Lent is upon us....

    It is lovely to finally make it to this time of year, a pause in the whir of days.  My Lent though usually looks like a wild ride at a fair, with a lot of falling off and getting right back on.  I used to worry about that-the falling off part. Then I figured well, I do get back on, right? That is what I'm supposed to do, get back to the Lenten tasks, or challenges, or prayers.
    There is so much to pray for this Lent-wars and disturbances in the Middle East and North Africa, Monetary crises big and small, The Massive Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Issue in Japan, Abortion and all the requests I read daily.  Life is such a mess, it always has been, yet lately is seems messier than it was....Well, we just keep going-God willing with prayer, grit, determination, hope and love we will help each other and advert more crises. I'll pray on that....

Another fall....

Unbelievably, almost a year has gone by since my last post! Good grief, how’d that happen? It seems Life has a way of tearing along like a river, just carrying us along as if we’re an untethered boat-gotta take control, steer, consult a map, chart a course, then follow it! I could keep on with the boat/river/sailor analogies, but I’m sure you understand.

To wrap up the last post, my challenge with the early mornings has been rocky at best, but I am doing better at the early hours. Rising with the squabble of sparrows is not my forte but it’s do~able, though by the end of the week I find it a definite challenge! Especially if we’ve gotten to bed late. There’s so much to do, so many interesting things or jobs that must be done, that it’s hard to pay attention to the time and hit the hay at a ‘reasonable’ hour. Oh well, I’m trying and that is the point, to try! Of course, while cooking for our county 4-H camp I found it quite easy to get up at 6 a.m., 5:45 even~that probably had a lot to do with the fact that it was light out, there were raucous ravens next door and my tent mate generally rises at 5 a.m. I really hoped that would carry over into everyday life, however I was so exhausted that it didn’t~as a matter of fact the whole next week was a drag yourself out of bed challenge extravaganza!

Well, in looking back over my posts I mentioned some posts to come-silly me, to promise things like that! Well, I will try to cover those ideas of mine, perhaps in the next post even (apple pie anyone?) So stay tuned! I have recipe ideas, homeschool ideas, commentary on life and nature, even observations of people and such, perhaps even about what my kids are doing, or what I’m doing (my new past time? Fiddling (or violin playing, you pick I can never decide). My goal is a post a week, if not more often.

Here’s to a lovely fall~cranberry muffins and hot coffee (or tea). Enjoy the season!

...One Week Down

Today I am very proud of myself, not in a prideful way mind you, but in a ‘proud of myself for doing something hard for me’ way. I have gotten up at 6 a.m. for 5 mornings in a row...I know, I know, some of you are saying, “Big Deal, I’ve done that all my life!”. Well, I’m not a morning person as my family and friends know. I don’t like getting out of that warm cozy bed, purring cat hogging my robe. Oh, I can get up early-I get up at 5 a.m. during the fair, 6 a.m. for camp-in those situations others are dependent on me as we need to get to the fairgrounds by 6 a.m. or I need to get cooking for the camp. Just don’t talk to me much the first hour, the conversation center in my brain’s not awake. (This was tried once at camp by a obtuse volunteer, it didn’t go over well at all!)

Having a busy household, one of my goals has been to get going sooner, I felt I must do this thing-roll out of bed an hour earlier. Ugh. When tried before I failed miserably...however I believe I have found the solution. It sounds really silly too-just get up when the alarm goes off. That’s all, just roll out of bed, go turn on the coffee, feed the cat and the rest of the morning routine. No thinking or analyzing allowed! Before my downfall was thinking before rolling out of bed, stopped me in my tracks, er sheets, right there...before I knew it the alarm was repeating itself for the 3rd or 4th time. I’d have to spring up and hustle to get lunches made, get myself taken care of, chores and off to work or wherever. Stressful! With no time for me or eating nicely or even cleaning up! I even tried to justify it-I‘ll pray, I’ll think about the coming day. Right, you know what happened of course, I just went back to sleep!

So, it will be interesting to see if I can keep this up-I am going to try. If I have extra time in the mornings I can work on the computer or get chores out of the way. I can bake, clean toilets, work in the garden, pray or read! The possibilities are endless...Wish me good success! :)

Fall, Apples and homeschooling...

