Just jazz it up a bit

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Recently one of my kids posed an interesting question about my blogging "Did you regret it?" We had a conversation about when things are put out in social media that they linger and are out there for the world to see forever.  Things put out there can follow the individual years from now which could have negative consequences or close doors to opportunities from simply posting or commenting on social media .

 The example I had given was from personal experience. About 2 year ago posts from my blog were printed and used to suggest that I was overwhelmed.  My blog was something I always enjoyed writing and following blogs was a source of creativity and inspiration. Seriously have you ever met a mother that never got tired and looked great all the time. Ahem.

Because of that I took a break from blogging to minimize additional unwanted backlash on my parenting.  It was hard to return and I considered just shutting it down.  My answer to her question was no I didn't regret it I just lost my love for it and could not get back into it.  I had no regrets I put thought into what I wrote and it was my creative outlet. 

At times I have missed it and I would snap a picture with intentions of posting and of course never did. After a this question was asked to me I thought well why not return to it.  I don't have to post everyday just when inspiration strikes share something neat.  Check on my favorite blogs when I need that burst of creativity.
So here I am again. 

• First up is change up change the blog colors/design.  A little blog spring cleaning.  
• I had a yummy salad to post yesterday.
• Just finished reading Labor Day by Joyce Maynard next up is The Gilly Salt Sisters by Tiffany Baker.  If I had a project to go with it they would have been on the yarn along this week  
• Oh and why is the picture on it's side that you have to turn your head to see the books?  Ah well because whatever medium I use to bring in the picture it will NOT rotate.  I gave up trying otherwise I thought I would never post again. 
• Finally got an instagram account to go with my blog thislittlekitchenblog
•  I have feeling I'm going to be really enjoying that. Why did I wait so long?

Falling In and Out of Rythyms

The best way I can put it about what has been going on here lately is that I have been evaluating our family rhythm and trying to figure out what has changed and what works.  I tend to show the little snippets of our day in this space but it does not paint the whole picture of our day and truthfully a lot has changed and I'm getting a handle on new routines and trying to remember the old ones that worked.  
I sometimes wonder when I try something new is it adding more to my plate?  For example csa pick ups, freezing food I think adds more to my plate but will it be worth it later as long as I don't overwhelm myself now? Yes.  Do I bring more into my home at times when I shouldn't?  Oh yes. How much blog/magazine/recipes do I collect?  A lot!  Do I have a long long long running list of ideas that will keep me busy for a couple of decades.  Oh yes.  Do I get it all done the homeschooling, house stuff, errands and on and on.  Yes but not all at once and truthfully not always very effiecient. 
Lately with the seasons changing I have had more time to reflect and came to the conclusion I'm definitely a rhythmic person but lost my way at some point.  Whether it's blogging, cleaning, activities anything I crave a good rhythm.  I may not know what that is exactly right now but thank goodness for pen and paper to help me figure it out  and blog to let me air it out today.

Mama needs to think

I'm sorry friends there have been no posts this week. I had wanted to write about so many things finding a new homemade dishwasher detergent, the Hot and Sour Soup I finageled and a couple of hats that I'm finishing up and what's next on the project list before the holidays.

I'll try to keep this short and not too moody. I just have been in need of some thinking time. There has been no relief in sight. Some mornings started off too early continuing all day with endless questions till late bedtimes. hmmm... Been working on finding a better activity schedule for us all and adjusting to homeschooling (I'll explain that in another post.)

All this has not been unmanagable but my biggest challenge has not been with my own children.

As you have seen in my profile and pictures I have 5 children ranging from ages 2-9. You can imagine that sometimes all mamas need a little time clear to their heads out alone, doing errands or waiting at activity. Those moments are important so I can come back refreshed for my family.

Unfortunately it does not happen because somehow even when I am out alone minding my own business other children approach me, greet me, have questions, and stare and whisper when I bring yarn to crochet and knit. This happens while their parents are close by (some on their cell phones) I 'm pleased to be an inspiration to young children but I almost need a Do Not Disturb sign because I have been hugged and nearly groped by little people. I have enough evidence to file a lawsuit for harrassment but don't worry I won't lol that would be awful and that's not what I want to be known for.

This does bring me to another dilemna when I am with my children to regroup with them. Other children will leave their parent to come join my family. It happens often. We must seem like a lot of fun especially with 4 girls. Children have stopped and stared at me like an exhibit while knitting/crochetting and my own children have commented about this to me. My kids have been asked "What's your mom making?". Adults stop to comment or ask my son about his crochetting.

Again it's wonderful that children are fascinated by our family. But this mama just needs to think alone. Some of the children's parents are with their children and explain what I'm doing and others aren't paying attention to their own children at that moment. But this mama just needs to think.

