MommyCoddle

chickens, guineas and being a turkey (about dpns)

I have a feeling this will be my last post until after Thanksgiving. (And I also have a feeling that's one of the dumbest titles I've ever given one of my posts.)

But anyway....I have apple pies to make, bread to bake and a house to clean. My sister and I will essentially be trading spaces--Dan, the girls and I will be traveling to my mom's for Thanksgiving, my sister will be coming here--staying at our house, taking care of our chickens, keeping the fire burning--and spending Thanksgiving with our dad and grandmother.

In the meantime, a few odds and ends:

Last night, after several attempts, I conquered my fear of the dpn. I have some serious mental-block, motor-skill issues when it comes to dpns. I cast on several times yesterday afternoon, got twisted, frustrated and gave up. Then last night, I decided to give it one more try. With a lot of jaw-clenching and concentration I finally mastered them and I'm feeling pretty much like dpn hot-stuff. All I want is a pair of Leslie's Toast-for my too-long-arms, too-short-sleeves, freezing cold farmhouse. And I'm ignoring the fact that Ms. Urchin can whip up a pair in two hours. Maybe I should have started this in July.

Emma and I did a little classic pinecone turkey craft for the babycenter blogs. Then we got a little carried away and started making them with all natural materials. It was sticky, sappy business. Emma decided she needed hair extensions au naturel. I think we need to get out more.

And can I just say how much I love having these chickens and guineas? They are so much fun--my favorite part being able to go outside and call: "HEEEERE guinea, guinea, guineas!" or "Heeeere chick, chick, chickies!" And they come running--heads down, feathers spread just a little, waddling as fast as their little yellow legs will carry them, hoping I'll have a big scoop of grain to toss them.

I also love watching Emma, carrying her bright green bucket out to the coop with the whole entourage skittering behind her. I can only imagine how much I'll love these girls when they start giving us eggs. (I do mind however, that two of the girls have become quite fascinated with the road. I have to admit that I hold my breath every time I walk outside, checking the yellow line for "feathers". yikes.)

And last of all, just a few words to say how thankful I am for all of you. I can honestly say that I am touched daily by your emails full of kind words, encouragement, understanding, humor. Thanks for making this documenting of life so enjoyable and fulfilling.

Happy Thanksgiving.
xo.

(frustrations and) good things

I probably shouldn't be writing this post right now because I'm feeling really frustrated--with typepad, which is still giving me issues with responding to your comments, making me feel very disconnected with all of you. And with firefox who insists on reinstalling every time I open it, and then takes me to some different version that isn't the one I was using before.

And while I'm at, the girls and I are all battling colds--nothing horrible, just not functioning at 100% which results in lack of sleep and lots of sisterly bickering. 

But anyway, focusing on the positive......we had friends over this weekend for dinner. It was so much fun. Lots of good food, lots of laughing, while my kids moved from lap to lap and enjoyed being in the mix of it all--that's one of the perks of being host. Even though I have to work a little more (aka clean to get my house presentable), the actual entertaining part is so much more relaxing and enjoyable for me, when I can have people over to my house. I don't have to worry about my kids breaking things, or climbing on things, or getting too tired to hold it together.

My friend Kate, who came Saturday night is getting ready to take her hobby of  baking to the next level and will be starting classes at the Art Institute in Philly very soon. She sent us an email last week with a list of about ten desserts, asking us to vote on which we wanted her to make. That's my kind of election.

Apparently, you get more votes when you're the hostess because my vote for the Toffee Cheesecake won out. And when I got it out on Sunday to nibble on after lunch, it looked so yummy, I had to take that picture.

I've also been meaning to share this sweet clutch of birds that Molly sent to me a few weeks ago. I absolutely love them, as does my husband, and my children. They'll be roosting in our Christmas tree very soon, and then they'll find their permanent perch somewhere prominent in our home. Molly, thank you so much. Your pottery is on its way. (check out Molly's new work with burlap. Oh my.)

