Luna's Baublebilities

January is proving to be a challenge this year. 

The news from Tuscon makes my heart sick.

You can read about house progress (or lack-thereof) over at the Beorningstead but my difficulties go a bit deeper than just the construction project.

Molly is struggling with some very unexpected back to school problems.  It's not really anything I want to get into publicly but it has thrown into high relief my fears and frustrations with the drama and social stupidity of public school - even though this particular drama isn't restricted to school nor is school the root cause, it has  proven to be a very effective catalyst.  Add this to my growing frustration with her academic work and I am very, very tempted to bring her back to Home-school.  Her Global Studies book covers all of world history up to the modern era in fewer pages than the supplementary text we used for the Renaissance in the second half of 7th grade, is written at a lower level than anything we used after 6th grade (when we weaned ourselves of from public school texts) and is full of HUGE pictures and many bullet points.  Honors English is reading A Tale of Two Cities right now, which is review for Molly and they aren't covering half of the information that we covered in home school.  Her teacher didn't know what Cruncher is complaining about when he accuses his wife of "floppin'" against him until Molly explained it in class.  (HONORS ENGLISH!!  Sigh.)  I'm appalled at how sub-standard her education is turning out to be in High School. 

She's still in public school this week because:  (1)  her voice teacher is Awesome and is really stretching Molly's vocal skills.  I can't do that at home.  (2)  She is making friends, slowly, with kids she hasn't been going to Church with all her life.   And (3)  she's got a great Math teacher this year and is actually doing fairly well with math. 

I'm also overwhelmed with paperwork - for the house, for the taxes, for my business.  I've spent the last two weeks trying to convince myself to go into the freezing cold closet which used to be a shower, dig out all of the paperwork and start putting all of the pieces together.  I really don't want to.  But I will have to start Monday.  I also have to pull my business into some semblance of order online - actually building a site (or at least a landing and launching pad) on GoblinsMarket.org, sorting out my supplies from my finished work, revamping my shops, etc...

But there are some bright spots.  For the next couple of weeks I'm taking a class on Tarot symbolism from my friend, Rich Tenace, and I'm really enjoying the class.  Don't worry, LDS friends, Rich and I are not going all Occult and Satanic on you.  The main goal of the class is to explore symbols and learn how meditating on symbols can clue us into things that we already know in within our intuitive selves or sub-conscious mind.  It has been useful for me as I try to navigate (and help Molly navigate) the difficult social rapids we have encountered this week as some of the symbols have helped me remember and call upon skills and insights I learned during and as a result of my own difficult teen years.

I'm trying to spend more time and energy creating and doodling as I contemplate where I want my creative path to lead me and how I want that path to merge (or not merge) with my business.  I am starting a Doodle of the Week feature - On weeks that I'm not completely overwhelmed, I will be posting a weekly doodle on Fridays (?)   Here's the first one. 

The days get longer.  This is a good thing.














. . . .

What a crummy vacation.  On one level, it has been very nice to be cooped up in the house together as a family, watching movies, playing games and just generally resting.  On the other hand - the weather has been beautiful and we haven't been able to go out and play in it, the Beorningstead is just sitting there waiting to get water and walls and countertops and appliances, Maxx has had a bad case of cabin fever and even the dog is bored.

Bryan has a terrible case of bronchitis.  He's on his 3rd round of antibiotics since sinus surgery in January and he feels miserable.  We've been married close to 20 years and I've never seen him as sick as he has been this winter. 

I have been mostly healthy since the beginning of the year but at some point after By's surgery, I scorched my face trying to get a big log into the woodstove.  My face was sore for a few days and then started getting better but that little event set off an eczema attack.  I suspect that after my health challenges this fall which included three rounds of antibiotics (Remember swine flu and that horrible ear infection from the 9th circle of hell?) my system, including my skin, has been lacking all of its normal healthy flora and that little scorching opened up some opportunities for a yeast or fungus or something that is causing a lot of aggravation around my eyes and forehead. 

Or it could be just lingering irritation.  I had a little patch of eczema behind my ear for two years after I dyed my hair black for Maxx.  It is February with a woodstove around here -a difficult circumstance for all kinds of skin.  With all of our stress around here, it;s no wonder my body& soul are shouting  "Enough!  Take care of you for a minute!"

I could go the the doctor.  She would give me steriods which would help for a while.  I don't want any steroids.  I don't want any more Big Pharma right now at all. 

