Hats Hats Hats

The reorganizing of the house is going ok. It's made slightly more difficult by a 1 year old whose favorite past time is dumping things out, everywhere! It honestly took me 30 minutes to sort out hats and gloves today. It is not the first time this season either. I think I need to purchase work gloves for the boys. I was slightly annoyed to find brand new ski gloves with dirt caked to them and the cuffs full of splinters from getting wood. I also moved the crates inside to be more carefully monitored. The porch is wonderful but if i'm not right there, hats and gloves get tossed in the general direction of the crates, and certainly not the right one. Ask me how many frozen hats I found today. they were tossed soaking wet "near" the crates. Guess frozen is better than mildew. We have decided to pull everything out of our bedroom except the bed. This way we can paint, do the trim and closet shelves and door. I will put our dressers in the boys rooms for now. Our plan is to go room by room and finish everything except flooring which will have to wait until last. As a reward for myself,I will make a quilt and curtains to match when it is complete.
Just wanted to let you all know the citrus fast was out the window at noon time on the first day. i can't possibly bake scones for every one and only have a grapefruit my self. NOPE! Can't do it! We are all eating plenty of citrus though. I bought a case of oranges and a case of grapefruit.
I am going to a knitting workshop in a few weeks. In the meantime i have been crocheting up a plethora of hats. here are some i have made. I also made monogramed neck warmers for the boys. I wish black wasn't everyone's favorite color. This is the only time i wish i had a daughter. BLACK! Blah!

Could work actually be more fun than feeling sorry for myself???

7:00 am, up with indigo. he's been running a fever so it was a tossy turny kind of night. no symptoms just fever, could be the 4 eye teeth he is cutting
7:15 big boys are up and dressed and starting school work! WoW! I sit right down to research nursing school, daycare, etc. (it is mid winter, people! time to totally re-invent my life!)
8:00 sit down with oatmeal and new Mother Earth News. feeling inspired! I will pretend i didn't see the editors letter which included population control as a necessary means to fix our over consuming issues!!!! URRRRGGGHHHH! don't even get me started!
9:00 laundry, dress littles(mom that little sweater is so stinkin cute!)clean kitchen, empty and reload dishwasher, switch laundry, check boys progress, change video for Indigo......6 times! this is his new thing!
10:30 write myself a letter reminding me why i moved to maine....must stay focused, school needs to wait another year.
10:45 Make bread dough, enough for 6 loaves.
11:00 take gaynor out to get wood. discover our plow guy has unknowingly plowed in our path to the wood barn. dig through a 5foot high, 5 foot wide wall of snow!! drag and unload sleds full of wood!
just realized this picture makes it look like forrest did the shoveling.. NO! I did it! just asked him to stand there for picture.

12:00 in for hot chocolate and lunch.
12:40 Indigo in for nap, boys out to play me out to do more wood! its a balmy 30 degrees out must get wood done before -26 degrees comes back!!!!
1:20 came inside to blow my nose and Indigo was screaming. Guess he's not actually going to take a nap. We did get a few more sled loads in though.
2:00 Make yummy french lentil soup from Veganomicon
3:00 Bake two loves of bread, quick pick up of house fold 4 load of laundry put more in, sit to blog and blog-stalk

I got a little kick of motivation/inspiration today. Its time to get working on this house! we need to get it finished before spring. It's also time to seriously downsize the "stuff"
Wrote out a house plan today. room by room. Also a plan for what we will be growing this spring so i can start ordering seeds. Getting wood was tiring but kinda fun. It was beautiful out side and it was a nice change from the never ending laundry/cooking battle. Mike worked 5-4 today and has to be in at 7 tomorrow. Guess it beats no work at all. Forrest has a Doctor's appt tomorrow to look at his swollen lymph nodes. I think if its nice we'll go out on the snow shoes and see what kinds of tracks we can find. I have these crazy gross pictures i may post. Something picked apart a raven in my driveway. It was really gross but really weird. Are you up for it. I'll put warnings up before i post it. In the mean time here are some pics from today.

this weird marking is from a big bird i think. It's at our compost pile. Either a turkey or a Raven.

some pics

Who every thought I would be eating (let alone making) Vegan Nachos MMMMMMMMM



roasted winter veggies, sauteed spinach and brown rice. YUMMA!


yoga in pj's


even though it was below 0 outside it was over 70degrees inside in the sun. we didn't even have a fire mid day. i love this well-insulated, south-facing house!



Sunning ourselves in the window


The end result of our mask making morning while the big boys were skiing.SCARY!

