31 Days of House To Home

Let me tell you about our day.

It's Sunday.  I woke up at around 6:30 when the sky hadn't even started to lighten and David was bringing me a happy baby to nurse in what seemed to be the middle of the night.  Afterwards, working on the borrowed time of having children placed back in their beds when dawn is right around the corner, I had a quick shower and got through about a paragraph of Bible study before everyone was up.  We had oatmeal for breakfast and let Daddy sleep in for a little while longer.

The craziness of the morning 'everyone needs to wear clothing' rush wasn't too bad today.  And then Clara went back to bed fully dressed and Samuel watched cartoons and David went off to prepare in the church.  I puttered around putting supper in the crockpot and checking Facebook.

Church started at 10:30, and we were all there early to greet people and finish last minute tasks.  After the service we visited and had sandwiches and then we all trickled back to the house eventually.  Clara went to sleep, Samuel went to play quietly in his room, David closed his eyes in our bedroom and I passed out on the sofa.  We slept for almost two hours as a family.  When we woke up it was to the smell of a hot crock pot supper.  We sat down and ate together, and then I called various family members to wish them a happy Thanksgiving weekend.  Samuel and I headed out for a long hike in the late afternoon.  We gathered plants and apples for a pie and seeds for our garden and came home tired and cold.

The children had a hot bubble bath and then took their fuzzy pajama clad little selves to bed with hot water bottles and many quilts.  David and I sat up for a while longer eating banana bread and watching tv before we headed to bed to read and sleep.

I'm telling you about such a simple, boring sort of day because it's indicative of Sabbath; a rest in the midst of life.  It's not an ordinary day, filled with grocery shopping and elaborate cooking and cleaning tasks.  I didn't do laundry, I didn't (other than a pot of oatmeal in the morning and putting food in the slow cooker) do any cooking.  I didn't clean a thing.  No, that's not true, I washed a few pots and wiped the table and counters.  But you get the idea.  It was a rest from the week.  The whole family slept, we ate simple food, we went for a walk and talked to each other.  We went to bed earlier and read.

We're hoping to start the Sabbath as a tradition more and more in our house - rest from the every day.  It's an excellent tradition to have.

31 Days of House To Home

It's Day 11 already!  And Day 11 is a great day to get up on my soapbox and preach a little about something I get Very Frustrated about on a regular basis.  It's soap.  I get really, really frustrated about soap.  Here's the deal, friends:

This is soap.  This is what soap does.  In case you don't want to go click on those links I'll give you a brief outline.  Soap, when used for cleaning something, be it a body or a plate or a floor or your socks, works by suspending bacteria, germs, oils, dirt particles etc. and allowing them to be washed away.  Antibacterial soaps kill bacteria (which actually isn't always a good thing) and non-antibacterial soaps simply liberate the bacteria from the surface of the item so that you can rinse it off.

Basically - soap cleans stuff.  This isn't rocket science.  Some soap is rough, some soap is gentle, some soap has a nice smell, etc. but it all boils down to a substance that cleans.

This begs the question, and please pardon me if it seems overly simplistic, but if soap cleans things - why do we have to use, say, toxic scouring powder on our bathrooms?  Or fume-laden chemicals that actually require you to wear gloves when you use them, on our kitchens?  In a room where you prepare food that you're going to eat?

If you're planning on performing surgery on your table, fine and dandy, use a chemical or something to clean it.  Or, I don't know, I can't really think of a situation where it would be applicable to use something else...maybe if everyone had an antibiotic resistant virus and you needed to disinfect the house?  Good, excellent, go buy something revolting and spray it everywhere.  But to wipe down the bathroom every week?

Keep your soap.

31 Days of House To Home

Celebrate the seasons!

I realized tonight as I was sitting in our neighbour's backyard in the dark, alternately watching the children run wild with sparklers and glow sticks and at the hypnotic glow and crackle of the bonfire in front of me, that celebrating and rejoicing in the change of seasons can come around in just such simple ways.  A few I thought of were:

