Thrills

I have lots of ways to amuse myself. If I had a day off, with no one to consider but myself, I might spin off in a few different directions, depending on the wind.

Most likely I would brew a pot of tea, preferably Earl Grey or a black tea with some variation of vanilla. Light a candle. Find the most comfortable spot to sit. Settle down with a mystery story and live the thrills vicariously. For hours.

Or I might pack a water bottle, some power bars and a journal, head to the state park for trail walking in the dim greenness of a forest where nobody can pluck at me. Not a forest with potential grizzlies, just to be clear.

Maybe I would pursue the thrill of bargain hunting at yard sales or thrift stores. I might find a brand new Quirkle game for 99 cents! I might find Usborne books for quarters! I might find a sweater I need!

If the sun came out after a long period of winter, there is even a possibility that I would tackle a garden plot or flower bed and pull all the weeds, then stand back and survey my handiwork with great satisfaction.

Top notch fun, always, is a library book sale. If I could coincide my day off with such an event, I would just have my socks blessed off.

I would eat chocolate on any or all of these occasions. Not cheap milk chocolate. No, only the best bittersweet, with maybe flakes of sea salt or chunks of coffee beans embedded in it.

There is a chance that I would feel like being creative with fabric and sew up something that just makes me happy. Maybe a throw pillow cover or a book bag.

I could even pick out paint and transform my bathroom, then stand there and just marvel at how amazing it looks.

As I was writing these thrilling potential ways to spend a day, I realized something I never thought about before. I don’t have to go to faraway places to have a great time. Sure I would love to “journey to iconic destinations on board a Viking longship”, thanks to Masterpiece classic commercials. But I don’t have to have a wallet stuffed with cash for kicks. I can have fun every day and life is good!

Let me tell you, that list up there? It would have seemed impossibly domestic to my teen self. I was going to change the world! I was going to go to exotic locations and do great things! I was not going to be a North American housewife with a passel of children, canning peaches and stuff. If you don’t believe me, ask my brothers. They called me a women’s libber.

Even after my true love found me and we had a couple of babies, I still pined to get out and do things that really mattered. (Translate: things that are obviously noble.) I prayed many times for a way to reconcile the brilliant dreams (save the orphans) with the slightly grubby reality (feed the babies). Something seems to have shifted since the days when it felt like life in the small grey house was just a tad stuffy and boring. My passport has expired and I drive a Suburban to Aldi’s for groceries. I stay very local, yet I travel everywhere and my borders have enlarged. I don’t have large blocks of time for personal enrichment, but I am just flush with good things.

I feel certain that as soon as I hit publish I will be tempted to bust out and go somewhere, but I will be candid and gratefully say that I think I may be learning to be content with where I am in life. This is not me. It is the spirit of God, giving me what it take to enjoy the ordinary. I recognize this fact with deep humility: if you practice contentment long enough, it becomes a part of your life. It is a deeply happy place in what may appear to others to be a small and restricted space.

There is one thing about being a keeper in a home that’s just a little like white water rafting. I had to sign away my life for this realization of joy.

joy-in-journey

(I deeply appreciate the truth of Michael Card’s song, Joy in the Journey. )

Thrills I Don’t Want

Last night I was playing a Dutch Blitz game with the older children when Gabe started streaming a Patagonia movie about freeskiing. Just like that the game was over as everybody flocked to see. I watched the guy flying down a mountain side, just ahead of an avalanche, his parachute/airbag pack strapped on his back, and I thought, “Now there is a thrill I can certainly live without.”

Shortly after that I read this post by one of the other WordPress 101 bloggers and thought about a similar list I have. My bucket list is probably not very thrilling to others, but I simply do not have any desire to do crazy things for the adrenaline rush. I prefer safety.

I don’t ever want to parachute out of an airplane. Or ride a roller coaster. As for that glass bridge in China? Just no. no. no. Years ago we used to visit my uncle’s farm where there was a 70 foot silo with a ladder going up the side to a tiny platform and catwalk at the top. My sister and her intrepid cousin climbed it at least 3 times in one day, just for the view. I only went up once and was glad to stay down after that. I didn’t care for rubbery legs. Even if we could see all the way to Trenton.
I don’t have any desire to eat escargot. Or any other slimy mussel things. Not even oyster soup or baby octopi. Mushrooms are enough of a stretch for me if I feel like something slimy. Which I don’t. Unless it’s tapioca. I can manage gelatinous tapioca.
I don’t want to go to a football game. Or a baseball game, for that matter. Once we were given tickets to a game and I couldn’t believe I forgot my book. I sat there and tried to see from way, way out above third base somewhere. Seriously, it was so cold in the stands. More boring than cleaning the bathtub.
I do not ever, ever plan to go deep sea fishing again. Three times I have been on a small fishing boat. Every time I got so green around the gills I couldn’t function beyond moaning for land. My Grandpa always said you won’t get sick if you eat only dry crackers before you go out. It’s not true. The fish have plenty of food without my crackers.
I don’t have any longings to kayak in white water. I have this sweet sister-in-law who is a secret adrenaline junkie. I will gladly watch her babies while she gets her fix. I will even take care of them if she ends up in the hospital. Just don’t ask me to sign my life away before I get into an inflatable raft.
I have zero ambition to live in a McMansion. Imagine all that cleaning! Neither do I have a yen for a tiny house. I already live in one. Sort of. It’s great just like it is, except when I have company. A little more room to store the baking pans might be nice, but not 2 dishwashers side by side.
I don’t want to hike in grizzly country. Nope. Too many Drama in Real Life stories flash through my head. I don’t think I could carry a big enough can of pepper spray to feel safe.

