Two Chicks and a Hen

A Half-Birthday and Some Thoughts on Ritual

2012-01-21T22:22:00.000-05:00

Bojey celebrated her half-birthday last week, and we engaged in a family tradition we’ve held for a few years now. After some intense internal debate, she settled on a dinner of puff pancake and dinner sausage (not to be confused with breakfast sausage), and a dessert of heart-shaped vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. I delivered, albeit with a bit of a dry cake (note to self…if you want the kids to be moderate with the dessert, make a mediocre one—works like a charm.)

One of my great goals for our family is to have a system of rituals and celebrations that we hold sacred and that mark the many milestones of our lives. Sometimes these are culturally-established and require little effort to take part in—Christmas trees, heart-shaped decorations for Valentine’s Day. But I also want us to have our own rituals, things that are built in to the private culture and language of our family.

Sometimes these just happen, the way they did in our own childhoods. One summer while on vacation you eat ice cream for dinner the last night; you reminisce the following year and decide to do it again, and suddenly a tradition is organically created. We have these, and as the girls grow, I’m sure we will have more.

It is also the case, however, that I enjoy intentionally creating rituals. They aren’t always a hit, and to be honest, I sometimes wonder if it can be a bit contrived. I never know how things are going to go over, but I’ve had more successes than failures, so that’s a plus.

Each night during dinner in the month of November, the chicks and I shared something for which we were thankful. The first week saw Ninna refusing to participate, clearly self-conscious about the act. Bojey’s response each night began with her looking around the room, resting her eyes on something, and then saying “I’m thankful for that wall over there.” A few times I really had to hold in the laughter, but I managed.

I persisted with this ritual at every dinner we shared, whether or not they participated, and after about a week, things improved. Ninna joined in, and Bojey’s eyes started to rest on things she might actually, in theory, be thankful for—the toys, the art supplies—all material possessions, but she’s three. I’ll take what I can get.

When December rolled around and we became busy with all of the holiday craziness, I let the dinnertime thankfulness ritual fall to the wayside for several days until one dinner, during which Bojey said “mama, let’s do that thing we do!” Clueless about what she was talking about, I started throwing out questions…”you mean clean up really fast after dinner while we listen to a song? Put ice cubes in the bathtub?"

“No mama, the thing where we say the thankfulness thing.”

So, due in large part to Bojey, we’re still doing “the thankfulness thing.” A few nights ago, she insisted on going first, and in my usual way, I asked “OK, what are you thankful for tonight?”

Her response? “I’m thankful it was my half birthday yesterday.”

Ah, sweet mama moments, when it all seems to come together.

Top Ten of 2011

2012-01-15T21:23:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!

Shh...let's just pretend I'm not two weeks late on this. I've been absent from this space for a few weeks and need something easy to get back in, so...top ten it is!

Here, in increasing order of popularity, are my most widely-read posts from 2011:

10. The DIY Skeleton Puzzle Set, a little dollar store craft I whipped up for the kiddos for Halloween of 2010.

9. Embroidering on Fruit and Vegetable Mesh, a fun repurposing project we tried last January.

8. The Thing about Beauty, some thoughts on the reactions to this blog after it was nominated for a single parenting blog award.

7. The Snowy Day Art Buffet, an idea for getting messy with the kiddos on a cold day.

6. Fingerknitted Headband: an Easy Preschool Project, a little DIY gift project for the littles (with a little grown-up help.)

5. Growing Beans in Glass Jars, a super fun gardening project from early 2010. This cracks me up, to be honest. Did you know that somewhere on earth, every day, someone searches Google images for "beans in jars" or "growing beans in jars" or "grow beans in glass jars"? I knew this...because it comes up on my stats constantly. This post is far and away the one that has been reached by the greatest number of people who have found me through a Google image search.

4. The Rock Washing Station: a little sensory activity with a purpose.

3. Book Talk: Winter-themed Children's Books, a timely post for the moment. I love writing book posts so much, but they're so time-consuming! Hopefully I'll do some more soon.

2. The Trolley Garden: Our New Natural Playscape, about how, with our neighbors, we reinvented our backyard. I take this post's popularity to mean that more people are creating these kinds of play spaces for the kids. Yay!

And finally...

1. How to Make an Outdoor Ice Bunting, a little ice jewel decoration we entertained ourselves with last winter (see photo above). This post was viewed over 6,000 times last year and has gotten a lot of hits so far this month. I'm so excited that people like this idea! Within a few weeks of posting it, I received loads of emails from people who had made their own, many of whom sent photos. I ended up writing a follow-up post with their photos, found here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you dear readers! I love hearing from you, sharing with you, and interacting with you. I've gotten so many good ideas from your comments and emails, and I really appreciate your visits.

Here's to a lovely 2012!

Jaimie

This is What Christmas Eve Looked Like:

2011-12-24T23:11:00.001-05:00

No words today--only photos.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

It's all about the Magic

2011-12-10T12:30:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about magic lately. Not the Harry Potter, magic wand-wielding, spell-casting kind. And not the I'm-turning-into-some-kind-of-weirdo kind. I've been thinking about the kind of magic that is inherent to childhood, or at least the kind that is afforded in a happy childhood not marred too badly by trauma and/or the adult world.

It is this kind of magic that I long so much to protect for my girls. The kind of magical thinking and perception that in certain ways goes along with youth and innocence. And I don't believe that I'm really romanticizing here. I know my girls' world is not like a fairy picture book, and I'm sure their brains are not entirely pure and angelic, but they're pretty damn close. And when I think about the magic of childhood and the innocence of early youth, I can't help but want to keep that world as magical as possible for as long as possible. I don't want to stunt them and keep them unnaturally childish, but I certainly also would like them to emerge from the misty fog of youthful magic at their own pace and their own time. And if they slip back and forth in and out of it, hopefully for a long time, even better.

And this, I realize, is one of the things I love about the winter holidays, at least as we celebrate them in our little family. I'm all in favor of Santa Claus, not the one sitting under florescent lights in an overheated shopping mall, but the one in our imaginations. And why not throw in some elves and a few flying reindeer. And a snowman who comes to life? The more the merrier, I say.

****************************************************************************

The everyday is magical for my girls. When I'm quiet, and I'm patient, and I close my big mouth, I can hear it. Like the other day when Ninna, dressed in the get-up below, asked me

"Does my outfit look right, mama? Does it really look like I'm a fireman? I think it looks like a fireman girl, at least."

In my mind, I thought: Yes, baby girl. A blue thermal shirt, an orange Hawaiian-print skirt, wicked-witch-of-the-west legwarmers, and too-small fairy slippers is just about the most perfect outfit I can imagine for a girl fireman. I couldn't have done it better myself. I love that your mind's eye visualizes the world in this way.

And on the outside, I nodded and smiled.

Bojey was harder to capture on film this day, as she prefers photos taken on her own terms, at times of her choosing. But she did invite me into her world, letting me know that she was a construction worker with a broken leg (see sparkly legwarmer on her right calf). Being three, she is even deeper into her world, sharing far less of it aloud and living far more as if it is fact. Which, of course, it is.

Animal Tracks in the (Playdough) Snow

2011-12-02T10:51:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we made Christmas playdough for our first advent activity. Like last year, we added peppermint oil for a candy cane smell, and influenced by this pin on my winter pinterest board, we added glitter for a snow effect. And, like we always do, we kneaded in the colors while the playdough was fresh from the pot and very warm.

I initially didn't think I'd bother to post about this since one can only write about playdough so many times, but the direction of the girls' play (and mine) was so much fun that I did end up pulling out the camera.

Maybe you've all thought of this a million times, but we've never done this before. Bojey asked if we could use the toy animals with the playdough, so I brought over the basket of animals. We quickly realized that If you take your small plastic animals and walk them along a flattened piece of playdough, you can make animal tracks! And it's even more fun when your playdough looks like snow, especially so when you have no real snow outside.

Even the pterodactyl joined the fun:

Eventually we brought over the nature bowl and included things line pinecones and feathers. How cute is this squirrel in the woods?

And here's Ninna's red forest:

Is it weird that I'm kind of excited to play with the playdough again this weekend?

And so it Begins

2011-12-01T01:04:00.000-05:00

Advent! Tomorrow! But it's technically today, in fact, because it's after midnight and I'm still polishing up our calendar for the month. Thanks in part to all of your awesome suggestions, I actually have more ideas than we have days, which I suppose is not a bad thing.

The "temporary, makeshift, one-time" advent calendar that I made for us two years ago is now about to experience its third season of use. I intended to make something better after the first year and didn't, but now that it has lasted this long I almost feel like it's too much a part of our tradition to let it go. (Or I'm justifying my inability to get it together enough to make a better one. You decide.):

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In other news, Bojey has finally reached that all-important childhood milestone: the realization that wearing a diaper on one's head is funny:

Looking back, I see that Ninna was there when I started this blog almost two years ago, which would make her almost exactly the same age Bojey is now. Sounds about right.

I'm Dreaming of a White Advent

2011-11-27T09:08:00.001-05:00

The kiddos and I will be starting our traditional advent activities this Thursday, December 1st. I'm excited for everything I have planned, but I'm just not feeling so festive because we have no snow! All the snow in the photo from yesterday's post has melted--it lasted only about two days.

During the three years I lived in Georgia and the five years I lived in California, I became very accustomed to holidays with no snow. It was always a tad bit weird to me, having grown up in Michigan, but I got used to it. We're approaching winter number four in Montreal, and it's now nearly impossible for me to envision the holidays here with no snow. Is this global warming? Just a fluke thing? Normal weather fluctuations? I don't know, but I want some ground coverage!

But alas, snow or no snow, the time has come for trees and gingerbread men and all sorts of seasonal goodness.

If you celebrate advent, what sorts of things do you have planned? I still have a couple of holes in my planning calendar and need ideas.

Things You Can't Buy on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

2011-11-26T08:09:00.000-05:00

Little people's enthusiasm for their time spent in the great outdoors:

The bond between a girl and her cat:

Friends who join you for a lantern walk and then serve you a delicious, warm fall dinner:

Joy over very small things, like how much speed you can build up with your friend's apple peeler:

Friends who are more like family who come upstairs to celebrate your half-birthday with you on last-minute invitation:

The beauty and surprise of the first snow, even when you know it's coming:

And amazing readers and friends who return to your little online space to read, comment, and message you, even when you disappear from the face of the earth. Thank you! I hope your weekend is filled with so many tiny bits of joy.

Come See me at Unplugged Sunday

2011-10-27T08:14:00.000-04:00

I have a new post up at Unplugged Sunday about one of my favorite activities--crafting with kids. I'd love it if you'd stop by and share your ideas about how to make the combination of art and children a peaceful, even meditative one. Or just share your favorite ways to get creative with your kiddos.

See you there!

Pumpkins with Wigs: A Simple, Silly Halloween Project

2011-10-24T00:32:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, the chicks painted small pumpkins at our little friend's birthday party. The next day, unbeknownst to me, they decided to wash the paint off, which is somehow perfectly logical to me knowing my children, though I can't possibly explain why. It's just exactly the sort of thing they would do. And so we've had these cute little plain pumpkins sitting around.

It also so happens that in our neighborhood, people go to great lengths with their Halloween decorations. I think I've mentioned this before, but it rivals Christmas decorations, and, in some cases, exceeds them. Every time we walk down our street, my little DIY-er three year old says "I want to make that Halloweeny." When I ask what, specifically, she points to a yard and says "all of it."

About half a block down, there are foam jack-o-lanterns wearing some kind of wig-type things, and they top Bojey's list of Hallweenys to make, so I suggested that the chicks add hair to their washed and tidy little pumpkins.

What we did is not really even worthy of a tutorial because it's so easy, but here it is in a nutshell:

1. Draw a face on the pumpkin with a sharpie.

2. Glue on some sort of hair-like substance.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. My girls used a combination of uncarded wool (from a family friend's farm) and various colors of dyed wool roving. You could also use yarn, string, strips of fabric, cornsilk--anything you can think of, really. I would recommend using a strong glue like Aleene's tacky glue or something similar, since I don't think simple Elmer's school glue will be strong enough.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

2011-09-23T21:55:00.000-04:00

This afternoon and evening, in honor of the autumnal equinox, the chicks and I had our own personal fall festival, or "festi-bull" as it's known in chick parlance, a pronunciation I hope they continue to use for at least five more years.

After a leaf-collection walk, we made leaf crowns using the instructions in Carol Petrash's Earthways, my new favorite kids' crafting book.

Spotted: wood fairies--

I'm a bit too tired for a tutorial, but the project is pretty easy. You simply collect leaves, snip off the stems, and then "pin" them together end-to-end using the stems you removed. We found we needed to poke a small hole in the leaves before inserting the stem. Here's one crown-in-progress:

We then played with snails, whom we will miss over the winter. Montreal has the best snails, in abundance:

Ninna built them a habitat using the leftover leaves:

We harvested what we could from the yard, which today meant a single cherry tomato, and two large handfuls of beans from our still-lush and very prolific bean teepee:

We finished the evening with a candlelight "harvest dinner," in the company of more early fall leaves and bowls of shiny chestnuts the chicks have been gathering on our walks home from school:

I hope your first day of fall was as lovely as ours!

The Junk Box: A Collection of Odds and Ends for Inspiring Creativity

2011-09-13T22:26:00.002-04:00

Many, many years ago, when I was in college, I read an interview with Trey Anastasio (perhaps in Rolling Stone? I don't remember anymore) in which he talked about how his mother, a writer for Sesame Street Magazine, really encouraged creativity. He mentioned that she would give him and his sister a random assortment of things and tell them to make something out of them. I distinctly remember thinking to myself "What a great idea; I will do this when I have kids."

Fast forward to what seems to be many lifetimes later, I have kids, and we keep what we refer to as "the junk box." It's no longer even a box--we transferred it from a box to a large reusable shopping bag--but the name stuck. The junk box is filled with anything you can imagine, and more. I have been filling the junk box for about four years now (yes...it actually moved with us from California, as nuts as that may seem.) Whenever we have some kind of smallish item that can't be recycled and/or looks interesting, we add it to the junk box.

We do different things with the contents. I have, like Anastasio's mother, pulled out a few random things and left them for the kids to explore and use. Sometimes we keep something for which we have a specific plan. And other times, we just take out the junk box and see what we can make.

A few weeks ago, we made gardens:

These were created based on some of-the-moment inspiration: we took out some of the junk, someone realized that something looked like a flower, and suddenly we were each making our own garden. In Teacher Tom style, we assembled them using a glue gun. So far I'm the only one operating said device--which is, incidentally, a dollar store-quality glue gun I got at a garage sale when I was about twenty and which is, amazingly, still going strong after all these years.

These gardens contain a really random assortment of materials, including:

*Disposable carry-out chopsticks

*Disk-shaped small plastic building toys

*Foam containers that previously held sticker sets

*Fruit/vegetable mesh

*Green vinyl from knitting needle packaging

*An old lid from a Sigg water bottle

*(unused!) Foam earplugs

*Wire from an old dollar store tiara

*Handles from mesh baby feeders

*Various kinds of styrofoam

*The lid for a food storage container we no longer have

And this is precisely why I think you should have a junk box, too. When else would you ever think to put all of those things together? You wouldn't. You wouldn't put them together unless you happened to have them sitting around. And you might make a flower garden out of clay, or paper mache, or some other such traditional art material, and those would all be great. But forcing ourselves to look at the form of an object outside of its function and think about how else it might be used is a great intellectual exercise, and one worth encouraging in our children.

There are literally hundreds of items in our junk box, and we add more all the time. You'd be amazed at how many little odds and ends you dispose of on a daily or weekly basis, all of which could have a second or third life as materials for art and exploration.

The Houseplant Sampler: A Simple, Free Gift

2011-09-10T21:47:00.002-04:00

Our close friends had some remodeling done to their home last year, and in the process, they lost most of their houseplants to accidental neglect. I had been meaning to give them some plant clippings for ages and kept forgetting, so I put together a little "Houseplant Sampler" for them a few weeks ago:
Do you propagate your plants by clipping them? I do, all the time. It's so very, very easy, and you can keep plants going for ages. You can't do this with all plants, but it does work with quite a lot of them. Some work better rooted in water, first, and some work better rooted in soil. Click here for information on plant propagation. I don't generally put that much thought into it though, honestly. I just try it, and if it works, great, and if not, I compost the clipping.

I keep plant cuttings in water at all times. I like to have a constant supply of potential new houseplants for rearranging rooms, replacing plants that die, gifting, and just generally making our house greener. There are also many plants that you can split once they become a certain size; you take off a whole chunk, roots and all, and it's ready to be planted in soil. I find plant propagation to be immensely fun. We have plants that are (as I like to think of it) the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of plants we bought when we first moved here.

And if you have a houseplant that's dying or almost dead, don't throw it away or compost it. First try to root the remaining green part.

To make the Houseplant Sampler, I just used an old seedling container (which, by the way, I dug out of our neighbor's trash two years ago and have since used for two spring's worth of new seedlings.) I filled it with soil and added a variety of clippings--some that had previously been rooted in water, and some cut from plants that day. Some have not made it, but some have, and I think next time around I'll have a better sense of what to put in there.

