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.

In the Garden

August 12, 2015August 28, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

It’s August! This means we have entered the jungle-phase of the gardening season. In order to move about the garden, one must weave in and out of the labyrinth of branches and vines. And while doing so, one may come across our cat sleeping amongst the beans, or perhaps a groundhog who has found his way into our tomatoes. (Talk about a bit of a fright when not expecting that guy. Oh boy.)

But amongst this tangle of vegetation there is a great deal happening, and our kitchen is finding itself brimming with our garden’s bounty. The tomatoes have now grown taller than me (and standing at 5’11” that is saying something), and for the first time EVER we have been able to grow broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage! We planted ever-bearing strawberries two years ago and we are now reaping the rewards of an amazing second round of these lovelies.

A few weeks back, as I mentioned in this post, I hung some herbs to dry. This week my girls helped to take the leaves off these dried plants, grind them by hand, and then can them for the winter months.

Also in the herb department, our basil and lavender are just beautiful this year. I decided to try out Ashley English’s Lavender Lemonade from her book //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=1611801281&asins=1611801281&linkId=XB3HIFBW6PW65FC3&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true“>Quench (using stevia to replace the sugar) and it was delicious! I have also been making basil-lime water infusions and it puts a whole new face on my family’s hydration needs.

I pulled most of our carrots this week and tried my hand at lacto-fermentation. So far, there is a lot of fermentation goodness in the form of carbon-dioxide bubbles rising to the surface of the jars when I burp them each day. I am very excited to taste these in a few more days.

Coming up next week, I hope to share with you some of the recipes I have been working on, which feature so much of this garden goodness. Until then, enjoy the remainder of your week!

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.

Cherry Crisp

July 20, 2015July 27, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

Last week my girls and I, along with my sister, ventured to my in-law’s home and spent the afternoon tangled up in branches and brambles. It was picking’ time! By the time the day was done, we ended up with two giant bowls of tart cherries and black raspberries. Simply marvelous!

The black raspberries quickly became freezer jam, with the help of my six and eight-year old sous chefs. And the cherries, well, the cherries ended up going into an absolutely amazing cherry tart. I don’t often like to toot my own horn, but friends, it was good. Very good. Let me share the recipe…

Cherry Crisp

6 cups pitted tart cherries (This measurement was taken AFTER the cherries were pitted.)

1 cup local honey

2 T Non-GMO corn starch

Mix these ingredients in a large bowl and pour them into a 9×9 baking dish. (I use this baking dish because then I can serve the crisp table-side and it looks as good as it tastes.)

2 cups oats

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 stick cold butter cut into cubes

Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl (such as one of these sustainably harvested bamboo bowls) using a pastry blender. Pour the crumbled mixture onto the cherry mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Allow 20 minutes to cool before serving. Enjoy!

*A note about all my recipes: I use all organic ingredients, local when available. I use non-homogenized milk, and all of the dairy we use is from animals raised on pasture. I also use oils that are non-GMO verified. All our meat is raised locally on organic feed, and our beef is grass-fed, grass-finished. All our spices and cane sugar are fair-trade certified and purchased through a cooperative.

Searching for the Good

June 29, 2015August 28, 2015 / makingofahome / 4 Comments

“The basic element of joy, then, is profound peace, that imperturbability in the Spirit that remains with us even in the most painful, excruciating moments.” ~Pope Francis

When arriving on the oncology floor at The University of Wisconsin Hospital last week, I felt an overwhelming feeling of absolute panic wash over me. This is not an unfamiliar sentiment, as I have had a phobia of hospitals and doctors’ offices ever since my youth. But my mom’s recent illness has brought on a whole new level of panic every time I set foot inside those glass doors. Even seeing the sign reading “oncology” when the elevator doors opened on the 6th floor was enough to just about send me over the edge. I looked around me and thought, “How do all of these people, these doctors and nurses, wake up every day and come and work here? This would be the most depressing place in the world to carry out a career.” These sentences have probably circulated through my consciousness at least a thousand times over the course of the last 4 months.