So this sums up why I have been off the blog I'm just tired lol. As you can see. The only hazard to all this is that sometimes when other children join our family they follow us to our car/home. I sometimes count my own children to make sure I have all 5 and not one extra.

home stuff, to do lists & shopping

I started out thinking I would write a post about yet another recipe but I think I'll save recipes for tomorrow. There has been a lot to do lately that even my to do lists have gotten untidy and completely out of hand. I guess it's been more of a juggling act lately and my arms are sore.

Many people when I'm out usually comment "I don't how do you do it?" Well the truth is I don't know either. The juggling part comes in handy with the day to day stuff laundry, dishes, cleaning and cooking. We have made some good switches to the natural laundry detergent and all natural dishwasher detergent. (Ok even as I write this I heard glass breaking. Everyone ok?Yup. There is broken glass in a very messy art studio. Oh great now that means I really do have to clean theart studio this week. Ok now back to blogging.) The natural dishwasher detergent is a recipe I found online I just don't remember from which blog. This is not my own recipe it's from someone else.

Home made Dishwasher Detergent

1/2 cup liquid castille soap

1/2 cup water

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

3 drops tea tree oil

1/4 cup white vinegar

Mix all the ingreadients and keep in a jar.

A note on this I don't know what I was thinking when I mixed this but I used peppermint liquid castille soap. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it. I don't buy the almond because of nut allergies so I must have picked up pepperment. Oh well it sure does smell nice in my kitchen when the dishwasher is running.

As for the day to day to day stuff I'm slowly getting a handle of this in our new space but the throw in a major project and clean up and well then it's not so easy. I sure could use some help but that is no magic fairy. So that's where the clipboards, to do lists and online shopping come in handy.

Home To Do List :

• Dice fresh tomatoes, lay them on a cookie sheet and freeze. After they freeze put them in bag in the freezer for winter for soups and recipes. After last winter I decided we're not buying tomatoes out of season. They were unusually awful last year.


• Dice some of the celery and carrots and lay on a cookie sheet and freeze. Then transfer to a bag. Save these in the freezer for the winter for sauteeing and soups.


• Clean some of the celery and carrots but do not chop lay them on a cookie sheet freeze and then transfer to a bag. Freeze for the winter. Great vegetable stock and chicken soup.
  
• Keep refining the stuffed vegetable recipe. (I'll share that soon it's too long of a recipe.)


• Regrow the celery root for kids science experiment. Starting to look good hmmm... maybe more celery to freeze.


• Make more lemon/lime granita (I'll share that recipe soon. I heard it was good none was left for me.)


• Order the recycling bin. Still waiting


• Organize 1 more closet. A while ago I was trying to figure out how to organize the kids closets and thought those size markers that we see at the store would come in handy. I asked some one at the store where I could more and they said to google retail supply and sure enough found them. I found the round size dividers and the oblong size dividers. I still haven't purchesed them because I don't know how many and which ones I need. What's also nice you can get blanks without numbers and label them yourself. On the website the size dividers are under hanger accessories.
  

Online To Do Lists:

• Update my KartMe lists. The website is versatile for any kind of list you need. I keep a running list of things I need to purchase this month and a Christimas list.
  
• Buy a kids shoe sizer. A friend and I were talking about shoe shopping with kids. She tends to do a lot of shoe shopping online and I sometimes I get a phone call from someone about a good find and they ask what size is ...? Well why not a have one of those metal shoe sizer at home. Remember those well they haven't changed and could come in handy before going out to shoe shop or ordering online.


• Looking into buying a composte bin.
  

The For Me list:

• Crochet 1 scarf


• Decide on the next book to read


• Figure out the bandana quilt (I'll explain later.)


• Treat myself to new plants for the front porch. (So cheery looking.)


• Yippie new Green Craft Magazine is in. I love this magazine even if this adds to my Crafting ADD.

What's on your to do list?

My Hope Chest

"...my hope chest differs from the traditional version. Instead I use a wicker picnic hamper filled with projects that I hope to do in the future. ...Until I can set aside time to sew them, I'm storing the material in my hope chest."

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Simple Abundance

After reading this daily passage I thought to myself hey that sounds like me I have a hope chest. In the past month while cleaning up I decided to put together a basket of upcoming projects I would like to work on next. At one point it was filled with paper printouts of recipes and articles. Filed those away but added a binder. It's a place to add or take things that I have on my mind right now that I could get to some time soon. I didn't want it to be for future long term projects just something to keep me going. Right now it looks like this:

In there right now a recipe binder, cotton yarn to be made into wash clothes or dish clothes and the latest Stitch magazine.

The project I'm eyeing is a potholder made from felted wool. Those sweaters I shrunk a few months are going to come in handy for this future project.

