Whoo? Whoo?

Way after the fact (but really only a few days, if you consider that our town postponed Halloween by a week after a snowstorm left us powerless for several days...), but I just had to share some (terrible) pictures of Lucy in her owl costume.

(No glamor shots here. Random cooler? Peeling paint? Pile of farm totes? You get it all...)

It's not shown to its best advantage here, but I was really pleased with how this costume came out. I was inspired by this wonderful costume, by Lucy's love of birds, and by a recent visit to "see the hurt owls" (Lucy's summary) at a bird sanctuary. I used a felted adult sweater as the base (the sleeves long ago turned into longies), and sewed on lots of feathers from free-from-the-thrift-store pants. I tried four different hat styles before I made one I loved (thrifted sweater with more pants-feathers). The glasses were my mom's idea; she had a pair of Groucho Marx glasses and told us we could rip the nose off, so we added a beak cut from a plastic lid and we were all set.

At home, Lucy was the cutest owl, whooing all over the place (thus the face in the first picture). Out and about, she was more shy, but we still got a ton of compliments. Makes all the late-night sewing sessions worth it!

(I love the felted-sweater base for a costume, by the way, and will have to remember that for future costumes. She had several layers of clothes on under it with room to spare, and she was toasty warm all night.)

Apples and Pumpkins

This weekend we went to two farms for apples and pumpkins. It was the quintessential fall day. I'm pretty sure hundreds of bloggers have told the story better, so I'm just going to rely on pictures to tell mine.

Catching the gold...

...while I still can. It's almost gone!



(the views from our backyard, 2 days ago, before the rain which took down most of the leaves)

Life among the leaves

It's been a busy week around here, as you can see by the lack of posts!
Luckily, we've found some time to do this:

(Lucy and a friend are drawing in their journals after I took their dictation. I've got a pile of books from a recent library sale that I'm taking a closer look at before cataloging and tagging them on Librarything. I'll show you those soon.)

Books to read while the tannins leach

(Out of your acorns, that is.)

Here's the third installment of my book list for our "squirreling away" project. These are the books we're reading about acorns and squirrels. If your kids, too, are filling their pockets with acorns or noticing the squirrels at work in the yard, you may enjoy these books:

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri.
This book has a familiar story-line, much like Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider. In this case, the squirrel is too busy to play with the other animals, because he's gathering nuts, berries, seeds, and corn. As always with her books, the animal illustrations are wonderful, and there's lots of interesting detail in the pictures for young children to notice and discuss. This is one of my favorite fall books, perfect for toddlers.


Earl the Squirrel by Don Freeman.
The kids love this story about a squirrel who accidentally outwits a bull, helping him find his first found-by-himself acorns. There are all those great adventure-story aspects: a journey, a difficult mission, danger, darkness. And the black-and-white (and red) drawings are simple and appealing. As a bonus, there's a nut-cracker: a tool we've been using which is new to most of the kids.


Seeds and More Seeds by Millicent E. Selsam and Tomi Ungerer. Because, of course, acorns are seeds (one of many types in this book), and as we gather acorns, we're finding lots of other seeds, too, not to mention pits and seeds in the fruit we process (I love how everything's connected to something else, and every single thing the kids are interested in has the potential to lead us to learning about anything else). Of course, any good seed book would do, but I love vintage books, and this is a great one.


Chipmunk Song by Joanne Ryder and Lynne Cherry.
This one's quite a bit more complicated, and if you're reading to toddlers, you may find yourself talking about the pictures rather than reading all the text. But the text is poetic, and you may be surprised to find that children of all ages can appreciate it. But what really grabs me here are the pictures. The kids love looking at all the details of the underground burrows, pointing out all the various animals, and pretending to eat the berries right off the page. Just beautiful.


Squirrels by Brian Wildsmith.
Here, too, it's the illustrations that draw me to this book. Oh, how I love Brian Wildsmith's animals! The kids must, too, as they gravitated to this book as soon as I put it in the basket. The text here is solidly nonfiction--no poetic imaginative prose here. But I was fascinated to learn new things here. Did you know squirrel nests have 2 rooms? That squirrels eat mushrooms? That they can swim?

What are you reading this fall?

By the way...if you click on a link and find yourself at IndieBound, and then buy a book through there from your local independent bookstore, I should theoretically earn a bit of change (hasn't happened yet). If you find yourself at Librarything, it's because IndieBound didn't have it and I want you to see the book without finding yourself at an online giant retailer.

Books to read while the dehydrator runs

Here's the second installment of my book list for our "squirreling away" project. These are the books the kids and I are reading about apples.


