Snuggly pals

Good Buddies

Good friends came for a visit for a couple days this week.  The 5 year olds and 3 year olds were both born within 4-6 weeks of each other, so as you can imagine, it is a wild romp when they are together. 

They ran around outside, planned traps for Squeeze, made zip lines, wrestled, had tea parties, played with Legos, fought, and made each other laugh. 

They had a such a blast -- it was a great visit.  Diego cried and said, "but I will miss my friends!" when he realized they were leaving that afternoon.  Awwww.

Incidentally, this picture also shows my boys' new favorite snugglies.  (Jack and Claire had snugglies for the pictures too, but they must have been stuffed down in a crack.) 

We've never really had anything even resembling a favorite stuffed animal or blanket in this household.  A pacifier, my neck (Diego) and my armpits (Truen) are the closest comparisons. 

[My armpits, yes.  !!!  Since weaning last spring, Truen adores touching one armpit or the other, or both.  Why?  He likes the hair.  "It's soft," he says.  No joke.  Good thing I don't wear conventional deodorant.  I don't know what I'm going to do when the truly cold months come and my pits will be virtually inaccessible.  That, and nursing a baby all day long.  Oy.  Still, it is very sweet.]

But, back to the snugglies. 

Last spring I pulled a cheapy pink stuffed bunny-rabbit out of the dumpster to give to my friend's brand-new thrift store.  Needless to say, it never made it there -- Diego claimed it for his own, declared it a girl, and named it "Bunny-rabbit Smudge".  It stayed in the van for the longest time and he would play with it whenever we went anywhere, but has since made it into the house.  He loves it, though mostly just for play-time.

Truen, however, has become extremely attached to a little dragon he named "Honey".  Also a girl, she's a little beanie baby with iridescent red wings that I picked up at a thrift store at some point in time because it was so irresistibly cute.  He sleeps with her, totes her around the house, and likes to take her with him when we go places.  (He puts her in his little "pack-pack" with her head sticking out so she can see.)

Who knew? 

I'm enjoying their attachments, actually -- it's fun to pretend along with them.  Honey loves snacks of raisins and walnuts and I find her in the most thoughtful and comfortable spots.  And because they both have a favorite, Bunny-rabbit Smudge and Honey often play with each other, too. 

It is all very sweet.

Remembering to be thankful, thank goodness

I am thankful for . . .

• High-quality kitchen knives, which make everything easier
• Recently perfecting split pea soup, then having the presence of mind to write it down ASAP
• The dwarf lime tree that Squeeze bought this summer, which is blooming in our sunroom and emitting an ethereal scent
• Squeeze, for the fact that while he is logical, he is also very in tune with beauty and "the little things", from sunsets and billowing clouds to making our flower gardens beautiful in both the summer and winter months -- I love that about him
• For the memory of walking down the block from the bus after work on chill autumn nights in the pitch-black, seeing the globe Christmas lights that Squeeze hung from our balcony railing, which he always had lit for me (I keep on remembering that recently -- it must be the feel in the air)
• Little boys who spontaneously tell me they love me with great, big hugs
• Feeling like I finally mostly figured out this mothering thing -- probably in the fact that I have more of a sense of peace about it, knowing that it is a constant adaption vs. feeling rife with questions, wondering how to even do it
• The coming winter
• Daybooks
• Blogs
• Feeling like I've had enough to eat
• The new green beaded bracelet my parents got me for my birthday this fall (the boys call it my "snake bracelet" because the lines of beads are inter-woven)
• The color green, my favorite
• Realizing that I need, then enforcing upon myself, structure -- things are calmer and cleaner when I stick to a regular routine (while it doesn't come "natural", I have found it can be "normalized" -- what a discovery!)
• Figuring things out with a greater depth of maturity and understanding that comes with being 33 (and how much more at 44, 55, 66 . . . ?)
• Area friends who are excited about my belly/baby/pregnancy.  It is so fun to be reminded that being pregnant is a special time -- it is easy to forget in the last couple of months.
• The new babe, which, with how much movement and awake-time it spends bobbling around, I'm wondering if it might be a firecracker of continuous energy and enthusiasm.  ???

