winter survival skills

I took a class on winter survival my senior year of high school. That class was geared towards car kits with flares and granola bars, and learning how to build a shelter in the snow. But the kind of survival I am talking about today is the one where a woman may look aghast at her calendar and say, "what on earth? Is it STILL January?!!" Longest month ever. Plus, we're on a tight budget and ran out of food money nine days ago. For real January, let it go.

But it got me to thinking about the things I do to make it through with my spirits high. Because, as your may remember, I have regrouped my seasons and My Winter is actually January, February and March. It sets March up with much more realistic expectations. It's going to snow a lot that month...might as well call it winter. Which means we are just 1/3 through this season.

I actually do love winter, but mostly because of the hibernation and hunkering it naturally brings. Which is why I wanted to share my favorite winter survival skills:

1. Kiwi, orange and banana salad. Just these three. Just one of each. Cut up into a fruit salad. I swear it turns into a different food entirely. Somehow it all balances each other out and because all are in season all winter long, it can feel like a little tropical get away. Try it before you knock it. It's my favorite.

2. Hot Baths. Honestly, people who don't have winter just can't get the gift of a hot bath. Or a hot shower, for that matter. We just read The Long Winter to the kids, where the Ingalls family nearly starves to death waiting for the train to come through the snow drifts in late, late April. Blizzards come for days at a time and only leave for one or two days. It's terrible. Rory mentioned that he couldn't imagine not having a hot shower...ever. That whole generation died before they knew the goodness of a hot shower! Don't take it for granted!

3. A roaring fire. This isn't completely fair because most don't have a fireplace. We dreamed of our fireplace and talked about it and even made fake paper fireplaces on our living room walls for a decade. But when you are bone cold, there is NOTHING like standing next to a roaring hot stove. It's such a good, radiant heat.

4. Grapefruits, peeled like an orange and then each section peeled again. There is no other way to eat a grapefruit. Get rid of that sharp spoon and learn from my ways. My uncle Wayne taught me this method and I can never go back. To take a bite of an enormous wedge of grapefruit in the dead of winter? Well it's worth all the work and mess off peeling the whole thing. It will reset your mood, outlook and will become a daily ritual. Just the smell alone will do wonders.

5. Winter photography. This is a favorite. When I'm feeling like it, it is so good to get outside and look for what is beautiful. There is so much. We recently had a snow that coated each tree in white on just one side. I looked out my windows and thought there is just no better painting in the world than the one God changes for us each day.

6. Tea Time with Popcorn! Do this! I was recently at Cub and looking at microwave popcorn. And then I saw a bag of whole kernels for a fraction of the price, for like 10 times the amount of popcorn. And I thought, "Aunt Louie pops her own popcorn. How hard can it be?" And thank you Aunt Louie! It's not hard! At all! I don't even have a pan with a proper fitting lid, and I still can do it. (look it up on youtube, lots of videos..it's a cinch, try it with coconut oil...yum!) Anyway, each day at 3:00 when my kids start saying they're hungry I have been making popcorn and tea. (They love tea now that Mary and Laura drank so much in The Long Winter. We're really into Good Earth Sweet and Spicy...thanks to some recommendations here on the blog!) What used to be a long and dragging part of our day has become a highlight. We sit and sip and eat and talk and regroup for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Hattie loves popcorn too.

7. An electric blanket. So excited about this. I don't know if a night has passed where Rory or I don't say, "this blanket is the best." Bed is already heated when you crawl in. 2017 is a fine time to be alive. An electric blanket is just a sweet luxury that isn't that expensive.

8. Good books. I have been listening to The Read Aloud Revival podcast that shares great, wholesome books to read aloud to the whole family. (they have a book list of recommendations on their site to print off!) Along the way I have heard many titles that are too old for my kids, but I want to read. My list is long and the books are rich and good. Classics, or certain to be classics. And you tell me if you're not hungry for a good story of good people doing the right thing!

9. Playdates. Winter is such a catch 22 because the second you plan a playdate, someone gets sick. But we persevere because eventually it works out and friendship is good for everyone.

10. Go to be early. I love this one. Especially because I'm pregnant and exhausted. But isn't it nice to have permission to go to bed before 10, just because it's that dark? In the summer, Rory and I will putter in the yard until 10 most nights, working on projects. But not in winter. There have been many nights at dinner that I announce, I am going to bed with the kids tonight. And when 7:00 rolls around, I'm the first one with my teeth brushed and contacts out.

So there is my list. I'd love to hear if you have any other favorites to add. You'll note I'm not super active this winter. I daily walk would be good addition, but hard with all the little people (and snowpants drama) it involves. But do share! I really do love winter because of the list above. And I'd love to add more to my list!

good lookin' goat

I remember at the County Fair walking into the goat building and telling Rory that I was on a mission to "find the cute goats." We walked the loop of that building, and I was hard pressed to find a cute goat. They are odd, odd animals. Most disturbing are the really tall kind that are the top milk producers. I can't remember their name but they didn't have ears. And I can't remember it that was because they were clipped or if they were born that way, but either way it was terribly unnatural. And their heads were very small for their bodies. They were far from the cute goats I was looking for.

