At This Moment

October 29, 2020October 28, 2020 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

At this moment, I am…

~enjoying the dark, early morning hours. Alone. Savoring the dawn of this new day.

~returning to the warm, blanket-covered couch after clipping zinnias by cell phone light early this morning for a late-October bouquet.

~mopping up tears and remnants of yesterday’s mascara after finishing Tiffany D. Jackson’s novel, Monday’s Not Coming. A profoundly powerful piece of writing.

~preparing to mince some of our garden’s garlic for a batch of grass-fed beef bone broth. My hubby is drinking a quart of broth a day, so I have been working hard to keep up with demand.

~gearing up for what is sure to be a lively day of homeschooling featuring Indian food and celery stick science experiments.

~feeling grateful for a calming experience last night at sound bath meditation.

~wishing each of you a lovely start to your Thursday. I wish you much love and light today.

At This Moment

March 9, 2020March 9, 2020 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

At this moment, I am…

~awakening this space that lay dormant for 22 months.

~blending a fresh batch of handmade lotion.

~preparing for one last week of homeschool lessons before taking a much-needed spring break.

~creating my list of seeds and transplants for the 2020 growing season.

~dreaming of my new-to-me garden shed.

~loving the gentle pull toward this space again. Thank you for joining me here once more, friends.

Honey Lavender Walnuts

April 11, 2018April 10, 2018 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

My girls and I have really been trying to adjust our eating habits throughout the school day. Instead of snacking on crackers, pretzels and tortilla chips, we are trying to move our snacking to the non-processed variety. This has been a bit of challenge for us lately, until we crafted this recipe early this week. Our honey lavender walnuts give you that crunch that great snacks have, while also blessing your tongue with a bit of salt, spice and sweet goodness. I hope you enjoy!

Honey Lavender Walnuts

2 1/2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup local honey

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried lavender blossoms

1-2 cups walnuts (depending upon how much coating you would like)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the butter, honey, salt, pepper and cinnamon in a small sauce pan. Stir continuously over medium heat until melted. Remove from heat.

Add vanilla to the butter mixture and stir well. Next, add the walnuts and stir to coat.

Turn out onto a jelly roll pan and spread out evenly.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes. Stir and spread out evenly again. Repeat this process until your walnuts have reached a roasted degree that you enjoy. Remove from oven.

Mix in lavender blossoms. Allow to cool. Enjoy!

Home

May 1, 2017April 30, 2017 / makingofahome / 4 Comments

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The last few weeks have kept us very busy with a variety of DIY projects around the house. With the absolutely beautiful weather gracing us, my girls and I decided to take advantage, move school outside most days, and just get after it.

We first needed to fashion a new table for our deck. Our old table, after weathering many a Midwestern winters, had finally called it quits and we needed another piece on which all of our summer family dinners could take place. I happened to find a local woman who was selling barn wood, so we ventured to her barn and listened to a wonderful story of a Swedish family who immigrated to the Rockford area with hopes of building a family farm. They bought property on the corner of Baxter and Mulford Roads and there constructed a home in 1902. Later, in 1903, they gathered with neighbors to build a barn in which to begin their farming venture.

We brought home three 10-foot boards, washed them, and ran over them once with some sandpaper. I then applied three coats of //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=makofahom-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B000C011CE&asins=B000C011CE&linkId=96a4608fd8c32411f7f8bbe7d4f64747&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff“>an exterior marine polyurethane to all sides of each board. I connected the boards with 2 x 4’s in order to create a removable table top that I can bring inside during the winter months. I then created “table legs” using cinder blocks. I was so thrilled once the project was complete because I was able to craft a one-of-kind ten-foot table to entertain upon for under $100.

My girls and I also got busy building a backyard washing station. While visiting Koviashuvik Living School in Temple, Maine last August, I was struck by all the ways in which the Knapp family used seemingly random household objects to craft “new” devices to serve a very sustainable purpose. Our washing station is not completely sustainable, as we do plan to start our washing process with city water from our home, but our hope is to eliminate one avenue of waste through this process. (And keep my kitchen cleaner too!) Each garden season we are faced with what to do with the dozens upon dozens of 5 gallon buckets filled with dirt-caked veggies that make their way into our kitchen. Enter…our OUTDOOR veggie washing station 🙂

We had a random cement slab that was found in our yard when we bought our house and it has been milling about under a tree ever since. So, with much assistance from my strength-and-conditioning-coach hubby, we moved the cement slab near our backyard water spigot. I used the old legs from our outdoor table we had just scraped, and attached them to a countertop my dad had just removed from his basement during a remodel. I then placed a washtub next to the table, with a bucket beneath the drain. We plan to plug the washtub, dump in our muddy produce, and fill the tub with our nearby hose-water. Once all the veggies have been scrubbed clean and placed in a strainer on the table, we can drain the tub into the bucket and then use that greywater to water our plants with. And all of this will happen outside, and now only gloriously clean veg will make its way into my kitchen.

And last, but certainly not least of our DIY adventures of late, I have created a spot in the garden entirely for me. I moved around some aimless pieces that had been littering our property and used them as the basis for this new space. I then crafted prayer flags and stitched each stitch with a heartfelt intention. So here I stand to greet my morning, in my very own corner of the garden, setting positive intentions for my day.

Wishing you all a productive, yet peaceful start to your week.

Social

February 27, 2017February 25, 2017 / makingofahome / 5 Comments

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My girls and I have found a new love: ceramics. We happened upon a class that had some open seats and immediately we knew it was a match made in Heaven.

