sum sum summertime

All of a sudden we're halfway through August.  The thought of second grade looming in our future, I decided it would be a good time to revisit our summer list.  I enjoy making these types of lists because otherwise I would drift through the days with the vague idea that yes, didn't I want to make bouncy balls with the kids today?  But holy crap it's time to start dinner.  This is also one of the main reasons I LOVE Pinterest.  I wouldn't say I am obsessed with Pinterest, I have passed that stage thankfully.  I have a summer board, a board entirely of other peoples summer lists and of course a board with my 2012 summer ideas.  Maybe I'm a teeny tiny bit obsessed.  But you have to understand that previous to Pinterest I was a magazine hoarder and clipping saver.  This is much tidier.  Here is my list which is changing and evolving as the summer goes.  Also this isn't in an order or anything, it just is.  

The first thing we did was go to the beach.  We even made a calender and put glitter around the days we'd be on vacation.  

When we got back from our super fun week at the beach, we had another full week.  Some friends and I planned a "camp"  week  We each took a day and planned activities.  For my day I chose something already on my list.  BUBBLE RAMA.  We made giant bubbles, rainbow bubble snakes and tried bubble painting.  Bubble painting didn't go very well, but the twelve(!!!) kids still had tons of fun getting messy with soap.

unicorn poop bubble snake

1.      Bubblerama

2.      Sprinkler party

3.      Crayola factory - Lucky us we live about an hour from the Crayola factory.  I go a Living Social deal so we went.  I must say, I was pretty disappointed.  Growing up we went and it was EPIC.  It was an actual facory tour and then some coloring.  Now it's a lot of coloring and a guy behind a humungo plexiglass screen making a batch of reds.  Still at the Crayola Factory Expieriance (yes I should have known better from it's new name) I put a few how-are-crayons-made books on hold at our local library.  And as soon as we got home I showed my guys the Mr. Rogers episode when he goes to the Crayola Factory.  

4.      Movie night - so far we've watched a movie every other week.  We've viewed The Secret of Arriety, Rio and Willow.

5.      Fun mail

6.      Make ice cream

7.      Hawk mountain

8.      Camping - We had plans to camp this past weekend actually.  Blahblahblahcouldn'tgottoRicketsGlenwenttoFrenchCreekrainrainrain.  After an entire day of preparations on my part and one entire night of sleeping on the ground we woke up to find the sky had opened.  We made the executive decision to pack up and GO HOME.  Laid our sleeping mat down in the living room and continued to follow our iternirary (with one exception) and menu plan.  I thought I'd share my packing lists and menu in another post.  On day one we'd planned to visit Hawk Mountain (see 7), however we didn't know what the weather would bring so instead we decided to use our Living Social deal to see the Dead Sea scrolls at the Franklin Institute.  Here is what I loved about the exhibit, the ossuaries, the glass vessels, the letter seals, the fossilized fruit pits, the cooking vessels, the dead sea scrolls themselves.  Here is what my kids liked, leaving the exhibit.  Day two we went to the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival.  Which was AMAZING!  Day three we decided to have a simple picnic at the Daniel Boone homestead.  the website says that you can do a self led tour for free, which sounded perfect.  No one was in the mood for an old house tour.  The kids were actually excited about the idea and wanted to know more about Daniel Boone and see his stuff.  However when we got there we found out that you can only go in the house if you pay to have a led tour of the house.  So we did and of course we were all ready pull our hair out at the end.  We learned approxiametly one fact about Daniel Boone.  And sadly it seems there is nothing really there from when Daniel Boone lived there.  Most of the out buildings are origional to the time period, but NOT the property.  Anyway, we had some delicious BLTs and looked at some old stuff.  

9.      Water balloon painting

10.  make and eat magic shell

11.  grapes +toothpick  This is an all time fave.

12.  Make our own bouncy balls

13.  Letterboxing - We found a letterbox on Mt. Misery and reignited our passion for this fun activity.

14.  Go to the movies- I'd planned to take them to Brave, but heard it was scary.

15.  Berry picking

16.  go to the fair

17.  hang out with friends

18.  Go creek walking

19.  Visit a farm

20.  Do some planting

ice block fun!

