Our Advent Calendar

So, I got sort of ambitious this year and decided to make an advent calendar to do with the kids. Then I stumbled across the Jesse tree, I hadn't ever heard of that before. I researched it a bit and liked the basic idea but still wanted to include the nativity part of things as well. So I decided to combine the two. I printed out the list of daily bible verses that are read for the Jesse tree and ended up combining a few and rearranging a couple as well as adding the nativity story. Then I wrote the story up in daily doses so that it is more understandable to youngest child. Oldest reads the daily verses as well. There may be some tweaking next year as the first two days of readings were a bit long, but youngest didn't mind so maybe not. :)

I also made felt pictures to go with each day, mostly, but not entirely, based on the traditional Jesse tree symbolism. They were done free hand and I am NOT an artist, so that's been interesting, but I think it'll work. I then made a background and 'path' for the images to go.

Here's a pic up to day 6, way before any people pictures are included. I am not quite willing to put those particular artistic endeavors up on the web yet. ;)

Sometimes you just have to make do

The kids have been rather bummed that the ground hasn't froze here yet. It was too warm too long and now it's all covered with snow/ice so is apparently insulated enough that it's still not froze. They spent a bit of time this summer fixing up the 'skating rink' so it would be a bit bigger and better than last year but every time they tried to fill it, it just drained. Now

Natural fruit soda

There are sooo many different types of fermented drinks. There are just plain fermenting, using a ginger bug, a scoby (kombucha), water kefir grains, milk kefir grains, and there are probably many more that I don't know of. We've tried all those but the only one we drink enough to bother keeping is the milk kefir. However, milk kefir grains are rather versatile!

Easter Eggs

So, Easter snuck up on my, as usual. Friday I realized that Easter was Sunday. So I steamed some eggs for the kiddos and Saturday we dyed them. Oldest asked if we could tie dye them since we hadn't done that for a few years. Sure, no problem!

It's easy to do and makes some neat looking eggs!

Dinner and a snow

I love winter! We get to cook over the fire more often since the fire danger is about zilch.

And the best part of winter is the snow! I love it when we get a bunch of the white stuff! So you get

Kids and bugs

Last year I posted about our little, tiny, mini worm farm and how youngest child is very fond of bugs. Now I realize that worms aren't bugs, but they are in the creepy crawly kid fascinating creatures. Youngest child is still very fond of bugs and she received a bug catching kit for Christmas. She has been lamenting the cold winter ever since as she really, really wants to catch some bugs! Well, we've had a bit of a warm spell and a few spiders and crickets have been popping out. So now we have a couple crickets joining the worms on the table.


We made them a little habitat.

And here's our worms. We put the ones from last winter back in the garden this spring but had to get a new batch this fall. They seem to be thriving and multiplying.

And this is what the table looks like around youngest childs' place. I'm sure more will be added to it as the opportunity arises. :)

Halloween adventures with dogs and pumpkins.

It's been an exceptionally warm fall this year. We've only just started having days in the 50'sF. Usually it's quite cold and often snowy by now. I've been taking advantage of the weather, though! Been getting lots of little projects done that were put off by the annual 'stock up' rush. We got in all the hay, all the wood and what garden produce I had this year, which wasn't much. And then, hunting season just started. Anyway, being busy, Halloween sort of snuck up on me. I just realized it's this coming weekend. We don't do much, but the kids always like to carve the pumpkins.

So, yesterday, they did so. It was a quiet couple of hours as even the  little one got into the act and worked hard on her pumkin.

We put them out last night after dark and lit them up. They looked pretty good!

When we went out to blow out the candles a couple hours later, they were gone. WTH? Turns out the dog had eaten them both, candles and all. Really?! Fortunately, I had a good pumpkin crop this year so there are plenty of extras and they get to carve pumpkins again today. I think we'll  put them up a bit higher tonight though!

 This is the pumkin eating culprit.

Tye Dying, fun stuff!

So yesterday we had some friends come over and we tie dyed some things. The kids had some shirts to do and I did some dish towels. Something with our water means that all white things become a dingy grayish/unnamable color that even bleach won't get out. So, I tend to dye my tea towels. The ones I have are on their last leg and it's time for some more. Those things have gotten a bit pricier than last time I bought some! However, I had a pack of unused flat diapers from the first kiddo and they are the same size, more absorbent and sitting around in my house anyway.

The kids were wanting to try ice dying as we've never done that  before and I was wanting to try something more along the lines of shibori. I just recently stumbled across that and like the look. So, we did some of each. I can't say I was impressed with the kids' idea of a good color combination, but the effects you get with the ice were really cool! I also threw a couple if the diaper/dish towels under the official ice dyed stuff to catch the drips and they turned out pretty neat as well, although still not my idea of a good color combination. :D

Here's some of the ice dyed stuff.

And here's the two dish clothes that I put underneath everything to catch the runoff.

Then there's my stuff. Shibori technically should be done in indigo, but I only had navy blue, so that's what I used. I still really like how it turned out.

And my hands are still blue. :D

Homemade Hair Detangler

I've never really been into hair detanglers, but if my little one even thinks you might be thinking about brushing her hair, she has a fit. She has one of the most tender heads I've ever seen! I went looking online and found several recipes for homemade ones using marshmallow root. The only marshmallow root I have is powdered and, while it worked well, the little grains that I just couldn't filter out really did a number on the spray nozzle. The key seemed to be the mucilage so I figured I'd try oatmeal. It works very well! I just make more of an oat water vs oatmeal.