Wah, wah, wah, and then some

• 33 weeks pregnant
• I spent last week, in a nutshell, lying prostrate on the couch, totally done in from the previous weekend's labors.
• Which was . . . butchering 25-ish chickens from 10:00 AM to 5:30-ish PM.  We still have 7 left to go.
• Totally done in.  Destroyed.
• I felt (feel) like a complete wimp, but it is hard to argue with a body that won't cooperate.  The next step was the total zap of all optimism and anything vaugely resembling get-up-and-go.  And wondering if it will ever end.
• It was pure survival, that's it.
• I have to remember that my body is being used for something else right now (growing a baby!) and while everyone else was sore, too, their ligaments and muscles are not being stretched like mine.
• Still, hard to stomach.
• Symptoms: PAIN.  First muscles and skeletal frame, them hips and ribs, then settling in my neck, shoulders, and head.  Combine this with the nasty, violent cough that is "going around", which left me crying, feeling like my frontal lobe was being stabbed.  Ugh.
• I'm feeling better, though.  I have a chiropractic appointment for tomorrow, because something is definitely out of whack.
• Meanwhile, life goes on . . .
• Truen says, "She am" and "You am" and "I can't know".  He is so spontaneously affectionate, hugging me and giving me smooches while telling me he loves me, totally out of the blue.  His favorite game is "Mama Mouse & Baby Mouse" or "Mama Rabbit and Baby Rabbit" or "Mama Kitty and Baby Kitty".  So precious.
• Diego is developing into such a helpful boy.  He has gladly taken on tasks like turning on the crab light every morning and is starting to remember to do after-meal clean-up without being reminded (and has always happily said, "Oh yes!" when I do remind him).  He'll gleefully say, "Dooooooo it!" when I tell him the name of the next chapter of the book.  He still wants to marry me; and the new baby, too, whom he insists is a girl.
• Both boys want to name their new baby sister, "Pretty Girl".
• Given the last 4 generations of Borealises, the chances of that are not very likely.  This generation has their one Borealis girl already.  Or could we break the pattern?!
• Not very likely.
• I peed my pants the other day in the midst of a violent cough.  I was on my way to the bathroom, taking a slight detour to drop something off in another room.
• My last urine analysis at my pre-natal appointment indicated I'm not getting enough water.  Great.
• I had my first thought of, "I have to be pregnant for two more months?!!" the night before last.
• Wahhhhhhhhhh
• etc.

Makes me cry

Back in the saddle again

We're back online.

It feels nice, as you can imagine.  Both Squeeze and I missed that connection with the greater world, in different ways.  We are so lucky in the fact that our BIL's parents had a computer that they were looking to give away.  With everything else that has gone on in these past months, it was such a relief to us.  Yesterday the vacuum stopped working mid-swipe (it came unplugged) and my first thought was, "What?!  The vacuum too???"

It's been rough.

I am thankful for my time away to some extent, because I feel like it taught me a lot.  It felt good to not have that raging curiosity tickling my mind, wondering what is going on in all the blogs that I follow, or if so-and-so has emailed me back yet.  Or worse, that black hole that Facebook is to me.  It's just best not to go on.

I wouldn't say that I was controlled by the computer (Squeeze might), but I do think the accumulated time spent here-and-there added up throughout the day.  And that tickling -- it was irritating.

So now I need to set manageable and realistic expectations of myself.  My primary method of communication is through email, both personal and practical.  I like the interaction and life-sharing of blogging.  It is nice to have that slight connection with the past through Facebook, however intermittent.  I enjoy listening to iTunes at different points throughout the day.  I regularly request inter-library loans at home, often on the spur of the moment.

etc., etc., etc.

