Damaged Goods

Change can occur and things can morph even when you think that thing (or person, or self) is broken and beyond repair and rejuvenation.  This was proven to me once again by my children, the best teachers in the world.  My little ones were playing in our backyard yesterday, which is mostly garden and chicken coop now, with little room to run around but plenty of space to explore!  They brought in a caterpillar.  Oddly enough it was stuck in a bandaid that was finger shaped/sized.  It must have fallen off in the backyard and the caterpillar had crawled inside.  Well, if it wasn't injured when it went inside the bandage (ha!) then I'm sure it was a little worse for the wear after my little ones had squeezed him out of his temporary medical facility!  They were so excited about this cute little green caterpillar hiding in the bandaid!  They promptly put him in a jar, and spent the next half hour deliriously holding him, plopping him in the jar, filling the jar overfull with food and water, emptying the jar so the caterpillar wouldn't drown, and holding him again.  When they finally settled him into the jar with spinach leaves scattered on the bottom, plastic wrap on the top, and holes vigorously poked in the plastic, I thought he was a goner for sure.  He had to be injured, damaged goods, after being manhandled  lovingly taken care of for so long.  I mean, he's only a tiny bug after all!  But as the little ones were so attached to him, we placed him on our science hearth and decided to watch our little "science experiment" for the next few days before releasing him to the wilds of our backyard.

We pulled down our nature guide on insects and Jack and I found many green caterpillars, before finally finding one that looked just like him:  same lime green, translucent skin, white dots lining the side of his body, and two tiny brown dots on his head.  It looked like he was a Polyphemus Moth.  This morning, two days after finding Mr. Caterpillar in the bandaid, my littlest guy was inspecting him in his jar and yells, "Mom!  There's white, cloudy stuff all around the caterpillar!  Come look!"  We all came to look, and sure enough that little, resilient guy was spinning a cocoon!  I have to say, I was amazed he was still alive, not to mention spinning a web.  It was our own little science project come to life, found in a discarded bandaid in our backyard.

I love so many things about this story.  I love that homeschooling just fits so seamlessly into life sometimes.  No oftentimes.  There are so many ways to learn, and we just have to live our lives and be open to that.  I've been moaning to my patient husband lately how life seems to be getting in the way of homeschooling. Whether it is sickness, haircuts, or family and friend emergencies, sometimes I feel like we can never get to the "school work" but instead are busy with the business of life.  This was a great opportunity for me to realize that learning is always going on, whether in the finding of a caterpillar in the midst of playtime in the backyard, or learning about how the heart works after their grandpa had a heart attack.  It is all part of one holistic, seamless life, and it is not compartmentalized into school  time and real life time.

The second part of this caterpillar story that I love is that this manhandled, bruised little bug, this piece of damaged goods, is in the process of transformation.  Not only did he not die, but God is transforming him from an earthbound creature into a soaring, floating, winged creation.  He survived the bruises and the bumps of his short life, and soon he will fly through the air, fluttering from flower to flower.  If God is able to do this for the caterpillar, then I trust completely that he can do that for me.  No matter how damaged I am God can transform me to.  I may not always feel like I am soaring, but I trust that I am in the process of transformation, always.  I that my Creator is continuing the process of creation in my daily, in spite of and usually with the help of, all my ugly bumps and bruises. 

Medicine Woman

I've become very interested lately in medicinal herbs.  I envision myself one day as a sort of medicine woman for my family and friends, meting out teas and tonics, and cooking up recipes full of tasty herbs to heal the body and keep it healthy.  I've read about them on the internet, and bought a fantastic book called Herbal Recipes  by Rosemary Gladstar.  Then I ordered my seeds from Horizon Herbs.

In the meantime we had also bought 2 rain barrels, which, although great for harvesting rainwater, were really ugly not the most attractive things to put at the edge of our patio.  So we came up with the great idea of building planters up against them to both hide them AND to house my medicinal herbs.  The only problem was, I wanted it done quickly ( I was really not liking those huge, brown plastic barrels) and we didn't want to spend any money.

