, I've begun ruthlessly going through the attic and tackling each of the rooms in our home one by one. I've sorted endlessly and made quite a few trips to the little thrift store (I dropped off so much that they asked if I was ditching my life and starting over) and have a stash here for the consignment shop. And do you know.... I miss none of it. I can't even imagine why I kept so much *stuff*. It was definitely owning me and not the other way around.
I still have shelves and shelves of books to sort through. Oh why, oh why do I have to have such affection for books?
So far we've ditched over 55 bags and boxes of *things* in our lives that we didn't need.
It feels great.

Ooohhh! Ahhhh!

2011-08-09T06:17:00.000-04:00

Grandparents brought fireworks and sparklers when they came for a visit. :)

A Summer Walk

2011-08-08T11:51:00.000-04:00

The Papa had a meeting for church, Addie was restless in the heat and couldn't fall asleep and at the end of the day the older kids were still brimming with energy. So we went for a walk.

His sister is his "Buddy" and he loves holding her hand when we walk. Even when I ask to hold his, he'll usually scurry over to Annaliese and grab hers. Much love there. Yes, we use the famous large family buddy system. It is fabulous and my kids love it even more than I do.

Addie settled right down, carried on my front, and gifted me these endless gummy smiles all the way up the hills.

Gathering wild mint.

Taking time to roll drop apples from an old tree by the roadside down the road and see whose could roll the furthest. Andrew came in first place and Ella came in second with honorable mentions all around. Thank you to our neighbor, Mr. Dever, for filling us in on this necessary game.

We happened upon a spot the kids named *Berry Heaven* and we picked a basket full. There were so many juicy ones left, I'm hoping for a visit again soon. We ate handfuls and Chase just positioned his little mouth by a laden branch and quickly popped them in one by one, juice dripping down his chin. This morning we feasted on berry and white chocolate scones.

I am having a difficult time accepting that it is August, that summer is slowly closing up shop for us northerners.

Gluten Free Weekly Menu

2011-08-07T21:15:00.003-04:00

I'll work on answering all the recent questions on hot dogs and bathing suits :()
and here is my menu for this week, all gluten free, of course but definitely not flavor free.

Monday am - blueberry cornbread, orange juice
lunch- Greek yogurt with honey
dinner- chicken quesadillas, corn on the cob

Tuesday am - strawberry yogurt smoothies, puffed rice with honey and milk
lunch - apple slices with peanut butter, oatcakes
dinner - Pioneer Woman Easy Sesame Noodles, green beans, blackberry tart

Wednesday am - cereal with bananas
lunch- tuna salad with pineapple, nachos with salsa
dinner- hamburgers with peppers, caramelized red onion and horseradish sauce, greens from the garden

Thursday am - pineapple zucchini bread with raisins and choc. chips
lunch- pepper jack cornbread, baked beans
dinner- fish tacos

Friday am- scrambled eggs with breakfast sausage and potatoes
lunch- Greek yogurt with granola and jam, popcorn, carrot sticks
dinner- pepperoni pizza, salad

Sat am - pumpkin pancakes
lunch- rice salad, baked zucchini fries (substitute cornmeal/buckwheat for the flour)
dinner -antipasto with crab cakes

Sun am - blackberry white chocolate scones, chocolate milk
dinner - homemade fettuccine with pesto sauce

Berrying

2011-08-07T02:24:00.000-04:00

After the rains and the weeks of endless heat baking the earth, comes the time for berrying. Not the cultivated berries like blue and strawberry, with the loading up of the van and buckets and bowls, but the kind where you throw on a sturdy pair of shoes with a sole thick enough that briars can't pierce them and even though it is ninety, you pull on jeans and your husband's long sleeved cotton dress shirt for protection.

Blackberries. Mouth dripping with tart juice berries, the bigger - the sweeter.

Wish you could all come berrying in the fields with us.

Which just might be the grossest thing I've ever seen:

2011-08-06T02:21:00.000-04:00

Sean was splitting wood when he found this grub cozy at home in its midst. You can see how large it is compared to Andrew's finger in the background. {shivers}

Homemade Hot Dogs

2011-08-05T13:58:00.000-04:00

Painting

2011-08-04T13:49:00.002-04:00

With our downstairs bathroom almost completed, the only thing left to do was paint our eighties splatter painted footed tub and install it's beautiful self. I'm working on it.

Zucchini

2011-08-02T09:03:00.004-04:00

Between the whir-whir-whir of the paddle of the Kitchen Aid this morning blending eggs and sugar and zucchini with coconut oil, I find them on the front porch, a cloud of tiny bubbles floating up from their pursed lips and bubble wands. They are more than happy to accept the empty bowls I offer and run out to the berry patch to fill them for breakfast.

Today we put in our first offer on a farm and I want to play the part of Thomas. I want to doubt. Doubting is safe, a form of protection. If I don't expect it could be possible and it ends up not to be, I've lost nothing. If I believe all things are possible... well, there are a lot of crazies to be believed in here... that in the middle of a housing market crisis we just might get a buyer to pay a good sum for a bit of pretty wilderness and a cabin, that we just might be able to buy a 61 acre farm debt free and with money left to improve upon it... well, yes, those are crazy thoughts to me. Believing that we could have a family business, that my husband wouldn't have to work in a hot office with stale air all day forever, catering to clients who care nothing about our livelihood - those are wonderful thoughts I have faith enough for.

My heart cries, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief". He is sovereign.

I hear the noise of kids pushing their way through the back door and a scrambling of chairs and seating as I pull a pan of zucchini bread from the oven, a zucchini I rescued from a plant thriving outside one of the empty barns, the land missing it's owner since he passed last winter, his barns full of the scent of drying garlic and herbs, his apple trees brimming with reddening fruit.

