I love me a little summer.

How to make a glass of lemonade, by Ess

First, squeeze the lemons into the cup (only the juice). I used 2 and a half lemons, five halves.

Then, you have to add some sugar! My sugar was on a plate. I used just a handful.

You have to add a little bit of water. Just half a cup.

Then you have to mix it! I use a spoon. I had to stir it a lot of times, until all the sugar dissolved. Then you taste it, and see (what it tastes like). Mine needed a little more sugar!

I like lemonade. It’s so sweet!

Recycled baby hoodie

Twice a year, my mom and I hit the consignment sales for the girl’s clothes for the next two seasons…I’d say it was completely out of frugality, but I have to admit that along with being able to clothe 3 girls for $150 dollars or so, it’s one of the dizzingly happy perks of raising kids on a reasonable budget. I get a wonderful high out of it. My nerdy theory is that is hearkens back to my hunter/gatherer roots. (I’m envisioning some ancestor coming back into her family tent with a basket full of nuts and berries and roots on her head, silly with glee over the great bounty she found, with her husband nodding and grunting with a bemused glint in his eyes…but I digress.)

Anywho, I’m in the habit of looking over the sleeves and collar of baby items for stains, and tossing basic items into my bag if they’re under a dollar, which is exactly what I did with this happy little mustard colored hoodie.

I failed to notice the spectacularly mass-produced look of the glittered rainbow/butterfly combo, and when I spotted it at home, I blinked in consternation. And then remembered some fabric I’d picked up at a secondhand store a month ago, and realized it would be a cute match. Whee! I spent the evening stitching and entertaining baby with left hand while watching Arrested Development.

Butterfly/rainbow glitter paint explosion:

With the panel of fabric sewed on:

and a crocheted flower

tada! B’Eva likes it.

Safest Place

So, recently, as I was laying down baby Eva for a nap, I heard the suspicious sound of sticky giggles floating down the hall from the kitchen.

It suddenly occurred to me that after a breakfast of waffles, I had forgotten to put away the bottle of maple syrup. Crud muffins. After a quick effort to quietly run down the hall, managing mostly to sound like a sneaky elephant, my suspicions were quickly confirmed. Big puddle of maple syrupy goodness, with my delighted little toddler dipping her fingers into the sparkling amber lake and licking the sticky trickles off arms happily.

I did what every good mommy would do to keep from completely losing her cool. I grabbed the camera and made a happy, gooey movie.

(she’s saying…”I poured maple syrup on the floor, just for funsies!”)

I’ll be the first to admit that I wanted to say some choice words and react in anger, initially. It’s adorable to read about, and even charming to write about, but in the moment,I was mightily tempted to blow a fuse. Maple syrup is an expensive treat that we use sparingly, it’s a pain in the back end to clean up off the floor, and it was the third thing my 2.5 yo had dumped in the past few days. I wanted to grind my teeth and shout at her, and scare her to death, honestly.

As luck would have it, something she’d said earlier that day stopped me. She’d been watching a mild “bad guy” movie with us this weekend, and afterwards, while talking about it, she snuggled down on the couch and said contentedly:

“There are no bad guys in our house. Our home is a safe place. I love my home!”

That little statement really stuck with me. Home is a safe place. A simple observation that rings true on so many levels. A good home is safe for it’s occupants. A place where it’s OK to mess up, where it’s alright to cry, where a person can try their wings and crash and get up and try once more. There’s a marvelous shortage of bad guys who might tell you you’re not capable, tear you down, or hurt you spitefully.

In light of this, I’m making an effort to help our children take responsibility for their mistakes, and to also make home a safe place to learn that lesson. Correcting without shame is a learned skill for most humans, I think, but I’m in the midst of trying to learn how. If I can make a habit of gently correcting without sarcasm, shaming or intimidation, I think I’ll be thrilled to find that I’ve tapped into the heart of “home”.

Undoubtedly, it’s going to take some time to fully get there, but I do believe that eventually, one maple syrup success with follow another, and eventually, we’ll have a string of successes consistently following another like a pearl necklace. The language and tone of gentleness with start to feel less like marbles in my mouth, and I’ll learn to speak “good guy” quite fluently. Hopefully, as it becomes habit for mama and papa (well, especially mama…my spouse is already quite good at it), gentleness will be set as the default tone of the home. As a lovely ripple effect, I suspect that kindness and laughter will drizzle on down the ladder of authority like golden honey. Correction will become sweet, as rebukes are much more precious from the lips of a safe person.

