Monthly Archives: February 2010

So sleepy!

Mavis is now up to 8 teeth and walking around the house like a champ. Her personality is really coming out now to. It is amazing to see the way she interacts with her siblings. But all these developmental milestones don’t come without the price of sleepless nights.

I have been meaning to make an effort to get to bed early. I have read in several sources that a good morning starts with a good night the night before and that you really need to go to bed early enough to wake up when you want to to accomplish you tasks. I wasn’t doing that. I was blaming staying up late on the children not sleeping early and Proeun geting home late and anything but me.

Yesterday at nap time I was exhausted. I had had another late night, slept in in the morning and scrambled to get my morning tasks down. Lunch was late we were rushing and yelling at the children to get ready trying to take Proeun to work on time and then it was nap time, finally some relief. Only the children weren’t ready and I lost it. Yes an adult sized temper tantrum complete with yelling and stomping around the house and pouting.

Then I decided this couldn’t go on. Proeun’s schedule is what it is. He may be a night person but I am not and I cannot be the mom I want to be without sleep. So I decided we needed to be proactive. Here and the steps I decided on.

1. Turn off the TV no later then 7:00. Have dinner with the children. Then bath and story BEFORE picking up Proeun around 9:00.
2. When Proeun gets home have some concentrated family time for 15-30 minutes.
3. Children to bed by 9:30.
4. An hour of wind down time with Proeun and bed for me no later then 11:00.

Last night we tried it. I explained to the children why we were changing things up and asked for their help. They did wonderfully and were very cooperative. Proeun was supportive and agreed to no TV while we were having our wind down time. And I was in bed by 11:00. I was still up a lot last night but I actually felt rested this morning when we woke up. We had family worship and went over the schedule for the day before the TV came on. I hope this success continues but for now I am encouraged.

My Valentines

Proeun and I developed a tradition early on in our marriage. Being young, in love, broke and with young children we decided to keep our celebrations to the house. We both love to cook and so for Valentines we plan an extra special meal and cook together at home. This year we tried to involve the children more, letting them know that they are important to us even on Valentines day. So this year’s meal was lasagna, chocolate chip cookies and grape juice in wine glasses. The children helped with the cookies as we experimented trying to make heart shape cookies (some of them turned out).

Then we set the table extra special with a real tablecloth, candles and the nice plates.

The grape juice “wine” was a hit.

At church one of the ladies was telling the children’s story talking about how the men had better do something nice for their wives or otherwise the women would be upset. We are the odd ones who love spending time with our children. After dinner it was bathtime and a movie and then an early bed for the children. We were all together celebrating. My dad was always really good at making me feel loved. Every year he would buy me and my sister Valentine’s cards in addition to our mother. Some years we even had flowers. Knowing that you are loved and appreciated by your parents in such a gift and we hope to pass that on to our children.

It always pains me when I hear marriage counselors telling couples that they need something to share outside of the children. i can understand the reasoning that when the children leave the home the parents will not have anything to relate to if they are not working on their relationship all along. But for us we have a vision and a dream for our family. The children are an integral part of that, the strengthen us, educate us and challenge us to be better people. When they started families of their own I hope they will allow themselves to be changed by children. At least they will have a good foundation of love and appreciation.

Our children are an extension of our love for each other and by showing love to our children and nurturing them together we are engaging in probably the most important work together. Doing a great work together is wonderful way to strengthen a marriage.

Maybe I don’t know what I am talking.

Veggie List

We have been getting requests for a more complete list of vegetable offerings for this summer’s CSA. Here is a list of purchased seed. With farming there are always risks including pests and weather, but this is our projected list for the summer.

