{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama

"B" is for butterfly...

Handmade Christmas 2012

About mid summer I start asking the kids what they're planning on making for their extended family for Christmas.  Because handmade takes planning and time we need to start early.  To help us out I wanted to create a list of handmade gifts that we can begin working on early so that December doesn't get here and we have to rush to get the gifts made. 

As I was making my list, I thought others might enjoy using it.  And then I thought maybe there's some really cool gifts that I don't even know exist and they wouldn't be on my list.  ( I started to panic) Then I started thinking about the people who are kind of hard to make handmade gifts for, you know, like men.  And the people, like children, who want to give handmades but have limited ability.  Yes, this is how I think...complete spider webbing and overwhelming. 

So after all that thinking, I decided it would be nice to do a link up of handmade items that would be good for gift giving.  So for the next several Thursdays I'll have a link up for handmade items that would be good for gift giving. 

{the rules}
Each week will have a different category.  I'm going to list the categories now so that you can begin thinking about what posts you already have that would fit those categories.  Also, if you're making something in one of these categories you can know when that link up will be.  Now, I'm not going to be checking to see if every post is in that category.  Because, honestly, some handmades don't fit into nice, neat categories.  (Also, I don't really have time for that.)  But just know that the category will be listed in the post title so if it's the men's category week and you post a tutu tutorial it probably won't get very many hits.

Next week I'll have a button that you can use to link back to my site or post on your blog or facebook page.  You'll need a link back to actually post. So you can use the button or just the url of my blog post or just www.schneiderpeeps.com

The linky for each post will be open for at least through Thanksgiving.  So go ahead and check back on the previous categories each week because someone might have posted just what you've been looking for.

I'm sure it goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway, all the link ups have to be of handmade stuff.  Not necessarily made by you and they don't have to be tutorials but please don't post something like "a tin filled with bakery bought cookies."  Yes, I know someone handmade them but that's really not what this list is about. 

{the categories and dates}
October   4th - grandparents, aunts & uncles (gifts for children to make)
October 11th - children (to receive)
October 18th - women specific
October 25th - men specific (I can't wait to see all of these)
November 1st - edibles
November 8th - home and garden
November 15th - re purposed or recycled

Now remember, this will only be totally awesome if you participate and encourage your friends to participate.  So feel free to pin this, or post it on facebook or on your blog, or tweet about it...

Here's some ideas to help get the creative juices flowing...
 2011 handmade Christmas gifts

Silhouette Tutorial

 Summer Sewing School 2011 (doll quilt, pajamas, hot pad, needle book, tote bag)


It should be fun.  Let me know what you think!


This post is linked to Handy Man Crafty Woman,  What I Learned Wednesday, Show & Share at Southern Lovely,  The Creative Spark,  Your Whims Wednesday,  Handmade by You,  

pineapples, pecans and various other plants



A few evenings ago while I was walking the yard checking on the various plants outside our garden I snapped a few pictures and thought I'd share...



 

These are my pineapple plants.  We love pineapples but, oh my, are they expensive!  However, they're super easy to grow.  Just cut off the top of the plant (with about a 1" base) and plant in a pot.  We could probably get away with putting them in the ground but I want to be able to move them into the garage if we get a freeze.  It takes about 2 years before they produce a pineapple.  My big ones were planted in the spring of 2011 and the small ones were planted this year so maybe, just maybe next summer we'll have a couple of homegrown pineapples.  If not, we still have some lovely potted plants (that are in need of weeding).

This is our lemon tree that came with the house and our first ripe lemon.  By the mild flavor of the lemon I think it's a Meyer lemon. 

We have 2 pecan trees on the property and to be honest, I didn't water them nearly enough this summer.  They have some kind of virus and there's spots on the leaves and shucks of the pecans.  We've had quite a few drop early and there's only a rotted pecan in them.  We should know in the next 4-5 weeks if there are any good pecans at all.  I read this article a few weeks ago and will definitely be making the pecans a priority next year.

I planted a tomato plant in a pot near our pineapples to hopefully have a few tomatoes throughout the winter.  Since it's near the pineapples maybe I can remember to bring it in when it freezes. 