21.  Tie dye party - We'll be crossing this off our list this Friday!

22.  Make vacation jar- I love the way ours turned out.  We collected lots of shells at the beach and I saved a small pail of sand.  I picked up the jar from Target.

23.  Night walk

24.  Picnic

25.  Feed the birds

26.  Seashell craft

27.  Photo scavenger hunt here is an idea I had meant to implement at a place like Daniel Boones house and I forgot.

28.  Play dough - I used this recipe and these instructions.  

29.  Color scavenger hunt

30.  Paint canvas - Ours will say "you are my sunshine"

31.  Batik flags

32.  Decorate 4th of July t shirts - These turned out SO well and we are all wearing them in the picture in our Vacation memory jar.  

33.  Solar oven

34.  ice block fun This was a huge hit!  I froze water in a large plastic container that I used to store rice in.

35.  Rain painting

36.  full body painting This is something Ro had the idea to do sometime last week. I know it's going to provide lots of fun and mess.  

berry picking baby

We have a lot left on our summer list.  I try to have a combination of outings, things to do if it's raining and things to outside.  Today is bouncy ball day.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Plymouths and Orpingtons and Sussex Oh My!

Well, I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd take a few minutes and tell you about our chickens.  We started with four chicks from a local Feed and Farm store.  This was last year in late May.

Two teeny tiny Buff Orpingtons, two itty bitty Speckled Sussex and one itsy bitsy little boy.  They were growing feathers and Oscar was learning how to walk.  Really what he wanted to do was squeeze one.  

It's almost hard to believe that those chicks gave us our first egg only months later on December twenty sixth.     We had a lot of fun with our hens.  Sometimes they would show up in funny places like the stroller seat.  Or maybe even one might end up in someones arms as they went down the sliding board.  They gave us four eggs almost everyday!  

Then our most adventurous speckled sussex when on a walk outside the fence and she never came back.  In April one of our Buffs, I think her name is Girt, she went broody.  This means all the wanted to do was sit on her eggs.  The thing is, her eggs aren't fertilized!  She could sit there all day and night and nothing would ever come of it.  We took turns taking her out of he coop and putting her in front of food and water.  

Here she is looking quite dug in and she's not got even one egg under her.  The my mom had a great idea.  Why not buy some fertilized eggs and put them under her!  It was a win win idea, Girt would get the chicks her instincts were demanding and we'd add some hens to our flock.  The very next night Girt was violently taken by an animal in the night.  

Her feathers were strewn across the grass and you could see a place at the fence where her feathers were caught.  Some time and I can't exactly remember when, our other Buff went for a walk as well.  So now we only had one of our first four left.  When my mom bought the fertilized eggs, she also bought three pullets.  Hens who are not laying yet.  Two Barred Plymouth Rocks and one more Speckled Sussex.  

Iggy is our pet now.  Isn't she beautiful?  She comes to the door at night.  She does not want to sleep in the coop at night and who can blame her!?  She sleeps in the bathroom and gives us one egg a day.

The new pullets sleep in the lilacs.  My mom put this board and bamboo stalk in there for them to roost on.  The new pullets are wild chickens.  They do not like people like our old chickens did.  They do not come running when they see the white scrap bucket.  They do run away when I try to take their picture. 

The only pullet who has been named is the other Sussex, Snickers.  The Plymouths seen here are just not tame enough to name I guess.  The other hens had names like, Peanut, Fluffy and Iggy.

All this rope is what holds up the netting that has so far protected from avian foe.  

This is Murphy my parents rescue Golden Doodle.  He very much wants to eat a chicken, but so far has behaved himself.  

We tried to fashion a makeshift incubator from a box and a special lamp.  But it was too hard to control the temperature.  So last Friday I picked up four Ameraucana chicks.  

I can't wait to find their first egg!

