Just Another Winter Weekend

This weekend was certainly a busy one. Actually, I didn't even leave the house except to go to the grocery store for our week's food and to take the 3 boys on a 2-hour neighborhood walk, where Jaguar started his nature collecion with some itty bitty pinecones and some various acorns. Bobcat walked pretty well, but I carried him in my sling most of the time, and Lynx was quite conversational and satisfied with the wet washed look of all the plants and trees.

Bobcat discovered a fascination with moths. He was quite scared of them...well, he is still very frightened when they randomly take flight near him, but he loves to look at them and talk about them as he points. We went around last night and counted all the moths up in the corners of the walls and on the ceiling, and I noticed they look like little hearts upside down ~ how perfect with the upcoming Valentine's Day.

Today was our baking day, as it usually is on Sundays, so Jared was in charge of making Apple Poppy Seed Bread in the bread maker. It called for apple sauce, of which we had none, so he is seen here cutting up apples for our homemade apple sauce. We have honestly not yet tried it, which is silly because fresh bread that is warm out of the oven or bread maker is the best. Once we try it, if it is good, I will create a posting with the recipe.

Lynx is seen hand-creaming the butter and sugar for our Dark Chocolate Heart Cake made from scratch (usually we are guilty of using cake mix). He was quite "buff" this time because he did it completely by himself and without complaint. Our electric mixer is from like the 1950s passed down from my grandmother, and it isn't performing too well. We can't afford a new one, so we make due. His cake was very yummy, soft and moist and very tasty! A recipe worth sharing! The recipe of course didn't call for making a heart, but we decided to anyway because I found a heart-shaped cake pan at the thrift store and it again was inspired by Valentine's Day, though it is a little early. It is actually called  Dark Chocolate Cake I, and we modified it to half measurements.

They were determined to build a house. They took the cardboard box cutout house from the back deck, some mats, chairs, a couch cushion, and blankets to create the structure and bedroom of their house. Lynx created a laundry room with a washer, a kitchen with a sink, cupboards, and a full pantry. They even had a mailbox out front. Lynx plays wonderfully with his brothers...when he wants to ;). They took a trip to the store (their bedroom), where Lynx was inspired to make tons of money and setup an elaborate display of merchandise to purchase and price tags. This literally took up hours of their time. Yay!

The look of satisfaction as he savors our newly founded houshold snack, Nori. Nothing like a nice helping of tasty and mildly salty seaweed. Yum!

We decided to attract our local birds by creating some delicious treats. Jaguar helped me to prepare our Suet, a mixture of cornmeal, oats, peanut butter, lard, flour, and so on. It is fairly dry, but it globs together pretty well. When we were done, we put some in the hanging net seen below for the birds to feed from. We also strung peanuts on some yarn and tied each end to nails at both ends of the somewhat weathered birdfeeder. The rest of the huge batch of Suet was placed in old jars and stuck in the freezer. Unfortunately, we did this late in the day, so we can only expect the birds tomorrow morning. In addition, Daddy pulled himself away from his continuous studying and played some basketball outside with the boys.

They read, I ironed and did some more loads, Lynx rode his skate board, Jaguar his scooter, Bobcat practiced his talking and skills of imitation, we all did a lot of cleaning, hanging out, and so much more.... Good night (or day) to you and I hope you enjoyed our weekend full of simplicity.

Wondrous Winter Walk in the Woods

Walking in any nature setting with your children is a very spiritual and educational experience. There are new things to be discovered in every direction. Jaguar and I were scoping out mushrooms. We saw a few different kinds. In fact, mushrooms have become so fascinating, I will post a blog specifically on that in the near future. We took another walk yesterday and found at least 6 different types...too bad I didn't have my camera. Jaguar and Bobcat were touching moss and lichen, sticks and ferns, waterways and patches of snow. Jaguar was discovering that snow melts when put into water because the comparably warmer temperature. It was luckily not too cold, or I may have chosen a much sunnier path. Either way, getting your children out into the wild will spark their imagination and sense of exploration. It is simply magical.  

Snowy Winter

Snow is one of those magical wonders to children. I never got to see much of it growing up in the Bay Area, but now that we live up the mountain, east of Sacramento, we experience it at our own home in the Winter. We also enjoy driving up further to the Crystal Basin area and sometimes even Tahoe. With the little ones and little money while my husband is in school, we just enjoy the simplicity of Mother Nature's icy downpour. We build lopsided snowmen, make snow angels, crunch it between our fingers, explore, throw snow balls, and best of all, sled! Even if you don't live in the snow, it is such a priceless experience for little ones to at least visit it. There is supposed to be quite a bit more coming this season, so get out and play with your children. Taste it, feel it, jump in it, run in it, build with it, throw it......Possibilities are endless. Jaguar is determined to build a "snow fort" when it snows again. I said, "How about an igloo?" and he concured.

Wonderful Illustrated Season Books

I absolutely love these picture books based on each season. Gerda Muller is the illustrator of these wordless wonders. They are great for all ages and each of my kids love them. I usually put one on the bookshelf that corresponds with the current season and tuck the others away on a less frequented shelf. These can be found at any book seller or reseller. I bought these used on Amazon for cheap. These are great for anyone who is curious about or involved with Waldorf education, anyone who loves nature and art, or for anyone interested in warm, fuzzy picture books for their little ones.

