Frija's Hearth

Label those mason jars!

2009-07-27T14:19:00.002-06:00

One of the problems with storing leftovers in the fridge is often it's difficult to determine the exact contents and date of storage of various foods. Labelling the containers is the obvious solution to the problem. But labelling creates problems in and of itself. You have to make a point of finding and marking labels, sticking them on (but only if the food's not too hot or cold) , and then you have to remember to remove the label once the food has been eaten. The labels are rarely reused.

But wait!

I think I've found an easier solution!

I just took one of my kids' markers and wrote right on the glass! lt's visible, washable and I don't have to throw it away after!

Now, if I can just make sure I've always got a marker within my reach when I'm putting away the leftovers...

This is the greatest invention ever!

2009-07-27T11:35:00.004-06:00

I am writing this entry with a pen. This is soooo much easier than typing!!

Part of the reason I have had a hard time blogging in the past is that I have always found typing to be somewhat tedious. I like the feeling of wielding a pen. My thoughts flow much more easily from my headthrough the pen than using a typing motion.

I am hoping that this new computer will allow me to form my thoughts and transfer them to electronic media much more easily. Look for more Journies in Homemaking soon as I figure out just how to make it work as a homeschooling, stay-at-homing, childbirth educating mom of at least three little ones!

Shaping is More Important than Controlling

2009-02-12T08:17:00.000-06:00

From Parenting the Fussy Baby and High-Need Child by William Sears, MD and Martha Sears, RN
pp. 181-2

Shaping is More Important than Controlling
Parents often confuse being in charge with being in control, and they feel that good disciplinarians must always be in control. Clinging to the control model of parenting will drive you crazy and set you up for constant power struggles, most of which you are unlikely to win. Think of your job as shaping your child's behaviour rather than controlling it. Unlike controlling, "shaping" means that you take your child's temperament and need level into consideration in your decision making and your style of discipline. Making this mind-set change from controlling to shaping does not mean you are weakening your authority; you are simply making your authority work for you. A wise disciplinarian is like a gardener, and the child is the garden. You can't control the color of the flowers when they bloom or how they smell, but you can prune the plants, pick the weeds, fertilize the soil so the flowers will bloom more beautifully. In disciplining a high-need child, you will find that you need to work in the garden daily lest the work get away from you.

But how will they learn they can't get what they want?

2008-09-26T13:29:00.002-06:00

I waver back and forth, finding a balance between Waldorf-like schooling philosophies (which I don't completely identify with, some of it just seems so contrived) and John Holt/unschooling philosophies. Child-led learning makes so much sense to me.

I keep coming across "but if they get to follow their own interests, it'll be a rude awakening when they realize they won't get to do that in the real world". Obviously, I don't believe this. I enjoy my life tremendously and am pretty much exactly where I want to be right now, overall. Yes, there are some of the finer details I'd love to tweak . . . but overall, I'm really, truly happy.

And right now, I can't help but just be really sad for those people. People stuck where they are, simply because they've picked up somewhere that life isn't meant to be fun, and what they've got now is as good as it's going to get, so why bother looking to something else. Or that they have such a strong "work ethic" that they can't quit something they've committed to, no matter how miserable it's making them or how adversely it's affecting their health.

Life can be beautiful.

Not your typical "First Day of School" pictures:

2008-09-10T08:17:00.006-06:00

Music: Niesha playing on the wooden piano with one of her dollies

"Mom, I'm not ready for a picture yet!!"

Anja: Geography lessons?

