52 Artful Thoughts

Starting out - the card for week one.

One of my projects for 2012 is more Art. I am a better person and a better mom when I take a little time to create. I also am more likely to create if I have some structure around that creation. So I made up a project for the year - a weekly piece of art.

Stove hood with card in place.

But not just a piece of art. I will be illustrating a prayer/quote/inspirational sentiment each week, something that I would like to meditate on. I'm doing this as an Artist Trading Card (3.5"x2.5") and I took a plastic card holder, added a magnet, and can hang my card up weekly on the stove hood. I will see it as I clean and cook - both excellent times to let my mind wander to meditations.

I think, busy though I am, that I can commit to doing at least one small piece of art each week. I started two weeks ago so that I could hang the first thought on New Year's Day.

I am getting a lot of my quotes from Gretchen Rubin's wonderful Happiness Quote of the Day (the subscription option is at the bottom of the post). I also am on the look out for other inspirations and prayers, that I assume will come when I need them.

Card for week two.

Some weeks I will probably do two cards, so that I have one made for weeks we are traveling, or should other adventures overtake us. I hope to end the year with a box of 52 artful thoughts and meditations.

A Birthday Banner

Adding a festive birthday note to our space!

For Brother-Bug's first birthday I dug deep into the scrap bin and made The Birthday Banner. This banner has been hung at all our family birthdays since then, and will continue to be hung as we all grow and change. When Sister-Bug was born, one of Brother-Bug's jobs was to hang the banner with help from one of his birth attendants.

A quick Google search reveals that similar banners are between $10-$90. However, if you have basic sewing skills, a banner is very easy to make.

The middle three flags - so scrappy!

Our banner has white felt for the flags. I cut triangles about 6 inches wide and 9 inches tall.

Each flag is bound in bias tape - I used the scraps from my bias tape box. You will need about 9 yards of bias tape.

I added another stripe of ribbon, tic-rack, or other trim to each flag, following the line of the bias tape. Again, I used scraps I had in my trim box - another 8-9 yards total.

There are 16 flags on our banner. Three have star appliqués, one to start, one between the two words, and one to finish. The other thirteen have the letters of happy birthday zig-zagged on. Here is where the scrap bin is particularly important. The scraps that form the letters are our scraps. Here is Brother-Bug's baby sun hat... There is Papa-Bug's favorite Hawaiian shirt that tore... This used to be a skirt of Mama's... And so on. I cut the letters freehand and used some fixative so they wouldn't wiggle as I zig-zagged them on.

Close up of the binding construction.

I found some gold star buttons in the button box and sewed them on various flags, putting the big one in the middle.

Finally, I took a wide ribbon (2-3 inches) that was about 5 yards long and carefully bound it over the tops of the flags and getting all the flags in a row. Now the banner is basically complete. I sewed long lengths of 1/8 inch ribbon on each end to tie it up.

Our banner is now into its 5th year, and 15th birthday (or somewhere around that). It's still lovely. The kids adore it. Papa-Bug and I like to sneak the night before a birthday and put it up so the birthday person sees it first thing at breakfast.

It's one of those little things that makes a birthday extra special in our house.

Daily Haiku: January 6th

Our few sunny days
temper the cold winter rains.
We absorb the sun.

Taking Time to Enjoy

Yesterday it was sunny and warm in the afternoon - warm like fifty degrees! I thought we could go play in the yard a little and soak up some potential vitamin D. I had a lot to get done yesterday, with Brother-Bugs school work, household tasks, the work that I do...

And then I thought. "NO! LET'S GO TO THE PARK!"

After all, that's why we home school, right? That's why I don't seek employment. So that we can grab the nice days and the snow days and the sick days and live them to their fullest. Sunny? School can happen in the park - at the very least it's PE! Snowy - same deal. Let's get out and play! Rainy and cold is a great time to cuddle up and read or do projects. Sick days are actually opportunities to snuggle together and read "Where The Sidewalk Ends" cover-to-cover in a day.

Because we can.

So often I find myself caught in the trap of "Do, Do, Do" that I forget what my good friend Mark says.