I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds my future. I've heard that faith and farming go hand in hand and it seems it is true before it even starts.

Have a beautiful day!

Hannah

Farm Shopping

2011-07-29T16:38:00.003-04:00

It all began last year when we happened upon a "farm-for-sale" sign on the way home from a summer day at the lake and then drove past a small farm with a lovely little creek with horses grazing and thought "hmmm....". That, I think, was the beginning of a dream. We've spent time reading lots and lots on farming and asking lots and lots of questions from people more experienced (which doesn't take much) in farming and animal husbandry than we. Slowly we began talking farming. Slowly we made plans to slowly look at a few farms and decided to try to sell our cabin to finance our little farm dream debt free and slowly move into moving.

We are in no hurry - we made sure to tell our friend/realtor this and so how it happened that on our first day of official farm browsing we happened upon a lovely little farm with three wild meandering creeks and solem old red barns nestled in a little valley and with a name of it's own like it had fallen out of the pages of Country magazine, I'll never know.

Now, I must be honest, there is work to be done on this pretty place but, as Sean reminds me, one can always improve upon a house but you can't much change the shape of or add to the land. The house is the song Stayin' Alive in house form - the nineteen seventies alive and well in orange shag, newsprint wallpaper and yellow linoleum - yellow and orange being the primary tones of the decor with some pink and blue shag thrown in for good measure. But under all that is good wood floors, I'm confident.

It might fly fast and be sold before we're prepared to buy and then we'll know whether it truly was meant for us or not. In the meantime I've posted our little piece of Adirondacks on craigslist and if you happen to know any such persons hankering for a pretty piece of wilderness, do send them my way, won't you?

Cleaning without Toxins

2011-07-28T22:24:00.004-04:00

I've written before here and here about the cleaning products I use in our home and recently I was offered some Shaklee products by Mariliz to use in our home. Researching the products, I liked what I read. No perfumes, non-toxic, safe for my kids....

The Shaklee cleaner comes with one bottle of Basic H2® Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate, a VERY economical little bottle. This makes 48 gallons of cleaner for your home! It came with three separate spray bottles for mixing different cleaning solutions: an All-Purpose spray, Windows and Mirrors, and De-Greasing cleaner. Easy to follow directions on the bottles make for easy mixing of the very concentrated solution with water. I'm talking like a droplet to a quarter teaspoon of concentrate for one bottle of cleaner.

The first thing I noticed using the Glass and Windows cleaner was how nice these spray bottles are! Much better quality than the dollar store spray bottles I usually use around the house. Windows were streak free and clear... well, at least momentarily - I do have a house blessed with children.

The Degreaser became my go-to bottle for spills on the floor, splatter around the stove, and water marks from our hard water around the sink. The all-purpose cleaner worked well too, I just preferred the cleaning action of the Degreaser for my busy household.

The Scour OFF worked wonders in my nasty sink (oh be honest, yours gets that way too sometimes). Shiny! I can't wait to scrub down the old tub upstairs with it.

Also this great microfiber cloth came with the set, which I was skeptical about having *done* microfiber cleaning cloths. I need more of these. They take off everything without scratching and minimal scrubbing.

My only complaint with the Shaklee products is probably their biggest selling point - no scent! I like a lemony clean scent lingering in our home post-cleaning. Not a problem though, I just add a drop of lemon essential oil to my bottle of Degreaser. :)

Bottom line: Shaklee has some fabulous cleaning products, safe for your home, scent free. To enjoy your own Shaklee cleaners, visit this woman's sweet blog or the Shaklee webpage here.

Though I was sent these products to review, I was under no obligation to give a favorable review and what you have read is my honest opinion of them.

Sewing a Bathing Suit

2011-07-27T13:26:00.002-04:00

Last year Eleanora chose the fabric for her swim suit and described to me what she wanted it to look like: a dress with sleeves and shorts underneath. I ventured into the world of swim suit making, not loving the choices available in stores or online, either finding them too skimpy or, at the other extreme - ugly and modest.

Here's what she chose this year. She wanted no sleeves - fine by me as we don't believe bare arms are immodest, a swirly *thing* on the front and a skirt "down to her knees". She chose the fabric which came from etsy.com. It is bright and bold and completely *her*.

It took about ten minutes to sketch, twenty to cut out and an hour to sew it all together. The fabric cost about $8.

Wood

2011-07-25T12:30:00.004-04:00

We burn wood for heat. Every spring a log truck drives up our road, takes out a few sagging telephone lines, and delivers a truck load of wood to our house. Our home is about 4,000 square feet and we run two wood stoves, one at each end of the house. The wood for an entire fall, winter, and spring costs us as much as one month of oil heat would cost so the savings are immense, and nothing beats the coziness of wood heat and a pot of stew set on top of the wood stove to simmer.

In previous years we stacked our wood out under the trees and tarps for the winter and had to venture out into the cold for firewood when the stash in the garage ran out. Last year Sean obtained a permit and built a woodshed onto the back of the house and we fill it to the brim with wood. This year we ( read: Sean mostly) will chainsaw the logs into eighteen inch sections and then split them with the wood splitter. The wood is then carried to the woodshed with the tractor. Our kids are expert stackers.

We were cleaning up the woodshed and stacking the leftover wood from last winter when inside a hollow piece of wood, we found a cozy little mouse home, stuffed tight with feathers and corn. Smart little mouse.