But I can't let this whole business tickle my mind like it has in the past.  It was nice to have that month to show me the alternative, which was NOTHING at all; but freeing nonetheless.  Conclusion: I'll be parring down my tickle-time.

You'll be hearing from me, though.

And so it is

First verse, same as the first
Old bag version, a whole lot worse

The only difference from last week (or was it the week before?) to now is that it has come to light that we also need to replace our washing machine, telephone, and the front struts of our luxurious Dodge Caravan. 

Oh well, I guess.

Out for the count

I'm alive, but our computer, sadly, is not.  Or at least, it is in a very deep coma.  A virus attacked and totally decimated it.  The ETA of recovery is unknown at this point. 

So that's why you haven't heard a peep out of me.  Otherwise, things are good. 

Here's the short rundown:

• 26 weeks pregnant
• The baby is moving all the time -- lots of be-bopping and head-bonking.
• A first: we butchered, roasted, and ate a hen all in one night.  She had a prolapsed vent that wasn't showing any signs of improvement, so it was "now or never".  Otherwise she would have been a goner with a miserable and lengthy death.  It was normal and strange all at the same time.

The boys are going nuts, so it's over and out.

Later.

In process

1. Apple sauce (pink with skins) - FINISHED
2. Tomato sauce (from a neighbor's excess harvest)
3. Diego's obsession with gourds (he woke up in the middle of the night AND early this morning excited about how he was going to pick more of them)
4. Truen wants to be a baby bunny ("You be a mama bunny, Mama.")

and I laughed

(This happened last month)

We were passing by a McDonalds with an enormous blow-up Ronald McDonald, sitting and waving, perched atop the building, on our way to meet my parents and grandparents for an early lunch.

Diego (sounding a little alarmed): "Are we going to the Clown Store...?"
Mama: "Clown Store?  No, we're not...thank goodness."
Diego (still fixated on the freaky clown): "I don't want to go to the Clown Store!"
Mama: "Well that's good, because we aren't going there..."
Diego: "...I'm scared!"

Of course, aside from being endlessly funny, I was soundly pleased that my 5 year old isn't branded yet.  He will be eventually, I would think; it seems impossible to avoid it.  I give credit to not going there and minimal exposure to network television. 

But meanwhile, I'll enjoy the luxury.

Little Fluffy Clouds

An old B.D.P. favorite, though I couldn't find the 7" edit on YouTube, which was what we actually danced to.  The nostalgia was much more powerful in that version, which, of course, as an ENFP, I loved. 

But, good enough.  Let's dance.

[a.k.a. Basement Dance Party]

Food preservation and garden notes

• I am canning salsa verde (a.k.a. roasted tomatillo salsa) today.
• Our big juicy tomatoes were a total blow-out this year, due to wallowing in weeds -- so while I might have canned salsa verde anyway, that's all she wrote, folks.  For this year at least.  No "regular" salsa.  Or tomato sauce.  (Wah!)
• Note to selves: though this pregnancy wasn't neccessarily planned, and we didn't know I would be wiped out for 2 months, it is better to do a smaller amount very well vs. stretching ourselves to more than we can handle.  Though really, if I had been up to speed, things may have been different.
• Little Truen is obsessed with tomatillos, in the fact that he finds great joy in peeling the husks off of them. 
• He helped me husk the entire vat with pleasure.
• Canning with two little ones around is an all-day process.  I've spent most of the day helping them with their big project (making Daleks out of toilet paper rolls w/ egg carton heads and straw guns) and slowly prepping -- washing cilantro, husking tomatillos, washing jars, choosing the garlic, etc.
• Up next: pepper picking and onion retrieval from the drying station in one of the outbuildings -- old screens out by the chicken coop.
• I've realized that the gains in my maturity and experience levels have helped me greatly in this endeavor.  In the past, I might have quit before I started, because it would have been just too overwhelming.  But now I can look at the task, understand what I need to do, and parse it out into manageable segments.  I like that.
• I also realize that I'm not chasing a baby or a toddler, which definitely assists greatly to the feasibility of the whole project.
• I wonder what next year will be like...?

and one non-tomatillo note:

• Squeeze and I are smitten by this season's buttercup squash -- we can't get enough.  Just add butter and salt and you have the most satisfying scrum-diddly ever.