Our blueberries look good and are putting out some new growth. I clipped a few and I'm trying to root a couple of new plants. 

I also took the opportunity to cut some of my basil and try to propagate it instead of planting seeds.  We'll see how it works.

We have a few other trees that we planted this year. We planted a fig , a key lime, other Meyer lemon, a grapefruit and 2 orange trees. I think we're good on citrus trees.

Our little homestead is coming along, one small step at a time. 

What are you growing or preparing to grow?  Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments.

This post is shared at Tuesday Garden Party

Lentils and Rice

One of my new favorite lunches to make is lentils and rice.  I made lentils years ago and, well, they were pretty gross.  So I never made them again.  Then my friend from Kenya brought some to my house one day and they were amazing.  So I got her "recipe" and have been making them every week or so to give us something other than our usual bean burritos. 

What's so great about lentils?  For starters, they are a nutritional powerhouse.  One cup supplies 16 grams of fiber, 17 grams of protein and 90% of the daily recommendation of foliate, among other things.  Secondly they are super easy to prepare.  No soaking needed and they cook in 30 minutes.  Also, they are crazy cheap.  I can get a 1 pound bag for 88 cents and I bet they'd be even cheaper in bulk.  With one pound there's enough for two meals for my family.  And lastly, they taste really good, not gross at all. 

Lentils and Rice Recipe

1 pound lentils

3-4 carrots (grated)

1 onion (chopped in very small pieces)

4-5 cloves of garlic (chopped) or garlic powder

cumin

salt

pepper

olive oil

rice

water

 

In a large pot (about 6qts) saute the onions and garlic over medium heat in a little olive oil. 

 

When they are almost translucent add the carrots and saute them. 

 

While the carrots and onions are sauteing I go ahead and add the spices.  This is why I put recipe in quotes because my friend doesn't measure anything.  I would start with about 1 tbsp of cumin, 1tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper.  If you're using garlic powder use 2-3 tsp.  I add this and let the heat extract the flavors for a  couple of minutes.

 

Rise the lentils and add them to the pot.

 

Fill your pot with water (about 6 cups)

 

Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and simmer until lentils are soft (about 30 minutes).  You can add more seasoning if you want to. 

 

For the rice, I just use the cooking instructions on the back of the bag and add some salt and cumin to the water. 

 

Enjoy!

 

What's your favorite lentil recipe?  Feel free to leave it in the comments!

 

This post is shared at TemptMy Tummy Tuesday, Works for me Wednesday,  Fun in the Functional and Tasty Tuesday, Success U

 

 

{this moment}

 inspired by SouleMama

 

Gabriel with his completed Eagle Scout Project!

{rain day}

The sky was gray, almost black, at 1:00 in the afternoon after co-op. 

When we got home our teacher (that would be mom) declared a "rain day" so any more schoolwork that day was completely optional.

A game of Risk is decided upon. The rules - no collaboration - everyone plays for themselves. It still too over 6 hours to complete. Only one serious dispute - accussations of "cheating" were made. Evidently some people's perspective of cheating is different than others

Guitar practice was also in order. Complete with a change of clothing to reflect our newest favorite mismatched outfit. And the almost forgotten, because it's been so hot, fuzzy hat.

Peach pie for desert - still clinging on to the taste of summer.

Looking forward to more rain this fall.  And just maybe more "rain days".

my secret weapons

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a minimalist at heart and I don't like chaos.  I don't mind the kind of chaos that comes from having sooooooo many children but I do mind the chaos that happens when I don't have a decent plan.  Or when I have a decent plan but don't stick to it. 

Before Labor Day I was really mourning the end of summer because we've added several things to our schedule this school year and it will mean that I'm out of the house more than I'm used to. 

I tend to get overwhelmed when I have a lot of out of the house commitments. When I get overwhelmed I turn into a crazy, nazi mama who is seriously lacking in grace.  I'm determined this year to go through the year with balance, calmness and grace.  In order to do that I'm relying on my "secret weapons"...

