{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.—SouleMama
(I’m breaking the no-words rule this week by way of explanation: Not folding the laundry gives your toddler the chance to find a creative, cozy place to read!)
Today I bring you another favorite book from my childhood. It’s uninspiring title, The Big Golden Animal ABC, belies the fun and fantastic illustrations (by Garth Williams of Little House on the Prairie fame, no less!) inside.
Published in 1954 by Golden Press, little bunnies cavort through the pages, interacting with an animal for each letter of the alphabet.
I remember the yak being one of my favorites—mainly because I thought he had a funny name. Notice the bunny preparing to comb the yak’s hair?
Thumbing through this book’s pages brought back fond memories of learning my alphabet. Spud has already claimed it as a bedtime story favorite.
So the last time (and first time ever) that I tried overwintering fuchsias I was about 4 weeks away from giving birth to a 8 pound 4 oz. baby boy. Somehow we skipped over storing the fuchsias the next year (hmmm, did someone say baby?) and now I’m finally back to trying it again this year.
My main reason for overwintering fuchsias is that I’m a cheapskate. Even if we do hit the amazing $1 per start sale in the spring, if I can overwinter them, that’s $15 saved.
First, let me make a HUGE disclaimer and state that I did this all from memory (a distant 2-year memory, impacted in large part by the aforementioned baby) as I couldn’t find my trusty directions in my “Gardening” file, and didn’t want to turn on the computer in front of the toddler in order to re-find them online. Anywho, a search of “overwintering fuchsias” will provide you with lots of helpful information on the process; I did a search during naptime after I had finished the whole shebang and found lots of things that I will definitely keep in mind for next year when Spud probably won’t be taking naps.
So I’m pretty much writing this all down here for my amusement, and hopefully some of yours.
Step 1: Assemble still-healthy fuchsias and prepare to whack their still-loaded-with-blossoms branches off. Convince toddler to wear hat and stay off slippery places on deck. Help toddler down onto lawn.
Step 2: Follow toddler to garden; feel his pain as he laments the fact that there are no more “geem [green] ‘matoes”, as Mommy savagely ripped them out of the ground last week to make room for the soon-to-be-planted garlic.
(Above: before)
Step 3: Persuade toddler to return to deck with you; let the fuchsia haircuts begin.
(Below: after)
Step 4: Remove toddler’s coat, hat, mittens, and shoes—he wants to go back inside, y’know.
Step 5: Wrestle still-potted fuchsia plants into brown paper bags (I swear I did this without a problem last time, but maybe that was the geraniums???)
Step 6: Put toddler, who has decided he wants to come back outside, inside. Convince him to be happy about it.
Step 7: Staple bags shut and store on deck, while toddler shouts/sings “Oh, MOM-my!” from inside the house, while banging on the window with a huge grin on his face.
Step 8: Make lunch while toddler finds solace and hope in looking at pictures of corn in seed catalog.
Step 9: Collapse
I took advantage of a few spare moments this weekend to make a leaf garland from newspaper. The original idea is at Maya Made, and she has a lot of other super fun ideas for using newspaper; of course I’d like to try the acorn garland, too. It took only a few moments to have brightly colored autumn leaves fluttering in the dining room (the pictures don’t do the colors justice, but I do wish I had applied a little more paint).
I like the graphic quality the newsprint adds to whatever project you’re working on, plus it’s cheap and is a great way to give the paper a second life. It reminds me of stories I’ve read from the Great Depression and years past where people made entire costumes (some quite elaborate) and decorations from newspapers.
Just another crafty idea that proves that having “fun” doesn’t have to be expensive!
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.—SouleMama
. . . I could check “find acorns” off the list.
My family can attest that little things amuse me and make me happy. When we were dating, Cowboy enjoyed the fact that I would thrill at seeing water drip off moss while we were hiking.
Living in an agriculturally diverse region, I’ve had the opportunity to pick all kinds of fruit and see even more growing just off the roads and byways.
But I’d never found an acorn “in the wild”, and wanted to, really really wanted to. I don’t know why. Something about those cute little caps, I think, and how they seem to me to be one of the things that are quintessentially AUTUMN.
For some reason the opportunity never presented itself, and each autumn would end with me thinking, Hmmm, I should have looked for some acorns.
Thus, had you been with me a few days ago, you would have seen my mom and Spud indulging my desire to find acorns, in a shopping center parking lot. We scurried around the base of the oak trees planted to beautify the surroundings, picking up acorns and putting them in the Ziploc bag left over from Spud’s snack.
The air was crisp, the sky blue. I could have kept going, but a Ziploc bag holds only so much, and there were thousands of acorns, and a toddler can only pick up acorns for so long.