Beans
    Provider Green
    Royal Burgundy
    Dragon Langerie
Beets
    Guardsmark Chioggia
    Detroit Dark Red
    Touchstone Gold
Brussel Sprout
Broccoli
Carrot
    Naya
    Bolero storage
    Dragon
    White Satin
    Yellowstone
Cauliflower
Chard–rainbow mix
Cabbage
    Famosa–savoy type
    Farao
    Kaboko–Chinese type
    Red Express
Corn–sugar pearl
Cucumber
    National Pickling
    Marketmore Slicing
Collards
Eggplant
    Little Finger
    Calliope striped
    Nadia Italian
Fennel
Kale
Lettuce
    Salad Mix
    Romaine
    Optima–butterhead type’
Melon
    Athena–Cantaloupe
    Early Gala–Honeydew
Onion
    Bunching
    Walla Walla Sweet
    Copra–storage
    Redwing–red storage
    Leek
Pac Choy
Peas–Sugar Snap
Pepper
    Jalapeno
    Red Knight–sweet bell type
    Thai–hot pepper
Pumpkin
    Howden
    Musque De Provence
Radish
Spinach
Squash winter
    Table Queen Acorn
    Honey nut butternut
    Sugar Dumpling
Squash summer
    Black Beauty–zucchini
    Tigress
Tomato
    Amish Paste
    Cherokee Purple
    Crimson Sprinter
     Yellow Perfection
    Striped German
    Red Grape
Turnip
Watermelon
    Sugar Baby
Herbs
    Italian Basil
    Thai Basil
    Cilantro
    Dill

Shoveling with children

Getting three children ready to go outside during the winter is not an easy task. It normally goes something like this, you start with one, get them dressed, catch the 2nd one, get them dressed then while you are catching child number 3 the first 2 are taking their coats off. I guess my children are hot blooded because Two tends to take off coat and shoes as soon as he gets in the car or wherever our destination is.

While I had good intentions to go outdoors more this winter it hasn’t happened, mainly for the above reason. But also because until just recently Mavis who will be 17 months old this month has been scooting on her butt and not walking. Now she is a proud walker. So yesterday with temps in the mid- 20s and a new layer of beautiful snow on the ground and a driveway to be shoveled I decided maybe it would be a good time to venture into the outdoors.

We had bought 2 children’s shovels at Fleet Farm this year but they hadn’t seen much action. However Two loves working with his father so when Proeun said he was going outside to shovel Two quickly asked to go too and then Avril. So we made a family outing of it.

So while Proeun snow blowed the driveway we worked on the sidewalk and front steps.

The concept was a little much for Avril who was shoveling snow from the snowbank on one side of the sidewalk to the other. But heh she felt helpful.

Even Mavis was enjoying being outside and the snow.

There was even time of a little fun, then it was inside for a hot bath and hot cocoa. Days like today I can hardly wait to live in the country and be tramping through the woods.

Composting is addicting!

I can’t remember when or why we started composting. I believe it was around the time we started gardening in our backyard. We actually started with vermicomposting, with worms. We bought tupper totes and drilled the appropriate holes in them, ordered a pound of red worms from a place in Texas, added a bunch of shredded paper and a few vegetable peelings and we were ready to go.

But with a growing family we were producing much more food waste then the worms could keep up with. We had been giving our meat scraps and spilled messes to the dog for a while already. However, once you wrap your mind around the idea of composting it is actually really hard the throw food scraps away. So we set up our own compost pile in the backyard.

I love grapefruit (and so do the kids). Each year we order several boxes from our local church school. These produce a lot of waste with the grapefruit peals. Last winter we successfully composted all those peelings and a host of other things and added them to our garden before starting the winter pile again.

My favorite way to compost though is through the chickens. They love veggies scraps but their favorite is apple cores. Luckily we eat a lot of apples. This now is a well known fact in our family that apple cores are shared with the chickens, no matter where we are. This weekend we attended a class on marketing for farmers. There were apples there as a snack. The kids and I each had one then I put the apple cores in my purse to take home for the chickens. Not something I pictured myself doing when I was in high school I assure you.