I'm planning to use this idea for housewarming presents. I know I would have loved it if someone had shown up at my door with a tray of baby houseplants right after I'd moved in.

Summer Highlights (More Photos than You Can Shake a Stick at)

2011-09-09T13:48:00.001-04:00

It turns out it's really taking me some time to get into a good routine with all the changes around here. The late summer involved squeezing in some more summertime fun, socializing, and getting ready for school. And then chaos ensued. Ninna started school two weeks ago and, unfortunately, it was a really unpleasant experience. I won't go into it here, but we pulled her out mid-week last week, and as of last Friday had enrolled her in a new school about which we all feel much, much better. I'll get to that in another post because for now, I'd like to spend a few minutes documenting our summer before we've moved too far along and it never gets done!

There was, of course, our yearly Michigan trip:

Bojey enjoyed the 12 hour drive as much as she has in years past:

This has become a bit of a joke. Each year we wonder if she's going to tolerate it any better than the last. Poor thing does not want to be restrained.

My parents set up a kiddie pool like they do every year, and, like she does every year, Ninna flashed her wide eyes and sly smile, tricking my dad into carrying out pot after pot of hot water so they could have a luxury spa experience instead of garden hose temps. Lucky for them they have this trip because they know mama would never succumb to such requests...

The girls played duets on my parents' piano. One day we will have one of our own so I can hear such sweetness every day:

I've accidentally created a tradition of photographing my girls every year next to the historic fountain at the Detroit Zoo, and OH MY STARS WHEN DID MY BABY GET SO BIG?!

Upon returning home, we got back into our usual routine, which is to say that Ninna dazzled me with her spontaneous craftiness--in this case, making an umbrella (from a stick and fabric) for our under-the-weather next door neighbor. Note the headband she made from the extra fabric:

And then we were off again on our yearly trip to upstate New York, beloved not only because it involves our dear friends and the green, clean outdoors, but also because it is virtually free:).

While there, we went to the county fair, where we got to do things like ride merry-go-rounds, pet goats, and see a cow jump up and unexpectedly "hug" a 4-H kid around the shoulders (yeah, it was weird...and a little scary...but the kid was fine).

We played in a brook:

And we swam in a self-filtering pool made from a dammed-up section of the same brook:

Home again meant crafting again, beginning with these flying paper bird toys. I started to write a tutorial at one point, but I stopped, and there's no going back now.

We made a fairy garden and were much more inspired than last year. Here it is, brand-spanking new, before we planted chia and wheat grass:

We sewed a leaf garland on the inaugural day. It only lasted until the end of the day before shriveling, but it looked so cute while it lasted:

We went to the free day at the Montreal Botanical Gardens. The kiddos listened to some kind of zen chants in the building next to the Japanese gardens, and I don't know why, but I find these photos quite funny:

Also in the Japanese gardens, I learned that I kind of love bonsai. Look at this--it's a whole bonsai maple forest! Can you believe it?

Can't you just imagine fairies in there? I can.

While at the Botanical Gardens, we stopped at the Insectarium (also free). Look at this amazing rainbow of beetles:

An absolutely enormous insect, with my hand for size comparison:

Did you know that this is a thing? It is.

Camouflage--one of my favorite tricks of nature. Incredible.

We also did many more summer crafts, including these corn husk dolls (assembled weeks ago, photographed today) who grow creepier and more shriveled with each passing hour:

So in re-reading this post, it seems the two themes of our summer were "visit free or low-cost places" and "make stuff." And that sounds about right. We did many other things and had many enjoyable days (and, of course, plenty of unenjoyable moments as well), some of which I won't get to here, and some of which are unphotographed and will remain as fleeting bits of our subconscious.

All in all, it was a good summer, but I'm really ready for fall. I'm looking forward to getting used to our new routine with Ninna's school and doing more of things like cooking and baking, writing, and warm, wintery handwork. I'm thankful that I'm going to be working more (I have some exciting new employment opportunities.) And I'm really, truly looking forward to blogging more often. I've missed interacting with you guys (and all the wonderful ideas I get from you), sharing projects, and having a record of how we've been passing the time. And so I welcome fall. It can't come soon enough.

And what about you, dear readers? Are you looking forward to fall or hanging on to the last shreds of summer, or both? (except for my Australian readers, that is!)

The ROYGBIV Walk

2011-08-21T22:26:00.003-04:00

I've got so many projects to catch up on here, but I'd like to share this one while flowers are still blooming. Inspired by this, which I saw on The Crafty Crow, the chickadees and I took what we referred to as a "ROYGBIV walk," which is our nerdy way of saying "rainbow walk."

To prepare, I drew seven columns on a piece of watercolor paper and, using appropriately colored markers, wrote the first letter of each color of the rainbow at the top of each column. We took that, along with a glue stick, and went around the block. The chicks' job was to find things in our neighborhood in each color category. I only allowed them to pick still-attached flowers in our yard. In public green spaces (of which we have three in our one-block area) or at the edges of people's yards, they could only take already-fallen flowers.

My intent was to have them fill up the spaces with items from nature, but alas...in the city, you find things like shiny green gum wrappers and broken red balloons, both of which are irresistible to a three and five year old, so those were added to the mix too :).

Poor indigo! I think we have a hard time understanding exactly what indigo is, frankly. It's not blue? It's not purple? So, alas--indigo's column remains empty.

A Peek at the Harvest

2011-08-08T22:32:00.007-04:00

I'm kind of excited to report that our balcony garden is faring significantly better than I had hoped. We're not producing whole meals or anything, but we are producing food! Here are some peas from a few days ago:

And some lettuce from the same day:

Tonight, after Bojey went to bed, Ninna harvested the first of our carrots--the first carrot I've ever grown on my own:

It was tiny, but it was ridiculously delicious. Ninna insisted that we save a third of it for Bojey, so we have a carrot scrap floating in a cup of water in the fridge, along with the greens, which we'll add to stir fry.

What is your garden producing this week?

Some Links of Interest

2011-08-07T00:04:00.002-04:00

I've got several links to share, all of a personal nature:

**Circle of Moms has published their list of top 25 single parent blogs, and if you feel so inclined, you can read a little interview with me (scroll down to number 8.)

**I've just put up a separate website with information about my writing and editing services. I'd love for you to check it out and pass it on to anyone you know who might be interested.

**Are you on Pinterest? I am, and I'm amassing quite a lot of pins. You can find me here. I'd love to hear from you if you're pinning too :).

Have a lovely Sunday! We'll be enjoying our unplugged time. See you Monday.

Jaimie

DIY Pretty Paper Banner

2011-08-05T19:37:00.006-04:00

Phew, now that I've bared my soul and gotten my drama out of the way, it's time to move on to more important things: fun projects. This paper banner was the primary decoration for Bojey's little birthday party last month. It was simple, cheap, and fun to make. Here's what we did:

Supplies:
*watercolor paper or cardstock
*Dot Makers, thick markers, or watercolors
*Cookie cutters
*Pencil
*Scissors
*Sewing Machine

Process:
1. Color entire sheets of watercolor paper or card stock. I prefer watercolor paper because I like how it absorbs so much color. We used dot makers for the "painting." Have you ever used them? We love them. They create a thick line of rich, bright color.

2. After the sheets have dried, flip them over and trace shapes from cookie cutters onto the back. We used two sizes of heart-shaped cutters:

3. Cut out the shapes, and use your machine to sew them together. I didn't photograph this because we were in a hurry to finish, but you should pull out a length of thread (so you have some hanging off the end), and then insert your first shape. Just as the needle gets to the edge of that shape, insert the next one, and so on. At the end, be sure to leave another long length of thread.

That's it! Easy, cheap, and kid-friendly, at least for the coloring/painting part.

And if you're like me and have to use up every bit of everything, you can use your scraps with smaller cookie cutters to make table decorations:

This held up really well, and now it's hanging on the wall next to Bojey's bed, still in perfect condition.

The One in Which I Return to the Blog after Coming to Terms with a Personal Crisis

2011-08-04T12:27:00.005-04:00

It’s been a challenging summer. We’ve had fun—don’t get me wrong. There was our yearly trip to Michigan, our yearly trip to the delicious wilderness of upstate New York, a birthday party for a certain three year old (!!) baby chick, and plenty of gardening, crafting, water play, and all the other essentials of summer.

But simmering inside me these past couple of months has been a personal crisis that I had no choice but to finally address. I hesitate to write about this here because it has the potential to offend, but I imagine others have dealt with this same anxiety before, and sometimes it’s nice to hear that another soul can identify with your experience, right? So, here goes:

Homeschooling the chicks is one of my utmost dreams in life. Up there with having a little homestead, being financially stable, traveling the world, writing books, and living a fulfilling, creative life is the desire to homeschool my girls. My reasons are many, and I could talk about them for days on end, so I won’t even touch them in this post. I think it’s important to say, however, that my desire to homeschool is not a judgment of anyone else’s desire to send her children to school.

This is one of those dangerous territories that many of us hold dear to our hearts (of course—it involves our children), and it’s so easy to feel judged for your parenting choices. But I have no judgments about how any other families handle their children’s education. I simply have ideas about what is best for me and my family. And please don’t take this as a judgment of teachers. I know I count quite a few among my readers, and I believe they perform an honorable, challenging, and severely under compensated job.

But for us, I wanted homeschooling. Homeschooling my children is perfectly aligned with so many of my goals and values. And it’s not just that—I think it would be absolutely great fun. And so, thoughout the past year, I planned to start a gentle, play-based home kindergarten with Ninna in September. I ignored the creeping voice in the back of my mind reminding me that my current circumstances may not support that, and I moved forward, conversing with others who are homeschooling, visiting our local homeschool group, and planning and daydreaming about all the fun projects we’d do and about the peaceful, sweet rhythm we’d follow.

Then, early this summer, the creeping voice became too loud to ignore. It forced me to face facts: I’m a single mom. I’m saddled with student loan debt. I desperately need to devote more time to income-providing activities, not less. I live in a foreign country and have no family to help out. And…I’m only one human.

So after much agonizing, many tearful phone conversations, and a lot of soul-searching, I determined that the only logical and reasonable course of action would be to put Ninna in school this fall. It took some time to settle into this decision, and at first, I felt like a huge failure. What I had set out to do for my children would no longer be possible. I know I’ve read about other homeschooling, work-at-home, single moms. Why could they do it, but I couldn’t?

I ultimately reminded myself that all of our circumstances are different. I really know nothing about these people. Maybe their children were older and working independently when they became single moms. Maybe they didn’t start off their single parenthood with no money. Maybe they have grandparents nearby who help out. Maybe they didn’t move to a foreign country where they have no work history the year before they became single parents. Who knows. All I can focus on is where my situation is right now and how to best handle it.

For a couple of weeks, I felt mocked every time I opened my Google reader and saw all the wonderful things the homeschooling families were doing. I felt sickened when I walked by my bookshelf and saw the John Holt and John Taylor Gatto books. I considered unsubscribing from all the homeschooling blogs and putting the books in the basement. Thankfully, that dramatic response was short-lived. I don’t have to (and can’t, really) pretend that homeschooling doesn’t exist just because it’s not an option for us right now.

And then, in my online travels, I came across the most beautiful thing. Erin Goodman, of the blog exhale. return to center. gives this description of her family:

We are a homesteading, Waldorf-inspired, life-learning family supplementing our experiences with public school.

And suddenly it clicked. It’s not all-or-nothing. While it is true that simply sending my kids to school all day does, in itself, violate some of my beliefs, their attendance in school doesn’t cancel out all of my homeschooling goals. We can, and will, still live according to those beliefs during the hours that they aren’t in school, and my job right now is to figure out how to best put coordinate all these pieces.

This doesn’t mean that I have abandoned my homeschooling dreams altogether. Who knows what may happen in the future. I’m not putting them on hold necessarily, either; desperately clinging to the vague idea that I may be able to homeschool at some point later in life is not productive. For now, we will use a local school and remain open to the changes that life may bring.

As for Ninna…she’s fine with the idea. This is a child who is very open to new experiences. When I first told her she’d be going to school, she was nervous. School here, for my children, is in French. All immigrants to Quebec are legally obligated to send their children to French school. Ninna wondered if I could come with her and help her. After I assured her that her teachers would make sure she learned French, she became less concerned about her nerves and more focused on her lunch box. Is she going to help me pack it? Can she bring a treat? It’s amazing how much more we agonize over these things than they do.

And so right now, I’m working daily to reshape my feelings about this whole situation. I can’t, in good conscience, send my child off to school in the morning in a cloud of anguish and anxiety. Nothing could be more unfair to her.

I’m focusing on the positives, beginning with the most obvious: my five year old will be bilingual by the end of this school year. You can’t argue with the value of that. Instead of spending my time planning homeschooling and getting deeper in debt, I’ll be spending my time finding more work and climbing towards a financial situation that may not buy us homeschooling, but may eventually buy us some of my other big goals. I’ll officially move on from the limbo of what-might-happen to a more solid footing that acknowledges that one person can only do so much, and if that means delegating tasks (in this case, some of my children’s education) so that I can successfully achieve other tasks, so be it. And I’ll have some time alone with Bojey, to really deeply explore her interests and strengths, in a way that I’ve never had before.

So here we go—on towards supplementing our life with public school. I think I might actually be starting to feel good about it.

I'm Posting Today at Unplugged Sunday

2011-07-06T12:52:00.002-04:00

It's been a little quiet around here lately--on the blog, that is. I remember this now from last summer; the opportunity for outside time and travel trumps a lot of blog writing (and blog reading, I imagine.) We're still here, however, and I'd absolutely love if you'd come visit me over at Unplugged Sunday today where I'm talking about our recent experience at a massive drum circle.

Happy Wednesday!

A Garden Update

2011-06-29T00:59:00.009-04:00

A week into summer, our balcony garden is ever-so-slowly plugging along. A very cool and rainy spring coupled with a slow planter (me) means things are still pretty small, but I'm hoping for the best.

We've got radishes:

The soft yellow potential for a cucumber, the previous of which (last year) was eaten by a squirrel:I'm pretty sure the squirrels just sit in the trees and laugh at me all summer, swooping down later in the season after I lock the door at night to snatch whatever fruits and vegetables aren't firmly rooted in the ground. No, I'm not paranoid. Why do you ask?

Here is the biggest of our tiny romaine lettuce plants. In addition to perhaps not having enough sun, they were also overcrowded. The chicks and I pulled out every other plant last night and washed them, dipping their buttery, tender leaves in vinaigrette as some makeshift crudites. They were utterly delicious, and both girls begged for more. I have hope, still, for the lettuce:
Here's the mint plant we scavenged from the community garden. We brought home, squished in my backpack, a single, wilted stalk of a mint plant. I thought it surely wouldn't make it, but apparently mint's reputation is correct; this thing came back with a vengeance. The chicks have late summer plans for mint ice cream, and their mama has the vision of a mojito or two.
This 2$ bell pepper plant is the only plant I bought for the garden:
Ninna's preschool teacher gave her a sunflower seedling at the end of the year. Despite its small pot and insufficient sun, it was doing great until the ants started eating it. All within two days, the ants moved in and started eating anything leafy and green. We sprayed today with a cayenne pepper/cinnamon/castile soap concoction developed by mashing together several suggestions found on google. We'll see if that gets rid of those ants.
This year is our first for carrots. I don't know if they'll produce, but they've started to grow carrot-y looking greens:
The potato plant, grown for no other reason than the fact that I didn't feel like composting the leggy potato from the pantry:

A flower seedling whose name I've now forgotten, accompanied by a pill bug, or roly poly, or whatever he's called in your neck of the woods:
The strangely wrinkled seedling of the morning glory, playing host to a tiny bug. Is that an aphid? And is my google source right in telling me that the ants have moved in to eat the aphids, massacring our green leaves along with them?
Rows of peas trained to climb up suspended strings, a trick I learned at the community garden:

I love tendrils, both the word and the thing:Among the other plants still standing are a large number of basil seedlings and a few other random flowers.

What's going on in your garden today?

Happy Summer Solstice!

2011-06-21T20:59:00.004-04:00

We started off our solstice morning with what has become our annual Summer Solstice Tea Party. The kids (and moms) dined on fruit, peppers and guacamole, a cheese tray with crackers, and lemon mint tea. I sadly neglected to take a single photo of the tea part, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos of the kids doing an art project--solstice crowns.

These were simple to set up--I just took long, thin strips of cardstock that we happened to have from a bag of hand-me-downs from a friend (thanks, Jessica!) and cut different crown shapes on one of the long sides. The kids decorated them with markers and crayons and then, using glue sticks, applied "jewels" and feathers. Finally, we measured them around each child's head and stapled them, cutting off any excess.

I had intended to photograph Ninna and Bojey wearing theirs this evening, but Bojey may or may not have crumpled up Ninna's and flushed it down the toilet. Hopefully next week I'm not posting about the fun and educational visit from the plumber.

For dinner, we feasted on a ridiculously delicious homemade quartet of goodness--cumin-y beans, guacamole, salsa, and tortillas (served also with less-exciting plain rice, cheese, and lemon water):This is the sort of thing that makes me very happy--a stack of imperfect (and slightly burnt) tortillas clearly not made in a factory:
This is the first time we've made homemade tortillas. I got up the courage after having dinner at a friend's house recently; she made them and they were so delicious. I followed her lead and used the basic flour tortilla recipe from Joy of Cooking, substituting butter for the lard/shortening since I don't buy lard and find shortening disturbing.

