a little break

I'm having more computer frustrations, so I think I'm going to take a little blog break until I get them worked out. The latest problem is that the computer won't let me go online! Grr! I'm posting this from the laptop.
Here's a little outfit I made for Rainer a few days ago. I did not organize a photo shoot at all and snapped these hurriedly just before he was about to eat (so as to photograph it in its pristine state). We're still having to protect his skin from the sun with long sleeves and long pants. This is the first pair of what I hope to be an entire batch of new pants. They're brown linen. I made them very widelegged and breezy so as to be cool for summer.
Not sure where I got this trim, but probably Superbuzzy. I love it.
I also gave him a fox applique on an old onesie. He very much likes his little fox. I have a cute story about Rainer. Yesterday we took him to the hospital for a chest CT to see if his pneumonia (which dates way back to October of last year) had resolved. He was so brave! He had to lie in a noisy chamber and hold completely still with his arms over his head. Ken and I had to step out of the room and Rainer didn't even cry. It was totally amazing. Finally he cried after it was all over when the nurse took some tape off of him. He had to be NPO (have nothing to eat and drink) all morning long before the test, so it was a big celebration of nursey and Crushcakes afterwards. He's such a good boy. (Crushcakes is quickly becoming a regular post-chemo or post-scary procedure treat).
Faith and I did a little shopping the other day for fabric for summer skirts. My fabrics are the top 3. Hers are the two on the bottom. I thought it was quite sweet that she is going for a "old fashioned girl in the meadow with a big white farmhouse" look. That's what I would have gone for too, at her age.
And I can't resist taking pictures of these boys playing with their blocks, so forgive the repetition. They're really getting into these blocks in particular lately, and I am thrilled. I'm a big believer in fewer toys encouraging more creativity. It seems to be working. Of course their favorite toy is the outdoors itself (mostly backyard play lately).

a fondue-field hockey- fun party!

Lately I have really been into throwing these little "parties" for just us on the weekends. They really promote sibling bonding and are fun for everyone. This party was quite simple--fondue and field hockey--a winning combination, it turned out. I adore this cheese fondue--it's a cheddar fondue and we dip sourdough bread into it and just serve it with a big salad. It's so festive, but also so very easy.
Faith invited her friend over. Ken and Rainer were there too, of course, taking the photo.
After dinner the kids played field hockey in the back yard. Dieter thinks he is one of the teens (and the teen siblings are so sweet to him, always).
Later in the evening we had chocolate fondue for dessert.
The teens ended up playing board games late into the night, especially Taboo, which really is so very fun.

Here is the recipe I always use for a very family friendly cheddar fondue. I got it from my friend, who cut it out from a newspaper back in the 70's. It's very retro but honestly so delicious.

Cheese Fondue

1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. white wine
1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t. dry mustard
1 c. mayonaise
4 c. grated sharp cheddar (really pack it in there)

sourdough bread

Mix the milk, wine, Worcestershire, dry mustard, mayo and cheese in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring, until cheese melts and is very hot. Pour into fondue pot. Serve with hot crusty sourdough.

how to make a "potions" set

The mama does: gather old food containers and produce trays, plus bottles with little "squirt" openings. Fill with items to mix into your "potions"--I used dried rose petals and old grains (barley and steel cut oats) for sprinkling. Fill the bottles with water. Add any old nature table items that need to be cleared out--flowers, herbs, etc.
The child does: gathers supplies and sets out for a potion making adventure.
Find a little patch of mud to dig in.
Concoct potions with all your ingredients.
Moisten with plenty of water. Leave for the gnomes or trolls to discover.

Dieter and I had a very fun time with this project from our list. Rainer was napping all the while and it was wonderful to have one-on-one mother-son time. I love these summer moments.