"We are human beings, not human doings."

Swing!! Contrary to her face, it's actually a favorite...

There's a lot to do with kids and curriculum and house and personal interests and volunteering and so on. It's a huge challenge for me to put off the work of the day for the fun that could happen if I let my vision shift a little bit. Because it will likely be rainy tomorrow and the school work will still be there. The dishes will (sigh) still be dirty. The volunteer manual will still need to be edited.

But we didn't miss the sun. We made a new friend. We ran and played and went swinging and sliding. And that, my friends, is worth a lot. Even worth extra crusty dishes.

Sister-Bug and Elimination Communication

*Elimination Communication is about helping our little ones use the potty from infancy, because we believe that they can, given the opportunity, communicate these needs with their care givers. 

We started out her infancy without (with few) diapers, potty at the ready. I believed, really believed we could make the Elimination Communication thing work. And once we were into the stride of parenting two kids, it seemed to be going fine. We got used to changing our pants and hers.

There was something so magical about communicating that closely with such a tiny creature. As she learned to sit up, and could hold herself on her own potty, I looked forward to putting away the diapers. At six months, at least 70% of her daytime pees, and all her poops made it into the potty/toilet/sink/grass. She started to have dry nights - squirming to wake me once or twice to pee in our sleep. I would haul the potty up onto the bed, she would pee, we'd go back to sleep. I'm pretty sure I completely slept through that process many times.

Reading on the potty at 8 months... right before the Strike.

Then, around nine months, she went on a strike. I laughed and wiped up the pee. Several weeks later I sighed and wiped up the poop. Dry nights stopped. Potty wiggles stopped. Communication on her end ceased. I did some checking around and found that it is normal and that most kids sort it out around ten months. No problem there.

She was still striking at eleven months. Not only was she refusing to pee in the potty, but... When I would sense she needed to pee I would pop her onto the potty or over a convenient receptacle. We'd sing and laugh and relax, enjoy ourselves, and Not Pee. So I would take her off the potty, she would look at me, and pee. Smart little twerp, right?

Added to that, we were moving during those couple of months. Into diapers she went.

My personal theory was that I should approach EC as a game and if I didn't want to play the game, I shouldn't. I was sick of the obviously intentional pee-on-Mama wrinkle she was experimenting with. I stopped playing.

If we hadn't been moving, I probably would have played somewhat differently. It's hard to say. But regardless, she went into full time diapers. And there she stayed until the summer. As it warmed up and we took our layers off, I made the potty available. I gave her gummy bears if she peed or pooped in the potty. She started to show interest - more in using the potty than in the treat which was encouraging.

It's been up and down since them. She loves her underwear. She switched to wearing diapers about half her waking hours through the fall. When she was in undies, about half her pee and poop were making it into the potty. Sometimes she would remember that I owe her a gummy bear. Often I would sigh and clean up the floor, pants, sheets...

She chooses each morning if we are doing diapers or undies. Yesterday undies (but only the frog ones) and today a diaper. We often switch mid day. And I let her know, when we have to get out a diaper, that it is usually because my mind isn't able to keep up with her. I encourage her to check for dry pants.

And she pees her dolls in her little potty, holding them over it and making her cue noise. It's adorable.

In the last two weeks, even with the Holiday Mayhem, I think she has been in three diapers during the day. She has peed on the floor maybe twice. She has been catching her own pee and poop, letting me know when she needs to go, and getting to the potty.

Last week she stopped using the little Bjorn potty and will only "pee big girl potty". Also, she likes privacy and has taken on pulling her own pants up. It's all her. I was here to support her toward this independence and I think that the early EC work we did with her has made a big difference in her ability to comfortably navigate the needs of her body.

So that is my experience with EC. I'll try it with the next kid too (when it shows up eventually), though not a rigorously as I did with Sister-Bug. I'm learning more relaxation around my expectations of myself as a parent. Some of that learning I got from EC.

I still see it as a game, and I love that my 21 month old is ready, on her own steam, to put her diapers away.