My amazing, handy, woodworker of a husband came up with the idea of using the pallets, which we had been collecting for some artwork we were making, and using  that wood to make our planters.  Yes, pallets.  We had gone into the trash piles behind many a store and retrieved the wooden delivery pallets.  We searched for the ones that looked as if their wood was untreated.  Then we pulled some of them apart, which was a pretty backbreaking chore but my oldest son Cooper loved it!  There's not many things more fun for a 10 year old boy than whacking things with a hammer.  Some of the pallets we left intact to use as the backing.  Then Steven and Cooper ingeniously made the cutest planters, nailing the boxes onto the intact pallets.  And Viola, a vertical garden!  For free!  And really cool looking!  I've since planted them with all kinds of herbs, such as calendula, sage, lemon balm, valerian, motherwort, flax, nettle, and marshmallow.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with them start using them to make those teas, tonics, and healing recipes!

Woman Power

Every day that I can I sit in my garden to do my writing.  My chair is right next to this enormous lavender bush, that is a favorite of our local bees.  I don't have my own hive yet, although that is definitely one of my next goals for our urban farm.  But at least our lavender attracts bees, and they visit the lavender, and me, every day.  I love that these worker bees are all women.  They are industriously enjoying  the lavender, and then they create something yummy, sweet, sensual, and life giving from those beautiful purple flowers. (I just wish I could harvest some of that delicious honey!) If female bees can create abundance and sweetness  from nature and from beauty, can't we female humans do the same?  It is such a lovely thought!  I feel as if by gardening and cooking I do get to do that.  I create something beautiful, sensual, delicious and life giving from the abundance of nature and Creation.  I love the connectivity of that, the sense of wholeness or completion.

Soapmaking 101

Two weeks ago my oldest daughter, Madison, and I made our first of (hopefully) many batches of soap.  We  mixed lye with olive oil and coconut oil.  It was hysterical to see, as I had heard and read so much about the caustic nature of lye that we were dressed up like hazmat workers from the latest sci fi movie.  We had bright yellow dish gloves up to our elbows, long-sleeve shirts and long pants, and safety goggles on.  As I measured the lye on the scale it was as if those flakes were some deadly virus or germ.  I was that afraid to touch them!  But as we got further into the process we started to feel a bit more confident.  One thing I wasn't prepared for was how long it took.  When I added water to the lye it heated up right away - it was actually a great chemistry lesson for Madison and I to see the reaction.  But it took FOREVER for it to cool down.  I had heated up the oils to combine them, and I was supposed to start mixing the lye and oils together when they were both at a temperature of about 95 degrees.  The oil cooled down much more quickly, so I kept heating that up and we waited and waited for the lye to cool down!

When I finally got them both to within a few degrees of each other, and close to 95 degrees, I poured the oils into the glass bowl I had the lye mixture in and we began to stir.  And stir.  And stir.  We were waiting until the mixture began to trace:  that is until when we lifted the wooden spoon we were using and let some of the liquid drop down, it took few moments for it to settle.  Almost like a pudding looks as it starts to thicken, or so they said.  Well, this "tracing" seemed a bit obscure to me, not being a big pudding connoisseur , but I thought we could figure it out.

As we switched off stirring I read my instructions once more and saw that this process could take up to an hour before tracing!  What!  I am not knon for being the most patient person, so I decided that I would try the other technique advocated by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen (authors of The Urban Homestead.)  They make their soap in a blender.  What had sounded crazy and dangerous to me 40 minutes earlier now sounded genius!  I was hesitant to use my Vitamix, the only blender I have and extremely precious to me, but this called for desperate measures so we pulled it out and poured the liquid soap right in.  We blended, checking every 30 seconds or so, and it still took about another 10 minutes, but finally it thickened up and I thought I saw tracing.  The recipe had said to pour as soon as you noticed tracing because it hardens quickly, so I didn't want to miss my window!  We added our lemon balm essential oil, which smells fresh and heavenly, and poured our soap into lined muffin tins.  We had bought a new muffin pan because I wanted to be absolutely sure it wasn't aluminum, as apparently lye and aluminum reacts and can explode.  Then we covered it up and set it in a high place to cure.  We had to make sure it was out of reach of kids and pets for at least 3 days because the lye is still caustic until after the 3 day period and I didn't want my dog ingesting those sweet smelling soap muffins! 