Perusing friends posts and great fall photos got me to thinking about what I love about fall. It’s one of the richest times of the year-the trees are turning gorgeous colors, there’s a lot of activity by both animals and humans as they gather in and store foodstuffs, there’s a flurry of activity as football games are played weekly, harvest fairs and festivals take place, craft fairs spring up. The air itself becomes changeable. Now we really know the seasons have swung-some days the air is crystal with the red and yellow notes of autumn in the trees, other days it has a blue smudge along the hills from shifting air patterns and wood smoke. Smells are more pronounced-apples are abundant and if you drive by an orchard there is a winey fresh crisp scent that makes one want to run and shout. A late rose has a spice to it reminding one of cookies, dry leaves a different spicy smell and so on.

Once my children and I began to explore this world we found a ton of things to do, books to read, places to explore...really an explosion of colors, scents, tastes-the whole sensory experience!

I loved to do what we called Unit Studies, which takes a theme, say “Apples” in this case, and ties together all the disciplines and includes hands-on as well as the more formal writing reading and arithmetic. Of course, I took this farther by adding to them myself, and encouraging the children to add as well (to the extent that they’d come up with their own “unit studies”) With different age groups I tried to have activities and books for all levels so there was something for all. We often ended up rabbiting onto other topics, but that was okay-learning was actively happening!

One experience that comes to mind is the field trip to the local apple orchard. We spent the majority of the day at Gizdech Ranch which is a wonderful ranch, as it has not just apples, but all sorts of berries as well-you can do u-pick for about 3/4 of the year there...As well, there is an on-site bakery, fruit ‘stand’ (a store really), antiques shop and cider mill. You can spend the day there!

For our field trip the kids started with a tour of the orchards where they were taught how the apples were grown, what kinds there were, how the pickers knew they were ripe, how they were picked, what they were made into and what happened to the excess or apple waste! Whew. They then picked a bushel to take home, a job made quick by the fact apples are so large-if you aren’t careful you can pick quite a few in thirty minutes. At an u-pick farm that can add up quickly-apples are much heavier than berries! :) This was followed by a tour of the apple sorting, washing and packing facility and the cooler. We watched a batch of apple cider being made (the non-alcoholic kind) and then it was off to the bakery! My favorite part-they were making apple pies with mounds of apples! Yum. Once the tour was done, apple pie was on our menu-before lunch even!



The day was so full it seemed foolish to push anything else into the schedule, however with all those apples it also seemed silly to not create! Apple pie, applesauce, apple butter, dried apples...we came up with a lot of things to make in the next week. A lot of apples were munched up in hand-really one of the best things about an apple; a quick snack, loaded with fiber, pectin and more! The ones we picked were small too, a perfect snack for little hands-big ones too.

So besides baking and preserving, lots of other things can be done with apples. Apple themed math of course-weights and measures, graphing, even addition and subtraction. For literature, we made apple books-large apple shapes, colored to reflect the child’s favorite apple and enclosing enough pages for them to draw and write inside. (A journal would work too, especially for old kids) These books were devoted to the exploration of apples, including poems, Journaling about the field trip, observations of apples... We cut apples in half different ways and made botanical drawings showing the seeds and stem along with the flowers. As well, I pulled out all the books I could find, plus more from the library with information about apples, or apple themes. It is amazing what you can find! (That was in pre-internet days too!) We covered history, famous people, stories both true and fiction-I don't think we exhausted the subject either!

Crafts are fun done with apples. There is printing with halves-gift wrap, bags, aprons. Cinnamon-applesauce ornaments. Apple heads :) which are hysterical when done-they start out all nice and plump then become wizened and wrinkled. Apple pomanders. The four seasons of an apple tree using tissue paper on a rail road board-draw four trees, color then add the foliage and flowers, or apples. Fun!

It’s easy to do this yourself. Call around to local orchards, many have tours or would be happy to have you come out. Much of what we did was just pulled from our bookshelves or various places around the house-it doesn’t have to be expensive. I ‘ve provided some links for you below-more can be found by searching for different phrases. Don’t forget your local library either-it can have a ton of resources and books (fiction and non-fiction) available, fun to look through and read. I’ll rustle up some of my favorite recipes and ideas and post them next!

