March So Far

March So Far.

It’s only been 5 days, but they’ve been full days. (Note that I didn’t use th B*sy word. I Wouldn’t want to trigger anyone with that word.) 

March so far:

So much butter chicken. Thanks, @Tieghan @halfbakedharvest.com You are a Mennonite woman’s best friend. 

Watching a late afternoon post-violence arrest. There was blood involved and inebriation. Just another day on the tow truck. Because of witnessing this situation and obviously overhearing discussions of myriad other situations we deal with my 2.89 year old regularly uses the word alcohol in conversation (not correctly, however. It’s mostly used as a silly word / name.). 

The sky is magnificent, and it’s finally warm enough outside to pause for a minute and soak in the beauty. 

Eating Cadbury mini eggs with my kid.  I recently told someone I didn’t buy my kid (or myself) candy, So obviously I had to make myself a liar. I’m blaming it on Breannah because I saw them in her cart and then decided I had to have them too. But tell me, who can resist mini eggs ? Can you ? 

A Skating and fire-supper party and socializing with a sample of every age group, including some people I don’t hang out with a lot. 

I lost at Cover Your Assets yet again. Can it be spring now so game season can be done ? I’m tired of losing.

Green bean casserole for Sunday dinner at our friends’ house. It made me think of being 13 years old eating supper at Uncle Kevs and discovering green bean casserole for the first time. Apparently that was a pivotal moment of my life ? 

Bye, March 1-5. I’m on to better things, like March 6, etc. 

An Ode to the Things in My House

         The last time I tried to write a blog post it ended up being an incriminating story about dairy products. I couldn’t post it. Hoping today’s post fairs better. 

You know those instagram accounts (Pinterest, TikTok, whatever) full of the best parts of someone’s house. Well this is mine, but words only. Mostly just some of the nostalgic sentimental parts. Apparently there are a lot of those, which is strange for someone who has been labeled unsentimental. Pretty much everything in our house is either second hand, inherited, or something we built ourselves. That’s not a flex my 20year old self would’ve thought I would be proud of. It’s wild how different 30 is from 20. 

An Ode to  Things in My House:

Secretary: There’s a conversation starter hanging out between our dining room and living room in a somewhat inconvenient place. It’s part China cupboard, part desk, part storage. Apparently it’s called a secretary or a Plautdietsch word Grandma Laura uses but I can’t pronounce.  It’s old wood finished in a dark reddy colour, not something i would’ve chosen particularly. However it’s one of my favourite things I own because It’s full of family history that I know nothing about and must be over 100 years old. It once belonged to one of my great grand fathers from dad’s family. Grandma Laura says she remembers Grandpa Levi’s dad often sitting there doing his books. He was a meticulous bookkeeper, she says. 

Beautiful old Desk with finish wearing off: this one I have had for years. basically half my life. It also belonged to my great grand father, this one in my mother’s family. This history of this desk isn’t as distant as the one above; mums and aunties may correct me, but they remember Great Grandpa Noah using this desk. 

Assorted baskets. I own both too many baskets and not enough. One or two come from Africa from when I lived there a life time ago. Some come from friends. Some from my granny. Many I’ve thrifted or picked up free somewhere along the way (my local thrift shop sometimes has piles of them for free!). I have a basket to fit almost anything i own except maybe my car. I once did not remain true to myself and bought a basket off Amazon. I don’t even regret it. 

Glass 🐻 Peanut Butter Jar from my mils awesome pantry. 

Play tent in B’s room, cheap score from small local charity / thrift shop. 

Wooden boxes that do double duty as end table and plant stands that we’ve found around the homestead. 

A little ceramic house with a light inside that I stole from my mother. 

Dresser and beautiful Wooden rocker from my grandma 

Set of bent tin measuring cups that belonged to Brent’s grandma that I use every day.

Massive piece of blue glass from my papa and granny that is an epic conversation starter and fits the boho vibe that may or may not be my personality even though it’s probably out of fashion. 

Milk glass vase from my grandma (I think) that holds a rotation of wild flowers all summer long and dried wild flowers all winter long. 

 An epic red couch / chair set that Big B owned before I was in the picture. He’s like me; of course he didn’t buy them new but off a local insurance’s smoke damage page. 

And here we come the abrupt ending. One can’t edit infinitely. 

Drawing Pictures in the Sand

The sight of my child drawing in the dirt was a full circle and strangely healing moment for me today. It reminded me of the hours I spent drawing in the dry red dirt of African villages just to pass the time. It also reminded me of another childhood past time that was reminisced about in a recent sermon at our church: my sissies and I made endless mud pies to dry in the sun and serve to our family. 

