Ruthie

It's been a little while and I haven't even had a chance to post the pictures from Ruthie's birthday! Here she is, our big THREE year old!
With her big sis and her new doll from Nona that never gets put down (no name for the doll yet):

Opening her very own Bilum bag from Grandma Jo in Papua New Guinea that I think she has yet to put down yet either (often the baby rides inside the bilum):

Josie REALLY wanted to give Ruthie her own tea set for her birthday. We had fun shopping for it together and finding a box to put it in (actually a sewing box, but it works great for a tea set). She and Josie spent the morning having tea parties, dressed in their best:

Finger painting with James, Isaac and her sisters outside at her birthday party. We actually had a beautiful warm day for it! Haven't had one since then, but we enjoyed the end of Fall while it lasted.

Dance party!

Playing charades, kid style. All the kids ran back to the bathroom, decided what they wanted to be, ran out together and acted it out with no sounds (usually an animal), and the adults had to guess what they were. Caterpillars:

Chocolate- chocolate chip heart cake for my chocolate loving girl:

Her gift from Anna was her very own stool which gets dragged all over the house for her to reach everything. Anna was always in the kitchen with me at Ruthie's age, but with two older sisters to play with Ruthie is usually playing with them. This stool has been great because it has drawn her back to the kitchen and given the two of us a renewed love of spending time together cooking and washing dishes. Mama's little helper:

After eating chocolate cake and having such an exciting day, this little girl didn't want to go to bed. It was her birthday so why not?! She stayed up until after midnight, first helping me finish the dishes, reading stories with me, and then just playing quietly by herself while Daddy'O worked at the computer (I went to bed myself). I guess she didn't want her birthday to end.

We love you, Ruthie! We love your caring spirit and constant smiles around our house. You are the third child with your tough spirit, dishing it back to your sisters when they try to boss you around, always ready to wrestle and play games with anyone, constantly on the go, with a compassionate heart that even at 3 is always watching out for those around you making sure no one gets left behind. Thank you for being you, my sweet little girl.

What Are You Making?

Oh so many things! As Anna told me today: "My favorite things to make are crafts and food!"

Yup, that just about covers it. Anything you can make would fall into one of those categories, right?

Meatballs:The meatball production -first you have to make the mud, in this dry climate. Use a spoon to mix the water and the dirt, collect it in a cup, form the balls, powder them with something white and fancy like crumbled cement, let them dry out of a younger sister's reach:
Sage spoons and acorn top bowls, for a feast in the playhouse:
Brownies, by Anna:

Little acorn people (yes, we collected all the acorns last Fall and made an acorn bag out of them-as opposed to a bean bag- but today the girls requested that the bag be cut open so the real treasure inside could be put to good use):

A surprise for Daddy, energy bars for his bike rides, freezing on plates before being dumped into bags:Anna made them with peanut butter, honey, different chopped nuts and dried, chopped fruit, oats, chocolate chips, and the secret ingredient- ground coffee beans.

Also being made: Squirrel food:

They liked it.

It doesn't count as feeding wild animals if you're just giving them back their food source that you stole for them last Fall, right? Anna wanted to know what the inside of acorns looks like, so she found some rocks and spent a while pounding them open. When she realized that the meat of the acorn is inside, the squirrel's favorite food, she left it out for them. It was amazing how fast they found it. Within half and hour it was all gone, even while we continued to play within 5 feet of the food offering.

Yes, most of these are things Anna made today, as opposed to Josie or Ruthie, although Ruthie helped on some of it. Josie has been sick. We made her a throne to recline on in the kitchen today where she was able to feel like she was an intimate part of all the activity while still getting the rest that her body needs. She seems to be feeling much better this afternoon, and I'm betting she'll be as good as new by tomorrow morning.

Did I ever tell you...

...that I love things that are lots of different bright colors?

Isn't that a beautiful sight?


Sunny, warm, happy and peaceful. Flapping in the breeze.
Puts a smile on your face and a song in your heart.
Here's to hoping you can enjoy plenty of sunshine today.

What Do You Have in Your Pockets?

I love the treasures that I find in my pockets at the end of a day. They tell me so much about my life and what it centers around, what I value, what I do. -A pair of hand-knit mittens that my friend Michelle made for Ruthie. I love handmade things and on snowy days we take them everywhere we go. Ruthie didn't want to wear them when we first headed outside, but as she ventured out into the snow and inevitably fell down and planted her bare hands in the cold snow she realized that she actually did want her mittens and asked for them. Moms like to be prepared, it makes for fewer tears and a more enjoyable time had by all.