Tomorrow I will regale you with a list of recreational things I love. I bet you can’t wait. Haha.

Do you have an un-bucket list? Tell me what I missed.

The Present That Is Today

It’s a giddy feeling when the day stretches out, ready for anything. What I mean is that we aren’t doing school lessons today, since the boys are on a field trip with their dad. It’s just the girls and I and our whole empty day! I vacillated between cramming it full of projects or sitting in a chair and reading for hours while the girls watch nature documentaries and snibble absolute mountains of papers with their clever little hands.

First things first, the lunches got packed, a very unfamiliar sensation for home-schooled kids and their mothers. It was a celebration! They mixed up grape juice for their thermoses. They put food coloring in their plain yogurt. They lovingly thought out and executed sandwiches. After the guys left I thought of the laundry and hustled a few loads in and out of appliance doors. In the eyes of the pioneer woman, I am already hopelessly idle. Surveying my domain, I realized that I should probably do dishes, since my bigger helpers are gone for the day. Then I started looking around and cleaning the place in my head. I am not falling for it, though. If I scurry around productively, I will not get to open the present that is today.

Coffee, I thought. Make coffee and write for a while. I bought a French press last year because I needed something small and easily stored in a little cupboard corner. Then I figured out how to use it, and in the process I found out I was quite edgy in my coffee making choices. Oh, just standing here, grinding my beans, you know. Why not start making it bullet proof? At this point I am equally happy with cream in my coffee, but there is an extra sharp crease in the day because I just blended it with butter. You may laugh. I just did.

Here is the plan as it stands now. In one hour we will walk out the front door, close it gently on the rubble that is inside, and head over to my Mom’s house because she is back from a month in Florida! Tea. Cookies. Chatting. Just chilling. I have decided on my version of a field trip. Have a great day, everyone. Don’t forget to celebrate something!

Anybody Can Do It

Over the years we have learned a few coping strategies for squeezing all the fun out of a family camping trip. That could be taken two ways, I suppose. The year we were in tents in a deluge that lasted for days? No fun. At all. The ancient cabin on a lake in the UP? Charmed, every minute of the time. If you do your strategizing ahead of time, even the dreaded unpacking is not so bad.

Strategy number 1. Pack a camping/picnic tote that stays packed in storage whenever you are not out. This has been a game changer for me. A few years ago I bought a large, sturdy, lifetime-guarantee tote with a lid that locks down tightly. In it I packed all the things I always ended up packing every time we went for a day at the lake or on overnight jaunts.

dishpan, ratty tea-towels and dishcloths, bottle of Palmolive
paper towels, roll of trash bags, ice cream bucket
clothesline and clothespins, firestarters
mosquito spray, hand sanitizer in a pump, matches
aluminum foil and assorted aluminum pans, gallon ziploc bags, coffeepot
flexible cutting mat, old cooking utensils that I won’t stress over losing
mugs, (we hate drinking out of styrofoam) plastic cups labelled with each person’s name, plastic spoons and forks sturdy enough to be washed

I customize the cookware stuff before each outing. Sometimes we just need roasting sticks, or a stockpot, or maybe a frying pan. We eat off paper plates, but the rest gets washed. Labelling the water cups eliminates a lot of washing. I went so minimalist this time that we didn’t have enough drinking cups when we got company. We pull a trailer behind our Suburban, usually for the bikes and fishing gear, but this time I packed everything except clothes in totes. They were in categories and labelled clearly: towels and sheets, games and activities, food stuff, snowpants, etc. etc. I liked how shipshape this kept the cabin. Well, sort of shipshape. One tote, emptied, became the hamper. This made homecoming and laundry sorting really easy. Do you have any idea how many dirty clothes can fit in a tote?

Strategy number 2. Let the children each pack one backpack/duffle bag. This is for clothes and treasures and it is ample. If they protest, I tell them that I once did a 6 week international trip with just a carry-on bag. What doesn’t fit doesn’t go along. If you think you can’t live without the stuffed puppy, you are going to have to leave something else behind. It’s helpful to make a list of how many outfits for how many days, and just chill with their choices. The more camo, the better. Pj’s can be worn day and night. Nobody cares. Camping is not a fashion show. Once they think they have everything they need, a parent does a cursory luggage check. Each child is responsible for his own luggage the entire time. Load it, unload it, keep it out of harm’s way, put your stuff back in it, zip it up. You people with small children, just wait. It’s coming soon! I helped my little girls pack their clothes, but they did the rest.