blue heron ranch cookbook

I was thrilled to receive a copy of this lovely book last weekend. Having an author seek me out to send me a copy of her book is a blogging first for me, and I was quite excited by it (more on that in a minute). I've been enjoying reading this and making some of the recipes all week. The whole book is full of the charming illustrations (done by the author's daughter) like you see on the cover. The author runs a zen retreat center with her husband in Southern California and the book is broken up by little stories of their life there--such as "living off the grid," "homeschooling," "fire" and "our teepee"--all of which I found fascinating. I think I've mentioned on the blog before that I favor cookbooks with "heart" and this one definitely has that. The recipes are for healthy foods with simple preparations--just my sort of thing.
On Thursday I decided to make a few of the recipes and have a little "Blue Heron Ranch" dinner. This gazpacho was delicious. I loved taking tomatoes straight from our garden and whirring them up in the blender--how simple is that? This soup also has avocado, cucumber, onions, cilantro . . . so so yummy. And what a great way to add some raw foods into your diet.
Cucumber salad (also with our home grown produce). Yummy too, and I am happy to say that Rainer ate quite a bit of this.
Black bean enchiladas (I was tempted to make the green enchildada sauce from scratch, but whimped out and used canned). I enjoyed these very much.
These chocolate chip cookies were great and very healthy. They use raw sugar, which (since I've been researching this) I know is not any more nutritious than white sugar, but the thing about these cookies is that they are full of good ingredients (lots of oats and whole wheat, lemon zest and dark chocolate) and are minimally sweet. I felt good about giving these to the boys. I like the fact that there are a variety of baked goods in the book and some are super healthy (the banana bread is all whole wheat and sweetened only with honey and bananas) and more standard recipes (such as some of the cakes) that have white flour and sugar. I like this balanced approach very much and it reflects what I'm trying to do in our lives.

So, receiving a book like this marked sort of a "blog milestone" for me and sparked an interesting discussion for Ken and me about the ethics and appropriateness of me discussing the book here and how sometimes things like this can be a slippery slope. I feel 100% good about sharing this with you because it is such my kind of thing. But I don't want to head the blog in a direction of promoting products or advertising things. I love sharing what I'm reading with you but certainly won't be opening an Amazon book shop or placing advertising on the blog or anything like that. I think there is something lost when blogs go that direction, although I certainly understand why someone would do that. Just wanted to let you know . . .

eating lately

How nice it is to have a blog on which to post my food pictures! I bought some King Arthur "white whole wheat" and tried it in this bread (half unbleached all-purpose and half whole wheat). Yummy.

Made zucchini quesadillas last night. I loved them, the kids did not, alas. Used this recipe as a guide.
Tomatoes and cucumbers from our very own garden (and nectarines and plums and of course the zucchini is home grown too, and some yellow squash too).
The pumpkin bread I mentioned yesterday. Will be trying this soon with all whole wheat and succanat instead of sugar.
Pumpkin butter--take the leftover canned pumpkin from making the bread, stir in a little apple juice and spices (cinnamon, ginger and cloves, I think are what I used) and cook it down for 15 minutes on the stovetop. A pumpkin explosion in your mouth.
More homemade yogurt, this time using Hanna's recipe. It's wonderful, and no monitoring of temperatures in involved. I do think I overheated this, though, using my heating pad method (and that is why it is sort of "soft set"??) so next time I will use Hanna's suggestion of putting it in the the closet with the hot water heater.

contemplating healthier baking

So, one of the topics I continue to obsess about (because I do like to think and re-think things) is healthier baking. I've written about that before. I love to bake, but I'm interested in more wholesome baked goods for "everyday"-- for example, just this weekend Faith wanted pumpkin bread, so I made her some and it was delicious and all, and I threw in half-whole wheat flour, for nutrition, but still, it was so very cakelike! I'd just like to have something like that I could feel a little bit better about giving the little boys. A couple weeks ago I saw this book in Barnes and Noble and man, is it appealing. Very deliciously photographed baked goods with wholesome flours and non-sugar sweeteners (mostly agave). But the book is vegan and gluten-free--not what I need--so I set it aside. But my interest was certainly piqued again when I saw this post, which suggests that even if you are neither gluten-free nor vegan, why not whip up some healthy baked goods for the nutrition of it, especially if the recipes are fab? But when I went back to look at the book again, I knew I would never make the recipes--the investment in special ingredients is just too high--xantham gum, coconut oil, special dried soy milk powder, specialized gluten-free flours--all together, it adds up to a lot. I can't justify it, plus, I'm trying to simplify my life right now, and buying a whole arsenal of baking goods, which I might not even like, seems counter-intuitive to say the least.
So I decided to shop my own library for recipes more in line with what I am looking for--baked goods made with wholesome whole grains and alternative sweetners. The fats don't matter so much to me. I don't really have a book that fits that description, but I'm searching out individual recipes as they apply. It's actually rather fun.
I made a little list of appealing recipes to get me started, and am gathering up the (much more reasonable) ingredients. Will keep you posted.

This morning we are off to Santa Barbara very early for Rainer's outpatient surgery appointment (a type of chemo that goes into his spinal fluid). We've done this a gazillion times, so it's not scary and it's much less frequent now (only once every 3 months). After that, we'll be off to Crushcakes--another one of my little food obsessions. Fortunately, Ken and Rainer don't mind. Have a great Wednesday!

sensory party again!