A common misconception of homeschooled-children is that they lack socialization. My experience (be it only a brief one and a half years so far) has illustrated to me that the exact opposite is actually true. Not only do my girls interact with children their own age while at homeschool co-op, through sports and camps, and during their involvement in scouts, homeschooling allows time for my girls to interact with those much younger and older than them. My girls love helping out with the little bitty ones when they are at the YMCA or at co-op, and they also cherish the moments they get to spend with residents of their great grandmother’s retirement community.

Our new-found ceramics class has also offered my girls a wonderful opportunity to, not only learn a wide array of artistic techniques, but also interact with a lovely group of ladies of an older generation. My girls love listening to their stories, and watching their experienced hands craft the most beautiful pieces of art. Our time spent in the studio on Tuesdays with these women is definitely a life experience for which I am so very grateful.

What I’m In To

September 8, 2015September 7, 2015 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

It is been a very, very long time since I have written a What I’m In To post, so I thought today would be as good a time as any to just dive right in. So, on this Tuesday following Labor Day, I’m in to…

…tomatoes. I am literally surrounded by these ruby orbs of goodness. They are currently covering every horizontal surface of my kitchen, and this is after I spent all of Sunday (and Sunday evening) roasting and canning over 10 quarts worth. I always get a bit overwhelmed by our tomatoes at this time of year, but I just keep trying to keep perspective. And I know I do love the taste of summer during those snowy February days. So for now, I am trying my best to keep my head above the proverbial tomato-filled water.

…ordering a great deal of this coconut oil. About 5 months back I experimented with creating a vegan cold-pressed soap recipe, and it actually turned out amazing. In about a week we plan to whip up some more of this soap in preparation for the Christmas gift-giving season. I cannot wait to share this recipe with you!

…All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Do you know how there are those rare books that hold you in their grasp from the moment your eyes hit the first page? This is that kind of book. Unbelievable.

…lemon verbena and lemon balm. These two herbs are new to our garden this year and they have completely taken off. They are fragrant and delicious, but also very beneficial for our health. After listening to Rosemary Gladstar speak two years ago at The Mother Earth News Fair, I wanted to grow these two herbs. So this past winter I bought her book Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health, found so many wonderful recipes for these two herbs within its contents, and now have the scent of lemon wafting in our nostrils every time we set foot in our herb garden.

…my husband’s new Vitamix. Actually, this statement is false. I am not only into my husband’s new Vitamix, but I am in love with it. In. Love. My girls and I have created a new smoothie that we make every morning, using this new kitchen gadget. We call it the “Hulk Smoothie” because it is bright (I mean bright) green. For this smoothie we use a splash of pineapple juice, 2 oranges, a large handful of kale, one avocado, a few spoonfuls of hempseed hearts, a large handful of cilantro, lime juice, stevia and ice. Amazing. (Oh, and I also love, love, love my stainless steel straws that go perfectly with our Hulk Smoothie, or all smoothies for that matter.)

…being back in this blogging space each week. Thank you so much to each of you for reading today, and everyday.

Jackpot

August 17, 2015 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

Over the weekend, my girls and I found a garage sale that seemed as if it was created just for us. It was awesome. That is why we went back three separate times. (Yes, this is true. Three. Times.) First off, the sale was located on a beautiful property housing a barn, several out-buildings and a cute little home. The expansive lawn was dotted with gorgeous antiques throughout it’s beautiful flower gardens. Very Victorian. I loved it. Then as we neared the selling area, we discovered it was filled with two main categories of items: teaching materials and antiques. Oh boy. The three of us Fagan girls were in heaven.

We ended up carting home some beautiful vintage towels and clothes pins, several cookbooks and gardening books dating as far back as 1952, and we outfitted our entire homeschool operation with books and other school supplies. I would say it was a huge success.

What were you up to this weekend? I would love to hear. Enjoy your week, friends.

This Space

July 30, 2015July 28, 2015 / makingofahome / 8 Comments

From the time I was young, my mom always encouraged me to be my own person. Not to be afraid of what others thought of me, but to instead dare to be the person I believed I was meant to be. As I mentioned in this recent post, over the last several years I lost a bit of this independent spirit. More often than not, I began to do what I thought was acceptable by the majority, rather than doing what my gut was telling me.

Recently, while attending a presentation by Joel Salatin, he said, “If everyone else is doing it, I would tell you to do the exact opposite.” These words stirred something deep within me. Am I doing what I truly believe is best, or am I just moving with the current and doing what everyone else is doing? I began to feel this pull deep within me to not fear being different, but to instead embrace those “differences” and run with them.

Homeschooling is something I have had on my heart and mind since my eldest daughter began kindergarten. I never actually considered it a real option because it existed so far outside the realm of my daily life. The people by whom I surrounded myself would never consider homeschooling, and being a teacher by trade, I faced a great deal of skepticism and resistance any time I brought up the topic with other educators.

But I believe God places people and circumstances before us which can aide us in the making of very tough decisions. I believe He is the one that gives us that feeling deep in our gut, telling us what is best. It is just up to us whether or not we want to pay attention to Him. I believe He placed me in my teaching role at Cathedral of St. Peter School the past year and a half to build my confidence in two subjects I often feared. I believe He surrounded me with other educators who were open to non-traditional means of education if it best meets the needs of the child. And I believe He gave me two girls, who like me when I was young, appear eager to try something different and new. And with all of this in my back pocket, I decided to follow that feeling deep down inside of me, and embark upon the road less traveled by, and homeschool my girls this fall.

Now I don’t want to pretend that this decision was met with rosy eagerness by all, because that would be a very false statement. However, throughout this summer I have been working to find fabulous homeschooling resources and create a space that fosters a positive experience for my girls. And it is in the creation of this space that I feel confident to move forward in this new endeavor.