This was actually a really simple meal. Thanks to all the wonderful reader suggestions for make-ahead food made in response to my granola post, we had beans all ready to go in the freezer. The salsa and guacamole take no more than 5-10 minutes each, and the tortillas are actually really simple too, especially since I used the stand mixer.

For the first time, I cooked something that really, truly brought me back to all the yummy Mexican food I ate living in California. This could easily have been served to me at one of the myriad Mexican restaurants I came to know. That, I must say, was one very satisfying cooking experience.

And what about you--how did you spend the solstice? Do you have any traditions to share with us for inspiration?

Unplugged Sundays: A Fun New Project

2011-06-16T22:11:00.006-04:00

Last November, I wrote about the night our power went out and I scurried around like a madwoman trying to find a working flashlight. As I mentioned then, the evening was a smashing success, and I decided we'd try to have a weekly no-electricity night.

We had one more happy no-power evening, and then the project went to the wayside. I got distracted, the winter holidays came barreling at us, and the next thing I knew I was looking back on that post months later wondering whatever happened to that grand ambition.

Then this spring, Heather at Beauty that Moves wrote about her family's decision to keep a weekly Unplugged Sunday, a day when they turn off the TV and computers and focus on cooking, creating, being outside, and being together. I started to feel motivated and planned to try it again. In May, Heather informed her readers that she and her husband were starting a new website devoted to Unplugged Sundays, promoting the idea and sharing stories and suggestions for those interested in unplugging.

So here we are on the eve of summer, and it turns out I'm now a writer for Unplugged Sundays! I'm so, so very excited about this project. Heather and her husband, Adam, have gathered a diverse group of contributors. We share many similar goals, in terms of simplicity, creativity, and experiencing nature. In other ways, however, we're all living very different lives and I think we'll have a really nice mixture of ideas to share. I'll be playing the role of the expat single mom (every group needs one ;).

Because they're fun like that, Heather and Adam have decided to debut the site on Summer Solstice, so you'll be able to start reading about Unplugged Sundays on Tuesday, June 21st (just five days away!) My first post will go up in the beginning of July, and then I'll post every so often after that, and I'll always announce my posts here.

This means, of course, that I'm now being held accountable and am fully committed to Unplugged Sundays. I'm putting the finishing touches on our summer weekly rhythm, with Sundays reserved for this exciting purpose. Later, I'll share how we'll be interpreting this tradition in our family.

If you're interested, join along! And if you're already doing this, I'd love to hear about it.

The Fresh Air Fund

2011-06-13T23:36:00.005-04:00

The outreach coordinator at The Fresh Air Fund recently emailed me asking if I might be interested in writing about their program on my blog to help them find volunteers. I'm going to be perfectly honest and say that I had never heard of it. Have you?

I liked the sound of it, so I clicked through the website, and I have to say--it sounds absolutely wonderful.

Here's a basic description from the host information site:

"Fresh Air children are boys and girls, six to 18 years old, who live in New York City. Children on first-time visits are six to 12 years old and stay for either one or two weeks. Youngsters who are re-invited by the same family may continue with The Fund through age 18, and many enjoy longer summertime visits, year after year. A visit to the home of a warm and loving volunteer host family can make all the difference in the world to an inner-city child. All it takes to create lifelong memories is laughing in the sunshine and making new friends."

Essentially, the fund sends inner-city children, most of whom have never spent time outside of the city, to stay with volunteer host families who can offer them the chance to really experience a summer vacation in nature, time to play in the wide open air, camp, collect fireflies, and all those things that many of us consider essential components of childhood.

******************************************************************

Living in the city with children is an ongoing challenge for me. I appreciate what city life has to offer, but I miss, always, what it lacks--wide open space, forests, lakes, farms, and all the other things I took for granted growing up. Yes, we go to parks. We go to the community garden. We plant our own garden. I go to great lengths to make sure we experience the natural world to the best of our abilities in the city.

But a city park is a city park. Even the massive park in the middle of our city doesn't offer that in-the-middle-of-nowhere feel. You can see and hear the city around you. Luckily for my kids, even with our limited means, they make yearly trips to Michigan and upstate New York, and the occasional rural Quebec excursion.

It truly breaks my heart to think of an eight year old who has never once been out of the city. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea, to be perfectly honest. If I lived in a rural, suburban, or small town area, I'd volunteer for this in a heartbeat. If you live in the Northeastern US (or southern Ontario), please consider volunteering with The Fresh Air Fund.

The organization has been around since the late 19th century (wow!). When I mentioned it to my friend who spends her summers in upstate New York, she told me that her family has taken part in the program for ages, bringing the same kids back for many years. She had only positive things to say about the experience.

If you'd like more information, click here or on any of the links in this post. And if you found out about the program here and end up volunteering, I'd be thrilled to hear about it!

Nerdy Happy Spring Things on my Camera

2011-06-09T00:03:00.002-04:00

Here are some things that I love right now, beginning with flowers in a mason jar--even better when they're free wildflowers from the backyard, and doubly better when delivered, table-ready, by our neighbor. We're so well taken care of:
Tiny green things poking through the dirt: I don't care what they are; if they're making their way up to the light, and I planted them from seed, I'm absurdly excited. When we're home, I must walk out onto the balcony ten times a day to look at the planters, just in case some new seedlings are up.
New growth on old plants--in this case, a geranium I've kept in a pot for almost three years, ever since my neighbor gave me a geranium cutting to stick in the ground:
New growth on old food--OK, this is kind of a weird one. But aren't you excited by the fact that if you accidentally let a potato get too old and leggy, you can plant it?
It gets weirder: this tiny housefly held still long enough for me to take a series of photos highlighting his giant orange eyes and furry muppet mouth:
What are you excited about this late spring (which, if you live in Montreal, is more like early spring)?

Why are There TVs Everywhere I Go?

2011-06-03T22:36:00.011-04:00

[I must warn you: this is going to be a bit of a rant. I don't even have a photo; I just need to get this off my chest. Perhaps by writing this and engaging with readers, I'll be able to come to terms with it and rationalize it, or maybe you will agree with me, and we can all advocate for public spaces without TVs...]

I'm starting to feel as if there are TVs everywhere the chicks and I go. Is this happening where you live? I'm not talking about people's houses; many of the houses we frequent either don't have TVs or have a TV in a subtle place, always off when visitors are in the home.

No, I'm talking about public places. I recently got into the habit of grabbing something quick and cheap for the chicks' dinner on the way home from a late swimming lesson (bad, I know.) Most of the places we went had TVs. Our dinners at home are admittedly not always riveting in their conversation given that we have one adult and two (tired by that time of day) small children. But at least we have some conversation. When the chicks sit down to eat in a cafe, and there's a TV on the wall, they can't help but stare. Of course--this is why the TV is there, right?

I just can't bear to sit across from my two children and have dinner while they are zombified. Even Ninna, at just-barely-turned-five, knows this is weird. She laughs about how she can't move her eyes away from the screen, and she has recently asked me, more than once, why there are TVs in all these places.

I remember, before our car-free days began, that there were even TVs at some of the gas stations. Can we really not pump gas for five minutes without a TV? I'm assuming this is entirely ad-driven and not consumer-driven. When we're pumping gas, there's nowhere to go but right in that spot...next to the TV. We're the perfect captive audience.

I've been bothered by this for awhile, but I finally came to a point of exasperation the other day when the chicks and I walked into the Y for Ninna's swimming lesson, and lo and behold...they had installed a huge flat-screen TV in the formerly peaceful lobby/cafe area--and it was on, of course. I momentarily felt vindicated when the man next to me asked the receptionist why they had added a TV. It's exciting to hear some sanity once in awhile. But my brain exploded when she responded with "well, it's because that area is a cafe!" That's the answer? If we're sitting at tables with each other eating a muffin and drinking tea, we must therefore be in the presence of a TV? I don't understand.

Days after Osama Bin Laden was killed, we stopped in at one of those by-the-slice pizza places after swimming lessons. It was a tiny little place, with just a few tables, and we were the only patrons. The requisite TV was on the wall, blaring the newscaster's commentary about Bin Laden's life and death.

My not-quite-three year old and just-turned-five year old don't need a play-by-play of Bin Laden's death, with thorough details. And when the time comes that I do think they are ready for this kind of information, they won't be getting it from corporate news, I can tell you that. So I did what apparently no one has ever done before in this establishment; I asked the owner if we could turn off the TV. He looked shocked, laughed when I told him why, and then, thankfully, turned it off.

I'm not trying to demonize TV as a whole. I know many wonderful people with TVs in their homes (I guess that would be almost everyone I know, right?) What we do or don't do with TV in the privacy of our homes is no one's business. And I'm not even suggesting that there are no uses whatsoever for TVs outside of the home; sports bars come to mind immediately. I loved watching Michigan State basketball games at a sports bar full of Spartans. But why is TV forced on my children every time we leave the house? Even in museums, you see video loops running on TVs about this subject or that. No one really ever sits down and watches them, but they are there, in our (public) space.

So tell me, dear readers, am I crazy? Does this bother anyone else? Will TV in public spaces one day go the way of smoking in restaurants, or are we headed for an Orwellian screen-in-every-room scenario? Or neither, and I'm just a little dramatic?

[Edited to add: I knew I was forgetting some more scenarios. I've already written about the movie forced on Bojey at the children's hair salon. And there are also walls full of flat-screen TVs in some of the metro stations here. Descending the escalator, you see throngs of people, each of whom is staring at the wall, blankly, watching the TVs. And you can include my children among these throngs, as well.]

The Rock Washing Station: Cleaning is Therapeutic

2011-05-29T23:18:00.003-04:00

It seems I've inadvertently written enough posts about kids and cleaning/washing that I could probably start tagging them and putting them in their own section. The reality is that I do the vast amount of cleaning around here; it's also true, however, that the chicks really do enjoy it.

A week or two ago, the chicks were crabby. Or whiny, or just...off in some way. You know what I'm talking about. I had already tried some of my other crabbiness cures--food, water, and reading stories--and I needed to get some work done around the house. I took the rocks from the rock basket, one of those lovely free sets of toys my kids pilfer from mother earth pretty much every time we go outside, and set them up in a little washing station. It was very simple--two buckets of rocks, a container of water with a drop of castile soap, and two rags.

They loved, loved, loved it. And they were quite proud of their accomplishment at the end, when their rocks looked so shiny and nice. I didn't get an after photo because I was actually managing to accomplish something around the house, shocking as that may be :).

Costumes and Bubbles

2011-05-26T21:58:00.001-04:00

Host a Ravioli-Making Party

2011-05-24T21:34:00.008-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, some lovely friends and I got together for a bit of a pasta-making party. It was, as you might imagine, both fun and delicious, and a bit educational to boot.

When we showed up at the door, each of us nerdy enough to have brought her own apron, our wonderful host gave us each a stapled, multi-recipe handout. As a paper lover (sorry, trees), a visual learner, and a former English teacher, I thought this was the most brilliant thing I'd seen in ages. Seriously, from now on, I'm giving people useful handouts as a takeaway after a get-together.

Moving on from the handout, she showed us a five minute youtube clip of a woman making pasta dough. Since we were all doing this for the first time (aside from one late-arriving friend who had made pasta once), this was actually really helpful. And then the real fun began.

We made several batches of an eggy pasta and one batch of a vegan dough. After our dough blobs rested for about twenty minutes, we got to play with the shiny machine--the hand-crank stainless steel pasta maker. If you don't have one of these, you can certainly still make pasta (and have a pasta party!) using just rolling pins.
After pressing them to the desired thick(thin)ness, we added fillings--four in all:

**Pear and pecorino
**Mushroom and ricotta
**Artichoke, ricotta, and parmesan
**Sweet potato (seen below)
Aside from their lovely conversation, friends really come in handy for this next part which requires lifting long, very thin sheets of pasta to close up the ravioli:

Ravioli, uncut:
I took this photo in part to show my kids, because I knew they'd find it funny, and in part to show that you really don't need fancy tools--we cut some of the ravioli using Bojey and Ninna's playdough cutter, and it worked well, making a very pretty edge. Ravioli all but finished--it just needs to be boiled for a couple of minutes:
A delicious table of food. If I think about it too long, I start to feel full all over again:
Because the ravioli is so rich and tasty, you really don't need much else. Aside from our four kinds of ravioli, we had two very simple toppings: grated parmesan and warm caramelized onions. On the side we ate an amazing salad (which I believe was wilted kale?), and of course we drank some red wine.

I had so much fun, and I'd love to do it again (and suggest that others try it!). Just have guests bring a filling each, tools if they have them, and a hearty appetite. Add a green salad and some wine, and some instructions, and you're good to go. And be sure to start with a sparkling clean kitchen because you'll use a LOT of dishes, pots, etc. (sorry, dear hostess!)

Any other cooking parties you can suggest? I'd love to branch out.

Our 2011 Balcony Garden is Truly Underway

2011-05-21T23:55:00.011-04:00

Every year, I learn just the tiniest bit more about gardening and about what can and cannot grow in our space. Last year we had great success with radishes, lettuce, sage, nasturtiums, and a few other things I've now forgotten. Pumpkins were a disaster. The tomatoes started to bear fruit, but the squirrels devoured every single last tomato long before they had a chance to ripen. The cucumber plant did OK, and even in a mediocre spot, it grew one cucumber...which the squirrels also ate.

This year, I've decided we will again grow radishes and lettuce (one variety of radish, which we'll hopefully grow and harvest for two full cycles between now and early fall), and a few varieties of lettuce. We'll also be trying carrots which in my mind are analogous to radishes and should therefore do well, but we shall see. We've planted quite a bit of basil, oregano, and rosemary, but I'd like to put in even more.

We've also planted some flowers, but the refrain that keeps going through my head, loosely paraphrased from The Urban Homestead (because my copy is hiding in a pile somewhere) is "Everything you plant should give back to you. Don't waste your growing space on plants that don't bear food." I can't completely get behind that because as far as I'm concerned, flowers DO give something back to me, even if they're mostly not edible. I think it bears consideration, however, especially for those of us choosing a more frugal lifestyle. So we will grow flowers, but they will make up a smaller percentage of our miniscule balcony garden than they have in the past.

And so on Friday, after spending the day at the community garden, we came home to even more gardening. This weekend is the traditional planting weekend in Montreal (supposedly the danger of frost has passed), so we're now planting directly outside. And since one of our big projects as a family over the next year or two is to greatly improve our French, I came up with these utterly homemade bilingual, reversible plant labels:

In his book Me Talk Pretty One Day, which chronicles his experience learning to speak French while living in France, David Sedaris writes about labeling everything in his apartment with post-it notes on which he has written the French vocabulary word for the object. I can't bear to deal with the aesthetics of post-it notes all over the house, but I'm happy to deal with my own totally wonky, Molly Katzen-wannabee illustrations and labels for the plants. (Edited to add: For the purists wondering where the articles are before the French nouns, I thought I'd mention that the seed packets, which were 100% in French, were labeled like this, with no articles. Weird, but true, so that's how I did my labels.)

And Ninna, thankfully, still thinks anything her mom does is cool (does that come to an end soon? I hope not), so she spent some time admiring them.

Oh, and PS: The voting for the Circle of Moms 25 Best Single Parenting Blogs ends May23rd. If you'd like to vote for me each day until then, click here and then click on the orange "thumbs-up" sign. Thanks!

A Rainy Day in the Life

2011-05-20T07:05:00.003-04:00

I took these photos Monday, the day we were supposed to go to the community garden but opted out since it was both freezing outside and pouring rain, a lovely combination. The chicks enjoyed each other's company and played in the most charming of ways. It's so important to me to sometimes photograph an ordinary day and not just special occasions.

There was painting:
Glitter makes everything better. Have you tried this? Just pour some glitter right on the paint, and it works like glue:

There was some granola making:

The chicks played "dance class" in matching tutu-ed leotards:

They built sculptures:

And a very small doctor tended to an even smaller patient, searching for an invisible booboo:

Problem solved with a heart band-aid:

A lovely rainy day, but now I'm itching for some sun. We have rain in the forecast for the next ten days, so now the game has become "find the hour of half-way decent weather and get outside, no matter the time or what we're doing."

Happy Weekend!

Urban Foraging

2011-05-14T21:31:00.008-04:00

This is the post where my extended family wonders where it all went wrong (if they haven't already...) A couple of weeks ago, I took the chicks and one of our little friends on an urban foraging trip around the neighborhood to find dandelion greens to eat. No, it hasn't gotten that bad that we can only eat things we are pilfering from our neighbors' yards.

I've written before about how important it is to me that my girls learn about the natural world around them. And even in this urban setting, there are wild plants in our neighborhood that we can eat--one of them being dandelion greens. I carried a basket around the block and the kids raced about pulling up dandelions left and right. This is a fantastic plant for urban foraging because the plant is so clearly identifiable, even to small children.

