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baby steps :: making soup

September 1, 2010 in at home, baby steps, farms + food, getting organized by eringoodman | 4 comments

I’m taking a little time off to help my daughter settle in to her first week of kindergarten (which I’m happy to report is going very smoothly!!) and am enjoying a little trip down memory lane by visiting my blog archives. This post was originally published in September, 2008. I have included a few notes from today at the end.

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As our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) pick-ups are quickly coming to an end (just three more weeks!), I’m continuing to look for ways to preserve all the delicious, organic produce we pick up each week.

I thought I would try my hand at making homemade jam this year (and even bought myself a little canning kit that was half price at the grocery store) but strawberries slid into blueberries and raspberries and now apples and I have yet to attempt any canning. Next year!

In the meantime, something that I did start doing this year that is working very well is making “soup starter” bags!

In the past making soup has often felt overwhelming to me – especially buying all the ingredients and chopping everything up. It seems silly as I write it out but it often does just feel like too much effort to squeeze into our busy days.

So this year I have been chopping celery, carrots, onions and potatoes in bulk and storing them in little Ziploc bags in the freezer.

When I want to make soup, I just pull out a bag and saute the veggies in butter or oil and my soup is well under way!

Following the lead of Amanda Soule, whose beautiful book The Creative Family, I have been reading (and re-reading!), I set Quinn up with a big bowl and let him make his own “soup” with the vegetables I discarded. When we were all finished we carried the scraps out to our chickens and they had a nice little feast!

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September, 2010: I completely forgot about making soup starter bags but have recently been doing so again (all it takes is one turning leaf on a tree and I start thinking about baking bread and making soup!!).  I have to say, they really do make cooking soup “from scratch” a whole lot faster and easier!! :-)

In other related news…I have not done any canning this year. Nothin’. Not even one jar of jelly. (Yet!!! I still have time to make applesauce, right?) I did make a fresh pasta sauce last week however and it was fantastic. And tomorrow I will be trying my hand at rendering lard! Baby steps, my friends.

baby steps :: making pizza

August 30, 2010 in at home, baby steps, farms + food, shifting perspective by eringoodman | 8 comments

While I’m resting up after hosting my first (amazingly fun!!!) Community Contra Dance (see my facebook page for photos) and helping my sweet girl settle in to her first week of kindergarten, I thought it would be fun to dip into the archives. This post comes from my old farm blog and was originally posted in August, 2008. I’ve shared a few notes from today at the end.

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Like just about everyone else in the world who read Barbara Kingsolver’s inspiring book, Animal Vegetable Miracle, I decided that we should start having once-a-week homemade pizza nights.

I ordered Ricki Carroll’s book from the library and started dreaming about the fresh mozzarella cheese we’d make and enjoy on our pizza.

But just like the canning kit I bought to make jam this summer, the cheese-making supplies remain on a shelf gathering dust.

As discouragement and frustration set in every time I popped another frozen pizza in the toaster, I decided to shift my perspective.

What if we started to consciously enjoy and appreciate our frozen pizzas and make eating them a special event (not just a default dinner)?

And then what if we switched from frozen pizzas to pizza shells that the kids could spread (store-bought) sauce and (store-bought) mozzarella on, so things could start to feel a little bit more homemade?

And then what if we shifted from pizza shells to store-bought dough that we could roll ourselves. And from shredded mozzarella to fresh (store-bought) mozzarella for us? (The kids prefer the shredded mozzarella.)

Eventually we’ll get to the cheese-making and homemade dough and our own canned tomato sauce, but for now we are really enjoying our own mostly-homemade, fun, toddler-friendly version of pizza night!

Here are some pictures from last night’s pizza-making fun…

Kneading the dough:

Rolling the dough:

Adding sauce:

Pesto pizza with tomatoes, caramelized onions, pine nuts, blue cheese and fresh mozzarella (for the adults):

We roasted corn on the grill:

The herb garden on the deck (basil, parsley and nasturtiums):

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August, 2010:  Despite the fact that I now have a package of rennet in the fridge and access to plenty of delicious, farm fresh milk, I have still yet to try my hand at making cheese! To be perfectly honest, we have gone in the opposite direction this summer — eating take-out pizza with the farm crew at least one night a week. (Not exactly where I want to be in terms of eating healthily, frugally, and sustainably — but a lovely weekly ritual nonetheless.) We have however been greatly enjoying one of Barbara Kingsolver’s recipes from the book — Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies! YUM!!!