-Some hair ties. Mothers of little girls will understand that a Mom needs an unending supply of these in her pocket.

-Quarters. It was laundry day. One of the domestic arts that has become immeasurably easier in the last hundred years of human history for many in the world. Part of the daily rhythms of my week, the making of a household and a home.

-A stick. This was Anna's 'treasure box', as she called it, and she gave it to me for safekeeping while she played at the playground. This Mom takes her role as guardian of her children's treasures very seriously. What may mean nothing to an adult mind may mean the world to my child. To an active imagination any ordinary, daily object can become anything you want it to be and the line between make-believe and real can become blurred.

-Two rocks. These were Josie's treasures, her 'special rocks' that she picked up at the playground, that she chose as hers from among all the others that could have been had. Yes, they do remember what treasures they gave me to hold and will ask for them later.

-Chapstick. I have to have something in my pockets that is just for me! Mama-care, because I, too, have value as a human being.

Dress-up Tuesday

Cool Jo:

I don't know what you'd call this costume, but Anna sure was having fun!

Cool dog:


Even Ruthie wanted to join the dress-up fun and put a hat on her head:

Costume change! Snow Anna White:

Snow White talking to her Daddy on the phone this afternoon:

Jo-Jo with her flower in her hair (she really wanted to show that to you, Nona and Grandpa!) on the other phone talking to Daddy:

And last but not least, this is how the littlest munchkin, Snow White and the Cool Cat helped Mommy do dishes this evening:

Just a few pictures to give you a taste of how these girls spend their indoor winter afternoons.

Look who's Mommy's little helper at the kitchen sink:

They're standing on the crate in this picture, which is not very tall. Usually I give Ruthie a big captains chair to stand on. Ruthie is not a baby in her own mind, she's a big girl and wants to be treated like one. She wants to see everything that is going on above her head. Yes, anytime I'm in the kitchen cooking or doing dishes now she wants up on a chair to 'wash' some dishes herself, which mostly involves lots of water everywhere. It does make the dishes easier now that she can participate and isn't crying at my feet to be picked up. Washing dishes is one thing that is impossible to do one handed. She also gives me more incentive to keep up with the dishes and not get too big of a pile next to the sink that she could topple, break, or contains sharp knives. The interesting part in our large kitchen is trying to reach the sink around Ruthie, and often around Ruthie and Josie, and trying to put any dishes away while they're still 'washing' since their chair closes off the cupboard and drawer where many of the dishes go. Fun times with my girls.

Does anybody else have this problem?

Counters literally covered in dirty dishes? Even the table has no space:
That's what happens when mom has been in a crafty mood! I've done really well lately keeping up with all the chores, we've had a good rhythm to our days and the girls help each morning and evening with their own chores. But then I started having fun! We were in desperate need of some new pot holders. Of course when I mentioned making some Anna and Josie wanted me to make each of them one first. Josie chose alligator material, Anna chose blue checked on one side and yellow striped on the other (which matched the apron I made her for Christmas one year) and then of course they all had to have dark purple on the outside. Here are the finished products:
A clean kitchen and table was definitely not a part of the finished product. We may have some fun new potholders but no clean pots to use them with! We had to eat our smoothie on the picnic table outside this afternoon because, as you saw, there was nowhere to eat at our table inside:


Anna and Josie had fun taking turns giving Ruthie little bites. Ruthie loved it:When Mitch brought in a huge bouquet of beets and beet tops for dinner tonight he had a fun time trying to find somewhere to put them, something to wash them in, and somewhere to chop them. He was resourceful and pulled out our last cutting board that actually fits over the top of the sink. You found some space, Mitch! We were cracking ourselves up.

I even got to use my new hot pad!

And later that night I made sure the kitchen looked like this:

Before I let myself do any more of this:

Ssshhh! Don't tell Anna! That's the quilt I'm making her for her birthday. I'm pretty excited about it. It's actually one that I started when I was pregnant with her and I finally decided to finish it hopefully in time for her 4th birthday less than two weeks away. I've been working on it every night after they are finally in bed asleep. That used to be the time that I would finish up any dishes I hadn't finished during the day so I've been getting behind on the dishes again, especially when my time during the day that should be spent doing dishes is spent making fun (and needed) potholders. Oh well. It's been a fun trade-off, I must say.