We hunted for dandelions last year when we had a dandelion-themed playgroup, but we merely tasted a leaf or two dipped in some vinaigrette. This year I had more serious plans:

The girls picked a huge basket full of dandelions (mixed with grass, sticks, and other goodies that I had the pleasure of picking through...) After a couple of good washings in the salad spinner, they looked sparkling and delicious:

Dandelion greens mingling with romaine lettuce, walnuts, grated carrots, and our ever-so-precious unsweetened dried cranberries, usually reserved (and used sparingly) for things like homemade granola:

Green salad just so happens to be on both of the chicks' "will-eat" list (this month, anyway), so they were both able to eat the fruits of their labor.

We also foraged some moss from the community garden where it was growing on the beds, destined to be turned into the soil as we prepared them for planting. We salvaged a bucketful and brought it home for our fairy garden, a project that I think I'm even more excited about than the chicks are.

Don't you love moss? I do. I think I'm a little infatuated with it, this year especially. I have big plans for it.

The Thing about Beauty

2011-05-08T22:51:00.006-04:00

A funny thing happened recently. About a week ago, both here and on Facebook, I wrote about this blog’s nomination for the twenty-five best single-parenting blogs on the website Circle of Moms. What I expected from this experience was to gain a few more readers (I did—hi! Thanks for joining up!) and perhaps a bit more publicity, maybe even a few more helpful contacts. And those things happened.

But what I didn’t expect were the loads of emails I’d get from friends and contacts, old and new, far away and close, commenting on the “beautiful” and “gorgeous” life we’re living.

This made me pause. On paper, my life looks anything but gorgeous. I’m all at once a single mom going through a divorce with two young kids; a thirty-something starting from scratch in a foreign country, hundreds and in many cases thousands of miles away from life-long contacts; a mom ever-so-slowly attempting to develop a new career while scraping together money to pay the bills, hell-bent on being with my kids.

Described in those terms, it looks a little nuts. Well, frankly, I have no idea what it looks like to others, but to me, that profile describes something I wouldn’t personally be signing up for, if I had the choice.

But when I look at my life, on a daily basis, I don’t see chaos in the hour to hour, the minute to minute. I see, in fact, a lot of beauty. Beauty in Bojey’s voice as she un-self-consciously and un-abashedly sings “Baa, Baa Black Sheep” at full volume in the grocery store. Beauty in the hornet’s nest that fell from the tree, beauty in the tulips and daffodils finally popping up after a harsh winter. Beauty in the fact that when Ninna is given a box of candy at school, instead of hoarding it all herself, she says “Look, there are two of each kind! They must have known I have a baby sister!”

Among the things I’ve learned these last few challenging years is that beauty, truly, is where you find it. And you find it by looking for it.

Somewhere out there, there is another version of myself, a thirty-something stay at home mom in an unbroken home, with two kids, her own house, a cozy (real) fireplace, with no financial worries, who doesn’t find any beauty.

And then, somewhere else, is a second version of myself. A thirty-something mother living in poverty in a third-world country, someone who has lost children to preventable disease carried in dirty drinking water, whose children don’t go to school, not because she has fancy notions of homeschooling, but because she can’t afford the shoes they need to walk there. Yet this mother sings while washing clothes, points out a flower struggling through a crack in the pavement, tells her children magical stories full of beauty.

Beauty is not what we have; it’s what we see. We can have everything, and see nothing, or we can have very little, but see, with great clarity, the beauty all around us.

***************************************************************************

On my mental list of what I hope you gain from me, dear chicks (which does not include an aversion to going to sleep on time, a fear of escalators, or an inability to taste cilantro without gagging) is the knowledge that it is your job to find beauty. And in order to find it, you must first open your eyes and your soul to what’s around you. Remember that you will find what you look for. If you seek out ugliness, you will find it. But you don’t want to waste your precious hours on ugliness. It’s beauty you’re looking for.

And if you do that, and you still find no beauty, then the most important job of all, my little ones, is to create beauty yourself. I know you’re capable; I see you do it every day.

A New Spring, a New Garden

2011-05-03T20:57:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was the opening of our community garden, and it was so wonderful to be back. I missed the people, the dirt, the ease with which the children run in and out of our work, the worms, the snails, the communal, pot-luck style lunch after a morning of digging and planting--all of it. As a "veteran" gardener, I feel so much more comfortable with taking on tasks than I did before, but I still have so much to learn.

Ninna gardened alongside me for much of the morning while Bojey, who up until very recently was glued to my side in these sorts of settings, comfortably played with the other kids for much longer than she ever has before.

*************

On the way home from the garden, out of the corner of my eye I saw something flutter to the ground from a tree. I assumed at first that it was a plastic bag; they seem to incessantly become caught in trees in Montreal in the winter, and this object flitted about so lightly, it seemed it couldn't be anything else.

But it was, in fact, something else. It was an old, used-up hornets' nest (if there are any entomologists in my readership, please correct me if I'm wrong!) This is the sort of find that is to me, beyond exciting. We brought it home and examined it, sharing it with our little neighbors. We'll be reading more about the nests next week as we have more time, and ultimately, I'd like to do something cool with it rather than just compost it. We'll see what absurd thing I can come up with.

The nest, with its papery shell pulled away:

This dark pod-like thing attached lightly to the surface, but has since fallen off:

Looking at these photos tonight, I can't help but think about my friend Heidi Lubin's sculptures, particularly her "Colony" series.

And now I'm off to frost some carrot cake cupcakes for Ninna to bring to preschool, put the diapers in the dryer, type out an invoice for some editing, and see what else I can squeeze in before I collapse.

I Hate to Bother You...

2011-05-02T14:53:00.000-04:00

...but if you feel so inclined, would you go here:

Circle of Moms Top 25 Single Parenting Blogs

and vote for "Two Chicks and a Hen"?

How's that for a campaign strategy? It's a good thing I'm not a politician since I hate asking things of other people. But today, I will. Somehow Two Chicks and a Hen has been nominated for the Top 25 Single Parenting Blogs on Circle of Moms. There's a button on the upper right-hand corner of my blog, and you can vote every day between now and May 23rd. I won't bug you about it every day (maybe every week...), but if you remember, you can vote daily.

Thanks for your support, comments, emails, and for reading this blog!

Jaimie

Self Portrait Saturday #20, April 30th, 2011

2011-04-30T16:35:00.008-04:00

It's been a year since my first Self-Portrait Saturday post which I put up on May 1, 2010. There are 20 self portraits; I managed to post one about 40% of the time. That's pretty good, I think. It's not a perfect record, but it does mean that I have a set of self portraits, with and without the chicks, every couple of weeks for a year.

I love this about blogging. On a daily basis, it sometimes seems almost silly, but this little daily, or weekly, or even monthly effort to chronicle our lives and explore our world adds up to quite a stack of posts after awhile. This sort of interactive journaling is a project with an unpredictable trajectory. You can only begin, and continue, but you really never know where it's going.

I look back and see a photo of myself the very first full weekend that the chicks spent away from me. I see that I documented the first time we took the metro, an act that widened our world tremendously. I'm certain that if I were relying on my entries into the baby books (which are mostly empty) or my paper journals (which I throw away every couple of years because I can't stand reading them), we'd have no documentation of these events. I don't know if it's necessary that we do, but I'm glad to have it, and I hope the chicks one day will enjoy reading about their childhoods through the lens of their mother's mind.

And here I am today, feeling springy, finally:

I'm not sure if this photo even looks like me. I don't think it does. The image we see in the mirror sometimes seems so different from the one coming out of the camera, and none of them, I suppose, reflect what others see when they look at us.

Some other things that caught my eye today:

The lilac

Something else green

This I find pretty funny. I regularly, as often as I wash whites or darks, do loads of "pinks." I can't believe how many clothes we have in the pink family. It was never my intention, I can tell you that:

Two glasses of wine with neighbors + me = blogging verbosity. Happy Saturday!

This Moment

2011-04-28T21:59:00.002-04:00

Inspired by Soulemama.

Tonight, first time using chopsticks. It went like this: she picked them up with one hand, reached down, secured some food, and ate. Just like that, in about fifteen seconds. I didn't show her how. Why do I feel like it took me years to learn?

Various and Random Items to Address after an Unintentional Hiatus, Part Three

2011-04-27T23:16:00.003-04:00

Ages ago, I used to leave out unannounced art projects, or puzzles, or bowls of feathers, or some other such things for the chicks, with the intention that they'd pass by them and engage with them if they felt motivated to do so. I hadn't done it in a long time, but I recently noticed that there was some crabbiness around these parts in the mornings, so I thought I'd pre-empt that by leaving something fun on the dining table the night before.

I did it for several days in a row, and each day Ninna made a beeline for the table and spent at least twenty minutes (sometimes much longer) working on some art. Bojey also joined in most days, if for a shorter time. One day I forgot, and Ninna said "mama, you forgot our project! I want you to leave us a project every day. It has to be an art project, and I want it to be something different every day."

Well baby girl, that's a tall order, but I'll do what I can. Here's what I left out one night last week--homemade blank books with a rectangle of cardstock for a bookmark:

And with that, I'm off to bed!

Various and Random Items to Address after an Unintentional Hiatus, Part Two

2011-04-27T22:46:00.003-04:00

A few days ago, Ninna came to me with a very specific idea for a "prog-jeck." She wanted to use this long, thin cardstock we inherited to make a standing rainbow, with a standing guy. Her idea was very Made by Joel-ish.

I couldn't help it; I had to make one too:
Then we made him a door to walk through. Don't you love his teeth? Ninna's very into the small details right now. Every person she draws has a huge mouthful of teeth and exactly ten fingers, counted aloud as she's drawing them.

And here, strangely out of order, we have the remnants of Easter breakfast. I like this photo because you can see we have leftovers, but one plate is practically licked clean; that would be the bacon plate. It's a good thing we very rarely have it. You can also see our egg tree. That was a really, really fun project that I wasn't able to document in time.

Perhaps, in a sec, I'll be back for more.

Various and Random Items to Address after an Unintentional Hiatus, Part One

2011-04-27T22:07:00.005-04:00

I'm being driven insane by my computer right now, which won't allow me to upload any more photos to this post. This computer is in fact not the computer I usually use; that computer is now in the computer graveyard where it will take millions of years to decompose and continue to off-gas until hundreds of generations of my ancestors have walked this earth.

I finally had one too many problems with that laptop, a Dell, if you must know, and I ultimately had the hard drive taken out and put into a case to work as an external hard drive. I've had this old desktop sitting around since we moved here but could never figure out how to get it to hook up to the wireless connection. After almost bursting into tears from frustration a few nights ago, I managed to solve the problem, and now, I'm back! Rather than attempt a thorough, well-thought out post, I'm just going to empty my camera onto the screen with a little bit of captioning.

Sunday was our third annual backyard Easter egg hunt with our good friends:

I love watching kids hunt for eggs. All four of them walked by this one at least four times each, and I couldn't help laughing:

Here are this year's eggs. All of them, except for the two "cheating" ones with tissue paper dye, were colored with homemade plant dyes. We've had mixed results over the years, with this year's eggs being the least striking in color. We tried to go with just the primary colors this year--purple cabbage for the blue, turmeric for the yellow, and raspberries for the red. The red, as happens every year, was more of a brown. Apparently what we need to make a true red is something called madder root, a plant I know nothing about but have 51 weeks to find before next Easter.

This, my friends, is brilliant, to my mama eyes at least. The chicks and their friends made a fire with sticks and chalk to cook their pretend Easter dinner. I love it.
Expect me back in a few minutes with more, assuming this computer will cooperate.

The Lachine Canal and Atwater Market

2011-04-17T20:44:00.008-04:00

We took a little field trip today to the Lachine Canal and Atwater Market. Since it's April, there wasn't a ton of produce at the market (aside from some sickly-looking imports), but there was loads and loads of local maple syrup, and all kinds of maple candies, maple vinaigrette...pretty much everything maple. We walked through the market and bought a small bag of maple donuts before heading down to the canal. It was mostly a gray, partially-sprinkling kind of day, but the clouds literally parted and the sun shone just long enough for us to take a little journey down to the water and across the bridge.
The donuts looked and tasted as if they had been fried three times, and they were so delicious in a disgusting kind of way.

Even in front of the most urban of backdrops, the chicks entertained themselves by looking for big sticks:
As of bedtime tonight, Bojey was still lamenting the fact that she had decided to throw hers in the canal.
And some fun in the (pretty much deserted...and slightly creepy) metro station on the way home:

Fun! Now that Bojey's a little older, the weather is warming, and I'm no longer afraid to get on the metro with kids, I'm hoping we'll spend more of our Sundays being tourists in our own town. Do you find time to be a tourist in your town? I regret not doing that enough in the previous places I've lived, so I guess I'm trying to make up for it now.

Spring Cleaning and Other Adventures

2011-04-16T20:56:00.006-04:00

Wow, it's been over a week. There's been a lot of cleaning here, a lot of organizing, and a lot of outside time. We (and I do mean "we") cleaned things that have never been cleaned since we've lived here, almost three years. I dismantled and washed the chandelier, I moved furniture to sweep--some corners are literally cleaner than they were when we moved in. Other spots, not so much, but we're getting there.

And I've had several mundane realizations about the point at which cleaning, organizing, maintaining a home, and having small children all intersect. First off--wow...it really does get easier as they get older. At the risk of sounding like a crazy person, I'll go ahead and say that the spring cleaning with the chicks has actually been fun. I'm sure the fun of which I speak is, to some extent, relative, in the way that it would be more fun to wash windows than it would be to have dental work done; but still, I'll take what I can get.

I've been able to accomplish so much, every day. The chicks are so great at entertaining each other, and it's a whole new world when you can complete more than 90 seconds of a job before stopping to handle a crisis.

And I've also been seeing the payoff of having the kids "help" when their help is not yet quite so useful, something I did with the faith that one day, they would be accomplishing actual cleaning. These photos I'm about to post look a little nuts given that Ninna is not only doing some serious mopping, but she's also wearing a Little House on the Prairie-type apron-covered dress (with intricate smocking, something my mom made me circa 1981!). As if that weren't enough, there's a second apron around her waist for good measure.

It may look like she's doing some sort of penance, but I assure you she was having the time of her life. She had been begging to mop for a week. The best part is that she actually did the job, fully--as in, I didn't have to go over it when she was done. Woohoo!

**********

While we're cleaning, we're organizing. I've been on a mission to de-clutter and simplify for ages, but I got a slow start, I think in part because we just had so much stuff. I'm finding that the more I de-clutter and organize, the easier the process gets and the more visible the results. But I've also come to realize that with a family whose needs are constantly changing (which is the nature of things when you have small children, of course), our organization and home set-up are never really done because as the chicks grow and their abilities and interests change, the ways we use our "stuff" changes. I've found there's a sort of peace of mind that comes with recognizing and acknowledging that organizing our life is not something that has an endpoint but is rather an ongoing process.

**********

In other news, this year's Easter baskets have been planted:

Seedlings are coming up:
And we've got some fun spring projects to share soon. Happy Saturday!

This Moment

2011-04-08T21:04:00.003-04:00

I've decided, at least for this week, to join along with Soulemama's "This Moment" series. And here's my moment: this little munchkin, marveling at the fact that she can be outside with no coat but still be carrying around a bucket of snow--

Reading under the Canopy

2011-04-05T20:21:00.007-04:00

One bed canopy, four munchkins, and a huge stack of books:
I snuck in quickly to take a photo, not wanting to disturb them or make them suddenly self-aware. There was no need, it turns out. I crept closer and closer and not once did any of them glance up at me; they were far too engrossed in their "reading" to notice the mamarazzi in the room.

I love this little cocoon of early childhood. I hope to keep my chicklets there until they're really ready to climb out, which is much later than our culture would have it, unfortunately. I've had this on my mind lately as my book club just discussed Rudolf Steiner's The Education of the Child last weekend. Steiner believed in protecting children from the adult world and keeping their lives slow, calm, and peaceful. I can't imagine a better way to ease these little beings into life, but it seems that it sometimes takes a strong will and a desire to question our current norms in order to actually achieve this.

Sensory Tray: Piles of Random Pantry Items

2011-04-04T22:37:00.004-04:00

Ninna has a quiet time every day during Bojey's nap. I usually read to her, and then she does something on her own. Some days (like yesterday), she comes up with her own plan, and on other days, I give her something to do.

A few weeks ago, I gave her this:There's between a teaspoon and a tablespoon of each thing--barley, rice, couscous, macaroni, oatmeal, steel cut oats, white peppercorns, flour, salt, brown sugar, oat bran, lentils, popcorn, rolled oats, chick peas, kidney beans, pinto beans, and a cinnamon stick thrown in for good measure. It seems like a lot, but it was really just the tiniest bit from each container.

Then I gave her a chopstick, a fan-shaped paintbrush, and our plastic dinosaurs. I have no rationale. That's just what I grabbed.

Ninna played with this for a long, long time. I was walking around doing chores, which gave her the opportunity to take advantage of the one flaw in my (lack of a) plan. Do you see it in the photo above? The cause of my downfall?

