Our Waldorf Home

2011-11-26T11:56:00.001-08:00

I guess it's time to reveal my new blog!!!!

http://woodlandwoolens.blogspot.com/

Here it is wonderfukl fellow followers! Please head over there to continue the journey! And please follow the new one as I am closing this one down!

Blessings,
Samantha

2011-02-22T05:51:00.000-08:00

. . . And just so you know I haven't forgotten about you all, I have my new blog in the works. . . Pretty soon! I'll keep you all update!

~Samantha

2011-01-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

::Changes::

. . . Like every new season, like every new moment really, changes happen. For us we are no different. A new year, a new baby, a new house? A new State? We are def. getting to all that, sooner or later, but for now I wanted to let you all know (like all 68 of you who actually read my blog. . . thank you!) that I'm moving on and starting a new blog. For me this blog was intended to inform people the beauty that lies within the walls (or without walls if you hs) Waldorf education. But as our family evolved and we added more children we found that a strict Waldorf home life and education was not actually for us. I seriously do enjoy the beauty and really people it IS beautiful the Waldorf life, but we are more of a hodgepodge, unschooling, life living, traveling, off-grid-wannabe farm and crafty family, that just. plain. lives. and enjoys life's crazy and unpredictable moments. When I start my new (and so much improved) blog I will post a link, and lay this baby to rest. In the mean time, I will still be out there as Our Waldorf Home Mama, enjoying your blogs and articles and commenting as such. Thank you all for your support!

~Samantha + Family

2010-12-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

:Squeezing in Some Creativity:

. . . I may not be creating life anymore (at least for the moment) but there is still lot's of creating going on in here! I've been up to the usual home-making makery type thingies, like whippin' up these super yummy, super simple baking soda biscuits for supper. . .

Here they are, all puffed out and begging for a little wee one to come and eat it up!

The cutter was a great Christmas present from the in-laws! I received a lot of kitchen goodies this season, while perfectly awesome as gifts for me, at this time in my life I'm usually bakin', knittin', sewin' or doing some otherwise crafty-womanly task with one hand holding the baby (getting appropriate carrier soon!) one hand cleaning/doing creative activity, and then having one breast out and nursing. The other one usually follows, whilst the 1st one is still out---- basically making me a topless baby carrying, one-handed crazy crafty lady still trying to take care of the other littles while tripping over the toy laid en floor and just. sighing. Oh how very blessed we are even in the apparent chaos!

. . . Moving on to current WIP, yarn stashes and good, fun stuff!

Here is another amazing gift from my in laws. . . A seriously beautiful hand dyed, hand spun, skein of super soft merino wool in a variegated blue/purple/turquoise colorway, spun thick and thin with wonderful coils going on! She is also a local gal (for me) I had no idea this talented lady was from my home state! Here is etsy store is:http://www.etsy.com/shop/fuzzybunnyfibers its a sweet site, do check it out!

. . . Next up is a pair of pants for the olders I dubbed "sew knitty pants" haha I'm so clever right? I found an awesome deal at my local Jo-ann fabrics where they had all simplicity patterns on sale for ONE FREAKN;, DOLLAR!!! No lie! I bought six patterns on of which were these easy wide legged pants with pockets. I found this neato, funky fabric and quickly got sewing. I wanted them to look fantastic, and funky, so I used bright colors, embroidered pockets and knit up a waistband. They turned out super cute! Though I do have to say that while the middle boy LOVED them (the green leaves pair) the older said " uh, mama, um, these don't look right, I'm not sure I want to wear these"!! Yeah seriously! All those late nights sewing up one seam here and one seam there and the older decides he likes to wear the traditional boy wear of cars and trucks an other blah things. Oh well I love and respect that!

::Front::

::Back::

. . . Next is a dish cloth I'm knittn' up for gifts, I only completed one so far, but I'm going to make a whole rainbow of yummy colors to bring some happiness to a much hated chore of doing the dishes!

. . . These are the other colors I'm putting together for the dish cloth set, Sugar and Cream brand 100%cotton at 250 yards and literally $1.99 a piece I'm going to be knittin' up 1000000 of these babies!!

. . . More beautifully, hand spun, hand dyed yarn! This is a super cool bubblegum colorway, fingering weight yarn made from 50% merino wool 50% silk, so freakn' yummy this is def. getting knit up for my newest baby! The etsy store from which this is from is:http://www.etsy.com/shop/tayloredfibers?ref=seller_info

. . . Oh yes we are in fiber heaven over here! And when I say "we" I mean me

. . . And last but not least is this super soft "drylon microfiber" skein of yarn, I have no idea what that is, I'm sure its a synthetic and probably very toxic, but it is so super soft I couldn't resist! It's a really cute colorway, my favorite actually, I love purple, green, blue and turquoise!

What are you all crafty mamas doing this winter??!

2010-12-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

:::Baby!!:::

. . . 2 days overdue and super crabby, water breaks at 8am on the 30th. I call my m/w with concerns about irregular and non-existent contractions and wondering when we'll get this show on the road now that my water has broken!! She says it will happen and just to rest, eat and drink. So instead of doing any of that I frantically clean the house. Here I'm vacuuming!
This was supposed to be my mad face when hubby was taking pictures of me cleaning whilst my water is broken!

Setting up the birth pool, the kids so want this for Christmas!

Here is what it looks like outside where I'm laboring.

Contractions starting to come. I drink some coffee.

The kids are so excited for the pool and upcoming birth. They were absolutely amazing!

This one did not want to come out!

Since my contractions are not super painful, hubby deems it okay to get on the computer!!!!Peace.

No pants, and starting to get harder, more painful and frequent contractions.

Feeling it. Midwife says EAT!!! I eat pizza right before she comes, and promptly threw it up at her feet when she gets here. Change of scenery.

Back in the pool, and dealing with the fact that baby is coming soon and it hurts!

A moment in between.

Transition. . .

The kids wonder in and are awaiting the birth.Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a. . . . . . . BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Relief!

So happy he's here!

Four of us.

23 minutes old and latched on and nursing like a champ!

He is a great nurser and also enjoys a nuk. I have another nuky baby!

New big and bigger brothers!My awesome and amazing midwife Erika!

With daddy!

New brother. What's that?Dakota asks to hold him all the time!

So happy!

Baby all snugly!

Daddy just LOVES him to pieces!

quiet moments.

So new, so sweet!

Day after birth.

Rainier Achai Disch

8lbs 10 0z

November 30th 2010

2010-11-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

::WIP Friday::

Knitting up last minute projects before this wee one makes his/her entrance hopefully but this Sunday (due date) but I'm thoroughly enjoying this sudden burst of creative energy before I know it I'll be very sleep deprived and enjoying the gifts I've made for my family!

Finished rainbow scarf for my littlest and oldest. Super cute yarn. Oh how I've forgotten how much I love to knit.
Remember this skein? Now it's #3's wee sprite hat. . .

It didn't turn out as nice as I thought is would, but it's still super cute and baby alpaca, couldn't be any warmer or softer! Perfect for a newborn!

Have a great Friday. . . Hopefully next post will reveal our new family member!!!!

2010-11-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

{{WIP Friday, a Raw Transition, No New Baby News!!!}}

. . . Well it's been a while since I've posted! Baby is still cooking--- I'm baking a huge turkey in there! There was one night in particular that made me think that it was "it", but alas after 4 hours of pretty painful contractions, I fell asleep!!! Bummer, but babe will come when it's time! And I so can't wait for this little smooshy, squishy, puddle of baby love that awaits my arms!!! Things I'm really trying to finish up before babe makes it's grand appearance is a bunch of little hand knit hats and other such cozy things!!! Right now I'm working on a pattern that I will make available when I work out all the kinks. It's a Wee Sprite Hat with little ties under the chin, and point and the top, it's very cute, and pretty unique I think. Since we don't know the sex of the baby (homebirth) and because we want to preserve the calm energy of the baby I am knitting this in a beautiful and super soft baby alpaca yarn in a toasted oatmeal colorway.

. . . Beautiful, calming, neutral, Toasted Oatmeal colorway, by Blue Sky Alpacas.
. . . The cast on stitches, it's really coming along, it's actually almost done, and it should be an easy pattern, knit on two needles and sewed up on a point.
. . . Things have been a whirl wind over here, still cooking baby, packing and planning a move, organizing our homebirth and starting a raw transition. Mostly I'm a vegetarian/vegan, but during nursing an pregnancy, I usually eat meat and lot's of dairy. When baby comes for some reason I swing towards raw food bandwagon. For whatever reason I crave raw foods after I have a baby, and now that I'm already transitioning I feel like baby is near!

Super yummy, partially raw greed salad:

-Cilantro

-Spinach

-Onion

-Garlic

Sauce:

-Tamari

-Lemon juice

-Garlic

This was such a good and nourishing salad. Really. Simple, and salty and strong! It borders sort of on the Asian flare and was so easy to whip up.

Also enjoying green (or mud like) smoothies. This one was

-Strawberries

-Bananas

-Spinach

-Brewed raspberry leaf tea

Having a super nice deluxe blender is key (on my "to get list" for sure!)

Chia seeds soaking. I started adding the soaked seeds/gel to my smoothies for added protein and fiber.

And here I am, in my huge, bigness! Can't bend over, can't breath, can't sleep---- oh the joys of pregnancy!!

. . . Enjoying these last few days.

2010-11-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

. . . And the Winner is. . . .

Sarah in the Woods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! Please contact me with your address, and the gifts will mailed out shortly!!! Please enjoy these cards and give them away to someone special ;) !!!

And people if you did not win, try your hand at making these, they are truly simple!

And if you haven't checked out Sarah's blog (I only just did!!) it's very sweet!!! http://theforestroom.blogspot.com/

And thank you for all that entered and wrote me such wonderfully kind comments, it made my day!

2010-11-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

::Don't forget about my give -away tomorrow!::

If you are interested in winning our handmade Waldorf Holiday cards please leave a comment on the post (a few down) and a double entry if you become a follower. . . just note that on the comment too! We (Dakota my helper elf) will draw the winner tomorrow morning! So check back to find out who the lucky winner is!

2010-11-01T04:03:00.000-07:00

::More on Waldorf and illness::

. . . Plenty of Water
. . . Lot's of herbs.

Lately I've been feeling like our life forces are a bit weakened and/or altered. . . we have this new baby arriving VERY shortly and because of that, focus has been on that event and not much more! I feel my kids sense this change and have been acting accordingly! None of us have been sick since the flu, though D and F have both got colds from somewhere. So in addition to taking up Rudolf Steiner on his amazing beliefs surrounding illness we are also adding in tried and true illness preventives in our home. Lately we've been liking the herbal tincture by Herbal Pharm; Echinacea/Properlis blend. It's amazing and very good as a preventive and curative. Also lot's of warm teas such as chamomile, and of course my pregnancy tonics. Lot's of water, and what's been really helpful over here is rest. I've been napping everyday, and ironically so has Dakota 9of course Finnley does too) so we've all just been resting and enjoying this calm before the storm (read new baby being up all night!!!). If you haven't already do check out the Magic Onions post I wrote last week about Waldorf and Illness. . . http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/2010/10/discovering-waldorf-waldorf-and-illness.html

** And remember THIS FRIDAY is the day of the drawing for my Waldorf Holiday cards!!! Just a few posts down and you can see the whole card making process to try out if you don't win the giveaway!! But do please enter! One entry for a comment, two entries for comment and becoming a follower.

Hope you all had a great Halloween! And please tell me how you all are keeping bugs at bay---- I really need all the arsenal I get get now!!

2010-10-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

::All Hollow's Eve::

Yellow the bracken,

Golden the sheaves,

Rosey the apples,

Crimson the leaves,

Mist on the hillside,

Clouds gray and white,

Autumn good morning!

Summer goodnight!

