Happenings

I used to dream about how much time I'd have when my children were grown.  I'd sew and read and blog and and volunteer and wonder what to do with my time!  Ha!  When your husband is in ministry and your grown children and grandchildren live nearby (one still at home, which is great by me--she has legitimate reasons), you're as busy as ever, just with different things . . . or maybe not so different after all.  Here are some highlights of what I've been up to for the past month:

Hospitality--This academic year we've been engaged in a lot of hospitality related to Wittenberg Door.  We have hosted as many as twenty-five people at once and we've had people from all over the world--China, Haiti, Brazil, Japan, Jordan . . .  Most recently, friends from China (mother and son) came for dinner and to fish in our pond.  We have made some great friends and hopefully pointed some people to Christ.

Grandparenting--Elizabeth spent several weeks in Latvia and Lithuania during April and May ministering to at-risk teens.  This is an on-going ministry that her entire family engages in in various ways.  Sometimes, it involves us too since there is much practical support needed here at home while she is away.  My part involves extra childcare and grandmother duty (with assistance from Dave and Hannah, of course).  It's my joy, but it's also exhausting!  There's a reason God gives children to young adults!  We had two sleepovers, made Mother's Day gifts, played in the hose, cooked, read lots of books, worked in the garden, went fishing in our pond, took trips to library, grocery store, nearby state park, nursery, and family fun center (which is not so fun for adults but the kids love it!).  Some highlights:

Plant picks for Mother's Day!

Gardening--Spring was so late this year everything is behind by two weeks!  My pansies have usually been done in by the heat by now, but they are still going strong.  We finally managed to get the vegetable garden put in and spruce up the flower bed, however late.

The veggie garden has tomatoes, cabbage, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, and green beans.  There is still a little space left, so I'm going to pick up some herbs next time I'm shopping.  Though it looks rather empty now, we know from experience that the plants will fill out and be quite crowded.  I took this picture through the fence:

The bucket is for throwing random rocks in.  Dave tilled deeper this year and brought a lot of rocks to the surface, so every time I'm out there, I pick up whatever rocks I see and toss them in.  The bucket is almost full, plus each corner of the fence has a pile to keep critters out.  Keeping them out is an ongoing battle here!

Though every year I add a couple perennials to the flower bed, I planted a lot more of them this year.  The allium bulbs I planted three years ago started out as six, but they have increased to eleven flower-producing bulbs.  I love love LOVE these and look forward to them every May.

They look like something from Dr. Seuss!

Blooming wild on our property are coreopsis and daisies.  Love!

House--There is a screened-in porch off our bedroom that needed some attention if we were ever going to use it consistently.  Before it was sparsely and uncomfortably furnished and just needed some TLC.  So I finally gave it the TLC it needed, rearranged the furniture (including adding some pieces and taking some away), and bought cushions for the metal chairs.  There is still more I want to do, but it's soooooo much better now!  In fact, I'm sitting on it while I write.  It's shady and cool and so pleasant!

Gingersnaps

My mother-in-law, who lives nearby in an assisted-living facility (by her own choice), put in a request for gingersnaps recently.  Though I could have bought some, I wanted to make them because I think it's a shame if a person never gets homemade goodies.  I'd never made them before, so I turned to my trusty BHG cookbooks.  I amd currently in possession of three of these cookbooks: a recent one published about five years ago, the 1987 edition which was a wedding gift, and a vintage 1953 edition.  The recent and vintage ones belonged to Dave's mother, but since she never cooks anymore, I'm putting them to good use.  I used the recipe from the vintage edition because, well, just look at this illustration!

How could I resist??  The cover~

And the cookies~

The recipe was easy to follow and resulted in delicious, crispy cookies.  However, I reduced the baking time from fifteen minutes to twelve, and I'm glad I did.  They would have been too brown otherwise.  Here's the recipe~

BHG Old-fashioned Gingersnaps

3/4 c. shortening

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. light molasses (I used dark because I already had some.)

1 beaten egg

2 c. sifted flour (Sift first, then measure.)