Art: Katja draws giraffes

Seasonal Craft: Noodle-making - working with flour

Ani nurses in BabyHawk while we make noodles

'nother nursin' in the hawk pic

Researching a stroller

2008-09-10T07:45:00.003-06:00

I have a confession to make. I used to roll my eyes at women who would spend their pregnancies researching the "necessary" baby gear and not bothering to look at the research on things like breastfeeding, birth interventions, neurological development of babies/children, etc, etc.
Well, 3 kids and 4.5 years later, I find myself shifting my research from breastfeeding, birth, neurological development, attachment and discipline to . . . strollers. You see, for the most part my 4.5 yo will walk somewhere. But my 2.5 yo often won't. And when the 4.5 yo sees the 2.5 yo in a stroller . . . well, why should she have to walk? *sigh* So I need something for 2 kids (thank goodness I have a multitude of carriers for the baby!). Something that will hold a 30-something pound 4yo and a 20-something pound 2yo. Something I can push through snow. Not too wide, it has to be sidewalk friendly. Ability to go on trails would be nice too. I'm looking at a jogger, maybe a Phil & Ted's. I don't plan to take up jogging, mind you, but I really do like to walk. It's just been nearly impossible to do so frequently with all three kids up to this point.
So, there you have it. Wish me luck.

A Life with Fewer Regrets

2008-09-06T17:40:00.004-06:00

Our homeschool year started yesterday. It's funny - in the preceding days I realized that our lives are already starting to naturally look like what I envision "school" to be.

Sunday, the girls watched a show on the formation of the Rocky Mountains (not particularly Enki/Waldorfy, but the TV is another topic I'm reassessing my position on right now - the little box causes so much discontent in so many ways, but so much expansion of knowledge and horizons in others), then Katja played with some of her stuffed animals while Niesha went outside to play with Jeff.
Katja joined Niesha and her dad shortly thereafter and they all dug up some potatoes together. Sometime into the digging, Katja and Niesha got bored and grabbed big branches with leaves that Jeff had just trimmed off the trees a couple of days ago and used them as microphones, tails, brooms, etc They brought in a sunflower for the nature table, had a quick visit from grandma (who came to drop off the chickens her friend had just delivered), watched their dad use the mulcher on a few of the tree branches.
Then they came in with their dad to watch football and draw (Katja drew our family and Niesha drew volcanoes). After a while we had a really nice chicken dinner, then the girls played in the bath and we put Niesha to bed. Shortly after, Katja, after tucking in ALL (40 or so?) of their stuffed animals, each in turn, told us that she was tired and wanted to go to bed as well. She elected to take about 10 of her stuffed friends with her.
I don't remember exactly what we did the day before that, but I do know that we made muffins together :)

Yesterday was our first official homeschool day - we're using the Enki Kindergarten curriculum, and it was a resounding success!
My plan for the year is to focus on seasons. So our "theme" for the next three months is Autumn. Our "sub-theme" for the next two weeks is grain harvest.

Our circle goes kind of like this:

Opening=Morning Song (Enki)
Autumn Recorder Song (Enki - gets them used to how they should be holding their hands when they start playing recorder in Gr. 1)
It's Autumn. We harvest corn in Autumn, and we also harvest wheat!
Sickle (Enki)
And after all the wheat is cut, it needs to be made into flour!
The Mill (Enki)
We can bake bread with flour. What else can we make? We could make a cake! The baker called out, Let's bake a cake!
Backe Backe Kuchen (Alle singen mit! Mein erstes Liederbuch)
Closing=Round and Round (Enki)

Here's the rhythm I had mapped out for us:

Morning Block	wake with N
	light snack
	yoga with N
	make breakfast (& lunch in crockpot?)
	wake K and A
	eat breakfast
	cleanup/helping&free play
	pick up toys
	circle time
	story time
	gardening/nature walk
	lunch prep
Lunch	eat lunch
Lunch	cleanup/helping&free play
Afternoon Block	rest/project prep
	project
	snacktime
	adventure time
	settling in & supper prep
Supper	eat supper
Supper	cleanup/free play
Evening Block	family time
	N bedtime
	project with K
	yoga with K
	K bedtime