Strategy number 3. Provide some activities for rainy days. It will happen, especially if you are depending entirely on sticks and rocks and sand to entertain the children. While we are pretty free-range in our parenting style, (if you tell me you are bored, I will find something for you to do and it might not be fun) we try to remember that camping is not just for adult relaxation. It’s a great chance to bond and play together for hours away from pressures and technology.

Strategy number 4: Keep it simple. Remember my food menu? 🙂 Keep it local. Try to become well acquainted with the area you are camping in and milk it for all it’s worth: trails, geo-caches, nature programs, scenic overlooks, birdwatch areas, swimming, boating, whatever. If you think your people need theme parks and ice cream to be happy, fine. But remember that if you go out and about you are going to have to shower the people and hope to goodness they packed a decent outfit.

life-in-the-woods

Strategy number 5: Do not complain about lack of comforts. Just do something about it. My brother once installed an air conditioner in his tent’s doggy door. Take what you need to feel prepared, but if you miss something obvious, it’s best not to articulate it. I tell you, if you voice unhappiness, every short person will pick it up and join you in the chorus, loud and clear. I was deeply disturbed when I thought of an unheated outhouse, modern or not, in 20 degree weather in pitch dark, on a trail in the creepy bushes. It was not something that I was going to be able to cope with well. That Luggable Loo seat saved the nights. Installed on a trash-bag-lined 5 gallon bucket, with a layer of Feeline Pine kitty litter in the bottom to absorb moisture, it worked like a charm and I have to say, I felt quite proud of my foresight. Gabe and I no longer enjoy sleeping on the ground, so we camp in cabins with bunks. We like sites with electricity and running water. If there is something you dislike about camping, there is probably a solution for you. (Have you seen those folding recliners?) It just depends on what you are willing to schlepp along.

2012-10-17-snail

Easy Peasy Camp Food

When we camp it seems that much activity centers around the food. The Pinterest search I did for great camp food brought up grills and skewers and lots of men standing around drooling while meat juices drip. I veered off on a completely different tack, since I had no desire to coddle a charcoal grill in 20 degree weather. I could have happily lived with cereal or protein bars for the duration, but I don’t like when people talk about how much their stomachs are groaning (Addy’s words) and it is equally disturbing when the polite child sidles up and whispers, “Is there anything to eat?”

My game plan for this trip was to make a menu of Sustaining Foods, carefully think of portions, cook the dishes ahead of time, and not have any leftovers to bring home. At the last minute I threw in a bag of tater tots and a few packs of hotdogs with a bottle of ketchup just for a bit of a buffer. This turned out to be a smart move, because there were no restaurants close to the park and we were much too eager to get to our rental to spend time casting around for one. So the arrival banquet was just that. Hotdogs and tater tots. Yummy.

Here’s my Easy Peasy Camping Menu:

Breakfast One- Pancakes (just add water, thanks to Aunt Jemima) with some extra toppings like nutella and peanut butter, sausage patties, hot chocolate or coffee (Gabe cooked this meal. Gregory did the dishes. Win for me.)
Supper One- Baked potatoes with hamburger topping, lettuce, sour cream, fresh veggies-plain, because I forgot the Ranch dip. (I cooked. I mean I wrapped the potatoes in foil. The rest was precooked at home. Alex washed the dishes.) For a dessert/bedtime snack we made monkey bread, very dry because I forgot the extra sugar sauce, but tolerable when dipped in hot chocolate.
Breakfast Two- Scrambled eggs with cheese, cinnamon raisin toast, coffee, oranges
Supper Two- Taco soup with tortilla chips and shredded cheddar, assorted store-bought confections for dessert. (Is a double-stuffed oreo a confection?)
Breakfast Three- cereal and milk so that cleanup would be quick and easy before we had to check out.
Supper Three- a restaurant on the way home.

Maybe someone is interested in the snack list. Because we all know what happens with growing children. (What? You can’t be. We JUST ATE.) To minimize this frustration I took along a bag of apples, a bag of clementines, a jar of peanut butter, a hunk of cheese, some lunchmeat, extra bread and butter, and a few packs of Ramen. After we made the pretzel cabins, there were those to nibble on as well. If you didn’t like the selection, you weren’t hungry, and I heartlessly stuck to that.