This year Sean is trying something new that we read about, cutting the green logs and stacking them on pallets and then wrapping the pallets with plastic wrap, making a greenhouse effect inside and drying the wood more quickly. So far, so good. It really does heat up under that plastic wrap.

So how much wood does it take to heat our home? 35-40 face cord.

Wowsa week

2011-07-24T22:50:00.006-04:00

Last Monday Addie began puking and snuggled all day. Tuesday 5 yr old Eleanor began running a fever and moaning with a headache. The next day she complained that it hurt to swallow and a peek into her throat revealed ulcers. Wednesday Annaliese (10) started feeling off, same thing, throat ulcers. Friday Aiden spiked a fever and today Andrew. Coxsakie virus has been no fun this week on top of the heat and I am so thankful that it has run its course, well, almost... I'm assuming tonight will be the last of it for Andrew with a restful recuperation day and sore throat tomorrow.

This week I am thankful for the love of a husband. Single parenting right now would stink and hugs to all you mamas who do this alone. I'm thankful our kids don't have strep throat. I'm thankful for our trial of netflix for taking little minds off their hurts and making them smile and for good storybooks. I'm thankful for room air conditioners and kids piled camping out in the living room because it is 101 and for cold washcloths on hot foreheads. Since the garden is brimming with beans (and weeds), I'm thankful tonight for pantry shelves filled with pretty quart jars of wax beans and Roma beans and mango salsa, canned with prayers today while I missed church. Again. I'm thankful that His mercies are new every morning and that He gives rest to the weary and I'm looking forward to a restorative week!

Wall Decal Winner

2011-07-22T22:22:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Joy of Journey91 for being random.org's winner of the wall decal!
Please send me your address at the contact link at the top of the page.
Have a great night everyone and thanks for playing along!
Hannah

On Body Image

2011-07-21T13:46:00.003-04:00

I started dieting when I was ten.

And stopped when I was twenty-one.

For eleven years I tried to fix all that perceived was wrong with my body.

I could not pay to have my crooked teeth straightened or banish my regretfully red hair but I could make sure my one pair of jeans in 7th grade kept fitting. The women around me were always dieting or talking about calories and I remember the one day an older boy told me my only pair of jeans were too tight. A junior high growth spurt I perceived as fat.

I thought the women in my circle of life were beautiful until they did not think it themselves. And if they weren't beautiful, how much uglier I must be than them, I thought.

There was a heavy emphasis on looks while I was in private and public schools. I woefully allowed my physical education teacher to pinch the skin at my waist and measure it and, tongue clicking, declare me at 30 percent body fat. I stayed after school every day all year working out in the gym with my girlfriends and ran track and played soccer. But I was so out of shape, I thought.

I weighed in at the massive (sarcasm here) amount of 12o pounds and stood 5'4".

I cut out sugar, I cut out chocolate, I cut out meals, I drank water, became a vegetarian, walked to school instead of taking the bus...

When I realized men thought I was beautiful in a bikini, I wore one. Skin was beautiful so I shortened my skirt and short lengths. It cheapened my lot but made me feel good about myself.

Being the mama of a ten year old daughter now, and having three daughters, my stomach turns at the thought of them having the thoughts that I did at their age. We use the word beautiful but we put more emphasis on the word healthy in our home. Their papa tells them they are beautiful and loved and asks them for whose glory they are beauteous. "For God's glory..." they answer. They have been asked from birth and know. We have taught our children to choose foods because they are healthy, because they help our bodies fight infection and germs, because they give us strength to run and play, because they were raised nutritiously and kindly...

And so a word of caution to the mamas. Your little girls are watching. They are listening. If you hate your nose or hate your hair and they have been God-given the same genetics, they will learn to despise from you. What is beautiful and precious will be disdainful to them. If you use the word diet and cut out nourishment to like yourselves more, so will they. If you critique what you see in the mirror or ask your husbands if you look fat, they will critique and question their own selves.

I stopped warring against my body when I was twenty-one, the year our daughter was born and it was a huge relief. In the past ten years I have gained and lost the weight equivalent to a large grown man. My body has been stretched and pulled and swollen and full and empty but I've never felt to comfortable or contented in my own skin though it would take a whole lot of photoshop to make it purty enough for a fashion magazine.

It is all skin and flesh; it does not determine my value or worth. I don't read fashion magazines anymore, though I like fashion and love beautiful clothing because every time I would browse through one I got up feeling gross about myself. It cost my spirit too much.

Who we are as women and the value of our lives is not in our dress size or shape of a feature or crooked or straight teeth. Our value comes from being created in the image of God, from who He says we are (loved, beautiful, precious, valuable) and from living a life that glorifies Him.

The danger of poor image of self is not that it is something superficial or that we've been deceived by the devil, but that it is something that takes our eyes off of Jesus and stops us from glorifying Him with our lives.

“Let your beauty not be external - the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes - but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in the God’s sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4

Your Story

2011-07-20T08:15:00.002-04:00

The story that God has given you is important. It needs to be shared. The hurts in your life that He has healed will bring healing to folks all over who are still heart aching and needing to be filled with His love.

Your story is uniquely yours. I thought about this the other day in the context of my own life. I was raised for the first eight years with two fighting parents both present at home and the next ten years by a single mother. My younger sister, however, was quite small when our parents split and so her experience is mostly being raised by a single mother, no father present. Though we are sisters with the same parents our experiences are so different.

(Aiden (6) feeding Addie her milk. He is so gentle and affectionate with her.

And from birth she has done that leg-up thing while she nurses.)