Halloween is just around the corner and boy oh boy are we not prepared!! Dakota is going to be a bat and Finnley wants to be a lion! He's really into screaming----which is so, so lovely as you can imagine! We went to the pumpkin patch (twice) and brought home some cute little pumpkins. . .

The pumpkin patch was so sweet, we love supporting our local farms! But then sadly we put them out and Squirrel Nutkin came along and ate the pumpkins to their bottoms! Those squirrelies really need that winter fat on them! So now to the grocery store to pick up some regular ol' non-hand- picked pumpkins!

In other news. . . . We baked Harvest Cookies!!!! Super yummy! It all starts with a sweet little squash!

Simple ingredients such as brown sugar, eggs, butter, and flour.

Mix well.

Notice the belly is in like EVERY shot now?? Yeah I'm that huge.

Dakota normally likes to crack the eggs but on this rare baking occasion Dakota was with daddy at tool store getting some on and ends for our basement, while Finnley took a nap! It was wonderful.

Adding the squash in the mix, really makes a moist and sweet cookie!

Bake at 350 degrees, 10 minutes---- that's it!

They turned out so yummy! I hate to admit this but when the kids woke up at 5:45am and asked for cookies I gave in and they had 2!

Here's the finished Wool Leg Warmers I made--- back view.

They turned out so, so cute!!!! These were so easy to make and so cute to wear!! You can check out my tutorial on the post below.

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe Halloween!! And do check out my giveaway for Waldorf Holiday cards---- a few posts down, this ends next week!!!!

2010-10-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

:: WIP: Warm Wool Leg Warmers::

It all starts out with a wool sweater baby! Actually the good thing about THIS sweater is that I didn't even buy it, I received it as a gift, and shrunk it be accident--- opps. But instead of thrifting it or throwing it away, I'm making some toasty woolens for my wee ones! The older isn't really *into* leg warmers and at 4.5 I can respect that, so for him I'm going to use the rest of the sweater to make a vest. The warmers are for the wee one and perhaps if there is still some fabric left I'll make the weest one something as well!
The Original. It was a very cute sweater the few times I wore it!

1. Cut sleeves off at desired length, long for an older, shorter for a smaller child.

2. Line up the sleeves make sure they are the even length, and place embellishments (if you desire) next to the sleeves making sure they match and look good together. For these we are adding tea, purple and blue felt to cut out and make some shroomies!

Close up of the yummy felt!

3. Next draw your design (if you are using embellishments) on the felt and play around with what looks good!

4. Cut out your shapes and put aside in safe place!

5. Gather other materials you will need, your embellishments, thread and embroidery floss, needles, scissors.

6. Start sewing! My little cat just loves wool! he sleeps on our sheepskins and whenever I'm knitting or sewing wool he just has to sleep on top of me!

7. Once you have sewn on your felt or buttons or whatever your using, now it's time to sew the unfinished edge at the top. Now if you felted the sweater majorly you can skip this step, but these leg warmers are not completely felted. I used embroidery floss in baby blue, and used a blanket stitch at the top.

8. Done! And snug as a bug will be your little one when he/she puts these on! My WIP is going to be to get my little one to wear them and then take somewhat of a decent photo!!

Hope you all stay warm this season and that you all find creative ways to do so!

{{Also don't forget to enter my giveaway for handmade Waldorf Holiday cards, it's two posts down! Giveaway ends in a week and a half!}}

2010-10-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

{{My Herbal Pregnancy Part One}}

I will soon be the mother of three little wee ones, and upon thinking of that I realized I need to be in tip-top shape after this one is born---- meaning mentally, physically and spiritually able to handle the three little ones under four. First of all I know as always I will have the wonderful support of my husband who will be taking his usual four weeks off to help us out, but also the support of my amazing midwife, plus family and friends of course. But this pregnancy has been different. Maybe it's because I'm older, wiser and realized that I really need to take the absolute best care of myself for the sake of my children. For me this means eating absolutely as pure and healthy as possible, taking extremely well made prenatal, getting a great amount of sleep (literally I nap only when I'm pregnant or have a newborn) and really truly preparing for the birth and more importantly---- after. So far I've stocked my freezer with an abundance of nesting cooking, and now that food will be taken care of I'm focusing on my herbals.

Starting off with brewing up some Post-Partum Soothing and Healing Herbal Bath (also for sitz baths)

I got this recipe off of the Mothering forum, but I've seen quite a bit of herbal recipes like this in my herbal healing for women books.

Post-Partum Soothing and Healing Herbal Bath:

1oz Comfrey
1oz Yarrow
1oz Rosemary
1oz Sage
One whole bulb garlic
1/2 cup sea salt
Splash of Witch Hazel
A few drops of Lavender essential oil
6 cups of water for brewing herbs
2 cups of water for brewing garlic
Large mixing bowl + Glass jar for saving Herbal soak in

Chop up garlic finely, mix with 2 cups water and simmer for half and hour. In the mean time while garlic is brewing, Mix sea salt and all of herbs (finally chopped) in another sauce pan with 6 cups of water. Simmer very gently over med. flame, for 45 minutes. . . covered.

Covering the gently simmering herbs, ensures that the healing steam remains within and it all fuses together nicely.

Check on the herbs frequently, in the beginning the herbs will look more fresh, water more clear.

Towards the end of cooking time. . .

The herbs should be sunk mostly to the bottom, the water a rich herbal amber and the smell intoxicating, circulating through-out your house.

Once herbs are done and garlic is done, strain as much as possible and mix both together in a large mixing bowl. Add splash of Witch Hazel, and drops of oil.

My oldest wandered into the kitchen asking what I was cooking. When I told him we were making mama a bath to have after the baby is born, he said he wanted to help! So cute! He enjoyed hitting my almost-empty bottle of oil into the big bowl!

And he may have got a little carried away and put a lot in! Super lavender-y! Super yummy!

Stir well, grab a ladle and your jar and start scooping!

I made a 20oz jar for the refrigerator, and I froze the rest since I'm still 4-ish weeks away, I wanna make sure this stuff will keep!

Label your jar and there ya go!!! When your ready to use it, pour 1/2 cup or so into steaming hot bath water, or into mini buckets if your sitzing. This should make 10-20 baths depending on how much you use!

*Also remember to enter my Waldorf Holiday card giveaway (the post before this one).

2010-10-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

{{Waldorf Holiday Cards}} + Giveaway

In keeping up with the simple and beautiful Waldorf tradition of Wet on Wet water color paintings and the use of eye-pleasing, and soothing colored tissue paper, I came up with this wonderful and easy to create Holiday card any busy Waldorf mama can create!

If you factor in your wee helping elves, this can take you an hour. . .

. . . . Or three days if your wee helper elves like to use finger paints instead of watercolors and proceed to smear it all over their hands and face like mine did!

As you can see painting is a huge deal in our house and as much as I introduce and re-introduce the use of the nurturing and harmonizing activity of Wet on Wet water coloring. . . finger paints and anything messy as can be is much more preferred. Go figure I have messy boys!! Often while they are mess making with bright (and in my opinion garish colors) they will watch me use the nice wooden brushes, the naturally dyed paints mix and mingle on the wet paper, and one day hopefully they will join in!

. . . . .Until then I let them enjoy the creative and peaceful time as they express themselves (in sometimes a very non- Waldorf way) and I'm okay with that. Because living a Waldorf inspired life should not be about rules, and restrictions.

------So back to the tutorial! If you are interested in creating a wonderful alternative to the tacky Christmas cards you see lining the shelves of big box stores, or you want to make a personal gift for someone you love try these!

1. Start by finding some nice, sturdy white paper, wet it and fold it in a nice card shape.

2. When the card is a bit dryer proceed to draw a picture of your choice (this also works for pictures not related to the Holiday's like birthdays for an example ;) ! ) preferably in a light colored pencil.

3. Then find some scissors and cut along your lines, making sure to cut away all the pencil marks

4. Once your shapes are all cut out and your paper is still slightly wet, continue on by painting the cards in various watercolors of your choice. It's important you paint all sides, both inside and out.

5. Once you are satisfied with the painting results, let dry in a sunny spot.

6. When dry to the touch, gather up tissue paper in a complementary color of your choice, and cut out enough to cover your cut out. Cut out carefully, you do not want tissue paper sticking out of the sides.

7. Glue tissue on and press carefully with hands. You may use liquid glue like I did, but I believe it would better and look a bit nicer using a glue stick.

Here they are all glued down and dried! A cabin with a fire going, a Christmas tree, a star, and snowflake.

Here are these babies up close and personal!

Christmas tree with a blue hued, green tinged and yellow undertone colorway.

Classic Waldorf peachy-pink colorway, this time a star cut out with an orange tissue paper cutout.

Blue horizon, warm cabin cut-out, with warm earth undertones and orange tissue paper.

Yellow hued, with orange and pink tinged background, white tissue paper snowflake.

8. Once all paint is dry, and glue is set, place them under a heavy book for a while until flat.

Here they are all dried and standing! I also added cut-out name times, though these do not have tissue paper. They say to and from in three different Waldorf inspired colorways blue, yellow, pink.

9. The next step is then to decide if you want the inside to say anything personal, or if you want it to be blank. I found some Steiner quotes, as well as quotes I enjoy, plus I left one blank. I typed them up on the computer to give it more a professional look using the traditional Waldorf font. Star says "Blessings to you".Tree says "Merry Christmas".

Snowflake says "May my soul bloom in love for all existence" Rudolf Steiner.
Log cabin is left blank.

Simple, easy, beautiful Holiday cards I hope you all will try ;) !! If you especially like mine, or quite frankly have no time to make these, you can win the whole set (4 cards, 3 Holiday tags, plus rainbow variegated ribbon for threading tags, and tissue paper for cards, plus 4 envelopes) please leave a comment. To be entered TWICE please become a follower (make sure you mention who you are in the comment section) and leave a comment. This giveaway will be closed and winner picked in two weeks! So enter now!

To: Someone Special

With love from: Our Waldorf Home Mama, Samantha

2010-10-10T04:53:00.000-07:00

{{Waldorf and Illness}}

Rudolf Steiner born in 1861, was a Austrian mystic and self-proclaimed clairvoyant who founded the religion called Anthroposophy. In edition to his spiritualism he also founded the world-wide educational movement called Waldorf. Steiner also studied medicine. While a lot of his teachings are things that I do not necessarily agree with (actually quite a bit, considering we are more conservative, Christians, less esoteric). There are many Anthroposophical doctors in North America, some of which are highly respected and very educated in treating the whole body, and very much worth checking out. Steiner claimed that the causes of illness are not primarily physical but reflect Spiritual conditions. For Human beings he taught:

Good health is achieved when the physical organism is properly aligned with three non-physical bodies that manifest during a humans lifetime: 1. The etheric body, 2. The astral body, and 3. the "I" or ego.

Steiner has strong beliefs in medicine--- some of which are hard to believe, but all and all, the use of herbal preparations, homeopathics, Curative Eurthmy, and rest for you "higher and lower organizing forces" appeal to me much more than downing Tylenol, or Antibiotics!

So as you tell by me writing this, we've all been sick!

. . . Very sick. We all got the flu. Bummer, especially since I'm with child, I thought I was going to die! Quite literally! It was a "wonderful week"!

. . . But some really good tried and true herbs and body care, really made all the difference!

Whilst drinking lot's of tea and just letting the bug run it's course with out the use of conventional drugs or over the counter medicines, we made it through. All a bit stronger. All a bit more vital.

2010-09-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

::Happy Belated Autumn::

. . . Come little leaves the wind said one day.

Come over the meadow with me and play.

Put on your dresses of red and gold.

Summer is gone and the days grow cold.

As soon as the leaves heard the wind's low call,

down they came fluttering, one and all.

Over the brown fields they flew,

singing the little soft songs they knew.

Dancing and whirling the little leaves went,

Autumn had called them and they were content.

Soon they sleep in their soft earthy beds. . .

Waiting for Winter to cover their heads.