After a week Madison and I checked the soap.  We were so excited, although we still needed to wait 3 more weeks to use it, as it needs to cure for at least a month.  It is pretty and smells delightful, but it is disappointingly mushy.  I think that in my anxiety about catching it before it hardened, I didn't quite get the "tracing" right.  But they are useable bars, it was great practice, and we feel so much more confident and ready to make another batch.

We have 18 small vials of essential oils:  lavender, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, peppermint, spearmint, orange, and a bunch of other scents.  And we are going to go to the thrift store to buy a blender specifically for soap making.  Then we'll give it another shot!

Wind Chimes

We've got wind chimes.  The neighbors left them when they moved and since the new neighbors don't want them, Madison brought them over here.  There were actually two sets.  The smaller set she hung on her rabbit's hutch, because of course bunnies need chimes too !  The second set we have hung on the edge of our patio cover.  They are  quite tacky  not the most beautiful things but the sound they make is lovely.  It is a soft, tinkling sound.  It is going to rain later today and the wind has just come up and is swirling around our backyard, and as I sit out here in my garden and listen, it is as if the wind has found its voice.  It is an interesting concept, to think that maybe we are all like the wind, constantly moving and speaking and singing from our hearts, but that we need to find our specific tool to find a way to outwardly express ourselves.  The wind is naturally silent, and it needs trees or water, or even a cheesy set of wind chimes. We too are naturally silent, living inside our own heads, and we need writing, painting, woodworking, ceramics, or cooking.  Whatever our particular tool or medium is, it allows us to sing and howl in a way that allows the world to hear us. 

Divine Nettles

Tonight we are feasting!  My parents are coming over for dinner tonight, and we are grilling some chicken, and having roasted cauliflower and sauteed greens.  It is the greens that I am so excited about!  For some reason we have had a super successful winter growing gorgeous rainbow Swiss chard, spinach, kale, and now that spring is here our nettles are growing.  Yes, I planted nettles on purpose and I saute them along with the other greens and it makes an incredible side dish.  Before we had this wonderful garden of greens it would never have occurred to me to buy Swiss chard, or to pick nettles and saute them for dinner.  But since they are growing in such profusion, and since we really want to be more self-sufficient, I want to use them, instead of making yet another trip to the grocery store.  So all winter I've been experimenting with ways to use all of these greens.  Our favorite is to saute them in olive oil with caramelized onions and garlic, and then sprinkled with some Parmesan cheese.  Sometimes we put it in pasta, and sometimes we just eat it as a side dish.  Either way it is divine!

   We just pulled out our dishwasher.  Last year our 15 year old dishwasher died, and a part of me was really excited. Now I could get a new (actually used from Craigslist) stainless steel dishwasher to match my "fancy" new (well, another used Craigslist purchase) stainless steel refrigerator.  It turs out that the beautiful on the outside dishwasher was not the best working on the inside!  It constantly left this film on our glassware, which we ended up having to handwash anyway.
  That's not why we pulled it out though.  This last year we (our family) has changed a lot.  We've always been a bit weird, and we have been changing slowly and organically over the last 6 years.  But we started to realize how much easier it was to just wash our dishes and put them away.  Not only did we feel more "green,"  since we weren't  using the electricity and water to run our dishwasher for its hour or so cycle, but it was so nice not to wake up to a full load of dishes to put away while I was trying to make breakfast AND pack a lunch for my husband.  So we stopped using it.  We use a minimal amount of water, some elbow grease, and our dishes are cleaner than ever.  but the best part of washing all of our dishes by hand is the sense of community and relationship it is building.  Before, after we had loaded our dishwasher with all of our plates, silverware, and glassware, we just had a few pots and pans to wash which I just left out to dry in the sink.  Now, since we have a pile of dishes from of dishes from the eight of us, as well as our pots and pans, it is no longer a one person job.  One person needs to wash and another dries and puts the dishes away.  It has become a wonderful, and rare, time for my husband and I to talk without  my children listening in and piping up.  Or my two oldest children laugh and tell crazy jokes or make up silly songs as they wash and dry together.  It also can become a special time between a parent and one child, which doesn't happen often in our large family.  However it works out, washing and drying dishes becomes a special time for building relationships instead of just a dull chore.  Who would have thought?
     So we pulled out the dishwasher, gave it away to some friends who needed one, and replaced it with much needed drawers for storing my grains, rice, and dried beans!  Its a win, win situation!