Electric Blankets, Furnaces and Other Warm Thoughts

Our furnace has made me so glad that we live in California. The wires got chewed by rodents and suddenly everything flickered and then cooled down to a rather brisk temperature. At first we thought maybe the kids were messing with the thermostat but we quickly realized that it was something bigger than that and our heat was caput. Its usually pretty warm here and the cool temp in the winter is usually kind of 60ish but its been in the 30's at night and the 50's during the day this week. This morning when I got up to make breakfast I could see my breath in the kitchen. I was laughing over the fact that I live in California and I was turning on the oven and standing there rubbing my hands over the opened door before I started breakfast. It feels so cold when your body has become used to 60-70 degrees all of the time.

 It does feel rather seasonal though! I have to say that I grew up pretty prepared for this. It makes me think of wood fires and power outages, stacking logs by the cookstove and getting into bed with our coats on when we came home from a trip away during the winter. There's something good about learning to be a little bit tough. Coffee and tea are amazing when its a frosty 40 something in your kitchen. Also, snuggling with your man never felt more alluring.

 A bought me a heating pad for Christmas, though I am embarrassed to admit that this California girl wanted one in the very worst way. It has been the most delicious treat to slip it into my spot under the quilt and turn it on as I do that last pick-ups around the house and brush my teeth. By the time I get into bed, its made my side of the bed into a glowing little oasis. I am now contemplating an electric blanket.

 My grandma had electric blankets, I think she really was the only person I knew who had them. I sometimes could use one when I slept overnight at her house. She would let me have one but I couldn't sleep with it on all night. We would go to sleep in side by side twin beds, the wind off of Lake Michigan making the gentle whoosing sound that it always does. I would lie under that electric blanket and we would make gentle conversation together before sleep: "What do you think we should do tomorrow?" or "What shall we have for breakfast?" It was always a little bit of a guessing game with Grandma, trying to think of something that would be special and make her feel inspired but nothing too demanding or rich feeling which she would never have been okay with. My grandma was a slightly imposing woman who wanted to be seen and elegant and illustrious but practical and frugal at the same time. I would float my ideas her way in the quiet room, both of us tucked in up to our chins, while the waves outside shushed rhythmically. She would mostly listen to me and then say. "Aha!" in response like she often did when I told her my plans or my thoughts. And then pretty soon she'd tell me that it was time to turn out the light and she'd remind me to turn off my electric blanket with a click, we'd goodnight each other and then I was lying there in the dark, wiggling my toes under the fading warmth and listening to the waves rock me to sleep.

Absence Makes The Fingers Chilly

 One of the things that's super great about A going away on these business trips to California is that we talk together after the kids are in bed in a much more engaged way. We had a great conversation recently about the value of play and experimentation for children. So delicious to get into these really meaningful topics, the kind of thing where your mind does push-ups and gets you really working....as a couple. There's a special kind of real love in that, which really speaks to me.

 We were talking about how much we want our kids to be dabblers, people who learn a little bit about a lot of things and can fit in here and there and everywhere. We want their deep interests to be portable, things that are flexible, things that they can do in lots of locations and with lots of people. We welcome activities, sports, classes and lessons but we want to leave room for fooling around, new ideas, imagination, free time and togetherness. We also have noticed that we need to reign in our own activities to these kind of standards if we expect to be able to enforce the plans for our kids. So much of parenting is like that....parenting yourself so that you can teach your kid things. Sometimes mortifying but meaty truth and solidly good.

 Its still really verging on chilly outside. I can't relax in a t-shirt yet, its still layers and sock wearing weather. The good news about that is that I have a day or two to get to mowing the lawn before it looks scary. The bad news is that the daffodils are out and the plum tree is blooming its head off in the backyard but I still don't really feel like going out. Its just freezy! We're doing a lot of read-alouds (right now One Day And One Amazing Morning On Orange Street) using the dryer even though we could be line drying and ending every day with warm baths in the tub, there is a lot of tea and coffee and we've been slow roasting meats for dinner. Please say that the warm weather comes sometime soon?

 We are all still working out, although I have been fighting my own lack of inspiration in that regard. I'm doing pretty well still with hitting my 10,000 step a day goal but actually getting a muscle building workout in is a little trickier. I have GOT to learn to workout first thing in the morning, I think that is the key. I must not and cannot leave it until later in the day, (God forbid it be the last thing to do once the house is quiet and I am exhausted!) and just hope I work it in. I will chicken out every time. Trying to puzzle over what might be motivating and how to jump-start that process.

Feel so proud of working harder on these things. Love watching the boys copycat me and start playing things together about working out and muscle strength and daring each other to push-up contests. This feels like a truly tangible good thing that we are doing together.