It’s a super cool thing to be able to say, “My house is safe. There are no bad guys here.” I’m all for that. <3

My girls. <3

I’ve been putting off blogging for several weeks now, due to stomach bugs/laundry/craftiness/summer cooking/etc, and now all my blogging topics have piled up. I don’t even know where to start!

So I’ve decided to load you down with happy, list-y goodness.

Thing 1:

Indian Food.

Nate ordered a couple of Indian cookbooks, and we’ve been taking turns trying out new dishes. It meets all the criteria our familly collectively needs: Spicy? Check! Exotic? Check! Frugal and plenty of it? Double check! Veg-friendly and adaptable? Checkity checkaroni.

So far, we’ve tried our (somewhat capable) hands at different breads (chipati, naan and layered bread), yogurt with cucumber and mint (yum.), cauliflower with onion and tomato (so freakin’ delicious, and I’m a cauliflower hater), mughlai beef with turnips, beef with spinach, black eyed beans and mushrooms, fried eggplant (drool…), tandoori chicken and red lentils with cabbage.

Manjula’s Kitchen has some excellent tutorials…Nate found her on YouTube.

The kiddos like it, which is a plus, and obviously, so do the adults in the house. Last night I made a really amazing (says Nate, who actually does a good chunk of the cooking) veg meal, and calculated that it came out to $1.65 per adult sized plate. Nice.

Thing 2:

I’ve been yardsaling and thrifting for craft project materials, and having a lovely time. Here are a few of my endeavors:

Chef Hat

It was actually super, super easy! I was a little daunted looking at it online, (I’m not the world’s best instructions follower…somehow, my brain screens out boring looking process how-to as white noise. ) but it was truly very simple to churn out. I made two in the time I’d originally allotted myself for one.

They’re totally adjustable in the back, too. How cool is that?!

It also has binding instructions for those of us who don’t have sergers, which greatly extends the life of garments around here.

I think I may endeavor to make several for Esther’s cooking themed birthday party in October, for the kids to use and take home as party favors.

Also, birthday bunting:

Thing #3:

Three artists I now admire:

Bon Iver, Animal Collective and Lyyke Li.

I don’t explore new music much, but every once in a while I poke my head out of my shell and find something truly lovely. These qualify as honest ear candy.

I might be a little in love with Animal Collective.

Thing 4:

I’m learning to knit, and nearly done with my first funny, simplistic little project.

Thing 5:

I love swapping and bartering. Seriously, peeps, this is THE best way to save money and recycle. For used maternity clothes, I got boots to wear with my enwrapture skirts this winter. For exercise dvds and mama cloth, a 50 oz jar of coconut oil, and a book, which brings me to thing 6….

Thing 6:
I’ve finally gotten my hands on a copy of Sacred Birth. I’m excited about carving out a little time to browse it with a cup of tea or two. It might be next week, but I’m excited about it. :O)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Baby talks. :D

Booty called.

Dear readers,

At aproximately 10:30 EST, I received a mysterious phone call, complete with children, two men and two women in the background. It became evident that I’d been butt-called by someone’s cellphone. And, not being a decent person, my curiosity got the better of me, and I listened for at least 5min, trying to hang up. Clearly, no propriety here.

Someone has a grumpy child. Someone has a southern accent. Someone has somewhere to go at 6. Someone likes to pace around a lot. Someone’s rear end needs to fess up to calling me before I explode from curiosity!

Sincerely,

Ash. *

P.S. If you’re long-distance, and have the misfortune of a five minute phone bill, I’ll be happy to pay it. ;OP

How to make pancakes.

Deer and birds, by Essie and Nomi

Essie:

A boy deer is called a buck and a girl deer is called a doe. (Like Do A Deer) I really liked to see the deer because it’s the best thing in my life. He came from in the woods. There were two boy deer, they were brothers. He was eating grass. Deers like fruits and vegetables, and they really like to eat things. I think he’ll eat our garden!

We have a bird feeder. We’ve seen cardinals, gold finches, two quails (mommy note: doves ;oP), brown birds (sparrows) and other birds.

I watch birds from our window. I feed them birdseed. My father helps me fill it up.

I have an Audobon Bird Book that my Gam gave me. Inside there are owls who are awake at night and owls who are awake in the day. I like the pictures.

Nomi:

I like different kinds of birds. I have little birds. (Eva is happy right now, I’m happy….grrrrr quack quack quack!) My kiwi bird is actually orange. He has a short little beak nose. My birds on my back porch fly on the back porch. They fly so fast, on the trees, on the bird feeder. (Runs around flapping arms). I like to watch birds with my red minoculars (binoculars) in the garage. I have two binoculars for Essie to watch wif me.

dress up with a friend this weekend