Here is an audio recording of Isaac last year talking about the chickens on a local radio show for kids.  

the ever growing infusion

my gathering basket

 I keep telling myself that it would be totally okay to start posting again, my posts don't necessarily have to be all herbal.  At any rate here I am.  I hope you forgive me.  

stellaria media - chickweed

Our week began with conjunctivitis.  It was painful and gross.  My middle one R had it the week before.  That's when the infusion began.  It started with chickweed and violet leaf.  I read a lovely article written by Susun Weed all about chickweed.  She writes, "Chickweed's ability to break cells open helps it get rid of bacterial infections when applied as a poultice."  Stellaria media is really the best thing I could ever come up with for pinkeye.  Violet, well she just wanted in that infusion, so she came along too.  I used several different applications for us all.  A hot compress, eye cup and eye dropper, depending on who it was I was applying it to.

chickweed, violet leaf and plantain

 A few nights later, in bed that I found that middle son R, four, has a nasty looking scratch on his foot.  The night of the scratch I sent him down to my mother to have his wound cleaned and bandaged.  She washed it and applied Sovereign Silver gel, my new favorite.  The next day I began soaking his foot three times a day. I added yarrow, red clover and plantain to our infusion.

Achillea millefolium - yarrow

 My first son I who is seven, yesterday about 4:30 began to complain of pain in his ear.  Well, we were planning to head to Chipotle at 4:30.  We were waiting for their father to come and pick us up, he didn't get there until 5:30.  By the time we were sitting down with our dinner it must have been 6:30 and Isaac was in too much pain to eat.  We ate outside because I knew being inside would be too overwhelming.  The rest of us crammed down our food while I sat in the car doing some bunny mazes.  When we got home immediately I boiled some water for a hot compress.  I had him lay down on a sleeping bag.  Into his ear I put several drops of olive oil infused with garlic and mullien.  I folded up a hot wet wash cloth into a dish cloth and put it over his ear while he watched a little TV.  It wasn't until we laid down in bed that I found the pain was mostly in his lymphs under and behind his ears.  

Galium verum - Lady’s Bedstraw 

So this morning I went out with my basket to gather the herbs for our ever growing infusion.  That's when she appeared to me.  Our Lady's Bedstraw.  I was gathering chickweed from the same spot I have been all week and there she was. Our Lady's Bedstraw is best know as a lymph mover, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to find her.  

violet leaf, lesser and greater plantain, dandelion

 I didn't put our lady's bedstraw in R's infusion.  His has chickweed, plantain, dandelion, violet leaf, yarrow and red clover.  Red clover is he only herb I didn't wildcraft from my own yard.  In I's I put chickweed, plantain, dandelion, violet leaf and our lady's bedstraw.  

one for you and one for me

                 This is how our infusion grew from two herbs to many.  They just kept jumping in the basket! 

foot bath to be

Sunday Favorites : five links from around the web

Rachel Wolf from Lusa Organics post on her Manifestation Board.

Great stories of Vision Boards at work from CrazySexyLife blog.

How to Start Your Day  Like a Rockstar!  Oh how I love a list!

Great information on Crafting Wild Smudge Wands.

Valentine's Day is coming up and I have a ton of ideas rumbling around in my head and on Pinterest.  Valentine's Day Thoughts.

this moment

{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.  Inspired by soulemama

wolf moon intentions

 Lately I've been thinking about the sacred nature of our daily lives.  I sometimes find myself saving things for a special day.  Okay, hoarding.  This doesn't mean buying a special treat for Valentines day a month in advance.  This mean have a stack of pretty soaps in a drawer, "nice" pens or the "good" towels.  I thought about what I was telling myself by saving these things.  Was today not nice?  I think this may be called Living Juicy.  That sounds pretty good to me.  I used to eat a lot of candy, a l o t.  A lot for me any how.  Movie theater boxes of junior mints and nonpareils add up.  My husband said to me, "why don't you use the money you're using to buy candy and buy flowers?"  This was hard, because I didn't want to be buying so much candy and I did want to buy flowers.  I love having fresh cut flowers and live plants in my house.  We lived within walking distance from Produce Junction a ginormous bouquet of spray roses and three pots of live primroses may set you back about $8.  The problem was that I was addicted to the candy, feeling guilty for eating something so unhealthful and for spending the cash.  Spending the money on flowers was to only feel guilty for the money aspect.  But our whole family would be enjoying the plants, whereas no one was really enjoying the candy.

