Count your many blessings

Today is a GOOD day. Shall I count the ways?

1. Right now I am totally alone in the house. I love my family, but sometimes it's nice to be alone too.

2. My son and I got a lot of cleaning up done today. The light is still not visible at the end of the tunnel, but I feel like we've made some headway.

3. I'm humless for the moment (that makes being home that much more special).

4. Supper is simmering on the stove.

5. The sun is shining in the window.

6. I'm drinking a great fruit kefir smoothie.

My knitting mojo has been hibernating lately. There are too many balls being juggled and knitting has sifted to the bottom of the priority pile. A little gets done each day, but that doesn't translate into many finished projects. A cool item I finished about a month ago is a biscuit blanket (it's like a giant dishcloth to keep biscuits/buns warm in). You just have to love that name! And when a friend gave me a kit to make one, I was so happy. Now I have the pattern and can make more. The cotton yarn was sooo wonderful to work with. It has me spoiled and I won't want to go back to the cheap dishcloth cotton.

Spring is in the air

I am seeing lots of people out working in their yards already and have to confess that the digging-in-the-dirt thought has been floating through my mind as well. But it's only the beginning of March!

A book to wet your appetite to do things the organic way is "Diary of a Compost Hotline Operator". Uniquely written; local(Vancouver, BC.) Everything you ever wanted to know about setting up and maintaining a composting system set down in a humorous and easy-to-read way. This was a fun way to begin the gardening season. Now to keep up the momentum.

I finally finished a pair of socks that have been languishing in a corner for well over a year. Showing how much my knitting has improved, I whipped through some lacework that had me stumped back when I was working first on them. However, my tension has loosened up quite a bit, so the second sock is considerable larger than the first. But they're done! I got to cross them off the list - very satisfying. (Knit Picks Essential yarn; Girl's Best Friend Anklets Knit Picks pattern) [Ravelry picture - I think we lost all our pictures with the computer crash]

Life as a homemaker

Two reasons I have a hard time doing housework…no, three.

I actually often feel guilty doing it. There are so many other pursuits that seem much more important. Like playing/talking with my kids, knitting something for another person, reading to improve my mind. I have to remind myself that a clean house is a blessing to my family and so has intrinsic value in and of itself.

Around here, you no sooner clean something up, and it’s messy again. I have kids in the house 24/7. You make a meal and it’s gone in 10 minutes. Imagine spending the day at the office drawing up the blueprints for a building and the next day when you go in, all your lines are gone; erased. A lesson in frustration. To reduce the frustration level, I have simplified some jobs so that my expectations are less. For example - I used to keep my towels upstairs in the “linen closet”. After wash day they would all be nicely folded and stacked. The sight would warm my heart. The next day they would be in disarray and half gone. Now, I roughly fold the towels straight out of the dryer and store them on a shelf beside the dryer. They never leave the basement laundry room until someone wants one. And the only bathroom that I stock with towels is my own. The kids can grab one when needed. Now my linen closet holds games and yarn. A good trade-off J

The third reason has a little to do with laziness and a little to do with “messy syndrome”. I have a jumbled mind that can’t make mental lists; I'm easily distracted. You could call me organizationally challenged. So written lists and planners are my friend. It’s the keeping up with them that presents the problem and therein lies the fact that at any given time if you arrive at my house unannounced, you WILL find creative mess around. So if you’re concerned about that – give a call before you come. If you’re not…I welcome you in J

Knitting notes: I finished some Christmas gift socks. They’re out of Opal yarn (Rendez-vous, 2063). The contrast heel and toe was fun to do and keeps the stripe patterning consistent. The cream yarn was Paton’s Kroy.

Revisiting those New Year's Resolutions

Experts say that to get anywhere with your plans you have to go over them regularly. My New Years Resolutions are on the wall right beside my desk. I DO look them over periodically. But in the hustle and bustle of everyday life I haven't assessed where I'm at with them. So here goes...

