Everyday Life for Four Seasons

Today's creation is another skirt for baby. This one has a sleeve for an elastic waistband and a hem. Wow, baby sure is lucky to have such a doting mama!

Tonight we brought a present to a little boy who recently turned two years old. What do you get a boy who likes to make messes and eat his toys? We thought it would be nice to give him a painting smock and a necklace made of cereal. I used Amy Karol's pattern from Bend the Rules Sewing for the smock, and made the smock reversible, not only for looks but for practical reasons too.


Sewing this smock was so much fun! It was fairly easy but called for some attention to detail and some patience and overall it was a pleasure to make. I lengthened the pattern a bit so he can grow into it. I'll definitely be making these for my girls.


Speaking of sewing, 'A' picked it up yesterday all on her own. I was making the epipen case and she picked up a scrap of fabric and asked if she could sew a dress for her doll. I pinned the fabric and sat her down with a needle and thread and told her to go to it. She has been stitching here and there, first with lacing cards using shoelaces, then on a plastic canvas with a tapestry needle and yarn. She understands how to make stitches, but this was a whole new league for her. After she sat and was thinking about how to start, she said, "Now we have to put holes in the fabric so I can put the needle through." What a logical thought! I sent her to the window and told her to hold the fabric to the light to see all the holes. She understood. She sewed the fabric just where she wanted to and we were both happy to see that it fit her baby perfectly!

I learned a very important lesson watching her sew yesterday. This year she hasn't been in preschool, and next year, the year she would ordinarily go to kindergarten, she'll be home with me instead of in the classroom. Things are going so well, and I trust that our family style is working well for her, but I do have moments when I wonder, "How will I know what she's ready to learn? How will I know she's learning?" I don't use any sort of planned curriculum with her now, and I can't see myself using one next year, either. In my mind, learning happens everyday, during our regular activities. When you don't have a curriculum to follow and you don't rely on a system of evaluation, you're pretty much left with your instincts and intuition to set the path. When she picked up the fabric and asked to make something, figured out how to do it on her own, with no frustration, and then was overjoyed to put her creation to use, I understood at once that she will let me know when she's ready. She sees me sew, and when she was ready to try it, she asked to do it. She does that with everything. When she's ready to learn, she just does it.

When I think about how she is growing and learning, and what my role is, I think a lot about trust. Trusting 'A', trusting my instincts, and trusting the process. It's one thing to think about trust and another thing to actually do it. I'm finding that my ability to trust the process can only come when I have total faith in myself.


Look at this poor old kitty. She's almost 17 years old. She's hanging in OK. Slow and arthritic, but happy.

She may not technically be a baby anymore, but she's still my baby...


We're getting snow today - not a tremendous amount, but enough to satisfy some part of my winter soul. The girls and I took a trip to the library in Saratoga today and as we drove home, I wondered if we would see any more than a flurry. Then, as we got close to home, there it was, coming down like a winter wonderland, beckoning us to come out and play.


Today I got crafty. I love, love, love making things that serve a practical purpose and fill a need. After the whole realization that 'A's epipen is here to stay, I thought about how nice it would be to have a case to carry it in, along with a few doses of Benadryl. Until now, I've been throwing it all into my purse and hoping I can find it when I need it. Now it finally has a home! I wanted something compact, sturdy and attractive. And here it is...


I figured out the pattern and design myself, since I needed it to carry the epipens and have a separate pocket for the Benadryl single dose packets. It's built to last, a good thing, because I have a feeling I'm going to be carrying it around for a long time.

We had a very productive weekend - restacked three tons of wood pellets in the newly cleaned garage...

cleaned closets, filed papers, cleaned humidifiers and got another one to balance out the dry air in our living spaces...

watched 'H' swim in the class for bigger kids for the first time, and were delighted to see how much she liked it...

watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics open-mouthed and very impressed with the native American dancing...

watched birds come to our feeder and wondered why the White Breasted Nuthatch wouldn't fly from a nearby tree to our feeder to sample the sunflower seeds...

...and felt so good about getting so many things done and having a wonderful time doing them!