That verse always makes me think of fond memories from my old Waldorf school I went to growing up. Autumn happens to be my very favorite season. To celebrate this wonderful and magical season we made apple cinnamon -- pecan bread.
The ingredients are simple and wholesome.
Of course I have a helper elf, eager to stir the dough
The fragrance is intoxicating, warm apples, cinnamon, pecans, it smells as though we live in a scrumptious bakery mixing up all kinds of Fall treats!
The finished product! Oh how yummy this was served warm out of the oven with a big pat of melty butter!
I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful transition into the cooler weather.

And on a different note. . .

We went camping again!!! This time at my dad's cabin!! No tents this time!! It was soooo chilly--- but Dakota found a park he has made useful in this cold weather! Swings are his favorite!

This is how I spent my morning at the park. . . Enjoying nice hot coffee!

And here's my big ol' belly hanging out in the car on the trip!

When we got back, Dakota was eager (again) to get to the parks before they freeze up! Daddy took them this time!

And here I am, in all of my 32wk glory! Man can I get any BIGGER??

Hope you are all enjoying life this time of year!

2010-09-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

::Getting Back to Normal::

Well now that our camera is FINALLY fixed, I'm back to the blogging world! It's been awhile! In the mean time I've enjoyed neglecting this blog a bit in favor of checkin' out other's blogs and websites that are currently feeding my creative outlet--- since most of my crafting supplies are boxed up and away. I'm trying to enjoy this belly---- like many have you suggested, but not seeing my feet, well it can make you feel huge!! I thought about submitting this photo to Garden Mama's wandering Wednesday, my feet have me wandering into what else but the kitchen! Of course you can't see my feet though!

We've been in bed a lot! Resting, reading, playing games, enjoying our family of four before we are a family of five in 8wks!

I've made TONS of this tea. So simple. . . . good water, chopped up, peeled ginger, let it simmer, add honey and lemon. Really tasteful and satisfying, plus the ginger gives you a small energy burst! I've been enjoying this around my 3:00 slump.

Well. . . I've been crafting just a wee bit. Dakota and I made felted acorns for Fall.

The beauty of our *wonderful* camera is that the pictures kinda suck. Ah well, here is the same pic, different lighting.

And of course more bed play! The boys received a present called *crazy campers* it's the greatest gift ever! It's from REI, its a brain teaser/puzzle that you try to get all the pieces to fit on the camping pad. They do this for hours!!! Well I'll be back to the updates now that my camera is back!!

2010-09-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

My Update: Feeling Hot and Heavy!

30wks pregnant and so, so feelin' it baby! Yikes I believe I have gained a tremendous amount of weight! My h.b. midwife does not weigh me so I have no idea how much I've gained. But alas, this baby weight is exactly that. . . weight for this baby! I gained 25lbs with my 1st while eating everything in sight (seems I just don't gain much) and with my 2nd I gained 211lbs. With this one I'm estimating around 30? Dunno, but sure enough even a pound bigger than your usual weight and your bound to feel it! So yeah, still pregnant and still growing!!! We FINALLY have our precious camera back and working so FINALLY there will be some bloggn' going on here!!

Me and the 30wk belly babe! Still no stretch-y marks!!
But quite hot and bothered! And can you tell not (in addition to the wonderful acne and scarring that graces my face) I think I have rosecea or something. My cheeks are so bright red all the time!! What is going on?? Anyway, lot's to come in the little corner of our world and I will be sure to blog about it now that I have a camera!!!

2010-08-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

::We'll Be Back!::

Our amazing camping trip to CO continued! After our camera died in that lovely state we have been camera-less and have been greatly suffering!!! But not all is lost. . . we have this amazing camera (amazing except it's not digital) and it takes these great photos! What do you all think?
I suppose this picture would look better if all three of us looked somewhat decent!! Hahah!

Squirrel!!! It's so strange to see red squirrels in CO! All we have in MN are huge gray ones

My water loving baby!

Here's the mountain climbing one!!

Family.

I suppose you can't see this one but if you look closely, or click to enlarge you will see the sweetest humming bird! They were everywhere in CO this time of year!

The world is literally at his finger tips.

We travel lightly.

Amazing isn't it? I should mention hubby took this one. . . Still trying to work this 20lb camera!I love this one! I love how Finn is just so content chewing on the ergo!

Yeah hubby got this close!!!!! It's pretty dangerous to get near elk this time of year when it's rutting season!

We had such fun! I was about 5mo pregnant during this trip (and last posts pictures) but it wasn't bad at all! Now that I'm nearly 7mo pg, life's getting tougher for sure!!! SO. . . . what do you all think of the new camera??? What kind of camera are you clicking these days?

2010-08-16T04:11:00.000-07:00

::Home::

Colorado bound. . . January 2011. Beautiful isn't it?

2010-08-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

::Simplify Saturday::

Today's post is going to be about simplifying a move. Perfect right? We are moving (not too soon, but in the upcoming Winter/Spring season) and I'm a planner. A big time planner--- so much that boxing up, labeling and organizing items that we aren't currently using is happening RIGHT NOW! So yeah I thought I'd share my system... First of all the step that needs conquering first is to declutter, so every single day when going about my daily chores, I find something here, something there, just something that can be donated to someone who can actually use it. I have large boxes I pick up from our co-op and set one outside our front door a the start of the week, and by the end all of my little somethings here and there make it into the box which get's taken to our local thrift store, or recycling center. Then those same boxes I've been picking up from the co-op get brought upstairs where I am going through random pieces of things we've been collecting over the years and making then making a decision. If I deem it acceptable to keep, it goes in the box----full of like items, topped, taped and then labeled what it is, and where it will go in our new house, both of the sides and the top of the box, as well as other details such as fragile. Now with our move, my husband's company will pay for movers to come in, box, and label, and move, but since I'M the planner plus we have to stage our house, this has got to get done NOW!! So everyday until we move I will do this! And really the house looks amazing, and I've been decluttering as I go through boxes so our clutter, nic-naks and random things are being given away and the things that are truly meaningful are staying, which means our new house will be filled with cleanliness, love and peace of mind (that our house won't end up with collected junk!). And really the neat part of this is that this system should work for EVERYBODY even people who are not moving. Go through your house (esp. on Simplify Saturday. . . and post about it!) box things up, decide if it will go or stay, if it stays bring it to your storage area---- keep it there. Then after few weeks/months decide if you really need these items--- considering they've been in storage do you really need them? And don't forget they are there, so make a label and stick it on your fridge so you know you have stuff in storage, also it gives you a reminder to think about if you really need it. A great website I count on a lot that has great cleaning and decluttering/storing tips is called:

http://www.flylady.net/index.asp

Check it out an tell me what you are doing this Saturday to Simplify your life!

2010-08-10T04:01:00.000-07:00

::A Move, A Baby, One Stressed Out Mama!::

Has anyone moved cross country with two kids? How about a 4 year old a 20mo old AND a newborn? 4-6wks old to be exact! Ouy, well that's what's happening! As I'm sure your all aware (I swear I feel like I talk about it all the time!) we are moving from MN to CO possibly as early as Jan. and while we've planned this move from our little awesome city of Minneapolis to a super small unincorporated mountain town of perhaps Baily, CO, my husband's job may want him there sooner than later. There is just so much work to be done in our house to get it market ready and sold for a decent amount, that everyday we've been boxing, organizing decluttering and SIMPLIFYING (think Simplify Saturday!) and now I really need to get it into high gear because while my husband is working he is counting on me to get things ready. Every spare time my husband has he has been working on house repairs and such. We are busy and oh so exhausted! I am heading into my third tri, and I really can't believe how fast time flies!!! It's not even 6am yet and I'm up with my tea in hand, I am prepared to get as much done his morning before the littles wake up!!! Please send me relaxing vibes!! And if you've ever moved with young children please share some sanity saving tips!!! Thank you!

2010-08-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

::Grocery Shopping Continued::

Well after my last Simplify Saturday post about grocery shopping I thought I'd share how we did! As a healthful mom to 2.5 kids with a hard working, hungry husband too, who also happens to be part of a family with zero amounts of money to be spending on pre-packaged foods, I've become creative in stretching our food budget---- very creative! Here are some of our family's money saving grocery shopping and meal prep tips:

Don't be wasteful. That is a big one for us, many times the kids, don't want to eat what I've made, or don't eat it all of it, or end up throwing it off the highchairs ect. And that counts--- big time, when little sandwich bites don't get eaten or half bowls of pasta are left, that wastes money, actually quite a bit of money through out the year. We aren't parents that make the kids join the clean plate club, but we do have a few rules. You must eat half of what's offered--- always. Then if there's some left we wrap it up and put it in the fridge for later (that's if nobody wants to eat said kids helping) and next time it's snack time or meal time that is what is offered. In order to be respectful to our children we cook snacks and meals that they somewhat like or even love. Less waste = more food. Also less waste means fuller tummies which means less food being eaten.

Designated meals and snack times. Now we are not ridged about this, of course if we've been hiking, the kids need to eat more--- right away, but having meal and snack schedules means they aren't asking for snacks all day and skipping meals.
We have a notepad in the kitchen (actually my home management binder) where I jot down things I run out of. This makes it certain on grocery day we don't forget a key item.
When we grocery shop we buy the most used ingredients first and purchase large quantities to ensure we aren't shopping the next day for forgotten items
We buy lot's of root vegetables and root cellar type fruits. We do this because they keep fresher longer, making sure we get to eat fruit and veggies that aren't going bad a week into grocery shopping, also we use a lot of frozen or canned (hand canned--- not can foods).
We use the more perishable ingredients for our meals first. So if I have stuffed green peppers on our supper list, we may eat that first so our produce doesn't go bad or we forget it. This goes for dairy that is expiring soon as well.
I have a baking and cooking schedule. Every morning I bake or cook our family's snacks and meal prep in the morning after our morning chores are completed. I usually have the oldest help me and we have some unscheduled homeschooling math lessons then. I usually have to finish our baking when the littlest is napping because he wants to be involved too, but just creates too much of a mess for mama! So when the little one wakes up something has been baked and meals have been prepped for various days ahead. This saves me time and money because I'm being diligent with the meal schedule ensuring we always having something to eat and it saves us money because I'm making everything from scratch. I liken this to Amish cooking. Always cooking, baking, prepping and enjoying home-made meals together.
We make a lot of meals with inexpensive ingredients such as organic beans and organic brown rice. Both of which are dirt cheap and can be made in sooooo many ways! We don't eat meat and don't have a whole lot of dairy in our diet as well so that really cuts things down! I always say if you want to save money eat lower in the food chain!! Also the health benefits of vegetarianism is amazing!

I have a lot of more advice and tips, but as luck would have it the children are acting unruly and need some direction!!!!! I'm curious as to how you manage your family's meals and grocery shopping--- I am always looking for more ideas to perfect my system!!

2010-08-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

::Protein Mama's Omelet::

Well now that I'm well into my second trimester, it is very important for me (especially that I'm a vegetarian) to get enough protein. So as of lately I've been heavily into the eggs! I try to eat eggs everyday for breakfast as well as use lot's of them in my baking and other dishes such as frittata or baked french toast! Mmm m m m, Sounds good doesn't it! This morning I cooked an amazing breakfast, simple, and oh so hearty, plus really healthful as well. It was a hit with my littles, which mean it can't be that bad right?!! I should mention I got the idea (not the recipe) from this cute little restaurant in Frisco, CO called the butterhorn bakery (such a yummy place to be when your expecting!).

It all starts with eggs!!!!

4 eggs beaten with a 1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon good cooking oil
1 small tomato
1/2 a yellow onion
1/2 a green pepper
1/2 cup of cream cheese
Cilantro or parsley for garnishing

Beat the eggs with the water, place in warm skillet with good oil (I use safflower for the female reproductive benefits) cook until half way done. Then add all the veggies (chopped up in medium sized pieces) and cook until eggs are done and veggies are warmed. Add the dollop of cream cheese and fold in, mixing gently and being careful no to over cook.