Well, we didn't find them at the fair, but I did eventually find the cute goats. They're ours. And just between you and me, I am sure they look exactly like the ones we saw at the fair that day. Except these goats are our sweet Darcy and Precious. And we love them so much. They are probably our favorite farm animals, right up there with Velma and Vernon, our very first farm cats. Sheep are interesting and show very little personality it seems. But goats are just awesome.

I took this picture recently and when we came in I zoomed way in to discover that Darcy the Goat is in fact smiling for the camera. Come on! Not only do we think Darcy and Precious are darling, but we also find them to be quite photogenic. Plus,we are expecting baby goats sometime in February from both of them. Can you imagine the cuteness?!!

a pretty winter

These pictures were all taken last week. This week has been nice and balmy and a whole lot of our snow has melted. It feels better outside, but it's not nearly as beautiful. It's supposed to snow overnight, so we'll likely be coated in fresh white by morning.

This is Hattie's favorite place to be. She loves watching her brother and sister and yelling, "I-are! Eh-Eeh!" Also she can climb up onto anything now which makes life a little more intense. Thankfully she is proud and usually alerts me to her new position by clapping her hands and loudly announcing, "Ididit!" That's my cue to come from the other room to figure out where she is now precariously perched.

I've also figured out a good mom trick. Typically Ivar wants to stay inside and Elsie is up for going outside. But they both need some time outdoors so I have started telling them, "you just have to be outside for 10 minutes. I don't care if you stay in the warm room (heated a bit for the water spigot) in the barn and play with the cats the whole 10 minutes and then come back in." The mom trick is that the kids usually find something they're interested in like visiting the goats and sheep, riding their bikes in the barn, building baby snowmen, looking for possum prints or pulling each other in the sled. Those ten minutes never end up just ten minutes. But those ten minutes get them out the door.

Thankfully the ice didn't do any damage, so these pictures are still lovely to us. And the picture below is of a huge black walnut we had taken down because it creaked so badly. We were glad it came down on our time...look at how hollow that tree was!

And on a sad note, a coyote got into the chicken yard and ate one of our best layers! (Not Henny or Penny, Kathy!) Goldie (in the lower right) apparently didn't go back into the coop one night. We didn't see her but a coyote did. We've been hearing them each night and man coyote howls are ominous! The dog left tracks in the snow and some grey fur on the fence so we are pretty certain we know who to blame. But the very next day Rory put up an electrical mesh fence around the chicken fence, a motion-censored flood light and an animal cam. These chickens have never been so safe.

Other than that, January keeps marching along. I woke up with a terrible bout of Vertigo this morning. I am always so surprised when it hits because you never really plan it. It knocked me out a lot of the day, but finally this afternoon after a round of the awesome head exercises, I got everything set right in my inner-ear and life could carry on as usual. So I made spaghetti and cleaned the kitchen. And my "as usual" felt really good to do because I was healthy again. Funny how a sick body can throw everything back into perspective. There are so many things to be grateful for, especially a healthy body.

what our home school looks like

(Because I always try to be an honest blogger, I will tell you that I picked up the room a bit before I took these pictures...)

So beginning on a really practical level, I have a table set up in the living room with a stool on one side and two chairs on the other side. The table can be taken down over the weekend if we'd like. I have all of my teaching materials in the laundry room in a cabinet and bring a bin to the table each day with whatever books and supplies we will need. For now I love this set up. We don't have a natural room to house our homeschooling stuff, and I sort of refuse to turn one of our living rooms into a classroom...I think it has something to do with mixing work with home.  I love that I can pack up our school stuff and put it out of sight in the off time. I know this will change with more kids and more supplies in the coming years, but I hope to be strategic with built-ins and cabinets that we will likely add to the fireplace room. I want our stuff concealed so when we're not doing school it still feels like our home.

The greatest success of our first year of homeschooling has been Ivar's reading. Ivar was two months shy of age six when we started Teach you Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it fit him perfectly. He has taken to reading with ease and I think this is due to a number of factors but mainly because he was ready. I have a theory that teaching a kid to read is a lot like potty training. If you do it too early, the parent is going to end up frustrated, annoyed and forced to deal with a lot of drama. But if the child truly is ready, it will go smoothly. So I like that Ivar was almost a solid six before we began. I will likely wait to teach Elsie at the same age, unless she shows signs that she's really ready. (Again, so similar to potty training!

