Tag Archives: Kids

(Not Very) Snowy Day

Yesterday we drove way down to Farmville, Va to pick up two new female geese to be companions for our poor lonely Uncle Waldo.

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He’s been on his own for a few days after he lost his two lovely ladies to a tragic dog – related accident. (In other news, George the dog has gone on to his forever home where he is  learning that “Geese are friends, not food!”).

No, I don’t want to talk about it.  I am just glad it all worked out for everyone and Georgio has older, bigger dogs to mentor him and keep him in his place now.

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Luckily sweet Orzo never understood the fun involved in full – scale poultry slaughter, and has been happy to just keep a wary eye on those big, noisy, bossy birds.

So we brought home two lovely new ladies – these ones Toulouse geese.  They look mighty similar to the Pilgrim geese we lost, and so far have rather sweet, if stand -offish personalities.

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We’re calling them Agnes and Tilly.  Waldo seems to have taken to them rather well.  They’ve started going off on those little goose expeditions around the pasture that I am always so fond of watching. They don’t appear to have any real destination in mind, but they certainly waddle with purpose, wherever it is they are going.

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Neve has been helping out with chores since we have to bring down big wheel – barrows full of hay a few times a day.  Now that the temperature hasn’t been above freezing for awhile we are also carting down buckets of water, since our lines out to the pasture are frozen.  If this keeps us I will have abs and thighs of steel.

I don’t want to talk about that, either.

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Neve doesn’t mind, since Piper and Wren like to come up for grain snuggles.

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Jerry doesn’t mind having a much smaller, easier target to bully for the bucket of grain.

Cross your fingers the ice thaws soon and we can get a field delivery of hay before long.  I’m sick of feeling the muscle burn.


Tagged: Farm, Pets

Staying In

We are on what feels like day 100 of cold rain and fog.  I think in reality it is more like day 3, but we have at least another day or two to get through, and we’ve all pretty much had our fill of it.

The ground was so saturated this morning when the hay delivery came that there was no way to get the heavy bale out to the field where the animals are.  It sits in my driveway, waiting for some miracle or genius idea to strike.  We peeled off an armload to take out this morning with breakfast in order to tide the sheep  over for a bit.

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Normally I’d like to imagine myself out in the British countryside on a day like today; wrapped in wool, wellies on my feet.  But I am too worried about how to manage this hay!

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The chickens are muddy and forlorn.  The sheep are muddy and forlorn.  After approaching the gate where the dogs tried to greet me, I am muddy and forlorn.

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School will be done in front of the fire today.  These two like to fight over who gets the most exposure to the heat.

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Even the cats see the wisdom in curling up with a thick wool blanket.

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Since I can’t spend the day curled up with them in bed I will content myself with some espresso by the fire and work on my sweater.

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Stay warm and dry, wherever you are.

And if you have any genius ideas for how to get a massively heavy bale of hay down a slope, across a swampy bridge and up again into a muddy field, do let me know.


Tagged: Farm, Homeschooling, Knitting, Pets

Stopping By

What do you blog about when you’ve spent most of the week trying to hibernate?

Yeah, I don’t know either.

It’s been quiet.  Most of the holiday decorations have been put away.  We are back to the normal routine of school and work.

The weather is terribly, disappointingly warm.  I fear we will pay for it this summer.

We did trek out into town yesterday to make a Trader Joe’s run and to visit my friend Jessie in the hospital – she’s just had her appendix out.

I bound off the body portion of my Wicked sweater; now I have only to do the sleeves.  I want to fly through them so I can get to a new project because I have seen – and felt – the new Juniper Moon Farm yarn. It is swoon – worthy, just you wait and see.

I have a decent stash of Sabine I’d like to put to use, and I may have mentioned that I have been hoarding a stash of Chadwick since it’s been discontinued.  So much knitting to do, so little time.

The good news is that I’ve seen a lot of Susan this week.  It’s lovely to have her back around after her extended stay in Texas.

The animals are doing splendidly and our heads are full of plans to improve the land come spring.

It’s a good time to hibernate.

