Water everywhere

(mostly in the garden. And we sealed the deal on a giant thunderstorm when we watered the garden ....)

We did a water-on-the-head race and it went fabulously. No, we didn't really save any actual water (rather the opposite), but both kids had a blast, and were able to really engage in the activity and some conversation about it. It's hard to carry water on your head! (and I can add to that, that it is even more difficult to carry water on your head when you are wearing a baby in a sling... especially a baby that pulls back and looks alarmed every time you put something on your head).

 We picked out containers from our recycling to use, beginning with a tiny yogurt container, progressing to a can, a large yogurt container, and finally a gallon milk jug.

Afterwards, we looked at pictures of mamas and children carrying water (and by accident, an alligator with a WHOLE HUMAN HAND in his mouth... I recommend pre-googling) and talked about the containers, the volume, the distance....both kids seemed to have a greater appreciation of the work so many families do each day to get the water they need. We ended up skipping the clean-up-outside part-- we'll do that another day, since I needed to get dinner started. The kids also played with a water quiz at the UN website for children, and picked up some random facts. All in all, a success.


The garlic scape pesto pizza was delicious (with a little yellow pepper and some fresh mozzarella). We also really liked the greens/ricotta pasta dish I made last night (we being me and Ben, notsomuch the children). I used part-skim ricotta and a food processor rather than blender-- it was creamy and good. Also very, very quick, which was a good thing indeed because Mr. I'm Seldom Fussy was very fussy.

Tonight? to my surprise, we are at the end of Book 7. It's Harry Potter Marathon night for the last time.

Mama-not-so-subtle

How do you teach kids about sustainability without being too heavy handed? I remember some parts of being a child pretty clearly...and I do remember the blinders you have where you really mainly worry about how things are going to affect YOU. But I know our kids are inheriting a pretty big mess here (I mean the earth in general, not just my house)... and I want them to grow up with compassion, with a sense that the world is a big place with room for lots of other experiences than those they have.

We were walking to an activity today, downtown-- a little over a mile from our house. It was hot (for here). I fielded several complaints, and Adam said, "When we get there, I need to wet my mouth." I saw a teachable moment there, and said, "Did you know that a lot of people in the world walk farther than we are walking today to get the water they need to drink and cook and clean?" Rachel said yes and Adam said no.
 
So we talked about it a little and then did some imagining about it.... "What would we do with Sam if we were walking to get water? Would we have a jogging stroller? Who would carry him?.... how would we carry the water back to our house?" We thought about several different possibilities (would Adam be the one to carry Sam? Would he be strapped to Rachel's back? How would we get the water home?). Then Rachel just shut down. "I won't talk about this any more and I won't answer your questions." I tried to explore that a little, but she just said she was done. I said it was okay to feel uncomfortable about it, and it was important, too, because it helped us realize how much we have, and how we need to help others. But she was done. We arrived at the activity, both kids drank from the fountain, and I headed home with Sam.

I spent the walk/run home thinking about what we could do that would be fun, but also make the point without me being so heavy-handed....so when we get home this afternoon on this very hot day, we are going to do some water games. We need to water the garden, anyway. Here's what I'm thinking: we will do a race from the front yard to the garden with different sized containers of water on our heads-- fastest time and  least spillage wins. I figure we can start small and work our way up to a milk jug. Instead of taking showers tonight, we'll clean up in the back yard in our bathing suits.... with one bucket of water to use. When we come inside I've bookmarked some computer games and activities that focus on water.

We'll see how it goes.

Wooing my children with carbs

My children love bread. I love baking, and I love baking "real" bread that requires lots of love and kneading... but finding the time to make it is often a challenge. My sister sent me this recipe this winter and it has really been great for our family-- I keep a container of dough in the fridge almost all the time, and regularly bake a loaf with dinner, especially when I know that the main course is not going to be a hit. It's also great for company, or if we are taking a meal to a friend-- it bakes fast. It looks good (usually)! Rachel can make it with a little supervision. I have made the loaves in many shapes and sizes, and can now pull off just enough dough for dinner with no leftovers.
The recipe can be found here and is originally from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking


Variations we have done:
I always use at least half whole-wheat flour and have used as much as 2/3 whole wheat flour. I also have used a six grain blend flour  (2.5 c white, 2 c. whole wheat, 2 c. six grain flour-- that made a heavy but tasty loaf). I have rolled it out and sprinkled on sugar and cinnamon and raisins (yum). I plan to try making a pesto swirl bread but that is waiting till the next time we have company.

