We had a lovely Christmas. It was a little crazy trying to get all of the gifts done, but....We did it! The kitchen came out awesome.


It still needs a few details, burners, a faucet and some hooks but the boys don't even notice. When it is complete, we will make a beeswax finish and have the boys polish it up. Mike stayed in the basement for two days straight working. He also helped the boys make gifts for each other. Forrest made blocks from the cherry tree mike and Andy cut down. They came out awesome! He even carved the letters of their names into some. Gaynor made a finger hover board for Harland and finger skis for Forrest. You Velcro them to your fingers and do tricks on furniture. Pretty neat! The best part was that they were more excited to give each other the gifts them made than to open their own. That is what it's all about. We changed a few things this year. We asked Santa to bring something small and the more substantial gifts were from Mike and I, with the exception of Gaynor's pocket knife. But Gaynor is hip to the ways of Christmas.






Mike and I got to bed at our normal Christmas Eve time...1:30 am! We wouldn't want me to consider wrapping anything before then. I watched "A Christmas story" and drank hot cocoa while I wrapped and Mike worked down stairs. It was kind of nice, but I am still recovering. I did have to let some things go, its always a good lesson for me. And, no Christmas cards again. To be honest, I had the picture super early, and the cards are pretty cheap themselves....its the darn stamps! I just can't afford it. It's almost $.50 per card...40 cards equals $20 just can't try to make all the gifts and justify $30 spend on Christmas cards..sorry.

It was a wonderful weekend. Mike, home for 4 full days!! Harland had his sixth birthday.
I made my first birthday crown and it was a huge hit. (yes i realize some one is "digging for treasure" in this photo, but this is my life. I photograph it how it is!) I started a new tradition of laying out the crown and gift (a pot holder loom, he loooovveees it!) at night to be discovered in the morning. Much easier than trying to put them off all day for cake and ice cream at night. We played jenga...the totally awesome edition, a gift made by S&A....so fun! And generally spend the day doing what Harland wanted to do. What else could a kid want? So all in all, the weekend -Good friends and good food and plenty of playing with the kids. But I am somewhat relieved it is mostly over. We have family coming this weekend and then the tree comes down and I get this place back on track. I am looking forward to our normal daily rhythm which has been working wonderfully here. I am also looking forward to some deep cleaning, purging, simplifying and rearranging. I am working on my lists of goals for the new year one of which will be moving...Again! not my dream come true but it has to be done. I seem to have raised gypsy children who are weirdly excited about the idea of moving. More on this topic over the next few months. I will be talking about my plans for a garden during a move and my goals for maintaining some sanity during this move. I will also be posting about our new concept of a daily rhythm and what that means for us as well as how moving towards a Waldorf way of raising my boys has all ready meant great and meaningful changes in our home. I hope you all had an amazing holiday!

SOOOOO BUSY!!!!!!

MAKING GIFTS, NO MORE SLEEPING UNTIL AFTER CHRISTMAS! BUT,, i THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS. NOTHING LIKE A LITTLE FAMILY FORCE 5 TO GET THE MORNING STARTED!!! i know there is no sound, still pretty cute though

When You're 15....................

I'm sure this isn't as crazy to you as it is to me, but, Forrest turned 15 on Wednesday! he's old enough to get his permit now! We threw a little surprise party for him with help from our friends Sarah and Andy. Forrest went to work with Mike for the day which made it easier. The boys made a banner for him with dragons and blue hair. (Forrest dyed his hair blue) Then we set up a big bonfire and made luminaries to light the way. For dinner, chickpea spinach curry and Sarah made a super yummy cake for dessert. He was indeed surprised. The stars were glorious, even shooting stars! The fire was roasty toasty! We didn't even realize temps fell below freezing until we tried to put out the fire with the hose...Frozen! We gave him a book light and S&A gave him a hatchet. Can you guess which was his favorite? He is so excited about this hatchet! I'm sure it has something to do with this book, one of his favorites! Sarah made a little blade pouch that goes on his belt. I actually had to tell him to take it off in the house! Do you think he would have gotten this gift if we still lived in Suburban Massachusetts instead of rural Maine? Any way, even with the blue hair, he is still a pretty amazing kid. Super kind and generous, polite, intelligent, compassionate, giving, loving, and a fantastic big brother. Happy Birthday Forrest Brewster!

