Merry CHRISTmas from Small Wonders

Wishing you all a Very Merry CHRISTmas.

Angel Ruby

Thank you all for your interest in our family and especially for your love and encouragement.
We have friends coming over today to share in Christmas baking, then off to Church for a candlelight service.
Tomorrow, we will be headed up to Mount Baker Ski Area with 4 other families to enjoy the sledding, then back to our house for feasting and friendship. Keeping it simple and purposed.
May your Christmas be filled with love and joy and peace.

Glass Mountain

Ian's Finished Ornament

 One of my Cub Scout moms generously donated a gift certificate to Glass Mountain, a local glass blowing studio. I jumped at the opportunity. Glass Blowing is something I have wanted to try for years!

 A lot goes into the making of a glass Christmas Ornament

 4 of my Bear Scouts were able to attend. Each boy got to make his own Christmas Ornament. They got to choose the colors, the style (swirl, solid, speckled, etc.,) and got to heat the glass and blow the glass. Mr Ed, the artist, was extremely patient with the boys and very careful, but not crazy paranoid (like I might be inclined to be).

Ian Absolutely Loved Glass Blowing

Have you ever tried to explain something to a group of 8 year old boys? I can tell you it is by God's great mercy that I am able to keep their attention for more than 3.8 minutes. Mr. Ed kept them eagerly awaiting every word that was spoken. He was very clear, entertaining, informative, and interesting!

Paul refines his ornament in the Glory Hole

 I don't know if it's because I am a child of the 80's, or maybe just juvenile in my humor, every time Mr. Ed referred to the Glory Hole I had to stifle a laugh. The Glory Hole (laugh) was where the glass was heated up and kept soft and pliable. They had to keep heating the glass, then shaping it, heating it, adding color, heating it, shaping it, heating it, blowing... You get the idea. This wasn't a quick process.

I love the Joy on his face

Glass Mountain offers classes to make your own ornament for $35. While I don't even spend $35 on anything if I can help it, this would totally (80's again) be worth it. The entire studio is a feast for your eyes. Beautiful beads, ornaments, flowers, vases everywhere. We were mesmerized by the beautiful unique pieces everywhere! However, I  cringe thinking of his poor wife paying the utility bills!

4 of my Bear Scouts with the master glass blower, Mr. Ed

I think I persuaded Sean to take a couples class and design something to make together.

Erik T, blowing his ornament

I am a tiny bit jealous that Ian got to try it before I did, however, I do have a new favorite ornament! I love that he can look at the ornament every year and remember this experience. I love that his ornament looks like a marble and has his current favorite colors.
I feel blessed to have been given this opportunity to create fun memories with my youngest son.

Speaking My Language

The blog has been conspicuously quiet lately. Usually that means that I am busy living life. Sometimes it means I an just trying to stay afloat. Occasionally it means I am really struggling. I would have to say that the past couple of months have been a combination of all three.

A Small Smattering of Treasures I received at The Gift of Time

In the busyness of life, my friend Kelly, treated me to a day. A day! I mean a whole day to take care of things I needed to take care of. I used this time to catch up with long time friends, work on some unfinished projects, organize my thoughts and make lists and plans for the next few months.
Kelly provided a fabulous lunch, treats (even a special treat just for me Take 5 candy bar) an entire box of delicious desserts for me to bring home to my husband, biscotti, gingerbread pancake mix, notes of encouragement, and so much more.
I think it was perfect timing to regroup and  prioritize what is important for our family. The next few weeks will be full of change for our school and our family to hopefully help things run more smoothly. I am already seeing some huge benefits from implementing a schedule change and dietary restrictions for several of the children.

My whole family is in love with Pioneer Woman

If you could question the amazingness of Kelly after the Gift of Time, she surprised me with "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" cookbook. Inside the front cover she wrote, "Just Because". Wow.
When I grow up, I want to think like she does, with such selfless love to her family and others. She remembers things about people (like my love of Take 5), she really listens, and gives from the bottom of her heart.
My entire family has a love affair with The Pioneer Woman. My oldest son wants to be adopted by her, my middle son wants to marry her, my youngest son wants us to take a family vacation to her house.My husband will smile and say, "Wow!" when I not so casually mention that I am serving a Pioneer Woman meal.  I actually like Ian's idea best because it doesn't take any of my boys away from me! I love her too! I love that her recipes are simple to follow, use ingredients I already have in my cupboard, and taste amazing! For an entire month all we ate were recipes from The Pioneer Woman.
I am blessed beyond measure.