But after a few days of sitting beside my mom’s bedside, I decided to open a book that a dear friend gave me to help me through this tough time. While reading, I came upon the following passage in Glennon Doyle Melton’s book, “I respect people who don’t try to escape permanently. Who run toward the pain. Who allow themselves to suffer with others, to become brokenhearted. I respect people who, enlightened or not, roll up their sleeves and give up their comfortable lives for suffering people.” I was drawn to tears. Because, as I reread this passage, I thought back to my family’s experiences the past few days. I thought of the young doctor who held my mom’s hand each and every time he came in her room, and when taking her vitals held her and said, “Let me hold you. I am here to help.” And I thought of the nurse who pulled my dad, sister and I into a private room to truly listen to us, console us and cry with us. She told us that she can tell my mom is an amazing woman because of the unmatched sense of family she feels every time she enters our room. And then we cried some more while she embraced each of us.

I believe these are the people of whom Ms. Melton is speaking. These are the people who willingly go to work each day, knowing that it will be difficult, awful even, and do it anyway. And in reflecting upon this, I realized that it sometimes takes the most terrible of situations for us to see the true good that exists in the world. We are constantly bombarded by so much hate, negativity and loss that we often fail to look up from our despair and see that within the disastrous storm of life, there are people doing good. Despite all that evil, they are working their damn hardest to make a positive difference.

This journey I am traveling right now has been awful, but it has also allowed me to raise my eyes above the hurt and see a kind of good in people that I was unable to see before. I think I now agree with Ms. Melton in that “I am grateful for the beauty in the midst of suffering. I am grateful for the treasure hunt through the minefield of life. Dangerous or not, I don’t want out of the minefield. Because truth, and beauty, and God are there.”

The Ladies: A Lesson in Love and Loss

June 18, 2015June 17, 2015 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

Do you remember on Tuesday when I told you I didn’t ever really like to put myself out there and go too far outside my comfort zone for fear of upsetting others? For this reason, I have never shared (in this very public space) a simple fact about our family’s suburban homestead: We have a flock of backyard chickens. Oh, and we have had them for over two years now 🙂

When we first brought them home as chicks, I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it here on the blog for fear that we may not end up being able to care for them as they needed. I didn’t want to appear weak for having to give up on something that had only just begun. Then as months passed, and the chicks became laying hens (Well, one ended up being a rooster and thus was scooted quickly out to a farmer we know.), I still didn’t share any stories about the chickens because it just seemed like too much time had gone by, and it would be strange to introduce the concept so late.

But in keeping with my promise to myself, to remain transparent and open, let me tell you a little bit about our backyard coop convent.

These ladies have taught our family more than we ever could have envisioned when we picked them up from the feed store so long ago.

Did you know that chicks sometimes need a little booty soak and wipe when they are first born in order to prevent their vents from becoming clogged? I sure didn’t! But there I found myself, sitting on my basement floor with a warm cup of water, a three-day-old chick cradled in my hands, giving her the best spa treatment imaginable.

Did you know chickens each have unique personalities? We had no idea this was true until our gal Limey (She was named by my then-four-year-old.) came along. She had the most loving demeanor and just loved to be in on all the people-action. In fact, she would often fly out of the run, walk up to our back door, and scratch her claws against the screen door in order to get us to go outside and play with her.

Did you know laying hens are more than just egg producers, but members of the family? We definitely had no idea of the emotion impact we would face this past winter when our Limey would again fly out of the run without our knowing and was lost to a predator at night fall.

These feathery ladies have given us so much more than an egg a day. They have taught us valuable life lessons of love and loss that I believe have helped to shape our family.

Here is a little photo tour throughout our two years with the ladies…

Rebirth and Return

June 16, 2015June 15, 2015 / makingofahome / 7 Comments

In the past year and a half, my life’s journey has seen many peaks and valleys. More so than I ever thought to be possible. I have had the privilege of teaching an amazing group of young people who helped me to spread my wings as an educator in ways I never thought possible. I worked with a group of individuals who have compassion and an unshakable will to do what is best for kids day in and day out, and who support one another in a way I have never before seen in a professional setting. And I have experienced hardship and trama that has sent shock waves to the very foundation of my beliefs, and daily impacts the core of who I am.

The crazy thing about life is that there always seems to be something gleaned from the journey itself. Throughout my time away from this blogging space, I feel I have truly found myself. Life’s obstacles have forced me to look at what it is I truly want to do with my life, and do it.