2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. cloves

1 t. ginger

     Cream shortening and sugar; add molasses and egg; beat well.  Sift dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture; mix well.

     Roll in small balls; dip into sugar; place 2 inches apart on greased cooky sheet.  Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees) for 15 minutes (I reduced this 12).  Makes four dozen cookies.

I didn't dip mine into sugar because my mother-in-law doesn't like things too sweet.  They are delicious nevertheless!

Around My House

Reading~

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn  I received this book for Christmas.  I added it to my Amazon wishlist after hearing an interview with the author on NPR.  It sounded interesting and it is!  Cooking, or the lack of it, is about so much more than just techniques and knowing your way around a stove.  Apparently, lots of people carry lots of baggage, good and bad, from their childhoods and current relationships when it comes to the simple act of preparing food.  Kathleen Flinn takes nine women from beginner cooks to . . . well, we'll see how far she gets.  I'm only about halfway through the book now.


Listening~

The Little Book of Hygge:  Danish Secrets to Happy Living by Meik Wiking  Pleasingly narrated by the author, this book clocks in at a little over three hours.  I'm about halfway.  It's a good introduction to the concept of hygge, but you could probably get a enough of an idea just by doing a web search.  Wiking is a happiness researcher who clearly knows his stuff, but I'm not really learning anything new about hygge.  If you're a hygge novice, this book will be helpful.







Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset   The author won a Nobel Prize for this historical epic, which is why I wanted to become familiar with it.  The Penguin edition is 1168 pages and the audio edition I'm listening to is over 44 hours long!  I listen to audiobooks when I think I will get bogged down in a paper edition, which would definitely have been the case with Kristin.  By the end of the second part, though, I needed a break; hence The Little Book of Hygge mentioned above.  I like it--I don't love it--and I'll be glad that I got it through it, even in audio format.




Watching~

Howards End  The movie based on E.M. Forster's novel is wonderful.  I had watched it several times many years ago, but since then I haven't been able to find a copy of it until Netflix began streaming it fairly recently.  Excitement!  The acting is excellent, the scenery beautiful, the story compelling. I will be revisiting this until Netflix no longer carries it.  And just so you know, the movie is very faithful to the book.







Mary Berry's Country House Secrets   I stumbled across this series on Youtube a few days ago.  I'd never heard of Mary Berry until The Great British Baking Show, which I loved, and so was excited to find this.  There are four episodes, each of which features the always classy Mary taking us through a stately British country house.  We meet the occupants and learn some of the history of the house and area.  And oh, yes, there is a cooking component.  So much fun!





Housekeeping~

After the great pantry clear out of January, I tackled a big storage closet in our conservatory this month.  It holds board games, puzzles, and the few toys we saved for visiting children, some files, cello music, gifts for future giving, and odds and ends.  One of these days I will learn to take before photos, but here's an after anyway:

There's even room left over!

A Favorite Blog~

Emily's blog, Charming the Birds from the Trees, is lovely!  She documents her life with her Orthodox priest husband and their three children.  There is some peaceful, lovely homekeeping, a little travel, a little knitting and sewing, some wonderful quotations, and always lovely photos.  I like her approach to living!

Admiring~

The winter pond is so beautiful!  A few days ago we had frost on top of ice, and it was sparkly in the sunshine!

(Just so you know, I don't make anything from Amazon or anywhere else for my opinions about movies, books, etc.  Links are provided for your convenience.)

Deep Clean: Pantry

I've had time to do some extra cleaning this month, so last week Hannah and I gave her room a deep clean and I also did the pantry.  It had been quite awhile since I had tackled the pantry, and it really needed it.  I was pleased that there were only a couple expired items that needed to be thrown away.  I'm diligent about keeping things in rotation and it's paid off.  I really hate to throw food away.  I may as well just put money straight into the trash.  In addition, the more I've come to realize how hard it is for people in some parts of the world to obtain adequate food, the harder I try to reduce my family's food waste. 