Serve on a warm plate with whole wheat toast with butter or coconut oil, the egg dish garnished with greens on top and some freshly juiced orange and you've got an amazingly hearty, and healthy, and protein rich breakfast!

And seriously today after eating this we were full until lunch!!! Go ahead and try this super yummy breakfast and bask in your protein glory (which is also so important for women who are not only pregnant but nursing as well!!)!!!!! What's on your plate for breakfast?

2010-07-31T06:05:00.000-07:00

.::Simplify Saturday::.

Today is Saturday, which can only mean one thing! It's time to declutter, organize, and simplify our lives people! I'm am attempting to declutter a little bit everyday but on Saturdays will be my big simplifying day, I hope to document our family's process through-out the next few months before our baby arrives an certainly before we move.

Since I'm still without pictures I thought a good place to start, that is in desperate need to become organized, tidy and simplified is our grocery situation.

.::Grocery Shopping::.

Yeah we have a lot of work to do. First of we are a family of 4.5 and we spend a great deal of money on our groceries every month and I only see it going up as we grow more in family size and there is less and less time for budgeting, preparing and meal planning. But it is ever-more important now, because we will have more mouths to feed and less money to go around. Of course health is still number one and no matter how poor we become I will not sacrifice that to save a buck. Our grocery trips usually begin like this (and you may see your self here tooo, in which case you can join me in organizing your grocery situation):
~Make a quick list while children are crying and becoming increasingly needy
~Possibly jot down a few meals from the previous written list
~Grab water jugs and sometimes grab re-usable bags
~Go! Usually while hungry and thirsty and someone needs to go to the bathroom and yes we take all of our children

Yes, I'm totally serious that is how we grocery shop. If that doesn't sound bad enough you should see us when we get to the co-op. Usually husband is cranky, children are running around crazy and I'm trying to grab as much as I can from the list all while just trying to rush and get it all done before the kids totally loose it. and the funny thing is when we get home we've forgotten a few things and we head out and do that all over again the next day!! And when we finally come home we have no food! No wonder we spend huge, vast amounts of money we don't have, on food!! Clearly I need to get it together since I'm the keeper of my home and owe it to my husband and family to save money when we can, I better come up with a system, and now!
First I must say that we avoid packaged food, pre-packaged snacks and plastics as much as we can. We mostly only eat organics and for the most part most of our snacks and meals are cooked from scratch. That being said it's hard to get the cooking done when you have two needy littles plus a pregnancy, plus a horrible grocery plan in place where you forget most often used ingredients!!! So I've decided to come up with a master grocery list, typed up here on a spreadsheet. Next to items on the list I will mark down the price per pound at my local groceries, so that I know how much things cost there and when there is a sale or I'm at a different grocer I can stock on that particular sale item. Then when it's grocery day the hope is that I will take a deep look at our inventory and highlight the items we need from a printed out master list, upon returning home I will record on the spreadsheet the prices of the items per pound to make sure I am spending what is standard price for our items, I will also record the date of our trip so we can see how long it lasts us. When we come across a sale of a staple of ours we will stock up (and I will write it down), I will also file our receipts in a folder in case there is a problem and we need to return/exchange something, if I have a rain check ect. also just for reference. For the most part we shop at our local co-op but often we will shop at Rainbow foods or Cub foods for less needed pantry items. In the summer we shop at the farmer's market, but lately I've been drawn to the appeal of a big box warehouse store where I can get huge quantities of food for less. Now I know those kinds of stores are gross and non personal (we enjoy chattin' up our cheese man at the co-op!) and overwhelming, but with 3 kids and possibly more in the future I don't think my husband's salary will accommodate a $100 co-op trip every other day. I checked out Azure Standard which seems wonderful, but it will not deliver this far north (in MN) however when we get to CO we can get their deliveries.

Here is out master list in which I will create, snacks, meals, breads/tortillas, and household items in attempt to save more money and increase our health by avoiding preservatives and help the earth out by not buying packaging.

Pantry:

Flours:

Whole wheat flour
Whole wheat pastry flour
All purpose flour
Bread flour
Corn flour

Sugars:

Brown sugar
Raw unbleached cane sugar

Syrups:

Maple syrup
Honey
Agave

Leaving agents:

Baking soda
Baking powder
Yeast

Spices:

Sea salt
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Cumin
Taco seasoning
Chili powder
Pumpkin pie spice
Cinnamon
All spice

Oils:

Canola oil
Safflower oil
Olive oil

Misc:

Nuts of various kinds
Dried fruit of various kinds
Powdered milk/goats milk
Wheat germ
Popping corn
Nutritional yeast
Brown rice and jasmine rice
Pastas of various kinds
Beans of various kinds
Pudding mixes/jello mixes
Coffee beans
Tea
Herbs

Condiments and packaged items (trying to reduce/make from scratch):

Jarred pasta sauce
Salad dressing
Mayonnaise
Peanut butter
Ketchup
Mustard
Pickles
Kimchee *I make this from scratch
Sauerkraut*I make this from scratch
BBQ sauce
Salsa

That is our basic pantry (shelf stable) staples. If I am cooking something exotic or different I may need different spices or ingredients, but for the most part these are frequently used and bought items in our home. All above ingredients can be bought in bulk quantities so we can save a lot of money there, I just need to price them out at various stores so I can get the cheapest price per pound. All ingredients are mostly organic or local or preservative free.

Next are my produce staples, which also vary a bit from what's in season or not:

Onions
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Garlic
Root veggies
Kale or other dark greens
Peppers (hot or bell)
Broccoli (frozen)
Corn (frozen)
Mixed veggies (frozen)
Berries (frozen)
Grapes
Apples
Oranges
Avocados

Here are our Dairy staples:

Cream
Milk
Butter Sour cream
Cheese
Asiago cheese (shredded)
Eggs

Snack staples (again I mostly make from scratch, but these are nice to have on hand)

Tortilla chips
Pretzels

With this mastery grocery list I hope to create lovely, wholesome simple meals my family will enjoy and hopefully with much more careful planing, I can save lot's of money. In fact, today happens to be grocery day (we try to go on the 1st of every month, and my plan is to try to only go once) we plan on heading over to Cub and I will get what I can and record it in my home management binder to bring home and file and put on the spreadsheet. Wish me luck, I'm getting hungry and that's not good!!!!

What does your grocery system look like? What are some good tips?

2010-07-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

Back to the Swing of Things. . .

Well after I've been playing catch up on all the household chores and food preparation and child-rearing, I feel like I've been neglecting this 4th baby of mine (this blog!). With our camera getting fixed, and no new pictures I feel at a loss as to write! You know you have these wonderful moments that you capture of film, you can write about them and show the world exactly what you are talking about! Without pictures the words are not flowing out of me as easy (even though I ALWAYS have lot's of things to say!!). However I feel it's time to get on with it and start posting already!! I know when I look at all of my favorite blogs I wish I had time to comment more on them or even write my own stuff, but gee, some of the blogs out there are sucking up my time!!! Lately I've been enjoying more farm related blogs, as well as big family blogs like this one: http://ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com/ This one has been a real eye opener as well as a huge source of inspiration and motivation. I know a lot of you reading this will be really turned off by the uber Christian woman with 15 children living in a husband centered family unit, but actually I'm quite into most of the things she writes about, even if I don't write about them here. Anyhoo, back to my story, the above picture is a wonderful sight to see when your traveling from MN, to IA, to NE (the llloooonnngggeessttt state ever) to the majestic mountains of CO. I love that picture. . . and soon, very soon we will be there with all of our land and animals and babies! I can't wait until our dreams come true (even though for the most part, they have already). So yeah there's my daily blog post, I hope to get back into it now!! Tomorrow is Simplify Saturday, you can join myself and Aubrey at http://thisblessedlife-aubrey.blogspot.com/ and watch while we purge our lives and move towards a more simple and plain living! And do read her blogfish story, omg I've never seen anything like this!

What fun and weird and neat things have kept you from blogging?

2010-07-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hope!

We got an estimate on our camera, which is sad to say that we can't just go and buy a huge Fancy camera with a real lens!! It's funny I enjoy looking at so many inspiring and beautiful blogs and wonder "what the heck??!!! How come mine doesn't look like that??!! What gives?? How can that child have TURQUOISE eyes???!!" And then I found out that people edit them, photo shop them! Seriously?? I didn't even know you could do that! I thought that was for like models or something! Ha! I'm so naive! But it's probably true I could actually take somewhat a decent photo with a better camera. . . But in time! Anyways we did find a really nice sls cannon used camera and a REALLY good price, but in the end we just decided to repair the broken one--- I feel really happy about that because the thought of throwing away another non-working piece of electronics really makes me sad!

Sooooo. . soon I'll have some new pictures to show, unedited, unphotoshoped, crappy pictures of my adorable kids and life!

In the mean time, I stumbled upon this blog awhile back, and thought it was absolutely beautiful. I'm sure it's edited or photo shopped, but it's so inspiring, she stitches. . . stitches a lot of wonderful, whimsical, beautiful and creative things for her family. You must see this! Another creative blog to add to your list!

http://inspireco.blogspot.com/

I love reading the tales of many mothers creating and crafting away! If only time and money allowed there would be a lot more creating things around here (besides my many babies anyway!)!

2010-07-21T13:39:00.001-07:00

We're Back! With some inspiration too. . .

After a super fun filled two week adventure, we sadly had to come back to the flat lands of Minnesota :( We left this perfect humidity free crisp air of the mountains to, well, 90% humidity Minnesota, where it was only 80 or so degrees but you just pour sweat out and it feels like a million degrees. Ugh, how do people in the south deal with this? Maybe it's because I'm pregnant but when visiting Florida all of my childhood I dreamt of the day I could move there. Now I'm not sure how I could survive??!!!! Anyhoo, we had a fantastic time, except when my ol' trusty camera died. Sigh, in the end we used my husbands professional heavy duty- weighs a gazillion tons, camera (that is not digital, mainly used for panoramic stuff) soooo, we'll have to be like people in the 80's and get our film developed and put onto a disc. Hhaaha what did people do without digital cameras?? Anyways, yes we had a good time and of course once I get my pictures on my hard-drive I'll be sure to update more!

In the mean time I stumbled upon the blog a while back and bookmarked it so I could read it later. . . well I had some time recently and boy oh boy you love this blog! If you love cute little hippie kids, sustainable farming, living the simple life, and cultivating creativity, do check this one out!

http://www.earthboysblog.com/

It's a very interesting Waldorf inspired, homeschooling, farming blog, taking place on an organic farm in the Dominican Republic, this is a great read!

Until I get my pictures up and running, I'm just going to make things up, talk about random nothingness, and fluff up stories here and there! Stay tuned!

2010-07-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

:Another (Grimmmm) Update:

Well we are still enjoying the beauty and wonder here in the mountains of CO. Our trip back to MN will end next week, but sadly, my camera died. I am soooooo heartbroken! This little camera, nothing special at all and actually kinda crappy (cannon powershot) stopped working because something happed to the lens and now it won't pop out, and after much fiddling with it still remains broken. We may take it to get it looked at/fixed but $250 for the camera it may cost just as much to fix and therefor pointless when we can just buy a new one. I hate that this happened, like how can I remember all the fun we are having and seeing the kids captured in a moment in time. And the really sad thing is money is tight right now since we have the upcoming homebirth, a bigger vehicle, and a move around the corner, that we have nothing to buy a camera with. Sooo hopefully someday (and very soon!!!) we'll get a new camera or fix this one!! Anyways, at least I got some good shots from the beginning of our trip!! Pray for us!!

Thank you!