The Apple and the Moth by Iela and Enzo Mari.
A recent book-sale find, in horrible condition, but oh so worth reading anyway. While we're picking apples, gorging on apples, and smelling the apples in the dehydrator, it's fascinating to "read" this book about the life cycle of a moth, taking place in an apple tree. The moth lays an egg in the flower--and so is then inside the apple as it forms--and the caterpillar has to bite its way out? Somehow I missed that in biology class, and loved learning it here! I love the simple, bold illustration style, too.


The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall and Shari Halpern.
When we went to pick crab apples recently, one of the children commented that he remembered visiting when the trees were fully in bloom. This is another good book for showing the life of an apple tree through all the seasons, with the end of the story being "there's nothing as good as an apple pie you grew yourself."


Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell and Lizzy Rockwell.
Oh, so sweet and nostalgic (remember when you could give away apples as treats at Halloween? This book does...). When I read "we go to the Comstock farm to pick apples and pumpkins," Lucy is riveted. It's her experience, exactly. I love the innocence of this one, perfect for toddlers.


Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington.
There's something about this book that makes kids ask for it again and again. I like that the farmer is a woman. And that it's simple enough for a toddler, but shows everything from harvesting apples to making cider to baking with them to selling all the products at market. And I appreciate all the signs and border illustrations that invite lots of discussion beyond the story.

Coming up next...books about squirrels and other animal food gatherers.

By the way...if you click on a link and find yourself at IndieBound, and then buy a book through there from your local independent bookstore, I should theoretically earn a bit of change (hasn't happened yet). If you find yourself at Librarything, it's because IndieBound didn't have it and I want you to see the book without finding yourself at an online giant retailer.

Books to read while the canning pot boils

I promised I'd share a booklist for what I've come to think of as our "squirreling away" project (our current investigation of storing up food for winter, focused in part on the comparison between us and animals, especially squirrels.) The books we're reading now have some overlap with last year's autumn book basket, but as we read, we have a different perspective found through the lens of our recent experiences foraging, collecting acorns, making jelly, and picking and eating apples.

I'm afraid this might become a marathon post, so I'll break it into a few smaller ones (you know I tend to go on and on about children's books!). These are the food-storage by humans ones.

Have I told you about Librarything? It's one of my all-time favorite online tools. I've used it to catalog all my books. It's super-helpful for teachers or parents who want to follow up on children's very specific interests, because you can tag all your books with whatever keywords you want. After years of going to the school librarian asking "can you think of any books about string?" (for one of my most-frustrating examples) and ending up with only one non-fiction title from the computer card catalog, I am thrilled to be able to find all the books I've got that show inspiring uses of string. (If your kids--like many of those in my past classes--happen to be into string, you may be interested in my collection of books tagged "string,"or in the books tagged "string" by anyone on librarything.)

So, for example, as I began to notice the children's interest in all the food preservation that was going on around them, and in acorns, and squirrels, I searched my librarything catalog for "food storage," "canning," "squirrels," "acorns," "apples," and "foraging." Here are some that I chose from those that came up (for a group that's currently a 1 1/2-year-old, 3 2-year-olds, a 3-year-old, and a 4-year-old).

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Of course. Is there any more classic, more beautiful story about the experience of gathering food for the winter? And it's about both people and animals. And that picture of the kitchen on the endpapers? I could move right in, and I find myself spending as much time discussing that illustration as reading the rest of the book! (And the fact that Sal is playing with a spoon and canning rings rather than toys? Perfect.)


Autumn Story by Jill Barklem. The mice gather berries just as we're doing. And the illustrations of their well-stocked pantry shelves full of canning, and ceilings strung with drying food, and baskets and baskets of berries covering the floor? Fabulous.


Let's Find Out About Fall by Martha and Charles Shapp. One of the advantages of vintage books is that they come with vintage assumptions: like everyone's gathering stuff from their garden and preserving it for winter. Just a brief mention, here, but I like normalizing "weird" habits like local eating by having them come up in many ways in many books.


Frederick by Leo Lionni. A twist on the old "The Ant and the Grasshopper" fable, except that here, the "lazy" one is an artist, gathering the sun rays and colors and words the others will need as their food stores run low. A good reminder of the different gifts we each contribute to our communities.


Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear by N. M. Bodecker and Erik Blegvad. What a score when I came across this one at a library sale! "Pick the apples, dill the pickles, chop down trees for wooden nickels. Dig the turnips, split the peas, cook molasses, curdle cheese." Etc, etc, etc...all the tasks Mary takes on to prepare for winter, while her husband lazes about. Great illustrations, so much to talk about, and a reflection of all the skills (and more) I'm trying to learn and share with the kids.

