the baby girl's new owl math manipulatives

I was inspired by Mari Ann's use of owls and decided last week to sew up some for the baby girl.

I finally finished a set of 10 and thought I'd share them with you guys.

I used this template and wool felt. I hand sewed them using cotton embroidery floss and a whip stitch to assemble the owls. I used a simple straight stitch for the eye details.

We keep them in a basket on top of a low bookcase and today she decided to move the basket off the top of the bookcase and start grouping them and counting with them.

creativity, joy, and the need to remember always

This post is less for my readers and more for me. As I was sitting at the computer today reading one of c. jane's birth stories the baby girl walked into the living room with three of my rubber scrapers and she told me that they were a traffic light. Yellow, Red, and Green. She proceeded to do a little dance and sing a little song.









We've both already forgotten the words she sung. I managed to capture the images, though.

This is what I hate about the mothering journey. There are so many moments where I just want to stop time and hold the frame. I want to savor it and never forget. Yet we do forget. Even when I am consciously attempting to record it so that I never forget.

What happened was as quickly as she had danced her rubber scraper traffic light dance and sung her rubber scraper traffic light song she noticed a cardboard box in the wastebasket. She needed that.

Suddenly the rubber scrapers were not a traffic light. They were paddles for a boat. She needed sticky tape. She ran back and forth to the recycling bin. She was building a cardboard boat.











In my desire to capture this new adventure I forgot the words to the traffic light song. So did she. When I asked her, she couldn't remember. It wasn't important to her. She was living in the moment and that was now a distant past.


ETA - This is what the boat currently looks like:

So after posting about not wanting to needle felt....

I had a customer contact me about some toadstools.

Since she asked so nicely I had to pick up my wool and needles and get to work.

I ended up making three.






And I loved it!

Seriously, sometimes I think all I need is a nudge. I'm not sure that I'll do much more, because I've been a bit obsessed with these little guys lately.




I saw a post over on Counting Coconuts recently where Mari-Ann had sewn up some little felt owls for her son to use in his learning activities. I was inspired to make some for my girls. I can see them being used as math manipulatives, but I know the baby girl will probably just put them in a purse, walk about the house, and talk to them. We could use them so many ways, though - memory game, math games, matching games, etc. I'm slowly sewing them up in the evenings while I watch old episodes of The Tudors on Netflix. You wish you had my rockin' life, dontcha? ;)

more crown designs

Suddenly I've just been working on crowns. I get in spurts of inspiration like that. I'll tire of one medium and move onto another. Right now I'm really enjoying sewing with wool felt.

Every time I think of picking up my roving and needle felting I just can't motivate myself. I want to sew instead.

just when you think it won't happen, it will

Regular readers here know that we unschool. That means I don't sit down with the girls and have them do copywork. We don't work on penmanship or any sort of writing, really, unless they ask.

I trust that they will learn. Both the Hubster and I write on a regular basis. The girls see us writing letters (yes, even longhand from time to time), notes, grocery lists, etc.

I first learned about unschooling way back in the mid 1990's when the boy was just a toddler. I read John Holt's work and then when the big girl came along with her unique challenges it was abundantly clear that I couldn't hand her over to an institutional education system. I mean no disrespect for those dedicated teachers who might be reading this, but the system just isn't right for my daughter.

Over the past two years the big girl has asked about writing various letters of the alphabet. She's been curious. She wanted to imitate us. She wanted to write like we wrote. She wanted to practice writing every day for a period of time last year and then really had no interest in it for a while. She loved tracing them, but hated that she couldn't write them as clearly as she wanted to write.

Then she moved on to wanting to learn how words were spelled. She'd ask the Hubster and me how to spell words and then she'd walk about the house spelling. Seriously, that's how she chose to spend her time. :) She'd use magnetic letters to spell the words, but rarely would write them out.