I didn't think to take before pictures, but here's an after:

The walls really are bright yellow.  I may paint them someday, but honestly, I don't care that much.  I got the wire shelves at Aldi and they've been very handy.  I moved all the canning jars and supplies to the (gigantic) storeroom, which let me move some things that had been on the floor to the top shelf (including the big pots and carboy Dave uses for brewing).  The pantry makes me happy now!

A Creative Life

 "Mrs Willet can tackle a hundred jobs, without having been specifically taught any of them.  She can salt pork or beef, make jams, jellies, wines, chutneys and pickles; she can bake pies--with all manner of pastries--cakes, tarts and her own bread, which is particularly delicious.  She makes rugs, curtains, and her own clothes.  She can help a neighbour in childbirth and--at the other end of life's span--compose a corpse's limbs for decent burial.  She is as good a gardener as her husband, can distemper a room, mend a fuse, and sings in the choir.

She is, in fact, typical of most countrywomen, and with them she shares that self-reliance which is the heritage of those who have had to face tackling daily jobs of varied kinds.

Mrs Willet is small and pale and yet she is 'always on the go,' as she herself will tell you.  The fact that she can do so many things, and takes enormous pride in doing them well, is, I think the secret of this apparently inexhaustible energy.  There are so many different activities to engage her, that when she tires of one, there is another to which she can turn and get refreshment.  From turning her heavy old mangle in the wash-house, she will come in and sit down to stitch a new skirt.  She will prepare a stew, and while it simmers on the hob, filling the little house with its fragrance, she will practise her part in Mr Annett's new anthem, ready for the next church festival.  And--this perhaps is the most important thing--she sees a satisfying result from her labours.  The clothes blow on the line, the skirt is folded and put away in the drawer ready for next Sunday; Mr Willet will come in 'sharp-set' and praise her bubbling stew; and, with any luck, Mr Annett will congratulate her on her grasp of that difficult passage just before the basses come in.

It is a creative life.  There is something worth while to show for energy expended which engenders the desire to accomplish more.  Small wonder that the Mrs Willets of this world are happy, and deserve to be so."

Village Diary by Miss Read

Flowers in Winter

If you're like me and Must.Have.Flowers, even in wintertime, let me give you a few ideas for bringing blooms into your house without breaking the bank.  Besides buying bouquets at the grocery store, which is what I do when all else fails, there are other inexpensive ways to do this.

Did you know shamrocks bloom?  I didn't until I saw my daughter's.  Every March, you can find shamrocks for just a few dollars at the grocery store (or better yet, be blessed with a start from someone dividing an overgrown plant, as I was from my daughter).  They are hearty and withstand a fair bit of neglect; in fact, they hate over-watering more than under-watering, and burst into bloom, randomly but often, with delicate white flowers.

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Amaryllis, not yet fully opened, on left; poinsettia on right

Amaryllis bulbs are cheap in the run-up to Christmas.  They are easy to plant and care for and will reward you with big, gorgeous blooms that last for a couple weeks.  The bulb will even re-bloom if you follow the instructions on the package.  I try to time mine to bloom on Christmas Day.

Of course, poinsettias are a staple of Christmas decor, and now they come in a variety of colors.  My favorite is the traditional red, and I always buy at least one every December.  This year, I saw tiny ones available for just over $2, though it is possible to spend much more for bigger plants.  With proper watering, they last a long time, too.  I have a friend who once had a poinsettia plant that grew to the size of a small tree!

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Photo: Southern Living

Paperwhites are another winter flower easy to grow from bulbs.  Pick up a package when you get your amaryllis; they are often sold together in the same display.  These sweet white flowers are perfect for January.  Just plant them around Christmas time and you'll have flowers in the dead of winter.

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Photo:  Optimara African Violets

African violets are fussier than any of the flowers I've mentioned, but when they bloom they add a spot of bright cheeriness to your home.  Once they bloom, the tend to keep on, but I've only once managed to get them to re-bloom.  That may be due to my lack of care and skill than anything else, though.  Be sure to feed them African violet food to keep them healthy and encourage re-blooming.  Little pots of African violets are available from grocery stores usually in the late winter or early spring.