Daily Haiku: January 3rd

Turning and changing
we find new adventures where
before there was naught.

Two Soups for You

Though I haven't been doing much writing here, I have still been cooking, and cooking a lot! Partly holiday feasts and partly the exciting beans and grains, and mostly that we get hungry and must eat good food.

Among other things, I put together these two soup recipes and since both use ingredients from Lonesome Whistle, I wanted to share... And I really love to share the recipes I create. Recipe creation feel like such an art form, and one that benefits most when the recipes go out into the world.

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Sunshine Soup

I made this with Brother-Bug and his best friend when we gathered to call back the light at the (close to the) Winter Solstice. We chose ingredients that were red, yellow, and orange to help us see the return of the sun. It was a good match with an Irish Soda Bread and some broccoli. We shaped the bread like a sun, and the broccoli represented the coming summer trees. It was a tasty and magic meal!

Soda Bread Sunshine!

1/2 Butternut squash
3 carrots
5 c water
2 T veggie bouillon

Cook squash, carrots, water and billion till the carrots are soft. Blend or mash till smooth.

Add to the soup purée:

1 1/2 cups Vermont Cranberry beans, precooked
1c frozen corn
About a teaspoon each of powdered ginger & mustard
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat through till the corn and beans are warm and the spice flavors have mingled a bit.

Serve and enjoy. Sing "Here Comes the Sun".

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Ham & Barley Winter Stew

Close up of Purple Barley - gorgeous, right?

1 ham hock
1 cup purple barley
2 sweet potatoes, cubed
1 white potato, cubed
2-3 tablespoons smoked paprika
Water to cover
Bay leaf
Parsley
Salt & Pepper

I made this in my slow-cooker - any excuse to use the Christmas present, right? I put all the ingredients in, covered them with water, and cooked it on high for about 5 hours. Before serving, pull out the hock and strip any clinging meat into the stew. Adjust the seasoning.

Serve with crusty bread.

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I'm thinking of grinding some of the Dakota Black Popcorn in my grain mill, and seeing how it comes out as cornbread....

Daily Haiku: January 2nd

Holding new baby,
I wonder how my babies
are so quickly grown.

What Happened With...A New Year's Day Post

...a lot of my November writings? I posted about NaNoWriMo I usually post about homeschooling, and all kinds of things. Here's where that all went.

A sunrise at our house. A new day dawning. Happy, Merry, & Bright.

- Daily Haiku. With the holidays and the sleep cycle that Sister-Bug is in, I haven't gotten my customary writing time I'm the morning. So the Haiku have recently been more erratic that I like them to be. Hopefully with the return of a schedule I can get back on my writing track.

-National Novel Writing Month? I made good progress on a series of picture books I am writing for pagan kids. I've been tinkering with the ideas for year's, but finally began to organize the series into manageable goals, and I have two (very) rough drafts of two different books. It was a lot less than I had hoped for, but ultimately more than I had previously accomplished. So that feel good and I plan to move forward with the series in the coming year.

- November Kindergarten Review? We did emergencies, and because of the way it worked out we continued into December. And then my brain was eaten for the holiday craziness. I never got around to it. I will. And we will have a video as well! Brother-Bug and I are on it.

- Simple Saturdays? I had so many good posts, bouncing around in my head, about simplifying holidays. And it was too complicated a time to write them down. Maybe next year. Maybe I'll spread them out throughout the year - because one of the ways I simplify the holidays is by doing small preparations all year long.

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So that's what happened. We went to Seattle for Thanksgiving and I have barely come up for air since.

If I were to make a New Year's Resolution, it would involve writing more consistently. But for now I am basking in the cuddles of my sleeping children who were up late into the might. And that's enough for now - they will be grown and leaving me with more time for consistent writing all too soon. I'll resolve to focus on the now, the precious moments with my little ones, take each adventure as I find it, and write as much, or when, I can.

It's a New Year. Happiness and Blessings to you for the duration.

Daily Haiku: January 1st

The calendar spins 'round,
reminding us of circles,
flowing and twisting.