Until recently. She has a renewed interest in writing. Last night while I was talking to the Hubster on the telephone (he was off in Seattle attending his uncle's memorial service) she pulled out the chalkboard and chalk and wrote "Mom" and "Dad" on the chalkboard.

For me it's a really exciting moment and that's why I'm sharing it here on the blog. We've been there to help her as she asked for help, but she taught herself how to write. She did it in her time and it's her accomplishment. She has a passion for learning and, while she grows frustrated with various tasks and is especially frustrated when her desire to master something doesn't quite match up with her developmental stage yet, she never gives up. Then, when I least expect it she'll show me what she's mastered.

butterflies, Spring, and my muse

The big girl has been very interested in butterfly migrations lately and often talks about them. I'm not quite sure why it's an interest just now. We're well into winter here and the butterflies have long moved onto their winter quarters. Maybe it's the unusually mild winter we've been having. Yesterday felt a lot like Spring and not much like a Wisconsin February.

So I was inspired by the weather and my daughter to create a butterfly crown.

I drafted the pattern, selected colors and cut out the pieces.



Then later on in the evening I sewed the applique on. Next up will be the machine sewing portion.


(the pic is a bit blurry because it was taken later on when the lighting was really bad)

looking for last minute Valentine's Day inspiration?

then go check out my Valentine's Day board on Pinterest. I've pinned loads of ideas for crafting and cooking there.

spring finger puppets with free pattern download

I've been working on some Spring inspired wool felt finger puppets for the etsy shop - EarthyMamaGoods. So far I've designed a baby chick, a lamb, and a bunny rabbit puppet. I thought some of my readers might want to make one for themselves and have provided free copy of the chick finger puppet pattern for you to download for your personal use.



I didn't take step-by-step photos to show you the complete process, but will briefly describe the order of assembly and basic stitches for you.

Obviously the first thing you need to do is cut out your pieces. I prefer to use 100% wool felt and order mine from Weir Dolls. I've been using them as my felt supplier for years and really like the quality of their 100% wool felt and the supreme customer service they provide. (no I'm not compensated in any way for this - I'm just a really satisfied customer)

For the body piece I do use a pin or two to hold the paper pattern on the felt as I'm cutting, but for the smaller pieces I just hold the pattern piece against the felt with one hand and cut with the other.

After you have your pieces cut out you'll want to do your embroidery. For the chick's eyes each eye is constructed of two straight stitches. The top of the eye is a longer straight stitch and the bottom is a slightly shorter straight stitch.

The beak is sewn on using a simple whip stitch. The wings are also sewn on using the whip stitch. All of these are sewn onto the the front body piece.

On the back body piece I use a whip stitch to attach the tail feather piece.

The final step is to sew the front body piece to the back body piece using a running stitch.

For great detailed illustrations and instructions for embroidery stitches mentioned visit Sharon b's Dictionary of Stitches for Hand Embroidery and Needlework.



Chick Finger Puppet Pattern Pieces


I linked this post up with Momnivore's Dilemma Creative Juice #59 link-up

making tomato powder as a substitute for tomato paste

One of my greatest dilemmas has been the fact that I grow a lot of tomatoes each year and yet have still been unable to figure out a way to realistically preserve tomato paste. I tried patiently standing by the stovetop stirring a pot of sauce until it reduced down. I failed. We ended up with a batch of very burnt tasting tomato sauce and no tomato paste. I just haven't the patience for it.

Then this past autumn as I was bringing in the last of the tomato crop I decided to dehydrate them instead of canning them up. I'd already put up gobs of tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, and even ketchup. I was tired of canning tomatoes.

So I sliced them thin and put them on trays. I ended up with 11 trays of sliced tomatoes.



I consulted the guidebook for my dehydrator and dried them at 120 degrees Fahrenheit for about 26 hours.



After they were thoroughly dried I carefully removed them from the mesh liners and placed them in a large bowl.



Then I ground them up in small batches using my food processor.