2010-07-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

::I'm Signing off for our CO Camping trip::

Well awesome bloggers out there and others who also read my blog but don't blog, I'm signing off for 2wks, for a much anticipated camping trip before we move there in the Spring. I feel so bad, all my wonderful blogs I read and comment on have been missing my comments and love!! So sorry people out there, I LOVE your blogs but have had zero commenting time and even blog reading time since we've been packing and cooking and preparing this 2wk long trip! I promise though when I get back, I'll have a lot to comment on!!!

See you all back here in soon!!!

2010-06-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

.::WIP Update::.

Like life beginning in the womb, it all starts with some woolly balls!
The first stitches in the baby cocoon!

Knitting goes everywhere with mama! Of course a car ride to the midwives is perfect!

Knitting in bed before slumber

Almost done!!! This is going to be soo cute when it's finished!! What are you all working on??

2010-06-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

.::A Fall-ish day requires baking cookies with the kids, laundry, and a refreshing rest from the nesting urge::.

It really feels like fall today in MN! It does not feel nice when it's hot and humid when your pregnant and trying to get your daily chores done in the hot sun! So today since it's cooler and I'm noticing myself becoming more tired as the day rolls on, that we'd make some snickerdoodle cookies! They smell exactly like how fall should smell, with all the cinnamon and butter sooo yummy and fun for the kids to rolls the balls in the sugar mixture! It'll be a real treat when they are cooled! I also plan on making some biscuits for dinner tonight as well as just relaxing around the house. Sometimes ya just need a day to rest and enjoy the littles and the world around them. It's a very quite day which is unusual, but we are loving every minute of it! Soon, the dishes will pile up, the garbage will start to smell and the toys well become unruly, but for now we are just embracing the simple moments love and un-responsablity.

How are you enjoying your relaxing moments?

2010-06-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

.::Simplify Saturday::.

It's Saturday, which can only mean one thing!! Simplify day!! Yay!! Actually with this super strong nesting urge coupled with our upcoming move in the spring we have been simplifying EVERYDAY! And it's also important to know that simplifying does not mean you need to get rid of everything, but includes ORGANIZATION as well. You could very well actually have A LOT of stuff but if your organizing it in a way that is simple and ordered well, then that's simplifying!! So we are doing a bit each day, one junk drawer here, one basket of kid's laundry there, the mismatched sock drawer, the paper pile on the computer, plus the things that are ready for new homes at the thrift store. I've been reading a great lately called: The Homeschooling Manual, which is a great read for homeschooling, but it was surprising and encouraging to read the many chapters devoted to de-cluttering and organizing (or simplifying!!) your home so you can devote more time to the things that need to get done (like homeschooling). The author had a very inspiring quote: "People are more important than things, but things get in the way of people if not managed properly". So it's important to manage the clutter, the things that creep inside the home, and the forgotten things that no longer serve to beautify our homes, or uplift our souls, or give us good energy.

I plan on writing in this space every Saturday to keep myself on track, but so far, my home is looking more and more orderly and simple. Just how I envisioned!

What are you doing to simplify?

2010-06-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

::Super, Super CHEAP, Healthy Snacks for kids and Mamas alike::

Okay so this is a very simple picture I realize but this glass bowl of popcorn saved my butt last afternoon when the littles badger me for snacks!!! They can be relentless, as any mama of growing BOYS can attest to, they have bottomless pits!!!! Soooo, I found some corn kernels in the pantry (which was organic, and sooo cheap at about $1.50 a pound!!) So I scooped up half a cup people!!! And that small half a cup made a HUGE bowl of popped popcorn. I then added:

:1/2 cup corn kernels(this is for the recipe)

:1 tablespoon org. raw butter

:2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (which yields a *cheesey* flavor!)

:1 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt

Toss together and eat warm!!

Also the leftover popcorn can then be made into caramel corn by adding maple syrup, a splash of raw unbleached cane sugar and then baking on high at 350 degrees. Yum and sooooo cheap and sooo easy!! I should mention that I didn't even have a popcorn maker, I just tossed the kernels in a saucepan with a lid and some oil!!!

What are some east cheap (and HEALTHY) snacks you are feeding the kids these days?

. . . And here we are in the garden! My herbs that over-winterized, sage, thyme, lavender and others, just soaking in the sun!

. . . Faerie house!

making herbal wreath crowns!

More herbs!

Exploring the ornamental grasses!

. . . Just enjoying the nice warm lazy days of summer! What are you all cooking and doing in the nice weather we are having??

2010-06-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

::WIP Wednesday::

Although I like the rainbow of colors like so many of you Waldorf mamas, I'm also a big fan of earth tones. Earth tones are soothing, natural, easy on the eye and generally very flattering-- especially on my 1st son who's skin tone is that wonderful rich olive-y tone that is so particular in eastern German decent (where is grandpa is from). But alas these wonderfully pleasing skeins of yarn are not for him--- not even for us at all (directly anyway). A wonderful and talented friend who is an amazing photographer agreed to take some pregnancy/family photos of us if I agreed to knit her some photography accessories, like a baby cocoon, which is what this yarn is destined to become!

This is beautiful Peruvian 100% Merino wool, perfect for snuggling newborns in!

. . . And it's cast!!! Since starting this project on Sunday I've only been able to pick up some stitches here and there but has since become about 4 inches long, and counting!! It's been very soothing to pick up some knitting after all this nesting and cleaning and fight-breaking-up-ing!!! I've been so exhausted and moody lately-- just trying to prepare this home birth and the stress of the two dynamic duos screaming and oh yeah not sleeping!!!! Yikes! Knitting is like rekindling with an old lover, it feels wonderful to have the wool against my hands once again!

I will post progress on this wee baby cocoon, as well as instructions (courtesy of Ralvery!) soon!

What are you all knitting?? Do share!

2010-06-21T09:36:00.001-07:00

Come Follow, Follow, Follow Me. . .

I'm revamping my blog a bit (yes again) I just need to find the right niche for my thoughts, pictures, ideas, and life story! I've been enjoying so many other's blogs I've neglected to post nothing but the basics here, when I could be SO MUCH MORE! It's hard to blog when you have 2 little children vying for your attention; one needs to be changed, one needs his butt wiped, then there's the sheer exhaustion of having to *do it all* along with being being 5mo pregnant!! I'm so happy that at least some of you are reading and enjoying my blog! Thank you all for stopping by! I hope to be more encouraging and inspiring instead of always complaining about my children or blogging about the latest camping trip (well I may still include that one!) so stay tuned for some big changes!!

The first change I made lately was that all the *Great reads* I had on my side bar are now being followed on my dashboard, I figured I find you all so inspiring (and yes I plan on adding may more blogs to that list so stay tuned, there are many great, awesome bloggers out there!) that I should damn well become a follower!! So now I am! I will enjoy reading your blogs and gaining inspiration and magic as well as energy and ideas!!!

So if you enjoy my blog please become a follower.

Thank you!

Oh and ETA: I only just discovered what following is a month or so ago and in doing so I became a follower of my own blog!!! Hhahah and now I can not "un-follow" it for the life of me!!!! How can you delete a follower?

2010-06-19T20:00:00.001-07:00

.::Simplify Saturday::.

A new beginning for our Saturday's (and my blog)! We are (we need!!!) to make this a tradition in our Waldorf home, because like many of you we just have too much stuff! Keeping up with the Waldorf tradition that less is more, coupled with the fact that we live in a very small home, it is vital to our family's energy that we don't accumulate too much clutter. Sooooo what we have been doing is getting a small produce box from the co-op every week and park it on our front door and every time we see something that isn't being used, we don't care for anymore, or something that does not add beauty, warmth and soul to our home---- it goes in the box. Then at the end of the week our last trip out of the door we put the box in the car and head out to the thrift store to drop it off on our way to store or where ever we are going! It's simple, and the system works!!!! I plan to add pictures of our clean and de-cluttered home, as well as pictures of our donation boxes. I think this could be a very good idea for us bloggers out there to keep each other on track, clear-headed, light weighted, and de-cluttered! I would love to hear from all of you the ways in which you de-clutter your home, as well as tips on how you accomplish this!!! This is also a great idea for the nesting side of myself!!! So do, please share!!!!

Let's keep it up! Simplify Saturdays!!!!! What are you simplifying??

2010-06-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

Baking, Camping,

Co-op love, Coffee Addiction, and the BEST Summer Carrot Salad Ever!!

Aren't summer's just grand?? In the hot humid summer's of MN we can reach high's of 90 degrees with 100% humidity, but we still love baking and very much depend on it. So we adapt a new daily rhythm in the summer to include our baking adventures in the mornings when it's a bit cooler, then by lunch time we have fresh baked bread, cornbread muffins, cookies, or bars to enjoy. Dakota is my resident stirer, he loves baking, it's very important to his Psyche.
Here is our set up we usually have pots, pans, mixing bowls, utensils, measuring cups and random toys on the counter plus a whole bunch of flour all over the floor trailing into the living room. Sigh, it's just life of baking with children!

And here is little D feeling the long grass in his little hands. This is why we get out and be in nature, it's important to look, feel, touch, smell, taste all of what nature has to offer. Soon I think I will create a post about camping with little ones. It can be very hard, and challenging, but can be so much fun and rewarding for the entire family. We started going camping when we first met in high school, and took Dakota out on his first (tent) camping trip at 3mo old. And quite literally we (tent) camp all over the country about 4 times a year, plus short, mini camping trips around MN. More on this later.

Ahhhh, coffee. I love coffee, I really do. I love the taste, the warmth of the mug between my hands, the smell. . . . mmmmmm. . . . Ya know I'm not even supposed to drink this stuff now that I'm with child again, but I just cut back to one mug or even half a mug, if I want a more gentle caffeine jolt, I'll drink some green tea with raspberries and agave, but it's just not the same as a warm, rich, dark mug of joe! When we were up north camping you can see how excited I was when I stumbled upon this sweet little coffee shop. We stopped in and warmed up, it was a nice break from the cold rain. Where is your favorite coffee joint?

And of course like I always say when I go camping to new places, it's jut not camping until you check out their local co-op!! This one was small and simple and carried a great bulk section--- so much to choose from! What's better a co-op or farmer's market?

And now the CARROT RECIPE!!! I stumbled upon this seriously simple, yet fantastically delicious recipe in my Amish cookbook. Cut the carrots in small pennies, boil or steam on low until tender. . .

Add a pat of butter or ghee, a smidge of sea salt, and fresh rosemary or thyme from your garden. Mix well then refrigerate until chilled.

A cool carrot salad like this one is yummy, satisfying and easy on these hot, humid days!

My flower child! Finn loves finding flowers and smelling them and then throwing them on the ground!

And here's the baby belly or I should say the baby, and the baby in the belly!

So after camping and cooking and co-op hoping and coffee shop stopping and flower picking and carrot salad making I'm pooped!!

What is keeping you busy these days?

p.s. I'm adding some color to my blog--- ya like?

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Trailer)

2010-06-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

What do you all think about this???. . . .

2010-06-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

. . . Lazy Days of Mothering. . .

Sometimes when the littles are acting fussy, and your tired and in need of an energy boost (or a recuperative hour or so) it's best (if the weather is nice) to just pack the kids up in their outdoor gear, sunscreen, hats, toys, and a snack and just head outside. This past week was perfect for that!! I slipped on my Keen Maryjane's, and grabbed the whiners and demanded *we go outside!!!!! NOW!!!*!!!
Whilst, I pushed the kids out the door, I grabbed my wet basket of laundry waiting at the door and headed outside for some much needed vitamin D. Hung the clothes out while little Finn very much acted like a 2-year old playing at the water table, not letting a soul touch his precious water toys!

After corralling him and showing him that *sharing is caring* (right people??!!) he was content and playing nicely with brother. Dakota wouldn't let me snap any pictures (or good ones that is) he was just *too busy* he proclaimed! How old is he now?? 15???!!!