But because she went to bed earlier, Katja actually threw a wrench in the cog by waking up at the same time as Niesha!! That never happens LOL!!
So, we changed things around a bit.
We started our day by watching Wild Kingdom, then an episode of How It's Made. Yes, they're TV, but they're educational right ;)? In my defense, Niesha was up for a good hour and a half in the middle of the night (scary invisible men and dinosaurs in the bedroom and whatnot - you know, the usual), so I was very tired.
After I downed some coffee and shook off my exhaustion, and after we'd eaten breakfast, I managed to put the baby down for a nap, start the chicken stock (I make it in the oven), start a load of laundry and hop into the shower while Katja and Niesha did some cutting and drawing. Then Niesha and I got dressed and brushed our hair to get ready for circle time. Katja elected to sit off to the side and watch while she continued to cut paper.
By the time we started our circle Anja had woken up, so I put her in the BabyHawk to join us (BH borrowed from my friend Erin . . . I love it so much I'm going to get my own!). She laughed through "Sickle", an Enki harvesting circle song that crosses midlines and bounces up and down. Niesha did very well at crossing midlines as well!! After Backe Backe Kuchen, Niesha asked for 'pider (Itsy Bitsy Spider), and was so very excited when we went through it! Then we finished up our circle and Niesha played outside while Katja continued her cutting and I prepared lunch.
When it was time for Niesha to come inside, I told her to put the piece of wood she was carrying down. As she was putting it down, she said "no, it's my piano" (she was objecting to me calling it a piece of wood, not to my request that she leave it outside) . . . well, I decided immediately that she could bring her new "piano" inside, and she happily sat on the couch playing it for a while.
After lunch we had our quiet time - the girls rested while I packed the bags for swimming lessons that night.
The rest of the afternoon consisted of making noodles (working with flour), making chicken noodle soup for supper, and folding and putting away laundry.
After supper we went straight to swimming lessons, then out for ice cream afterwards. Niesha fell asleep for the night on the way home and Katja put herself to bed right after we got home (she's elected for an early bedtime every night for the past 4 nights!)

Today was not as smooth, but considering Niesha woke up for the day at 5:30am (she did that Sunday too!!!!) and Niesha and Anja both have stuffy noses and I have a scratchy throat, I think we did very well. We managed to pack the diaper bag and be out the door in time to go to our Pretzel Hour yoga class at Bodhi Tree yoga . . . except I forgot the diaper bag with my wallet and house keys inside! It was a great class though, the kids really enjoyed it and so did I - I'm not used to physically pushing myself, and it was nice to have the opportunity to do so!
The afternoon was slated to make playdough . . . instead, our project turned into a different kind of science project, exploring the nature of water. Also known as "playdate - with - friend - where - we - all - dump - water - on - each - other" LOL, they really enjoyed themselves. The rhythm of our afternoon was pretty good though, we managed to get our quiet time in and everything! Again after supper Katja was in bed early, this time before 8 (unheard of!!) - I hope all this sleep will help my girls get over this cold quickly.

Where does the time go?

2008-08-29T20:13:00.003-06:00

I'm 29 on the 29th. Today is the last time I'll ever be able to say that. Today is the last day I'll ever be twenty-something. Tomorrow, I turn 30.

I'm really surprised at how much this is bothering me. I do love my life the way it is right now . . . still, maybe I thought I'd have more by now. At the very least, I thought I would have clear goals. Ironically, the older I get, the less clear my goals seem to be.

Tomorrow night, my husband is going to take the two older children out to play after supper for a couple of hours so that I can reflect on my goals for the next year. Because, of course, in order to reach them, I need to define them.

Do You Blog?

2008-08-29T08:26:00.002-06:00

The question came up on a local board I'm on. My answer, if I post it, will be: not very well.

I don't keep up with it, and am not really sure why . . . I'm certainly not at a loss for things to say on that particular board, but perhaps I generally need prompts to get the wheels turning?

I do want to keep up with it. Really, I do. Especially with our homeschool year starting in a week and a half. And I suppose I could say that I'm entering a new phase of my life right away . . . tomorrow is my 30th birthday. Maybe I'll get better at this then.

Little Fairies

2008-08-15T01:32:00.000-06:00

My Babies

2008-08-13T09:43:00.000-06:00

Katja, January 10, 2004
Niesha, January 26, 2006
Anja, May 24, 2008

Welcome Anja Helena!!