The recipe binder well this I finally put together and tabbed for new recipes that I have not tried yet. All those recipe printouts go in here once they have been finagled (to be allergy friendly) and family tested and approved they go into my cooking or baking binders.

Well that's what's in my hope chest. What I love about this concept anyone can have one. Big or small, wicker or not it's for you to work on in the near future or much later in the future. A typically traditional idea but with a modern twist that hopefully will carry on for generations around here.

Spring Cleaning Week: Paper Clean Up

As the week continues there has been more paper sorting going on. Slowly I'm cleaning up my Hope Chest of Craft Projects (I'll explain the Hope Chest tomorrow) and there are many patterns, printouts and articles. Because of the lack of space I chose folders instead of binders. This is also to make sure that I don't start collecting more than I can handle and go into craft overload.

Here's a sample of what's in the folders that will go into the Hope Chest in the near future.

Sewing Folder: Yo-Yo Ball , Bear & Bunny, snack bag, buttercup bag, birds, apron

Knitting Folder: scarves and sweaters

Redwork Folder: Redwork Embroidery

Other: Wordle

Simply Living

Been away from the blogshpere for a few days doing some reading, embroidery, thinking of the next knitting project (I'll talk more about that one later this week.) and mostly just trying to capture some special moments with my family. Time can escape us soo quickly that I just wanted to be in the moment be part of it and record it in my journal before it was gone. What have I been doing in between spending time with the kids....

Almost finished embroidering a canvas bag to carry around small projects or needlwork hooks. I used a fabric pen to write on the bag.

Been doing some reading. I usually don't go for the daily devotional 365 day books because I just can't keep up and sometimes they can be overly religious. But this one I did not mind Simple Abundance. I look forward to it and reflect how it does actually fit our life today to live simply and real. Whatever happened to how people used to live and why does all this new technology and stuff that's supposed to make our life easier only add more of something else that complicates our lives and actually doesn't simplify. Something to reflect on in 2010.

And lastly I discovered a new recipe. Earlier in the day I had made some meatballs and rice and put it in the fridge. Around 10:30 last night found this recipe from Redhead Recipes for barbeque meatballs. The sauce are you ready for this ? Mix good chili sauce and grape jelly. I told Jimmy and he saw the picture and it looked good. Well curiosity got the best of us. Into the kitchen we go warm up the rice, meatballs and a piece of brocoli. In bowl mixed grape jelly and very spicy chili sauce warmed it up in the microwave and then drizzle over the meatballs and rice. It was spicy sweet! Maybe a little less chili sauce or better chili sauce but very tasty. As I write this for a vegetarian variation instead of meatballs how about tofu? Something to ponder.
Now let's see what the rest of this week's adventures will be?

Jewelry Finds

Why am I showing jewlery from the thrift store? Lately I've looked at my wardrobe and thought it needed a spruce up. Instead of going out and buying brand new clothes or accessories I wanted my own personal touch. I wanted to add pieces to my life and wardrobe that actually meant something like homemade scarves and thrifted jewelry. I think women when they become moms life changes drastically and can be unexpected. We can lose ourselves rather quickly by always putting our little people first. Then we can't go back to what we used to wear before children or wear things that don't bring out our best. Instead why not bring something to ourselves that can be unique, thrifted (with a story behind it), something new from something old. A little something to add a little pizzaz and smile. It will certainly make our little ones smile too.

New Activity Bag

Most days not all I'm on the go and I have hours of wait time on benches and in the car so I ususally bring something to do in a bag. I call it my activity bag. My dilemna has been I put away my summer activity bag but I don't have a sturdy one for the cooler seasons. Now I could have easily just went out and bought a canvas tote or pretty bag but I thought I need another crooked sewing challenge. So here goes refurbished from a shower curtain from the thrift store.

Some of the inside seams are not so pretty. Made 2 inch handles 36 inches long and then cut them into 1 inch because they were too wide. One of the handles got so frayed and torn up I had to cut another strip to make the handle. Good thing there was a lot of shower curtain left. I gave you a close up of the handles because well why show not show you the not so good raw edges. I'm not so sure about how I spaced the handles. Oh well. The bag pattern I used is from Handmade Home. The straps were inspired from the most recent Joann Fabric flyer. The straps are stitched right on to the top before assembling the bag.

In the bag right now books for reading and quiet time inspiration and canvas bags waiting to be embroidered. What you can't see in the bag we carry around here are thoughts and prayers to Haiti .

Never too late

Is it too late to learn something new? I say never unless it's physically impossible. I have always been impressed with those beautiful birds on Genine's Art Blog. I wondered how does she make those? So last week with the kids at the library I found a book on how to draw birds and thought why not give it a try. Grabbed my sketchbook and a pencil and just gave it try.

Another something new and fun to learn alongside my kids.