 I painted the kitchen all a clean white, smoothing over the bright, bright green backsplash behind my sink which so shocked many a visitor to my house. Everything is a snowy gloss now and I am trying to decide if it will stay that way or if I will paint the backsplash a soft yellow or something. Choices, choices. Next project will be pulling all the nails in my bedroom walls and spackling over the holes. I also am hoping to go get enough bricks this week to finish the ending I am doing on the front walk. Seems like a simple enough project to bang out if I got motivated....especially if it ever gets warm.

Amish Parenting and Seed Catalogs

Reading a really great book about Amish parenting, believe it or not. I am really struggling lately with teaching my children to not be prideful and haughty, getting across the ideals of industry and conscientiousness and getting at the soul of helping to instruct in kindness. Most of these things are weaknesses in my own personal character too which means that I'm searching for ways to teach myself and guide myself as I struggle to get across to my boys. Parenting is the most fantastic muscle work! Seriously!

I am not finding the book astoundingly revelatory, the author is no researcher and sometimes isn't able to pinpoint what the Amish are doing differently but there are hints and clues and some clear ideas. Its also just a super interesting cultural narrative, there are lots of things I didn't know about the Amish: they occasionally allow....movies, video games, cell phones, divorces, visiting with shunned folks, birth control, junk food, puzzles etc. Fascinating to imagine their lives and look over the landscape of their world for useful principles, ideas or viewpoints. I wish I had an Amish neighbor. The warmth and support sound so indescribable, especially in the stage of young motherhood. My Mennonite roots start to show during reading and I find myself missing some of the older, more devout, grandmas of my childhood church. Makes me want to go can a giant batch of apple sauce....and read more Amish literature!

Today was cold again, the sun still shines though which makes it so much more bearable. I don't mind so incredibly much when it is sunny during the day and then the wind kicks up as darkness arrives and the temperature drops. Its kind of cheering to snuggle down under the down comforter with my man and listen to the howling in the branches of the old white pine that towers over our house. We have however been freezing our pipes and bringing in eggs that have frozen and split from the coop. Its great pruning weather though, so I need to get my snips all dusted off and get out there and shape up our fruit trees. I am thinking that next week might be a great time to make sure that gets done! Spring is coming soon and now's the time to make sure that we've finished all the winter jobs. Isn't that a cheering thought!?!

Another thing I need to work on is planning out the vegetable garden. Last year's simpler garden arrangement went fairly well, so I think this year I will do a similarly streamlined plan. Not a million varieties, just the basics, and clean, neat planting set-ups. I see a date with a thick stack of seed catalogs in my near future. Mama morning time with a steaming cup of tea by my side as the sun rises and boys snore! YAY!

Sending you lots of cheering energy as you while away the last hours of winter, plan your spring, travel for breaks, try to get yourself out of bed in the morning, smile even though the wind bites and wrack your brain for creative and energy consuming things for kids to do indoors! I am on the same program. Lets keep on!

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?

January Stillness

I keep coming down in the morning, turning the oven on and running back upstairs for a sweater. Its cold! Next, I turn on the coffee maker and sternly tell myself to caulk the ancient kitchen window. It really must be done. (I tell myself this every morning and some evenings) Then I stand on the cold tile and try to think of hot things to make for breakfast that aren't bad for us. Putting my fuzzy lined moccasins on helps me think. This morning I decided the answer was to bake sweet potatoes in the microwave and serve a half of a steaming potato onto each plate with mugs of tea as warming back-up.

The boys and I are enjoying quite a lot of sunshine right now, even if it isn't warm. The chickens are out scratching vigorously every morning in the morning rays...completely undeterred by their absurdly timed molting. There are feathers EVERYWHERE in the coop! It looks like a pillow exploded. The silly hens are doing their fall shedding in the middle of the peak cold time! Its a darn good thing they had the good fortune to be Southern Connecticut hens and not Northern Michigan biddies. Teach them to follow their own rhythms!

I am looking deeper and deeper into the freezer and the pantry and find myself thinking strategically about what to plant and harvest and buy and freeze and can this next summer. We could use more frozen veggies, frozen batches of quick breads, dried fruits, canned peaches and canned meats. Note to self....more of everything except bags of frozen zucchini chunks. We have enough of those.

Our hopeful plan to go see the desert of Arizona and visit our friends who have set up house there among the saguaro has melted away. I have learned a real life lesson about the wisdom of jumping on cheap tickets when they are spotted. This year, instead, we'll be flying to Florida and soaking up some rays in the Sunshine State. We found cheap tickets for the whole family to sunny Ft. Lauderdale so I am banking many hours dreaming about tanning in the sand while the boys play, doing almost nothing except letting my skin soak in warmth and my brain take a giant pause. Sounds so good. No theme parks, no marathon crazy plans, no insane amounts of highway to chase down and conqueror in a day. Just us. Just warmth. Just a break. March is coming.