We're okay here. Still sick, with new antibiotics for both girls, but overall okay. I think the pellet stove dries out our house too much. We've got humidifiers in the sleeping quarters, but it looks like we need some moisture in the air in the living space, too. A cold that lasts this long and comes back to haunt us with sinus infections is not typical for us.


I had the chance to tell 'A's doctor about the hot dog incident and her anaphylactic reaction. I asked if I handled it appropriately, giving her only the Benadryl and waiting to see if more severe reactions occurred. She told me that I should have administered the epipen at the moment she said her mouth and throat felt funny. Remember, I didn't want to give it because I knew it would be a traumatic event (try stabbing yourself with a needle, hold it in your leg for 10 seconds, feel your heart race and think that things are out of control afterward, listen to your mother scream for help and then be a good patient for the advanced life support team that arrives on the scene). One of my questions was, "how do I know how to handle it in the future?" After I spoke with her, I knew. I don't want this to be the answer, but it is. We're now squarely in Epipen Land. Every time an allergic person is exposed to an allergen, the reaction gets more severe. Next time 'A' is exposed to exactly the same amount of dairy that was in that hot dog, her reaction will be even more severe, and will without a doubt warrant use of the epipen.

For almost 5 years now, I've wondered if I would ever need to use it. I never knew exactly what her reaction would be. That unknown was always a reason to hold out hope that it would never be too severe, or that she may outgrow this allergy. But here we are, and although the future isn't necessarily bleak, because there's a lot of wonderful things about vegan living, the idea of her ever being a "regular kid" who eats pizza and ice cream is now really, truly gone. The idea that she can sit next to another playful child and be goofy and silly is now only possible in a situation that does not involve food. The idea of going someplace and being more than a few feet away from the epipen is now an impossibility.

Nothing is all that different now, except that I have new, more accurate information and my actions going forward will be shaped by it. She's still the same little girl I have known and loved.

It feels good to have finally made some progress on the hankie front. I decided to use some of the flannel I already had and see if it made for some soft, absorbent handkerchiefs. I cut some squares and rectangles to about the size of an unfolded tissue, and tried a few different ways of sewing the edges so they won't unravel. I'll tell you now that ironing narrow hems and sewing them does not make for an easy-to-make or easy-to-use hankie. So skip that step if you're doing this at home.


I settled on a basic overlock stitch, stitched right up to the edge. I have a Janome DC3050 and on my machine it's stitch #12. It was easy. Easy and boring. This was perhaps the most boring sewing ever.

I'm done with batch numbero uno and 'A' used them up just as fast I sewed them!


On the mothering front, I did something today that felt right at the time but now I'm not so sure. I went to the store and purchased a thermometer. No big deal, right? 'H' woke up with an extra-runny nose and said she was "cold," so right away I knew that she had a fever. But 'H' is different than 'A' and it was harder for me to read her signs. She was warm, but not terribly warm, and her eyes looked glassy, but not terribly so. I was on the fence with calling our pediatrician and I decided to buy the thermometer to see if I was right. Well, you know the story. Yes, I was right. She didn't want to put it in her mouth, but even with it dangling half out, it registered at 102.8. So I called. They can't see us until tomorrow, which is fine with me.

That's not the end of the story. After I gave her some Tylenol and she woke from a nap, I had the urge to take her temperature again. I didn't even stop to "read" her signs like I normally would have. I just stuck the darn thing in her mouth and prepared myself to trust whatever it said. I do not like how that feels at all! I do so much better when I put the external "wisdom" aside and just focus on what my child is doing and saying to determine how they feel and how their illness is progressing.

The thermometer is going to be put away until it's needed sometime in the future. For now, she's sick and after a few weeks of a cold, she may well have a secondary infection and get to take the "bubble gum pink medicine" like her older sister. We'll find out tomorrow.


Soup tonight for dinner, then an early exit for me, as I have a membership committee meeting to attend at our UU church tonight. I love soup night.

That's my girl! Checking for fresh animal tracks in the snow.