Peaches! Peaches!

This one's for you Bethany, because you understand why I never want to run out of peaches in my house. A little girl and a miracle can of peaches...

We'll have peaches this winter when the trees are bare of leaves and ripe fruit and the wind is whipping the branches around. We'll be able to sit down all cozy inside and taste a little love of summer that this Mommy put into a jar.

Whew! What a day. I canned 20 lb of peaches! Thank you, Cuthbertsons, for delivering wonderfully ripe peaches fresh from the Western slopes of Colorado right to our door. For those of you who are not into canning this is probably way too many pictures of peaches in progress, but I had fun with each step of the process so you get to see it all!

A stove full of pots. Two dedicated to sterilizing jars and lids, one cooking down a light syrup to can the peaches in, and the fourth burner was a boiling water bath for the peaches to dip them in to take the skins off. Next to the stove you can see the ice bath to dip them in after the hot water bath:

And then the skins slide right off! Skins still on are on the counter, then the metal bowl for the naked peaches, and the white bowl once I had cut them into slices:Putting them into sterilized jars after boiling them for 5 minutes in the syrup:

Hot water bath! The safety part of canning. Don't can at home without it:"Peaches on the shelf, potatoes in the bin, suppers ready, everybody come on in, taste a little love of summer, taste a little love of summer, taste a little love of summer, my grandma's put it all in jars"(Greg Brown):That's about half the jars there. You don't get to see any pictures of the girls helping me because I didn't have hands free to take pictures when their 'help' was around. They were taking naps when I found time to pause long enough to take a few pictures of my work in progress, but they did have fun helping me. Their help was limited since most of the work was too hot for little hands. The main part I let them help me with was the cold water bath and taking the skins off the peaches . Their favorite part, though, was helping me figure out what to do with the slices of peaches we had left in the end that didn't fit into my last jar. "They can go in my tummy, Mommy!" And the last of the peaches were gone.

Mitch took the camera to work with him today or I would have shown you a picture of Josie eating a peach (fresh) with juice all over her face and dripping down her arms and off her elbows, making puddles on the ground below. That was one good peach she was eating. These were seriously the best peaches I think I have ever eaten in my whole life. And we get to enjoy them all winter! 'Taste a little love of summer...'

Pickles and Crab Apple Jelly

I tried my hand at making pickles yesterday and jelly today. I thought the pickles would be a flop because I was using sub-prime cukes ( didn't get around to making them until yesterday and they'd been picked a while ago, plus I think they were all slicing cukes not pickling ones). But they are the best pickles I have ever eaten! Dill from the garden, cukes from ours and Bill and Judy's garden, and Judy's recipe. Mmm Mmm Mmm. Quite simple, as cooking goes, and such amazing results! I thought it would be harder and that they would be a flop. What a yummy surprise.

The Crab Apple Jelly, on the other hand, was fun to make but I think it will be called Crab Apple Syrup for our pancakes this winter. We have a crab apple tree out by the garden. I had heard that you could make jelly from them (they're pretty tart to just eat straight) but I had no idea how. Then the other day we ended up bring a Little House Cookbook home from the library that had recipes in it for all the foods that the Ingles and Wilder families make in Laura's books. Crab Apple Jelly was in there! So we had to try. Mitch and the girls picked the apples, and then I went to work this morning. They're so little you don't even try to core them and make jam or apple sauce/butter out of them. You just cut them in half and remove the stems. Here is Anna helping me squeeze the pulp out of the juice after cooking the apples down: Cooking the juice and sugar:Voila! Crab Apple Syrup:

After I did more research I found out that I did every single thing they say not to do or else your jelly might not jell. Oh well. It looks beautiful! This was my very first canning experience, too, and I must say, I had a good time! I definitely learned some things not to do next time. If I care I think I can open some of the jars and fix the 'jelly', cook it some more, maybe get it to jell, and re-can it. We'll see. I might just like the syrup.

We also made Sourdough biscuits from the Little House Cookbook. We were hoping to have some jelly to go on them, but oh well. They were good! Notice the two biscuits in the front, one is Anna's and one is Josie's, they had fun forming them. We cooked some of them in the skillet and baked some, both ways were delicious. I would say we've kept ourselves busy the last two days. Good busy! Maybe tomorrow we'll just relax and play in our pool all day. Yes, we have a new pool, Jack and Caroline! More on that to come. But for now, I'm going to bed.