In the meantime, there is tea, and mending with heart shaped patches for little boys jeans, there are friends to drop by and there are paints. .....the paints she had with her always.

Hydration and The Ice Age

The nice thing about chilly weather is that I stay hydrated. I am living off of a virtual deconstructed i.v. of hot beverages, rotating coffee and tea by turns...dreaming of a hot toddy tossed in for variation. Also, I keep up on my wash...there's no chore in the world that sounds better than folding clothes, fresh out of the dryer.

The poor chickens on the other hand and probly getting very sick of their breakfast time slipping further and further into the morning because the resident farmerette can't seem to get up the gumption to go tromping out through the frosted leaves and fill their water and feed. Brrrrr!!!! On the upside, I have a new coat (this is surprisingly encouraging for outdoor chores!) and on the downside, it is after all, only November.

A was talking to the boys the other day about the concept of an Ice Age and their eyes got pretty darn wide. They like chilly weather as much as any kid. Snow is twelve shades of fabulous and there's almost nothing better than dipping your mittens in mud puddles after you have scooped out the ice film on the top, as a stiff November gale whips down the driveway. All that aside, I think the idea of an entire era of frozen living with snow and ice that was higher and thicker and colder all the time put the fear of God into them. They keep checking with me from time to time now to see if an ice age is starting yet. I keep reassuring them that that's not how they arrive...and that this is just New England in late fall.....I think. Time for another mug of tea. 

We are off to Michigan to see my parents, a couple of my sisters and my much beloved grandma for Thanksgiving this weekend and even though travel is a hassle and family can be stressful...I'm really looking forward to it. Its so good to be with those you know and to settle in where you are well loved. It is also such a comfort to know that even if I do that ridiculous thing where I always choke at dinner--just for tradition, wear earrings that are utterly too large and glamorous for stacking wood, completely forget to be on time to anything or boss everyone around non-stop they all totally get me and while they might laugh at me outright or roll their eyes they laugh, nobody will be disowning me anytime soon. Its all  part of the great comedy that is family. I'm me and they all get it. I love it.

 I hope you all have a cozy start to the holiday season, and feel launched into familiar places of festive dreaming, warm knowing and brave new edges of growth.

Learning Art Failure

We are trapped indoors. There is a chill, dull rain pelting down and the wind is roaring over the top of our hill, dropping limbs, tipping over the rose trellis and driving all six of our poor hens to huddle damply in a clump in their coop. The boys aren't really trapped, truth be told...just me. I sit indoors and keep the washer and dryer going, towels at the ready, tea on tap while the boys play war in raging drizzle. Nothing like bone chilling cold, brisk wind and sideways rain to make you feel like playing survival, making knives out of sticks and living on a perpetual hunted march. I hang damp hoodies and jackets up, peel wet socks off and re-mop the muddy kitchen tile. We skipped math homework today. There was too much war. Its hard for me to interrupt their imaginative play, especially when they are all playing happily. We'll do double math tomorrow to make up for it. I promise.

Today we did manage to get some art time in. Wednesday is our art day. We are studying one artist at a time, learning a little art history (we just finished Matisse) and trying out the techniques of the greats. Today I painted a nature journal still-life of three bumblebees I found in the basement. I balanced Baby Pom on my lap and we spread watercolors and brushes and papers with dripping art all over the table. It makes me really happy to see how much the boys love to dabble in creating.

Dee is a perfectionist extreme and although excited to dabble and very pleased when something comes out the right way he really falls to sobbing pieces when he can't paint something the way he meant to. We all get that feeling. I am stumbling over teaching him to accept his flaws, love the process and figure out how to let go of the perfect result. I have some ideas: let him see me be artistically reckless and mess stuff up.

But his own inner criticism is so strong. I'm not sure how to soften his feelings, allow to be unhappy with his creation and be honest about his reaction but not be swept under by it. Raising boys is tricky. I want feelers so bad but I see the danger of allowing them to be ragers or pouty depressives whenever the spirit moves. Anyone have any tips about how to walk these mommy lines?

I keep drinking more tea and holding him when he cries and trying to understand and manage his angry. I do the same things for myself with just as reliable a result. Sometimes tea and a little self hug will do the trick and sometimes I cry and rage until I can't sleep at night. This is the real trick about parenthood, right? Teaching your children things that you can see they need to know....but you never really learned yourself. Physician heal thyself. The good news is that, at least some small percentage of the time, living childhood next to your kids for the second time does teach you things you never really got and gives you chances upon chances at things you never realized you totally missed the first time around. I love being a grown-up.