What can you do with two inches of snow?????

build a snow gnome! At least you can when you have a field to use. Imagine what they will make when we have 5 feet!!!!!



Here is my attempt at capturing a Christmas Photo. Like 4 boys wasn't hard enough I had to add in 2 puppies! None are great but which one is best? The boys say I should let you all vote!

What a weekend!

So trick or treating was wonderful. We went to a different down town area this year. Lots of people and lots of fun. One home even made their entire first floor into a walk through, kid friendly, haunted house. Indigo thought it was just about the best thing he had ever done. He would not let me help him with his basket at all. "I DO IT!" was all I heard. We had a brief run in with a super creepy Michael Myers, as in Halloween the movie, but it was brief and funny in a weird and creepy way.
The switch witch made her first visit to our home and it was a huge hit. She took the candy (the boys figure she will use it to give trolls and ogres belly aches) and left little knitted gnomes and dust pans and brushes. What can I say, they love to help to clean. The gnomes have become the new bed time buddies.

Saturday, we went here! It was a short but steep hike. The view was spectacular.



We went for this.








Ya! pretty amazing! We really love these guys. Who else would I allow my legs, to burn and wiggle like jello the whole way up and down the mountain and then flat out refuse to work at all for two days for? Ok, i'm slightly out of shape. Any way, the wedding was gorgeous! The hall, decorated with gourds, pumpkins, leaves and lighted branches with leaves made from pictures of the couple. The food, all home made local goodness, soups, breads spinach salad, yum YUM! Quite possibly the best wedding we have ever attended. We had a great time celebrating with one of the sweetest, most hard working, hard playing, and enjoyable couples we have met. Congratulations S&A!

AAAAACCCHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I think I might be coming down with something!!! could it be this????












Perhaps my little friends can help me get my house work done so I can rest










ha ha! Actually I feel great, Happy Halloween!

What we have been up to

lots of knitting, mostly for our family and one gift for a far away friend and her new baby. I found a hat pattern that I love on Raverly. Directions for sizes from baby to adult large. easy to make and looks great. Its the one Harland is wearing and the one on the needles.
A 99% recycled material(only the screws are new) desk for Gaynor(Mike ROCKS), one end will be for their computer. It seems to still be in my kitchen. That is dangerous because it is a great sewing table.
And yes, that is a cat having a bath. A baking soda, peroxide, Dawn dish detergent bath to be exact. I wish you could hear the sounds that were coming from her. She spent the rest of the day in the sunny window by the wood stove sleeping and drying. Maybe, just maybe she will stay away from skunks now.

oh, our mini vacation to Massachusetts was wonderful. Relaxing and fun. Just what the doctor ordered. I, however did not bring my camera. Sorry. Think man in a Paul Revere type outfit walking through the streets of Boston shouting, Mike being a good sport about being a tourist in a city he basically grew up in. Yummy, REALLY YUMMY vegan food, board games and knitting. It was great.

Ocotober 13th and ummm.........................................

2-4 inches??????? That is what the Weather Man Said! I have been digging out boots and snow pants and trying to settle down crazy wound up boys. I don't know how I feel about this. The dogs aren't sure either. First snow they have ever seen. They have been smelling, licking and staring. Cracking me up.






These are the pictures I had planned to show.





Lots of school being done every where. Forrest took the littles across the street to collect leaves to press into Harlands Science book. The orange hats kill me. Safety before style I guess. It is moose hunting season after all. The weekend was glorious. Crisp air and falling leaves. The boys played in the hay fields for hours then moved to the tall grass and woods for hide and seek. I still feel nervous(quietly of course) when they are out. We have had more bad bee luck. Harland was down in a ditch on our land (he is absolutely not allowed down there) and stepped in a yellow jacket hive. He tried to run, lost his shoe and still had to climb out of the ditch with the bees all over him. Gaynor was with him as well. He had about 16 stings. He cried for over 6 hours. That is two times in two years this has happened to him. I slept with him that night, he whimpered and swatted bees away in his sleep all night long. It was horrible. He is a pretty strong kid, but one can only take so much. So now they always have a phone or a two way radio with them.
Any way. This weekend is just another reason I love Maine. We finally lit up the wood stove. I love the smell and strong heat. We moved our circle time to just in front of the stove so as to start our morning roasty toasty. We went to the ski sale and picked up cross country boots for two boys and new downhill boots for Forrest. He seems to have grown a foot this year. We are hoping to outfit the entire family in cross country skis. We will set up the covered sled to tow a little one and hopefully have some fun outings.