1. reread "The GI Diet Book". Not done, but I have been reading lots of other health/diet books. Does that count?

2. knit one charity hat per month. On track. I've been thinking, though, that in the summer I need to do TWO hats a month. These hats get given out in October. So November and December hats need to be done by then.

3. knit one Christmas gift per month. Well, that's a hard one. First - I haven't got a list. Second - birthdays come up during the year as well. So I have two Christmas gifts and one birthday gift done. I may rethink this resolution.

4. listen to the entire Bible. I think I'm on track here.

5. simplify the family meals and make more bulk meals. Simplifying I've done. Bulk meals, not so much. Make that - not at all. Maybe that will be a summer goal.

6. be more organized with my knitting projects. Check that off. My notebook is stuffed with notes, yarn samples and swatches.

7. learn one new knitting skill per month. Hmmm....I got the DVD's....watched one of them...I'm SURE I've learned stuff...

8. try one new alpaca yarn per month and become an expert on alpaca. The "becoming an expert" continues with reading. The "one new yarn a month" is scrapped. That was too ambitious.

9. make good use of the 4 month gym membership. Well, it turned out I only had a one month membership and after that one month I choose not to renew. I was getting stressed out trying to fit in going to the gym around all the other things I need to do when I'm out. And, no, I haven't been keeping up with the exercise at home. Whip me with a wet noodle to get me going.

10. have a relaxed Christmas. Still to come! I'm looking forward to this!

Now I want to add a #11 to the list. Get those photos organized and into albums. I'm caught up to year 2000. That's not caught up! That's way behind! This summer I MUST work on albums. 

Back from a black hole

No, I did not disappear off the face of the earth. But I do feel like the last two weeks were sucked into a black hole. During that time I spent four very relaxing (yet stressful - can the two go together?) days taking care of my father, who had just broken his leg and needed tending to. I knit, I visited, I knit, I visited.....you get the picture. Once back at home things proceeded at high speed as I made up for lost time. Hence, the black hole.

Today in honour of St. Patrick's Day my 14 yo son (a budding chef) made a wonderful Irish meal for the whole crew. Irish stew, mashed potatoes (champ or poundies) and soda bread. I have two weaknesses - fresh chocolate chip cookies and bread. This Irish soda bread was irregular and crusty on top and soft and buttery on the inside. Yes, I did succumb. A piece with the stew and several pieces afterwards, topped with butter and homemade raspberry jam. Heaven....











Served with the obligatory strong tea.

In the world of knitting, I am plunking along on my various sock projects. The Finnish socks were finished. But something weird happened on the second sock (did I somehow change needles between one sock and the other???). The gauge was out. All the way along I was in denial, sure that it would all block out fine. (I should know better - I've read so many other knitter horror stories of this same thing). Anyways, I decided to rip out the foot of the second sock and reknit. It's almost done (maybe tonight?)

The other men's sock will take me a while. In a moment of madness I tried to figure out just how long these size 12 socks were going to take to make. 24 hours! That's a lot of tiny knitting. I could make a large shawl or a sweater in that time! So I'm not pushing myself on these.

My son's socks are almost finished. A few more hours should do on them.

In the meantime, other projects beckon me, but remain dreams.

Esau's Lentil Soup

1 onion, chopped

3 celery ribs, sliced

3 carrots, sliced or shredded

1 large potato, cubed
1 medium yam, cubed

2 cups red lentils

1 handful chopped fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients in a large soup pot and add enough water to just cover.

Bring to a boil, then turn down to a light simmer.

Simmer 1-2 hours or till lentils have lost all their shape. Stir occasionally,

Add more water if necessary. You want it to be very thick, though.

Add salt and lots of pepper, if you like that.

Serve with a hearty wholegrain bread for a complete meal.

You don't have to give up your birthright to enjoy this wonderful soup. It's popular with people, too, so it's perfect for making up and giving away. And it freezes just fine.

This post is a part of the Nourishing Soups & Stews Carnival.