The glass of water. And the water pitcher. By the time I came back up from switching the laundry, the dry goods were no longer dry, and there was a soup of the most absolutely disgusting variety sloshing around in that cake tray. I don't have a particularly weak stomach, and I was gagging. I spent the entire clean-up time thinking of my friend Jill whose gag reflex is, um...quite insane. And then I laughed because Jill is a new mom, and she has yet to engage in such amusing tasks. Jill, your day will come, my friend.

All in all, aside from the soup situation, I'd recommend this as a cheap, multi-textured sensory activity. Just scan the area around the tray before you leave the room...

Like Mother, Like Daughter

2011-04-03T22:42:00.005-04:00

After I put Bojey down for her nap today, I read Ninna some stories. Then I fell asleep on the couch for a little while, and while I was having a catnap, Ninna made this--entirely, 100% her own creation, by her own hands:

Her own marble run. I kind of couldn't believe it. She's pretty handy, but still--this is sort of beyond her usual project. She found some old wrapping paper tubes in the cardboard stash that I didn't even know we had, and she cut them to size (all with her dull kid scissors--I don't even know how she managed that.) We haven't even used it yet (bad mom, I know, but we got busy.) Tomorrow we'll try it out and make modifications where necessary (like, in every place that the marble falls out, it seems).

I'm not trying to create a mini-me, I swear. I just told her to have some quiet time so I could close my eyes.

Finally, Signs of Spring!

2011-03-31T21:31:00.004-04:00

It's a trick, of course. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow--though not enough to stick, thankfully. Last year the ground was covered in fresh snow the third week in April, and my neighbor just told me it actually snowed in May last year, something I must have blocked from my memory because it was so horrifying.

Still--today was one of those days in Montreal that gives you hope that maybe, at some point, it might really be spring.

There were living things popping up out of the ground:
And much of the snow is melted; the snow mountains could last for quite some time:
There were bicycles, tricycles, chalk drawing, and hopscotch:
The stumps in the natural playscape are peeking out, reminding us of the fun to be had down there when the last of the snow finally seeps into the ground:
And there are some new signs of spring indoors. We made a $1.99 impulse buy today, a blue hyacinth from the nursery down the street:
And we have basil! The first signs of what will hopefully be batches and batches of frozen pesto:

Phew! I wasn't sure how much longer I could deal with winter! I know we'll still be back and forth, back and forth, but we're finally creeping toward the edge of the cold, dark winter. How silly I was when I thought to myself in the end of January, "well, this winter has actually gone by pretty quickly."

The Montreal Biodome

2011-03-29T21:34:00.011-04:00

I haven't taken many photos in the past few days, and I'm a little distracted with multiple projects, but when I searched through my photos just now, I realized I had never posted anything about our trip to the Biodome. On the "field trip" day of Mama's Spring Break Camp, we had an absolutely wonderful time together, in all respects, visiting this unique attraction.

The Biodome has miniature versions of five or six different environments (tropical rainforest, etc.) You enter through a set of doors into the simulated environment, and the spaces are filled with plants and animals appropriate to that ecosystem. The interior climate matches, as well--in the rainforest, it's hot and humid--something I wish I would have remembered when I got dressed.

In the rainforest, more than in the other sections, the animals are really right there--like this bird the girls are watching up on the ledge:

Moments later, he was on the ground walking towards us:

Aaaaaaaand...cue the waterfall of tears, from Bojey. My children really hate strange animals coming at them.

What is this cute, sweet girl watching so intently?

Why, the capybara, of course. Can't say I find him all that cute, personally:

But this bird, with his giant, twig-like feet? Adorable!

We tried our hardest to find the sloth in the rainforest (one of my favorite animals of all time!), but the closest we came was this sign (with my sweet little Bojey peeking under it):

The aquariums were a big hit with Bojey. She would have sat there looking at them all day:

The Biodome's little guidebook is really nice and has a two-page illustration of each ecosystem, with pictures and illustrations of most of the animals. We went through it when we got home and circled everything we saw and saved it so we can look for the other animals next time.

Well that was kind of fun, going through those photos. I'm excited to go back to the Biodome now.

We Made our Own Lip Stuff

2011-03-28T21:02:00.007-04:00

Do you call it "lip stuff" or "lip balm"? Or something else entirely? I've always, always called it "lip stuff," but now that I'm typing this, it looks really weird.

Anyway, lip stuff. I have to confess that I've been addicted to lip stuff since probably late elementary school. I've tried to go without it (usually because I've run out), and it always results in two or three days of my being totally distracted by how chapped my lips are, followed by a trip to the store to buy three more tubes to ensure that such a horrific thing never happens again. It's not dehydration--I drink a ton of water. I think it's just that I've gotten so used to using it.

I've always used store-bought lip stuff, but it has been on my mental "things to make" list for ages. Ninna's lips recently became really chapped from a combination of very dry indoor air and a bad cold. She refuses to use the kind of lip stuff I've always bought--Burt's Bees--because of the peppermint oil; she hates mint. The situation got so bad that I decided that she needed her own lip stuff, so, for the same reasons we recently made lotion, we made lip stuff.

This was so easy and pretty much foolproof! I know I say that about lots of things, like making crackers, but I'm serious--this is as easy as can be, and you needn't possess any special talents. The recipe we used was sort of a combination of the various lip balm recipes in Natural Beauty at Home, the same book we used to make the lotion.

The general recipe looks like this:

**Two parts coconut oil
**Two parts grape seed oil, or almond oil, or another similar oil
**One part grated beeswax
**(optional) a tiny amount of extract for flavor (like almond, vanilla, etc.)

Basically, you just want all of these melted together. She gives instructions for doing this in the microwave, but we don't have a microwave, so I can't speak from experience on how that works. The other option is to use a double-boiler or a rigged-up double-boiler, in our case, since we don't have one of those either. You can melt it (as we did with the lotion) by putting the ingredients in a flame/heatproof bowl, and then putting the bowl into a pan with an inch or so of water. Bring the water to a very gentle boil/simmer. If you want, you can stir the ingredients with a small implement to help it along; we used the thin end of a chopstick.

It melts pretty quickly. Then you simply pour it into a clean, dry container and let it harden. We have a couple of empty metal lip stuff containers that I had saved for this purpose, but they conveniently went missing on the day we made it, so I poured it into a small jar. I've now found one of the containers, so I'm planning to scoop some the lip stuff into it since the jar situation is a bit awkward.

In case you're wondering about the texture, here's a creepy photo of my finger with some of the lip stuff on it:It seems to work well so far, and Ninna really likes it. I like it also, though I have to admit to missing that minty/mentholy feeling, so I think next time I'll add some peppermint oil or something similar to some of it for myself.

If you aren't convinced to try this by my claims about easiness, consider the economics. We used one tablespoon of coconut oil, one tablespoon of grape seed oil, 1/2 tablespoon of grated beeswax, and maybe 1/8 of a teaspoon of almond extract. And that yielded a ton of lip stuff, probably enough to fill at least six of those little tubes. I think a tube of Burt's Bees costs about $3 here [EDITED: It's $4, in fact. I just checked today.] I'm thinking that this is coming out to be pennies per tube. No more than 50 cents at the very most.

And the environmental factor! I'm a little horrified thinking about the twenty-some years worth of lip stuff containers I've gone through. I'm so excited to be able to eliminate that waste. Sorry Burt! No hard feelings, ok?

Making lip stuff requires minimal time and effort. We made it while cooking dinner, and my helper grated the beeswax, so I didn't have to do much of anything. It is true that you need to have the supplies on hand, but we frequently cook with grape seed oil, so that's always right in the fridge. The recipe I most closely followed actually calls for almond oil, but in my quest to do fewer errands and buy fewer things, I just decided grape seed oil would have to suffice, and it was fine.

Lots of people are cooking with coconut oil these days because of the health benefits. We have a container of it that I have so far only used very sparingly for these types of purposes because it is on the expensive side, but again, it's a relatively common ingredient to have around. The only "extra" thing might be beeswax, but if you buy a little chunk of beeswax, it goes a long way. Most of these recipes only call for anywhere between 1/2 a teaspoon to a tablespoon of grated beeswax.

Have I convinced you to try it? Have you already made your own lip stuff? If you have any recommended recipes or tips, I'd love to hear them.

Toilet Paper Tube Marble Run

2011-03-25T20:12:00.006-04:00

My computer crashed this week, right as I was getting into working on an exciting upcoming project. I took it in to have it repaired and got it back last night. After getting over my excitement that the computer guy replaced the two missing keys on my keyboard for free, without being asked, I checked my email, and it was like Christmas. I got three emails about new editing jobs, a message from an old friend I hadn't heard from in awhile, a message from a new friend, and some very sweet words about my blog.

But none of that is really why I'm here. I'm writing tonight to tell you that we made something fun with toilet paper tubes. We save all of our empty toilet paper tubes to put in the hamster cage, but it seems we go through rolls of toilet paper far more often than we clean the hamster cage. The bathroom drawer that holds all of her supplies is literally packed to the brim with toilet paper rolls, so we decided to do something with them.

I remembered seeing a marble run on Made by Joel that, in my mind, was made of toilet paper rolls. I couldn't look it up since I didn't have my computer, but I figured I'd just be able to wing it. I've since learned, now that I have a working computer again, that his marble run was in fact made from a cereal box. So what's the deal--did I change the cereal box into toilet paper tubes in my mind, or did I see such a thing elsewhere? I have no clue.

If you happen to have a plethora of toilet paper tubes and would like to make a marble run, here's what we did:

Supplies

**Toilet paper tubes
**A tall piece of corrugated cardboard
**Glue gun
**Packing tape
**Scissors
**Marbles
**A bowl or other container to catch the marbles

Instructions

1. Cut the toilet paper tubes lengthwise. Make a second cut so that you are cutting off part of the tube--this will make it so you can see the marble when it's rolling down. I cut less than half of the tube off because I wanted there to be plenty of "side" to glue to the cardboard and still leave enough of a "wall" on the other side so the marbles wouldn't fall out.
2. Tape 3-4 of the partial tubes together, lengthwise. You could also use paper towel tubes for this instead, which would eliminate the need for taping, but I haven't bought paper towel in almost eight years, so we only have toilet paper tubes.
3. Using a glue gun, squirt glue down the length of one of the sides of your tube and press it firmly onto the cardboard, at an angle. Repeat this, alternating directions of the tube, until you reach the bottom (as shown in the finished product).

4. Stand it up, or tape it up, like we did, and put a container at the bottom to catch the marbles. You're ready to go! Once you're finished, you'll have to test it out and see if there are any flaws that need fixing. You'll notice that on the second tube from the top, I had to add an additional toilet paper tube because the marbles kept flying off when they got there.

I tried to take a video of this in action today, but my little video camera was out of batteries. I have to say I'm amazed at how much the chicks love this thing. I thought maybe it was going to be one of those things that kept their interest for a few minutes before they moved on, but the only thing that stopped them from playing with it was my telling them that we needed to eat dinner. They will sit there and squeal and scream, pouring down a constant stream of 2-3 marbles at a time.

The only downside to this is the marbles that inevitably end up all over the house. This is the sort of thing that I don't have much patience for. Stepping on a marble or a lego drives me nuts. This will be a good opportunity for me to work on that, I suppose...

Spring Equinox Celebrations

2011-03-20T22:45:00.005-04:00

Despite the fact that we have snow showers predicted for four out of the next ten days (Oh, Montreal...), we are mentally plowing right into spring. The chicks were with their dad for the weekend, so in between working (both on editing and on a fun, upcoming project), a bit of socializing, and some cleaning, I got us ready for spring, starting with a super easy sewing project--a spring bunting:

I'm a little on the fence about the colors; I can't decide if it says "spring," or if it says "Easter," which is not exactly what I was going for. Maybe I'll leave this up until Easter and then switch it out for something else.

After the chicks returned, I sent them on a treasure hunt, using these clues:

Do you ever make treasure hunts? I love them. I always accidentally call them "scavenger hunts," but I don't think that's what I mean. I mean the type of hunt during which you read a clue that leads you to the next clue, and so on, until you find the treasure. I set them up for the kids every so often. I secretly have fun writing and hiding the clues, and the chicks, particularly Ninna, really love looking for them. Ninna still very much loves any kind of game that involves hiding and seeking/searching, so a treasure hunt is right up her alley.

When one of the clues sent them over to the kitchen table, Ninna excitedly asked if the new spring tablecloth was the prize. I thought smugly about how appreciative my children are, but then when the next clue sent them to their clothesline, she excitedly asked "oh, did you wash our pajamas?" I try not to laugh out loud at my children unless they're intentionally being funny, but I couldn't hold it in. Are my cleaning skills really that bad that she would get that excited about clean pajamas? I think I'd prefer not to hear the answer.

The treasure was neither a tablecloth nor clean laundry; it was a couple of new spring books I had been saving for this occasion. I put away the winter books from our seasonal book basket and replaced them with the spring ones, which now includes the "treasure" books:

And we planted our ceremonial first seeds:

The traditional planting period in Montreal is the long weekend associated with Victoria Day, which this year is May 21st-23rd. This means that the seeds that need to be started 8-10 weeks before planting day need to be started now, and we can start on some of the 6-8 week ones as well. I still don't have a concrete gardening plan for this year, so we just started with basil (which technically is not an 8-10 week seed) and impatiens from saved seeds, mainly just to get something in the dirt. The leftover bags of soil from last year were frozen solid in the garage, so we had to pick at them with shovels to get enough dirt to fill our (re-used for the third time) seedling containers.

How have you ushered in the spring? Are you truly experiencing spring weather, or are you just pretending, like we are?

Self Portrait Saturday #19, March 19th, 2011: Sewing and Supermoon

2011-03-19T21:03:00.004-04:00

Technically, I'm not sewing--I'm replacing the bobbin:

I recently moved the sewing machine into the dining room. I'm storing it on top of the art cabinet until I figure out a better set-up, but I'm so thrilled to have moved it. If I can see my machine, I will sew. If I can't, I won't. So tonight, I'm sewing some goodies for the return of spring, something for which I cannot wait (even though we still have snow showers in our forecast for later in the week...)

And here's the Supermoon, as seen from the front balcony:

To be perfectly honest, I'd never heard of such a thing until two weeks ago. It's worth viewing, definitely. There were several families out in the street looking at it. Very cute.

Good night, and see you in The Spring, y'all!

Homemade Granola, oh However Could I Forget about You?

2011-03-13T21:57:00.004-04:00

And yet I do. I make a batch of you, and I sing your praises while we eat every last crumb of you, promising to make a fresh batch every few weeks until I'm senile. Then we move onto other foods, and the next thing I know, it's eight months later and I'm suddenly remembering how nice it would be to eat granola. And since store-bought granola is, as far as I'm concerned, priced out of reach of most mere mortals, this means we simply don't eat granola.

So now I have a solution. I've just made myself a new grocery-type list, only this one is not for shopping. In the spirit of continuing to move towards a "making" mentality and away from a "buying" mentality, this morning I started a second food list on the fridge for things I need to make sure I always have made. So far it only has three things on it (because I have a terrible memory and can't think of what else I make to keep around): bread, chicken stock, and granola.

Bread is a no-brainer since I make about 95% of our bread. Chicken stock is somewhat obvious, but I don't pay too much attention when we're running out--I just make it every time I roast a chicken. So I'll do a better job keeping up on that so there's never a need to reach for that last 1/2 square of bouillon I have in the cupboard. And now, granola. This batch made three big jars, but this time when it runs out, I'll remember to make it. As the weeks go by and I start thinking of things I make or would like to make to keep around (as opposed to making on the spot, for a meal), I'll add them to the list. Can I tell you how excited I am about this?

I realize that for many people, this is probably the most obvious thing in the world. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this on my blog, but cooking is a relatively new thing in my life. Sure, I thought I was cooking, but up until 2 1/2 years ago, I didn't even realize that humans actually made risotto from scratch or that they roasted whole chickens. I didn't know you could make pancakes without pancake mix. Feel free to laugh. In addition to cooking, the planning of cooking is also new(ish) to me, something I only started once I became a mother, but still need improvement on, hence my ridiculous excitement about my "to have made on hand" list.

For those interested, the granola above is an adaptation of the basic granola recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, one of my go-to cookbooks. Here's the general gist of what I included:

6 cups rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup coconut
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon cinnamon
heaping 1/2 teaspoon ginger
heaping 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
heaping 1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup maple syrup
pinch salt

In the interest of making this affordable (still much more so than store-bought granola), I did the following:

cut down the coconut from 1 cup to 3/4 cup
used the tiniest amount of dried cranberries since unsweetened cranberries are not only hard to find, they're also expensive. I added just enough to get a little sense that they were there.
used the minimum amount of sweetener, 1/2 cup of maple syrup (he calls for 1/2 cup to 1 cup). I made up for the lost flavor by adding lots of spices. It's still so delicious that I'm certain I can go even lower next time, so I'll perhaps try 1/4 cup and even more spices next time.
used only 1 cup of nuts and included inexpensive seeds for the rest of the "crunch" factor

And now I'm dying to know--what foods do you make to keep on hand? I guess once we get into the summer, this will also include preserving of summer produce for the rest of the year. I got started with that a little bit last summer, and I'm so excited to do more this year.