This plan worked pretty well. I didn’t have to take any seasonings except salt and pepper because I had taste-tested everything in my home kitchen. Even so it seemed that we ended up with a ridiculous pile of supplies. There were just a few leftovers in the fridge after each meal, enough to drop into the cracks of the hungriest children. 🙂 Gabe thought to casually mention to me during our drive that he had invited his sister and her family for Friday night. She would bring extra food he said. That was great, only there was no cell service unless you hiked a few miles, so Ruby and I were not in touch. She brought whatever worked for her, and I heated the leftover potatoes and toppings and then she cooked our Saturday breakfast so that we were fortified with more than cereal on the drive home.

The drive home ended up being through Jonas the Storm. The restaurant meal plan was flawed, alas. “Oh well,” I told the children, “we won’t starve. We still have our cheeks.”

af0885bb-6313-4a31-95cb-2a58a29ebfe3

And that is how it ended, our vehicle just barely off the road and a snowed-in weekend. 🙂

I have one more camping post, all about ways to make it doable with a family. Until tomorrow!

Winter Camping: Stuff to Do

It was fun! But we expected that. We took ourselves, the family circus, along. 😉 Sorry to be so conceited, but there was a point in our wedded life where we figured out that we don’t need a lot of other people to have a good time. There is a time and place for parties and crowds and there is a time and place to regroup with quiet simplicity. The two are rarely synonomous. Of course, dreaming of reading a book by the fire for hours means a woman must plan ahead wisely concerning activities for the plentiful energies of the offspring.

I did a bit of sleuthing online and discovered the duct tape craze that has been around for quite a while, apparently. The rolls of fancy duct tape are kind of small, but I chose a variety of colors and patterns at Walmart and hid them deep in the bowels of my bedroom. This is necessary when you live with the sorts of creative people who find a fresh roll of tape a sort of siren call to make and do. I also packed some craft knives and a cutting mat. (Just before we left home I let Alex watch youtube videos of people crafting with duct tape and he took it from there. Hours, people, hours of wallet making and duct tape flowers, etc. Worth every penny.)

The children looked longingly through a shipment of Usborne coloring books recently. “Nope, nope, nope,” I told them. “Don’t even think of starting in one of those.” But I secretly stuck a few detailed coloring books and my best gel pens and felt-tipped markers into my activities tote. (Hours, hours, of creative fun. Even Gabe got into it.)

We never go anywhere without books. January was Read-Aloud-Challenge month, so I tried to pack books that everybody would enjoy listening to, as well as easier chapter books for the girls. Cheaper by the Dozen is always a good choice. “Sometimes I wish I was an only child,” someone was heard to mutter and we all laughed and said, “You are just quoting Ernestine.” It totally took the wind out of his sails. Another series we have been working through in fits and starts is The Mysterious Benedict Society. You know you have a winner when a blase’ teenager can’t help but read with all the voices and expressions and every time he quits the little girls demand, “READ.”

For myself I took Forgiven, the book written by Terri Roberts describing the terrible journey of hurt and healing after her son shot the little girls in the Nickel Mines school. I did read beside the fire with a flashlight after the children were in bed.

I am not really good at the gingerbread houses at Christmas time thing, but I like the idea. Once again I found the web to be an inspiration and amassed a few bags of various pretzels, some fanciful candies and a batch of royal icing. It seemed an appropriate thing to do while camping. I helped Addy, of course. Gabe helped Olivia. But nobody helps Rita. I loved her claim shanty with its animal paddock. She was serenely unbothered by its unorthodox look.

The rest of the space in the activities tote was games: Settler’s of Catan, Canasta, Boggle, Chess, Monopoly, etc. Oh, yes, and in a crack went a portable DVD player and Where the Red Fern Grows, although I was skeptical that the girls could handle the sad parts. They duck around a corner when the scenes get too tear-jerking.

We were just delighted with the 8 sided Tyler cabin. I include the second pic so you can see our totes and firewood on the trailer.

Everybody in the family thinks Lady could just live with us, in our space and stuff. All but me. There I put my foot firmly DOWN. But she did like to be with us in the cabin, toenails clicking on the wood floor as she did laps, looking for someone to throw her toy.

We spent a good bit of time outside, naturally. The trails ran right past the cabin, so it was great for strolling through a few inches of powdery snow. Just up the road was the frozen lake where we rented skates for all and bought hot chocolate at the commissary. There were about 6 other people on the ice. No worries about getting into anybody’s way. These two spent most of the first hour sprawling and hauling each other back upright. I was surprised with their cheerfulness over losing their feet repeatedly. Until the sun went down and they got cold, that is.

Yup, it was fun.

Coming tomorrow: Easy Peasy Camp Food

(and I promise I will get to the Luggable Loo one day)

Top 5 Reasons Why We Camp in State Parks

I know you all want to hear about our winter camping adventure. Here it is, February, so I can finally tell you about it. I have been saving it up. Actually, I have been doing laundry and washing road salt off Rubbermaid totes and spending three days in the company of a whiny stomach bug. Also I have been teaching cursive E and hosting company and reading aloud every day. I have been learning to stop abusing the ellipses. I badly wanted to insert one there, but Grammarly rapped my knuckles.