Gaynor has been using his calligraphy pen to write out the 10 commandments. He seems to be really enjoying his work. Forrest less so but he is plugging away. I'm not sure about all this hard course work with no real guidance. I never took chemistry and Algebra and I, well, are not good friends. His Bio-tech teacher at the Technology center is also a chemistry teacher and has been helping him out which is wonderful. Ok well I'm off to make chocolate covered pretzels and cocoa.

Here are some recent pictures of the pups. The bigger they get, the more I suspect they are not Great Pyrenees. They look more sheep dog, or wolf hound to me. But we will never know and it really doesn't matter. We made the pony/donkey enclosure into a dog wonderland. The big animals have found a new home. We miss them terribly but their owners had a lot going on and didn't have enough time for them. Any way, the dogs really love it out there. It's great. gives them and me a break. They have a barn to go in and a huge pen to run and play in. If they are inside for too long, they "politely ask" to go out to their pen. The boys are still walking them twice a day for 45 minutes each time. The morning walk is now at 5:30am and in the pitch dark because of our new schedule. I bought them headlamps so they could see. My boys are so hardcore. unfortunately, dogs don't understand that it's not a school day or that its the weekend so the latest they will sleep till is 6:00. Just think what great training this is for my boys for their future.






Sarah and Andy came this weekend for our first annual Garlic Shucking/Movie Night. We watched Monsters Vs Aliens and shucked all of the garlic to be planted at Marble Family Farms this fall. We then, of course, ate yummy food and had plenty of desert including cowboy cookies and mocha cake.






This is my very first time "putting food up" for winter. I have over 30 cups of shredded zucchini, 12 cups of frozen corn kernels, a ton of chopped celery, processed basil, chopped kale and so far, 12 cups of pumpkin (more to come this week). Then in the pantry I have a quart of condensed tomato soup and a quart of salsa, a bunch of honey spiced peaches, apple sauce and apple butter. None of the jam actually lasted long enough, we ate it all right up. But any way, I'm feeling pretty proud. I should mention none of it would have happened without Sarah. Sarah totally rocks! and she can do anything. We processed most everything together. A good portion coming from her farm. She also showed me how to can. I was always too scared to try. Thought I would screw it up. It's really not hard if you have the right equipment, and a good teacher of course. The apple butter recipe is for the crock pot, super easy and you can find it here. If you don't want to can it, put it in the fridge. I doubt you will have any problem eating it all right up.







Its a big weekend in our little corner of Maine. Last year we rode the lift up Sugarloaf Mountain and hiked down. Way harder than you think! The view was amazing but the little kids didn't love it. This year we are doing something just for them. Down the rode from us is and old Narrow Gauge Railroad. They are having a "Ghost Train" this weekend so we are going for a ride. You may know, my little boys are obsessed with trains and are going to have a great time! We are working on a little late-fall festival to have here at our home. I'm thinking bonfire, luminaries, making music and telling stories. Any other suggestions?

Next weekend is my big vacation to Boston. That really sound so weird. Me, vacationing in the city I grew up 30 minutes from. But seriously I can't wait! Imagine how much knitting I am going to do on my 4+ hour car ride with.......NO CHILDREN!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Our very first nature table

We collected leaves and acorns on the library lawn in town. Sort of funny since we live on 186 acres here. But we had some time to kill while we waited for the library to open. The little "masks" were the craft at story time. We purchased the roving for our "tree" at the Common Ground Fair. I sent the boys out for the branch with Forrest, I am still looking for something bigger with more branches.The pumpkin, is of course, from Sara and Andy. I think it's called Cheese pumpkin? we will cook it soon and make cookies and muffins, but it was so darn pretty! The kids really loved putting the table together. Indigo loves taking it apart even more though. I am finding acorns and corn kernels everywhere!