The same goes for the story of our family. Our family story is unique. The ways that God has taken us and worked in the lives of two crazy kids and brought about stability and function to His glory is uniquely our story. A few times people have assumed I grew up with a functional, privileged life and I've been able to share our story. I've even been in circles and have heard the verse quoted about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the next generations, heads shaking, tongues clicking - some poor unsuspecting family being talked about who has fallen on rough times. And I share our story, and how that scripture refers to those who don't know the Lord, not those who are striving to be walking, talking, knowing Him. People can't argue against your testimony. It is what it is.

(The Black River, where we are headed again today, this time with inner tubes to lazily float and splash.)

When I share my story, I am publishing the works of the Lord because nothing we are today that is good is of our own merit or to our own glory. I have no desire for fame and I feel the heaviness of the responsibility behind offering advice from what I've learned along the way. At the same time, as an older woman, I am called to teach and in this story sharing I hopefully am.

What is your story?

(psst... don't forget to scroll down and sign up to win an awesome wall decal!)

Sisters

2011-07-15T16:30:00.003-04:00

I wonder if when they are grannies they'll be sqeezing in their backsides together in one chair, chit chatting about anything and everything the way they do now, talking about clothes and play acting and coming up with questions to stump me. Sisters. I have two of them but we aren't close like I'd like and so I marvel at the little tight knit relationship of our girls.
Do you have siblings and do you enjoy a close relationship with them?

Completely and totally random

2011-07-12T23:08:00.003-04:00

It is 11:09 pm and as I sit in the dark here nursing Addie I thought I would see if blogging from my phone is possible, which now I see it is. This morning, picking Addie up when she woke, I realized that she is allergic to avocado, her hair matted with dried vomit (yes, lovely, I know) and herself sort of dull and clingy, more clingy and I-so-need-my-mama-ish than usual with ongoing stomach upset all day. Addie has only vomited once before and also that time was following eating her avocado, which she loves. So she and I hung out all day, no naps and it is hot. Meanwhile I feel as though I haven't stopped perspiring all day and I am so very much behind on house things that I would like to do before my in laws arrive and our yard is a tangled overgrown field, which, living on the country would be just fine except for the fact that we have an over achieving lawn just across the way, with manicured diagonal lines carefully clipped. Our poor neighbors are stuck with the hillbillies with poultry and pig snorts and wild eyed children running. But we ate a happy (albeit tired) wild eyed bunch. Well, at least this redheaded mama is tired.
Blogger won't let me upload any of my highly entertaining photos from my phone, so guten nacht ( autocorrect wanted to make that gutenburg nacho). See you on the other side more rested.

Discipline Part Five - Strong Willed Child

2011-07-11T11:18:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking for a while about writing on the subject of raising a strong willed child. Those of you who truly know us, know exactly which child I am speaking of. He is that strong willed, wired completely different from a compliant child, ready to take on anyone at a moments notice.
We recently went away overnight for our ninth anniversary and some very brave, very brave, friends offered to take our four kids overnight. Well the little strong willed fellow had a time out while there for something I don't recall and told Pastor Sam that when his Papa came back, he'd give Pastor Sam a big spanking!
Sean said to Sam afterward, "I bet if you didn't know us, you'd think that little boy was never disciplined..."

1. Disciplining a strong willed child is a whole nother ballgame.
Consistency is key. I've discovered that our small one has a constant need for boundary checks. I think his little mind must be constantly re-evaluating his world and wondering if everything is still the same.
2. Strong willed children have a need for power and appreciation.
We see our son at his best when he is given a task that only he can do. For example, he'll empty the entire cart of wood for the wood stove by himself. I would never expect any other three year old to empty a cart of firewood, but our son thrives on doing this, volunteering himself for the job. (He's also the size of a five year old). He also loves to add the water to the juice concentrate by himself and put clean dishes away.
We have a tradition of buying watch of the kids an ornament after Christmas each year to date and put away for when they have their own homes. This year, when our small strong willed one realized he had his own, he walked around the store with it saying, "I'm in charge of this. I'm in charge of this." Over and over, eyes gleaming.
Realizing that our son is wired this way, I'm learning to take advantage of it by giving him a set list of things to accomplish that are only for him to do. He gets upset if someone else intrudes on his helping territory.
3. Don't take the constant struggle for control personally.
This is a hard one for me as the Mama and I have to remind myself that as long as I am seeking God's will, praying for my son, and accepting my need for more patience with this child, I am doing the right thing.
4. Don't get shoved on the guilt wagon.
Parents with easy-going compliant children will not understand your situation. You'll get discipline suggestions, dirty looks, rolled eyes, and upturned noses. They place guilt and shame by insinuating that if you raised your child like they raise theirs, then your child wouldn't act the way they do. It's just their way of patting themselves on the back as parents.
5. Learn to ask questions and give options.
While sometimes I do need my son to do exactly as I ask, giving him options when I can helps a whole lot.
"We need to get dressed and brush our teeth now. What would you like to do first?"
"This morning you can have oatmeal with raisins or without raisins. Which would you like?"
Asking questions and giving options like these lets strong willed children have a sense of control.
I also have organized his clothes and drawers by outfits so that he can pick out his own clothes in the morning.
6. Strong willed children need to know what to expect.
Clearly lay out the path leading to a discipline or correction for them.
"Honey, if you throw yourself on the floor and scream when I ask you to _______, then that is showing me that you need help obeying. This is how Mama is going to help you remember to obey the first time."
Then acknowledge their feelings: "I understand that you want to play with your cars right now and so we'll find time for that later. Right now, it is time to obey and help Mama with what I've asked you to."
7. Pray constantly.
Seriously, this is how I survive. With four liner prayers through the day. "God, give me grace." "God, give me wisdom." "God, help me here."
Serious "give me" prayers but I don't think God minds regarding the welfare and raising of our children.
Blessings,
Hannah

Discipline Part Four - Trying vs. Training

2011-07-10T10:16:00.000-04:00

I think I stole this thought from Pastor Mike, but I'm not sure because the t.v. in the church nursery wasn't working on Saturday night and so I only caught a wee bit with wiggly children while standing in the back of the church.
I also listen to sermons online to make up for missing weekend sermons so I'm not quite sure where the quote came from.
But the phrase trying vs. training stuck with me, wherever it came from, and I've been thinking about it this week.
What view do you take?
When faced with something new or difficult do you take the view that you'll try it? Or do you take the view that you'll train for it and accomplish it?