I sat down in my comfy camping chair (that has a foot rest!!!! Yay!) and sipped some more RRL tea and read my "Herbal Healing for Women" book, which is a fantastic book on healing all common and annoying complaints women have, she has a great section on pregnancy that I've been devouring and hope to post about my *simple syrups*, *medicinal teas*, and *healing salves* I've been brewing in my kitchen, soon, very soon!!

And of course enjoying a great iron-rich, summer salad consisting of:

~Beet tops

~Kale

~Mixed greens

~Micro-greens

~Arugula

~Cukes

~Tomatoes

~Nuts and seeds

~EVOO

~Lemon

~Brewer's yeast

I'm starting to feel much better now, that I am including lot's of iron-rich food sources, taking my pre-natal vit's better and adding Floradix.

. . . SSSOOOOO pending the weather is nice where you live, get outside and do some *lazy mothering*!!

. . . And blog about it! And send me a link!!!

2010-06-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

::Pregnant or Nursing Mamas Irons-Plus Quinoa Salad::

Doesn't that title just do it for you? Or the yummy picture above of the finished iron-rich summer salad? I created this recipe because as a vegetarian, sometimes vegan, mama-to-be again (back to back pregnancies are not good for you despite what other's may say or think) really depletes you of iron.

The purpose of iron in the body is to carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, without this essential mineral the bodies cells cannot function properly. Iron deficiency is the single most prevalent deficiency state worldwide. That amazes me. Especially because we live in such a country where food is so plentiful (which is also why I don't get how we can have children and families go hungry--- so sad, different subject). It is also very common to have iron deficient children. Sooooo, lately I've been feeling fatigued, lethargic, my heart has been racing, just run down, so my first thought was *duh, iron!!!!* so I raced to the store and bought everything that I could think of to raise my hemo levels. . . . And I came up with this super yummy, super high in iron and protein quinoa salad. I think it best suits mamas to be and nursing mamas, as well as littles since they can have low iron as well.

. . . And it was hit!!! My littlest loved it and wanted more!!! That's after he has eaten most of it and smeared the rest all over his high chair and on the floor, and of course I promptly stepped in it, and was thoroughly disgusted!!

. . . My oldest enjoyed it as well, but more so the *pearls* less the wilted spinach and kale. I will just have to make those spinach brownies soon!!

Sooooooo FIRST it all starts with a little water and some whole grain quinoa pearls.

Pour 1.2 cups water into medium sized sauce pan,

Add 2 cups whole grain quinoa pearls, bring to boil, over and let cook until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender.

. . . Boiling. . . boiling. . . boiling!

And now the veggies!!!!!! Chop about 1-2 cups each:
*Kale
*Cucumber
*Spinach
*Red pepper
*Red onion
*Beet tops
*Several cloves of garlic (as much as you can stand!!)

Mix chopped veggies with 1/4 cup good olive oil, and 1 whole lemon squeezed, gently incorporate quinoa into veggies and oil/lemon mixture, and let the spinach and kale wilt a bit by covering bowl with towel. After a few minutes add high mineral sea salt, pepper, braggs, and nutritional yeast (you could also add seaweed to this dish, just thought of that, it's very high in iron. . . next time!) Put bowl in fridge to cool.

Serve chilled with red raspberry leaf tea and agave. Enjoy!

This salad is quite good, and very much full of iron and protein, both of which are needed greatly by women of childbearing years, especially ones who are with child and ones nursing a child. I have no doubt that because of my vegetarianism, my back to back pregnancies and constant nursing, I'm greatly depleted. Sooooo foods and food stuffs that increase your iron levels are as follows:

:Beets

:Kale/Spinach/Beet tops/Carrot tops/other DARK leafy greens

:Red meat

:Yellow dock root

:Nettles

:Red raspberry leaves

:Nutritional yeast

:Seaweed such as dulse, or kelp

Also include some vit. c while eating your iron to increase absorption.

So come on get your iron on people!!! Also if anyone has anything to add to the iron topic please leave me a comment and if you have some awesome iron containing recipes leave em' there too!

2010-06-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

~Home Birth Mama's Check in!!!!!!~

. . . So we are planing our 1st home birth (so hard to believe considering who I am!!!) we planned an unassisted hb with our 2nd but for reasons we transferred (which ended up a wonderful, peaceful, low profile, water birth at the local hospital believe it or not!). This one with it being my 3rd baby (and 4th pg in 4 years) we believe this will be best for our family. So I guess I'm just looking for advice? We've (almost) hired a perfect m/w, that we love, still need to email her, so I think I'm just looking for awesome birth stories!!!! Did you have hb? Was it perfect and beautiful and better than a hospital birth? What was so helpful? What is something you'd suggest learning about or something you'd like to tell other homebirthers? Things I'm interested in learning and/or doing with this birth are:

~Renting a birth pool

~Having hubby catch baby, bring up to my chest

~Delay cutting the cord (although I heard this can increase your chances of having a baby with jaundice? Any truth to this?)

~Breastfeeding RIGHT AWAY

~Eating my placenta (has anyone had the balls to actually do this? I'm thinking of taking a small bite and throwing it down the hatch, then dehydrating the rest in my dehydrator and encapsulating it for the pp year)

~Really, really getting into herbs. I always take the basics but I want to expand my knowledge base and include more helpful things, before and after

~Learn homeopathy for birth/after birth

~ Figuring out how to deal better with the vomiting I experience during labor (ouy, if ANYONE has an idea how to keep things down when your in labor PLEASE tell me!!)

~Figuring out how to deal with my extreme shakes I get after delivery. I seriously shake and sort of go into a mild shock after birth, how can I deal with this?

~What can hubby do for himself, with my 2nd birth after delivery, he, um, fainted. He says he was so tired (I know poor guy right??!!) and hungry and had been at work all day--- it was a long day for the poor man. But seriously what should he be doing?

~Oh there's more, just can't think!!

. . . But I assume since I had two completely natural, dreamy births being at home will be such a perfect blessing for all involved.

I am open to all comments, and suggestions and birth stories, I need to feel my circle of women giving me heartfelt wisdom. I need honesty. I need to get my shit together as this baby is coming sooooooo soon!!!!

Thanks all for reading my post, I really need to jot my notes down and get things together!!

If you felt like emailing me a more personal story, please do so at: naturalmama77@hotmail.com

2010-06-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Water Babies!!

Yup, my kids like the beach! Playing by the shore. . .
Throwing sand. . .

Being held close. . .

Fighting over tractors. . .

Looking at mama's belly and say *it's getting so huge, mama sooo HUGE!* Thanks, beach lovin' Dakota!

Make sure your getting your vitamin D people, and head out to the beach!!!

2010-05-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

. . Simple Whole Wheat Toddler Bread Sticks. .

I feel inclined to share our recent baking adventure, that turned our simply wonderful! I was in search of a quick, easy recipe for something my wee ones could snack on, something w/o a lot of ingredients and something that would be easy for them to help me with. So I pulled out my one of my favorite recipe books for children title: Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook by Lizzy Vann. It's a great little book and as you can see, it really is for eaters of all ages! So here's the yummy recipe:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp dry active yeast
1tsp sugar
2/3 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp salt

That's it baby! Then you mix the four and all other ingredients in a big mixing bowl (no need for mixing and measuring ingredients in different bowls at different times, it all goes in one! This recipe is totally for busy mamas like me!!!!).
. . . so then mix and knead the dough until it is soft and pulls away from the bowl (like above picture). Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead another 2 minutes or so, then place back in mixing bowl covered with damp towel.
. . . Let rise till' doubled, heat oven to 375, grab plum sized pieces of dough, roll to small, long, thin bread sticks and place on greased cookie sheet. Add garlic powder and sea salt to the top of each stick (see below)
. . . And bake for 15 minutes! That's it mamas!!! This little recipe makes 30 sticks!!! And you can customize them how ever you like to eat em'! You could add 1/2 cup raw organic sugar, raisins and other dry fruit and you've got sweet sticks, you could keep em plain, and serve em' with cut pieces of cheese, the possibilities are endless on this one, AND it can use up left over ingredients, or when you only flour, sugar, water and yeast in the house (as I often do!) and need to make something for the kids to eat asap!!! This works! So try it and let me know how they turn out!!!

. . .And here they are once again. . . and really 30 bread sticks were gone in less then a day! Sigh! The baking adventures will continue on!

Happy baking mothers to littles!!!

2010-05-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

.::Children of Nature::.

"All of nature begins to whisper it's secrets to us through it's sounds. Sounds that were previously incomprehensible to our soul, now become the meaningful language of nature"

~Rudolf Steiner

Our family is an *out doorsy* family. We spend the Winter months skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, hiking, building snow forts, and simply walking in the gentle snow fall, that frequents MN Winters. In the Spring we spend our days going for walks in the neighborhoods, admiring what is sprouting up, or at coffee shop and co-op patios, or sitting in chairs in the backyard listening to the Spring birds that have returned from Winter. In the Summer, we enjoy hiking, backpacking, camping, road trips, BBQ's, backyard parties, Summer evenings, coffee and fresh fruit in the mornings, playing outside in the backyard all day, laying in the sun, going to the beach, visiting new trails, gardening, going to the swimming hole, letting the cats out to roam, I could go on and on!

In the Autumn, we wind down, pace ourselves, taking cool evening strolls and look at the houses lit up and the family making supper, watching the leaves fall, seeing the beauty in the slow death of the previous season, we still camp getting the last trip of the year out of the way, we cook a lot of season food, potatoes from the farmers market, decorated with onions, leeks, tomatoes, served with any fruit I may have saved from early Spring and Summer, we enjoy collecting acorn caps for Winter dolls to be made, leaves for future leaf crowns, and enjoying the crisp feeling of the wind before it's cold once again and we are forced to limit our times outdoors to days about 15 only.

Then the whole wonderful process starts again. I'm thankful that my children experience nature on a daily basis, explore and beg for more time outside. Here are some recent outside pictures from the last few months, always outside, always loving it!

1st camping trip of the season Finn waits for food, we went when it was still in the 30's in April. It was a blast!
A visit to the rocky beach of Lake Superior. The boys enjoyed splashing around, and finding beach treasures!
Brave Finn climbing rocks, he likes to find the absolute hardest way to get around and practice his climbing skills! He has no fear, I love it.

Warming wee, and big hands against a fire.

Mama and baby + baby belly going for a hike.

Wildflowers catch our eyes on uncharted paths.

Tree tag!

My little hiker boy, with his backpack and walking stick--- he wants to be like the rest of us!

No Summer is complete with out sandbox play!Warm weather hugs!

Leading the way. . .

Stopping to smell these yummy lilacs!

And of course the cat wants out! He enjoys lounging in our flower beds!

We are always busy and we are always outside enjoying the seasons, loving each one differently and amazed at how fast time flies by. Our kids are out being in nature all day long. I am fortunate enough that we home school, to allow this very type of learning. It would depress me to no end if I had my little boys inside and at a desk for 8 hours a day, with out sunlight and nature hitting them in the faces, touching them on the arms and embracing their little souls. To me school is like a form of abuse, why deny the wonderful accept that nature have to teach our children? Why live in a world so disconnected from the seasons? Why *prepare* our children for the future, by making them consumers who need to drive themselves to make more and more money, fueling this belief by making them *smart* at a young age with all of the *baby Einsteins* and such, then early preschool, then music and art and sports lessons, then school, then college ect. I don't buy into that so to speak, I let our children learn from nature.

"What is necessary to keep providing good care to nature has completely fallen into ignorance during the materialism era"

~Rudolf Steiner~

2010-05-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

.::Busy as Bees we are::.

1st camping trip of the season. . . Dakota warms up by the fire (we went when it was still in the 30's at night!!!).

Yup, this is what we woke up to!

Making the fire, will it work with it raining so hard?

Yup.