When I told my friend Amy that we are going camping in January, she said, “That’s not vacation!” I think she may have been referring to the facilities, or lack of them. Here is why we camp in state parks despite that objection, in 5 handy-dandy reasons:

We get rejuvenated in nature. I ask no better form of relaxation than a stroll on a well-maintained, well-marked trail through unspoiled woods. This is something Gabe and I want to pass on to our children: “Alone with God” and all that. Stuff doesn’t scream so loudly, troubles tend to assume more manageable proportions, there is no wi-fi and little cell service, and if you go during off-peak seasons there are no other people.
We appreciate camping cabins. Tents are fine for some seasons, but actual bunks with mattresses, hooks to hang up jackets, shelves for each child’s treasures are fine for other seasons. I don’t sneeze about electric heaters either, and light switches to hit when things go bump. At one time I would have sneered at the poshness of it, but I have opened my mind a bit. The lack of plumbing tends to off set the poshness anyway.
We like affordable things. We just have to face it, the beach is too far away from central Pennsylvania for us to trot there every time we feel like it. (Also, people don’t walk around naked in state parks, a small consideration, surely.) On this recent trip, we spent less than $400 on fuel and lodging for 7 people (3 nights) and it was built to accommodate 12. That is not including the tote full of special foods to cook on sticks (just kidding, we had a stove and fridge) and the tote full of fun activities for middle of January camping, of course.
We value learning about things, any things, all things. State parks have calendars crammed full of educational and low-budget fun. Many of their programs are free, paid by our hard-earned tax dollars, of course. The activities were a little sparse in mid-winter, but there was a snowshoeing class and a large ice rink cleared on the ice for skating. There was geo-caching all around the park, even though the caches were hard to find under snow. But the great thing? Those vacation days totally count as school days because we learned stuff while we were just hanging out with each other.
We like being around nice people. By that I mean family-friendly people who understand that a little boy hatcheting firewood is as natural as breathing. I cannot remember ever meeting a creepy person or even an especially grouchy person at a state park and I watch for them ever since I read The Shack. I did see in the news that a criminal was hiding out in a local campground, but people ratted on him. Apparently all the fresh air and exercise keep campers alert and they look out for each other. 🙂

There you have it, my nice, attention grabbing title and a list. Is there anything you would like to add?

There is also this image, poached off the internet, of the dam at Parker Dam State Park, although when we were there the water was quite frozen and the entire 20 acre lake would have been fine for skating.

Dam_at_Parker_Dam_State_Park

See you tomorrow!

The Common Household Mystery

My boys love mystery stories. They can spot the obvious clue a mile off. “Duh,” Gregory said, “these detectives are so dull! It’s so easy to see what is going on.” But of course, from the all-seeing perspective of the author you can solve the mystery. I wish they were as good at figuring out some of the things that remain unsolved in this house.

Top of the list right now is my missing journaling Bible. The cover is loose, but I was still using it because there is so much history in it and I planned to get it rebound. I love that Bible. And it is lost, lost. How does one even do that? It’s not under the bed or on my nightstand or in my reading room, all the usual places. Did I send it off to be fixed in a dream? Did a child use it to play church? All of us combined cannot seem to solve the mystery. I ordered a new one from CBD, along with new fine tipped journaling markers, but it feels like a stranger to me yet.

Here is one for the experts. How come my first attempt at making a simple cheese was beautifully successful. And my second and third. And then, when I tried cottage cheese, it refused to coagulate at all, so I put the milk back into the fridge and went to bed. The next day I decided to use it to make my simple spreadable cheese again because I knew I could do that, but when I heated the milk, it made ricotta. Hey! I am not complaining. The lasagna was fantastic. But I just wish I knew why the rennet acted so funny.

Where did all the shampoo/toilet paper/toothpaste/every other health and beauty aid go? Sometimes I think I might as well have a list with bandaids and hankies pinned to the top. The men of the house all despise tissues, so I am constantly struggling to keep them in hankies. [I think] sometimes they stay in the uniform pants pockets and the hospital laundress throws them out, even the monogrammed ones. But what do I know? I know that the boys use them for everything from parachutes to dog collars because I find them in the lawn.

What about spoons and forks? I only have cheap ones in the drawer for everyday use, but this fall I noticed that they were quite depleted. Nobody had any helpful suggestions until I jogged their collective memories when I turned up six forks in the flower bed right off the deck while I was raking leaves. “OH, yes… we were having a contest with the cousins, just chucking our forks over the railing. That is all.” I may have spoken a few choice words of admonition. They no longer question why I remind them after every picnic to produce the used plates and utensils before they go play. And while we are on the subject of silverware: How does all that grody gritty stuff get into the Rubbermaid tray in the drawer? Seriously? It’s not like we open the drawer and butter the toast over the tray.