Alright. If I don't stop this now, I worry that a toddler's wandering fingers are going to delete my whole post.

Happy Monday.

I haven't disappeared

Well, technically, I have disappeared. But I have a good excuse. I'm working on a new big project that I'll be sharing with all of you in a week or two. I can't wait. It's exciting.

Last night, Emily and I met for dinner again. We talked until they took away our drinks, and started sweeping up around our table. (And I'm suspicious they even turned down the heat.) Then we escaped to the bathroom where we took more pictures and fussed with our cameras. I always wonder if Emily and I will ever run out of things to talk about. But every time we part, I have to restrain myself from picking up my cell phone during the drive home to tell her the "one more thing I forgot to tell you." This connection with Emily always instills the belief in me that this blogging community holds something special.

While this new project is consuming a lot of my time and brain energy, I was struck yesterday by the things in my life that ground me, and bring real life into perspective. It's usually small, simple, every day things.

Yesterday, it was sewing buttons on Dan's work pants--sitting in the comfortable chair in the corner of our bedroom, listening to Emma and Mary outside in the hallway, lying face to face, flat on their bellies, lost in their make-believe play.

It was walking into Elizabeth's room, to swoop a crying baby out of her crib and into my arms. Feeling her body sink into mine and relax, her cheek against mine.

These are the things that make my life sweet. That bring me back. That make my heart swell with thankfulness.

I hope you'll find that sweetness in your life today, as well.

grunting at the dinner table

When I get grunting at the dinner table, I know my meal is pretty good. A few nights ago, I had a hankering for something sort of chicken enchilada-ish--but I had no salsa, no sour cream, no little packet of "taco seasoning". I knew I needed some kind of cream sauce, so with some help from one of my favorite cooks :), and some googling which led me here, I worked up my own version. We had it for dinner, Dan and I both ate it for lunch the next day, and then we had it as leftovers the next night as well. And I could have eaten it again, it we didn't polish it off.

Here's my long-winded recipe:

In a skillet cook up some boneless chicken breasts which you can then shred or cube. To the cooked chicken add a can of rinsed and drained black beans. Place this mixture into flour tortillas, fold and lay them in a 9 x 13 pan.

Meanwhile make your sauce:
In a sauce pan, begin to melt 1/4 cup of butter. When the butter is almost melted, add 1/4 cup of flour. Whisk this mixture together and when it begins to bubble, whisk in 2 cups of chicken broth. Continue whisking this until it thickens. Remove it from the heat and stir in cream cheese. (Okay, I'm not sure exactly how much cream cheese I added. I had a container of whipped cream cheese from Einstein Bagels and one swipe had been taken out of it. I would guess it was 6 ounces.) Stir this cream cheese into the sauce until it is smooth and combined. Pour the sauce over your enchiladas. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes, or until heated through.

Okay. Then, I took the leftover chicken stock (I was using a box of stock) and used it took make a pot of rice. I used one part water and one part chicken stock. This was SO good alongside the enchiladas.

Seriously, this is so good. It's 9:30 am, I've had coffee and oatmeal, and this recipe is still making me hungry.

Try it. You'll like it.

++++++++++



FYI: I've added a new email subscription to my posts in the sidebar. All you have to do is fill in your email in the box and you'll get an email of my latest post, every time I update my blog. Lately, I've started subscribing to some blogs by email, and I really kind of like having the new posts popping up in my inbox. It takes the pressure off me having to make sure I'm always staying up to date on my feeds in NetNewsWire or Google. I just automatically get the new post, I can read it, comment on it, and feel good about checking in with my blogging friends.

I'm also having trouble with my comments that come to me from typepad. For some reason, I'm not getting your email address with your blog which means I can't just hit the 'reply' button to get back to your comments. So if I seem like I'm not responding to your comments or questions, it's because this issue is really annoying. Typepad is working on it for me, so hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Oh, and the picture--those are my new glasses--courtesy of America's Best and Elizabeth. A few weeks ago, I was bending over the bathtub washing my hair (yes, the only "shower" I get some days). And she reached under my soapy locks and handed me my glasses--in two pieces. But I have to admit, I was kind of looking for a good excuse to update my four year-old frames.