2008-08-12T12:45:00.000-06:00

Yes, we'll try to keep the blog again . . . not so good at the recording LOL

We welcomed our newest member of the family on May 24, 2008 - Anja Helena. She was born after a 20 minute labour in the (dry) bathtub of all places - a planned UC homebirth, but I wasn't planning on birthing her in the tub!!

39 weeks pregnant, photos by Pamela Retzer

Just after birth

Katja, Anja, Niesha

3 Days Old

10 days old - Photos by Pamela Retzer

Here are all 3 of my girls a few days ago, dressed in their new dresses that we received in a swap (thanks Stephanie!!)

Anja 2.5 months, Katja 4.5 years, Niesha 2.5 years

Nature Table, part I

2008-03-13T10:27:00.000-06:00

Long story short - we've started a kind of preschool homeschool cooperative (last week was our first week), and our story last week was one from the Enki kindergarten curriculum Nature Tales called Old Maple. A tree-branch was used as the old maple prop, and because the Coop is at my house right now, Old Maple got left here.
So, I got to thinking . . . why not use Old Maple (not really from a maple tree, there aren't many of those around here) as our Eostre tree for our Nature Table/Seasonal Altar (which I sort of keep up a bit from time to time and really want to start making a priority)?
Niesha (my 2yo) and I mixed together some salt dough to hold her up in, and as soon as it dries, we can decorate the tree. I'll be asking the other Coop moms if they want to participate in "Nature Table" and, if so, we can all decorate the tree together next week.

Natural Fiber Dying, Part I

2008-03-13T09:33:00.000-06:00

9:34 am - added 35" undyed playsilk to crockpot with 8 cups water, 2 cups vinegar. Turned on high. In a half hour or so, I plan to add 10 tbsp finely and freshly ground coffee.
10:00 am - added 10 tbsp coffee grounds. Stirred.
11:30 am - added 5 tbsp coffee grounds, sprinkled on top of parts of silk bubbling on top. Did not stir.
1 pm - turned off crockpot and removed lid. Will let cool to lukewarm and then wash in sink.
2pm - washed/rinsed.
2:26 - removed from rinse water, squeezed excess out, put in oven in glass dish and turned oven on to 350F.
2:36 - oven reached 350, turned oven off. Turned silk - must be pulled out in a couple minutes.
2:38 - removed silk from oven, opened up. Noticed interesting effects.
2:39 - retwisted and replaced (cool and still damp) into oven.
2:44 - removed from oven.

Conclusion - looks good, but there is a little spot that's heat damaged toward the center of the silk - next time I would heat the oven only to 250.

Oh, my kitchen is a mess . . .

2007-08-21T12:44:00.000-06:00

. . . but seeing the smiles on those little girls' faces makes it soooo worth it :D This morning I decided to (finally) bake another batch of those completely amazing almond butter cookies that were on Sugar (on the Food Network) one day. Very nutrient dense (only grassfed butter in this house ;) ). Here is my modified version of the recipe:

Almond Butter Cookies

10 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup sucanat
1/3 cup pure almond butter
1 x farm egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups whole grain spelt flour
1/4 tsp celtic sea salt
24 x whole almonds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 °F.
Cream butter and sucanat together until smooth. Beat in almond butter and egg and stir in vanilla extract. Sift in spelt flour and sea salt and combine until dough is soft and smooth.
Roll cookies into 1-inch balls and place on a stoneware baking sheet. Press a whole almond into center of each cookie. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes on the center rack of the oven until cookies lightly brown around edges. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

While dd1 started the cookies, I set dd2 up to mix the solid ingredients for the playdough we were making. As soon as I set her up, dd1 decided she'd rather help her sister, so the girls happily and cooperatively (amazingly enough for a 1.5 and 3.5 year old!!) stirred their mixture of salt, flour and koolaid together while I got the cookie dough mixed. Dd2 decided she wanted to help me form the cookie balls, so I added the water and oil to the playdough mix for dd1 to stir in (she was enthralled by the color change - from a white powdery substance to green wherever the water touched it! How neat! Must be magic ;) ) We fried up the playdough while the cookies were in the oven. What a beautiful morning!
It does, I have to say, strike me as a touch ironic that we made sure to use unbleached organic flour with koolaid . . .