I know, I may be being unreasonable.  I tried using a masque of yogurt (Stonyfield farms) and honey this afternoon - which felt divine and really calmed things down a lot.  After my shower, I mixed up a batch of skin cream consisting of shea butter, rose water & grapeseed oil with a few drops each of geranium, lemongrass, tee tree and eucalyptus oil mixed in.  There's some itching going on right now but not nearly as bad as this morning.  The shea butter is so soft and smooth and the essential oils & rose water are all good for sin inflammation and gentle antiseptic action.  I'll probably try another yogurt masque before bed.  Might even sleep with it on.

I'm looking forward to more peaceful skin and a healthier family next week.  In the meantime, I'm working on another glorious silk velvet beaded scarf.  I'll post photos next time.  In the meantime - enjoy another photo of Maxx in the tub.  He's so cute!  And smells good when clean.  :)



. . .

But I still had to build a fire yesterday. June 1st and it was only 54 degrees in my house. I don't function well below 65 or so, the urge to curl up with a blankie and take a nap is just too great. I hate the fact that the Summer Solstice is upon us every year before school is even out. Other school districts in the country are finishing up (or are finished) right now but we have to go straight through the third week of June. Of course that is all related to the weather. We can't even reliably plant gardens here until after Memorial day, unless we have tons of mulch and plastic coverings to keep baby plants alive, so Upstate NY has a later end of school year date than warmer areas because there was not much need to let the farmers' kids out any earlier than this and those last few weeks of August are so precious for our growing season.

Etsy Bloggers carnival theme this week is to write about our summer plans. - Boy do we have a big summer ahead of us. We are anxiously awaiting a lending decision from the bank about our new place and as soon as we have a go ahead, we have got to start working. We are currently boxing up all non-essentials in our house to be put away in storage so we can start listing this home for sale. Once we close on the new pace, we have got to do a few cosmetic repairs, put in all new wiring and plumbing (because the Amish ripped everything electrical and almost all the plumbing out) remove the outhouse, build an entirely new bathroom in the upstairs attic, replace several windows, wash and paint all the walls, sand and re-finish several floors, install appliances, counters and cupboards in the kitchen, bath and my studio(!!) and maybe we'll be able to move in before the Winter Solstice!

Molly Bryn has been wanting to learn how to blog so I'm planning to have her blog the progress of the new Beorningstead down in Burnett Hollow. I'm so exited to see the progress of our new home as we prepare to move in. I'll let everyone know when we begin that blog - Molly has a great voice and loves to take photos so I'm sure it will be a fun blog to read. I'm also excited about the prospect of boxing up all of our non-essentials for several months. I suspect that there will be lots of things I don't miss tripping over that we will not put back into our new home. As it is, I have at least one huge box of orphan projects that will NOT be coming to my new studio. Anyone want it?

I also hope that we get to do some hiking this summer. Bryan aspires to hike all the high peaks in the Adirondacks and 4 years ago our family climbed Mt. Marcy - the highest peak in NYS. Bryan has climbed it many times and enjoys it but it was really more of a hike than I like and my mother-in-law said that she would probably not attempt such a long hike again, either. I like a quick, easy climb with lots of time to enjoy the scenery on the way up and a pretty view when you get there. We have talked about climbing all the ADK peaks that still have fire towers, I believe that there are 17 of them. Maybe we'll get in one or two of those this summer, if I can get my body back in hiking shape.

The mixed media drawing at the top of this post (which I cannot seem to convince GIMP or Blogger to resize for me - aaaargh!) was inspired by a hike up Mt Van Hovenberg when Molly was about 7. It is titled "There Was an Orange Salamander on the Trail." We have since discovered that our salamander was actually a red eft, which has since become one of my favorite teeny crawling things. What you cannot see in this composite scan is that the clouds, water and contour lines have a lot of sparkley gel-pen accent work and there is a teeneency little eft on the trail. The scanner just seems to read the sparkley as grey and the eft is invisible. Oh well.

Things seem to be moving forward on our new house. We will be hearing about a lending decision within a few days and I've got my fingers crossed. It is a bit iffy because our debt-to-income ratio will look terrible until we sell this house. I certainly hope it sells soon, and to someone who will be a good fit with this little community. We have some of the best neighbors in the world right here in Ft. Jackson and I will miss being so close to them. I'm only going to be 5 miles away, though, so I'll certainly still be able to get to Georgia's annual book sale to benefit our tiny local library.





