making

Let Them Read

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Three and a half years ago my family and I moved into a new home. While selecting paint colors and sleeping assignments, we also made the decision to not place a television in any of the main rooms of our home. This was a deliberate choice on our part because my husband and I both thought of this move as a turning point in our life and a paradigm shift in our lifestyle.

Who would have thought that such a decision would cause such an outcry from our friends and family. Yes, you are reading that correctly. People who do not even live in our house were upset that we were not placing a television as the centerpiece of our home. The responses varied from the comical, “What will all of your furniture face towards?” to the shocking, “I would rather lose my house than loose my T.V. and cable!” I was utterly flabbergasted by what I was hearing.

When did we get to this point in our culture when people cannot imagine living their life without the constant hum of a television in the background? Now I am not that old, only thirty-one for that matter, but I remember going to my grandparents’ house and walking around outside and looking at all of my grandfather’s flower beds and his enormous vegetable garden. I can call to mind sitting at the dining room table with my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins playing cards after a big family meal. I recollect playing for hours in the playroom with my sister, not once thinking of the television, but instead being fully engrossed in the imaginary world we created with our dolls. So why then do people look at me cross-eyed when I say that I don’t have a television in my family room?

Now this is not to say that my children have never spent a moment of their lives in from of a television. We have Friday night movie nights in our basement each weekend. We make homemade pizza, pop popcorn and veg out for a couple of hours, watching our favorite princess movie. This week my girls had their first cold of the winter (Not bad, seeing as it is March!) and they spent some time snuggled up watching PBS shows that we have on DVD. But my point is this: Our lives do not revolve around an electrical box that sits on a shelf or is mounted to the wall.

During the day we find ourselves busy with projects and learning, and our evenings are filled with games and reading. And the reading is what we love oh so much! There is truly nothing I love more than to burrow under a hand-made quilt with my girls and venture to a far off land filled with energy and adventure! These are the times that memories are created. These are the times when much is learned. These are the times when I am so glad that my furniture all faces toward a bookshelf, instead of a television.

I leave you with an excerpt we just read a few nights ago from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (My girls are on a Roald Dahl kick these days.):

The most important thing we’ve learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set–
Or better still, just don’t install
The idiotic thing at all….
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they’re hypnotized by it,
Until they’re absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink–
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK—HE ONLY SEES!
‘All right!’ you’ll cry. ‘All right!’ you’ll say,
‘But if we take that set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!’
We’ll answer this by asking you,
‘What used the darling ones to do?
‘How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?’
Have you forgotten? Don’t you know?
We’ll say it very loud and slow:
THEY…USED…TO…READ! They’d READ and
READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales…
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks…
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They’ll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start—oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.


Busting Out

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Yesterday my oldest daughter came to me and said, “This entire weekend has been a lamb weekend!”  Although this winter has been extremely mild, and March came in much like a tame lion instead of a ferocious one, I would definitely agree with my daughter that this weekend marked the beginning of the “lamb time” of March!

We ventured outdoors and spend the large majority of our weekend there.  We played, we organized, we made plans for summer.  It was truly a wonderful weekend where we were able to feel the warmth of the sun our skin, and hope that this beautiful weather is here to stay.

I hope you all enjoy this Monday morning!  Have a wonderful week!

 

Reflection

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What I will remember about this week:

~Our first sprouts peeking out from the soil.

~The pitter patter of tiny feet running on hardwood floors.

~My husband brewing beer outside in 30 degree temperatures…and wearing shorts.

~My two little girls shedding their coats in a local greenhouse and then dancing in the middle of the perennial flower section.

~My eldest, with her petite red nose, sitting at the kitchen table breathing in the vapors of lemon ginger tea, hoping the steam will help her sniffles.

~The sounds of childhood wonder spilling into the hallway as my little ones are fully engrossed in their imaginative play.

~My tiny two-year old, donning a bear hat and pink leotard, attempting to skip around the skipping circle at her weekly dance lesson.

~Having an “Oh La La Beauty Day” with my girls, soaking our feet in our newly made lavender bath salts.

~My youngest, with hands on hips, observing the living room of my sister’s house and saying, “I like this place.  It so, so cool!”  (Even though she has visited hundreds of times…ha!)

~The girls, in their PJs, sitting at their picnic table enjoying the 60 degree day while Daddy grills out.

~Looking out my kitchen window, noticing the snow is now fully melted, and knowing that spring is right around the corner.