Playdough

1 tbsp salt
5 tbsp unbleached flour
1/2 pkg koolaid (~1/2 tsp)
3 tbsp water
2 tsp oil

Directions:

Mix salt, flour and koolaid.
Add boiling water and oil, and mix into a dough.
Fry dough in oil for a few minutes until it loses its stickiness.

Fall Sewing and Knitting - already?

2007-08-11T19:02:00.000-06:00

Oh, the summer is going by too fast (it always does, doesn't it). I've had a chance to do quite a bit of work lately, as it's been so hot outside that we've been spending many of our afternoons in the basement. No pics again, though, I broke our camera - trying to take a pic of my oldest dd's "artwork", felt on flannel, she really had her colours and shapes aligned so beautifully, and as I was about to snap the pic, my younger dd went to grab the pieces off the board - as I reached down to stop her I slammed the camera on the table *sigh* Anyways, we did get a new camera, but I haven't yet played with it to figure out the software for uploading the pics onto the computer.

In the past couple of weeks, I've made boxer briefs for dh, panties for me, shorts for me, a skirt for me, and played with other miscellaneous little projects. I've also finished a panty order (5 pairs sewn, 1 pair unsewn + pattern & instructions), complete with a Morsbag, to be mailed tomorrow. When I open up my HyenaCart (coming in September!!), I have decided I will send a Morsbag as a gift with every order - I'll be looking for old sheets at value village, through freecycle, etc, to be able to make them :) Yeah, I [i]could[/i] advertise for myself on the bag - but I'm not going to. It defeats the purpose - they'll say Morsbag.com and that's it.

I want to learn: card weaving, naalbinden (this is a big one - I read in a book recently that centuries ago in Norway, a man was said to have a poorly skilled wife if his mitts were done with knitting as opposed to naalbinden - and like any strong minded (hard-headed?) woman of Scandinavian descent, I took it as a challenge, lol), wireworking, basketmaking, the list goes on

It will have to wait a bit, though, another MDC swap is coming up and I'm going on vacation next week :D I'll be taking some knitting along, as well as a couple pincushions to finish.

Pics of the new projects

2007-07-28T21:40:00.000-06:00

Okay, here's the new circle skirt I made for Katja. I actually had this cut out with the intention of giving it to her in January for her birthday, but other things took priority, my craft/sewing room became a bit of a sorting/dumping ground for the rest of the house and it's only in the past couple of weeks that I've cleaned it out and been getting in there again. I'm really pleased with how the skirt turned out. I couldn't get a shot of it all twirled out, and she was starting to get dizzy LOL, so this is about as good as I could do.

Note the facial expression in the second pose. I'm raising a real actress here.

Next up, the summer dresses I made for the girls, using the Jayme dress pattern at http://www.sewingmamas.com It's the first time I've used the pattern, so I made the shoulder straps a bit too long - I've taken them up, but don't have a picture of the girls in their much-better-fitting adjusted dresses, so this will have to do for now.

Last but not least, Niesha is in desperate need for new diapers, so I decided to do a "prototype" before sewing a whole lot of them. This is what I came up with. I used the large size Quick Snap cover pattern from here: http://www.newconceptions.com/diapercovers.htm as a template, and turned it into an all-in-one. I used a cotton fleece for the inner layer, with two layers as the inner soaker, and then added a sewn-in outer soaker, which attaches at the back with snaps. The outer soaker is a pocket soaker (ala Kushies), so if I want to increase absorbency, I can. The diaper turned out to be slightly too wide for Niesha, so the next one I make will have smaller tabs. The reason I made it this way is I want something she can use more like a pull-up (which is why I didn't want anything loose in the diaper, hence the snaps to hold down the inner soaker), but which opens at the sides for the very occasional poop accident we still have (she's a part-time EC toddler).

It's been awhile

2007-07-22T08:33:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile. I haven't been crafting much, I've been concentrating on household organization, BodyTalk (I'll be certified as soon as the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed), runes and spirituality. But I've been doing a bit here and there.