My entire life I strove to not ruffle any feathers. My husband always joked with me that his one worry in marrying me was that I was so incredibly passive, and he feared that throughout my life people would walk all over me. And the fact of the matter is…He was right. I always seemed to find myself sacrificing what I wanted, or what I thought was best, so that everyone around me would stay happy. But something inside of me changed over the corse of the last 18 months. I realized I owe it to myself to do what I think is best. No matter the fall out, if I truly believe in something with every fiber of my being and in the very deepest caverns of my gut, I need to at least give it a try.

So now I find myself at a point in my life in which I have never been. I have abandoned what others think is normal or correct and I plan to pave my own way toward a path I feel will lead myself and my family to places we never dreamt possible. I invite you to come along with me. Welcome back to Making of a Home!

“When you begin taking that road not normally taken—Robert Frost poem—when you begin going a different direction and you find it very rewarding and satisfying, you wake up the next morning and you suddenly say, ‘Well, what else have I been missing out on?’ “ ~Joel Salatin

First Steps

December 31, 2014 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

It has been some time since I have written in this space, and my, I have missed it so. I wanted to stop by and wish each of you a very blessed, happy and healthy new year. May 2015 bring much love into your life, and may your year be filled with new adventures at every turn.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Living for the Pockets

February 17, 2014February 18, 2014 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

Well friends, it has been almost a month since my last post. When going back to work full time, I had high hopes of still being able to post each day. Now I’m thinking I may have been in the midst of a bit of a crazy streak to think that would be possible. In fact, for a few weeks there I did feel like I was quite the loony lady, and sure I would never again be able to take part in those “homestead-ish” acts that had come to make up so much of my life since I left the workforce in 2009. I felt like I couldn’t balance anything, and found it difficult to stay afloat.

But as always, my husband was there to tell me two things: 1. You are crazy. But not headed down the path to Crazy Town like I thought. He said I was crazy to think just because I had started back to work full time, that I would have to suddenly abandon who I was. 2. Give it a few weeks, and you will soon be able to figure out where to fit in all you love to do: teach, raise our family and keep our suburban homestead afloat.

So I did as he directed. I waited. And low and behold (and as much as I hate to admit it), he was right. I have found those little pockets of time here and there where I can still do those activities I love. In fact, I didn’t even realize I was doing it until I went to download pictures this weekend and discovered that over the course of the past month I had been able to do quite a lot.

But these activities have taken on a different form. Instead of dedicating several hours in the afternoon to crocheting, I sneak in a couple of rows while sitting at tumbling lessons. Rather than having an entire fermenting-day, I whip up a quick batch of yogurt on Saturday mornings with extra milk that is about to expire, and throw together an attempt at water kefir on a Friday night after the girls are asleep.

And I think my favorite part of all has been the ability to interweave these homesteading activities into my classroom. In the midst of a soil composition unit, we started a worm compost bin, and a chemistry assessment turned into a soapmaking lab. And I can’t forget the measurement conversion unit where we went outside to make ice cream in the snow.

The crazy part of this new life of mine has been how I now live for those pockets. Those pockets of time when I can do and share those activities that make me who I am.

I hope you all move into this week, able to find those pockets in which you can do all that you love.

At This Moment

January 23, 2014September 1, 2015 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

At this moment I am…

~continuing to stitch away at some new dish wash cloths.

~very thankful I got caught up on all things school yesterday. I feel that I can take a big breath and a sigh of relief.

~even more thrilled I got all of the above mentioned work-type items done yesterday, because we have a day off of school today because of the frigid temperatures. Hooray for snow days (Well, cold days) 🙂

~checking on my curing soap I have stowed away in my basement. More on this adventure in next week’s posts.

~preparing to ferment a new batch of kombucha. The cold weather has really slowed down my kombucha brewing, but I’m hoping I can get a new batch up and running today.

~reading Michael Pollan’s newest book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. As with all of his texts, this one does not disappoint. It is truly captivating, and also so informative and inspiring at the same time.

~organizing craft supplies. My little ones mentioned before their heads hit the pillow last night: “Mommy, if we don’t have school tomorrow, can it be Valentine-making Day?” Well gals, Valentine-making Day it is!

~flipping through Ashley English’s A Year of Pies. I feel as if a day off school warrants a day of eating pie, right?

~wishing you all a warm Thursday, friends.