{ this moment }

July 16, 2010 in at home, family fun by eringoodman | 15 comments

A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. 

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happy weekend friends.

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the rainy day closet

July 14, 2010 in at home, family fun, getting organized by eringoodman | 17 comments

This post was originally published on my old blog in July of 2008. I’ve added a few notes from today at the end.

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Somewhere in the last four years (it’s really all very much a blur) I discovered Sarah Ban Breathnach’s delightful book, Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions, which gives readers a peek into the world of Victorian house-holding, holidays and family traditions.

Among the many helpful and creative suggestions for enjoying family life is the “rainy day closet” — a collection of books, toys, art supplies etc. that are ONLY enjoyed on rainy days.

While reading the book, I noted which closet I would use to create our own rainy day closet, and began collecting various items to tuck inside, with the hopes of someday organizing them into a fun collection.

But major organizational projects, especially ones that involve toys, are not exactly toddler-friendly activities and once kids are sleeping I usually have little energy and even less creativity to tackle a project like this.

So this morning, while my kids were visiting my parents’ house, before I even looked at my to-do list, I decided today is that someday.

Here is the closet before:

And after:

And here are some of the things I’ve included in our Rainy Day Closet:

Mama’s Mystery Box: Various odds and ends, little battery-operated toys, bubble wrap, an inflatable beach ball etc.

Art Supplies: Pipe cleaners, pom-poms, googly eyes, stick-on foam pieces, and Color Wonder-type painting kits (the mystery chemicals involved in this “mess free” painting scare me a bit for regular use, but occasionally on a rainy day, they are a lot of fun).

Sewing & Lacing: Wooden beads, animal shaped lacing cards etc.

Rainy Day Books and Friends: A small, but growing, collection of books about rainy days and stuffed friends and puppets to enjoy them with!

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head: Lots of open-ended, creative fun, but the tiny plastic pieces are more than I can handle on a daily basis, which makes the Potatoes perfect for a rainy day!

Farm Friends: A Leap Pad refrigerator toy. Requires batteries, sings two songs over-and-over and has little pieces that spend more time on the floor than on the fridge — a shoe-in for the Rainy Day Closet.

Elmo: A hand-me-down giggling, plastic Elmo that I almost culled before my children saw it. I’m glad I didn’t. He’s PERFECT for a rainy day!

And lastly, Harvey the Bunny – our Rainy Day mascot who plays “Singing in the Rain” and dances. Harvey (no idea how we came up with that name) was a $2 consignment store score!

Yay! I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to rainy days as much as I am now!

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July, 2010: Now that the kids are older and our school and work schedules have us out of the house a lot more, we no longer have an official Rainy Day Closet. (It has been taken over by board games and puzzles and sewing supplies.) We do however have a Market Bag, which is basically the same concept as the Rainy Day Closet except this bag comes with us when we work together at the Farmers’ Market.

I have found that limiting access to battery-operated toys — but not banning them altogether as I originally set out to do – works really well for our family. Generally, I prefer to have the kids playing with toys made from natural materials or simply outside enjoying nature and inventing their own fun. But sometimes — on rainy days or long, hot days at the market – this mama absolutely bows to the power of beeping, plastic, battery-operated toys. 

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the circus is coming!

July 12, 2010 in at home, family fun, living our dreams! by eringoodman | 10 comments

Last year the kids and I went to see Circus Smirkus for the first time.

It was a couple of weeks after we had been backstage at the Big Apple Circus and we were absolutely smitten by everything circus.

Lily waits to say hello to one of the Circus Smirkus performers after the show.

Since that time, we have had frequent circus-style family nights where we take turns performing and cheering each other on.

(Quinn is a stunt man on his wooden scooter. Lily absolutely rocks the hula hoop. Papa juggles and makes balloon animals. And Mama, who is still attempting to connect with her inner circus performer, takes photographs and dreams of someday — hopefully soon! — experiencing Circus Yoga.)