Did Anyone See the Moon Last Night?

So the moon has been unbelievable lately. So bright, it is honestly as bright as daylight out there. With shadows and all. Last night was the "biggest moon of 2009" due to it's proximity to the earth. As everyone was getting into bed, I stepped outside to take a look. I was considering going snowshoeing but, well, let's face it I'm not that motivated. In my defense, Indigo had all ready been up once. When he wakes up he freaks out if I'm not there. Mike handles it just fine, I just feel bad. Anyway, I digress. The moon, right. It was amazing! So amazing in fact i ran in to collect all boys and men to see it.(except indigo). I even woke Harland and wrapped him in a blanket. He was less than excited about being outside in 0 degree weather. The moon was high in the sky, so not as huge as it had been in the early evening. But, what was amazing was there was a huge rainbow ring all the way around it. It was stunning! I have never seen anything like it and may never again. We tried to take pictures but, um, well lets just say i am lucky to have a camera at all but still used this as yet another reason to get my REBEL. So much more to say, but Mike is making yummy vegan pumpkin waffles and the drool is getting all over the keyboard. Here are some pics instead.

he was angry. i made that little hat for him, more on my amazing hat making at a later date.

the boys watching TV on a chilly morning. Please note Harland is pretending to pick his nose, not actually picking it. He saves that for the car so he can try to hand me giant boogies while I drive.


he really loves to vaccume. He asked for the apron but ripped it off a second later.


My little Artist. He colors every day. In the high chair now. i caught on to his game of walking by his brothers and "accidentally" writing on them.

Hunkering Down

It is snowing again here in the mountains of Maine. 6-10 expected by tomorrow AM. Mike has to be in to work at 4 AM, Forrest can work too but 4 AM? I'm not sure about that. Mike just called to say he would take me grocery shopping when he gets home. He knows i hate going out in this, even with all wheel drive. Honestly it is other people and their crazy lack of snow driving skills that makes me nervous. It always snows on shopping day. The big grocery store is over 30 minutes away with no snow. We do have a tiny one near by, but it is very limited. Luckily, i have been working on stocking my pantry and i think i have it under control. Plenty of beans, flour, 50lbs of oats and 25 lbs of sugar. Tomatoes, pasta, brown rice, and every spice under the sun. i can do this. Mike will pick up soy milk and bananas on his way home, i think that should do it. We have to have soy milk so as to prevent sippy cups of water being hurled at our heads. Plus we will need to have hot chocolate for after snow play. It is only for 2 days or so.

I'm am having major camera issues. Have been for a while. I am coveting a "real" camera. A camera that i totally can't afford or justify purchasing. But i do love to take pictures. my current camera is becoming obsolete. can't find memory sticks that work in it without updates and still issues. A girl can dream can't she. so any way, probably no pictures for a while.

I have been working on crocheting, i made two hats for mike, one for indigo, one for gaynor, monogrammed neck warmers for all boys and a lovely one for me. today I am starting fingerless gloves for me. i vow to use up all yarn i have before i purchase more. I am on a roll. The computer is still sucking up too much time. I did switch to tea this weekend. so far so good. Mike switched as well. mostly because he can't be bothered to make coffee. I am loving my SIL for her care packages of organic tea. I'm going to get good herbs to try my tea ball this week. Enough random thoughts. i need to get things done. Fly lady is going well, school, um, not so much, i did order new curriculum i hope that gives a boost to the boys. I'm picking up my case of grapefruit and case of oranges next week. Bills due and payment schedule posted on wall next to calender, so far so good.

Easy vegan dinner to please

I tend to make elaborate meals and bake a ton. Everything from scratch of course. This leaves me spending hours in the kitchen each day. I having been trying to fit more sewing and crocheting/knitting into my life. Somethings got to give. So I thought i would let you in on my fastest vegan meal to feed six, with left overs. Nutritious??? not really but not too bad i guess. So here goes,,,, this one is for you mom, A meal from my childhood, modified to be vegan.

"Chuna Macaroni Salad" (as in chick peas for tuna)

1 lb elbow pasta
2 cans chick peas (or equivalent cooked chick peas)
1/2 small to medium onion chopped
veganaise
dill relish (didn't even know they made dill relish YUMMY!)
dijon or brown mustard

cook pasta, rinse thoroughly with cold water (untill cold)
in a large bowl mash chick peas with fork or potatoe masher untill most or all whole beans are gone
add onion
add veganaise(maybe about 3/4 cup to start and more if needed at end)
add relish, to taste i use alot probably 4 heaping tables spoons
add mustard to taste I use about a tablespoon
mix together
add pasta and mix
add more veganaise if needed

serve with salt and pepper and potatoe chips

the kids love it! (All though a three year old guest took an enthusiastic big bite and spit it right out with an adorable "what the hell is this" face- thanks elijah) you can omit the pasta and use as a salad for sandwiches, just like tuna salad the whole thing takes about 15 minutes to prep ...15MINUTES! not two hours like the meal i made last night. as i said it's not the most nutritious thing we make but we don't eat fast food EVER so this is ok once in a while maybe i'll get to sew!