Appreciating the traditional diet

The cookbook "Nourishing Traditions" that I have been reading over the last few weeks is too meaty to plumb the depths of for only the time the library gives me. And I see that someone has it on hold now, so I won't be able to renew. Copies online are expensive, so I'll have to wait for a eureka! moment in the used book store. In the meantime, a good resource for information and recipes is the blog kelly the kitchen cop.

The cookbook has inspired me to get back to making old-fashioned soup with real bone stock and I even made my own creme fraiche (European style sour cream - delicious!) You're supposed to serve the soup with a dollop of the creme fraiche to boost the nutritional value. It's out of my eating comfort zone, but I found it to be wonderful.

There is a time for everything...

And the time has come to pack away my nativity sets.

John 3:16-18 (The Message)
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

I love a good cookbook!

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon is the kind of cookbook that can keep you up late at night. Besides recipes it includes sidebars on every page with interesting tidbits, there's a general overall nutrition section at the front and each food category begins with information. And the book is thick - 3.5 cm thick! (yes, I measured it)

So far I have skimmed through the whole thing, but read in detail the soup section. My soup making has slowed down lately and I am inspired to get back to it by reading how nutritious soup is - soup that is made from homemade stock that is. That's very important. Many years ago I took a soup making class where we learned to save onion peels, vegetable ends, etc. in the freezer and then simmer them with meat bones to make a nutritious and flavourful stock. Along with a whole grain bread, a well-made soup can make a full meal.

Last week I made a pea soup with stock made from turkey necks that I bought in the meat section of the grocery store. This week I'd like to get some beef bones and try a recipe from the Nourishing Traditions book. Maybe I'll finally get to grinding the wheat too.

Or at least, give the job to one of the children.

2 resolutions down

New Year's resolution #2 was knit a charity hat each month. Done for January! I give you the Thorpe, made out of Bernat camouflage acrylic yarn. Super fun; super easy. I'll be making more of these.



Resolution #5 was simplify the family meals. Today pea soup was on the meal plan - made in the crockpot. Perfect for a no-mess kind of meal. I came home late at 6:00 expecting the welcoming aroma of soup to hit my tired body. But no; the crockpot hadn't been plugged in so cold soup was all there was. Go to plan B - another no-mess meal. Canned baked beans. Fortunately for all, it is a family favorite. Along with the wonderful pepper cheese bread I had purchased to go with the soup it was a hearty, quick meal after all. The soup is now cooking properly and will be for tomorrow's dinner. So far, so good. As long as you're flexible it works.

Now that I have numbered my resolutions I see that I have 9. Nine. Nine does not sit well with my obsessive nature. I must make that 10 to make it even. Stayed tuned for belated New Year's Resolution #10.

Keep your goals before you

Of the writing of books on organization and goal-setting there is no end. And I must confess, I have read many of them. Reading is my passion and organization is my weakness, so it stands to reason that I would want to read more; to learn more. It has been a journey with ups and downs to say the least. The end has not been reached, but the process continues to keep me interested.

Joe Tye, the values guy, is one of my favorite writers on the subject. He writes books and courses, gives seminars and sends out a regular motivational newsletter that I look forward to reading. In the most recent one his quote was

Keep your attention in the present, keep your vision in the future.

This is a theme that I have read different versions of over the years. It is well and good to make goals, but you must always be referring to them; always be taking action to fulfilling them or they just become wishes.

That's why I have my yearly goals pinned up beside my computer desk. That works for me because I tend to forget about things that have been filed away. If you are a filer, make sure to pull out the file regularly for review.

One of my goals for the year was to learn a new knitting skill each month. This month it will be the afterthought heel on a sock. Sock knitting is another passion of mine so it shouldn't be hard to fit this in. Next week it is! The knitting adventure begins - one tiny stitch at a time.

Some winter scenes from my home to yours

Just when I thought I had the nutrition thing figured out...

...along comes Dr. Weston Price.