By the way...if you click on a link and find yourself at IndieBound, and then buy a book through there from your local independent bookstore, I should theoretically earn a bit of change (hasn't happened yet). If you find yourself at Librarything, it's because IndieBound didn't have it and I want you to see the book without finding yourself at an online giant retailer.

Coming up next...books about apples and acorns and squirrels, oh, my!

Last summer evening at the farm

Lucy's goal for this summer's visits to the farm was to go "in" and "up!"

Mission accomplished.

It was a lovely evening all around.

Welcome, fall.

A-foraging we will go

Lucy adds acorns, gathered on a walk to the park, to clay in the studio.
Watching her, I realized we were nearly out of acorns, and asked if the kids wanted to gather some more.

We're back in the swing of things, here, and it's been a busy first week and a half with the kids! I was sitting back, observing the kids at play, watching for that beautiful moment that signals the beginning of a possible ongoing group investigation, when I realized that--of course--food preservation had taken center stage again. How could it be otherwise in the autumn, in a house where we're at the height of storing up for the winter? Naturally, the kids' play and interests reflect that which is going on all around them.

This year, we've been noticing the similarities between our work and that of the squirrels and other animals around us, all gathering, gathering, gathering. Here's a bit of the story, so far.


Everyone was game for an acorn-hunting walk. But setting off with our baskets reminded one of them that "we could pick crabapples" at another local park. That became the plan for the next day. In the meantime, I introduced them to the idea of acorns as food.

The acorns we gathered--plus a few other discoveries.

We used a hammer and a brick to break the acorns, and nutpicks to remove the meat.

Acorns to be processed, caps for the studio, shells for the compost.

This morning, this invitation to continue the work awaited them on the coffee table, along with a book which elicited many shouts of "we picked those!" (Oh, I had such fun pulling books to support this interest! I'll share a book list soon.)

The hunt for crabapples was disappointing (they were mostly gone), so we moved on to gathering wild grapes and goldenrod, instead.

Heading home after a successful foraging expedition.

At the moment, we've got acorns waiting to be cracked and processed into acorn meal (with the promise of acorn bread in our future--for the equinox, maybe?), wild grapes and crabapples dripping juice through a bag, to be made into jelly, and goldenrod waiting to be made into salve. And those are just the with-the-kids projects; never mind the tomatoes, beets, carrots, and more I plan to preserve this week!

The Giving (Thanks) Tree

Found this idea somewhere in the blogsphere, and it felt just right for us. Growing up, we always had an Easter tree--a stick planted in a vase, to hold our blown eggs. I loved that tradition, and this reminded me of it. A Thanksgiving Tree. A place to hold our collective thoughts of gratitude when we come together tomorrow. Andi and I put up a few starter "leaves," and I'm hoping our guests will help us fill it before dinner.




I'm grateful for this place, as well. This chance to share with like-minded people. Thank you for reading, and commenting, and caring. Happy Thanksgiving.

Edited to add: Thanks for the comments! The tree is now full of so many thoughts. My 5-year-old niece particularly enjoyed it, and kept adding things: her own name "because I'm thankful for myself," other people, "babies," "cake," "friends," "love," and so many more. Reading everyone's contributions became our "grace" for the meal.

Gracing the table

This is how our dining room table looks this week. (Please ignore the wrinkles; we're talking real life here.) We've finally reached and maintained our goal of a clear table where we can easily sit to eat each night (it had become a terrible dumping ground in our first months of parenting). I've been having fun using my beloved vintage tablecloths again, and arranging seasonal centerpieces.

Once I'd put poems all over the house, I remembered this little pink book I'd started several years ago (there, between the salt and pepper shakers). It's a collection of graces. I was on such a roll with the poems, I got all inspired to revive this collection, too.

Andi and I have moved pretty far from our religious upbringings, and are working on defining our own beliefs in a way that we can share with our children. It's important to us both that we give thanks at meals, but without dogma attached. So we began this little collection of graces we like, drawn from a wide variety of sources and traditions: songs we learned when we were camp counselors; favorites from our childhood; children's books; a recent library request; anywhere we come across grateful words we find beautiful and meaningful. As with the poem cards, we're finding that having them right there on the table where we'll see them is helping us to remember old favorites and learn new ones.

Here's my favorite new discovery, by ee cummings, an old favorite:

"I thank you God for most this amazing day;
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes."