As one might suspect, we currently have the *Winter* edition out for the boys. Below is one of the detailed, soft paintings within the board book. There is always something happening everywhere you look. Bobcat can listen to my narration as he absorbs the lively colors and images. Jaguar can tell the story to me differently each time we go through it. Plus, it gives him several ideas of what he wants to do, expanding his imagination and creativity.

 Below is an example of each of the books' illustrations throughout, in addition to the beautiful panoramic images. These pages display separate smaller paintings that depict particular activities by the which the characters engage. Characters include children, sometimes their parents, and their dog.

At any rate, check your local library or purchase them used. It is well worth it. The paintings suck you right into a land of childhood experiences, family, traditions, nature.... Again this set of books are fantastic for toddlers, preschoolers, and older children, as well.

Autumn Leaf Quilts

Autumn is a time for cooking, crafting, family, nature, school...... I love getting back into sewing and knitting as the weather gets colder. I have not yet dove into quilting, but I have an itch to start looking into it. If there is something I love about autumn, it is the falling leaves and their beautiful colors. I looked around to find some free quilting patterns with autumn leaves and here are a handful with their corresponding links. Enjoy!


Autumn Leaves Frayed-Edge Quilt



http://www.advanced-embroidery-designs.com/projects2/guide_leaves_frayed-edge_quilt.html


Autumn Leaves quilt



http://www.jankrentz.com/download/autumn_leaves_pattern.pdf


Autumn Bounty borders quilt



http://quilting.craftgossip.com/free-pattern-autumn-bounty-borders-quilt/2009/08/08/

First Day of Home School for my Preschooler

Yesterday, I managed to successfully begin home-schooling my preschooler without even a morsel of the tv! He had a lot of fun, even though he was asking me about movies periodically. I had to keep reminding him about our new rule of no movies during the week. He was pretty accepting of this, though he doesn't really know the concept of no tv for 5 days straight. Eh, he'll get used to it, as long as he is being stimulated properly, actually doing things, rather than passively watching the simulation of others doing things, and then getting up afterwards with all this pent up energy and nothing in his brain other than the crap he just watched. So, today will be our second day of tv detox.

So, anyway, we have decided to do a 6-week unit on weather because it is summer. Yesterday morning, Bobcat and Jaguar and I all took a long walk in the morning and discussed all the things we saw and the traits of the current weather. We then ate some apple slices and drank water (Man, it's hot out, especially carrying a rollie-pollie 25-Lb baby in a sling!). Bobcat is being a little kling-on lately, so it is hard getting anything done without having to hold him. So, when we got home he still wanted me to hold him and threw a huge fit. Then, I struggled to prepare my etsy orders for shipping, and scooped up the boys for trip to the post office and the store for food coloring.

After we returned back home to the more shady tall pines, I put the baby to sleep. Jaguar and I went into the kitchen and filled an ice tray with water and he created mixtures of colors within. We stuck it in the freezer and ta da!, we had colorful ice cubes. Outside, there were some patches of sun that we used to lay down papers and ice cubes on top. We left it for the sun to do it's watercolor magic. The colors traveled and melted and created a beautiful masterpiece. He also spent much of his time drawing pictures of people, animals, rainbows, summer landscapes... He loves drawing.

It was so warm yesterday, we had a light lunch of avacado on toast and fruit. Jaguar played thoughout the day in his transforming bedroom and outside in the dirt and on the swing. He was building roads and buildings with scrap chunks of wood from Daddy's bunk bed-making. He would dance to the lingering music on the radio periodically. He helped sort the dirty clothes and swept the garage of it's saw dust and goodies tracked in from outside. He fed the kitty, watered the garden, took out the compost.... All the while, Bobcat tags along, often wanting me to hold him, and explores the things in his little sensory world. Right now, he is exploring clapping, running, dancing and climbing...

We also started on our felt "paper doll", whereas I drew and cut it out for him after he attempted both, and he drew the eyes, mouth, and nostrils (he had to have a nose on his doll). Then he picked out the colors of embroidery floss and began carefully and meticulously stitching the eyes and nostrils. By that time, he had had enough. So we will continue today.

We made a curry lentil dish for dinner, and then the boys went outside even longer, this time with Daddy because he was home. After my dinner cleanup, I decided to take a bike ride all the way up to the corner store and over to this other house we were going to buy a year ago. It was a major fixer and I wanted to see the progress made by the people who had ended up moving in there. It is like night and day from what it was. But now I had to pump up this huge hill just to get out of there....I made it, without getting off the bike once.

I then gave the boys a bath, read Jaguar "The Earth and I", which we have actually continuously read for about 5 days (he dives in further and further each time) and "Summer" by Gerda Muller. Then he went night night. Bobcat actually had an odd sleep schedule last night, taking a "nap" late and waking at around 10:00 pm...Yeah...(sarcasm). So, he stayed wide awake with us till 12:30.

And we are up again at 7:20 this morning......