On my last trip into the public library, I picked up an intriguing magazine entitled "Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts". There were subtitles all around the edge of the cover such as "a campaign for real milk", "pasture-fed livestock", "life-giving water", nutrient-dense food" and on and on. Right up my alley. I actually had to go onto the website to find out that Dr. Price was a dentist, who, in the early 1930's, traveled to isolated parts of the world to study their dental health practices. He came up with the characteristics of a traditional diet which he maintains is the best way for us to eat. From that list he developed dietary guidelines for modern people to use. The most striking place his list differs from "common knowledge" of our day is in his recommendation to eat high saturated fat food. He maintains that traditional high-fat diets have sustained people for thousands of years, and it's only in the more modernized society that health problems have arisen and that this is caused not by the fats, but by refining of sugars and fats.

This is not a light-reading magazine. In fact, it's almost like a scientific journal. But along with the numerous articles it also contains practical, start-right-now recipes, menu plans and time-saving meal prep ideas (in this issue at least - Spring 07). This fits in nicely with one of my New Year's resolutions, so that article will be one I spend some time on.

I hope I don't find out that he belongs to some weird religious cult.

I got caught...

I was looking forward to starting my new year with the daily flip calendar from Stephanie Pearl-McFee (aka The Yarn Harlot...I know, I know, I don't like the name either)

I enjoyed her January 1 and 2 pages. Then I turned to January 3rd. Caught out! It reads, "You know you knit too much when...you won't let your New Year's resolution - exercise more - get in the way of your knitting. Instead you choose forms of exercise (like riding a stationary bike) that you can do while knitting."

Guess what I got my husband for Christmas (so that I could use it too)?

Do we need New Years Resolutions?

Yes, I think we do. I love new beginnings. Monday is my favorite day of the week because I get to start over 52 times a year. Did I blow it last week? Oh well, it's now a new week. And the ultimate new start is the start of a new year. So here we go. In 2009 I resolve to:

• reread "The GI Diet" book by Rick Gallop. My low glycemic eating habits have begun to slide; they need a jump start


• knit one charity hat per month.


• knit one Christmas gift per month till my list is done. Of course, that will involve making the list.


• listen to the entire Bible. Here I have a head start because I finished early last year and am already at the end of Numbers.


• simplify our family meals and make more bulk meals. Kitchen cleanup is becoming soooo boring and tedious. Over and over and over we clean up from cooking supper. I have better things to do with my time. So menu plan and meals-in-the-freezer, here I come!


• be more organized with my knitting projects by keeping better notes on when I started, yarn used etc. A friend is putting the ball band in hers and I think that is a great idea. Also, a sample of the yarn used.


• learn one new knitting skill per month. I plan to order Lucy Neatby's Essential 1 and 2 DVD's to help out here.


• try one new alpaca yarn per month and become an expert on alpaca. Why? I have no idea. It's just a passion right now.


• make good use of my 4 month gym membership by going 2-3 times per week.

OK, that's a good beginning. I'm going to print this out with space at the bottom to add things in as they occur to me.

What I like best about the resolutions I have come up with so far is that they are measurable. At a glance I can see if I'm following through or not. That's important - or so the "experts" say.

I'm obsessed...

...with knitting. My stepmother knits all the time and gives us beautiful hand knit socks as gifts. A dear friend always carries her knitting with her. I used to knit (try - 30 years ago!) It was time to throw myself into the knitting scene again. But, my goodness, how things have changed! Yarn is NOT the same! I feel like an alien on another world when I browse the local yarn shop (LYS for those in the know). So, true to my nature, I have taken on the job of getting up to speed.

Now, keep in mind that I DO NOT have time to "get up to speed" with the knitting world, let alone spend hours clicking needles. However, I have never let something like that stop me. Copious books have been reserved from the library, my Amazon/Chapters wishlist has grown, brown boxes have begun arriving in my mailbox and a few weeks ago I found myself knitting in Tim Horton's. Yes, I am now a knitter.