We’ve been having a lot of fun and really looking forward to the return of the circus.  And so when I learned that it is possible to offer a room in your home to Circus Smirkus performers during their visit, I jumped at the chance to go a step beyond peeking backstage at the circus and actually live with the circus for four days!

Getting our cozy little house ready for visitors, however, is no small task.

While the kids are dreaming of performances and hanging out with the stars of the show, John and I are deep-cleaning bathrooms, moving furniture and making space for our kids to camp out in our room while the performers make their home in our kids’ room.

And we are all ”counting sleeps” (something we learned from one of our delightful mother’s helpers) until the circus arrives and the Goodman Family Homestead is transformed into temporary lodging for our new friends!

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settling back in

March 29, 2010 in at home, shifting perspective by eringoodman | 8 comments

It’s Sunday afternoon. John is off with our friend cutting and hauling firewood. (It doesn’t matter that we are counting daffodils and coloring eggs this week, when free wood is offered, Papa, his chainsaw, and our generous friend with a pick-up truck hit the road.)

I’m attempting to sort through a blur of post-vacation clothes in piles throughout the house. What’s clean? What’s dirty? What’s not quite warm enough to wear now, but will be in a few weeks? What’s the priority for the laundry mat this week? 

Our dryer is still broken. And we have not yet replaced our water tank (despite the fact that the sounds coming out of the pipes when we wash, flush or shower are starting to scare us a bit!). Oh and apparently the washing machine couldn’t handle the appliance rebellion peer pressure because it too has ceased working.

I’m feeling a bit dizzy as I look around the house surveying the post-vacation chaos.

I’m hungry but cannot figure out what to eat. The fridge is all but empty. The situation in the pantry is not much better. I hear myself using that voice. Barking. Grumbling. Whining. Complaining.

Take a breath. Make a better choice. How many times a day do I say that to my little ones?

I pick up the phone and order a pizza.

Forty-five minutes. Okay. I can do 45 minutes.

I let the kids know what’s going on. I always try, as best I can, to verbalize my process to them. I was feeling kind of overwhelmed. And hungry. And tired. And I couldn’t think of what I wanted to eat. And I started feeling grumpy. But I just ordered pizza so we’ll have some food to eat in a bit.

As I’m speaking, Quinn is grabbing his apron and the step ladder. “We should make energy nuggets, Mama.”

We have been making energy nuggets almost weekly for the last couple of years. Stored in the fridge or freezer, these sweet-but-not-too-sweet, bite-size treats have saved us from countless I need protein now meltdowns.

For a long time, I consulted my old blog for the recipe, but at this point I just wing it. Some sort of nut butter. Some sort of natural sweetener. Some sort of chocolate chips or candy. And whatever healthy goodness (ground flax seeds, astragalus powder, dulse flakes…) I have on hand and can sneak in.

Just as we are licking the last drops of almond butter off our fingers, the pizza guy arrives. And a few minutes later Papa and our friend return with a giant truck-load of wood.

The house is still chaotic. The laundry piles are still daunting. But as we eat our pizza and energy nuggets I exhale and smile.

It’s good to be home.

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school vacation slow down

February 17, 2010 in at home, energy management, family+career by eringoodman | 11 comments

Mothers’ Circles. Panel Discussions. Exciting new consulting projects. Another Mothers’ Retreat in the works. And of course the 2nd Annual Evening of Refreshment, which is one week from Saturday!!!!

Yeah. There’s a LOT going on in my world right now. And it’s all really, really wonderful.

But it is also school vacation week for my kids. And so I’m stepping back from the computer a bit and trusting that the Universe will keep things moving smoothly while I enjoy these days with my little ones. 

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Hope you are having a wonderful week.

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(The book in the last photo, by the way, is an absolute treasure.)

under our tree

December 24, 2009 in at home by eringoodman | 12 comments

Well…it’s official. Our barn cat is now living in our living room. Specifically, his favorite place is under our tree, soaking up the late afternoon sunlight.

