February Floridian Dreams

We have sifted on into February, all the snow finally coming in poofy piles and heaps, our snow shovels dusted off and being all loved and hefted every day. We now have a little banks on either side of our driveway and this morning when I shoveled I was having a little trouble stacking more snow some places. Its kind of cozy to have so much white stuff outside and the boys sure have been logging sledding hours in the backyard.

My hens are hiding in the coop and sometimes making it out in the yard for a tiny peck and forage in the snow in the afternoon but mostly they are sitting indoors, fluffed up, snuggling together and doing little more than looking outside through the door for variety. I have to say that I can relate. Its the time of year for reading, circling things in seed catalogs and baking....but not much else. I went out this morning and shoveled until I had cleared the whole front walk and then part of the driveway and I felt all woozy and dizzy by lunchtime. My body is not used to vigorous exercise + multiple cups of coffee. Whew! Back to the books and the research and my paint brushes.....with maybe a few more detours for movement in between.

We were hoping to go to Arizona this year for a little mid-winter pep. Some of our friends from the homeschool world moved to the Pheonix area and a little desert visit sounded like just the thing in the dregs of winter. Unfortunately, I am not super adept at internet ticket price nabbing. I totally missed the amazing tickets that saw when I first shopped the idea out. So, the whole idea of a desert tour has gone by the wayside for this year. $399 per person was just a little out of our range. We did however manage to flex a little and snap up some seats heading to Florida in March for a week. We'll stay in some little out of the way corner and recharge, scavange shells, drive out to The Keys, see alligators and manatee and hopefully drop in on our numerous friends and family in The Sunshine State. Being flexible is good and being in Florida in sludgy March sounds great. I have been perusing Pinterest for great ideas for one or two key daytrips while we are there. So many pictures of sunshine, palm trees and surf have to be warming me somehow, right?

Now, I'm off to research "best way to weatherproof doors,"  "crockpot dinners" and other important things like, "what do meercats eat." Ah, internets....you are so good to us. We here at Homeschool Central and HomeStead United are forever in your debt. What would we do without you on a chilly winter day when bundling up in snowpants and damp knit gloves seems like way too much work?

Willy Wonka, Poetry and a Garlic Cure

Today was a clammy sort of late winter day. Rain and spits of snow under a curtain of grey. The roof leaked into the playroom and made a pool of rust under the metal tray full of matchbox cars. We read far more chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than I intended.

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For lunch we turned on the broiler and toasted pita breads, spread butter on their hot, golden tops and cut them into garlic powder dusted wedges. They were so cozy and delicious going down that I had to repeat four or five times before all the littles were satisfied. I spent my nap-time quiet hour reading poetry instead of writing my own, looking for little nuggets of beauty or humor that other writers found in February.

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I sometimes need to just stick my head up there in the clouds and feast on cotton candy in order to have the fodder to continue. Ruth Stone, Jane Kenyon, Rumi, Mary Oliver and the like are good February nap companions. I am just nudging off the barest tickle of a cough which sometimes catches in my chest halfway between a choke and a laugh, so I keep rationing off another raw clove of firey garlic for a secret cure, drinking tall sparkling glasses of water and believing I am to strong to be brought down. Yesterday I had a long nap, and today I had a long poetizing. Little cures.

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Am off to kitchen to make a warm loaf of oat zucchini bread and put on make-up for a night out with A. We're off for a snug, weekend beginner alone together. The babysitter gets to wipe the noses and dole out the mac and cheese and I plan to order a de-caf espresso and drink it in long slow sips after dinner.

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24 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

A list is a kind of a cure. I keep a small pad on my bedside table for self-curing end of day (or early morning) stress bouts. I keep oodles of lists on our computer, I scribble them on our new kitchen chalkboard and I have a gazillion all over my iPhone to boot.  Lists galore! That's the way to sooth what ails you.

 I do eat trash to calm myself but I am trying to break the habit and one of the recent ways I've been reading about is replacing the habit with a different soothing mechanism...a good way to figure out what works for you is to observe yourself and see what else you do to set things right again. And the first answer that came to me in the midst of my ill-tempered fit this morning was LISTS!

It's February and my id is sulking and sobbing by turns. Time to solve it. Here's a list of what I love about February today, greyest of months, center of winter's numb heart.

25 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

1. Its the month when we celebrate love with its very own holiday.
2. It has a Leap Day!
3. The snowdrops bloom in February.
4. It's great baking weather.
5. Chilly days mean snug fires in the fireplace with a big stack of library books teetering next to us.
6. President's Day is a special surprise I always forget about that brings us a little long weekend together.
7. Maple syrup season starts!
8. There are always stray clementines lingering in my coat pockets.
9. We use the snuggly throws on the couches.
10. Sunny days feel potent and rich, even if they are infrequent.
11. Greenhouses. 
12. In February I sew and knit and paint and all other manner of industrious indoor things.
13. Dee was born in February.
14. February is short.
15. It's a great time to read design blogs.
16. Sleeping comes naturally in February...a healthy habit after all.
17. February is a great time to test out new teas and coffee spices.
18. Watching costume dramas (which my boys consider a fun treat!) is a wonderful chilly February occupation.
19. The people in my life who love me feel warmer and brighter and more potent to me in February.
20. Scarves and boots come out to play!
21. I get to try out chapstick and lotion flavors with impunity. 
22.  The weeds in the garden stay in check perfectly.
23. I think of having company.
24. The Academy Awards happen!
25. Coffee houses.

See? Not so bad now! February...my new pal. Just don't wear out your welcome, eh F? I have hyacinths out there budding and we're not gonna wait forever for 'em.

Happy Un-Veguary!

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Happy March...and happy end to Veguary! Heh. Tonight for dinner there was a juicy, crisp, roast chicken with all the drippings to dribble over our baked potatoes. I am not a vegetarian. I don't like legumes enough. I enjoy meat too much and I know too much about how to responsibly obtain good meat. Hard to sell me on the lifestyle. That said, it was an enlightening experiment and I think I'd do it again if I was faced with the choice all over again.

For those who wondered...we didn't really save anything on food bills this past month. Turns out buying meat isn't breaking the bank. We tried beans four million different ways, ate a lot of quinoa, had tofu and seitan and tried not to miss eating bacon with our pancakes on Saturday mornings. And we ate a lot of cheese for fun because we like cheese and cheese has protein and cheese, cheese is not meat.  (unless you're doing Veganuary....I totally just made that up)

I thought I'd pass on the two recipes I liked most from this month of meat-free living. These will join our canon because they were so good that they made A stop mid-chew and say, "Um. Wow. This is good." Ironically, they are both soups. Soup used to be my deep nemesis. We're friends now.

Soup #1 is a Tuscan White Bean that one of my painting mentors recommended to me. It's filling and wholesome and cheap and simple and feels so happy satisfying. I will turn to it for cold weather pleasure food in the future for sure. I kinda want a bowl now, just writing about it and remembering its fabulousness.

Soup#2 is a fabulous rendition of Vegetarian Chili. I made this dish with great skepticism. I'm really not big on dishes that are faux versions of something. I like chili. Real, regular chili with meat in it that you can serve to men who have just come in from splitting wood in the bitter cold. (Not that men around here split wood....) Even though I like real chili. I like this chili too. No tofu crumbles to resemble meat, no substitutionary  tricks of the eye...just a multi-bean mix with a good broth and a little chocolate for a spoon licking depth of flavor. And anything with chocolate in it is good. Why didn't I think I was going to like this?

So, yes, all you real vegetarians are made of sterner stuff than I am. I confess I am a wimp...but boy, that roast chicken sure made me happy.

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