Something in my brain changed when I had my third child.  My kindhearted midwife and doula helped me encapsulate my placenta.  I was planning to take four capsules daily, two at breakfast, tow at dinner.  I can't tell you how incredible a difference there was for me after ingesting my placenta.  Life changing.  I recommend this practice to all.  But then I had a very silly thought, "maybe I should save these capsules just in case."   Then I thought, how does postpartum depression happen?  Does it happen over time?  Does it hit you in surprise?  I had some very severe PPD symptoms nearly six month after my second son was born.  (enter candy)  If I had had placenta pills to take then things would have been different.  But what about heading things off at the pass? That's the tact I chose to take.  I took all of my placenta pills, four a day until I ran out.

Sometimes I feel like my mind is so filled up by all the tasks and noises and children I forget that I've now decided to live juicy.  I forget that there is no reason to hoard the ideas and good times.  That's when I find myself saying no more than yes.  What I really want to say is yes!  Yes, yes YES!  Let's paint!  Let's make whatever you want!  Yes please, may I read you a story?!  This is why I want to set an intention for this moon, Wolf Moon to Snow moon, to say yes.  Starting with tonight, I'm saying yes, let's go to Chipotle for dinner.  This also meas saying yes to myself.  Not trying to force myself to live a certain way or go with out.  I think we'll all be happier this way.

Do try to live your life with intention?  Will you share with us?

Sunday Favorites: five links from around the web

*

Aviva  Romm is offering this great, free, little e-book, Herbsfor Kids.

Do you hate to toss or even compost the herbs when your preparation is complete?  Here are some great ideas on what to do with your herbal marc.

I’m really enjoying The Parenting Passageways current series, Eight Facets Of A Healthy Family Culture.

The boys have been enjoying filling out this weather treeprintable.

Lastly, I really like the idea of wood burning on peg people!  I’m picturing something wintery, but there are so many things you could do with this idea. 

* I found this photograph on tumblr through Pinterest.  If you know who to credit please let me know.

this moment

{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.  Inspired by soulemama

Virtual herb walk: Plantain

(This is the first in a series I plan to write all about the wonderfully healthful, helpful and nutritious herbs in your own backyard.)                   

Plantain

Plantain is a common lawn “weed” almost as common as dandelion.  However, you may never have noticed it!  Plantain is squat green plant, with long petioles The leaves are usually either the broad or the lesser or lance variety.  In the center there are the flower stalks, with either flowers growing up the whole stalk or brown compact seed heads. I've seen plantain growing just about everywhere.  In national parks, zoos, playgrounds, out the car window, my own yard, et cetera.  In fact there is a tale that Native Americans called plantain, “white mans footprint.”  Whether that is true I am not sure.  

Now that you know where to find plantain, here's the why.  Plantain has wonderful properties.  The foremost being that it is drawing.  If you find yourself or your child with a bees sting or sting from nettles get yourself some plantain!  Have a splinter?  Plantain!  Find a leaf and either chew it up and apply the chewed herb directly to the skin, this is called a “spit poultice.”  Mosquito bite?  Plantain yo self!  You can either use gauze; wrap it around the affected area.  Or use a band aid.  Change your leaf every few hours until the splinter or stinger is out.  You will see the splinter and be amazed. 

Plantain also has healing properties.  It’s known to heal the same skin it’s just removed the sting from.  I’ve heard of it healing sprained ankles, diaper rash and eczema outbreaks.  I use plantain in my all purpose greenaide salve.  You can even use an infusion as a hot compress on your eyes for conjunctivitis or a sty. 

Now that you know how to find it and how amazing it is, here are simple ways to prepare the herb.  So you can use it all year long and when you are away from home.  The two best ways I can think of are to create and infused oil and then either use that oil to create a salve or use the oil directly. 

To create an infused oil of plantain you need only to harvest enough leaves to mostly fill a jar of your choosing.  The leaves must be dry so it’s best to do this later in the day when the sun has had a chance to evaporate any moisture.  You can chop the plantain if you like, crush it, or leave it whole, then pour over olive oil.  In a little while check to make sure the oil is still covering the herb, then cap your jar, label it, and put it away in the cupboard.  You must wait at least 6 weeks to use this oil.  Strain the oil using a fine mesh strainer or you can use cheese cloth in a larger colander. Store it in your cupboard.  Do not be stingy with your oil, there will be more plantain.  You can do a quickie version by putting the herb and oil into a double boiler and gently heating for a few hours.  You will notice the oil turns greenish.  Be careful not to overheat and scorch your oil or herbs. 