Here's my secret weapon for keeping our family out of the chaos zone:

yep, same as last year.  The calendar and the daily schedule on the fridge.  If it's not on the calendar, it doesn't exist....I don't care how many times you told me.  So my kids have learned that if they have something they want to do, they better write it on the calendar.  Everything goes on here, even things that happen every week.  I just need it written down.

The daily schedule is really more of a routine or rhythm.  It's posted on the fridge just in case someone "forgets" what he should be doing. 

It also has their daily room or chore assignments.  Each child has a room or chore (in addition to their bedroom and laundry) that he is responsible for.  It has been so nice living in a smaller home, our last house was completely overwhelming for me.  I didn't really realize it until we moved into this much smaller home. These chores should only take about 10 minutes to complete. 

I have two other secret weapons to help me stay sane:

 

This is my "Mom's Notebook".  I know...very original title.  I have a section for each of the extra curricular activities we are involved in- co-op, drama, dance, AMTC (this is for Josiah) and scouts.  Any time I get an email from any of these group I print it up and put it in that section.  For co-op I also put a copy of any of the syllabi my children get.  Each group will have contact info, calendars, etc.  and even though I put this information on my refrigerator calendar I still print it up and put it here. 

 

 

This is my calendar that I can carry around with me.  Each week I double check the family calendar and make sure everything is also on my calendar.  I really like this "Family Plus" datebook by Day Timer because it has spaces for each family member for each day.  It also has a dinner menu area and at the top is "to do" lists.  Also, it was only $5 at Walmart.

 

well, one last secret weapon... 

 

 

...this is my grading bucket.  It sits right next to my comfy red chair.  When the kids finish a subject that I need to check or grade they put it in bucket and then that night while we watch the news I check everything and put it back in their buckets.  If they have to get their school work out of my grading bucket in the morning instead of their bucket, they have my permission to bug me until I check it.  We've had a few times where things didn't get checked and the child just went to the next lesson or lessons and then had several lessons of correcting to do.  It wasn't fun for either of us.

 

What are your secret weapons for sane when life is busy?



Wild Honey

I'm not sure if it happens with all beekeepers or not, but ever since people have found out that Gabriel is keeping bees he's had several request to come get bees that are living where people don't want them.

 

This was one of those adventures. There were some bees living in a old propane tank lid. So the guys went out to capture them. These bees were very tame for wild bees so they brought them home to start another hive. We really like the sturdiness of wild bees and are hoping to re-queen them with a domestic queen to help with the aggressiveness.

 Once the bees were out of the hive it didn't look quite so nice.



The guys brought home the propane lid and started the process of separating the honey from the wax. They used some of the comb to lay a foundation on a couple of frames in the new box for the bees.

 

They used this shirt to help strain the solids from the honey.  When they were done they hung it up in the bee yard.  The bees loved it.

They got about 3 quarts of honey from their little adventure.  Fortunately for me, this is honey we'll use.  Gabriel will sell the honey from the hives when we harvest but probably not this wild honey.

Just in time for our fall allergy season...

In the garden...end of season update 2012

Over Labor Day weekend we worked on our fall garden.  One of the great things about living so far south is that we can keep a garden going year round.  The only months that it's really hard is July and August usually we just get okra and peppers then.  But that's great for me because then I can focus on other things for those two months.

When we were starting our seeds I realized that I never did an end of the season update.  I didn't keep as good of records of yeilds as I did last year so some of my numbers are estimates.  Here's last years update.

A day's harvest in June

{Tomatoes} After last years success with Celebrity tomatoes I had every intention of planting a lot of them this year.  But I couldn't find any seeds when I started my seeds back in Febuary and by the time the transplants were here I already had over 50 tomato plants started.   We planted 24 Rutgers and harvested 48 lbs of tomatoes or 2 lbs per plant.  We planted 11 Cherokee Purple and harvested 36.75 lbs of tomatoes or about 3lbs per plant.  We planted 9 Romas and harvested 31.75 lbs of tomatoes or about 3.5 lbs per plant.  We planted 5 Lemon Boys and harvested 12.75 lbs of tomatoes or about 2.5 lbs per plant.  We planted 1 yellow pear and 1 yellow cherry and harvested 3.5 lbs of tomatoes from the two of them but alot of these got eaten before they got weighed. 