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Tagged: Farm, Homeschooling, Knitting

A Delicious (and Peppy) New Year

Right before Christmas Paul spent some time staying with his parents while on a work trip to NYC.

When he came back, he brought with him a crazy wonderful gift from his parents:

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A beautiful Kitchenaid espresso machine.

Wowza!

We have spent the holiday in a caffeine – fueled burst of deliciousness.  As for the kids, they have a new favorite: steamers (steamed and frothed milk with flavored syrup).

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I may be a little jacked up on caffeine right now, but I can’t enough enough of the little shots of espresso Paul has been making me, sweetened with a bit of sugar and mixed with frothed heavy cream.

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So decadently brilliant.

My waistline doesn’t stand a chance.


Tagged: food

It’s Tradition, Damn It

Is it just me or is the week before Christmas pretty much a throw away?  Everyone has checked out at this point.

Since we can’t seem to concentrate on work, school has nothing but been various crafts and some reading.

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The big craft day was spent making gingerbread houses.  This year I ordered the kits from King Arthur Flour, and I am pretty happy that I did.  Usually we just grab the kits from WalMart or Michael’s, but they honestly taste pretty bad.  Like dog – food bad.  We have fun assembling them, but then they sit there for a month until I finally throw them away.

This year’s kits were much tastier and came with better candy.

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In the evening afterwards we packed into the car – as our tradition dictates – and drove around looking at the christmas lights.

Doesn’t it sound idyllic and warm and cozy and sweet?

It wasn’t.

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It was more of an exercise in extreme parenting.  Oona was entertained for all of 20 minutes, and then she and Neve took turns hitting and pinching each other, crying, whining and complaining “But it’s HER fault!”

You want to know the other part?  This is how it is every year.  EVERY. DAMN. YEAR.

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Yet we do it anyway.  We even look forward to it, naively believing that this year will finally be better.

It’s a tradition, and darn it one day they will be thankful we suffered through it every year.  One year I brought hot cocoa and homemade white chocolate – mint popcorn for everyone but they ended up spilling the cocoa, needing to pee every 5 minutes and only 2 of us liked the popcorn.

We don’t do that anymore.

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I was seriously starting to get a good holiday cheer going – really getting into the spirit at first.

By the time we got home I just wanted everyone to go to bed so I could have a nice stiff drink.

You know what?  We’ll do it again next year.  Traditions are like that.  Sometimes in the moment they are painful, but the more you do it (and perhaps the further away you are from it in time) the rosier they seem and the more meaningful they become.  For us, the annual viewing of the lights means christmas is less than a week away.  Our holiday season would be incomplete without it , temper tantrums and all.

 


Tagged: food, Homeschooling, Seasons

Sugar High

Yesterday we hosted our annual Cookie Exchange – today we all have food hangovers.  Which we are treating by eating mostly cookies.

I didn’t manage to take many pictures – too busy having fun with friends, you know – but Paul got some with his phone.

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Oona had to be held back from eating the cookies I made for the party.

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I think I was telling them about the mole Orzo had dug up during the party.  I had run out there after people were telling me they saw him playing with something (I was afraid that despite the colder temps it might be a snake) and found him grabbing at a very fat mole.  My first instinct was to grab it and chuck it outside the field, but then Orzo grabbed it in his mouth and flung it – right into my face.  It shrieked and I was caught off guard.  So I held Orzo back while it burrowed away.

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Emily took advantage of our internet – it has not been working properly at Juniper Moon Farm.

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I love this picture of Keith and daughter Katie.

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Everyone wore their poinsettia pins we made for them!

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Even blurry, Jessie looks great.  I tell ya.

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You can focus on it being a terribly unflattering picture, or you can focus on the fact that I finished my dress in time to wear it for the party.

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Good lord my friend Theresa makes cute babies.  I just wanted to grab little Teddy here and snuggle him all day.

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A rare picture of Emily in the wild.  She has decided the only pictures of her that she will allow are during JMF photoshoots.  You know, when you’ve had a personal stylist and professional photographer working with you, I guess it would be hard to go back to “normal” pictures.  Or she is just pulling the “surly teenager” card.