So far most of what I have done is abstract. Reading, poring over sites on the web (what a treasure trove of information and patterns!), looking at patterns. But...I have knit a few items as well. Two pairs of socks for myself, a pair for my youngest son and part of a shawl that I ripped out because it just wasn't me. That yarn will probably become a hat and scarf - it really is beautiful.

Two sock books that I drool over and hope to one day knit from now grace my library shelf.

Finally! Some commonsense health advice

A new genre of books has arrived. The health novel. Story has always been the best way to impart knowledge and it seems that is true in the field of health and nutrition as well.

"Water With Lemon" is an interesting read - albeit, not classic literature. It WAS written with an agenda, after all. But all the elements of a good story are there: romance, rising suspense, drama, defeat, hope, laughter, crying. And the best thing of all, it makes healthy eating so commonsense and doable! No radical lifestyle changes or unusual concoctions. Just the simple power of learning and putting into effect one good habit after another, until 8 have been established. Then continue those the rest of your life. How easy can it get?!

This book is highly recommended and will become a part of our homeschool curriculum for high school. I have the cookbook on order, but in the meantime recipes from it can be viewed from links off the homepage of the author Zonya Foco http://www.zonya.com/index.php

Happy reading! Happy eating! Here's to your good health!

Edward Hallowell...prolific author

Checking my library account I discovered that I have an interlibrary loan book due...tomorrow! Yikes, I haven't read it yet. Skimming time. The funny thing is that some of the first words out of this author's mouth were a discourse on skimming and how prelevant it is in our information overload society. Whoops! Caught! He did become one of my favorite people, though, when he confessed that he CANNOT go into a bookstore without coming out with more books than he will actually read. A man after my own heart. Just the owning is pure joy.

In any case, this book (that I will end up paying a big fine for), is called "the childhood roots of adult happiness" (lower case choice was his). Subtitled: Five steps to help kids create and sustain lifelong joy. His theory is that the key to adult happiness is a connected childhood. He goes into detail on how to get that in a child's life. But skimming through the book I was pleased to see that we have gotten it pretty much right in the life's of our own children. A study showed that there were two factors that most protected children from negative outcomes. A feeling of connectness at home and a feeling of connectedness at school. Wow! If you home school what does that mean? Other important factors were: a parent's presence at key times during the day (morning, after school, dinner, bedtime); parents' high expectations for school performance (expecting them to graduate/post secondary); parents' engaging in activities with their children on a regular basis; absence of guns in the house; parental disapproval of the child engaging in sexual intercourse; not having easy access to cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana; lack of prejudice at school; self-esteem; not working at a paid job twenty hours a week or more.

Hallowell's five step program to adult happiness consists of connection ... play.... practice... mastery... recognition - a repeating cycle. He briefly describes each of these steps and then in the last third of the book he gives practical suggestions for creating a connected childhood. My focus will be here in the next day or so as I try to glean as much as I can from this book.

Glancing through I see that he is VERY big on pets. Oh, no! Does that mean the dog stays?!! And what about one of the puppies, as the kids are hoping? We'll wait and see.

The mom and one of her puppies

A Treasure of a Book

A friend recently returned a book to me that I consider a real treasure to have on my bookshelf. I was introduced to MaryJane Butters this summer when I serendipidiously came across her magazine in a small grocery store that I rarely shop at. She spoke to my heart! I consider her the Martha Stewart of the farm scene. A real "down-home", grassroots type of person - but she could be a little intimidating in that she seems to be able to do anything and have energy to spare. But her values and love of family and women shines through all her writing. The book that I treated myself to just before Christmas is entitled "MaryJane's Ideabook ~ Cookbook ~ Lifebook", and it's all that for sure. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of farmlife (or urban farmlife or wanna-be farmlife). There are recipes and instructions and reflections on life and living. It's the kind of book I would be proud to have written and is a useful resource to have on the shelf. It would be a great shower/wedding present for someone who likes to be a do-it-yourselfer. Check out her website for challenging ideas on eating organically. http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/