Back to Little B. His attention span isn’t normally long but a piece of metal and an almost dry puddle kept him occupied drawing for a minute. I want his life to be boring enough that he can find joy in writing in the dirt for many years to come. And maybe the healing of it isn’t just my imagination. After all, even Jesus wrote in the sand for catharsis. 

Reevaluations

I used to groan inside And whisper to sisters or friends When grey hair people stood up And started lecture on the good old days. Because all I cared about was Now And the future.

Forward 10 years.

Today I soak up every Grey haired reminiscence With fascination Around a wiggling toddler head Because I want to know about the past Because I know the past is why the now is. 

I am Still Here

Although I’ve been really silent, I’m still over here watching sunsets -the sunset makes a  daily showing at our supper table -I love my big west facing dining room  window. Watching sunsets and:

Slogging through the last month of winter,

Stalking other people’s blogs, but not posting on my own for months. It should be the other way around.

Cooking for my family (how does this become a full time job when you have a kid?)

Organizing my already organized grocery shopping to new levels of organization. In my defence it was basically the coldest day of the year so what else was there to do.

Pulling a calf sled with a toddler in it behind me on excursions into the winter or spring or whatever season it happens to be each day.

I have a low key winter weaving project I haul around with me annoyingly whenever I think I might need to sit still for a minute.

We’ve had a winter of slow empty evenings, which is my best.  

I’m  slowly finishing the walls in my laundry room. It’s more work than I want it to be; sanding is so tedious. sometimes I get discouraged and strike for a while between working on it.

I have tiny plants, hundreds of them maybe.  Starting herb and veg and flower seeds is how I cope with Saskatchewan winter. The end goal is of course mature plants to put outside in May and June but even if half of them don’t live that long, they’ve already done their work by getting me outside to my greenhouse every day from February to May and supercharging my serotonin levels daily. 

My 22 month old still doesn’t sleep through the night, not even sometimes, not even close. If you want to judge our parenting I’m okay with that but I’d prefer advice or lived experiences similar to this instead.

I got a new mop, and it changed my life.

Sourdough Cheese Crackers

Sourdough Cheese Crackers

•1 cup All Purpose Flour

•1/2 cup ground flax 

•1/2 cup fresh ground whole wheat flour 

•1/2 cup nutritional yeast 

•10 Ounces grated Cheddar Cheese ((haven’t tried it but a subbing part of the cheddar with another cheese would be amazing. Parm, Gouda, maybe even feta.)) 

•2-3 tsp Sea Salt or flavoured salt ((I used rosemary salt with fantastic result))

Mix above ingredients on high in a stand mixer until the cheese has turned into crumbles and the mixture resembles coarse sand ish. Then add:

•3/4 - 1 cup  active Sourdough Starter at 100% hydration. ((The original recipe called for 1 cup but I only had 3/4 cup and that worked just fine.))

•1/4 cup  Melted Butter

•just under 1/2 cup water

Mix until combined. The dough should be very soft but not sticky. Let sit for 8-12 hours. I like to make the dough first thing in the morning and let it ferment throughout the day, then roll and bake in time for supper. It could also be made in the evening, rise overnight and be ready to roll and bake in the morning. 
After 8-12 hours preheat your oven to 350*. roll half the dough between two baking mats or pieces of parchment paper to 1/4 - 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 1 inch squares. Transfer each square to a parchment lined cookie sheet ((I find this quite tedious. This recipe made over 3 cookie sheets for me.))  Repeat with the remaining dough. You can sprinkle with salt before baking; i like salt so I prefer them that way. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. It can be tricky to get them done to perfection. You dont want to over bake them and end up with burnt hard crackers but if you under bake them you run the risk of sogginess. I recommend keeping an eye on them toward the end of the bake time. The edges should be browned and the middles just starting to brown when you pull them out of the oven. Let them cool completely before eating.

I struggled to find a long ferment sourdough cheese cracker recipe on the internet so I had to make this recipe 

into what I wanted.  

While we were eating these crackers I told Little B that he was the weird kid whose mom only allowed him to eat homemade snacks made with bougie ingredients (nutritional yeast, rosemary sea salt in this recipe) and I was sorry it had to be like that. Of course I exaggerated as usual. (or did I, Mom?) 

Guiding Lights in the Sky Still Exist, Thousands of Years After First Christmas

Guiding lights in the sky still exist, thousands of years after wisemen followed an unusual star to find Baby Jesus . The auroras shine in the northern sky on all the clear nights. I watch them almost every hour some nights thanks to Little B’s wakings. They talk to me loudly with their moving colours, speaking of unfettered Majesty and Power. They make me feel small in this universe and remind me of the insignificance of the time I occupy compared to forever. These lights in the north are my star of the east. They lead me to Jesus.