'Tis the Season

Fall is the season of plenty around here. Local food grown on local family farms, food from our own garden and surrounding trees, everything coming ripe and ready all at once, so much fresh goodness on our table!

Carrot Tomato Soup for dinner, from pounds and pounds of fresh tomatoes and carrots picked that day (recipe found here on SouleMama's Blog). I'd never actually made Tomato Soup from fresh tomatoes before, but after coming home from Miller Farms today with 20 lbs of tomatoes (along with 16 other sacks full of the Fall harvest), I knew this was the day. The girls loved it. Who wouldn't love a creamy tomato soup with fresh basil in it? My cupboards and closets are stocked! I finished canning about 50 lbs of peaches today, along with 10 pint's of Grandma Jo's Special Sauce, aka Blender Ketchup (that's what I did with the rest of the 20 lbs of tomatoes that I didn't turn into soup).The smell of Grandma Jo's Special Sauce filled the house for two days while it cooked down. Mmm mmm mmm! It brought back so many memories of my own childhood. Isn't it amazing how many good feelings can be evoked just by a certain smell? Grandma Jo's Special Sauce is special indeed. If you're wondering what to do with your Fall harvest abundance of tomatoes, give this recipe a shot:

Grandma Jo's Special Sauce, aka Blender Ketchup

8 lbs tomatoes, washed, peeled* and stemmed

2 red bell peppers

2 green bell peppers

4 onions

3 c white vinegar

3 c sugar

3 T salt

1/2 tsp allspice

3 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp hot red pepper

De seed and cut peppers in strips. Skin and quarter onions. Blend tomatoes, peppers and onion in blender. Bring to a boil in a large stockpot along with vinegar and sugar. Place other ingredients in a cheesecloth bag and add to pot. Simmer uncovered till reduced by half, about 24 hours.

Directions and times for canning blender ketchup can be found here.

*To peel tomatoes: dip them in a boiling water bath for about a minute and the skins will slide right off.

We are loving this Sauce in our house right now!

Exploring Wildness

Come on a walk with us!We live so close to spaces that are wild.

These girls love to see, with fresh eyes, the incredible intricacy of the beauty that is around us.

They love to walk through it, be surrounded by it.

Explore it freely.

Feel it under their feet.

Hug it.
Learn the balance of their body.

Embrace the wildness around them with all of who they are.


Can you see where our house is?

So close, and yet we felt so far from the environment of sidewalks, mown grass and playground equipment that actually surrounds our home. All fun in their own time, but important to leave, as well.


What do you hear, Anna? What do you see?

Where will this trail lead? Let's find out!

Run across the bridge! What do you see in the water flowing beneath your feet?

Ruthie, the fearless leader.

We're in a fort made of trees! That one is the chimney!

Look at where we are! Three fearsome mountain lions, stopping along the trail.

It's Always so Nice...

...when 3 little girls sleep in a bit.Then I was joined by this little one.

And that was pretty nice, too.

Ooooh, I do love my snuggles.

Whew!

What an end of summer whirlwind, and its Fall already! Time has felt like it is passing in leaps and bounds, each day melting into the next with hardly a breath between. That could seem stressful, I suppose, but for the most part it hasn't been. Lots of time with friends, lots of shared meals, late summer harvests from the garden on our plate. Little girls growing up so fast. Ruthie, especially, has been growing and changing so much lately. Talking up a storm, running fast after her sisters trying to keep up with their antics. People keep calling her Josie lately because she got so big so fast. She seems more like a little girl and less like a toddler everyday.

She's my little helper in the kitchen-helping me roll out pie crust for a pot pie.

Nora and Ruthie sharing a book together.

Josie reading to Ruthie.
Josie is a little mother. If you need a room picked up and all the toys put away ask Anna. Don't ask Josie unless you're ready to put in some parenting time guiding her through the task. But if you need help taking care of a little one, ask Josie. She'll take their hand and guide them through a task, entertain them while you cook or eat, read to them, bring you a clean diaper or a sippy cup. Such a sweet, patient spirit. They each have their strengths and weaknesses.




Here's one last picture I have to share with you before I head off to bed.
This is Lars, who has hung out with us a lot lately since his Mama was on bed rest, pregnant with his little brother (now two weeks old, doing great, the tiniest little being I think I have ever held). We have had so much fun with this little guy. Anna and Josie don't really like to wrestle. I keep waiting for wrestling matches to break out in our house, but those two are never both in the mood at the same time. Ruthie, on the other hand, being the youngest and always getting tackled both accidentally and on purpose, loves to wrestle. It has been so much fun for her to have Lars around to laugh with, to good-naturedly wrestle with, dance with, and have a playmate of her own to hang out with when her sisters want to do big girl things. Lars, for his part, fits right into our little family, and brings a lot of laughter along with him. Here's an action shot of the little guy jumping off the coffee table. I think we taught him a few bad habits:) The coffee table is our favorite indoor launch pad. We loved having you around, Lars.


I have missed being in this space, sharing our life with you. Time flying by can do that, so can a computer that is incredibly slow and never gets to the next web page or accomplishes the tasks that you are asking it to do. Frustrating, to say the least. But we have a new computer in our home now (with a webcam, we can skype!), so my words can flow out again and not get bottled up in the frustration of a computer that isn't moving.

Pickles!

Making pickles is one of my favorite late summer activities. It is always fun to make something so yummy from things that we grew ourselves in our garden: cukes, dill and garlic.

Pickles are a whole family affair around here.

