Monthly Archives: November 2011

AGNS and learning to felt

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The boys take a trip to the local art gallery once a month and they love it. They get to view new installations and various recent travelling shows. This October there was an artist in residence who was making a felt waterfall that rotated vertically by a track on the side. The kids loved it, especially turning the big crank to make it go! Below the piece is a mirror which makes it look as though the ‘waterfall’ is crashing into the water below.

The coolest part?

The kids got to learn how to felt, from combing out some sheeps’ wool into thin, fine pieces to actually picking up a nice piece of finished felted sized about 6″x12″. It was very cool to watch. Then they were able to pick – well, I think Xander found the spot – to place the newly-made felt onto the already existing waterfall structure once it was dry.

Gotta try this at home! Not the waterfall, just the piece of felt. Or, at least little felt balls. So fun!

The pics were taken with my phone so not the best but oh so handy!

That’s one of the artists next to Xman. She was very patient with the kids and you could tell she enjoyed showing them the process. It took me back to art college days learning to felt in Textiles class!

Xman feeling drying felted pieces.

Pine cones and chestnuts

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I’m playing catch up here whenever I get a moment. So today, as we are in the midst of a snowstorm, I declared it a no lesson day as school was apparently cancelled. We are chilling (no pun really intended and it’s nice and cozy in here), watching a bit of tv, putting together a puzzle of flags of the world, and we already went out and played in the snow and hung the pine cone feeders. These posts will come soon to show the snow fun and feeders.

In order to make the pine cone feeders we needed to collect the cones first. We went to a great park just under one of the bridges and found a great many cones. The boys and I went with a friend of mine and her two kids that are great friends with boys. They always find fun and interesting things to do. This time they created an imaginary fort inside the big pine trees and chestnuts. The boys have been intrigued with chestnuts for since I can recall.

X used the hat I knit him to collect his chestnuts. It was stretching from the weight!

When we got home the boys wanted to plant their nuts in the backyard. We marked them each so we remember where they are and can check on them after the snow. It’s gonna be a long wait if today is a sign of what this winter has in store: malls closed, highways backed up for miles.

Our day at the park was wonderful. The weather was a bit cool, but just enough to sport a vest. The breeze was fresh and smelled like the ocean and fresh fallen leaves. Great memories!

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zucchini relish – super yum!!

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Okay, so I am relishing (haha) my time to myself by catching up a bit on blogging while Judy watches the boys for a couple of hours: sipping a venté soy chai latté at you-know-where. I never get a venté size but it was a freebie so for sure!

I started up the laptop and realized we took all Photoshop versions off of it to make room. We don’t edit on it any longer as we have our own computers and this is the family one. Soooo…great, what to do now when I want to resize some pics for the blog?? Hmmm…oh, maybe Preview can do it, and voila, yes, it can. Whew!

So, here we go…

My lovely sister-in-law gave me a recipe for zucchini relish. I needed something to do with the woppin’ big zucchini my friend, Juli, had dropped off from her parents’ garden – it’s huge! Here is a pic of it with a teaspoon measure to get the idea. Well, this is half of it as I’d already used some for the zucchini marmalade recipe I got from Juli…the boys went crazy when they saw it!

The marmalade turned out great albeit very, very thick. My first time waiting for the mix to ‘gel’ and really not knowing what to expect ended up with something crazy, bread-tearing, thick stuff. But yummy. At least I tried 🙂

Aaanyway, here are some pics along the way. The first pic looks so good already what with the zucchini, carrots and I forget what else (!) mixed in. Kind of like an alternative coleslaw. Raw zucchini is sooo good!

MIxin’ the suga’ togetha…

All ready to go into the jars and this time I didn’t super cook it into a crazy gel – so pleased!

Funny thing is that four of the jar lids didn’t ‘pop’ after 24 hours as they should to show it’s good to go/ready to store and eat pretty much whenever. Steve brought one of these jars into work and popped it into the fridge. By lunchtime when he went to retrieve it the lids had popped. Weird. So, I stuck the rest into the fridge at home and what do ya know? They popped! Nice. Thanks, Steve. Inadvertently, but thanks, nonetheless.