11:17 PM UPDATE:

• Seven quarts!

Garden Chowder

I've been making the most seriously delicious creamy-thick chowder of late, pretty much straight from the garden.  I used the Zucchini Garden Chowder recipe from Simply in Season for my basic structure, shortened the name to "Garden Chowder" and expanded from there.

So yumilicious.

Garden Chowder

• Butter and/or olive oil
• 2 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1-2 onions, chopped
• 2 small eggplants, chopped
• Basil or marjoram, chopped (or sprinkled in, if dried)
• Flour
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 3-4 cups chicken stock (or water)
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• Handful of kale, ripped and chopped
• Handful of parsley, chopped
• 4-6 okra pods, chopped
• 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups corn
• 1-2 cups milk
• 2-ish cups cheese

Sauté the zucchini, eggplant, and onions in the butter w/ the basil or marjoram (I've been using dried marjoram, since our basil was a blow-out this summer).  Add whatever vegetable you have on hand that suites your fancy. 

Once soft, sprinkle a smattering of flour on the vegetables and stir.  Add salt and pepper.  Add the chicken stock.  Stir.  Let it simmer, then add the kale.  Let it simmer for a bit, then add the milk, okra, tomatoes, corn, and parsley.  Stir.  At the very end, add the cheese and stir.  I suppose the whole process takes . . . 30 minutes?

I like this soup chunky (as did Truen), but the other two didn't, so I used our handy-dandy immersion blender (thanks Mom and Dad!) and mixed it into a nice, thick chowder.

Yo.  Delicious.

If you build it, they might come

Squeeze dug a little "pond" in our front garden this past spring. I say "pond" because it is really just an old plastic salt bucket for our former . . . water softener? Something like that.

It is approximately 3 feet deep and maybe 1.5 feet across. But a pond it is. With his usual finishing touches, my thoughtful Squeeze put in a goldfish, water lily, blue flag (an iris native to MN/WI) and a sprinkling of duck weed.

It is so cute.

While he was digging the hole and putting it in, Truen begged and begged for a frog to come and live in it. All Squeeze could say was the just maybe a frog might come. Just maybe it could.

And sure enough -- it has come. A nice, big leopard frog came and now lives in our mini aquatic ecosystem. He likes to sit in the water or surrounding rocks and ducks under lily pads when startled. Little Truby is so thrilled.

In the first picture, you can see both the frog and the fish; they were very excited about the swarms of flying ants that were falling in the water.

Our little ecosystem

This was the first time we saw the frog --

you should have seen Truen sneaking up to it, so carefully.

And yes, we do parade around in our undies

and mud boots, outside, all summer long.

That must be what Country Boys do?

(: Or maybe just Shawna's boys :)

What we've been up to

Siberian Sweet watermelon

Apricot flesh with lovely brown seeds --

sweet and delightfully chewy.

Best of all: from our garden

and Squeeze's favorite.

Cabbage destined to become sauerkraut

I eat about a quart a week --

for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Obsessed.

Monarch butterfly, Monarch caterpillar

We raised four Monarchs from egg to butterfly this summer.

(see the empty chrysalis in the bottom left corner?)

Again, obsessed.

Diego has really gotten into his play-doh creations of late

And it all started with this intriguing landscape.

He also made a game called the "Coin Cake Game" --

He buries coins under marbles in

a mountain of play-doh,

which are buried under candles atop a layer of play-doh.

Find the silver coin and win!

Our neighbor Walentyne's gorgeous Concord grapes

Isn't that blue mesmerizing?