Finn, on the road again!

~~~Pre- Summer updates~~~

Oh man, where have the days gone? You know the drill, the weather's fantastic, the kiddos are itching for some outside time, and you get all cozy in a camping chair parked in the backyard next to a stack of good books, some knitting and fruit, the kids playing nicely in the sandbox and at your feet. Yup it feels like Summer here in MN and with such a short season and such a COLD Winter, I have literally been outside for most of our days. So much that it is not uncommon for us to eat our breakfasts, lunches and suppers outside!! My kids and my baby belly are loving, LOVING being outside! Now that there are Farmer's Markets open, swimming pools open, trails to be explored, gardens that need planting and coffee shop patios to be sat upon I have had zero computer time lately---- hope that's okay?!

Sooooo.... lot's of catching up to do! Let's start off by reading about poor Finn's dislocated elbow. . . Sigh, big brother pulled his hand (he had a toy in it) and popped out his elbow out, then we spent 5 hours at Children's ER. It was fun! Then my poor weeble wobble fell smack dab on his face and chipped his tooth! We then took him to the dentist which was more than pleasant if you can imagine, they so weren't buying into our homemade toothpaste no fluoride regimen! So listening to them with a grain of salt we left, only to be billed a $160 days later----- perfect timing when we are saving EVERY PENNY we have for our up coming $3000 homebirth. Pray that money comes to us somehow! So after a dislocated elbow, a chipped tooth, rainy weather and a great feeling of overwhelming-ness we decided it was the perfect time for a spur of the moment camping trip! So we headed up north to enjoy the bluff, the river, and good campfire food!

There was also plenty of fresh Summer food to be juiced these past few weeks!

Carrot, apple, orange juice, sooo good!My absolute favorite Summer time drink: 1/2 green melon, 1 whole lemon, 1 cucumber. This drink is so refreshing, back in my non-natural days I used to use *Cucumber Melon* spray from Bath and Body works, and this drink tastes like the smell of sprays and lotions, only better!!!

Sure feels like Summer! Smoothies, camping, sun, outside play, running through fields of dandy-lions!!! Hope you all enjoy the wonderful weather!

2010-05-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!!

Shouldn't EVERYDAY be mother's day?? I wish!!! We'll today I was definitely recognized and appreciated by my family, it was great! First hubby let me sleep in!!!!! That seriously was the best present ever (am I right mamas??!!) then he cleaned the house (okay does my husband NOT rock??!)!! Then he took the kids and I out for breakfast and gave me the sweetest card ever!!! Then he wrote this. Isn't he the greatest???

What did you do for Mother's day?

2010-05-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

.::Fun Places::.

I've recently discovered a few new Internet treasures that are really pulling my energy away from my own blog (hehe) I thought if you enjoy my blog, here are some similar blogs, websites and stores!

The first is this totally awesome, natural, adorable, informative and fun little blog titled: Crooked Moon Mama !!! It's a great blog, such a cute little, herb loving, Waldorf family, I am totally inspired! Definitely check this girl out!!!!

::Another little magical gem of a place is called: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ruralmamma Okay isn't that the most adorably unique and funky yet totally handmade in the Waldorf tradition dolls you've ever seen? Man her stuff is soooo uber cute folks!! I mean Waldorf dolls with colored dreads?? Totally awesome!! If only my boys wouldn't throw the dolls I made them, on the floor. . . sigh. So yeah do check out this crafty mama, she has rockin' talent for sure!

::The coolest place for GREAT and I mean absolutely, wonderfully, fabulous RAW food!!! Here.The pictures of the finished products are beautiful! This website has recipes, pictures, tips, places to buy raw foodstuffs and accessories, it's just the total one stop raw shop for sure! You see I have a leaning towards the raw food movement more than anything else. Sure I'm a vegetarian, mostly vegan mama, but I do like raw food and food closest to it's natural form, and I love experimenting with colors, textures, flavors and spices! Now that I'm not sick as a dog anymore, I plan to un-cook a lot of new fun, yummy things! Check my blog for my progress and inspiration!

Man, there are more time suckers out there that I'd love to share with you all, but alas, babies need attention, and believe it or not it's quarter to six and I am soooo ready for bed!!!!

What are some neat places you visit on the Internet? Care to share them?

2010-04-30T04:21:00.000-07:00

*Cheezy* Kale Chips!

Okay yum!!!! If your a fan of kale and the raw food movement-- or you just care about easy to make healthy veggie snacks even YOUR kids will enjoy, then this recipe is for you!!

First get your hands on some good looking kale.

::Tear your kale into *bite sized chip pieces* don't use the hard stems in the middle

::Put them into a big mixing bowl

::In a separate bowl add 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (also called brewers yeast)
::Add two tablespoons good (make that the best you have on hand) olive oil

::Two tablespoons Braggs Amino Acids (or more if you like them really salty, less if you don't)

::Juice of a whole lemon

::Mix it all together and add the kale from the other bowl

::Massage it into each leaf and let marinate for at least 15 minutes

Beautiful bowl of yummy greens and *cheeze* sauce!

If you have a food dehydrator (and I highly highly recommend them!) place them on the sheets at 117 degrees for 4 hours.

If not put them on a baking sheet an bake them at the lowest setting possible, for about 2 hours.

Take em' out and enjoy!! They turned out really yummy!!!! And it's kale season!!

Here to some season's eating's!!

2010-04-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

.::Organic, Whole Wheat, Cinniamon Rasin Bagels::.

Happy baker boy! He is my major mixin' helper!

So here are the ingredants:

:Two tablespoons dry active yeast

:2c. warm potatoe water

:4 eggs beaten

:1 tsp salt (we used himalayan pink)

:2 tablespoons honey (could also use blue agave)

:1/4 cup oil (we used coconut)

:8 cups whole wheat flour

:2 egg yolks

:2 tablespoons water

Makes 32 bagels, enough for snacking and freezing!! They freeze well and are perfect for hectic mornings!!

:Disolve yeast in warm potato water (this is a perfect thing to make in the moring, you can make breakfast potatoes with the bagels and you can use the whites from the yolks to make a veggie scramble as well--- waste not!)

:Add the eggs, honey and 3 cups flour to the yeast water, mix very well. Add the rest of the flour to make a stiff dough. (see mixing boy above!!)

:Let rise till' doubled and then punch down, knead another minute, roll the dough and divide into rectangle pieces. See picture below. . .

Even the littlest one gets involved!

:Then roll each piece into a 6" rope, moisten ends and seal to make a ring.
:Let rise another 15 minutes. See picture below

:Then drop them into boiling water for 3 minutes, flip and put into a hot oven at 350* degrees and don't forget to wash them witht he egg yolk and water mixute!!

Yum!!

And for variations you can add cinniamon, raisons, onions, rye, or any other fancy you crave, just add em' into the dough!

.::More Baking, Less Packaging!::.

So my baking adventures continue! Really I'm quite surprised that with all of my morning sickness and drop dead fatigue I can even get off the couch let alone bake--- but alas I have kids to feed, a husband to feed, and of course myself and this growing baby bean to feed (there is no rest for the weary right?!). Plus they earth does NOT need anymore plastic wrap, or un-recyclable products taking up space an polluting our place to live! Sooooo trying to live up to (sometimes ridiculously high) standards I am cooking from scratch. Like serious scratch cookin'!!! Here is a small list of our common store bought items that I am now baking and cookn' with my own two hands!!

::Crackers

::Bread

::Bagels

::Chips

::Granola bars

::Muffins

::Cookies

::Biscuits

::Pretzels

::Hummus

::Dips

::Nut butters

::Fermented stuff

::And of course our yearly canned goods

. . . Now everything on the above list is made from items found in the BULK section at our local co-op and created with whole food ingredients and ingredients that are low in the gylcemic index and often just left raw.

We also use our re-usable hand-made bulk bags, so these recipes and foodstuffs I create are virtually free from any kind of packaging whatsoever. I recently read in one of my fav blogs (farmama) that she has NO garbage service AT ALL, now that's admirable!! We do however, have a garbage service BUT our can is one of the smallest they make, we usually fill it up every two weeks, so for a growing family of four and a half I think that's good--- but lot's of room for improvements!!

Things I'd like to learn to make from scratch or improve on are:

::Bread!! I can't seem to find a decent enough recipe that is ALL wholegrain yet tastes somewhat edible! Most of our breads are consumed with heaps of coconut oil and cashew butter, or toasted with honey.

::I want to improve on our raw cookies! They either taste too sweet, too coconutty, or grainy.

::I want to make our own dish soap AND learn how to make a liquid variety

::I want to make our own bar soap

::I want to make our own liquid shampoo and conditioner (and herbal variety of course!)

::I want to make our own laundry soap that's cloth diaper friendly

::I want to make nipple butter, diaper rash cream and belly balm (also herbal of course!)

::I want to make our own toothpaste and deoderant

::I want to make our own kefer, yogurt and maybe cheese (though we are mostly vegans, it sometimes varies)

. . . Oh I could go on and on about all the stuff I want to make. Basically if you can buy it I want to make it! The only thing that sets me back is time, obviously, that's why people by things! But I dream of time when my children go to a store and think "Oh my gosh you can BUY that?" !! In homeschooling our children one of our key points is to teach them self-sufficiency, and survivalist skills, we think most people lack general knowledge on how things work or how things are made and we believe that these skills will be vary valuable in the near future, with all of the climate change, food and water shortages and war (as sad and grim as that sounds).

Soooo, hope you all have an enjoyable baking and cooking experience and let this blog post inspire you to take the "no packaging pledge"!!!

2010-04-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

.::Spring Time Adventures!::.

Nice (Plastic--tisk, tisk Waldorf mama!) water table play!! I haven't yet thought of a non-plastic alternative yet. . . If anyone has any ideas, send em' my way!!
More dipes blowing in the wind! It can be fun and cute to be friendly to the Earth!

A nice Spring walk, observing nature, being outdoors, getting our vit. D, it's wonderful to be out! And if you click this picture and look at yours truely up close, you'll see this is one fabulous picture of me!! Hahah actually it's pretty horrible, but you can see that I'm only smokin' hot half of the time (actually non of the time, but hubby thiks I am ;) ! )

Brother hugs! Can you tell baby brother doesn't want hug?!! Lot's of inside breaks for snacks and story times!

A nice Spring fever kiss!

Happy Spring days everyone!

2010-04-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

.::This Week's Update::.

On a beautiful drive to the river, we enjoyed a nice family hike among the bluffs. It was perfect out, and Dakota is really becoming an avid hiker, who is actually good at it!! He packs his little Thomas the Train back pack, he ties the straps together and puts his fire dog in at as his *baby in the carrier*!!! He makes sure we take plenty of breaks and always shows us wonderful things we aren't looking at. It has become very enjoyable since we moved past the *up-y, up-y, daddy* stage! Baby stays secure in the ergo with daddy and I'm the pack mule mama with all the stuff!! Hiking with children can be very challenging, but if you don't give up it can be a very rich experience for them an as a family unit. Here are some bluffs we hiked on:::

With many breaks the kids get to dig in he dirt and explore nature, it was a great day!
Happy hikers!

And while we were enjoying the sun, so was our diapers!!!

We were following our leader, Dakota is an amazing navigator, he def. has daddy's sense of direction!!

And while were gone, exercising, the micro-greens and arugula we planted, continued to grow, so we can be nourished!

The reason for our hike was to get out and get away from house projects that have been taking over our lives!!!! Sine we are putting our home on the market next Winter, we have GOT to finish our updates. One such update was to replace ugly cheap linoleum with really nice, organic, slate slabs.
Plus we have a little helper daddy in training so as you can imagine all house projects take twice as long!

You can see all the nice rock variations in this photo.

And I am so excited to get out and away from baking!! Some days I can spend literally all day in the kitchen, mixing, kneading, pouring shaping, watching rise, punching down ect. ect. All while I have my little helper boy wanting to DO EVERYTHING so yeah quite literally our baking can last all day. Here my little baker in training is helping me knead bread.

But wee got out and enjoyed each other and the day together as a family and we were all refreshed and re-energized! Baby F was a tiny bit tired so he's hiding in our next family shot.

Stopping to smell the flowers!!

Peaceful wanderings!

I love this photo. I don't know why but I think it's cute to see a little baby hand reaching up to the sky!