Self Portrait Saturday #18, March 12th, 2011: Riding the Metro

2011-03-12T22:03:00.006-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I took the chicks to the Biodome. Because we are now a car-free family, we took public transportation. The Biodome is on the opposite side of the city from us, and our options were these: A. take a series of three or four buses, a trip which would total about an hour and 45 minutes one way, or B. take the metro, about a 45 minute trip.

There was obviously only one real choice here; we took the metro. Why am I telling you this? Though we've lived in Montreal for 2 1/2 years, this was the first time I'd taken my girls on the metro. Ever. I've taken it by myself loads of times. The problem with taking the chicks is getting down there. There are no elevators in the metro stations, so you have to take between two and four (depending on the station) very long escalators to get down, and then again to get back up. Escalators give me a tiny bit of vertigo as is. When you add in the fact that in order to take two kids, I have to push a stroller with a 2 1/2 year old onto an insanely long escalator with one hand and pull a slightly reluctant 4 1/2 year old on with the other hand...well, it just always seemed like too much. I always had these cartoonish visions in my head of all of us just tumbling to the bottom.

I know, it's absurd. But we all have our fears, I guess. Since we no longer have a car, I had to choose between getting over that fear or just deciding that we wouldn't go to metro-only destinations as a family until the kids were a little older. The latter seemed ridiculously lame, so I chose the former. And we did it! We took the metro. And we didn't roll down a 15 meter escalator. We did just fine. And I've even taken them on it again since then.

I still don't love it, but we can manage, which is very exciting. So here we are on that first metro trip, blurry as can be since I took the photos while we were moving:
And here's Ninna surveying one of the stations during a stop:

Brought to You by the Internet

2011-03-11T20:29:00.004-05:00

Here are some of the fun and/or inspiring links I've recently starred in my feed reader:

**Amazing felt food inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar at No Big Dill's Once Upon a Thread series. The whole series is worth checking out. Each day, a very talented blogger shares a project based on a beloved children's book.

**Bathtub Puffy Paint How-to at Chalk in my Pocket. I am certain my girls will go crazy for this. I just need to get some white bar soap, and we'll try it.

**Zombie-Creating Fungi Video at Huffington Post. OK, I realize this is not even remotely, tangentially, or in any way related to the topics of this blog. But this video is crazy! It's only about three or four minutes long, and you get to see how an airborne fungus turns ants into zombies. Mind-control fungi. Just what you need to be watching on your Friday night.

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And here's the link to my most recent post at Simple Kids which went up on Wednesday. I wrote about some ways in which single parents of small children can make it through the witching hour unscathed, but the tips can be used by non-single parents as well, of course. It even comes with a free PDF download for the nerdy organizer/planner in you!

Happy Weekend!

Jaimie

A Very Simple Harold and the Purple Crayon-Inspired Art Project

2011-03-10T21:04:00.003-05:00

On the art day of Mama's Spring Break Camp, the chicks and two of their friends did a collaborative drawing project that seemed to really engage them. I first read them Harold and the Purple Crayon, one of our favorite art-themed stories. I then ripped off a long piece of easel paper and taped it to the hallway floor, setting out crayon cakes and beeswax crayons for drawing.

I told the kids they could draw a world just like Harold did with his crayon. I really had no idea if they would find this even remotely appealing, and I also had no clue if the collaboration component was going to work. I had thought of the project about an hour before and just taped down the paper and hoped for the best.

I'm happy to report that not only did they have fun, but they were very serious about the project and all four of them actually discussed, the entire time they were drawing, what their plans were and what they were making. Ninna drew roads, Bojey drew a lake, our little friend in the Dorothy dress drew some people, and our other friend drew...something I can't remember. Whatever it was, he worked very hard on it!

Here's the finished product:

Have you tried any collaborative art projects with your kids? Were they successful? I'd like to try something like this again, but I don't want to push it. I think it really takes a lot to be able to work together on a creative project like this--I know adults who can't or wouldn't want to compromise their ideas, so I can imagine how challenging this can be for little people. On the other hand, since the experience was so nice, I'd like to give them the opportunity again.

Mardi Gras Masks

2011-03-08T22:19:00.005-05:00

Inspired by the always-wonderful Filth Wizardry, though ours are a bit more...basic, if you will ;).

A Window into Another World: a Fun Addition to your "House Play" Area

2011-03-07T20:18:00.003-05:00

A very long time ago, probably at least a year and a half ago, I painted a pretend window for the chicks' closet. The doors are removed, and they use the bottom half of the closet as a play area. For a long time it was Ninna's "office," but as Bojey became old enough to play, and the office somehow lost its appeal, we moved the doll bunk beds and doll high chair in there, and it became more of a "house" area.

I had intended to sew curtains for the fake window the following week, but instead, I sewed them today, about 18 months later. But nonetheless, they're done! And here's the window, in all its curtained glory:
Ninna, who, like her mother, cannot wait for spring, remarked that "it's always summer in that world!" If only it could be so on this side of that window.

If there were a tutorial, it would look like this:

1. Using your severe lack of technical skill, paint a window frame and behind it, an outdoor scene.

2. Eighteen months later, lay on the couch during nap time and send your 4 1/2 year old into the other room to search through your fabric stash for the right curtain fabric, hoping you are buying yourself a 10 minute nap. Be greatly disappointed when, exactly 27.5 seconds later, she emerges proudly carrying her top three choices.

3. Sew a simple curtain.

Aaaaaaaaaand there you have it. The chicks seem to be very excited about it. They closed the curtain before bedtime. I guess it was letting too much sun in...

Fingerknitted Headband: An Easy Preschool Project (with Some Parental Help Involved)

2011-03-03T22:26:00.007-05:00

Last Sunday we went to the fifth birthday party of a very sweet little friend of ours, and Ninna wanted to make her own present, preferably something finger knitted. So far the only "official" thing she's made (not including the many, many lengths of cord) is a hot pink jump rope for my dad (dad...it will be on its way in the mail ;). We decided that she would make a headband for this gift.

Seeing as Ninna likes to be on top of things (she had already finished making three cards for our friend days before the party arrived), she promptly sat down and knitted a pink cord. Here's what you need to do to make the headband:

1. Have your child finger knit a cord, longer than you think it needs to be. If you don't know how, there are plenty of clear tutorials and videos online. It's a great, simple handwork skill for small children.

2. Cut a piece of elastic a few inches long. I went with 1/2 inch wide elastic--not too wide, not too narrow. This isn't designed to be visible; it just helps keep the headband on and helps to stretch it over the child's head.

3. Sew one end of the cord to one end of the elastic. You could do this by hand, I'm sure, but I generally use the machine whenever possible, and I also like to obsessively reinforce things like this. I used a wide zig zag stitch and went back and forth over it somewhere in the vicinity of 650,000 times:

4. Wrap the half-finished headband around your child's head to gauge how long it should be, and then remove it, holding the other end of the elastic to the cord where you'll need to sew.

5. Sew the other end of the elastic to the cord in the same obsessive manner.

6. Trim the excess knitted cord.

7. Trim the corners of the elastic a bit to round the edges, smoothing the transition from elastic to cord.

8. Take photos of your child in the headband while telling her you can't get enough of her dimple:
And if it's a gift, why not make your own wrapping paper? Here's Ninna making hers:
We were both really happy with the way this turned out, and I have several fun ideas for variations to try in the future.

Book Talk: Art-themed Children's Books

2011-03-02T17:50:00.004-05:00

You've seen Picasso's quote, many times, I'm sure: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

Not only do I wholeheartedly believe this, but I would consider it to be a significant concept at the core of my approach to parenting. I've had kids' art books on my mind since last week, having chosen some to read on our "art" day during Mama's Spring Break Camp. For small children, I'm much more interested in storybooks that put the child in the position of artist than those that serve to "educate" children on who's who in the world of dead masters. I certainly believe those have a place, but I think they're best saved for children slightly older than my own. The following three books allow the child to envision him or herself as the artist in one way or another, and all are highly recommended by our little family.

Norman the Doorman:

Written by Don Freeman, of Corduroy fame, this story, as far as I'm concerned, is at least as charming as his better-known works (which I do also enjoy.) Norman is a mouse who lives in the basement of a museum where he has set himself up with a home and studio inside of an old knight's helmet. He "works" as the doorman for mouse visitors to the museum who view the extras stored in the basement, but he's an artist by night. The story follows the adventures that ensue when he anonymously enters the museum's sculpture contest. Norman's position as both the underdog and an "unofficial" artist encourage the reader to identify with him.

I Am An Artist This simple picture book serves to expand our idea of what it means to be an artist. Each page begins with "I am an artist when..." followed by a statement such as "I look through a sun shower for a rainbow." Without explicitly saying so, it explores the possibility that being an artist is as much about perception and experience as it is about technical skill--an idea that holds much value for small children who simply don't have the coordination or practice to produce what might be considered "great" pieces of art. The style and color schemes of the images encourage repeated observation.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

I almost feel silly even mentioning this book because I'm sure you're familiar with it, but who knows--I know even with all of my experience studying English, there are plenty of "classics" I've never read. Harold and the Purple Crayon is very special to me as it is a component of some of my favorite memories from elementary school. They happened not in the classroom, but in the library, sitting between the shelves reading whatever book had recently caught my attention. I distinctly remember looking over and over at this book--the simple purple line drawings are as vivid in my mind as they are on the page today. Harold, for the uninitiated, is a boy who draws the world of his imagination with a single purple crayon. What you may not know (I didn't until a couple of years ago) is that there are several other Harold stories as well, and they're available as a little anthology.

We have other stories that are art-related in some way, but none that quite do what I think these stories do. I'd love to add more to our list of favorites. What children's art-themed books do you recommend?

Ice Bunting Round-Up!

2011-03-01T21:04:00.009-05:00

I've got a million posts in my head, but I found myself exhausted this past week with no real identifiable reason. So instead of risking illness and staying up late, I just went to bed once the minimum was accomplished for the night. But now I'm feeling somewhat refreshed and am very excited to present to you a collection of ice bunting links and photos.

I have to tell you that when we made the ice bunting, I thought people were going to think I was a total weirdo. And while they probably do, they also apparently really enjoyed the ice bunting! I'm excited and flattered to say that I've now lost track of all the places it's been featured. That page has now been viewed 5,000 times, far more than any other page on this blog.

Many people have been kind enough to email me, leave a comment, or link to me when they tried their own version, and I've now seen many fun and beautiful interpretations. I'm very excited to share some of those with you tonight. So here, in no particular order, are the ice buntings:

Greeniezona's Ice Bunting:
The Enchanted Tree's Hanging Ice Hearts (Inspired by the Ice Bunting):
Angela's Ice Bunting:
Gretchen's Tree Ornaments (also inspired by the Ice Bunting):

Ella-Bean and Co.'s Vertical Ice Bunting:

Regan's Ice Bunting:
Bright Life in Nebraska's Ice Bunting:

And Baby Makes Four's Ice Bunting:Tabatha's Ice Bunting:

Many, many thanks to all of you who tried this idea and made the effort to share the results with me! If you've made an ice bunting, or something inspired by it, and you'd like it featured, message me or comment and I'll add it to the list.

Snow Painting: Mama's Spring Break Camp Day Three (Art)

2011-02-23T14:17:00.006-05:00

This is the first time we've tried painting on snow, and it turns out it's pretty entertaining. This, for us, was definitely process-focused and not product-focused. There's something really cool about watching how the snow sucks up the paint, or how the paint sinks into the snow--however you want to look at it. It reminds me a lot of getting a sno cone at a fair, when they pour bright artificially colored sugar water over the ice shavings.

I'm not sure what other people usually do, but I just made some jars of very watered-down liquid watercolors, and we brought out paintbrushes. The regular, wide, round paintbrushes worked really well. The sponge brush did not. Our snow is perfect for this right now--it has a dense, hard layer on top, so you really can pretty much just paint on it. If you had thick piles of very fluffy snow, I think you'd have to take a different approach.
Do you see what I see in the following photo? Bojey, happily engaged in a winter activity! It was actually pretty warm (relatively warm, I should say), so her mitten refusal didn't affect her too much.
After Bojey went down for nap, it was snow painting, round two, complete with new full jars of paints, for Ninna and our two neighbors:
I recommend trying this if you've got the right kind of snow. I was a little skeptical, but now that we've done it I'd definitely do it again.

Mama's Spring Break Camp

2011-02-21T20:45:00.005-05:00

Ninna has spring break (or winter break?) this week, and since we aren't going anywhere, I decided we'd have Mama's Spring Break Camp. It's sort of serving double-duty as a fun spring break activity and an experiment in what it would be like to home school, something we're unsure about at the moment.

I organized the week around the theme of winter (pretty clever, huh?), with a different focus each day:

Monday: Baking
Tuesday: Nature
Wednesday: Art
Thursday: Field Trip
Friday: Music

Just to add to the novelty and the cuteness factor, I made each chick a set of badges to earn after the day's activities, kind of like you would do in Girl Scouts. Here are their badge sheets (with their real names blurred) after baking today. They aren't winning any design awards since I made them last night at midnight using clip art from a super old version of Word, but the chicks don't know the difference:
Each day they'll add another badge, and at the end of the week they'll be proud and claim they want to keep their sheets forever. Weeks will go by, I'll get tired of looking at them, and then one day I'll sneak them into the recycling bin when the chicks are at their dad's, and they'll be forgotten forever. Sounds mean, but if I kept every piece of paper the chicks decide they need, there would be no room for furniture in our house.

So today was baking, only loosely connected to winter in that it's a warming activity, and warm it did. The oven was on for about four hours straight this morning, and I think our house was the warmest it's been all winter. We baked bread, two different kinds of crackers, and oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm happy to report that we tried a more whole-grain cracker than last time, and they came out quite well. We used 50/50 whole wheat flour and white flour. I'll try upping the whole wheat flour even more next time.

I gave each chick a little blob of cracker dough. Ninna rolled hers almost as thin as paper and then meticulously scored the dough into what ultimately become the tiniest crackers known to man.

Bojey compulsively ate her dough, not stopping to even pretend to roll it for a second. I guess we don't need a photo of that.

We also read a story and a poem following our theme. I didn't make it to the library and had to look on our bookshelves for baking-related kids' lit. I came up with almost nothing, but we do have this crazy book called Something Absolutely Enormous, an out-of-print thrift store find that you can get used on Amazon for the low, low price of $154.97. It's about a little girl who's obsessed with knitting and knits nonstop until she creates a massive knitted object. At the end, she tires of knitting and takes up baking. It's only tangentially related to the theme, but my chicks like it, and it's all we had. I also found a cute poem called "Fairy Bread" in A Child's Garden of Verses, which was accompanied by a very sweet image drawn by the lovely Tasha Tudor.

So that was baking day. Success! And now we have baked treats to eat the rest of the week. I'm really looking forward to "nature" tomorrow. In the meantime, here's one more photo of the chicks. I can't get enough of these munchkins:

Apparently I am a Stage 2/3 Immigrant, and a Happy Breakfast for this Midwestern Girl

2011-02-18T16:53:00.007-05:00

When we moved to Montreal from California in the summer of 2008, Bojey was twelve days old. This means, as you can deduce, that yes, I indeed made a 3,000 mile, international move when I was twelve days post-partum. I wouldn't recommend it.

But after a few months of flat out confusion, I started to get my bearings and began to really like Montreal. Over the subsequent two years, personal crises aside, I found friends, a community garden, favorite stores, favorite parks--all the things that come with feeling like you really live somewhere.

Recently, however, I've started to become increasingly irritated and impatient with all of the complicated things I still have to navigate--steps toward becoming a permanent resident, international taxes, school boards (if we decide to go with public school instead of home schooling), etc. I find myself making broad generalizations about the city and its programs and making mental, non-verbal threats during which a part of my brain says "forget it, just leave this place."

While I was reflecting on this the other day, I started to have the distinct impression that I wasn't blazing a trail but rather following the path of many an immigrant before me, almost to the point of being a stereotype or caricature. So I googled something like "stages of an immigrant" and found this:

"1. Honeymoon Phase.

Most people begin with great expectations and a positive mind-set. There is excitement, new sights, new smells, new tastes and the early problems are experienced as quaint - as part of the newness - anything new is intriguing and exciting. And, anyway, there are more pressing problems to deal with, like opening bank accounts, getting drivers licences, finding schools, doctors, dentists, gynaecologists. These are usually handled with the accompanying euphoria of having overcome each of these first hurdles successfully.

2. Rejection Phase.

The honeymoon phase comes to an end as the newcomer has to deal with transportation problems (buses that don't come on time), shopping problems (can't buy their favourite foods or soaps or whatever) or communication problems [...] Little things come up but it may start to seem like people somehow no longer care about your problems. They may help, but they don't seem to understand your concern over what they see as small problems. You might even start to think that the people in your new country don't like newcomers and often you may begin to feel aggressive and start to complain about the new culture/country - 'Australians are ' ', or 'The system is ''. It is important to recognize that these feelings are real and can become acute. This phase is a crisis phase in the 'disease' of culture shock and is called the "rejection" phase precisely because it is at this point that the newcomer starts to reject the host country, complaining about and noticing only the bad things that bother them. At this stage the newcomer either gets stronger and stays, or gets weaker and goes home (physically, mentally or both).