War!

Jake, Mr. Jason, Aaron, Erik

 Jake called and invited Aaron and Erik to come play Airsoft at Grampy's Farm! I was shocked when Aaron hesitated about going. After I discovered it was because he did not want to spend any of his money on more airsoft pellets, I understood a bit better.
I knew he loved playing, and loved Jake even more. It was really hard for this mama heart to see her son pass up on something I knew he would enjoy and would build his confidence. Spending time with men of integrity is valuable.

The Warriors waiting for more soldiers to arrive! 

Aaron came inside and was thrilled with a whole bag full of pellets! He spent about an hour picking up pellets from outside from where he had spilled them earlier this summer. Necessity is the mother of invention. He got even more when we drained the pool and the water made the ground soft!
They got to play for a couple of hours and loved every second of it. Mr. Jason and Mr. Marty were really wishing that Sean had come so they could have beat the boys! Mr. Marty had some sizeable welts, the boys put on quite a display. Most importantly, they had a fabulous time! Thanks Jake for the great idea and for making it happen! I heard a great quote the other day, that totally applies here, "It is better to build a boy than mend a man." I am being intentional in building my boys. What are you doing to build your boys?

The Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

We started school a couple of weeks ago. We started slow. I knew that I just had not had time to plan, organize or prepare, but I felt some urgency in what I am hoping to accomplish this year. 

We have enjoyed some beautiful beach days, hikes with friends, and trips to the park. It was even warm enough for an excursion to the dairy for ice cream.

Olive Toddy

 Literally, as I was speaking the words, "Sometimes it is just so hard, but you can't give up. You just have to keep going..." Erik came running in the house telling me that water was pouring out of the light fixture in the garage ceiling.
I knew that our bathroom was above the garage so I darted upstairs to see if I could determine the problem.

Rogue Dryer

 The problem was that our toilet became a geyser! It was spraying toilet water onto the ceiling, walls, and counter, plus it was overflowing at the same time and running in the utility closet behind the water heater.
Thankfully, Erik knew where the water shutoff was and how to turn it off. That ebbed the flow of water while I began by cleaning up the deluge upstairs. I called the landlord to see if he could determine the cause. Then we moved to the basement and cleaned up the boxes and other items that were covered in nasty water that traveled from the upstairs to the garage and down in the basement!

Do Not Use

Meanwhile, my dryer, which previously worked perfectly decided it didn't want to turn on anymore. Remember that I just had a flood and used every.single.towel in my house to clean it up.  AND Sean decided to clean the sink trap and as he was screwing the pipe back on it snapped! Mind you it couldn't just snap, OH NO, it snapped between the sub floor and the basement ~ In between the floors of the house!
I was in the process of cleaning out the garage when I decided to treat myself to a Toddy. I poured the last of my half and half, added the coconut syrup then grabbed my 'Toddy" out of the fridge and dumped it in, only to discover that I grabbed the olives instead! Tragically I had to dump the whole thing out, Olive Toddy just doesn't appeal to my taste buds.
I ended up cleaning up my entire garage and even moved one of our freezers. I am quite pleased with the new organization. All the bikes orderly, helmets, scooters, and beach stuff all have their own storage container and place!
Not quite how I had anticipated my day, but extremely happy with the results! It was even nice enough to hang my laundry on the line. It really wasn't a horrible no good very bad day although it would have been easy to get caught up in all the mishaps and think that way. I chose to focus on how clean everything was and be thankful that I already had dinner in my working Crockpot. 

Puff-Puff The (not so) Proud Rooster

Warning: This post might seem graphic to some. I think it is too, but I really did leave out the super gross and bloody photos.

Clayton had a few helpers catching Puff-Puff. The sounds from the coop were hilarious! 

 Sean and our landlord, Mr. L, have both had several encounters with Puff-Puff our Proud Rooster. I guess we know now where the term Cocky comes from, He was a proud Cock.
The important term there being: was.

This photo cracks me up, not so much for me beheading my first rooster,
but for Ruby's hand over her heart, and Erik's mouth wide open. 

 I sold our hens a few weeks ago. I was tired of feeding them for not enough eggs (which I later discovered a cache of eggs in the bushes) I digress, since the hens have been gone Puff-Puff has been alone, except when he tries to bother our pullets. He was rather outspoken and frankly, with then hens gone he had no job.