Back on Track.....well at least inside my head

So today is the first day of the rest of my life! All right so maybe I'm being slightly dramatic, but, I am hoping to change a few things around here. Flylady is back in my life. Honestly the only time I can remember really having it together was when i was religiously following her plan. So flylady is step one. Step two, finances. I really need to get back on track here. All though in general it is easier to pay the bills when you have money to do so, i can still keep better track of what has or has not been paid. Won't it be nice to not have cell phones get shut off or get disconnect notices for the power. Budgeting is not my strong suit. I really do try. I am great at getting costs down. I usually grocery shop for under $150 per week which i think for a family of 6 is pretty darn good. However, I am really bad at the actual paper work. In my defense, Mike is self employed. This means he never makes the same amount of money. Some weeks are great, some are not. Trying to balance it all out when you have no idea what is coming in is where my frustration lies. I guess it still isn't a good excuse to just leave the envelopes unopened.
School is our next area for change. Yes, AGAIN! Forrest has decided he really wants a structured curriculum. He has realized it is too hard for him (super unorganized, wonder where he gets it) to be self led. He also wants to shoot for graduating at 16. I said i would try. So we are ordering some courses. I am a little concerned. The work we can afford, correspondence courses, are straight forward, but boring. He is going to have to focus. I am choosing a different math curriculum. Math-u-see i even understood the algebra, and it got excellent reviews. Gaynor will also be using this curriculum. For the rest of Forrest's course work i think i will be going with Keystone High School. We will start with Biology, history, English Lit and maybe add art history. We are still using Rosetta Stone French and love it. All to the lovely tune of $800 ish, maybe more if we go with AP or Honors. YIKES! I guess compared to private school it's cheap but we would never be able to afford private school so how can we compare. Gaynor will be staying with an eclectic mix of subjects and curriculum. He seems to do just fine with what ever comes his way. I am going to try and step it up a bit with him though. He is definitely capable of so much more. We will also be adding music to the mix now that the boys will be in lessons. Each is expected to practice their instruments (electric guitar and drums) for a minimum of 20 minutes per day.
The next big change will be schedule. We decided on a 7-11:30 am school schedule. This was Mikes Idea and it seems to be working for the most part. I would never want to work this way, I like to break things up. For Mike and Forrest, however, constantly changing direction is a giant distraction. Gaynor is so flexible he could go either way. He has decided to try Mikes Idea so as to be finished at the same time as Forrest. Now all we have to do is get our butts out of bed! I'll keep you posted on how it is going.
As far as the littles go, i am getting them more involved in chores. Harland has been down right defiant in this area. He simply says "NO" when i ask him to help. I have been finding what chores he enjoys because clearly picking up toys is not one of them. He loves to vacuum out Indigo's highchair and around the cabinets. He also loves to sweep and will usually fold and sort laundry. Getting dressed is an other story. Indigo loves to do laundry and run the big vacuum. He also sweeps but watch out for your heads.




I am also debating losing the binky this weekend. Have to wait until mike doesn't have to get up at 5:00 AM. I think it could be a long couple of nights. He only has it for bed but he really shouldn't have it at all. I sometimes think it keeps him up. I was so happy to finally have one child out of four that would take a pacifier. Now I wish I had never given it to him. I wonder if it contributed to him weaning himself??? A long and sad story for another time.

I have so much more to talk about but part of my new plan is not staying on the computer all day! I do need to post Harland's birthday day letter, Sorry dude, yet an other way you get screwed having a December 27th birthday. I also wanted to tell you all about skiing, but i'll get to it at some point. Hope every one's holiday is starting off great. I'll leave you with some little things i hope to do this year.

A citrus fast, january 10th-?
adding to my apron collection via sewing
learning to knit (anything besides a scarf)
making more and buying less,
learning to re purpose
growing most of our food or at least half
less sugar (in theory any way)
quiting coffee (don't get too excited I'm only switching to tea, baby steps!)
sleeping baby ( can i actually plan this? probably not but i am hoping)