Yes, this week was one of greatness.  I hope your week was filled with wonderful memories as well!  Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

A Little of This a Little of That

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This week we have spent a great deal of our time in the kitchen, hence my cooking-themed posts this week.  This led me to think about how much I adore this space, my kitchen.  It is a place where we as a family gather to make, share and consume the bounty that God has blessed us with. A place where we talk about our day, our struggles and our dreams.   A place of learning letters, numbers, words and shapes.  A place of play.  I love this space, my kitchen.

This is the activity my girls most love to do while I am preparing our evening meal.  Playing with play dough allows them to be in the kitchen with Mama while also giving them the freedom they so desperately need.

This particular play dough recipe is one of my favorites because it smells oh so yummy.  You can find the recipe below.  Hopefully your little ones will enjoy it as much as mine.

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup water

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon orange colorant (this could be left out if you so desire)

Combine flour, salt, cream of tartar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large saucepan.  Mix together the water, oil and colorant in a small bowl.  Gradually stir the liquid mixture into the flour mixture.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until a ball forms.  Remove from heat and knead until smooth. Cool.  Store in an air tight container.

Simple Solution

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In keeping with the theme I seem to have started this week, I wanted to pass along an extremely easy recipe that my family uses at least once a week.  I try to make my family’s bread from scratch, but as we all know, making yeast breads can sometimes be very time consuming. On those nights when time is scarce, I always reach for this recipe.

Mix together 2 cups self-rising flour and 1 cup local stone ground wheat flour.  (I also add in 1 scoop of Garden of Life’s Super Seed.  This, of course, could be left out.)

Then add 12 ounces of your favorite beer.  (Maybe you were so inspired by Monday’s post on home brewing that you have some homemade brew on hand to add!) Mix in the beer and then pour the batter into a loaf pan.

I like to sprinkle a bit of brown sugar on the top at this point.  But you could definitely leave that part out.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

Enjoy!

Breakfast From Scratch

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Apparently I am on a DIY food kick this week!  After writing about our home brewing yesterday, I started to think about the other foods we make from scratch and soon thoughts of our delicious, and incredibly easy to make, granola popped into my mind.

I have been in a constant battle recently for something easy to serve my girls in the mornings when we are a bit rushed.  Of course I would love to make my little ones bacon and eggs or pancakes each morning before school, but we all know that some mornings do not play out the way we wish they could. We all know those mornings…When we wake up late, it seems to take years to get the kids even dressed, let alone to get them to use the bathroom and brush their teeth, and then we have exactly five minutes to eat breakfast before we have to leave for school.  Enter…Homemade granola.

I make my granola in giant batches and store it in an airtight container and it lasts up to several weeks. It is much, much cheaper than buying organic granola in the store, and the best part is that I know every single ingredient in my granola!  There are no long, four-syllable words that only someone with a PhD can decipher.  Just 5 yummy ingredients:

2 lbs organic rolled oats

1 lb raw slivered almonds

12 oz unsulphured, unsweetened coconut

1 lb local honey

cinnamon to taste

And here is the incredibly easy part:  You dump all of the ingredients, except the honey, in a giant bowl.  Mix it.

Put the honey in a small saucepan over low heat and warm just enough to make the honey a bit runny.

Then pour the honey into the dry ingredients.  Mix again.

Bake in batches in a shallow baking dish at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  (I stir the granola in the baking dish about every 10 minutes to assure it bakes evenly.)

And that’s it!  I store my granola in the bin pictured above and it lasts a long time.  Let me tell you, I can get A LOT of quick breakfasts out of one of these batches.  It is truly a breakfast time saver!

Brew Master

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As a family, we try to make as many of our meals from scratch as possible.  We bake our own bread, make our own pizza crust and love to can our own sauces and veggies.  So it seemed like a natural progression to begin to make our own beverages as well.

My husband has recently discovered home brewing and I’m pretty sure he has found a new love!  And I must admit, as skeptical as I was in the beginning, there is something just awesome about knowing that the brews our family enjoys on holidays and celebrations is crafted by our hand.

I am not much of a beer drinker myself.  I would much prefer a good glass of red wine, so we are thinking we may begin an adventure in wine making in the very near future.  Hopefully I will have an update on that soon!

Yoga Practice

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It had been almost five years since I had a consistent yoga practice routine in my day.  I’m not sure how or why I fell away from it because it truly adds something to my day that no other form of exercise or meditation has ever been able to do.

For the past few months now, I have reintroduced yoga practice to my days and it has made all the difference.  I find that it enlivens each of my days and allows me to be so much more receptive and invigorated!

My girls have also taken to yoga practice.  Their favorite yoga practice is to pull out their ABCs of Yoga for Kids book by Teresa Power, position themselves on my yoga mate, and complete each pose in the book and hold it for about 20 seconds.  They are really getting great too!

I hope all of you have a restful and fun weekend!  Namaste.