Steve LOVES the zucchini and I must say, M, thanks for a super-awesome recipe! We put it on egg sandwiches, plain toast, whatever. It’s totally worth it!

There. Another post done. More catch-up to do but I still want to read, knit and draw and I’ve got just over an hour left. :0

Judy, thanks for the time. It’s…I don’t know…so nice to say the least.

I’m not perfect, nor are my days…

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I know that we want to stay positive as much as possible, but I think it’s nice to show the other side of myself sometimes being human and all. By saying that I don’t mean the crazy one (haha) but the one that sometimes just doesn’t feel like getting out of bed to go through the rigor of the day. Can’t we all just cuddle in pj’s and watch a movie? Probably. But…

Today is one of those days where it was a bit tough to get going.

I felt way too tired this morning and everything felt like such a chore, even making breakfast, let alone doing lessons.

Sooo, I lay down on the couch after breakfast to calm a silly stomach. Lucas grabbed my pillow from upstairs and put a blanket on me. Both boys cuddled into me and we watched Curious George together. I almost fell asleep. Almost. But, I don’t believe in sleeping when you have young children who may get  into things, which is rare, but that would be the time.

I felt a bit better after my bit of rest and just letting the lessons go for now. Sometimes I feel guilty and trudge on with it all even on off-days.

I let the boys play on the computer for 1/2 each as I got us an early lunch. I know, it sounds like this happened soon after breakfast but there was email checking and three loads of laundry to fold in between it all. I must admit that folding the laundry did help lift my spirits. So did the snuggle with my boys. 🙂

Lunch, then consisted of easy food. As much as I hate it, I broke out a can of Zoodles. The last one in the cupboard. I hate using cans and processed food for the boys so I have vouched to not get them any longer. If they were lucky they may get it once a week as it was but I think it’s better this way.

~Aside~ Yesterday was AWESOME for lessons and I think it had to do with the fact that I have just recently greatly reduced the gluten in my boys’ diet (post to come). L did his math and spelling without any distractions. And by distractions I even mean the distraction of L to L. His brain easily distracts him. It’s cute sometimes and the things he thinks of amaze me. So, the boys did so well that we finished lessons in 2.5 hours including a bit of play in there. Wow!!

So, we will see how the gluten factor in the Zoodles affects my lovelies…this is the test of the gluten vs gluten-free. Here goes!

Now, for myself I decided to cook the easiest thing I could think of that is not only easy but sooo cheesy! You may have guessed it – Mac and Cheese. Oh yum! Still, I added garlic for health. That’s good, right?

Now, I think lessons will commence if I can get my boys to slow down and stop running in the house! Can I blame the gluten this soon after the Zoodles ingestion??

I must admit I love their energy. Wish I could harness it some days!

Maybe we will start with learning why leaves change colour and fall off trees. Very seasonally apropos, don’t you think? Speaking of trees, maybe we will read Pinocchio too…

Amazing. Blessed. Boys.

Have a good day. Even if it means Mac and Cheese to help you get there.

-smile-

 

late nights equal tough mornings…

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Lately, Steve has been working some evenings and into the early mornings on one particular piece of design work that is separate from his day job designs. It’s a logo and he loves to do logos.

I must say I admire his work ethics as he treats his design as an art. Every time he is hired to so some design work on the side he never does anything only half as good as he could. He is one of those people that puts in 100% for every job and that is something I respect a lot. I only wish it didn’t come with the guarantee of at least one all-nighter. But, you do the work when you can and that’s when the house is asleep for the most part.  Well, this dedication to the work comes at a price that many of us call ‘lack of sleep’ to put it lightly. Ugh! It never ends really. Sometimes the lack of sleep is lacking a little less than other days but always lacking to a degree.

Last night Steve got to bed at – wait! – I should say this morning Steve got to bed at 5am and then was up at 8am,which is late for a work day, to get ready for work.

In the mornings we have the habit of making tea or coffee for each other and placing it on the side of the shower edge to be drank/drunk ? while one of us is showering. This morning Steve was quick into the shower before I pulled myself out of X’s bed, which is a regular happening around here. I walked into the bathroom to see this on the edge of the shower. A tell-tale sign of what the night was like and what the day to come would hold for Steve.