A few weeks ago, without exactly mentioning it to Papa, the kids and I started letting him in for short “visits” on cold days. 

I knew I was in trouble when I walked into the living room one day and found Lily curled up on the floor with him. She looked up at me and borrowing from one of our favorite James Herriot stories said, “His big purr has become a part of our lives.”

But it was actually Papa who opened the door and let him in one very cold night last week. And Barney Black Big Eyes has been lounging in our living room ever since.

{So far, so good allergy-wise. We’re limiting him to the first floor when we are home and the basement when we are not. }

News of the change of status quickly reached the barn and by the next morning there was a rather boisterous crowd assembled at the front door.

Sorry Ladies. It’s not happening. 

 

{ Happy Holidays from our homestead to yours! }

confession # 9 :: the laundry basket lie

December 10, 2009 in at home, confessions, getting organized by eringoodman | 23 comments

I will be back tomorrow to announce the winner of the special double sponsor giveaway (still time to enter if you haven’t already), but in the meantime, I have a little confession to share…

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I lied to you all.

 

Back in February I posted about how I love to clean up using a laundry basket.

 

I wrote:

 

When clutter overwhelms, I grab an empty laundry basket and fill it up with whatever random things are overtaking our space. Then later, once the calm has returned, I slowly sort through the basket and put things away, recycle or throw things out. Right now I have a basket stashed out of sight between our TV and the wall, and I have no idea what it currently contains. At some point, when I am watching TV, I will begin to sort through it. But for now, I am very grateful that all horizontal surfaces in our living room are clutter-free!

 

Ummm…yeah. This is NOT what I do. This is what I have read in a number of cleaning and organizing books that I am supposed to do.

 

What I really do is this:

 

Get overwhelmed by the state of clutter in our house. Run around like a crazy person picking everything up (often cursing anyone and anything that crosses my path while I’m doing it). Attempt to sort through the pile I’ve collected. Realize that I don’t know where collected items go. Tell myself I should throw them away. Cringe at the thought of throwing “perfectly good stuff” away. Put the box aside to go through it later.

 

Feel really good about how clean our space looks. Promise myself that I’m not going to let it get so cluttered again.

 

Get sick of looking at the box of miscellaneous clutter, which I never find time to sort through. Move it somewhere out of sight – the back room, the basement, the tiny space between our TV and the wall.

 

Rinse and repeat.

 

 

This photo is from October. See that little basket next to the TV cabinet. Yup. That’s the one I put there in FEBRUARY!!!

 

I’m happy to say that as of this week it is no longer there. And waiting six months to go through it sure made things go quickly. Expired coupons – recycle. Paperwork from daycare – kids don’t go there anymore, recycle. Shoes that Lily doesn’t wear but I really wished she would – not her size anymore, pass on to a friend.

 

Once this basket was empty, I began to notice other ”clutter time capsules” most of which reside in our basement. I was down there the other day sorting (again) and trying to figure out how a basement that was nearly entirely purged this summer is once again starting to look and feel cluttered.

 

What I’ve learned is this: I’m really good at clearing space and making things “look nice” but not so good at efficiently and effectively dealing with the miscellaneous stuff that I collect.

 

I’m working on it though. Noticing the clutter building, gently redirecting myself to the recycle bin when I attempt to save things just in case, turning things away at the door before they become clutter I have to deal with, creating new homes for things I do want to save. 

 

And coming clean, both to you and myself, about my little white laundry basket lie.  

a poem for papa

November 19, 2009 in at home, holidays + celebrations, poetry by eringoodman | 14 comments

Late last week, the kids and I started getting ready for a very special day – Papa’s birthday. Taking my lead from the beautifully simple way birthdays are celebrated at our kids’ school, I encouraged them to make homemade cards for Papa as their gifts.

While we worked we talked about all the things we love about Papa and took turns telling stories about some of the (many) funny things Papa says and does.

It was a truly lovely morning.

To go along with the drawing she did (of a little girl finding a mama robin and her eggs), Lily asked me to write these words, her poem for Papa.

Green as the grass,

Light as the snow.

You are my father,

Let’s go.

I love you so.

Love,

Lily

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Happy Birthday Papa! We love you!

 

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