Stepping outside to breathe the Spring air.
Taking pictures of shoots coming out of the ground.
A first rhubarb recipe of the season.
Buying tulips in season and pressing the petals.
Cleaning the chimneys and windows and whatever else gets especially dirty over the winter.
Circling the 'first days' on the calendar.  First day of farmer's market!
The start of new things.  Why have resolutions in January?  Have them start on the first day of Spring!
Wearing light colours, buying white shoes, doing something light with your hair.
Spending an entire hour thinking about sunscreen and making it a fun outing to buy what you've selected.
A visit to the tree nursery.
The local chip stop is open!  Eat them with tiny red forks while standing outside.
Carefully packing away sweaters.
The trimming of hedges, the sharpening of push mower blades.
The starting days of sports team
Going to a farm, going anywhere, really
The last day of school!
Making an event of the day the local pool opens.
A tinkle of the ice cream cart
Hot days spent in the shade.
Teaching the children to make paper fans
Sitting in the evening outside in the yard with your feet in the kiddie pool
Sprinklers
Sidewalk chalk
Summer dresses made from old flowered sheets
Big floppy hats
The beach in all it's glory
having neighbours over for a barbecue
Fireworks
Camping in the back yard
Bathing the dog outside with the hose
Cleaning the eaves troughs
Fireflies
Listening to the lightening storms
Back to school sales
Exclamations over how much everyone has grown
Visits to family
Buying lots of cards for birthdays to come
Family photos
The first day of school
New shoes
All new supplies.
The first day of a new planner or journal
Crafts with leaves
Carving pumpkins
The delicious anticipation of 'what to be for Hallowe'en'!
Bonfires
Being out after dark
Shorter days.
The night you turn on the furnace
Cold weather foods, crock pots and slow meals
Buying candles and lanterns for blackouts
Counting the stars, watching for meteors
The fall storms
Planning Christmas cards
Present buying trips
Making wrapping paper
The big mailing out!
Guests
Velvet tree skirts, hot chocolate and decorations
Buying a poinsettia
Reading stories
The fireplace
Stockings
Christmas morning
Packing gifts for the less fortunate
The long trip of the wise kings to see the Christ Child
Epiphany cake
Winter birthdays
I Love Yous and candy and special Valentine's dates
Games around the kitchen table
Snowmen!
Feeding the birds
Toboggan rides
Grey and cloudy skies
Seed catalogues
The careful planning of gardens
Watching the produce slowly change in the grocery store
Using up the last of the fall harvest
Lenten reflection
Holy week
Easter morning
New clothes
Chocolate, egg hunts
The first day of Spring
Lengthening days
Setting the clocks forward
Spring babies
Green shoots
Life

Another Day

7:30am - Both of the children slept in and David and I are incredibly grateful for the extra rest.  Samuel comes into our room to wake us up and snuggle for a little bit.  As soon as I send him back to his own bedroom I hear Clara waking up...I guess that's the end of sleep for us.

8:15am - David has gotten up, dressed, and made a pot of porridge for breakfast after settling Samuel in front of cartoons for a bit.  I nurse Clara, change her diaper, and then we all meet around the table to eat.

9:30am - David is off to work.  I tell him lunch will be at 11:30. Samuel is allowed to finish watching Rescue Heroes and then turns off the television for the morning.

9:45am - Change another diaper, get Clara and myself dressed.  Begin the first 15 minute argument with Samuel over putting on his own socks, which he's learning how to do.  Drag him away from destroying my bed, drag him away from annoying his sister.  Send him to his room for time out.  After hearing screaming from the bedroom march in there to drag Clara away from him and, in a stroke of mean Mama genius, simply pop the flippin' red balloon everyone is fighting over.  Lots and lots of tears.  Head back into the room for round two of arguing over whether Samuel can put on his own socks.  A full 30 minutes after he started, the child is finally dressed.

Earlier this week we were given a garbage bag full of clothing for the children - I toss all of the barrettes and hair things in a tub of soapy water to wash.  Wash out the diaper pail.

10:00am - Keeping facebook on all day and am checking it obsessively as I wait for news of my dear friend's baby's birth.

Take out a chicken pot pie I made earlier this week from the freezer to thaw for lunch and a turkey breast to thaw for supper.  Make my bed and start shoveling the endless piles of crap toys and books that the children drag into our room day after day.  Samuel is my 'runner' and brings everything back to it's home base.  Sometimes I sound like a Russian naval officer.  Make my bed and tidy the master bedroom.

10:15am - The children occupy themselves by slowly destroying everything I clean up.  Toss Samuel outside to play in the backyard and change another diaper.  Set Clara at the table with some cashews in little cups to pour and play.  Put the dishes in to soak and start a load of laundry.  Right - I've run out of detergent; add a squirt of dish soap to the wash instead. Clean the cat box, change the kitchen garbage, hang out the wet bedding from the washer on the line.  Samuel is sulking outside because he wants to come in. Tidy up the deck and tell him he's out of luck.

10:30am - The cashews and cups have lost their appeal - I got a full 15 minutes out of them.  Let Clara loose again.  Sigh in disgust over the children's bedrooms as I make their beds.

10:45am - Nurse Clara.  Yell at Samuel to get off the deck and stop looking in the windows to get inside and go play in the sandbox Right. Now.  Jot off a quick email while nursing to David's alma mater who want to put us in the newsletter.

There's a moment of silence.  I refuse to go see what my children are doing.  Finish a cup of tea I started a few hours ago.  Wash the breakfast dishes and wipe down the table; preheat the oven and put the pot pie in to warm up.  Clara is taking apart a rubber repair kit and Samuel finally gets to come inside and wash his hands.  Check facebook and see that my friend has made it to the hospital and is 3cm already!

11:00am - Set the table for lunch, remind Samuel to go and Wash. His. Hands.  Seriously, what is wrong with this child's listening skills today?  Put on a double batch of bread dough to rise and dig through the fridge for some sort of salad-type food to serve with our pot pie.  All I can come up with is a very sad looking cucumber, which I slice up and put on the table with some dressing.  Drag Clara away from the hot oven, away from the table, away from the water...againagainagain.

Leave the kitchen for 8.2 seconds and when I come back Clara is in the process of emptying the salt and pepper shakers.