We repeated the sensory party from last year and once again it was a hit! The rationale for having one every year (not that we need an excuse, really) is that the sensory tables get trashed over the course of a year and need to be cleaned and re-filled with all new contents. Bring it on!
So once again we had rice and beans in separate tables--they are so fun to run your hands through. We also had a third table with super-fine playsand. That was a surprise hit--the kids really liked it.
The ice treasure was also a huge it. I made it the same day, freezing little objects in a block of ice in layers. I should have started the day before because the ice was frozen on the outside and basically turned into a big pool of water on the inside. The kids loved it, though. We also did cornstarch goop--another huge hit.

Hello Kitty comb embedded in ice.

The smell station was really easy to pull together. Just grab spices, extracts, essential oils, and herbs from the garden. Even the non-smelling flowers are fun to smell--they just smell vaguely plant-y.

Dieter smelling the vanilla.

The teen boys, rarely seen on this blog. Jacob on the left, Ben on the right.
One of the nice things about this party is that the teens really get involved too and interact tons with the little ones. Honestly, these activities are fun for everyone to do.

This year we did a bit more with the sense of taste: sour (lemon), salty (chips), bitter (unsweetened baking chocolate), sweet (dark chocolate). The kids loved it.
And for the really sweet taste we ended with this Tollhouse pie. Sweet and good!

Today Dieter told me, "that sensory party was the best ever!" Totally worth it.

cute angry chicken-style wrap sweater

I was so excited when I read Angry Chicken's post about making little wrap sweaters that I was itching to start immediately. However, I was hosting a little birthday party for Faith that same day, so I had to wait until after. These are so fun and easy to make--I've made two so far. I always admire the little wrap sweaters in the Garnett Hill catalog but they are so expensive! Now I can have my own diy version. It's tempting to cut into all my long sleeved shirts.
Skirt made by me. I got a remote for my birthday--am having fun with that.

I seem to be having a "shoe" year. These are inspired by Soulemama. The balloon is from the Wednesday night band concert. Happy weekending!

watercolor notecards

I had some random watercolor paintings lying around and decided to cut them up into notecards. I was surprisingly happy with the results. These can be for bookmarks, grocery lists, or just something to grab when you need to write something down.
Forgive the misspelling--it's just a grocery list after all (maybe it's correct in French though!)?

Enjoy your day!

lemon sugar scrub

My good friend Carrie from Kansas is visiting me right now. Hooray! Love the Carrie visits. Sadly, we're driving her to the airport this morning--I will miss her. Yesterday we decided to have a little "spa time" and make this lemon sugar scrub. It's delightful! This was one of those projects that I printed out maybe a year ago and never got around to--I was making much too big a deal of it in my head. The truth is that in 5 minutes you can mix up the scrub and in 15 minutes you will have had a delightful self-nurturing experience and your feet and hands will feel fantastic. Shouldn't we all take time for ourselves like that more often??
Here's what we did (recipe adapted from makeyourcosmetics.com):
::pick two lemons (we were making a double batch)
::mix 1/2 cup sugar with the juice of 1 lemon and a tablespoon of olive oil. Add a drop of lemon essential oil if you want.
::apply to feet and hands, massage area, rinse with warm water, pat dry. The olive oil leaves you feeling silky smooth.

I love the smell of this stuff! It smells exactly of lemon and sugar, not surprisingly. Yummy! I practically want to eat it. I'm excited to try more "make your own" type treatments as time allows.

happy birthday Faith!

Faith turned sixteen this weekend! We had a fun family party for her on Sunday night.
Nature table transformed into birthday table. I made the crown and the cake topper last year.
Fresh bouquet from the cutting garden for her birthday table. I'm loving those bachelor buttons.
Cookies--the traditional number cookies with some woodland creatures thrown in. We bought the animal cookie cutters on our recent Ikea trip. They are so great--exactly my taste: moose, fox, hedgehog, snail, bear cub, and squirrel. So good!
Dieter made a special cookie for Faith. "With love for Faithy on her birthday," he said.
A calm moment before the party. Love those brief lulls.
Faith with her friend Kaylyn, who designed and sewed the dress Faith is wearing. My brother in the background, playing field hockey with the little kids.
Rainer taking a turn hitting the dino pinata.
Look at all that loot!
The birthday girl with her presents. I love her nails here.
The cake. My mom crushes fresh raspberries into the frosting. Faithy's favorite.

Happy birthday Faith! You are a sweet and smart girl, loving big sister, and a fabulous daughter. Have a great year!