We loved the Rutgers and will probably plant them again.  Unlike the Celebrity tomatoes the Rugers don't crack all around the stem.  I like that.  I really liked the Cherokee Purple they tasted really good - not too sweet- and were pretty.  Next year we'll plant them again along with Romas, Lemon Boys and yellow pear and cherry tomatoes.  We'll also plant some Celebrity.  We averaged 8 lbs a plant last year with the Celebrity so even if I have to buy transplants it would be worth it to have 6-12. 

We had a few tomato hornworms and leaf footed bugs.  We're going to try to plant hyacinth beans near the tomatoes next year.

I don't think our spaghetti sauce that we canned will make it all the way to next summer so we'll need to can even more next year.


{Green Beans} Our green beans did pretty well.  We were able to can a few quarts of them.  Our neighbor children helped me plant them and I don't think they got planted deep enough - the plants keep kind of falling over.

We planted bush beans instead of pole beans this year.  Next year we need to plant two beds of them instead of just one.

{Cucumbers} I was in a hurry to get the cucumbers planted this year and so I just planted them in some pots near the fence.  They did terrible - I'm sure it was from lack of water.  We planted Armenian cucumbers which are super long and thin and have a thin skin.  The 2 short ones we go tasted really good. 



{Summer Squash} Our summer squash did wonderful.  After last year's bout with the vine borers I over planted and then we had tons of squash.  It was fine, though, because we were able to bless others with it.  We harvested 237 lbs of summer squash.  We dehydrated some for soups this winter and we grated some to freeze to bake with...Phoebe makes really good zucchini brownies.

Paper plates under the pumpkins helps keep the pill bugs away

{Winter Squash} The only winter squash we planted this year was pumpkins.  We planted both large and pie pumpkins.  We harvested 2 large pumpkins and 9 pie pumpkins.  We put paper plates under them - no laughing this year.


{Onions} I had such high hopes for our onions but since we planted them really late they were all pretty small.  I'm starting my own transplants from seed this year.  I already have them going and will plant them in the beds in October.  Hopefully we'll have larger onions next year.

{Cilantro and Basil} The cilantro bolted really fast and since I planted the basil with the tomatoes they really didn't get enough sun until the tomato plants died back.  And now they've bolted.  ugh.  I'm replanting both of these in the fall gardens.   I don't know what we will do without  pesto on our pizza.

{Carrots} No carrots to speak of, we planted too late.

{Peppers} The peppers were also planted in with the tomatos and didn't do very well. 

{Garlic} Our regular garlic was super small this year.  We planted too late.  We'll be planting next years garlic in October.

Sweet potato vines.  These make a beautiful purple flower. Also, the leaves
are edible.

{Potatoes}   Our potatoes were a failure.  My idea of not tilling just didn't work.  We planted 20 pounds of potatoes and harvested enough for 2 meals - not even 10 lbs. 

We did plant sweep potatoes this year and the person I asked to plant them didn't do it correctly so we lost most of our slips.  But the ones that did grow had beautiful vines.  Then a small fire happened in our back yard and burned all the vines.

{Melons} We grew a few honey dew melons from some transplants we bought at the store.  They were very, very good.  Next year I need to make melons a priority. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the garden.  We've had a lot going on this year.  Some things like the onions and garlic should have been planted last October but we were moving and so we waited until February.  The plants that were planted in a hurry, specifically the potatoes and cucumbers,  didn't do well and I knew I was taking a chance. 

On our list of fall/ winter garden projects is to make some raised beds.  I don't want to spend all my time weeding and I don't want to have to wait on a big boy to till or the rain to stop to till.  I also want to have walk ways through the garden covered with mulch so there's no mowing and no sinking in mud.  I don't know how many we'll get built but hopefully we'll get a few.

This post is linked to Tuesday Garden Party , Homestead Revival Barn Hop,  Backyard arming Connection and Morris Tribe Homesteader