When nothing else is blooming in the house, I buy a bouquet from the grocery store to fill in flowerless gaps.  And there's always the hope of a bouquet on Valentine's Day. :)  But with mums, zinnia, and lavender blooming into November and crocuses and snowdrops beginning in February, there are only three months out of the year in which it is a bit challenging to have flowers.  The luxury of flowers doesn't have to cost a lot.

Scenes from My House

It's hard to know what to say when you've taken an unintentional two-month-plus blog break.  How do you jump back in?  Do you apologize?  Do you explain?  Do you just reappear?  I think I'll go with the third option but give a brief explanation:  I was just plain busy!  At least once a week I thought about my poor neglected blog, but everything else crowded it out. I don't know if I'll do any better now, but I will try.

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After a week of clouds, the sunshine was very welcome.  The morning sun held warmth and brightness.

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We had our first freeze near the end of October and I thought my flowers were done for.  They were, except not all the geraniums in the barrels near the house got nipped, and they continued to bloom.  But another hard freeze was on the horizon about a week later, so I gathered all the blossoms that remained and put them in a vase on the kitchen windowsill where they are blooming still.  From here on out it's store-bought flowers for us until spring.

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My birthday dessert, which we shared, from the local French bakery. So rich and gooooood!

Sorry for the bad lighting!  It's dark by 5:00 . . .

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English food gets a bad rap.  I can say that with authority now that I've taste-tested a variety of authentic English foods.  In fact, the only bad English food we had the entire two weeks we were there was the pasta we ordered at an "American Italian restaurant."  Dave and I had cornish pasties on the train between London and Cambridge that were absolutely delicious!  And this was just train food!  In September, I decided to try my hand at making my own pasties.  They were a respectable first attempt, but I hope to refine my recipe and technique over the winter months.  They don't look too bad, do they?

Again, bad lighting . . .

Zinnias

Zinnias are such rewarding flowers!  They are easy to grow from seed, they flourish even with abject neglect once germinated, and then they burst forth with bright, big blooms.  Once they start, they don't stop until frost.  They stand up to drought conditions, too.  To top it all off, they make great cut flowers that last and last.  Zinnias are excellent flowers for children to grow because they are fast-growing and don't require diligence.  Just clip off the faded ones so more will appear.

Signs of Spring

This has been a crazy winter.  We had long stretches of unseasonably warm weather in February, which did make late winter more bearable, but I hope it does not bode ill for March, April, and May.  The last time that happened, we had cold, wet weather in mid-spring, just when I, at least, really don't want it.  And our garden suffered.  Ah, well. . .

The signs of spring are appearing early due to the warm weather. These crocuses and mini daffodils are planted at the edge of the woods where we can see them out a window from a back window.  No one sees them but us, but I like tucking little bits of beauty in unexpected places.

The bushes are already getting leaves.  It's very early, but the green is most welcome!

What has the weather been like where you are?

The Ice Storm That Wasn't

The mega gigantic ice storm that was supposed to hit Thursday night fizzled.  We twice had a little ice overnight that melted in the morning.  Missouri was closed on Friday, so I got a day at home I wasn't counting on, which was much appreciated, but which turns out was unnecessary.  I don't mind, though.  I've been running on all cylinders since the beginning of December and an extra-long weekend was just what I needed.

Around my house since Christmas~

The amaryllis is finished, but the paperwhites are coming on.  I meant to plant these in time for them to be blooming about now, but note the above paragraph. . .  I love to have flowers blooming indoors at this time of year!

We had a cold snap right after Christmas and got a little snow.  The woods and the pond are beautiful this time of year!  (Not that I was actually outside when I took this.  Brrrrr!)

Dave is now the proud owner of a canjo.  

Hannah surprised by the camera~

Spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa's 😊

                   

This tree is five or six years old, we think, and it's blooming for the first time!  It's either a lime or lemon tree.  I guess we'll find out when the fruit appears. . .