Green(ish) updates for the week so far: all that fuss.... and it never rained yesterday. Sigh. Laundry is on the line now, although the sky looks pretty grey and the humidity is high. We are eating our way through our CSA share with a few minor menu modifications: last night we had salmon, roasted broccoli, and rice with chard and almonds. I think we'll do a giant taco salad tonight.

Reading with Rachel, and a little challenge fail.

this is what the weather channel has on the agenda for today.  

Sam is on antibiotics for an ear infection. I'll just leave it at that. I have to wash diapers and I need them dry quickly, so I am going to have to cheat and use the drier. I was hoping to wash a small load of diapers yesterday to avoid this, but we had an unexpected errand in the afternoon and I just couldn't manage it. Oh well. Our real goal here is to make small changes, slowly, that we can maintain, and we're doing decently with that. 

I did do a big combined load with clothes for everyone yesterday, though, and I think taking that kind of approach is helpful with this challenge. I will say that I am the world's least pickiest laundry-doer (well, other than a college student). I sort by temp only and other than my freaky wash routine for the diapers, I am laid back about what goes with what.

multitasker like mama.

Rachel loves to read, and in the last year or so I have really been enjoying reading old favorites, as well as new books with her. I love reading children's and young adult lit, and have checked out a number of my favorites to "pre-read" to see if Rachel might be ready for them. Sometimes she is; sometimes not. These are some of the books we've enjoyed reading and talking about recently.

A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet)
One of my all time favorite books. I have been trying it with Rachel for about a year now. She was capable of reading it, but just not interested until a few months ago, when one of the librarians at the BPL suggested it for a book club. We haven't tried the next one yet, but maybe this summer. "It was a little scary."

The Cabinet of Wonders: The Kronos Chronicles: Book I (Kronos Chronicles Trilogy)
A gift from Rachel's godmother that we both loved. This is a fascinating story-- now we are on to Book 2. Petra is a strong heroine and I love her tin spider.

Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself
Lots of discussion about Hitler after reading this one."There was a lot of drama in this one, with Sally making up stories that she thought were true but turned out not to be. Sally is very good at thinking up games to play with her friends."

Cherry Ames Flight Nurse: Book 5 (Bk. 5)
I loved these books when I was a little girl-- we used to check them out from the library when we were visiting my grandmother. Rachel is admittedly not as interested in these as I am, but she has been reading the ones I picked up at the library booksale, as well as one that used to belong to her great-aunt. Like Nancy Drew only she's a cute nurse who has adventures, solves mysteries, and goes out on tame dates with nice boys. Cruise Nurse was fun too.

The Capture (Guardians of Ga'hoole, Book 1)
Another godmother gift. Excellent owl story. "It's very adventurous, and Soren is very courageous. I love the songs."

CSA midweek, and another Potter-a-thon

1. So far, so good on the CSA share for this week. We've eaten about half the greens (kale chips! they continue to eat them. I actually did take a video....) and will be making the other half into Gillyweed (greens and cheese) Burritos for our unsuspecting company tomorrow night. We have eaten a ton of salad and I have discovered that I actually like the little white turnips, go figure! I have many negative memories of turnips but these taste good, even without salad dressing. We have basically stuck to the menu plan with one exception (listed in #2).
What is helping us use all our CSA share, so far:

• making a menu plan
• not going to the grocery store for staples until after we pick up our farm share
• combining strong flavored greens with milder ones
• sharing.
  Also, I just didn't grow lettuce in our family garden-- I plan to do some as a fall crop, but I didn't do any in the spring. I don't feel nearly as overrun with salad as I have in the past, even though we had to buy it at the farmer's market early in the season.

2. We had pizza one night so we could do a big Harry Potter marathon and finish Book 6. I couldn't believe we were at the end, but I guess the end of school and a highly motivated Rachel contributed to our speed. Plus Book 6 is a bit shorter, and was easier to read aloud than Book 5. So now we are on to Book 7.  This excites me for several reasons, not the least of which is that we will be reading a non-Harry Potter book for bedtimes in the near-ish future. We're thinking it will be The Hobbit.
3. I'm starting the green(ish) challenge Monday, because I managed to get all the laundry "done" before the weekend.

Why I'm not doing laundry today. Picture by Adam (made this fall, I think).

Walking to School-- the end of Greenish Challenge #1

And... the end of kindergarten and third grade. Here we are on the first day--

   

And here we are on the last day. Some of us have matured so much that we will not condescend to pose for a picture at school.

