Busy Hands Homestead

Our noses and whiskers are washed off. The kids are in bed, and I am going to give myself a pat on the back.  Not that I was a stellar mom today.  I was not. Not that I put any sort of fantastic effort into our Halloween festivities.  I did not.  But, we survived the day and that is good enough for me. Today was one of those unbelievably difficult days combined with a long list of things to do.  I got up extra early so I could sneak in a shower before the kids woke up, but before I had managed to shave my legs, my little man pushed open the bathroom door and climbed on in splashing happily in the water.  By the time we ate breakfast my ballot was filled out, all of the month's bills payed, our bank account balanced (oh, and what a balance remains) and the corporate office of Suzuki had successfully been called. By eleven the recycling was sorted, our bank errand completed and we piled out of the car to wander around the interweaving paths a...

This morning I rolled over in my bed and stared at the clock. Guiltily I calculated that Adam had left almost two hours ago, and that I wouldn't be seeing him again until Sunday evening. This weekend went by too fast.  I attended a lecture by Julia Galloway Friday night and her workshop most of Saturday.  Sunday was spent cooking for Adam's week away, and if I had not curled up next to his warm body for two nights, I might not have realized he had been home at all.  I continued staring at the clock, willing my self to get out of bed.   Since I haven't been able to spend late nights at the Clay Studio my dining room has become, not only the play room, but also a make shift studio.  During nap time and after Ivory and Sylvan finally fall asleep I attempt to wrap up the list of things I am trying to finish for the upcoming MADE fair .   Today, during nap time, I attached the handles to bier-steins and trimmed a few plates.  I p...

I remember staring at my daughter, when she was still tiny, red and wrinkled, thinking about this marvelous miracle of life.  Holding her, it dawned on me that, I was also cradling my grand children in my arms as her infant body already contains fully formed egg cells. While I have always made an effort to eat healthy and exercise, this realization has sent me on the additional mission to try and avoid products that contain potential endocrine disruptors and mutagens. Our house hold isn't completely devoid of plastic, all organic or full of eco-cleaning products.  The lists of complex ingredients on the back of bottles gave me headaches.  Trying to remember what was good, all right and bad while actually examining a product in the store was beyond me.  Many of the products I felt confident purchasing were beyond or financial ability, so I took a different approach.  There is simply a long list of products I don't buy.  I don't buy commercial s...

Especially during nap time, the golden sunlight beckons me out side.   I desperately want to get my feet in this: But rather than frolicking in the fall leaves I have been doing this: Sorting through the many boxes and bags of fabric and other art supplies and giving them accessible homes for the first time in years.  My husband set up the craft armoire his mother sent me for my birthday, and I am finally moved in.  It was a three day undertaking. This morning I just couldn't face another day inside.  I know that for my own sanity and the well being of my children (so they don't have to deal with a super crabby mom) I just had  to get outside.  We got dressed, ate breakfast, I packed a back pack and we piled into the car to drive down the highway to the Valley of the Moon Nature Trail on Rock Creek.  We walked along the trail through waves of grasses, wound our way beneath the towering cotton woods, found a picnic tab...

Over our Sunday morning cups of coffee Adam and I penciled a list for the day.  Our list had a few chores around the house, but was mostly comprised of delicious food things to make and bake.  The weather is cool and wet and it is planting season again.  This means our Sundays are full of food preparations and our week days are spent apart.   I ran off to the grocery store to pick up a few things while Adam tackled the first food item: Caramel Rolls.  While Adam picked up things around the yard, I rolled up  my sleeves and crumbled together butter and flour to make pie crusts.  I picked the meat off of the bones of last night's roasted chicken , baked butternut squash, boiled sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and broccoli, wilted kale, crumbled up bacon to make my version of the Big Sky Pie that I found in the Missoula Magazine (Page 10) last winter.     Adam started the Braided Swish Cheese Loaves ...

Lately our weekends have been functioning on a divide and conquer mantra.  So while Adam cleaned up breakfast and started his to do list in the shop Ivory, Sylvan and I dug out our rain boots and pulled them on.  We're on our way to the Saturday Farmer's Market.  I'm off to get the usual - breakfast sausage from the pork guy, and the seasonal - pears, apples, leeks and Jerusalem artichokes. Ivory and Sylvan and their babies buckle up in the chariot and I start peddling down town.  I pass the four loads of laundry I hung up the day before.   Of course it rained.   I hung up four loads of laundry.   After this summer, it is hard to remember that there is weather.  Rain?  It rains?  I touch a few in passing and am surprised.  They feel almost dry in spite of the early morning shower.  A damp haze hangs over the street, but it is sunny and quiet.  A perfect autumn morning. We weave our wa...

Ivory is curled up in my bed fast asleep. The last thing she said to me before she closed her eyes was: "After my nap, can I have some yogurt." All I heard was:"NAP".  She wants to nap! Oh, Yogurt.  "Yeah, you can have some yogurt." Sylvan in bopping around the dining room, pulling out random toys and singing to himself. He fell asleep in the bike trailer, and despite of my best efforts, he is chipper and awake. It took us almost two hours to get sorted and out of the door this morning. There was the crying while hair brushing. The massive melt down while trying to put on gloves.  The pink ones were to bulky for bike handle holding.  The finger gloves to difficult to slip on and the green ones - too green.  WAY TO GREEN! All of these reasons, of course, requiring tears and a knee buckle to floor level. My solution: NO GLOVES!  No gloves for anyone. Ivory finally straddled her bike, and I mine.  Our mission for the day: to ride our...

Just a week ago Sylvan was still running around in nothing but a diaper. Ivory was lounging in the sunshine. The leaves all around turning every color but green. I hugged the largest Western Larch in the United States! A few days later I marched through my garden bed full of wonderful volunteer tomatoes. I picked red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and many more green tomatoes.  I lugged a giant box inside. The next night we dragged all those indoor plants that lived outdoors all summer inside.  They now crowd the kitchen table and the space under the window. The cold sent me unpacking. Pulling all the winter coats and hats and gloves out of their hiding places. Snow pants and boots and coats were tried on and either hung on their hooks or put in bags to be passed on to the next lucky children to wear them. Suddenly it is autumn. The sky is blue and clear (no smoke). The buckeyes are just about to rain down from the trees. We rode our bike to th...