So tasty --

I ate them until they scorched the tip of my tongue.

"Bountiful Harvest"
Tomatoes: German Pink, Manyel, Cream Paste,
Black Plum, Mexico Midget, Green Sausage
Can you guess which is which?
6 quarts apple sauce
12 cups grape jam

Simple math

What do you get when you add chopped tomatoes and scallions, shredded cheese, a little bit of sea salt, and a nice lump of butter to brown rice that has been soaked over night and cooked up in a jiffy? (With a side of homemade sauerkraut.)

The most excellent lunch ever. One that makes your children roar in delight and satisfies the most rumbly tummy.

A little choppy, but here you go - an actual post

Ugh, I should post something. We've been back for a week now. But where do I start?

Things are good, the weather is cool, sunny and bright, and feels very fall-ish. I felt like airing out the house and washing all the sheets yesterday, which is an interesting trigger from autumn-like weather. Especially since our house has been aired out all summer. The sheets may be another story.

I am 20 weeks on Thursday. This pregnancy is basically half-way over, amazing. I still need to connect with my midwife. How 14 weeks suddenly became 20 weeks is beyond me. No, actually, it isn't. We've had a busy month.

Not to mention being bogged down with some nasty malware since the end of July. I think we have everything under wraps, but it is still a somewhat precarious situation. I am a little fearful every time I turn the computer on. (Thank goodness for Fix-It Utilities, or we would have been sunk.) Where does this crap come from anyway? Jerks.

I've been feeling the baby wiggling recently, which is such an interesting sensation. To know that there is a little person who I will know and love for the rest of my life, growing in there. What a mysterious beauty of life, being pregnant. I am enjoying my pregnant body, wondering if this will be the last time 'round.

We just released a Monarch butterfly that emerged from its chrysalis last night. (We have three more to go, two that will definitely emerge today.) The Monarch's body isn't as beautiful as the furry and spotted Black Swallowtail's body. But the wings! Gorgeous. That orange and black is stunning.

And with that, I am done. I have a whole box of bruised "early" apples to to process (applesauce) and a basket filled with concord grapes to take care of (grape jam).

I'm out.

But first, look at this recipe for salmon croquettes! They look outstanding. Yo.

Our "guesteses", as Diego says

Hooooooola, estoy aquí!

I've gone AWOL because my parents and sister have been staying with us for the past week. Needless to say, the boys are thrilled and have been thoroughly enjoying their grandparents and auntie (aka "Uncle Jayna" just because it sounds better -- we also have an "Uncle Ashley" and "Uncle Brenda").

It has been a good visit. ♥

Here are a few pictures from some of the festivities.

The first night

I finally figured out how to make a killer Asian noodle soup --

KEY INGREDIENTS:

stock, soy sauce, fish sauce, scallions, bean sprouts

and lots of olive oil mixed in with everything.

The boys with their Great-Grands --

Diego's 5th birthday.

Cooling down with Grandpa --

watching the magic show at the County Fair.

Doing a Transformers Puzzle with Grandma

(circa 1985 - a birthday present from his Daddy)

Truen with one of our Black Swallowtail caterpillars.
We are rearing 4 Monarch caterpillars
and have had 4 Black Swallowtail in chrysalis form --
Two have metamorphosed into butterflies in the last two days.

Hiking at the Prairie Preserve --
we were haaaaaaaaaht.

So much prettier

A friend and neighbor is lending me her old camera until we can buy a new one, so I finally have pictures again. What a relief! It has been a sad month-long drought.

The very first thing I did was go around and take pictures of the house and gardens. We like being able to "go back" and see what things looked like and how they've changed. And my, how they've changed.

The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the garden along our front walk (a ramp because the lady who lived here in the 80's was paralyzed in a car accident). Essentially a dirt patch with a couple of overgrown clumps of iris when we moved in, when it rained, the dirt would splash up on the outside of the house, creating an entirely dingy and disgusting look.