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Maddie and Gully spent plenty of quality relaxing time after the party.

We were worn out from all that fun! And food! (And just maybe the wine and the delicious  hard cider that Theresa brought).

 


Tagged: food, Pets, Sewing

Warm Winter Flannel, Take Two

In between working on my new plaid dress I have been working on finishing up flannel pj’s for the girls.

You know, because it is so cold out (insert crazy sarcasm here).

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I used the “Little Nighty Night” pattern from Favorite Things for the pants (it’s actually a pattern for shorts – I just lengthened it).  The shirt was a random white tee shirt I sewed a matching pocket onto. And voila! Jammies!

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Perfect for her favorite activity: laying in front of the fireplace, reading (even when it is 70 degrees outside.  Clearly these kids are not mine).

 


Tagged: Sewing

Making Days

As the days start to pick up speed toward christmas we’ve been spending a little less time with math and science and more time with reading, writing, baking,  and crafting.

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While the orgy of cookie and cake baking hasn’t quite begun in earnest, there are some being made.

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Maddie made both butter cookies for frosting and hamantaschen.

I hadn’t ordered the really good gel food coloring from King Arthur Flour as I had planned, mostly because the box we got from the local Food Lion promised to give true colors.  But, as you can see, we got more of a pastel effect from them than we would like.

Oh well.  Next time.

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The hamantaschen will not last long.  There’s a long list of cookies that we will make out of tradition, and there’s a long list of cookies we’d like to try.  I think the kitchen will be working pretty well non – stop for the next two weeks.

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And here’s a sneak peak of the dress I am making for myself.  The fabric is wonderful – a festive and soft plaid shirting from Robert Kaufman.

It will be my third time using this pattern from Sew Lisette.  It’s probably my favorite one.

Soon we’ll be making gingerbread houses and settling in for nightly holiday movie viewings – though I am definitely putting Love Actually on tonight for knitting entertainment.  Maybe a fire, too.  And popcorn.

 

 

 


Tagged: food, Seasons

Warm Winter Flannel

That’s right.  I am in the midst of making everyone warm winter jammies in the midst of a freaking warm spell.  It’s been in the mid seventies for days now, and it isn’t going to get much cooler for awhile.  See what I meant about how you can’t predict the winter based on fall’s weather?  A week or so ago we were getting hard frost.

This is probably due to the fact that we just had a gigantic propane tank installed for the fireplace so we could be all cozy for school and for reading and knitting in the mornings and evenings. Now we’re just sweating in there, and the propane hasn’t been turned on once yet.

Of course, if I had my way the fireplace would be wood – burning……but you can’t win ‘em all.

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Oona gets a flannel nightgown, courtesy of this picture I found on Pinterest.

I pretty much just fudged my way through it.  The fabric is “Nordica” flannel by Robert Kaufman.

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She’s been pretty much living in it non – stop since I made it.  I think I may have to make her a whole week’s worth of them.  Especially as it goes rather well with a snappy pair of red cowboy boots when you’re sweepin’ the front porch.

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Tagged: Sewing

The Sweetest Little Lamb

Yesterday I got to spend a good part of the day visiting with my friend Lisa over at Red Row Farm.

She and her husband Will welcomed their second child the day before Thanksgiving and I got to wait on Lisa and sweet little Marie for a few hours while Oona played with four – year old Alston.

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I got my “newborn baby” fix in (she smells divine!), Oona had a blast, and I got to catch up with a dear friend that I have not gotten to spend enough time with lately.

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Unfortunately, Lisa’s farm is a good 45 minute drive from us – close enough to be local, but far enough that popping in to each other’s houses regularly isn’t as easy as it should be.  The good news is that Lisa’s husband is a fabulous cook (they do own a few restaurants around here after all) so I don’t feel too bad that I haven’t been able to drop off regular hot meals to them.

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Baby and mama are doing just fine, and hopefully soon we’ll see a lot more of them.


Tagged: Farm