 I often tell the children you don't work, you don't eat. Puff-Puff wasn't working so he got what was coming to him! (Please read the tongue in cheek, and know that is not what would happen to my children).
Just for the experience we let him run around with his head cut off and watched his last few attempts at crowing. There was some morbid laughing. It was kinda gross, kinda educational.

I did not have control of the camera so there were some rather disgusting photos,
especially of the rooster's feet in various 'situations'

 I was surprised at how heavy he was. I was also surprised how difficult it was to chop his head completely off. I did 3/4 of the decapitation, and Aaron finished the job for me.

I canned applesauce last night, blackberry jam this morning, then kept the pot hot
and butchered a rooster this afternoon, not bad.

After putting him in hot water and removing the feathers, we took him outside and gutted him. I cut him  from sternum to stem. I did gag a bit when we cleaned the neck and removed the bowels. Seriously, felt like the smell was still on my hands long after I was done. Erik commented that our anatomy this afternoon was much more fun and interesting than our anatomy this morning. Real life.

The children saved as many neck feathers as possible.
 Ian decided to dress up his Dollar Tree cowboy hat. 

We, I mean I, had to finish plucking the rooster with tweezers, then put him in a pot to simmer for a few hours. I got 3 quarts of broth, and some pretty good looking meat for dinner! The skin was tough, leathery and looked like a teenage boy with bad acne.
Erik was disappointed that we had already done science, because this,"Totally, could have counted!"
Ian claimed the rooster feet. He wilted when I told him they were not coming in the house.
I said, "You know those aren't coming in the house, Right!?"
He replied, "I do now."
 He had hoped to put them in his treasure chest. I don't know, maybe they would smell good?

Feeling The Love

We have always had the desire to move to the country, have a farm with animals and productive work for the children. It is a wonderful experience. In my dreams we all worked side by side, laughed, cried, got dirty,  toiled and played together.

I wonder if picking beans is dangerous? They are all wearing helmets. 

Dreams are often not reality. However when they are there is great satisfaction. We pulled the children off their bikes and into the garden to harvest the beans. I love bush beans however, we could get more bounty from the pole beans. We should have harvested sooner and more often. I am giving myself some grace in that we ate from the garden most of the summer (ignore all the lettuce to the right that has gone to seed), and although some of the food wasn't used we definitely got our $1.99 worth from the packet of seeds. I can't wait till all those tomatoes turn red! Salsa and Red Sauce are among the top to process.

In between picking, they found corn to eat fresh from the stalk. 

We picked the bushes clean then Sean ripped them out to feed to the cows, and chickens.
I tend to get into things over my head but I am willing to try. I admit I was nervous about pressure canning the beans by myself. Sean and the boys were going to a Scout camp overnight. I could think of a lot of things that could go wrong. I knew that it need to be done.

Me, Ruby, Granddad, Taylor (taken by Ian(8))

Thankfully, Sean didn't entirely trust me either. So he called his dad and asked him to come help me. My father in law drove 3 hours and was here by the time the girls, Ian and I were done eating breakfast.

Mama's helper Miss Ruby

He brought his pressure canner and set up a second station in the garage. The girls, Ian and I snapped beans and filled jars. Ivan ran the pressure canners. It was super efficient and wonderful to have my Father In Law all to myself (well I had to share with Taylor, Ian, Ruby and Liberty).
I talked his ear off and cherished the time we had together.
Taylor worked on making 4 Manicotti dinners, 1 for Saturday night, and 3 for the freezer. She also made us an apple crisp for dessert.

32 Quarts of Green Beans! Aren't they beautiful? 

Over the last couple of years, Taylor has matured so much and become both capable and competent. I was able to get so much done because she was there to help with the littles both joyfully and willingly.

Ruby, Granddad, and Liberty (in her 27th complete outfit change of the day)

Ivan finally sat down for dinner. As soon has he was no longer vertical the girls moved in for a spot on his lap. They begged him to spend the night. I thanked him profusely and he said he kinda liked it! He also brought us several pints of tuna that he canned. Seriously the best tuna I have ever tasted.
There is some amazing satisfaction going to bed completely exhausted from a long day of productive work. I felt quite content in my farm kitchen, skirt, denim apron, cows mooing in the background, kids riding on the tractor, eating apples straight from the tree, chickens clucking, the gift of time and service from my father in law. Sometimes dreams do come true.