Shazzam! Talk about your waker-upper!

Love you, my hard working, man. 🙂

 

First stab at GF bread in breadmaker vs second time…

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Tasty too.

It was a bit of a challenge to figure out the bread machine recipe as it begins on the ‘dough cycle’. Then, after the first mix you remove the paddle which is a messy business to say the least. Then you wait for that cycle to end. You reset the breadmaker to the GF cycle. Really? A breadmaker has a GF cycle? Hunh…

I chose the ‘rapid bake’ which was for the same time and I think I did pretty good.

The boys are like changed children since removing gluten from their diet. They listen now, can concentrate on their lessons, and seem happier – oh wait, maybe that’s me. 🙂

Onto second GF breadmaker recipe story. This one was for a pumpernickel which we’ve made with regular flour before and I love. Sooo, since I had made one GF loaf so far and it worked just fine I figured this should be easy! When the ‘dough’ cycle ended I opened the lid to see how much the bread had risen and couldn’t believe what I saw.

It was alive! I swear!

At first I thought I could just wipe around the edge with it in the maker but then noticed this was not such an easy solution. This monstrous yeast mixture was growing by they second (literally) and oozing all the way down and over the bottom of the inside of the maker. This is what it looked like when I removed it. I cleaned the maker and then proceeded to clean this mess. I wiped all around the edges and it took a while as the dough was very sticky. The goop kept coming over the sides as I wiped the overflow off. I couldn’t believe it!

GF flours, in my novice opinion, are a little pricier than even the regular organic stuff we buy. I was not going to give up on this loaf. Finally, I wiped it down for about the fifth time and then stuck my finger in the top a couple of times. It was like watching the Wicked Witch of the West melt! Down, down it went, lower into the container. Guess I popped one too many air bubbles. :0

Nonetheless, I was relieved and put it back into the bread maker for the ‘rapid’ cycle with fingers crossed. It rose a bit more but luckily not to the top and not overflowing. Whew!

When the beeper went off I opened the lid and there was a big sink hole in the middle. Bummer for sure! It tasted good and the boys liked it but you couldn’t really slice it. Just when I thought I had saved the loaf it goes and sinks on me!

I added less sugar next time and it went much better. Such a learning experience, and one I can laugh about at least!

Since then, I tried to make GF flour tortilla shells. Dreadful. When the recipe says potato flour starch that means add the potato starch and not the potato flour. BIG difference. BIG. HUGE.

😉

Home-made Clay

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This is something that I have been wanting to do for a while but just haven’t gotten around to. The clay takes about 5 minutes to make and it so easy to prepare. The best part, for me, was kneading it and feeling the soft warmth of the mix between my hands. The boys love using the clay to roll out, cut up into pieces, and squeeze through play dough heads (just when I was going to bag up all the play dough toys and drop them off at Value Village!).

I got the recipe from a great book called, “Slow and Steady, Get me Ready“. The book is meant to be used on a weekly basis from birth to age 5. Well, whatever, I say! I had the best intentions with that but perhaps used it three times since X was born. So, I decided to flip through it to find what may be of interest and there are still a great many fun ideas for kids. Who says clay is only for babies, right? I love it, too and so will you (I hope!)

Here’s the recipe:

1 cup Flour, 1Tbsp of oil, 1 cup of H2O, 1/2 cup of salt, 2 tsp of cream of tartar. Mix together in pot over medium heat until it forms a ball. Knead until smooth. Voila! Clay!

You could add food colouring if you like, but I just left ours au natural. I like it that way. 🙂

The ingredients mix together quite easily with no clumping. Then, after about three minutes of intermittent mixing…

Mmm…looks like mashed potatoes – but don’t eat it!

You can roll it out and use a pencil to make a funny face!

 Just when you thought the play dough toys were no longer of interest…

It can even do swirlies! Kewl!

The book says the mixture will keep indefinitely in a plastic bag or sealed container. It’s a great idea, if only I’d made this earlier. I could have used them in the boys’ grab bags for their party!