I thought it was a great thought and I've been applying it to my life at home as a homemaker and as a Mama. I've been asking myself if I view my work with our children as "trying to teach them" or as "training them to do the right things". There is an obvious difference.
Trying leaves the results open ended and with an easy clause of "oh, I tried".
Training implies actual consistent effort and improved results over time.
Am I trying to make the littlest one use the potty? Am I training her?
Are we trying to learn how to read around here or are we training him how to read?
Am I trying to be more organized and disciplined or am I training myself to be more organized?
What situation in your life can you apply this "trying vs. training" to?
With my neighbors - am I trying to show them the love of God or am I training myself to do so by making actual efforts and doing strategic things to reach out to them?
I think that once we view things as training instead of just trying, we tend not to have a hopeless mindset when they take time or more effort than we expected.
Anyway, its been something good to mull over while cooking and cleaning and doing endless laundry in between teaching division and reading Ivanhoe with the wee ones.
The sun was out yesterday and we all had squinty eyes after our long dark winter. The brightness was spoiling us.

Have a sweet day!
Hannah

Discipline Part Three - What about Tantrums?

2011-07-09T10:14:00.001-04:00

I always give a little giggle (or snort?)when Cultivating Home receives comments on how peaceful and serene our life is. It is a very happy life but hardly ever a quiet one. And every once in a while our little Spark decides to liven things up a bit more and let us know just how he feels about whatever is happening contrary to his will.
I am in no way an expert on the subject but here is what works for us.

1.) Remove the audience.
If we are in a public place we take the wee one away from the public. Whether this means leaving a cart full of groceries and letting the clerk know you'll be back in a while for it or a pile of library books on the counter.
If at home, putting the child in his bedroom away from siblings and letting him know he can come out just as soon as he uses his self control...
If the child tries to give himself an audience again, we pick him up and put him back in the room.

2.) We are big on teaching self control.
Before the tantrum ever happens we are always teaching our kids that God wants them to have self control and Mama and Papa want them to use self control. This applies to whining, yelling, arguing, and tantrums and a bzillion other things in life.

3.) Cut it off before it gets bad.
Pick a nice time to have a quick talk with your little one, maybe while you are cuddling on the couch or during bath time. We say, "Little Spark, you know how sometimes you get so mad that you want to yell and throw yourself on the floor? Well, you are getting to be much to big to do that so mama and Papa are going to help you use your self control. The next time you try to throw a fit, we are going to tell you to get up real quick and use your self control. I want to see how quick you can get up and do it, okay?"
The next time the tantrum starts, do this and congratulate the kiddo when he does get up and uses his big boy self control!

4.) Consequences, disciplines, corrections...
However you prefer to label it - every tantrum needs a consequence and restoration. The restoration comes with hugs and prayers and the kiddo apologizing to whoever is around for losing his temper. Lots of love here. Oodles of loving. Encouragement that the kiddo is big enough not to have to throw fits when he's upset, that he can use his big boy (girl) words to talk about what is wrong. You will love the response when you walk hand in hand back into the library to pick up your books and small one apologizes to the librarian. You'll need a spatula to scrape their jaws off the floor. Not many kids are taught to apologize, I guess.

Then the consequence. A loss of a privilege works great. What is your child's currency? Do they love dessert? Maybe the consequence for throwing tantrums in your home is no dessert. And I'm bad, real bad. That night, I'll take extra care to make a beautiful, luscious dessert. Oh, yes, I'm bad. I always tuck aside a portion for the wee one but he has to wait until the next day to have it. So I'm only half bad, right?

We've been lucky enough never to have any biters, scratchers, etc. so I have no wisdom to offer there. We have been kicked and hit. Putting the child by himself, on his bed until he calms down usually works. I'll usually sit in the doorway, quietly praying and thinking about how someday we'll laugh together over these times. The kiddo can see me and I'm close enough that its not a bother to get up and put him back on his bed if he gets up before he's settled down. If you have a child that hurts himself or herself, I'd consult your physician.

For more professional parenting wisdom:
Cloud and Townsend
Family Life Today
Focus on the Family

Discipline Part Two - The work of a laborer

2011-07-08T10:12:00.001-04:00

Early mornings, looking out over the wheat fields,

the words Jesus spoke thousands of years ago quickly come to mind,

"the fields are ready unto harvest but the laborers are few".

And my heart turns to the application of these words in my own life.
Am I up for the work of a laborer?

Are there enough moms willing to take up the work

of hard labor in the fields around them?
I won't lie.
I'm tired.
The days are looong,

potty training two toddlers,

after visitation toddler aggression...
and the nights seem even shorter with trips to the bathroom

and pillows cushioning my round middle.

But again, am I up for the job of a laborer in the position God has called me to?

Many times I want to shake my head no, and many times during the day

I fail at being a diligent laborer.

These six kids are the field God has given me to invest in.