This fall I also noticed that we were constantly running out of stamps. We don’t even send much snail mail anymore, but the boys both have a pen pal that they communicate with regularly. Still. Out of stamps again? Then a young sleuth (our favorite Nancy Drew quote… she is “the young sleuth” so often that I want to hurl a Thesaurus at the author) tipped me off on a certain stamp collection in a certain notebook where I found at least ten brand new Forever stamps neatly arranged in rows, as well as a bunch of postcard stamps. It really kind of broke the back of the stamp collection when I reclaimed what was mine, but he didn’t have $6 extra in his piggy bank, and we had had a very clear conversation about stamps when the collection started.

This morning started with a huge upset about six missing Lego figure hands. Yes, you read that right. Do you know how tiny those hands are? Can you imagine how awful? And nobody did it or knew where they were. Except maybe the dog ate them, but I am betting on the vacuum cleaner. I actually will stoop and pick up a Lego when I am cleaning, if I see it. Sometimes the vacuum cleaner rattles crazily and I just hope it was a pony bead.

I have to put in a blurb for some of our favorite fantasies about household conundrums. Have you ever heard of the Borrowers? They are these tiny people who live, kind of like mice, in the walls and floors of the big people’s houses. I am sure I have referred to them before, how they borrow whatever they need from what they find laying around, and that is why there are never any safety pins when you need them.

the-borrowers

If you see this book, or any of the series, just know that it will “explain” a lot of mysteries and your children will absolutely love them. The audiobooks are done really well too. (British!)

We have Christmas secrets going on right now, too. We have started on our cookie baking tradition, 2 down, 3 to go. Usually the recipe selection is based on pictures in the Taste of Home cookbooks: the more complicated the better, and I try to stay sweet about garish food coloring in dough and sprinkles all over the kitchen. I am hiding the cookies deep in the freezer this year because last year we had some sad children who were unrepresented on the cookie trays when their batch got eaten prematurely.

I also squirreled some presents away in the attic in a black garbage bag. Each child gets an article of clothing, a game or activity, and a book or audio. I hope they don’t think to look up there. 🙂 As I mentioned before, the children voted to give up some of the Christmas fund for the book fundraiser we are doing to send to refugees. I have ordered some books already, and when Addy saw them she pouted a little, “You are treating the refugee children better than us.” So, no, we are not nominating anybody for sainthood just yet.

Speaking of the fundraiser, I want to thank you, thank you, so much. It has been mostly blog readers who have been so kind in sharing. The donations on the website added to private donations is just at $1,700. That is really close to the goal, more than I actually dared to hope for! I plan to close the Youcaring site next week and place the completed order. I have been poring over the catalog and making selections with Davy and Janelle’s help. They were there and they know which books are most suitable. It is so exciting I can hardly stand it!

I know that has nothing to do with mystery except just maybe that we have no idea what God will do with these tokens of care and Christlike love.

One last thing. Our furnace has only kicked in a handful of times in the whole of December. What is up with that? It has been amazing, like a gift straight from heaven. Or is it just global warming? At any rate, it is a “problem” for the experts that I am thanking God for!

The Country Mice Go to a Resort

Last weekend we combined two events and made a family field trip out of the entire works. Family field trips are so much fun, starting with “Are we about there?” every five minutes enroute to “Make her stop singing!” and “I am starving hungry. Did we pack any snacks?” Then you finally get there.

“Does anybody need to go to the bathroom? Where is Rita? Yes, we will eat just soon! Everybody stay together. We don’t want to lose you!” And so on. But it is fun, really. “Please don’t touch! Maybe you will have to save your money for the next 20 years so you can buy that. Yes, I know this display is boring for big boys, but humor us for a little. Where is Rita? Wow, that is a really neat knife with that bone handle, but we don’t have 45 dollars hanging loose right now. Where is Rita? Here, you hold tightly to my hand for a while. Yes, I know you are hungry. Shall we get some popcorn?” We did have fun. This is just my running dialog of the stuff that makes me feel like I am developing a twitch.

Wanna know what we did? Every year Gabe has to take an Outdoor Emergency Care refresher course in order to stay certified as a ski patroller in order to get a free family pass at the slopes. The course itself is interesting for him: what to do with a patient in shock from whacking headfirst into a tree, how to splint that broken-up person for the trip up or down the mountain to an ambulance, or how to assess why that person is coughing blood. It gives me the willies, just looking through the course handbook.

Fortunately for us, there was another event held at Seven Springs that weekend. The Mother Earth News is a magazine that we subscribe to for ideas to develop our small acerage. They hold various fairs across the country, and this one happened to be at the same resort as the OEC refresher course. We bought a pass online and a room for the night, making it a two day affair. A real field trip for our underprivileged homeschooled kids. 😉

The fair was held mostly outside on the hotel grounds from the bottoms of the ski lifts to the outdoor courtyard, but it meandered through conference rooms and hallways as well. There were hundreds and hundreds of vendors, the nicest people you will ever meet. If you are country and going to a resort with a family, this is the time to do it. Earth-mother types like children and they don’t really dress up that much. I saw a lot more turbans and hippie skirts and Ugly Shoes than I have ever seen before in one spot. In the middle of all the herbs and chicken butchering equipment and log splitters there was one lonely booth for flu shots. I nearly laughed out loud. What? I would have hated to be that salesperson.