As usual with me, no measurements.

Here's my oats and water.

I made this batch a bit thick, so I had to strain it through an old milk filter. The thicker stuff works great, but tends to clog the nozzle and also makes a mess of everything it hits.

Here you can see the thicker stuff separated from the thinner stuff that I'm after for the spray bottle. After straining, if necessary, I just add a bit of apple cider vinegar to it. It doesn't last very long with my kiddos, but it probably should be kept in a refrigerator if you are going to keep it more than a couple days. I've also been using some of my hydrosols as the base water and it makes the hair smell sooo nice!

Here's some of the mess from using the thicker stuff in the spray bottle.

As I said, the thick stuff works very, very well, but the thinner stuff works as well. Especially if you spray it on the hair and let it set a minute before brushing. Oldest child absolutely loves what it has done for her hair. It's not near so rough as it used to be and it's much more manageable.

I still use the thick stuff as a hair rinse in the shower. I make up a strong tea with horsetail, comfrey, calendula, nettle and sometimes rosemary. Then I soak the oats in the tea for a bit, strain and bottle with some apple cider vinegar. I just keep that in the shower and use as a final rinse after washing hair. I just leave it in, don't rinse it out.

It does seem to help with dry hair and split ends. Not as much as a good oil treatment, but I rarely actually get around to one of those.

Dried Green Pumpkin Chips

The other day I found one of my bigger Howden pumpkins had been broken off the vine by the dogs. It's a decent sized pumpkin and I didn't want to waste it, but really wasn't sure what to do with a very green pumpkin. I know there is green pumpkin pie, I have read the Little House books, but I didn't want to bake. It's around 100F here and I really try to avoid turning on the oven. So I thought about it for a bit. I know people make chips from zucchini and cucumber and I've wanted to try some but I am apparently the only person in the world who cannot grow zucchini. Who knew? Anyway, green pumpkin is supposed to be very bland, as are those veggies, so I thought I'd give the chip thing a try since I had this thing laying around. I must say, it didn't turn out too bad!

Here's what I started with. Still very green!

 I cut it up and ran it through the food processor.

 I looked at several recipes online and most said to oil the chips, put them in the dehydrator and then sprinkle on the seasoning. I did that with the barbecue flavor, but just put seasonings and everything in the sour cream and onion batch.

 Here's my really stinking old, hand-me-down dehydrator. This thing has bushings or bearing or whatever they're called going out and it squeals like nobody's business, but it still mostly works.

 And here are the finished products. Sour cream and onion (which really tastes more like lots of garlic with a bit of dill) and barbecue flavor. Both are ok in my book and awesome in the kids' books. These two batches were 8 cups of pumpkin and I still have plenty left. I think I am going to try a batch using the Brady Street Seasoning from Penzey's (awesome stuff on popcorn) and then maybe a batch of just the usual seasoning salt that I use. I really like this whole idea, just need to find a seasoning that I really like.

Anyway, if you ever end up with a green pumpkin and don't want to make pie, here's another option.

Going all old fashioned

Youngest child has a 'custom' bed and it's a weird size so getting a mattress is a no go. She's been using a makeshift one of egg crate foam and several sleeping bags. It worked but.......

So, for fun, I decided to make a straw tick mattress. I took a couple of old fitted twin sheets and cut off the elastic on the corners. Then I sewed them together, leaving a hole to stuff it with. I had no idea how big to make this thing as I know the straw filling would shorten things a bit and I didn't know how thick to make it, so that's what I went with. I'm most definitely not a seamstress, but even I could pull this off.

Got it sewed together, took it outside and stuffed it (it took a small bale) and then carted it inside to sew up the stuffing hole. If we actually like it, I'll put a zipper in later. Then we put it on the bed. It fit perfectly, just like I actually knew what I was doing. I put one of the sleeping bags on top of it to help with the noise issue, it is a bit rustley.

I did have to add a board on part of the bed since the mattress kept wanting to migrate out of there, but overall it worked great and so far Youngest child is quite thrilled with it and Oldest child is lobbying for one of her own now.


Here you can see where I cut of the elastic on the corners.

 Here it is all sewn together. And, yes, that's a dog under there.

 

All stuffed with straw and ready to sew shut.

 The little one just had to try it out!

 Working on sewing shut.

Here it is on the bed and ready to use. You can see the board that I had to put up to keep the thing on.

 And here she is, enjoying the finished product.

Homeschool history lesson in a song

You know that Billy Joel song, We Didn't Start the Fire? Oldest child recently discovered it and just loves it. She runs around singing it all day. So, I turned it into a modern history/pop culture lesson. She had to look up (over a few days) everything mentioned in the song. She actually had fun doing it and now knows what she's singing about.

The Simplest of Things

Kids can have the most fun with the simplest of things! We had some gravel delivered today, mostly river rock from the river (duh). The kids have been having a blast going through it and finding neat rocks and agates to polish and add to their museum. They've also found a couple of musselshells. There's a lot of those here, the river is named the Musselshell River after all. :)

 Here's an interesting thing they found. I don't know what it is, any ideas?

 And here is their 'museum'. This is where they get to display all their treasures and write up little descriptions and info about them. As you can tell, it's just getting started, they are having a lot of fun, though.