This spring I am really enjoying our flowers and I will miss them. Our lilacs have been a bit shabby - most people here just treat lilacs like a wild shrub and let them grow but we had a big work party here last fall and a friend of mine cut several of my lilacs back. The ones that Rita worked on look fabulous this year - full of rich, heavy blossoms, no dead wood and no leftover dry stalks from last year.










We have at least 5 varieties of lilac on the property - a white blossoming variety, two pale lavender blossomers - one single and one double blossomed and two darker shades of blossoms, one of which is a double blossom. I'm really enjoing the dark dark single variety right outside my kitchen window this year. It is one of the trees that was cut back and the blossoms are perfect - and they smell great.






The peonies are going to blossom this year. They have only blossomed once for us - the first year, one or two pitiful little blossoms, but again, Rita knows her flowers and cut away a lot of junk growing around them so the have gotten more light this spring and promise to bloom.



















We also have a persistent population of feral poppies. They are self seeding and pop up all over the place - wherever their seed heads sere shaken the previous year. I love their fuzzy stems and buds and the full blown flower is incredible. I will be saving some seed heads to shake over at the new place.




Day lilies will be next - happily, they were ready to be thinned out this spring so I have already planted some of them at the new house, as well as some early lilac suckers. I'll still be able to enjoy some of these flowers next spring!










......

Now, we have had snow in Upstate NY before Halloween in the past but this is a little bit much!

It rained most of the day Tuesday and by late afternoon the rain had turned a bit slushy. We had several inches of accumulation before nightfall. Nevertheless, I attempted to go buy some onions at Martin's farm stand around 4:00. I crawled along for about a mile and had decided that onions weren't worth risking my neck for when I came upon a truck that had flopped into the ditch. I offered the poor young soul walking away from the truck a ride home but we couldn't convince my car to climb the slight incline to get onto Rt 11B from Sheldon Road. I turned my car around and he had to walk the rest of the way home, thinking about his truck - which is surely a bit broken. I'm still wondering how angry his parents are with him.


Because the plows weren't doing anything at all early in the evening, Bry canceled his meetings for the night and we had a nice evening at home enjoying a very yummy soup, a crackling fire in the woodstove and an early episode of Sesame Street together. Snowplows finally started coming around late that night and schools all over the county were canceled and delayed yesterday.











Here's the soup I made Tuesday Night. It was an attempt to re-create a wonderful Sweet Potato Apple Bisque I had at First Crush a couple of weeks ago. This one was almost as good.



Luna's Sweet Potato, Apple Bisque

6 sweet potatoes, halved, rubbed in olive oil and baked at 350 'till soft.
1 very large sweet/tart apple (or 2 medium sized apples)
1 small head garlic, roasted
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 cups of stock or water with vegetable or chicken boullion
4 Tbsp butter
2 cups milk
Nutmeg, Ginger, Cardamom & Salt

Roast Sweet Potatoes and garlic.
Sautee onion and apple in butter untill soft in large soup pot. You could use Olive Oil instead but - really - it won't taste as good.
Peel sweet potatoes and garlic - these should just slip right out of their skins.
Add stock gradually, mashing potatoes and garlic. I puree everything with my blender-on-a-stick right in the pot. Cook and stir until everything is thick and bubbly, add milk and more water or stock until soup is teh desired consistency.
Season to taste with nutmeg, Ginger, Cardamom and Salt. I used 4 crushed Cardamom pods, about 1 TBS Ginger and 2 tsp nutmeg.

The last few days have been so glorious!













This tree is the reason I bought this house. Perfect for swinging.







Looking Up.
















Looking into the canopy.






















One perfect leaf.
















Our French Intensive Double Dug garden bed - potatoes all removed and ready for the winter.















Friends had helped me remove the potatoes from this bed back when we had our work party. We ended up with a 5 gallon pail full and then some. They thought it was a good yield but I was a little disappointed - it just didn't look like enough. When we started getting this bed ready for winter - guess what - no one had dug deep enough. There were at least Twice as many tubers left in that dirt! And what wonderful dirt it is! What a miracle these double dug beds are. Bat and horse poo and some well rotted hay helped quite a bit, too!



















Maxx loves to use the hose.


















Daddy is lucky he didn't get wet.