There were about eight stages with different breakout sessions, all the way from Keeping a Family Cow to Worm Composting. We split up so that we could cover more information.

I took

Growing a Sustainable Diet (Very interesting talk by a woman wearing a linen vest she grew, spun, wove and crafted)
Eating the Whole Plant (Meh. You can eat carrot tops and beet tops… Don’t throw them away! There were two men in the session who were unabashedly snoozing in the A/C. Also my girls were down to the crumbs in the maple-syrup-popcorn bag and they needed to go potty and get drinks.)
One Hour Cheeses (the most fun, as the children were watching How to Pack a Llama for a Hike and I could actually follow. It was fascinating. I bought her book.)

From various friendly vendors we got open pollinator seeds and useful information about saving seeds from one year to the next.. One woman bought corn seeds for meal 25 years ago and has saved them for her annual crop ever since. Another kindly dread-locked lady didn’t have the sweet pepper seeds we wanted, but she did have a few of the peppers and offered us one to save our own seeds. I turned around for a few seconds and looked at Rita just in time to see her eating the last of the pepper, ready to throw away the core with all those lovely seeds attached.

They showed us how and why we should grow mushrooms and explained the science of herbal remedies. I bought teas and tinctures that I usually pay lots of shipping on. My favorite vendors were the good folks from Beeyoutiful. They served the girls and I freshly brewed Immunotea and I bought my winter’s vitamin C supply for the children and essential oils called ProMiSe Blend. Some of you will get that. 🙂

The boys gravitated to the wilderness survival supply booths and the alternate power sessions. Alex has a list of supplies he needs to make an electric motor bike. Gregory now has a Life Straw for his bug-out bag. The girls got batik-patterned head bands and a tiny succulant plant for their windowsill. By the end of the day we were all funned out except for one more thing: the indoor pool. We went during the supper hour when it was deserted except for a few little boys. Alex cannonballed right in, just like at the pond, putting the lifeguard on high alert. So did Addy, only she didn’t have her lifejacket on and was too short even for the shallow end of the pool and had to be fished out. I realized that our children have hardly ever gone swimming in anything but creeks and ponds. They thought the clear water was a blast. By 8:30 they were all asleep and Gabe and I could sit on the balcony to compare notes and make a game plan for the next day.

That included me taking the children for breakfast at the hotel restaurant while he did his refresher course, then meeting somewhere at the fair around lunchtime. The kids were up bright and early, bickering and giggling by turns. I made sure everybody was shiny and well aware of ettiquette at a breakfast bar. The dining area was decked out with white tablecloths and goblets, buffet lines with polished silver serving covers on every dish. I was the only adult with that many children. A buffet line with a child in tow is never easy. Too many choices, they can’t see what is up there, they want to touch stuff that they won’t eat, and the plates are too heavy for the little ones to safely manage without spills. Add in heavy lids on everything and you have a true white hair producing situation. Add in crowds of adults who only want to get their bacon already and don’t know that your kid is counting the strips he is getting because that is what he has to do at home when we have bacon and then you know where the twitch comes from. Here is the dining room, only this web image has flowers and chair covers for a wedding.

Imagine my little country mice, freshly rested and full of ginger, there, around that table.

It did turn out to be a great breakfast. The only Where is Rita? moment was when she had ducked underneath the tablecloth for some privacy. They were very careful to only drink decaf coffee and choose their doughnuts wisely. I was proud of them. 🙂

We spent a good while in the hotel’s backyard, a rock garden area with a fountain and trails. The twitch had almost worn off when the acorn wars started. All this happened while many other guests were still blissfully sleeping and I could just imagine an errant acorn clattering against somebody’s window. I decided our best option was to hang around the animal tent. The little girls plucked up grass to feed the sheep and the boys examined all the rabbit options and chickens and pigs.

When Gabe’s course was done, we wandered around for a while before heading home with our heads just packed with information.

I have been inspired to learn more about foraging for edibles in the wild and growing interesting foods. Next year we want to have a plot for broom corn and zuka gourds. I have been a little obsessed with the One Hour Cheese book, garnishing my end product with flower petals and herbs. I did feel ridiculously happy with that.

We went on a hike yesterday and brought home some turkeytail lichens to make a tea in which “clever prodding helps us keep our systems on their toes, invigorating us in the process.” (Click on the link for an almost lyrical description of the benefits of the humble little turkeytail.)