We started our walking to school challenge right around the time I left my job and this one has gone really well. I picked them up one day for a dentist appointment, but other than that, we walked both ways, every day. This one was really pretty easy, and Rachel discovered that unlike the Wicked Witch, she does not melt if she gets a little wet. I have a giant "Mama Coat" on loan from a friend so Sam felt no pain on those rainy days. Adam had much better mornings at school after the exercise. It makes me sad that he will be getting steadily less and less physical activity throughout his school day-- he concentrates so much better when he gets frequent opportunities to run. We run him in the church garden before services and you can see a huge difference in his behavior.







And now the countdown begins....

Gardening: Spring

Well, since spring came kind of late this year, I'm posting this in June. We just got our garden planted over the last two weeks, which is crazy late. There are no pictures with the kids because I was so busy whenever they were out planting with me (planting in Sam-nap-sized intervals).

I decided to focus on just a few things this year, mainly herbs and tomatoes. We will also do a fall garden of greens: spinach, lettuces, and arugula. I decided to start one small new area of perennials: a rock garden with succulents. I always bite off more than I can chew with perennials so I wanted to keep it simple. I got a hens and chicks plant and some sedum at a neighborhood sale, and added some portulaca. The kids added the rocks.





Rachel planted a lavatera from the same sale, and we added a chive plant to our herb area from our friend Cynthia's garden.






We got our tomato and pepper plants from Snakeroot Farm at the Orono Farmer's Market.  I'm excited about the mostly heirloom varieties we picked for this year, with the exception of the sungolds that are kind of like an addiction for me. Here are the varieties they grow at Snakeroot: from these, we will be growing Black Cherry, Frosty's Heart, and Paul Robeson. We are also growing Joe E. Parker peppers, which are apparently hot when raw, but mellow when roasted. We planted the tomato plants with basil, marigold and dill seeds to do some natural bug repelling.

this was a hot, dry day... unlike most of the days lately.

I could not find any herb starts at the Orono Farmer's Market, so I ended up at Sprague's because I did want locally raised plants. I got lettuce leaf and purple basil and  bouquet dill. With these, I planted cilantro seeds.

 
What did Picky 1 and Picky 2 want to grow? Sunflowers and zinnias. So I went out and bought seeds, a variety pack of sunflowers and zinnias (pumila, or cut and come again-- an 18-24" tall variety with big blooms).

Here is a map. We grow our garden in rough quadrants so that we can rotate the tomatoes each year. Ben already dug our compost (and some extra) into the plot, before we added the tomatoes. We'll add some more in a few weeks.

My kid has better hand-eye coordination than me.

Adam is playing soccer and he is actually pretty good at it. We sit around and marvel at this because Ben and I are both, well... challenged in the sports arena. We can run and ride bikes and I can swim decently, in the sense that I could survive for twenty minutes while I waited for rescue in the deep sea (or at least in an olympic sized pool). I can sometimes throw a basketball into a basket. But I spent my teen years avoiding volleyball with a passion and never played a team sport in my life.

But he's actually pretty good-- he kicks the ball, runs fast, and follows his coaches' directions. He has scored goals in both the games. It is fun to watch him get excited and run so fast.

The soccer mom stereotype thing feels weird, though. No minivan, though. not yet.

Potter!

Reading Harry Potter has been an obsession with Rachel for about a year now.

 

When she started hearing way too many spoilers from other children, I decided to let her read the whole series (I had previously announced she would have to stop at #4). When she started (inadvertently, really) giving spoilers to Adam, we decided to read the whole series as our bedtime reading, for as long as it took. We started on December 1 with my sister reading the very first pages of Book 1. Since then we have made steady progress (and have watched some of the movies, too), and this week it finally happened: we came to the end of the 800-some page Book 5. 870 pages, to be precise.

Now, I hate to stop reading once Voldemort gets involved. We had about 100 pages left as Harry and the crew were arriving at the Ministry of Magic. I couldn't see a good place to stop coming up. So we decided to try a Potter Pizza Night: with all three family members able to read HP taking turns, a large pizza from Angelo's, and some patience with JK Rowling's extensive descriptions... could we finish the book in one evening?

We had some minor detours (namely, a fussy baby, and Ben getting delayed at a meeting an hour away). But we diligently began reading just after 5:00 pm. With one five minute break (to get a piece of pizza into the first dinner reader).... we finished at 7:58pm.

Now on to Book 6....this weekend or next, we'll have our finishing celebration for Book 5. Which means a special HP themed snack while we watch the movie. For Book 4 we had Gillyweed Burritos (not popular, although I loved them) and chocolate broomsticks (chocolate dipped pretzel rods, extremely popular). What to fix for #5.....