And here's the kicker: Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is AWESOME. I love this book so much. I looked at a few teach-your-child-to-read curriculums. Some were phonics based, some had cute music that explained the vowel sounds. Some were really colorful kits and exciting. But all of those were super expensive. For real I chose this curriculum because it was one book (requiring no extra supplies) for $19. The title seemed self explanatory enough and as I told Rory, "we'll know by Christmas if it's working. If it's not, we may need to lay down some money for one of those big curriculum sets." But here we are. Ivar is on lesson 76 and he is knocking our socks off.

The method is fascinating, if you're into this sort of thing. The lessons have their own orthography which means the letters look different, silent letters are written smaller, vowels that say their sound have a line over them.  There are clues added to the regular 26 letters to help a child learn to read. Throughout the book these clues are gradually eliminated, but Ivar has made these transitions without trial. Honestly, if you have a struggling reader, no matter if they are in public or private or home school, I'd try this method with them. It's a different approach, but amazing to watch unfold. And it truly takes 15-20 minutes a day (we don't do the handwriting). Amazing.

So that's reading. Math is pretty basic. I chose Ivar's math book because the whole book is in color and I know the boy loves a good worksheet. (And it came recommended.) It's the kindergarten book from the Critical Thinking Company and it lays the foundation for all sorts of math concepts. I use his workbook as my launching point for what I want to teach him and create math games to supplement his lesson. I like this book and will likely use it with Elsie. And, it was $40 for an entire year's worth of lessons. Elsie has gone through a number of math workbooks that I found at The Dollar Tree in September. They have a lot of number writing and counting and most importantly, stickers in the back to put on each completed page.

We've done a few unit studies on: Maps and Globes, Minnesota Geography, Birds and now we're onto Dinosaurs. The library helps supplement these lessons as well as a whole lot of coloring sheets. Ivar recently told me he would like more art projects, so I'm trying to do that as well. That's sort of my sweet spot so it shouldn't be hard to add more in the mix but it does take planning (and mess making)!

Rory and I take turns with bedtime and when it's my night I read from a few different Children's Bibles. But when it's Rory's night, he reads from his own adult Bible one chapter a night. It is amazing to hear the kids' questions and to hear his explanations to their questions. I would have thought they were much too young for the actual Bible, but they are definitely not. I am amazed and the conversations I hear coming out of that room at bedtime. We also have had our kids memorize Psalm 1, Psalm 100 and are just beginning Isaiah 55:8-13. This is done in the morning and evening.

Then we read a chapter book together. We are nearly through the Little House series and the kids love it. A few friends mentioned they wish they had kept a running list of the read alouds they had done with their kids through graduation so I am going to try to share our list on this blog as we go. We have read a few others besides Little House as well. I recently discovered the podcast Read Aloud Revival (you can listen right on the website, and it's not just for home educators...it's for all parents!) and it has been such a joy to me and renewed my enthusiasm for bedtime reading. I used to dread reading aloud at bedtime to the kids because I was so tired myself. But I just started moving their bedtime up earlier so I could still be "done" at the same time, and I sincerely love this time together. It's fun to see the shift in my own heart. Plus, the books we are reading are ones that I am eager to pick up again too.

Other than that, the kids have gym and we still do play dates. We frequent the library and more than anything, they play. And that's maybe the very most important thing happening in this house this year. My kids LOVE to play with each other. The sibling bonding I have seen this year is incredible...it amazes me to think Ivar would be gone from 8:30-4 each day if he wasn't home with us. I truly cannot imagine it. That is so much family time for us, and I love watching him take care of Hattie and be a friend to Elsie. It's a joy and a gift and again, one of the most important things happening in this house each day. They play so hard and it's very gratifying to see.

So that's our basic day in a nutshell, halfway through year one. If you've ever contemplated home schooling, I highly recommend the Minnesota Association of Christian Homeschool Association (MACHE) conference held in April at the Excel Energy Center. (Thursday is a day for first time or wondering about homeschooling parents). Our first year I thought I would see a lot of long skirts and doily headpieces (I had my own stigmas to overcome!) but when we walked in, we saw a whole lot of typical mom's and dad's. Lots of Merona cardigans and jeans. My kind of people. :)

power balls

Have you made these yet? The actual recipe I found was called Trail Blazer Bites, but we have renamed them Power Balls. And contrary to the enormous picture above, they are actually just the size of a one inch cookie scoop. I love having these on hand...they're sort of a mini Lara bar and perfect when you want something sweet.

Power Balls
1/2 cup almonds
2 T. roasted flax seed
1 cup pitted dates
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup rolled oats

Put everything in the food processor and pulse until all mixed together. In the batch pictured above I tried using less dates but they were sort of dry and I think deserve the full cup. And some recipes call for 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips which would be awesome but they're great without.

The kids love these which is awesome because they think they are cookies. So we limit two a day for everyone and still they don't last very long...