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?)