Squeeze, who loves landscaping, has really worked it over in these past three years. It even has a little "pond", with a blue flag iris, water lily and a goldfish. He enjoys creating a more natural look, complete with moss-covered logs and well-placed rocks.

July 2007

Yuck!

July 2010

And it will only get better with each passing year
The mini-fence it to keep the chickens OUT --
They love to dig (and thus, destroy)

One of the things I really appreciate about Squeeze is his pleasure in landscaping and gardening. He even fills the planter boxes with gorgeousness. My main job is to admire his work and talk over ideas.

The other week, a lady who is part of our first-year experimental CSA came out to see the garden with a friend. As they left, I chuckled as I wondered if they thought that I was the one responsible for all the beautifully arranged potted plants and the front flower garden.

Because, honestly, I trim the plants now and then and pull a few weeds. But my main is to enjoy the beauty. I love that.

The glorious sky

Southwestern Minnesota doesn't have mountains or beautiful trees, both components of landscapes that I hold dear and esteem highly. Sights that soothe me.

In fact, it doesn't have much in the way of natural landscapes at all, in the present age of commodity crops. This has bothered me a lot since we've moved here.

It did have beautiful grasslands, filled with an ever-changing array of prairie flowers; but those are gone, caged to small preserves that are scattered and obscure. Ultimately, that is what bothers me most about this area of the country -- true, native landscape is minimal. Shoot, even grass in the form of pastureland is minimal.

But what this area does have, and has grandly, is the most exquisite skyscapes. Magnificent summer storms whirl clouds into color, texture, and form that is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

An example from this weekend:

Un-un-un-un.

The land is seemingly flat because the rolling hills melt together: and because of that, one can see great distances. Storms almost always roll in from the west -- so it is entirely possible to see the gale coming a half-hour or more before it arrives, with billowing clouds of various shape and color that often look like enormous ships rolling in.

It is glorious.

I am so glad I am finding beauty I can appreciate here (aside from our small parcel of 15 acres, which I love). It is so refreshing. Call me dramatic, but the endless monoculture crops and scrubby trees have been hard on my soul these past few years.

Recolonizing the gut through fecal transplants

Yep, poop transplants.

This was local news throughout Minnesota a couple of years ago, but I just stumbled upon a New York Times article published on the subject this week.

Ultimately, I think this information can be synthesized to argue that the "progress" we've made over the last couple of generations can, uncontrolled, cause a lot of problems.

Living in a sterile, germ-free environment? Not a good idea. It's better to roll in the dirt than over-use hand sanitizer. The 32% nationwide c-section rate? A big problem. Administering antibiotics with such regularity? Yikes. Pumping our food animals with antibiotics? Triple-diple-doople-yikes. Eating easy, processed, denatured foods? A slow killer.

Scientists are not just finding new links between the microbiome and our health. They’re also finding that many diseases are accompanied by dramatic changes in the makeup of our inner ecosystems. The Imperial College team that discovered microbes in the lungs, for example, also discovered that people with asthma have a different collection of microbes than healthy people. Obese people also have a different set of species in their guts than people of normal weight.

In some cases, new microbes may simply move into our bodies when disease alters the landscape. In other cases, however, the microbes may help give rise to the disease. Some surveys suggest that babies delivered by Caesarian section are more likely to get skin infections from multiply-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It’s possible that they lack the defensive shield of microbes from their mother’s birth canal.

Caesarean sections have also been linked to an increase in asthma and allergies in children. So have the increased use of antibiotics in the United States and other developed countries. Children who live on farms — where they can get a healthy dose of microbes from the soil — are less prone to getting autoimmune disorders than children who grow up in cities.

Some scientists argue that these studies all point to the same conclusion: when children are deprived of their normal supply of microbes, their immune systems get a poor education. In some people, untutored immune cells become too eager to unleash a storm of inflammation. Instead of killing off invaders, they only damage the host’s own body.