Corner Cleaned Up

This one corner alone took about a week to clean up. Once it was empty a new book case was put in which led to phase 2. Over Thanksgiving break the books were pulled off the shelves, scanned onto librarything, then put all 628 books in my room to be sorted and shelved. Labelled the books while scanning so we know which ones were scanned thanks to a friends recommendation. I also labelled the shelves by category so we all know what goes where. It's a good check for me when I'm cleaning up. Even Melania at 18 months has a bottom row of books for herself to go through.

Now just tired....zzzzz.....

Blog Break

Just wanted to drop a hello while I check out a couple of blogs. Hefty week is almost over but still more work to be done in the corner.

My husband asked how things were going yesterday. I said fine but I could use a wife. I needed extra hands to help me out. He said I needed a mid wife. You know someone I could call if I can't finish a job right way well call a mid wife. Or when some children need to be picked during a nap time well call a mid wife. I said maybe we should find another name to call this woman because I don't want to insult the midwives out there who are doing something really special.

I guess sometimes we could all use another woman's help when we are short on patience or hands, get interrupted numerous times while trying to complete a task or simply outnumbered by kids.

But for now I'm happy to settle down after a long day with a slice of lemon cake and a slice of pumpkin spice cake.

This is the golden cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World but I made them into cakes instead of cupcakes. For one I substituted the vanilla extract with lemon extract. For the pumpkin I added several tablespoons of canned pumpkin and added pumpkin spice.

Hopefully another fall favorite around here.

My Journal Page

Well we are already well into November and I forgot to write my month in review. It started about a year ago when I was writing in my journal and I thought to myself what is it I do again? Yup I cook, clean, laundry, do lots of dishes and change never ending diapers. So what else do moms do? I thought well why not keep track of what that is in my journal. Around January I made a list of what I'd like to accomplish this year but then it just seemed like another New Year's resolution. So what I came up with is A Month in Review. At the beginning of each month I write a list of Accomplishments and a list of Possiblities. The accomplishments are things that I completed the previous month. The list of Possibilities are things I would like to have completed during the up coming month.

Example of Month in Review for November
Accomplishments
-Started sewing-made Halloween skirts
-Tuned up the sewing machine
-Maintained blog...
Possibilites
-Finsih canvas bag
-Read
-Crochet a baby blanket...

Why do this? Because I think for any of us it's easy to see the pile that's not cleaned up, something is not sorted or a project still waiting. Well if the messes are so obvious why not make the accomplishments even more obvious. It's a gentle reminder of things I have completed or learned. Sometimes there are unexpected accomplishments which is nice. Other times like last month I made a list of possibilites that was too ambitious and absolutely knew it would never be completed. Doing this Month in Review keeps me in check of things that I actually did complete and feel good about even if there is a pile that remains.

Happy Weedkend!

The Journal Journey

Oh did I mention I love journals? You know the pretty books with tons of pages waiting to be filled thoughts and ideas.

Well through out my life I have filled about 1 or 2 journals maybe. I had one journal for me and a separate one about my kids. But then my girlfriend showed me a different approach to journal writing that's more open ended which can include snip its, articles, family pictures, magazine cut outs, reviews of things I've read or seen, whatever is going on in life, etc. Well I tried it out but then realized all my thoughts are jumbled in one place. I needed to organize and separate so that's how I ended up with 6 journals!

1. Life Journal a place for me to jot down whatever is going on in my life or I find interesting.


2. The Kids Journal I like this instead of a calendar or memory book. The memory books are about milestones but I needed a place for what goes on in his/her day to day life. A place for the funny stuff, activties, traditons, milestones, quotes all in one place. Because their lives aren't separte I don't keep a separate journal for each child it's easier to keep one journal and just write as I go about each one. (Some day I hope to photocopy and bind the kids journal so each one has a copy.)


3. Craft Journal All my sewing, crafting, knitting,.... ideas that I find or think up. These are creations I would like to do now but I'll be happy if I get them done in the next 1-10 years :)


4. Book Review I think you may have noticed I like to read, so in addition to that I started a journal to keep track of what I've read and thoughts about it.


5. Homeschooling Journal I just wanted a place to jot down ideas for my kids that weren't arts and crafts. It's a place to jot down learning projects that inspire and motivate the family to write, learn and grow.


6. Blog Log I wanted another journal to jot down what I'd like to share with you.

What I love about blank journals they can be for whatever you want them to be. A couple of these journal are worn because they were reincarnated. They were already used for 3 or more other themes or logs. This is ther final destination.

The real purpose for these journals is a place for me to sort out ideas and take a look into my own life to see what it is I do besides cook, clean, laundry and change diapers. As I got halfway through starting my journal collection I thought maybe one day my children would like these journals as a window into my life.

P.S. I apologize if today's blog was too lengthy of a read but I hope it inspires you.