Anna got all the dill off the stems and put it in the sterilized jars:

Josie collected the seeds from the head of the plant and sprinkled them in the jar:
By the time our cukes are ready for pickling our dill is sparse and mostly gone to seed. But I have read that the seeds actually have more flavor than the dill, so we added a lot of them to each jar and that did the trick. (My mother-in-law also told me you can freeze the dill earlier in the season until you are ready to use it)

I sliced the cucumbers and and garlic and Ruthie loaded them into the jars:

Pour the boiling brine solution over the top (1 part vinegar : 3 parts water), let sit for 24hrs in the fridge and voila!

Yummy pickles to eat!

One of my all-time favorite foods.

Laundry House

Come visit us in our laundry house! We made it with our friend Nora while Mom was hanging laundry on the line.

We even ate our snack inside:

Doesn't Nora have the most beautiful eyes?!!!

This little Ruthie girl has sooooo much fun with her special Nora.

So does Anna, for that matter.

An addition to the original house:


How many of you can have this much fun swinging from the rafters of your house?

Another later addition, the house just kept growing:

Josie wanted to sing for us in this room of the house. We all sat down and waited. Turns out she actually wanted all of us to sing with her. So we did. We had our own little concert in the 'wedding room' of the house.

I don't think these girls had ever had quite this much fun while mom was hanging the laundry on the line! We love it when Nora comes over!

Tubing Boulder Creek with Nora

Nora came with us on an adventure to the library today, and, like any good adventure, this adventure involved water play. Tubing on Boulder Creek, to be exact.

Nora, relaxin' on the ride:And the not-so-relaxing part:

Perfect little girl sized tubing environs. The creek is low enough that at its deepest it was knee high on Nora. Not that the rest of her body didn't get wet. She's that kind of girl.

Taking turns in the tube:

Lots of big smiles:

Here's my cool picture of the day! On accident, of course.

Then Nora floated in the tube all the way home to our house from the library (almost, except for the parts I made her get out and walk around). I loved the huge grin on her face the whole way, and Anna running along the bank next to her cheering her on! Anna was jealous and says it's her turn next time. As long as the creek stays this low, Anna! We arrived home with one shivering, smiling Nora and three little munchkins talking all at once telling Michelle all about our adventure. Thanks for adventuring with us today, Nora!

How Many Kids Fit on One Stroller?

Count them!

1-2-3-4-5-6!

This is how moms get their exercise,

pushing a million kids around and around and around and around the courtyard.

Normally there are only three smiling little girls on this sit'n'stand stroller, but today we had courtyard company.

-

Does anybody find this picture a little odd?

Or this one?
Did you notice all the empty pools in the background? It only goes to prove that human beings are social creatures. Where one kid was, there they all were. It didn't matter if the pool they chose was a tiny one, the larger pool nearby would be empty. If one kid jumped up and ran, they all jumped up and ran screaming after. Quite the herd mentality. I love that kids don't have all the same hang-ups that adults have about personal space, they just want to be near each other, enjoy each other's company and laugh a lot.

Weekend Afternoons

Weekends always seem full around here, in a good way.

In the summer heat lots of time is spent at parks or in the creek as a family.

Anna and I went tubing down the creek past our house for the first time the other day.

Yesterday after church we headed to the park for a picnic with friends and spent most of the time jumping in and out of the creek.

But then those late afternoon thunderstorms come through and we duck back inside while the outside air cools off, the garden gets watered, and the thunder claps loud enough to wake the girls from a nap if they are sleeping.

This afternoon was Josie's date with Daddy. He takes either Anna or Josie on a date once a week and today was Josie's day. The other two always feel a little lost at first with their constant playmate gone. But they quickly find their feet and dive into play.

Today their request was for finger painting. Ruthie's first time.

Quite a tactile, gooey experience.

She ended up with paint everywhere-face, arms, hands, legs, belly, bottoms of feet, knees... Then back inside they came, found their dollies and curled up in their billum hammock rocking them to sleep. Bunk beds have many uses.

Then Daddy and Josie were back, stomping through the summer shower bearing treats for the rest of us. Josie is one who constantly thinks about and looks out for those around her. She can't go on a date with her Daddy and get to choose her own treat without wanting to also choose something for each of the other members of her family. Sweet spirit, sweet girl.

Special times with Daddy'O.

Jenna's First Birthday

We have another one year old in the house! Today was Jenna's birthday. (And I think tomorrow will be Charlotte's birthday- making a grand total of three one year olds in our house).We had a blast making this cake, although since Mitch had the camera at work you don't get to see any pictures of the process. I wish you could have seen how covered Ruthie's face was with chocolate frosting when I gave her the spatula to lick off, or how meticulously the girls worked at putting the sprinkles on in just the right way.

Singing Happy Birthday to Jenna- even little Ruthie joined in:
Did you see the card that Anna made for Jenna on the table there? And notice how fancy the table is set, complete with a fancy tablecloth, fancy dishes from their tea set, and fancy forks they found in the drawer. We were all dressed up fancy as well (except Ruthie). Quite a fancy birthday party you had, little miss Jenna!

Here's the birthday girl blowing out her candle after Josie made a wish for her!

Blowing out the candle was definitely Ruthie's favorite part. I think she had Mitch relight it about 10 times so it could be blown out again and again and she could cheer.

Mmm, mmm, good.

Would you like another bite of your birthday cake, Jenna? No? Okay, I'll eat the rest of your piece, then.

Josie and Anna even washed all the dishes up afterwards. Quite impressive, really.

Happy Birthday, Jenna! You are well loved and well celebrated in this house!