3. Regression Phase.

If you have struggled with phase 2, you may find yourself moving into regression - moving backward - and in this phase of culture shock, you spend much of your time speaking your own language, watching videos from your home country, eating food from home. You may also notice that you are moving in social circles which are exclusively made up of people from your own background [...] You may spend most of this time complaining about the new country/culture and its strange and senseless ways. Also in the regression phase, you may only remember the good things about your home country which may suddenly seem marvellously wonderful; all the difficulties that you had there are forgotten and you may find yourself wondering why you ever left. You may now only remember your home country as a wonderful place in which nothing ever went wrong for you. Of course, this is not true, but an illusion created by your culture shock crisis."

******

You can find various versions of this all over online. Stages two and three apparently last two to five years. I now remember reading about this in college when I briefly studied the teaching of ESL and volunteered teaching a family of Bosnian refugees to speak and read English. So there you have it. I'm apparently a stage 2/3 immigrant.

But here and there I have little experiences that pull me out of my irritation. Like this morning. The chicks and I had some errands to do, and I decided to take us out to breakfast. I don't often do this as it's not really in our budget (that whole working-part-time-from-home-single-mom thing), but I decided to do it today. We found what I've missed for years now: an artery-clogging, diner-ish breakfast place.

We stumbled upon the Resto Cafe Oxford and I knew before we walked in the door that this was a place for us. It's extraordinarily tiny, with just two long rows of mostly two-person tables. The window is lined with planters full of overgrown spider plants, and piles of free papers and a large grill greet you at the door. I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd been to a place like this until the owner walked over and poured coffee into a mug already waiting at our table. Coffee is free until 11:00 AM, and it's pretty much expected that you'll have it. That, I have to say, feels like home to me.

The menu looks just like those in the breakfast places a midwestern girl finds herself in after waking up on a Saturday or Sunday morning, eating a huge breakfast while reviewing with her friends the previous night's festivities. Only this time it was me eating with my most frequent, very small, very messy companions. And I'm thrilled to say that they were welcomed with open arms (and a high chair), something I struggle with as children seem to be unwelcome in many places here (see above paragraphs on stage 2/3 immigrants...)

After eating our delicious breakfast, we went for a walk and discovered a charming used book and record store. The chicks and I sat on the floor in the children's section for 45 minutes poring over the varied and lovely used books, searching for a few to take home with us.

It was a good day. I guess I can stay in Montreal.

The Post in Which I Pretend not to Complain about the Annoying Thing that Happened

2011-02-17T20:24:00.008-05:00

All day I thought I'd write about our experience at the kids' hair salon during Bojey's haircut yesterday, a task I usually take care of myself except in cases when I need some help with the removal of unintentional dreadlocks. I was particularly irritated by the stylist who shoved cheap lollipop after cheap lollipop in my daughter's mouth to "distract" her despite the fact that Bojey was perfectly happy to sit in the car-shaped seat and hold her lovey, never making any attempt to get down or even move her head. Irritation turned to anger when she insisted on turning on an Elmo video in direct violation of my statement that Bojey doesn't watch TV.

She was so certain that my child couldn't possibly sit for a few minutes without TV that she actually changed videos when she realized Bojey wasn't paying the least bit of attention to the first one, thinking, I guess, that Bojey's taste in mindless kids' entertainment was so discerning that if she just put on the right one, she would watch it. My one last feeble attempt to get her to stop was met with "well, you know she's going to see TV at friends' houses," as if Bojey were a twelve-year old stopping by her friends' houses after basketball practice instead of a stay-at-home two year old.

And swirling around in my head are all kinds of "what is this world coming to?"s and "is this really how people are raising their kids?"s and "maybe I need to go move to a commune"s. But I'm not in the mood for this. I'm not in the mood to spend even more time thinking about this obnoxious experience, so instead, I'll share a little bit of this:

This, dear readers, was very easy and very well-received. I simply attached a piece of yarn to both sides of the room with a push pin and hung a sheet over it. Voila, instant fort. I'm thinking of screwing eye hooks into the wall and window frame to provide a little more support. When I tried to hang a second sheet across the remaining yarn, the weight of the fabric pulled the push pins out of the wall.Here is Ninna upon realizing the fort was tall enough for her to stand up inside. This kid cracks me up.
I used clothespins to keep the sheet from scooting itself down the yarn.
This was inspired by something I saw on Ohdeedoh at some point--there was something similar to this in a child's room tour. If I figure out what it was (unlikely since it was ages ago), I'll come back and link to it.

Good night! Oh, and PS--anyone want to me my 100th follower? You'll reap fame and fortune by helping roll that 99 over to a nice, even number ;). And those of you already reading/following/subscribing--thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm having so much fun in this little space, and I love engaging with you.

Oops--Sorry Subscribers!

2011-02-15T15:54:00.003-05:00

If you're reading this in a feed reader and just got a really weird post that made no sense, I'm sorry! I was trying to post a comment on another (wonderful!) blog, and in the most bizarre series of events, it somehow came up as a post on my blog. So in case you're wondering, here's the blog:

Down to Earth

It's all about simple living. I recently learned about it from Soulemama.

See you soon with a more logical post!

Valentine's Day 2011: Felt Hearts and a Questionable Teachable Moment

2011-02-14T20:42:00.014-05:00

I always hear people talk about teachable moments in parenting, those times when an error, or poor behavior choice, or strange event, or anything, really, provides us with a chance to implicitly teach our children something about the world. I'm sure I navigate hundreds of those every week, just like all parents, but most of the time it's done automatically.

Occasionally, however, I'm confronted with what I'm sure is one of those great teachable moments, and I have no idea what to do. And this is what happened today.

Last night, I stayed up too late needle-felting a small heart for each chick for Valentine's Day (yes, I had known for 364 days that another Valentine's Day was on its way...). These were my first needle felting projects and, while they are a little wonky and a little too thin, I was generally happy with them and excited to present them to the chicks.

Morning came, much too soon for an overly-tired needle-felting mama, and I gave each chick her Valentine's Day present: a felted heart and a chocolate ladybug. Both girls' eyes absolutely lit up at the sight of the hearts, and Ninna actually said "oooooooooh!" I was about to scribble this down on my mental list of parenting successes when Ninna realized that I was handing the lavender heart to Bojey and the fuchsia heart to her. Suddenly she was spouting projectile tears, horrified that I failed to get the memo that she had changed her favorite color to lavender at some point in the previous twelve hours. She continued to cry and refused the heart.

Now, I have to say that this is not typical Ninna behavior. It's really not. If it were, I probably would have been extremely annoyed. But this was clearly a bit of an emotional outburst by a four and a half year old. So I wasn't annoyed, but I was...I don't know what--confused? Yes, confused, I suppose, not so much about what was happening but about how to respond. I didn't really want to make a big deal out of it, but I had to do something.

I first nonchalantly asked Bojey if perhaps she wanted to trade, as if she were not fully aware of what was happening before her eyes. Bojey, being smart enough to know that she possessed the prize, informed us that she'd like to keep the lavender one, thank-you-very-much. Eventually some distraction presented itself, and we moved on to getting the chicks dressed.

A little while later, I decided to tell Ninna that during Bojey's nap, she and I would sit on the couch and I would needle felt her another heart while we had a conversation about gift-giving and receiving. What that pretty much boils down to is this: I still didn't have a great response, but I thought perhaps I'd get a lightening bolt of inspiration by the time Bojey's naptime rolled around.

Lunchtime came and went, I put Bojey down to sleep, and I sat down with Ninna, still waiting for the inspiration...and it never came. I think if I were reading a novel, or someone's autobiography, this would be one of those formative moments when the protagonist's mother opens her mouth and pearls of wisdom spill out, time stops, and we are all be better people for having been exposed to the sage words of this gentle, all-knowing matriarch.

Except it was me, overly-tired, sitting in front of a fake fireplace, pushing a pile of crap over to the other end of the couch so there was room to sit, plopping myself down and waiting for that matriarch to whisper those words in my ear so I could pass them on to Ninna. And she didn't, so I had to make them up.

I honestly don't even remember what I said because it really wasn't noteworthy. I mumbled something about how we thank people when they make things for us, not necessarily because we like the object, but because we appreciate the fact that they took the time to make something for us. The thing is, I don't want Ninna to think that she has to pretend to like something that she doesn't, or, worse still, that she has to try to force herself to actually like the thing. On the other hand, a little gratitude never hurt anyone.

I think, ultimately, the lesson for her ended up having nothing to do with what I was trying to convey. She was so thoroughly excited by the uninterrupted hour with me on the couch, while I was doing nothing but chatting with her and making her something, that the focus for her wasn't that she was learning a lesson, but that she was getting one-on-one time with mama. And, perhaps, a little bit of recognition that we deserve forgiveness even when we burst into tears when someone gives us a present.
Did I do the right thing? Did I do the wrong thing? I don't really know. When I thought about it later, I could envision parenting "experts" with opposing viewpoints finding equally viable flaws in my approach. Those who are even more focused than I on being sensitive to children's developmental expectations might not like my desire to teach this sort of gratitude and selflessness to one so young. On the flip side, those who are far more strict and conservative in their parenting views might think I was a pushover for making her a new present.

So I guess I feel OK right where I am, today. Right at my little point of parenting that seems to be successful, most of the time, for me and my chicks.

And with that, I say, Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your holiday teachable moments went smoothly ;).

Flip up Heart-Shaped Valentines with Sticker Slots

2011-02-12T20:16:00.008-05:00

I failed miserably as far as my plan for a snow drawing self-portrait today. So miserably, in fact, that we didn't even make it outside. Ah, well. These days happen. And it's not like Bojey was complaining.

We did accomplish something today--the bulk of the valentine-making for Ninna's little preschool. This is quite late for a Valentine's Day tutorial, but I wanted to have it saved for next year so I'll be able to remember what we did, and who knows...maybe someone else out there is more last-minute than I. It's possible, right?

At some point, either Ninna or I, or maybe both of us together, decided to make heart-shaped valentines. I also wanted to add a little something (something extraordinarily inexpensive and not of the candy variety) to the cards as a little "bonus," so we cut slots to add stickers. Here's how to do what we did:

1. Make a heart pattern for your card shape. I initially printed out a clip art heart, but I didn't like the shape, so I modified it. You'll want to cut the tips off the top of the heart, as my note shows in the photo. When you trace the heart, the fold line of the card will match up with those cut-off tips, and you'll have enough of the folded part to keep the card together (instead of just cutting out two separate hearts):
If you want to be sure the sides are identical, just fold the heart in half and cut it out that way. Maybe you don't want them identical, though. I considered doing a more artsy, uneven shape, but then decided against it for no particular reason.
2. Fold your cardstock/construction paper/cardboard/etc. in half. I had a piece approximately 9 x 12, so I folded it longways and ended up with enough space for two cards. Remember that you'll be putting the top of the heart on the fold line.
3. Make the fold nice and sharp. I ran a ruler along the fold to press it down:
4. Trace your pattern onto the cardstock:

5. Cut out the cards. Be sure to cut out the tiny triangle shape at the top in between the heart's two "bumps":
Here it is open. Isn't it cute?
6. Using an exacto knife, Make two slits, close together. These will be to hold your little "extra," so make sure they're long enough to fit whatever you want to use. We added stickers, but you could add a tiny folded-up note, a temporary tattoo, really anything small and flat.
Here, again, is the card with sample stickers added:
7. Decorate the cards. I didn't take very many photos of this, but it's actually the best part for the kids. I first sent Ninna to the art counter with an empty basket and instructions to find all the pink, red, and white drawing utensils (markers, colored pencils, stick crayons, block crayons, etc.) She then drew/colored on all the cards.

She then applied heart stickers:
And finally, the moment she had waited for all day, the application of glitter glue. My kids love glitter glue. Just in case you haven't thought of this, I'm sharing my tip for making glitter glue easier for kids to use: I squirt it onto a paint palette and give them paintbrushes. I find that the glitter glue tubes are often impossible for kids to squeeze hard enough, so this method works much better for us. Just be sure to wash the brushes and palette immediately after, or you might not get the glue off. If you want an alternative to paintbrushes, you can give them a couple of Q-tips.I didn't get a good shot of the finished valentines before it got dark out. We've still got a lot of work left. I need to make envelopes (something that's actually quite fun once you get going), and then Ninna needs to write names on them and sign the cards. I know what we'll be up to tomorrow :).

Edited to add: I meant to say this and forgot--the total cost of these valentines was exactly $0.00. The "cardstock" we used was actually old red file folders we had lying around. The art supplies were just standards we have in the art cabinet. And the stickers were from a grandma package that arrived last Valentine's day. I save the extras in the seasonal stuff so they don't get used up at other times of the year. Even the stickers we're putting in the slots will come from our sticker pile. So the only cost to us was the time involved in making them. No need to spend a lot of money on these things!

Snow Drawing and Playing Outside

2011-02-11T12:24:00.003-05:00

This morning, we made this:
Or really, to be perfectly honest, I made it. I was inspired by this post on Ohdeedoh. Click over--it will be worth your while to see the snow drawing of a T-Rex. Then come back to me :).

Clearly my little Valentine's image is nothing compared to that dinosaur, but I figured out my technique as I was going; you can probably see that the small hearts are much neater than the big one. Seriously, this was so much fun. And by that I mean, for me. I've got plans for more in my head, and I can't wait to do the next one. If we didn't have an outing this afternoon for which I have to get ready in a few minutes, I'd be on the balcony making one right now.

We also played, but for us that means Ninna joyfully climbs, digs, falls, sleds, and attempts her mom's crazy art ideas, while Bojey is miserable and fusses and cries until we reach a hysterical crescendo of screams after about 25 minutes, and then we have to go inside. You see, this child does not wear mittens. She has never worn them in her life. I put them on her, and she rips them off after 10 seconds. I've tried everything I can think of.

Living in Montreal, as you might imagine, is difficult for the un-mittened one. Here, as Ninna is pulling her into the backyard to start playing, you can see that Bojey is already planning her misery:

And when we get to the yard, this is how she plants herself, thumb in mouth, lovey in hand, while she bides her time until she can scream us back into the house:

This child only lived in California until she was twelve days old, but based on her pure hatred of the cold, you'd think she'd lived there forty years!

Here's one last shot--Ninna attempting her own snow drawing:
Have a great weekend! I'm not kidding about more snow drawings. I'm laughing out loud right now at the absurd idea I have for tomorrow. I hope it works so I can post it :).

February: A Time for Germs, it Seems

2011-02-09T21:41:00.003-05:00

It's been quiet around here since we made crackers. I had a bad cold over the weekend. I woke up early Saturday to go to a workshop (that I can't wait to tell more about later this year!), but I realized I was headed for a cold/flu, so I went back to bed and showed up an hour and 45 minutes late.

This is new for me. I used to believe I didn't have time to get sick, so I would get sick, continue staying up late trying to accomplish something, get sicker, and so on. Then something happened that changed that.

Exactly one year ago yesterday, at about the chicks' bedtime, I felt absolutely horrific and decided to take my temperature...and found it was 105.7. That, it turns out, is quite high for an adult. I called the free health line, and the nurse told me to go to the emergency room immediately. My (seemingly logical, at the time) response was "I'm alone with two small kids, it's dark and freezing, and I don't have a working car. I'm not leaving this house." She told me to take my temperature again, and by then it had decreased slightly. She then instructed me to follow the usual fever-decreasing procedures and take my temperature every hour, and if it stayed below (some number--maybe 104.5? I can't remember), I could wait until first thing in the morning to go to the doctor.

So I did, and it turned out I had pneumonia. I had never realized how awful pneumonia can be, but it's really bad. I was essentially bedridden for a couple of weeks, and for weeks and weeks afterward (maybe months) I felt like I had the kind of exhaustion that comes with the first trimester of pregnancy.

I still believe I don't have time to be sick, but now my approach is the opposite--because I don't have time to get sick, I have to buckle down at the first signs of illness and hibernate. I'm especially terrified of getting pneumonia again, but any bad illness seriously impacts the way things go around here.

So I've spent the past five days:

Going to bed absurdly early (this is the latest I've stayed up, and I'll be on my way to bed soon)
Taking loads of vitamin C
Taking loads of vitamin D
Drinking cup after cup of echinecea/elderberry tea with honey
Spraying saline solution in my nose every time I remember
Gargling with salt water every time I remember
Taking naps
And many more nerdy, boring things

Bojey seemed to have a short-lived cold at the beginning of the week, and Ninna has now come down with a low-grade fever today. So while we have been bursting at the seams with fun ideas (Ninna and I made a list today of all the things we thought of this week to try), we've really done nothing of note.

And I'm perfectly OK with that. I'd rather be boring for a week and come out unscathed than have pneumonia any day!

I'll be back with something tomorrow or Friday--at minimum, some links or research, but maybe even something fun. We'll see :).

Edited to add:
Here's a fun February project from last year (B.P.--Before Pneumonia!): Ice Wreaths

Homemade Crackers--Easier than You Might Think

2011-02-03T21:30:00.004-05:00

Very easy, actually. Yesterday, during our snow day, we decided to make homemade crackers. I'd been wanting to try them for ages but hadn't yet gotten up the courage.