11:30am - Turn the pot pie up.  Hang the next load of wet laundry out and change another bum.  My house is a wreck.  David comes home and we sit down for lunch and over the din of insane offspring we attempt to recount our mornings and plan our afternoons.

Noon - David takes charge of cleaning up Clara and getting her down for her nap while I clear the table and send Samuel to the bathroom and then to bed.  Everyone gets quiet quickly.  David heads out to the garage to see if the car is ready to be picked up yet and I obsessively check facebook again for baby updates.

He gets back to tell me that although the garage has had our car for FOUR days, they apparently haven't even looked at it yet.  Ridiculous.

12:15pm - David goes to lie down for 45 minutes and I get dressed for nursing home visitation and pack my cross stitch bag to take with me.

5:15pm - Finally home from five hours of visitation and errands.  Dropped off the library books, went to the grocery store in the next town over, sat with the elderly at the home and sang hymns, and then kept another parishioner company.

5:00pm - Make up the gravy for the turkey, boil some yellow beans and get everyone to the table.

6:00pm -   The children refuse to eat anything but cheese and pickles and eventually consent to a little bit of actual supper.  Clara is in bed.  I read Samuel a few stories, nurse him and get him in the bath to splash about for a bit while I check facebook.  My friend is at 6cm!

And now I'm tired of recording a long and stressful day...I can't even make it until bedtime.

31 Days of House To Home

I really pulled out all the stops at the kitchen table this past week.  We made our favourite spicy Italian sausage stew; I tried a new recipe for chicken pot pie; I gathered together the disparate ingredients necessary to pull off the cranberry apple sausage stuffing that we could eat by the pound; I broke the rules of not trying a new dish when you have company and gave Laura Calder's Spinach Gratin a try...it was a glorious, very not-low-fat, completely fantastic week of too much food.

I mentioned before in this series that food is an area that I'm trying to be relaxed about spending money in.  And it naturally progresses, when you serve food to people, that they're going to have opinions about the food you've given them.  My children could eat a large block of cheese but won't touch beans.  Clara would devour as many beets, broccoli florets and pieces of pepperoni I was willing to feed her; Samuel asks for pizza constantly, and likes pasta with tomato sauce, but only touches eggs very gingerly.  David wants hearty food, even in the heat of summer; he's happiest when I set down a steak and kidney pie, homemade biscuits, a roasted chicken with yorkshire pudding and gravy.

I have almost entirely given up on trying to 'stretch' anyone's palate.  I see the value in doing it if the group you were serving consisted of people who would only eat cold cereal and cheetos, but my family (oh happy day!) has enough meals that they can all agree on that I think "Oh, who cares that they won't eat my homemade macaroni and cheese?  Who cares that they don't want peanut butter sandwiches?  What does it really matter that salmon is a battle?"  I've made peace (mostly) with the fact that my family has ideas about what they want to eat.  And preferences can be wonderful, as well; in fact I'm embracing their preferences because I hope that serving favourite foods results in them having happy table memories where they can say in the future "My mother used to make the best bread..."

I want to build their palates, but not at the expense of happiness.

31 Days of House To Home

My inlaws left today and I'm a little sad about it all - they were incredibly helpful and loving and my children are crazy about them...but they live eight hours away from us, and we live a pastor's schedule (which, by the way, only appears to be flexible on the outside and is really very very weird and confined) and so our chances to be with each other are limited.  Still, I'm happy it's only eight hours now instead of the twelve that used to separate us.

Having them leave, and with them my only chance for frequent help with the dishes and extra story-telling for the children, was a downer, I'm not gonna lie.  But there's a lot of stuff in every family's life that's hard - the arrivals and departures, the daily stresses and the chores and whatever.  It's hard, this life thing.  And yet, there's a lesson to learn in all of that; there's something to take away from it that helps you in the making of a home:

Taking Joy In The Journey

I'm really not the best person to give any sort of insight into this, since I'm so new at it myself, but ultimately I think that gratitude, faith, loving gestures; these all equal a better life, a happier life.  I think that finding joy somehow in the ordinary, in the long days, that's the answer to a lot of our questions.  I hope I get better at it.

31 Days of House To Home

So in my last post I told you one of the two most revolutionary ideas I ever had about keeping house; I need to spend money on filling my kitchen with lots of delicious, quality food because it makes my family healthier, my days easier and my house significantly less stressful.

Now the second idea is this

Daily needs should not be treated as a crisis.

I found this idea in one of my favourite books (remember when I mentioned gathering resources around you to help you in creating a home?) and it's resonated with me for a while now.  Every morning your family will wake up and they will put on clothes.  This isn't a surprise; we do it every day, and so having clothes to put on that are clean and functional and appropriate and easily located should not be a crisis for us.  Likewise, however you need to accomplish having food available for everyone to eat needs to be a priority.

It's wonderful to organize our sock drawers, to sweep our front steps and wash all the curtains but if the babies are in diapers because there are no clean clothes to put them in, if teeth need to be brushed and there is no toothpaste, well, then we need to look again at how we're managing.