I don’t buy into the theory that everything will kill you unless you do it the natural way, because I have noticed that everybody eventually dies, one way or another. Hopefully the weekend did open up some fresh neural pathways, possibly staving off alzheimer’s for a few years. Last week I had a vivid dream about an edible caterpillar foraging session that the boys and I were taking, complete with taste testing. I had to brush my teeth when I got up, just to get the taste out of my mouth. We aren’t quite that far gone, but I suppose if you see me coming around in clothes died with geranium petals and walnut hulls, subsisting on fermented vegetables and venison jerky, you may have cause for concern. 🙂

Things I Don’t Know About

I love a great pun. Reading a children’s book with the line, “I love you doggedly, like a flea,” just delights me. Clever words tickle my ears and I absolutely love that my four year old describes herself “rushing across the backyard” instead of the conventional running. So why, I ask, do I groan every time I see a church sign that is so punny?

Last night I drove past two different churches and both gave me a pause and an inner wailing noooo-just-please-nooo. The first said, “Son screen prevents sin burn.” A few miles down the road there was another, “Gardening with God brings peas of mind… Lettuce be kind. Squash gossip. Turnip for church.” I wonder who invented church signs, anyway? And could we stick with profound and simple instead of brain twisting word play?

(shutterstock)

Summertime here is synonymous with lost shoes. Every time we want to go away, someone ends up weeping that they can’t find anything to wear on their feet. Each little girl has sandals, crocs and flip-flops. You would think at least one complete pair would be in their shoe box, but we end up doing the rounds of the sand box, play house, Suburban, etc until everyone is properly shod. We met out-of-state friends on Monday night to visit for a while. When we left it was dark and I didn’t think to check for the girls’ sandals. We left not one pair, but two. A few days later, while I was driving to retrieve the missing shoes, I got a text from my mom: Girls left their flip flops here–Will drop them off later.

I feel like Little Bear’s mother, who kept making him more and more clothes to stay warm, but finally he stripped down to just his own little bearskin and was perfectly happy without any other clothes. What a relief that was! Having said that, I have to admit that bare feet are not always good, as Rita discovered when she was picking wild raspberries and cut a deep gash in her foot that required stitches. And I am certainly not suggesting letting our children run around in just their little skins, but hey, it was the first plan in Eden! Still. Imagine how much time we would save if we weren’t constantly washing things in a ceaseless effort to stay clean. ???

My boys are on a camouflage kick this summer. They wear their camo shirts and pants day after day, until I insist strenuously that they have to change. It seems to be the last word in tween boy fashion and it sure does save on laundry, but it’s a little monotonous. I wonder how long this stage will last?

I myself have been losing things the last few days. I couldn’t find my glasses one morning, searching until I had a headache. So I got out my spare pair with black plastic frames, very modern and hot they are (as in, they make my face feel hot), but at least I could see without strain. It was days before someone pulled my favorite pair out of a crack in the couch and how they got there, I have no idea.

I have been reading this lady’s story of how she went minimalist and sold and sold stuff and got rid of everything that wasn’t nailed down or made her truly happy, like her children. They pulled out the shrubbery so they wouldn’t have to waste time trimming it. She keeps saying, “You can always buy another [insert material good here] if you find you need one.” And she got rid of almost all her clothes and went and bought what she calls a “capsule wardrobe” which is just about fourteen pieces of clothing that pair well with each other in endless combinations. I think it sounds fascinating, but I have concluded that this is sort of a first world thing to do. If you are not wealthy, you don’t go buy all new clothes from name brand stores so that you can always look pulled together and your closet looks coughed out of Pinterest. No, you go to Goodwill and enjoy the treasure hunt. So your grill isn’t the last name in sophistication. The hamburgers taste great and you know you will not be replacing it just because it doesn’t quite make you as happy as that other one on the market. Except in the quite unlikely event that you find one at a yard sale. Or unless you have plenty of money. So there is this disconnect with simplicity and lifestyle that bugs me. And if we got rid of our two freezers that hound energy and hog space, where would we put our green beans? I just don’t want to live in a Tiny House, thank you very much.

Speaking of beans, has anyone ever experimented to see if green beans will keep making baby beans forever if you don’t pull them out? I am just curious. We knew we planted extra and have sold about 3 bushels of them, just because we really want some other stuff in our freezer too.

It’s August. I cannot believe it, but my ears insist it is true. The fall insects are in full cry outside my window, serenading the waning blue moon. I saw some bright red leaves beside the road, so naturally I just ate a bowl of ice cream with fresh raspberry sauce to reassure myself.

The children wanted me to join them in the pond today. I had 17 things to do, but I chucked them all and went and floated in the sunshine. The wash is ever with me and I can scrub the fly specks off the windows tomorrow. Addy keeps asking me if we can blow up balloons, if we can buy ice cream, if we can have friends over, if we can roast marshmallows… I have a habit of absent-mindedly murmuring, “Oh, maybe.” She had enough of it and asked in exasperation, “What does maybe mean?”

I hope your summer is just as amazing and cheerful as ours!

Next up: a guest post from my husband!