We did get a wee bit of the storm that hit the east coast today. An inch? Maybe less? Enough to freshen up the little bit we had on the ground from last week, but not enough to make me really happy. It's okay, we'll get it all in March and April, I'm sure.


'A' is a little better, enough to at least say she's on the mend. We're all having "Quiet, Alone Time" right now. I stopped enforcing it around Christmastime, and am so happy I'm back to it. We all need it so much. We each go into a separate room and do our own thing for an hour or so. There's no noise in the house, no talking, no music unless the girls want to sing or make music on their own. I'm an introvert, so I crave quiet time alone to recharge. It helps me to have the mental, emotional and physical "space" I need. Sometimes it's a challenge to get them to play separately during that time, but all in all, it's a welcome part of the day.


Outdoor fun was followed up by a frosted brownie treat, just for kicks. I love treats that are just for fun.

We kept it simple today. 'A' melted down into a fever and super-persistent cough, so off we went to see her doctor. I almost went out to purchase a thermometer because I was puzzled about why she would have a new fever after four days of antibiotics. But then I told myself that I was sure she had a fever, and a thermometer would only confirm what I already knew, so I should skip that purchase and put some faith back into my own intuition. Her doctor gave her a nebulizer treatment and that seemed to help. So here we are at home, nebulizer plugged in, ready to go if she needs it during the night. My hope is that she's done with her runny nose and constant cough within a few days. Some relief would be great for her. She's such a great kid.

Look at that face. Do I need a thermometer to tell me she's sick? No, I don't.

:: Remembering to sign the girls up for classes at the Y...


:: Staying close to my girl who spent the night coughing...


:: Enjoying the sound of chirping birds and the company of Grace...


:: Loving watching her learning style unfold for both of us...

Let's talk about food.

When we started eating locally grown veggies at the end of last winter, I saw the greens that were sold at the farmer's market, but wondered about other green vegetables... you know, green beans, broccoli, peas. Things that give your plate a variety of colors.

It's taken me a while this winter to figure out how it all works. There are a LOT of vegetables at the farmer's market in our area. We go to the Saratoga Springs, NY farmer's market every Saturday morning to buy our food for the week. It's a fairly large winter market, but we're so far north and I must believe that towns south of us have an abundance also.

Last Saturday, we bought kohlrabi. It's a member of the brassica (cabbage) family. The name has a German origin, the combination of two words meaning "cabbage" and "turnip". It is related to broccoli, cabbage and caulifower. After I peel the tough skin and steam or roast it, it tastes like the stem of broccoli.

Because it tastes like broccoli, and it grows in the winter, I think it counts as a green vegetable, don't you?

Like many of the winter vegetables, it's high in Vitamin C, and high in potassium. It's also a great source of fiber.

I have cooked it two ways: roasted and steamed. When I roast it, I cut off the tough, outer peel and cut the flesh into large pieces. Toss them with some olive oil and roast in a 400 degree oven until tender. Tonight I steamed it. I left the skin on until after it was steamed, then cut the skin off, cut the pieces up, and served it warm.

So there you have it... kohlrabi! A wonderful addition to the winter table.

Now let's talk about health... specifically, Neti Pots. I talked to my dad and found out that he and Mimi got our cold last week. Jeff's mom got it over the weekend. I'm finishing it up, as is 'A'. My dad said his doctor told him to use a neti pot. Jeff used ours all last week, and he reminded me tonight that I need to start using it again. So I did, and I'm so happy about it! What a wonderful way to scoot that cold out the door. I highly recommend it.

I wish you good health! Goodness knows I'm trying to find some for myself.

We said good-bye to Jeff's parents last night and they left at the crack of dawn to return home. Gymnastics today for both girls, with a trip to two separate libraries squeezed in between the classes (we like books).

Reading right now:

* The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz
* Handmade home : simple ways to repurpose old materials into new family treasures by Amanda Blake Soule
* Good night, fairies by Kathleen Hague
* Emotional awareness : overcoming the obstacles to psychological balance and compassion : a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman
* Digging up dinosaurs by Aliki
* My first book of time Claire Llewellyn
* Little house farm days : adapted from the Little house books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

...along with many others.