And the beans question--you might notice I'm eating from the Whole Foods salad bar in that picture above (my favorite place to grab lunch to go, when I'm near Baltimore), and reading the latest issue of Mothering magazine. An article in there, that talks about meal planning, among other things, has me thinking about beans. Do you ever have beans as your main dish for dinner meals? What do you make? I'd love some ideas/recipes/links. My girls love beans and I feel like it would be a pretty inexpensive meal to make at least once a week.

....wish I had more pictures in this post but my USB cord is MIA at the moment....

more soon, as always.
xo.

two good things

I found this first "good thing" through a "tweet" on twitter which led me to this video about the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm.

Watching the video stirs up all kind of emotion and excitement for me--for one, my sisters and I grew up raising lambs and I have a sugary sweet spot for them. And if I ever hear of someone giving grants for fencing, you can guarantee that a handful of lambs will be the next thing kicking up their heels around this little farm. Someday...someday. (And now I think I'll go google "farm grants for fencing". You never know....)

Susan Gibbs is a city girl who transplanted to the country and now runs a yarn CSA. Isn't that an amazing idea!? Wouldn't you love to have a little yarn CSA in your area? Just watch the video and be inspired. If nothing else, it will remind you how important it is to pursue what you love.

Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm is also
on flickr
on etsy
website
blog

The other thing I wanted to share with you is that steph has finally gone public with her new project called The Boys Almanac. If you've never been introduced to Steph's photography, artwork and amazing writing, you're missing out. This new site chronicles her boys' journey through The American Boy's Handy Book (And yes, girls are allowed on the site even though we apparently have cooties.)

And tomorrow, I will tell you what I made for dinner two nights ago (and had for lunch yesterday and leftovers last night)...it was so good! ack! I could make it again tonight. And I'll also get back to that bean question....get out your recipe boxes, please.

a hill of beans

So I'm back from playing hostess to my mother-in-law for a week. I'm tired. Doesn't matter who the guest is, hosting people in your home is tiring. But it also has its benefits--like help getting laundry done or walking in to the kitchen to wash breakfast dishes only to realize they are all shiny and clean, sitting in the dish-drainer. Love that.

I also want to say, on the record, that I went through every bag and box and tub of childrens clothes in our house, barn, shed, guest room. I currently have twelve bags of childrens clothes ready to go out the door to charity. Between tons of generous hand-me-downs, our Wisconsin clothes in storage joining with our Maryland clothes that we purchased when all the Wisconsin clothes were, well, in storage--it made for a LOT of stuff. A sickening amount of stuff. A "please don't open that closet or look under that bed amount of stuff." It feels so good to have things cleaned out and pared down. So good. Now all that's left to be done is to organize what's left by size and store it away. Ahhhhh...can you feel all the space I've created? Feels good.

This weekend, the girls and I watched the newish American Girl movie that just came out on DVD, Kit Kittredge. My girls are total movie lightweights. The least bit of scaryness or potential danger, or mean people, sends them scrambling for the "off" button. And that's just fine with me. I figure what's the rush in desensitizing them to scary things?

All that to say, the American Girl movies are some of our family favorites. I know I'm not a "characters" person, but these movies are clean, gentle-spirited and the girls are wholesome, mixed with a little bit of spunk. So while a lot of the issues of this newest movie went over their heads, there was one thing Emma did pick up on--the typewriter.

The next day, she sent my poor mother-in-law out to the shed where the extremely heavy typewriter had been stored, and had her haul it back to the house--unbeknownst to me. By late morning, Emma was writing stories, copying poems out of books, and covering my dining room table and floor in reams of white paper.

And of course, monkey see, monkey do....

Alright, I'm saving the beans questions until tomorrow. See? This is what happens when you wait too long between posts...

the news from Thomas Run

Good morning, friends.