• http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/education/theme/food/apples.html (ideas)
  
• http://www.kinderkorner.com/apple.html (ideas)
  
• http://www.ket.org/trips/orchard/ (electronic field trips)
  

About that Green Thing...

Being green is what a frog does, or a lawn, or a shamrock, or even beer on St. Patrick's Day, but alas, it has also become the code word for "into saving the planet by reducing use of resources in daily choices". My first thoughts were, Please give me a break, I grew up doing all of this, it was (and is) just common sense! Then I thought it was funny, and now I am just really tired of it all since most "Green" people seem to be a really pale shade of green, say, by buying green cleaning products, shleping them home in a green sack and then using paper towels to clean up spills. (personally, I have used and reused cloth for years on just about anything and I am here to testify that yes, we have stayed healthy!)

You see, I grew up in a one wage earner family where mom made clothing, used a clothes line, and vacations often meant visiting people. Simple stuff. We ate whole foods too, as in, roast chicken. Then you take the left overs and make sandwiches or soup or... My mom was (is) big into lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, olive oil, and so on. Her ingenious way of using up left-overs was to make what she called goulash. It involved some leftover meat(s), noodles, sour cream (or not), tomatoes (or not) and so on. It actually tasted pretty good too. So when it comes to using a laundry line, I am following the examples set before me!

When my dry broke the other day it got me thinking about all the things my mom, my aunts and Grandma Vodvick taught me about living frugally, er excuse me, Green. Laundry was one of them...the sun is a great dryer and whitener. It can take stains out with a little help from a lemon (and now oxyclean), and it helps create fresh smelling clothing with the help of the air around us. It is also green aka free and easy to use (well, unless its winter, and then I have (really) strung lines in the garage and house.). Believe me, with a family of five, 3 of them male, we really used that 5 line pull out a lot! So when I see articles on how to save money in these tough economic times, or how to be more Green, I roll my eyes and shrug. What is old is new again, I guess. It is good that a whole new group of folks are being introduced to an old way of taking care of things in a low impact way on both our enviroment and ourselves. I just wish they would not feel the need to make it so pc, so code worded, so silly.

God gave us much on this earth to use wisely for our lives, for others, for ourselves. To be a good steward is to try to do that when we can, but to also realize He gave someone the idea for a dryer so that is a great thing too! When buying one we can look for the best use of materials and the least use of energy. Perhaps buying a clothes line at the same time for those times the wonderful invention fails isn't a bad idea either, actually, a really frugal idea! Just keep it away from the creative ones in the family! I should know....

From the Garden, a wee bit of Heaven....

Graham Thomas, a glowing yellow scented rose

So, the merry Month of May is also Mary's month for those who still follow tradition...crowning statues of Mary with rings of roses and other flowers, the extra heaped about her feet. A beautiful bower to be sure!

It is also the time when weddings start gearing up with the glory of the weather and garden and bird song, and May Day-something we celebrated growing up in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Due to the huge population from Scandinavian countries, we inherited their wonderful customs and foods (Danish Pastry is The Best!). We would learn dances and preform, the climax being the dance around a May Pole with its multicolored ribbons-beautiful. Then we feasted on all the goodies brought by families, oh it was glorious!

To celebrate this wonderful month, here is a bouquet of roses, picked in the morning before the rain had a chance to make the blooms soggy...

Sitting on the wagon seat...

A little bit of Heaven, right in my yard...

A parting view, over the wagon seat...pay no attention to the weeds, they belong to my neighbor! :)

(NOTE: Sorry about the CopyRights, but it had to be done. I do sell the photos, so if interested, contact me @ helenrr @ sbcglobal.net (must remove spaces). Thanks!

Golly, a month goes by fast!

It seems so silly, to promise to blog, and then...not blog. Ha. I have a life, really, and it seems to take all those really good ideas and trash them. Sigh. Oh well.

So, I am, with God's grace (the only way really) going to try to blog more...not just about kids, or flower pictures, but other things...like the state of the world and how I feel about it. Or recipes. Or food, and my thoughts on eating. :) Or chocolate and wine (which go together very nicely thank you!)

So let May begin! Mary's month....