This home, this marriage, this life, these friendships

- all surrounding me are the field I'm to be laboring in.

Am I doing the daily work of a laborer,

sowing into their hearts goodness and strength

and the discipline that will make them strong, steady adults?

I want to.

But like any farmer with good intentions, follow-up in live actions has to take place.

The wheat languishes in the fields around us;

I cannot follow this example in the lives of our children.

And so I strive to be diligent in the small things,

tender in voice,

attentive in care,

patient in discipline.

And major in the big things,

time for me and God in the morning,

generous love,

quick forgiveness.

On my chalkboard in our dining room is my daily reminder.

Annaliese has it memorized now and someday,

no doubt, she too will rely on it as a mother.

"Come to me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden

and I will give ye rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,

for I am meek and lowly in heart

and ye will find rest unto your souls

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Discipline Part One - Patience and Gentleness

2011-07-07T04:09:00.001-04:00

At one time or another, if you're a mama out and about with a large group of children, and you're not screaming... or yanking them about... and don't look as if your eyeballs are about to pop out - you'll hear something sugary along the lines of "oh, you must be so patient so have so many children" (this follows the question inquiring what daycare you are from). Or perhaps you've heard something similar to: "I could never have ____ children, because I don't have the patience for it", and have wanted to encourage the woman at hand that she can mother children and doesn't have to feel like a helpless or impatient woman. Maybe you've said those words yourself. Either way, I'd like to kindly shine a little light on the subject of patience and gentleness as it applies to mothers.

I strive more in our home, and pray more, for a gentle spirit, rather than a patient one. If I am allowing my child to smack me over and over or tug on my skirt and holler while I'm talking or yank items off the grocery shelf, then I am applying patience in an inappropriate manner. If I'm patiently observing behavior than hurts themselves or others (even in the long run), I'm dosing out the same inappropriate patience. Inappropriate patience runs rampant in our society. Dare I say, especially among parents?
Patience in not losing our tempers and patience for childishness is, as mothers, invaluable. Patience in allowing what will harm (short term or long term), whether because we've bought into the idea that every child deserves an unbridled freedom of expression, or because we simply don't *know* what to do to teach our children, is detrimental.

"Let your gentleness be evident to all," Phil. 4:5

I want to be a mama remembered for being gentle. When applying inappropriate patience and ignoring unruly behavior seems like an easy option (it usually is), I want to be the mother that instead quietly scoops up the child and takes them aside for a talk or appropriate discipline. James 5:8 speaks of being "patient and standing firm", a description I love. Lord, help me to be a mother that stands firm in gentleness and appropriate patience!

Discipline Introduction

2011-07-06T11:24:00.002-04:00

We have six children in our home that are ours for good and for keeps and have had three other precious little ones here for seasons as God sent them (foster babes). The more I learn about parenting, the more I realize how little of an expert I am. I do get asked a lot of questions all the time, probably just because of our family size and because our kids are generally (yes, generally) kind and polite.
Over the next five days I've pulled together some posts I've done in the past on the subject of discipline in a Christian home that I hope will bless you and give you some ideas to impliment in your home. As always, please check everything and anything you read on parenting and make sure it lines up with the Word of God. My little disclaimer on the sidebar goes for this too - Sean is a leader in our home church, but my ideas are my own and may not be representitive of our church's.

Time

2011-07-05T22:21:00.002-04:00

There he sits,

open palms rubbing down his knees

as he waits for her

red lipstick

and pink rouge on her wrinkled cheek

cart creaking through store

someday son,

that will be you - life deep and full

of heart memories

waiting there

for your grandma-wife in nylons

us, but faded ghosts

I wonder

what rivers will etch and carve time

spring up years later

your Papa's

reading Words at breakfast table

tow-head boy listening

or will I

and my freckled hands reach to you

just as I do now

will you draw

from a deep well of years full lived

satiated peace

this man, you,

miracle child of my warm womb

did you live life well

did you love

and laugh at the moon while you farmed

furrows in dark time

I will wait

Papa's hand in mine just around

the corner of time

for you.

Sponsor Information

2011-07-02T15:43:00.002-04:00

I am very excited to announce that I have openings for sponsors for Cultivating Home, as I am sitting and typing this, feet up on the ottoman, babies napping ~ enjoying the rare quiet and still house.

Over the last few blogging years, I've been blessed to receive and review a myriad of great products that have benefited our family and home via blogging. As I've been asked about sponsor space, here is the inside scoop all typed out so I can tuck it away into the sidebar for those who are interested. Sponsors of Cultivating Home will be carefully approved and monitored by my husband and I, will be in line with our beliefs and will be for products or services we do (or would) use ourselves.

Here is our special rate for sponsor space:

125x125 sponsor ad is just $1.75 CPM, with an average monthly page view of 20,000 is about $35 a month.

300x300 sponsor ads are just $3.00 CPM with this introductory special and include text links at the bottom of each of Cultivating Home's posts linking to your website or etsy storefront.

Sponsor posts, a post highlighting your company, business, or product is competitively priced at $40.

As always, if you have a product you would like to see reviewed on Cultivating Home or would like to sponsor a giveaway, I'd love to chit-chat with you via email. You can contact me with the link at the top of the Cultivating Home page.

And now business aside and back to our regular programming....

The Farmer's Museum Cooperstown, NY

2011-07-01T15:22:00.003-04:00

The Farmer's Museum and Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY recently held a discovery day just for home educating families like ours. Families from all over central NY attended and we had a great time, as we always do when we visit the two museums. You can see some of our previous visits here, here and here.