We used the cracker recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food, which has been one of my most-used cookbooks since I got it a little over a year ago. What it boils down to is this:

you mix flour, butter or oil, water, salt (and other things you might want--spices, nuts, etc.) in the food processor
you roll out the dough into one big piece as thin as a cracker
you score it with a knife to make it easily breakable into nice cracker shapes
you bake it
after it's cooled, you break the crackers off the big chunk

It sounds super easy, right? It is. I'll never buy a box of crackers again. We went with the very basic recipe (white flour, very little in the way of spices, etc.) just for this practice round of crackers, but from here on out we'll work on perfecting our own recipe.

Here's the raw dough, scored with a knife:And here's that same dough, baked--now a cute, crispy sheet of crackers:
Here's a chick sneaking cheese while the crackers cool: mozzarella, gouda, and a homemade herbed goat cheese, inspired by this. A random assortment, I know, but it's what we had in the fridge.
And here they are! Our imperfect but delicious crackers:
Making crackers from scratch is so worth the effort. The batch yielded about the quantity of crackers you'll get in one of those pricey specialty/organic boxes of crackers for a FRACTION of the price. And there's no comparing the taste of fresh, straight-from-the-oven crackers to those that have been sitting in a cellophane bag on a store shelf. Of course, the fact that I know exactly what is in them is also a bonus.

So my challenge to you for this weekend is to make your own crackers! I promise you won't regret it.

Warmth and The Storm

2011-02-02T21:44:00.006-05:00

This is pretty much what I saw every time I looked out the window today:
And this is the snow that's been piling up on the chicks' windowsill over the course of the day:

We are, in a serious way, experiencing The Storm up here in Montreal. Multiple travel mishaps meant that we missed Ninna's preschool this morning. After being the worst mom by getting very mad at Bojey for refusing mittens for the 567th time this winter, after which she cried hysterically about the cold for the 567th time this winter, I decided that we would just stay inside today and focus on warmth.

To set the scene, we turned on the fireplace and simmered some orange peels and cinnamon on the stove. I know it looks disgusting, but it smells so, so good.
The chicks played peacefully by themselves for awhile, starting with an interpretation of Little House in the Big Woods. The last chapter we read included a long description of cheese-making, and now one of Ninna's oft-used themes is "let's use a cow stomach to make rennet so we can make cheese"! So she runs around the house with a cow stomach, usually made from something like bubble wrap or a plastic bag, and she and Bojey "make cheese" and then "sell cheese" and then "serve cheese."

Ninna is pretty sure these snow blobs on the window are from animals walking up it. The biggest ones are "raven footprints."We also stayed warm by making crackers, a delicious adventure I'll share more about tomorrow night.

And it turns out that today is Candlemas (along with Groundhog Day.) I'm not up on all these smaller holidays, but this one is kind of cool. It marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It's a time to celebrate the slow return to light.

A friend of ours hand-delivered these little walnut boat candles she and her son made to us last night so we'd have them in time for Candlemas. In this house, we have a love for wee tiny things, beeswax, candlelight, and walnuts. And I happen to have a love of things made inside walnut shells, including these darling wee felted babies inside a half of a walnut shell that I'd love to make someday.

So needless to say, the handmade floating candles were a big hit. The chicks went to their dad's this afternoon, so we had to cheat and light the candles a little early. There's still plenty of wax left to burn tomorrow night, so we'll be able to see them in the dark.

And can I just take this opportunity to say how amazing it is not to be attached to a car during a crazy winter storm?

Making Homemade Lotion: Some Thoughts on Creating instead of Buying

2011-01-31T20:44:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this, but I somehow have a ridiculous number of thoughts on a subject as seemingly mundane as homemade lotion.

Years ago, pre-kids, I went through a period of making my own lotions, astringents, scrubs, etc., mostly from the book Natural Beauty at Home: More Than 250 Easy-to-Use Recipes for Body, Bath, and Hair. I really loved doing it and never meant to stop, but somehow I either became (what I incorrectly thought, pre-kids, was) busy, or got lazy and bought some lotion, or something--I don't know. But somehow I stopped doing it. I've been wanting to start up again, for a whole host of reasons.

To begin with, I've recently developed a minor obsession with decreasing our purchases of consumables. There are budgetary issues for this, obviously, but that's not even the biggest thing driving this for me. I feel like we somehow end up going to the pharmacy or grocery store every other day to pick up something. I don't even know what, but I feel like we spend an inordinate amount of time and money simply purchasing new, consumable, ridiculously packaged, processed stuff. And I don't find this the least bit enjoyable.

So now, each time a "need" presents itself, I'm trying to determine whether it's a need we can meet ourselves without a trip to the store. I knew the lotion issue was going to be coming up soon since our skin is as dry as you can possibly imagine after all these months of being inside with heaters. We'd been using up every last drop of every sample tube of lotion, right down to the last scrapings of the Burt's Bees Baby Lotion that came in the sample pack we were given when Bojey was born. And that last scraping was applied to poor Ninna's cheeks Saturday night, which meant come Sunday, I could put off this project no longer.

As with almost all household tasks, I included the chicks. They really, truly enjoy this sort of thing. Practical work is always a hit with toddlers and preschoolers, and more so, I think, when they see that they are contributing to the needs of their household.
I really love trying to make and do as much as we can ourselves. In my fantasy life I'd be almost entirely self-sufficient, a true homesteader. It's not possible, not now because of the circumstances, and probably not ever because I doubt I could ever be together enough to do it. But I'll settle for doing as much as we can, and for adding little things here and there whenever possible.

It seems to be a standard idea in our culture that we don't have time to make things. I get really excited by people who challenge that notion, both on a smaller and larger level. On the small level--take this lotion-making, for example. Let's say we decided to go to the store and buy some. By the time I got both chicks and myself dressed in gear, walked to the store, stared confusedly at 100 different kinds of lotion, chose one and paid for it, dragged the chicks back home, hung up the winter gear, and opened the lotion...I could have just made it. And I'm certain that I paid much less to make the lotion than I would have paid to buy a similar quality, all-natural lotion in the store, which also means less money-earning time going towards paying for this item.

And there are other undeniable benefits to such a task as well. I know exactly what is in that lotion. I know when it was made and how fresh it is. I can experiment and tweak these things until I find a concoction that we love. I can personalize it--I made mine almond, and the chicks' calendula. And I'm not bringing home new packaging all the time for a tiny little container of lotion. And this goes for the ingredients as well; almost all of the ingredients I used were from huge, bulk-sized containers that I use for all sorts of things and will last for ages, not needing to be replaced every time we run to the store.

I don't know how the chicks will feel about such things when they're older, but I have to believe that some good will come from their learning to do things like make lotion. I think it's not just a matter of increasing their skill set (though there's certainly value in that). I think a whole world of possibility is opened for them when they see that they can make many of the things they need by themselves or with the help of others, and that life is really not about purchasing, but creating. Even if, after growing up and moving on, they never again make lotion, or bake bread, or knit a hat, I hope that their world view includes the idea that the world is a place of unlimited creative possibility. I'm not trying to raise future homesteaders; I'm trying to raise creative, self-sufficient, free-thinkers. I hope I can succeed.

If not, at least they'll have some good stories to tell about how their crazy mother forced them to make their own lotion and then made them walk 10 miles barefoot in the snow ;).

Self Portrait Saturday #17, January 29th, 2011: Reading by the (Very Fake) Fire--a Funny New Addition to our Home

2011-01-29T20:26:00.006-05:00

It's not just cold in the city of Montreal. It's also often really cold in the houses, many of which were built before warm insulation was available. Our sweet little duplex is among those cold houses.

So this winter our landlords (close friends) suggested that they should get us an electric space heater to warm up our main living area. They sent me links to two different kinds: one an ugly, gray, plastic monstrosity, and the other a cheesy and silly fake wood stove. I have a serious aversion to big ugly plastic things, and I also had a feeling that the chicks would like the "wood stove," so we went with that one.

And let me tell you, the chicks LOVE this thing. They call it "the fireplace," and the first thing they ask me to do in the morning is turn it on. They play next to it, they read in front of it, and they incorporate its existence into their imaginative play.

While it is a little funny, it's definitely better than a piece of gray plastic, I think. So here's a photo of how you'll often find us before bedtime, having "fireside story":

Ha! I'm laughing as I'm typing this. But we're definitely getting a kick out of the plug-in wood stove.

Our Version of Indoor Snow Play

2011-01-28T19:43:00.006-05:00

This isn't what I had intended to post about today. My recent posts make it seem as if we do an organized project every day, and that's certainly not the case. But we did this today, and since I'm a little too tired to write carefully and critically about books tonight, we'll go with snow.

I've seen lots of ideas for indoor snow play online, but this was the first time we've tried it. If you're someone who cringes at the thought of big, messy sensory projects, read on! This is actually a breeze to clean up, and the chicks really got into the whole project.

Our Supplies

A large tray for each child. We found an unused metal roasting tray and the bottom of a plastic 9 x 13 cake carrier in the kitchen cupboards.
Bowls of very watered-down liquid watercolors.
Medium and large paintbrushes.
Small containers of glitter.
Tools. These included popsicle sticks, spoons, cups, eyedroppers of various sizes, a plastic syringe (medicine dispenser), and some playdough tools.
Plastic play people (these were an addition made by Bojey).

As you can see from the supply list, we nearly recreated our gelatin play, but with snow. There aren't really any "steps" here. The only thing I would suggest is to get all of the supplies ready before bringing in the snow. I always find that having everything ready to go makes this kind of thing much more enjoyable.

Here's Bojey mid-play:
One way to gauge the success of a sensory project like this is by looking at how messy and crazy the outcome is. When Ninna walked away from her tray, it looked like this:She thoroughly enjoyed it.

The icing on the cake is that the clean-up for this project is easy, can be entirely done by preschoolers and toddlers, and is actually part of the fun. Each chick took a turn cleaning up her own tray. I brought the trays to the bathroom sink, and the chicks alternated between rinsing off their tools and engaging in the oh-so-satisfying activity of melting snow under warm water. They each happily continued this until everything was rinsed and all the snow was gone.

This project is definitely a keeper. I now realize that snow is a free resource we should be using and repurposing, as ridiculous as that sounds. It's like the backyard is filled with free, easily malleable clay in unlimited amounts.

This is the Sort of Thing They Do

2011-01-26T20:44:00.005-05:00

Let me set the scene for you: I've just finished a major cleaning and organizing sprint in the main living area. A slightly cheesy "greatest hits" classical music CD is blasting something along the lines of The William Tell Overture. The chicks are deep in some serious imaginative play. And it looks like this:
Do you know what this is? It's a monster being killed. I know it looks more like "pack the trunk of the car" or "let's pretend we're piling stuff up to donate to the Salvation Army" or "let's pretend we're masons and build a wall." And the truth is...if they were playing any of those things, it would still look like this. Play, for the chicks, involves an insane amount of moving stuff into different places, or filling up bags with stuff, covering the couch with stuff, etc.

And while I look at a freshly-cleaned living room and think "ahh...peace and tranquility," they look at it and and see a blank canvas just waiting to be altered. There's no moment more likely to lead to a long fit of messy imaginative play than the moment after I've finished cleaning.

Embroidering on Fruit and Vegetable Mesh

2011-01-24T20:37:00.005-05:00

I present to you a fiber art project made by Ninna, 4 1/2--"A House with a (Pink) Ladder":I've mentioned before that I save all the mesh bags we get from fruit and vegetables (avocados, onions, etc.) I really can't remember how I thought of this, but one day it occurred to me that we might use it for simple, preschool-level embroidery. I wrote myself a note about it and put it on the fridge, and that's where it sat for a couple of months until I decided to try it today.

It's easy and a good way to repurpose those mesh bags that are just screaming for a life that extends beyond the mere storage of produce. Want to try?

Here's what you need:

**an embroidery hoop
**various pieces of yarn approximately the length of the distance of your child's hand across to her opposite shoulder (any longer, and it becomes difficult to pull the yarn all the way through)
**a tapestry needle (I much prefer metal tapestry needles, but I couldn't find ours and had to settle for a plastic one that came in a craft kit.)
**veggie mesh (at minimum, about an inch wider than your hoop)

Here's what to do:

1. Attach the mesh to the hoop the same way you would attach fabric. I didn't take a photo of this, but if you've never used an embroidery hoop before, you can find an explanation online (sorry!). Pull it tightly and evenly all around so you have a nice, firm surface on which to embroider. Trim off any excess mesh so it doesn't get caught in your child's embroidery.

2. Have your child choose a piece of yarn. Ask where he/she would like to start embroidering. At the chosen point, attach the end of the yarn by tying it onto the mesh. Then trim the excess length as close to the knot as possible (being careful not to snip the mesh!) This allows the child to freely embroider without worrying about the yarn pulling out.
3. Let your child embroider! Ninna has done both embroidery and hand-sewing, but she still sometimes needs a little reminder about when to come through the back, and when to go through the front. In retrospect, I think I could have just let her do it without the reminder, since it wouldn't have mattered if she sewed around the hoop--we ended up hanging it on the wall as is. My initial intention was to remove the embroidery and hang it another way, so if you'd prefer to do the same, just be sure your child does not sew around the hoop, or you won't be able to get it out.
4. When the yarn runs out, which will happen relatively quickly, tie the end to the mesh the same way you did in the beginning, making sure to trim the end. Have your child choose more yarn and continue this way until he/she is done.
And that's it--a fun, easy, crafty, and eco-friendly project. While I'd say preschool is the ideal age for this, others will enjoy it as well. Bojey, still more of a toddler, had fun with it, just in a different way from Ninna. She sewed through a few times with one piece of yarn and then enjoyed pulling it out. Older children who have never embroidered or sewn before might enjoy this as well, at least as a beginning project.
The one mistake I made was that I accidentally used the term "picture" when describing to the girls what they would be doing. I think I said something like "you'll be sewing a picture onto the mesh." I didn't mean to imply that they had to create a specific image, but that's how Ninna interpreted it, hence the "house with a ladder." Next time I'll be more careful to avoid accidentally pushing them to do something specific as opposed to just freely creating whatever they want.

The Snowy Day Art Buffet

2011-01-21T16:05:00.010-05:00

Have I ever mentioned how cold it can get in Montreal? Really, really cold. Or, as Ninna, whose brain operates on a system of wildly dramatic analogies and comparisons, has been saying, "it's as cold as the bottom of space," (which is apparently not quite as cold as the "middle" and "top" of space).

That chill, combined with our finally having a "hang out and do nothing" day, meant I really didn't even feel like bringing the chicks outside. So instead, we had a Snowy Day Art Buffet.

I could have just said "hey, let's glue some stuff on paper." And to be fair, the chicks would have been all over that. But they also get excited by cute titles and arrangements that somehow make things a little more special. A very charming friend of mine from grad school said to me, after buying fancy new pens and notebooks at the beginning of her thesis class, "novelty inspires me." I had never thought of it that way before, but that was one of those moments when suddenly someone's words describe perfectly what you've felt all along. And I get it. It makes so much sense.

And the inspiration novelty can provide doesn't need to mean buying something new, especially when you have a tight budget and/or are trying to avoid excessive consumerism. It can also just mean doing something in a slightly new way. If I had to make a list of the top ten concepts that have helped me in raising my kids, this would be one of them.

Therefore, today we created at our Snowy Day Art Buffet.

With kids' arts and crafts, I usually think simpler is better, but that doesn't mean we can't go crazy every once in a while. So I covered the table with a little bit of everything: glue, feathers, scrap paper, crayons, colored pencils, pieces of bubble wrap, various shapes of cardboard, etc.

I also tried to make it visually appealing to them, which I believe makes a huge difference in our experiences. So instead of putting out a ziploc bag full of pompoms, I poured some into a pretty bowl. I poured googly eyes into a tiny dish. And so on.Those art supplies that we ordinarily store in an aesthetically appealing way, I left as-is:
After I set everything out, I said "OK, you don't have to stay in your seats. You might have to move around the table to get stuff you want." And here is how Bojey immediately interpreted that:Cutting and gluing are among the top activities for my girls, so the scissors and glue saw the most action. And by that I mean: they used up one and a half bottles of glue. I know this seems wasteful, and up until recently, my instinct would have been to stop the pouring out of gallons of glue and attempt to teach the "right way" to use the glue bottles.

But one of the great quotes I keep remembering from Bev Bos, whom I've written about before, is "children have to use too much." By this she means that they learn about their senses, their abilities, and the world around them, by really engaging in materials to an extent that we, as adults, might think is too much. Whole bottles of paint. Whole bottles of glue. An entire bag of flour.

No child exemplifies this better than Ninna. I could tell you enough stories to fill a book about Ninna using "too much," but she finds so much joy in it. And one day, once a year, of pouring out a whole bottle of glue, might be worth it in the experience to my girls, and it's not such a sacrifice on my part.

(Yes...the white stuff on Ninna's paper is all glue):
Oh, and I'm sure you noticed the irony inherent in the fact that on this cold, cold day during which I kept us inside, both girls are wearing swimsuits. They came to the Art Buffet straight from a "swimming lesson" in the "pool" in their bedroom and couldn't be bothered to change, despite frozen feet and goosebumps.