Last summer we were going camping. My brother-in-law and his friend Henry were riding with us. Henry ate an apple then threw the core out the window before any of us could stop him. Avril looked at him with indignation in her eyes and said, “Hey our chickens like apple cores.” He quickly apologized and said he would save them next time and he did.

Never Seed Shop When Hungry

It is an odd thing to look at newly plowed field and get hungry imagining all the wonderful food that will soon grow there. This weekend our task was to purchase the seeds for our upcoming CSA. Wise advice is never to grocery shop when hungry and I would make the suggestion never to seed shop while hungry. But even if you are not hungry when you start chances are you will be when you are done.

Over the years first gardening in our backyard and now farming my tastes have “evolved” but into a more simple form. There is nothing like the pleasure of a thick slice of fresh from the field tomato (or grape tomatoes in the field for that matter). One of our farming friends introduced me to the taste sensation of thick cut zucchini baked until just tender and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.

Two loves skinny, purple, Japanese eggplant battered and fried but for some reason not the Italian ones and don’t get me started on basil right from the garden. There I go again–oh and sweet boiled turnips in borscht with beets, carrots, and onion all from the garden. Yes evolved is a relative term. When eating from the grocery store it is much harder to enjoy the simple taste sensation of an ages old variety of vegetable.

It took us over 4 hours to select and purchase the varieties that will eventually make it to our table and that of our CSA members. I am really excited and can’t wait for some good eating again.

I thought I would share with you some of my favorites. These are either varieties I have tried before and love or ones I am really excited about.

Musque de Provence Pumpkin

Little Finger Eggplant

Walla Walla Onion

Dragon Langerie Bush Bean

Touchstone Gold Beet

Amish Paste Tomato

All these varieties are from High Mowing Certified Organic seeds. We also chose seeds from Wood Prarie Farm, Johnnies and Territorial Seeds.

Premio Dardos Award

My next door neighbor Angela has always been an inspiration. She is a professional writer with 2 young children. She has a passion for social justice, history and German. She has a great sense of humor and in a world where stay at home moms are no longer the norm it helped to have another one right next door–Playdates, and sharing extra food, and helping out with each others dogs.

Angela also has a great blog at Blue Collar Daughter. Anyway yesterday I got this email from her

Amy, I would like to award you with the Premio Dardos bloggers award. I have sent two formats of the award in a jpeg attachments, and you can display it on your blog if you like, or not. I think your work is great and deserves it. Below is a link explaining the award. Have a great week!

Angela

http://brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com/2009/03/premio-dardos-awards.html

Getting awards from people in your own field who understand and know what you are going through and what you are trying to accomplish is always so meaningful. Thanks Angela and I hope you all get better soon!

The Box

Over one week after our computer crashed the simple cardboard box it came in continues to be a big hit. While I am still trying to learn all the ins and out of updated technology the children prefer to enjoy one the simplest toys around. This phenomena is far from new. However for parents who worry that their children are becoming too dependent on electronic media seeing the pleasure of a box can really relieve a lot of worries.

Here all three of them get into the act. The box alternated between a boat, car and plane. Here it is a place, notice the “wings” folded up on the side. Even baby Mavis wanted to come along for the ride.

Here we have a good old fashioned jungle gym, another favorite was trying it upside down and just practicing getting on top of it for Mavis.

Avril outside her little closet. The only problem with this one was the older children liked being closed inside and Mavis definitely did not.

Even the cat Carrie gets in one it. Yes the box is still in our living room. Sure it makes it look a little cluttered but it does wonders for me pysche.

Cure for Mastisis–Charcoal Poultices

This baby I have been struggling with mastisis and a host of other nipple problems including bleeding and cracking. Before Mavis I didn’t really understand people who would complain that the pain was so bad they couldn’t nurse until last December it happened to me. For 2 months now I have been trying a host of remedies including focusing on latch and getting a new bra that fit properly.