Ask Your kids Questions part 2

2011-06-28T00:10:00.001-04:00

You can find Part One here:

In reading the gospels in the New Testament, we see that questioning was something Jesus did all the time. He asked a lot of questions. We question our kids as we teach them their catechism and then when they bring us questions about life and culture, we ask them questions right back to allow them to think through the answers themselves. Questions are an awesome motivator for thinking and learning, aren't they? We don't want to just hand our kids pat answers, we want them to own the process of thinking through things Biblically.

My husband Sean and I are believers in Absolute Truth. I know this is an archaic way of thinking. I'm good with being antiquated, it just adds to my charm {wink}. Absolute truth is the belief that there is one absolute truth in life and this truth guides the way we live. Truth isn't determined by our feelings on a topic, our experiences, or our human reasoning. For example, it might seem reasonable for me to divorce Sean if I no longer *feel* love towards him. (Love is an action, not a feeling). As females, not basing our actions or reasoning on our feelings is a difficult thing as the majority of our gender is very much emotionally alive. In life, I have to remind myself constantly to not take things personally, to look at the facts of the relationship between God and I and abandon scrutinizing other people's actions and words. It's not an easy thing, I understand this ~ but if I am challenging my children to choose the harder good over the easier evil, I have to be willing to do this myself.

As a Christian family, we teach our children that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and the basis for the decisions we make in life, the standard to hold up all feelings, experiences and reasoning to. This way of life might not be popular, but I've never seen a life truly surrendered to the gospel regretfully lived.

One thing we've felt the urge to especially teach our children, with the culture around us as it is, specifically church culture, is that we do not pick and choose from the Bible the portions we like and toss the rest because they are inconvenient, uncomfortable or unpopular. Now, please graciously understand that I am not holding myself up as any pillar of excellence. I've seen folks who don't like this way of living pull up an obscure rule from the book of Exodus and say, "well, you don't do this...." as if condemning a human for not living under the law or pointing out human error is justification for abandoning Christianity or church altogether.

*Graciously* is hopefully how we are teaching our children, by example, to treat people who struggle with their relationship with Christ or fully surrendering their lives to Him. Annaliese is old enough and discerns very well when something is off that she hears or sees. She is a very compassionate child and will often remind of the people we need to be pray for and encourage in the Lord.

Jesus made a very important statement that I always point to when this topic comes up. He said that we must be like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. If I read our Ella a story and tell her it is true, she will accept that. She does not question what my storytelling motives are, or if she should believe the story, nor does she wonder what other people think about the story being true and base her believing on that. She simply believes because she knows me.
This is the heart we strive to teach our children to have towards God and His words in the Bible.

96 lbs

2011-06-27T03:35:00.000-04:00

Turns out, we are crazy strawberry picker people. We picked 91 lbs of strawberries this year.

Junking

2011-06-25T09:40:00.002-04:00

I have a friend who loves good old junk as much, if not more than I do. Actually, I have a few friends that like old junk... which makes me ponder on what basis I am choosing my friends, haha.

Living in farm country, there are stashes of green and blue bottles all over from when the old farms would cart their trash to a hillside and dump it over, blue Ball canning jars and all. So to my girlfriend, I say, "oh, I know of a great little dump in the woods...." and she agrees to tag along. I should mention that she lives in the city. Far from trees and woods and snails. Those snails I'll come back to later as they play an integral part to our junking experience.

We drive a bit and then hike. And hike some more along an old unused country road, which just happens to be covered in four foot high grasses at the moment. And since it has been just about the spring of endless rain here, it is covered in dampness. And snails. Not a few snails here and there, oh no, but to the point that when our legs brush against the grasses they fall off by the dozen into our shoes.
Crunch. Squish. Squash.

In the middle of the tall grasses we look down and there are hundreds and hundreds of snails where ever we look. I begin trying to think of marketing schemes for escargot. And we hike on.

We made it to the little dump but the mosquitoes ate us alive, we grabbed a few bottles and high tailed it out of there, our children left to fend for themselves. Okay, not really. We found a dirt field to hike out on.

Never a dull moment with the Hagarty's. Next time we'll wait till the grass is cut and it hasn't been raining and I'll tote along some bug head nets.

Run!

2011-06-24T07:56:00.000-04:00

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." Hebrews 12:1-3a

Dispelling Myths of Homemaking

2011-06-23T09:32:00.002-04:00

A few years ago I came across an article bemoaning the job of homemaking. I don’t recall the source because I certainly didn’t bookmark it {big smile}. The author would have convinced me to negate homemaking as a career if I wasn’t already a homemaker and hadn’t experienced the truth and fineness of homemaking first hand. I believe these myths are worth airing out in the open once again...

You can read the rest of my article on homemaking myths here, at Raising Homemakers.

Ask your kids questions

2011-06-21T14:18:00.003-04:00

This morning one of our children made a theological statement, obviously overheard and repeated, that caused me to stop and pause and think, "hmmm...wonder where he heard that?" When our kids pipe up with something that I know they didn't hear in our home (!) or ask a question that makes every nerve in my body stand on end ~ I do everything within my power not to freak out. I want our home to be the safe place for questions and answers and so, there aren't any topics which are off limits here.

We were in the van on our way to the library this morning when said child stated such and such, the statement not so much the issue as the question behind it ~ of whether or not there is an absolute truth or whether we can meld our beliefs with the Bible, though they be contrary to one another.

I like to have my kids think out things for themselves and so I ask them a lot of questions, because I know they will be asked tougher questions than the ones I ask them, and I want them ready to give an answer whenever they're asked and by whomever is curious or challenging them.