It was everything I imagined and I’ll go back again next year.
Check one off the list.
My parents just returned from visiting my aunt. I was ecstatic when they produced a box of books from my childhood that we had shared with her when her granddaughter was small.
Wanting to share some of the books of my childhood with Spud, I had recently been perplexed as to where they were. As an avid children’s book lover, I couldn’t imagine having thrown them out—my best guess was that they had made their way to a thrift store or garage sale. Thus, my elation when I found that many of the books in the box were the ones I had been missing, and there were several more that I had forgotten.
One of these “forgotten” books is Colors are Nice, by Adelaide Holl, published by Golden Press in 1972.
I’m savoring the experience of looking through these treasured books—only looking through 1 or so a day. It’s fascinating how many of these illustrations I instantly remember. I also wonder about how/if these books shaped who I am today. For instance, does the girl’s hat above explain my love of cherries?
I remember, quite vividly, studying the pictures in this book, imagining the feeling of standing barefoot in the creek above.
I’m looking forward to sharing pages from these books with you over the coming weeks. They certainly aren’t all “high-quality” children’s literature, but they hold a special place in my heart. And I hope that my own children will have books just as special to them when they are older that they will thrill in sharing with their own wee ones.
Over the past 3 or so years I’ve been embroidering tea towels for my mom—doling them out at Mother’s Day and birthdays as I managed to finish them.
This past week as I was flat on my back/getting over a nasty bug, I finally “found” the time to finish the last dish towel in the set—two weeks before my mom’s birthday.
Originally, my mom purchased the transfers for seven bluebird dishtowels with fruits and vegetables here (although I don’t see this transfer set on their website now). She planned to embroider them for herself, but I was pretty confident that wouldn’t happen anytime soon (she just retired two months ago), so I “stole” them and began working them for her myself. Of course, the secret was out as soon as I gifted her with the first towel, but it was a fun surprise!
It was great to get another project checked off my list, and even more fun to remember how much I enjoy embroidery. The French knots on the strawberries were my favorite part of this towel (Cowboy was even impressed).
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.—SouleMama
Well, maybe that title is a little overdramatic, but I did knit portions of this hat while simultaneously running the sewing machine on this project.
When Cowboy admitted the other day that his least favorite of my One Small Changes is the loss of paper towels, I decided I’d better help him out a bit more and finish this up—he has been an awfully good sport about all of the changes. We had a good supply of rags for large messes, but it’s the little ones that can be a pain—the ones that don’t warrant the use of a large towel to clean them up. And Spud needed more diaper wipes, and, and, and . . . .
So, what began as a stack of five garage sale towels purchased for $6, has now become this:
stacks of 100 (I’m guessing) or so 8” x 8” rags to be used as diaper wipes, after-meal face washcloths, and general mess-cleaner-uppers in lovely 70’s shades of rust, orange, and yellow.
I started out using an overcast stitch to finish off the edges, but about halfway through switched to a simple zig-zag in the interest of time. It’s only two months ‘til Christmas and there is much more important, and frankly, more interesting sewing that needs to take place—the overcast stitch was just taking way too long.
I used up a lot of cheap thread from a sewing kit on this project. A good way to get rid of thread like that, but I’m not sure my bobbin/machine is too happy with me right now. I’m off to assess the damage.
is real this time, and it’s telling me that it’s time to . . .
Incidentally, if you’re making lots of recipes calling for broth, I’m finding Renee’s broth powder recipe to be frugal, sensible, and life changing! Love it!
Towards the end of a very hectic week, I found myself driving behind this portion of our town’s public transportation fleet. Yes, a bus painted to look like a cow, and it was my good fortune to be following the rear view.
I snapped a picture, thinking it served as a very fitting end to a week that reminded me why the activities that filled it, and raising a family in the manner that we strive towards don’t go hand-in-hand. When you add to that the fact the October is always a challenging month around here, I decided the weekend would be a good time to attack the problems head-on and develop Plan B.
So this week I’m moving forward, “eating my frogs first”, trying to keep a positive outlook, and remembering this quote that I saw posted on Facebook yesterday:
"Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day." ~Henri Nouwen
Have a delightful week!
Continuing on with the One Small Change project . . .
This month our goal was to preserve more food.
We were able to make two outings to pick blackberries, resulting in about 20 bags of frozen berries and six jars of blackberry syrup.
We dug up our potatoes—Yukon golds and a blue variety. They’re currently drying on a tarp and will soon be moved to storage.
We also brought most of our green tomatoes inside, and are hoping for a few more cucumbers and zucchini before the frost gets them.
For October I’m going to attack the overflowing mending basket and see what can be made to last longer in order to avoid unnecessary purchases.
