This And That

We are off to the county fair tonight.  It is a mandatory summer activity.  There will be no time for a real post, but here is a little list of great finds this week.

My package arrived from Camie at Red Gate Gardens today and it included not only coffee and a wonderful note, but two vintage books (post to come tomorrow with pics).  Someday,  I hope to be there in Montana for a visit, but am afraid I might never leave!

My dear, dear friend Lizzie, made me extremely happy tonight with nine, jaw dropping images of James McAvoy.  I’m not sure if you all realize what a huge thing I have for Mr. McAvoy.  I turn into a jelly legged puddle of thirteen year old mush when I watch his movies, especially Becoming Jane.  Sex scenes….who needs them when you can country dance with this look in your eyes, but then came Atonement.

Speaking of which Emmy and I learned a bit of English country dancing last year at the Hearth and Home festival which was quite fun, so much fun that we didn’t want to stop, pout.

I have been lurking a bit too much lately over at Smitten Kitchen with at least four new recipes to try every time I visit.

I found a yummy new wine, Root:1 from Chile.  I will admit publicly that I bought it for the gorgeous bottle, but it was equally gorgeous in taste.  I had the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Sauvignon Blanc.

I bought these almost too cute recipe cards for my sister for her birthday.  I’ve been admiring them on Etsy for awhile, here.

And finally, I have printed out the homemade yogurt recipe from Tasty Kitchen over at the Pioneer Woman.  It seems a bit scary, and we’re buying it relatively inexpensively over at the farm right now, but the girls really love yogurt, so I might have to give it a try.  Anyone successfully bred yogurt in the past?

Wordless Wednesday: We Collect Rocks

Going Home…

With some years on me and armed with a camera, I see my childhood home in a whole new light.  My parents were away, they have a place in Nova Scotia, Canada.  So, the girls and I went down to visit with the cat.  We took some pasta I had pre-made in the fridge and the makings for a salad.  We took a couple of board games, though most important to them was walking the woods.  Most important to me is the joy I see in my girls walking in my own footsteps.  Taking off shoes and walking in bare feet along mossy paths.  Playing Yahtzee at my mother’s kitchen table.  Feeding the fish in the pond Japanese beetles. Reading the books I read to my brother.  We lived there  last summer when I left my husband, so to them, my mother’s home is almost as comfortable as their own.  My memories will become their memories.  The smells of my mother’s woodstove, the damp basement, the old wood, is becoming as familiar to them as it is to me.  When I told the girls in a random conversation that some children fly in airplanes because that is the only way they see their Grandparents, maybe once a year, they were astounded.  We live in a small town.  My grandparents live next door.  My father five minutes, my sister ten minutes, my mother twenty minutes away.  A visit is as easy as hopping in the car….and then we are there, surrounded by the green and the smells and comforts of home.

Book Sharing Monday: The Dancing Tiger

“The Dancing Tiger” by Malachy Doyle, paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher

“If you will keep my secret, and never tell a soul, then you may come and dance with me on nights the moon is whole”

Emmy’s Summer Breakfast

I have her exclusive permission to publish her recipe (Mama’s privilege).

She made it for herself this morning and then agreed to teach me, because it is so very delicious.

I give it to you word by word:

1. Put handful of blueberries and blackberries in a bowl.

2. Add banana.

3.  Put banana peel in the stinky compost jar.

4.  Mash banana into berries with back of spoon.

5. Push it down and kind of flatten it till it’s mush.  It’s okay if the berries get crushed.

6.  Mix it up a little, then keep your spoon.

7. Pour the yogurt in-just as much as you want.

8.  Peel the fuzzy off the peach.

9.  Break off bits, but be sure the juice drips in the bowl.  You might want to lick the heaven off your fingers.

10.  Put the walnuts in.

11.  Put the chocolate chips in.

12.  Crumble in 1/2 a donut.

(Editors Note:  We use the very small cider donuts.  If using a regular donut, might want to use a 1/4).

Waa-laa!

Saturday’s Farm Finds

2 lbs ground beef, bulk pork sausage, a dozen eggs, 1 lb local honey, bulk fresh butter, dozen cider donuts (notice we upped the ante from last week), homemade raspberry and peach yogurt, three tomatoes, six peaches, pint blueberries and pint gigantic blackberries.

$45.38

We could have done more damage, but I was short on cash so….with our own squash, zucchini and green beans, this week is looking pretty tasty.

Centering.

“I remember fingering the handle and feeling the rough edges of an old cup that I have cared for as I had tea with my mother and finally got to tell something I had been wanting to tell her for years.  A year later I was drinking from that same cup the afternoon my friend told me she was pregnant.  The cup unites these two moments in my life.  If I have hundreds of cups, one simple cup is not so intimate.  Things and people lose their perceived value when there is an overwhelming quantity of them.  It’s as if the mind goes on overload and ceases to see the details”.

—Jacqueline Kramer, “Buddha Mom: The Path of Mindful Mothering”

My empty table, stripped of everything including it’s tablecloth the other day is a reminder.  This passage read yesterday at lunch time.  All the other or extra things that are cluttering up my life and keeping me from the time and the space for intimate details.

I am re-reading this book in preparation for my lay classes starting in a few weeks.  My spiritual side has been woefully neglected lately.  It seems if you look closely enough that those little angels gathered there in the windowsill are whispering to each other.  I want to know their secrets.

Wordless Wednesday-Big,Yet Small

Bravery

She started having anxiety attacks again in West Virginia.

The obsessive fears.  This time of stopping breathing, heart stopping, breast cancer, appendicitis, meningitis?  What are these things Mommy?What if it happens to me?  What if I stop breathing in the middle of the night?  Mommy, I cannot make the worries stop and I’m so tired of it.

It’s a changing set of worries that evolve into something else until we can work through the explanations to an understanding.  There have been a lot of books, counselors, teachers and a lot of reassurance.

She didn’t want to go to the beach with her father and her grandmother.  She had the opportunity at a four-day trip to a place she loves with a father she only occasionally sees.  She was too worried about being away from home, being away from Mommy, being uncomfortable.

I didn’t push.  We talked about what could or would happen.  I left it to her.  No, still not going.  No, still don’t want to be away from home overnight.

Her sister was packed, ready to go Monday morning.  I was preparing for work and ten minutes out from leaving.  I walked upstairs to brush my teeth and said, “Ems, where are you I haven’t seen you?”

She was in her room.  Her bag was on her bed.  She was grabbing things and throwing them in.  ”I’ve decided I  want to go”.  So we packed her bag and she talked about this and that and the other she was going to do.  She could hardly contain her enthusiasm.

My heart I thought would burst at her bravery.  She had conquered the fear.  For another child that might not seem like much.  For Em’s it’s a big deal.

She called last night.  She had been to the beach.  Grandmom had helped her drive the golf cart.  They went to dinner.  She was still excited.

My big brave girl.

Book Sharing Monday-Library Lion

Given to Ems by my sister (the of all things, librarian), I actually found this delightful book in those endless wanderings on Amazon.com.  The here’s what others bought cycle of just one more…..one more…one more.

“Library Lion” by Michelle Knudsen, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.

It’s the story of a lion who wanders into the library and becomes an assistant of sorts, until one day when he saves the day but breaks the rules.  The illustrations are beautiful, the typeface classic and the tale sweet indeed.

I cannot help but love the illustrations of the lion statues outside of the library.  Our old library had this and now he resides in the children’s section of  the new improved building.  My girls have pet him numerous times (as have I) over the years and I could only imagine how much he would enjoy if he could spring to life one day and prowl around.

Last week, I forgot to post the link to join Book Sharing Monday, so here you go.