Here are some of the questions I asked them:

1.) Is there absolute truth? Absolute truth being defined as something is unarguably, undeniably true, for sure and certain.

2.) Is there danger in believing in personal truth?

3.) Is it wise to look to our minds/human reason/intelligence to determine whether the Bible is true?

4.)Why do we look to the Bible to determine how we view and understand the world?

5.) Why is the way we treat people who don't believe in absolute truth so very important?

I'd love to hear your answers, if you've a moment to share in the comments. Our younger kids were tossing me more and more questions left and right as we discussed this and our older two, especially were great at thinking things through. I'll share some of the answers we came up with next.

Vulnerability

2011-06-17T12:26:00.009-04:00

I've made myself vulnerable and I'd like an award now, please and thank you. {big smile}

Perhaps you can't relate but you see, I'm a thick skinned sort of girl and while seemingly I shed things like water off a duck's back, more sinks in than I realize. My husband tells me all the time, asks me all the time ~ to talk to him. (Can you believe this?) I know women who would beg for this, plead for this, give up an arm for this. But it is true. My husband, though human and faulted, is pretty awesome.

I took a baby step a few months ago and joined a book study online with a few gals (and one fellow, I think) I knew only from their blogs and with complete strangers I will probably never meet this side of heaven. Safety in anonymity, I thought. I had a place to bare my faults and struggles in an atmosphere full of grace and encouragement. The book study was on the book Equipped to Love by Norm Wakefield, which should be considered classic Christian literature and necessary reading for everyone; I cannot say enough good about this book. Buy it off of half.com and read it. It will open your eyes and convict your heart and open up pathways for God to work wonders of wonders in your heart.

At my husband's urging, I've also been working at building myself real community with other Christian women and I've been so blessed, over and above blessed, to get to know a few different women heart to heart, over tea and babies playing and weeding the garden and purging of our daughter's room of *stuff* together in 90 degree heat and I feel blessed. I am blessed. Though I say "I'm doing the building" it has no doubt been orchestrated by the Holy Spirit as some of us are not even from the same church fellowship. They are awesome women who love the Lord, and the funny part to me is really we are all very different from each other, the common bond being the unity in Christ, and *perhaps* also a genuine appreciation for distressed furniture, tea and handcrafts, and rearranging the rooms in our homes. Last night I typed out a plea for tea to an older (older being lightly stated as she is still quite youthful and lovely) Christian woman I know as there are personal struggles I deal with every day for which I need her counsel. I clicked "send" and gulped and sent more vulnerability out into the world.

One of my girlfriends and I talked a bit last night about our issues with distrust or dislike for women. Admittedly pretty horrible since we are of the species. I am much more comfortable, as a rule, when in a large group of people, to congregate towards my husband and listen in on real and hearty discourse. Give me a good meaty conversation about politics or religion, parenting, the importance of building a Christian home in our nation, or the working of God in our lives and I'm satisfied. I've never been good at making chit-chat.

So while I've made myself a bit more vulnerable sharing with thousands of random, but I'm sure lovely, strangers ~ please join me in taking a step towards trust. And community. I know you may have been brutally hurt by gossip, abandonment, or weary of shallowness ~ but that is not the best of our gender. I can tell you that there are genuine women out there who love the Lord and are humble enough to share their struggles and victories and walk life in community with you. This is my prayer for you tonight.

Hannah

Buddy Blocks Puzzle Review

2011-06-16T01:02:00.000-04:00

I am always on the look out for activities, not mindless ones, as those are plentifully found, but educational and entertaining ones for our Chase (3). Timberdoodle sent us a Buddy Blocks Puzzle, which consist of a wooden box and four block pieces. Each side of each block is a puzzle piece of an animal.
Timberdoodle also sent along their Toddler core curriculum guide, which I'll admit the very name of gives me the willies. I'm definitely not a pro-curricula homeschooler as the very idea of a set curricula bores me, having endured/survived years of Abeka in my youth. I was happy to see it consisted of enjoyable games and activity suggestions to use with a toddler and a listing of what Timberdoodle has to offer - this fun block game being one of its offerings.

Chase love that this was just for him and enjoyed finding each part to each animal. We were able to look on the side of the box to see what each animal looked like and Chase had fun making the animal noises.

This is just the sort of activity I would buy for him to do during his blanket time in the morning while the kids work on their math activities.

Timberdoodle's literature states: "Since helping parents teach their kids is our goal, it also makes sense to start with the little ones. We aren't ever going to be advocating for forced baby geniuses and hours spent at a desk from the time your child can sit. Instead, we want parents and their little ones to get a taste for the joy of learning early, in the natural environment of daily life. In that attempt, we have assembled the best tools we can find into kits for your wee one. In our opinion the best toys are not just toys, but are the safest, sturdiest, most educational tools, you can find, with the final test being whether they are still actually fun for you and your little one."

Timberdoodle has great catalogs, which my kids love to look over, circling their favorite things. You can also follow along with Timberdoodle on Facebook, as well as me - Cultivating Home!

Fine Print: Timberdoodle sent me this product

and I was under no obligation to give a positive review for it.

Fishing

2011-06-13T11:16:00.003-04:00

Quiet summer evenings spent picnicking by the lake, marshmallows toasted over dimming coals with perfectly groomed sticks, casting out over blue waters toward end of day and bites on the line for everyone, toes slid over the smooth stone bottom of the lake, pages of a good meaty book open beside me and baby on a quilt in the fading sun, the healing beauty of nature, the captivating scenery of the upstate New York rolling hills and farms on the ride home, windows open to the breeze and then stopping, by a little place that still makes homemade ice cream - raspberry swirl for all.