I made my first bendy dolls a few days ago. They're so fun to make! Katja really enjoys playing with them - Niesha's still a bit too young.

Last night I finished the circle skirt I had intended to make for Katja's third birthday last January. Of course, things happened, I gave her other gifts instead and the skirt just sat there. Now it's done and it looks great! When I started the skirt, I wasn't thinking about Niesha at all - she was so small, what would she need a skirt for? Now, though, she's big enough - so that will be a project soon :) I just have to remember how I cut/measured Katja's.

I also finished a couple pairs of panties for Katja yesterday. And played with the layout for her pieced curtains. Next up I'll be making Olivia dresses for both Niesha and Katja. And diapers for Niesha.

I'm also working on lace shawls for both myself and my sister-in-law-to-be, who's getting married to my brother in November. Oh, and I'm still working on dad's sweater *insert bag over head smiley here*

Pictures to come later.

MDC Swap - Finished Items

2006-12-08T21:22:00.000-06:00

These are all the packages I've sent out so far:

Boy's Undies for Cyrusmama:

Also for Cyrusmama, "Relaxation for Mama", which includes a handknit winecozy (being modelled by some of my FILs homemade wine :)) and a silk eyepillow with OG Lavender and OG flax seeds.

For Radish, "Kids in the Kitchen", which includes a reversible apron (both sides shown), 2 matching potholders and a miniature handknit dishcloth (made with 2 strands of crochet cotton).

For Scrapadoozer, Girls' Unders

And finally, for Glamourfaust, a set of mama pads

I absolutely loved doing this swap, and hope the mamas enjoy receiving the items as much as I enjoyed making them!!

Multicolored Silk

2006-11-28T21:37:00.000-06:00

This is the multicolored silk I have for the eyepillow :)

Girl Undies

2006-11-23T19:50:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of the panties for the MDC swap. Ignore the wonky stitching - I was testing out different stitches on my machinge. These ones belong to my dd :)

2006-11-21T18:38:00.000-06:00

Apron/hotpad fabric photos:

MDC Swap

2006-11-12T12:38:00.000-06:00

I've taken a couple of pictures for the MDC swap stuff.

Nighttime pad, this one is in Canterbury fleece (80% cotton, 20% polyester)
Pocket side is showing, wings snap around panties.

These are mousies I made for my kitties last Yule. They're stuffed with organic wool and catnip :) The pictures are from last year . . . the cats have played with these quite a bit, so they look a little rougher now, but they're still holding up ;)

Random Acts of Knitting

2006-09-12T09:10:00.000-06:00

Last night in the car on the way home I began knitting a new project. I don't know what it will be or who it will be for, but I had no plain knitting projects in the car and I needed something I could do in the dark. So I cast on a random number of stitches (turned out to be 81) with Estelle Silk on US Size 11 needles and started knitting. We'll see what happens.
Dh's socks are closer to being done. In 1 to 1.5" I will be done the ribbing and be able to switch to stocking stitch. From there on out, it'll be quick to do.
I finished Niesha's headband and decided to crochet her some bootees for the wedding. They all looked great on her.
All other projects are still incomplete, plus I've started some socks in Alpaca on Size 1's for Katja. They're toe-up, using a bell lace pattern, and I believe I'll do a short row heel.
Oh, I also made a shawl for the wedding. I made it triangular so that I could cast off whenever I ran out of time, which is exactly what I did. I plan to add on to it though.

YAY! Pumpkins and soaps are DONE!

2006-09-01T15:39:00.000-06:00

I finished the soaps and pumpkins for the fall swap and I'm soooo pleased with the way they turned out!
Here's what it looked like before felting, on a 13" pizza stone. The pattern was based on the one from Knitty, but I wound up doing a different stem, and the pumpkin itself was done in the round.

Showing one felted and blocked pumkin, one dyed, unfelted and one undyed and unfelted.

The finished 5 pumpkins beside a 30cm (12") ruler.

The felted soaps. That was an interesting project. My hands were unbelievably soft when I was done lol.