Finally I called Le Leche League and they suggested I consult a doctor to make sure there wasn’t something else going on. The word “cancer” kept popping into my head. So even though I felt it was more of a surface problem that could be solved as Le Leche League suggested by trying to stretch the time between the feedings to give the tissue time to heal I made an appointment.

It has been a long time since I went to the doctor and I do not have a relationship with any doctor currently so I was forced to try a new one. She seemed very nice and after the exam said I was really low risk for breast cancer and said she suspected mastisis and prescribed antibiotics and Ibuprofen.

However I had no tissue samples taken or anything to confirm infection except the suspicions of the doctor and I was uncomfortable taking antibiotics under these circumstances. Especially since following the advice of Le Leche League seemed to be helping.

I called my aunt Patty in southern Minnesota. She said her 2nd baby had been very hard on her and she had mastisis 3 times which she cured with charcoal poultices. First her husband used hot and cold compresses to begin the treatment. Then she made a compress like this,

Charcoal Poultice

2 Tbsps activated charcoal powder
2 Tbsps ground flax seed
water to make a runny paste.

Put the paste on a paper towel or rag and fold over (this really helps with the clean up). Place over the breast and wrap tightly in plastic. Tape if necessary.

Charcoal is great for absorbing impurities. For more on this look at Agatha Thrash’s book Charcoal available from Country Life. This is best done over night. When I went to bed with the poultice on I was itchy and pretty uncomfortable. It is still too early to tell the complete results but the itching is gone. Now we just need to heal the cracks.

Family Meal Time–Yeh Hanh

Families eating together is very important. Numerous studies have been conducted that talk about just how important to growing children. But for our family, meals don’t always happen around a table.

The first time I met Proeun’s family they didn’t even have a table in their house. Instead the family would eat gathered around mats on the floor. I was prepped ahead of time saying that I must never sit higher then his parents and that it was polite to sit on the floor to eat. About halfway through the meal my legs hurt so bad I could hardly stand it. I was still hungry but I knew the only polite way to sit in a chair was to finish eating. So I did. I have come a long way since then and a couple times a month we will have traditional Cambodian meals on the floor. Our mats are former rice sacks cut open to lie flat.

This dish is one of my favorites–Yeh Hanh. We aren’t really sure how to spell it in English but are doing our best to write it phonetically. The dish consists of a seasoned coconut broth which is put in a hot pot and various greens and meats added to the broth to cook to taste. It can be as elaborate or simple as you want. One time last year we took a bunch of greens from our CSA and went up north camping. We did pretty much the same thing over the fire. We had chard and spinach and bok choy it was wonderful.

For last night’s meal we went simple with pea tips, cilantro and green onion. We had a little eggplant left over from another meal so we added small dices of that. For meat we used sliced beef and beef meatball. Veggie options include mock duck (I like soy curls from Country Life) diced tofu or just eat the veggies. My in-laws love shrimp in it.

I like to top it with peanuts. Here is Avril using our mortar and pestle to grind them right before the meal.

To make the Broth

8-10 cups broth. I like to use water and add my chicken style seasoning at a rate of 1 tsp. per cup
Tom Yum paste–can find this at a local Asian store or Asian section at your market. I normally look for vegetarian. Each brand is different so follow the directions for adding to the water. I think it is normally 1 Tbsp for 3 cups.
1 can coconut milk
3 Tbsps sugar, more if you like it sweeter.
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsps fish sauce, also from the Asian storee.

Combine all this in a pot on the stove and heat. When hot you can add it to the hot pot. Meanwhile cut the meat or meat substitute and wash the veggies. Add greens and meat to the pot and cook until done. Use a hand held strainer to ge them out and a ladle to spoon the broth. Eat over rice or rice stick noodle. Top with peanuts.This is one of the children’s favorites. They love having a picnic. But be careful because they will want to help themselves to the pot. It is a good rite of passage for them though.

Home School Farm

Learning to be Holistically Sustainable