Now you have a very useful oil to apply to wounds, sore spots, stings and splinters.

If you want to make a salve, just add a few shavings of beeswax to the oil after it’s been heated. 

I also keep some dried plantain in the herb cabinet to make last minute poultices.  You can harvest the leaves and dry them on a cookie sheet in the sun.  It doesn’t take long to dry plantain. 

Cicly Mary Barker

I hope I’ve encouraged you to give plantain a try or at least to look for it next time you are outside.  It really is a wonderful herb. 

talking 'bout crazy cool wild herbs

Some nights I don’t have a lot to say.  I’ve been going through a rough patch the last few years.  It seems to have gotten a whole lot rougher in the last few months.  I hope to come out on the other side a much stronger person.  I’m a slow learner, slow to process, late bloomer, kapha, bear person, pisces.  I have been given one great gift, which is to know myself.  I don’t always know what I want, that’s true.  But I know who I am.

I think this is why I love nettles so much.  My first experience with nettles was as a child.  I’d heard them called “seven minute itch”.  I didn’t really know what that meant.  One day I was at a park with my family.  I seem to think it was after church because I was wearing a dress.  I don’t remember how, but I ended up falling down, and, one leg was in a patch of nettles.  My leg was burning.  I was crying.  After what seemed like much more than seven minutes, my parents took me to the ER.  Eventually the sting wore off.  The memory never has. 

You can imagine my shock, years later, when I saw women harvesting nettles with their bare hands.  Rosemary was going to show us how to make her delicious nettle spanakopita recipe.    She told us when you steam the nettles to make sure you leave the lid on until they are totally done.  At least ten minutes.  Make sure not to peek because the sting will be in the steam and it will sting your face.  Until then it had never occurred to me that the 7 minute itch that stung me so harshly was the same as the nettles I read about.  I have since come to love nettles.  Nettle has always loved me.  Melanie (Rosemary’s beautiful daughter) and her husband Jeff were selling potted herbs.  I bought some nettles thinking I might grow them in a bed in my yard.  I never had time to do so.  A few months later I chucked all the dead herbs and other yard compost into a fenced area.  Flash forward almost four years - I now I had enough nettles in my yard to make two batches of spanakopita and then some!   

 

Nettles to me speak of tenacity, an ability to adapt, and strength though adversity.  That’s why today when I went to blend a tea for a friend of mine I included nettles, not just for their vitamin content, which I discussed before, but for the spirit.  This is what I mean when I say the herbs get to know us and we get to know them.  There is a personality or spirit to each herb.  We can learn about this from observing where the herb grows,  tastes and smells like.  What it looks like.  There are little hairs on the stem and the undersides of the leaves.  These hairs have formic acid.  That’s what stings us.  Formic acid can also be found in bee and ant stings.  But guess what else is in them?   Serotonin!  Nettles are serious about happiness.  This is what nettles are to me.  I don’t know what they are to you. 

How can you get to know an herb?  There are a few ways, as mentioned above:  observe it in its natural habitat, read about the herb from several herbalists, make an infusion and drink it every day for a week.  Taste the infusion; listen to what it tells you.    

I've Got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

We needed a bit of sunshine on this turn down day.  I put out a few herbs in smaller containers and let them go at it.  Today we are trying Isaac's blend.  The herbs we used are nettles, raspberry leaf, calendula, spearmint, elder flower and lavender.  I didn't give them spoons or a canning funnel, just the herbs, their own jars and their hands.  There was smelling and talking about the herbs.  Exclamations!  "This one smells good!"  "Look how yellow it is."  Isaac wanted to make one brew from his blend.  We watched the water change to an infusion before ours eyes.  We watched it get darker.  Then we all drank some.  "Phew," said Isaac!  "This is strong tasting!"  "Why do you think it may be that it's so strong?"  "Probably because we used so many, I mean so much, herbs."  Then we added a bit of local honey.  Much better they said.  Then they added cream.  I hope you'll let your kids into your herb cabinet.  Let them feel he herbs in their fingers, smell them, taste them.  Let them get to know the herbs.