More smelling, more wandering! What a fun day!!

Hope you all get in some good quality family time this Spring!!

2010-04-22T05:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day!!!

2010-04-21T15:29:00.001-07:00

Love your Mother (Earth)

On the eve of this Earth Day, what are YOU doing to support our planet? It's funny, I've had this little Earth Day thingy on the left for awhile now, and I look at it but I don't think much of it, when I'm not staring at my screen. Sigh, but then I have to realize all the wonderful, green, environmentally conscience things our family does everyday. We've been this way for so long I don't even consider it being *green* it's just our every day life. And that is good. Things big and small that we've done over the years are as follows:::

*If it's yellow, let it mellow! Haha we try not to flush our pee, like we if only peed all day we'd leave it till' the morn if need be. Gross, but kind of funny, and it saves soooo much water---- 5 gallons per flush to be exact. With a preggers wife, a husband who drinks a lot, and potty trainers, it saves big on water AND our wallets!! Occasionally we'll leave a baby poop from a cloth diaper if I forget ;) Not often though!

*Family cloth. Please, please consider this. Deforestation is a real issue, and yes, Charmin cuts down millions of trees so Americans can wipe their asses with it. Seriously think about the statement you make to our planet.

*Hang dry. Hanging your clothes out to dry on the line is so rewarding. It can cost nearly .40 per load to run the damn thing, and the energy it consumes is sick. Please consider line drying out in this newly warm and wonderful weather!

*Cloth diaper!! A cotton butt is a happy butt! Our babies LOVE their clothies!!! It's cheap too, once you get your stash going, not paying the $25 a week in diapers is stress relieving!!

*Cloth pads!!! A cotton crotch is a happy crotch!!! Seriously, I actually love getting my period!! I have cute colors and designs to wear, they are comfy, I don't have to buy yucky toxic pads that cause cancer in my special lady areas! Plus if your really useful and brave like I am you can soak a used pad in water, use the blood saturated water to water the plants and garden!!------ okay that is a little gross, but our ancestors worshipped women for their power to bleed and women in the tribes were scared around their periods---- it meant they'd have a better harvest!!! I like my husband worshiping my fertility and ability to grow our food from the earth nourished by my monthly menstrual cycle! Only if hubby could stop getting me pregnant!!!

*No packaged foods/anything!!! This is new, but we are home cooking everything!! It's been hard, but fun and rewarding! Start small and bake some cookies every once in a while! I know my husband really appreciates my home baked bread and cookies waiting for him when he gets home!! And the kids?? They LOVE me!

*Volunteer! For Earth Day week as a family we decided to volunteer with the Friends of the Mississippi River Gorge Project, where they protect and preserve the Mississippi river as drinking water for MN residents. We are going to work with them in getting rid of exotic non-native species of water plants. Plus we get free Peace coffee in the morning and Parkway Pizza (both local companies) for lunch! This is a great family project for us to get involved with, Dakota especially likes anything to do with protecting our planet. On family walks after dinner, he often says "hey this garbage can't be in the street, it's not good for the urf" and he proudly carries it back all the way to our house! Volunteering is a great way to get involved with the community. Especially if your a stay at home mama like me---- just getting out and being with people is invaluable to me as a mama of littles. So go find a place your passionate about at volunteer!

*We make cloth baby wipes, napkins, rags, we use hankies instead of kleenex, getting rid of the disposable everyday items that kill trees and end up in the garbage!

*We visit Farmer's markets, use CSA's, try to eat locally, cook from scratch, eat an organic diet, are mostly vegetarians and almost vegans, have connections to our foodstuffs.

*Turn off appliances, electronics and *ghost* energy suckers! Unplug people!!! Radios, lamps, computers, video game systems, toasters, cell phone chargers, ect. They suck energy when not being "used", waste your precious dollars, and can be fire hazards!!! So unplug away baby!

*Look into alternative energy. Solar panels, wind turbines, hydrogen (which is a bit good and bad, and I'm not 100% on board with this one because water is a precious resource, but it's still better than dirty energy such as coal) All of those things are damn expensive to install, BUT you can put all the little extra money you save by not using the dryer, unplugging appliances, and cooking from scratch, into an "alternative energy fund" plus with all the new tax credits, in time this will become very affordable, or more affordable I should say. Look into this.

*Get a composting toilet!! Yay, I said it, and no it's not like a "biffy" it's actually quite clean and order free. You can make one yourself by rigging up a box, seat and obtaining woodchips or you can order a professional one for about $2000. It's not cheap BUT you will save between 4 and 6 gallons of water a flush. Say you flush 50-100 times a day x 6 gallons a flush---- well you get the idea you will SAVE A TON of money on your water bill and the toilet quickly pays for it's self.

*Utilize "gray water", rig up a hose from your washer, so when your not washing super dirties like cloth dipes, you can re-use the wash water several times for laundry. Also if you make your own detergent using baking soda you can rig it up to your garden, with the soda and water your plants get a nice treat without using additional water. This is what people did when your grandma was a young mom, water was important to them. Research this.

*Read inspiring blogs (like mine heheh), talk to like-minded people, seek community, and support one another as we are all on different Earth honoring journeys.

*Start small.

*Research. Research. Research. Ask questions, question everything. Know where your food comes from, who makes your clothes, how much gas your car gets a mile, how much energy your house uses, how to make things from scratch, how to do with out, question what you grew up believing, how your beliefs have changed, where you see the future going, think about your kids, your kids, kids, their kids, think of animals, of water, of air, of God. Think, think, think!

Oh there is so much more to write, to elaborate on, to explain, so many links to share, books reviews to post ect. ect. BUT like you I'm one little mama, trying to do her part, who is very tired!! My pregnant body, my two unsleepers, my messy house all need me, and now I have to leave!!!

But please read this, think about, comment on this, include ideas, links, share this with others, spread the word!

And LOVE you Mother (Earth)!!!

~Samantha + family

2010-04-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

New baby, new blog!

My dorky, silly, sexy, husband has made a blog of his own!! He is so gosh darn funny, his blog he says is about "manly things" in his own words!! I found it a little, um, well something only he'd write!!! It's cute, you should take a look, give him some comment love and tell him it's awesome!!! Heheh. . .
http://neverendingjob.wordpress.com/

2010-04-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

Of Crackers and Baking!

So as a family we decided that there is just WAY TOO MUCH PACKAGING on everything!!! It's driving us all crazy!! So collectively we are now baking EVERYTHING! Including home-made crackers! And boy mmmmmmmmm are they good!!!!! It all starts with simple organic ingredients; flour water, butter and an egg. Simple, fresh and bought all in bulk so NO packaging at all!!!! Yay us!!!

Then you mix it well, roll it out thin baby!!

Then pick out some cute suitable cutters, I actually found a square cracker cutter!!!

Here they are all cut out!

Don't forget to use the fork for holes! With all the yummy butter, this cracker becomes quite flaky, so you need the air to escape----- unless your making biscuits!

Waiting their fate!!

All done and sitting next to the bread I made earlier---- this was a finger-licking day for sure!!!

And now stored in re-usable glass jars that we re-purposed from other goods---- always reuse!!!!

Dakota said he wanted me to show you all a picture of him helping!! And by helping I mean making a total mess of the kitchen!!!! But with our homeschooling we've been learning about measurement and estimation, so it wasn't a total loss!

Happy well fed child!

Satisfied housewife!

When hubby came home to the warm baked bread, and crackers waiting he was as happy as the kids were!! I will definitely be trying to do this several times a week!

Happy baking!!!

2010-04-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

..:: A Plea to Mother's of Many!::..

Yikes, I *only* have two children. Two boisterous, loud, energetic, destructive, high need boys! And I'm adding *another* baby to the mix! Some days between the vomiting, the knock-me-down exhaustion, the chaos, the mess, the loudness of the day, I'm totally overwhelmed and feeling very defeated. On top of all this craziness I decided to honor Earth day by not using our dryer (so yes hanging up cloth diapers once a day + other types of various laundry items is really exhausting) plus we are planing a cross country homesteading move (right about the time this baby is born!) plus I'm trying to homeschool the older, chase and contain the little one, keep the mess down, make our meals (which consist of making our own bread and crackers/snacks) I'm very tired to say the least. And then when I think about adding our next little one in Nov. I feel totally scared out of my mind, like how in the world is this going to work out? I know it will, with the grace of God and my uber supportive, attentive, wonderful, loving husband, who dotes on his lovely pregnant wife (and when I say lovely I mean super crabby sweat pants wearing hot chick!)

So to put into perspective, just a random daily occurrence--- messiness and chaos::::

Hubby and I adore naked babes and so do our babes, so often our whole family is naked! So when F wakes up in the morning, a lot of the time he is enjoying his naked-ness as he plays, well one day after hubby leaves for work, he poops. He poops. A. LOT. Like an amazingly huge amount of poop for his tiny body. ALL. OVER. THE. RUG. Ground it in and all. So I bathe his poopy body, diaper and clothe him, run to the rug, scoop up all the poop, wipe the poop down, and sprinkle baking soda and vinegar to the rug and let it sit. All is going well, until I notice the older awfully quiet. I go into the living room, to find him playing with his cars and trucks in the big mound of poop, baking soda and vinegar. He's pretending it's a big sand pile at a construction site. Sigh. Double, triple sigh. So I wash his hands, his cars, his trucks, the rug some more, and roll it up and pretend this whole day (and when I say day I mean morning, but damn it, it feels like all day!) All while I'm holding back vomit, because the morning sickness on this particular day was bad. So yeah, when this third baby is born I can't even fathom what it's going to be like.

Any mamas that have more than two children, can give me some insight? How was it going from two to three, and beyond?

Anyone have commiserating advice for this worn out mama??

2010-03-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

.:Spring Planting:.

We love getting our hands dirty in our house! Especially the boys! I don't know if there are really big differences between boys and girls but my boys seriously like to be dirty!!! I don't even know how to explain it, its as if the dirt is like diamonds, tons of tiny, shiney, sparkley diamonds to girls. So of course the boys enjoy helping me out on the farm (okay well not exactly the farm, but more like my city lot. . . I can dream right?)

Finished product. Going into the ground, soon, very soon!
So cute, plants have amazing energy.

That's right, stick your hands in the dirt, it's the best feeling in the world, the earth right in your teensy hands.

So proud of his garding abilities!

Wee one looking on, wanting so badly to just dump the plant over, and stick his muddy, dirty hands all over your you. . . and smile!

Happy planting everyone!!

2010-03-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

.::Herbal Review::.

.:Henna:.

If you know me, you know my love affair I have with herbs!! Henna is an absolutely amazing beautiful and beneficial herb that has been used by millions for millions of years! Henna comes from a dried flowering plant called Lawsonia inermi. It is use on skin or in hair and combined with water it makes a thick paste or sludge, that when activated by heat coupled with time, you can get fantastic colors on both hair and skin.

So if you know my husband, you know he has a love affair with red heads, so the two of us enjoy our Henna time together!

Here is my before picture. . . It looks quite the same as the after picture, but it's much shiner and thicker after my recent application.

.:After:.

I really love Henna, have I mentioned that?

1. First you must boil water---- it can not be in anything metal (I'm using the double broiler technique) or else you risk a heavy metal reaction--- which could mean a way different color than you want! So NO metal spoons, bowls, or water that's been boiled in metal.

Here's what it looks like pre-application. I use Light Mountain brand, and for $4.99 a box it lasts several months, its a very economical and toxin free way to change your look.

2. Apply. I skipped this step in pictures because I look crazy!
3. Wait. Up to three hours for full effect.
4. Look like this! For good measure here's what I look like again!

Happy herbal review day!