A few things I forgot to mention in yesterday's post, three of which I've already forgotten.

If you have time, please take a moment to read my latest post on babycenter. It was one of those good, much-needed kind of parenting lessons, but the post quickly got shoved deep into the site because of all the election day blogging. I'd love it if you'd check it out.

I have a large box of multi-grain Cheerios hiding in my cupboard in the pantry for Dan's need for a before-bed snack. He has an enviable metabolism and eats often. All that to say, I think I have officially weaned my children off of cold cereal for breakfast. We were having so much trouble with them being starving and grumpy come mid-morning, that Dan and I really wanted to get them off boxed cereal and on to something more hearty for breakfast. And now they've fallen in love with a good bowl of oatmeal with milk and honey, or some toast and yogurt, or my granola. Things are so much better. Those tummies stay full for a whole morning. It makes everything go more smoothly. And not buying boxed cereal is saving me big money on the old grocery bill.

So you'd think "cue the photo of hearty breakfast here", but I have none. Instead you get a picture of my new winter-time laundry drying system.

I purchased this drying rack this week at my local Amish-run General Store in Pennsylvania. I'm falling in love with that store--good toys, every old-timey kitchen gadget you could want, every old-fashioned piece of quilting fabric and flannel you could imagine and good prices. I even bought a few old school hot water bottles for the girls--who sleep in the room farthest away from the wood stove. Now I just need to cover them in something snuggly.

The drying rack is definitely handmade and so much more sturdy than my previous Target-purchased ones. I love it. Though, you'll notice that I'll be dealing with a clothes-thief all winter long. She likes to bring me clothes from the rack, one by one. I'm sure the charm of laundry-swiping will wear off eventually.

Alright, that's the news from Thomas Run. Oh, except for the fact that Emma taught Elizabeth how to do forward rolls all by herself. She's spent more time on her head this morning, than on her feet, with no concern over what she might be rolling over, or on to. This should be interesting. But it's just too funny either way.

election day

I have to admit I feel a little  gypped. My polling place ran out of stickers. My kids were disappointed, too. All I got was this piece of paper vouching that I voted, "in case I want my free Starbucks". Maybe I'll just pin it to my chest. I feel this nervousness in my stomach today. Feel like we're all "on hold" or something. I cannot imagine what McCain and Obama feel like on a day like today. I think I'd want to lock myself up in a room with a TV.

Meanwhile, I'm embracing the seasons. The girls and I carved pumpkins last week, of course. And if you notice a certain someone who has been very shy in the past, is quickly overcoming his fears.

As far as I am concerned the girls can carve all they want, I just want the seeds.

I get a little crazy about it. Picking through, making sure they don't miss any. Even picking up the stragglers that fall onto the ground. Oh so good.

I'm also slowly burning my family out on apple crisp. I never follow any real recipe, just throw in a bunch of stuff that sounds good. Last night I got a little heavy-handed with the cinnamon, which made the apples get very dark and, well, cinnamon-y. It was good. I needed a little success after the caramel incident. And by the way, thanks to those that pointed out the recipe called for butterscotch chips *not* caramel. Oh those stinkin' little details.

And on a more serious note, I also wanted to remind you to check out two new important links. The first, is Amanda's new project at Mama to Mama. I love Amanda's thought behind it, " to make a small but meaningful difference in one person's life through a simple act of crafting with intention." If you have a moment, spend some time reading about what Amanda is doing. It is wonderful.

The other link I wanted to point your attention to is from a new to me site called Mom Advice. Amy and I follow each other on twitter. (Do you use twitter? You should. I am newly addicted. Get on there, let me know you're there. We can follow each other.) And I heard about her new Big Give. It is an amazing example of using your presence and influence online or in blogging for good. Amy, your post and your work for the Faith Mission is inspiring.

I have some new ideas I'm working on for the coming months. So stay tuned. One involves an amazing giveaway. I can't wait to tell you!! :) More to come soon....