Planning

Ok, so I've got the old, smashed, camera held together with rubber bands to tide me over until we figure out what to get next.

There's lots of planning going on around here lately.


Planning the menu for Thanksgiving. (We'll be hosting 10 for dinner.)

I'm a bit obsessive about my Thanksgiving planning. I like to do a big long prep list of everything that needs to be chopped for every recipe, and we spend the night before chopping and stowing away all the ingredients to make the next day's cooking easier. I'm behind on that this year. I just went shopping, and hadn't even finalized my recipes yet! I just know I'm going to have to run back out to the store. I hate being disorganized like that. But you do what you have to do, and in this first baby year, things just aren't going to be all Martha. (But my family will accuse me of it, anyway.)


Planning Christmas crafting.

These are the materials we've gathered to make a wreath for Andi's grandmother, who wants a new autumn wreath that she can store away and take out each year. So we're going for sturdy materials. We gathered the leaves while visiting our friend in Boston, where they still had some color, and then dipped them in beeswax to preserve them. Just hoping for a few free minutes to finish the project.


And I'm not even sure what I'm planning to do with these; I just love them!

We went to the Winter Fair at a local Waldorf school this weekend, and I couldn't resist these gorgeous things. The beeswax pinecone candles will be used on Thanksgiving. The wool felt and roving? I don't know, but I couldn't resist. Any ideas?

Dressing for the weather

It's cold and damp here. Not just outside, but inside, too. A few years ago, I joined "Crunchy Chicken's" "Freeze Your Buns Challenge,"and we turned our thermostat way down. There are a lot of kids and babies in this house, so we kept it above 60, but barely (it's set at 62, but that does not mean it's 62 degrees in here. This is an old, drafty house with almost no insulation.) So we have a big basket of slippers by the door in sizes tiny to giant, and after a while, guests realize that yes, indeed, they do want to borrow some. And we've learned to dress for the weather (well, those of us who don't work in 90 degree offices, that is).

To face the rainy chill yesterday, here's what Lucy had on. Yes, she wears a hat in the house; I dress all the babies in hats in the cold. And that sweater-y suit, which a friend got for a steal at an Iowa thrift shop. Under it, she's got a t-shirt and a long-sleeved t-shirt, wool shorties, her diaper, and socks under her slippers.

I used to worry about the reaction of the families in my early childhood program, or of our parents when they visit. But I've gotten grouchy in my old age. You're cold? Why on earth are you wearing a thin cotton shirt in November in New England? What's made us think this is normal? I had to learn about layering when I moved to Massachusetts. Now I've got it down, and I've become evangelical about it!

Now, I'm off to find my slippers. I forgot to put them on when we came back inside. Brrr!

Independence Days challenge, week 27

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something: Nope. But we have been moving a lot of compost to the gardens, and my brain's been busy with dreams of next year's garden.
2. Harvest something: Eggs, various greens.
3. Preserve something: Strung hot peppers from new "houseplant" to dry. Dried turnip greens. Canned 3-1/2 qts applesauce.
4. Waste not: Made more longies from shrunken wool sweaters.
5. Preparation and storage: Stored carrots, squash, and cabbages from the farmer's market. Bought lots of pumpkins which will be pureed for winter baking.
6. Build community food systems: Talked up local food with Andi's niece, who visited this weekend, and showed her how to make and can applesauce.
7. Eat the food: We're doing pretty well here, for a change. I've been doing lots of cooking: sweet potato soup, potato-leek soup, squash-cornmeal muffins, sweet potatos with bok choy, green eggs, and more. Yay! The new crock pot is getting a lot of use; I love the emotional warmth it adds to the house to have cooking smells going all morning.

Happy Halloween!

Don't know when I became the mama who dresses her baby to match the holiday, but here I am. She does make a mighty cute pumpkin, though, doesn't she?

First "crop"

One of my goals for this fall was to replace some of our sad, neglected houseplants with edible plants--and then not let them get sad and neglected! So we've been picking things up at the farmer's market: a beautiful potted thyme, and then a loaded hot pepper plant. This past weekend, while hanging out with a houseful of guests, our hands were busy--as they always are in the fall--storing food, and this time, it was from our indoor "garden." Andi picked all the ripe peppers off the plant, and I strung them on thread with a needle. I love how they look hanging in our kitchen, and so do the kids: "What's that flower?" "Are those spicy peppers?" "Are we going to eat them?" "Can we eat them now?"

(Also in this little corner of my kitchen: a decoupaged light-switch cover I made years ago, and a vintage sewing card that was a gift from a friend.)