The end result was about a pint and a half of powdered tomatoes. I jarred them loosely in two jars so that I could periodically shake them to loosen them up. They are still somewhat sticky and I don't want to end up with a hardened lump of tomato powder in a month or two.



My plan is to add some of the tomato powder to tomato sauce to create a thicker sauce for various dishes.




I linked this post up at the Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways Wednesday Blog Hop.

Independence Days Challenge Update #1

To try and motivate me to stay on track with my self-sufficiency goals I'm participating in Sharon's Independence Days Challenge.


This past week's updates for me and our household -

1. Plant something - nothing on that front. Our ground is frozen and it's too early yet in my zone to even start seedlings indoors.

2. Harvest something - nothing here, either.

3. Preserve something - I had good intentions of making some canned soup this week, but didn't actually preserve anything this past week.

4. Waste not - did great on this one! The girls and I have been focusing on eating dinner leftovers for our lunches. We've also been continuing to work on decluttering and had several boxes filled to donate to local charity thrift stores.

5. Want Not - nothing added to food storage, but I did pick up some fishing equipment for our emergency supplies.

6. Eat the Food - we're continuing to use and eat food from our food storage, so we're doing great on this one.

7. Build community food systems - nothing on this one.

8. Skill up - hmm...this one is tricky. I did try my hand at needle felting a miniature hamster this week. I think I'm improving on my miniature work. I also embroidered and hand sewed some finger puppets. Once again, it's more refining a skill than actually learning a new skill.

pressure canning ground beef - a tutorial

Receiving the versatile blogger award from Canning Granny yesterday motivated me to get another canning post done and posted for you guys.

This is one that has been sitting around in my queue for several months now. I actually think I canned up this ground beef in August in order to make room for the 2011/2012 steer.

I love having canned ground beef around for a couple of reasons. It gives me more room in the freezers for other cuts of meat and it's so darn convenient to have around. I don't have to worry about taking the time to defrost the meat and when I use canned ground beef in casseroles, soups, or other dishes it really cuts down considerably on the prep time.

It's also really easy to can. In fact, most meat is pretty simple to can up.

The first step for me is browning the ground beef. I do it in batches of about 2 pounds at a time in a frying pan on top of the stove. Sometimes I add in some chopped onion. I always season it with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. The ground beef we get with our steer orders is really lean, but if there is visible fat after browning yours, be sure to drain it before canning.

As I finish up a batch I add it to a large roasting pan and keep it covered and warm in the oven. I continue to add to it until I'm done browning all the meat I want to can that day.


7 and a half pounds of ground beef, browned

While I'm browning up the ground beef I also have a large pot of water on the stovetop and I'm bringing it up to a boil.



After the ground beef is browned and is warming in the oven I go ahead and warm up canning jar lids in a saucepan full of warm water.



And then I'll fill my pressure canner with about 2" of water and place canning jars filled with clean warm water inside. I'll put the lid on the canner and turn the heat on the burner up to high. This is to warm the jars. Warmed jars are much less likely to crack when you add the hot beef and water to them.



Then I assemble all of the rest of my canning supplies and get ready to fill the jars.


here you see the jar rings, canning jar tongs, magnetic lid lifter, canning jar funnel, clean cloth for wiping the rims of the jars, and the roaster full of browned ground beef

The next step is to place the canning jar funnel into a jar and fill the jar with browned ground beef. I fill up to where the threads begin on the jar. I include some of the liquid from the cooking.



Then I ladle in hot water - again filling only up to where the threads begin on the jar.




showing the headspace - I like to stop filling just below the threads on the neck of the jar

Then I lift one of the warmed lids out of the saucepan using the magnetic lid lifter and place it centered on the top of the jar. I place a ring over it and hand tighten.



Next I place the jar into the pressure canner. The canner still has about 2" of warm water in the bottom.


five quarts filled and in the canner ready to process

When all the jars are filled and in the canner ready to be processed I put the lid on the canner and tighten the lid down. The All American 921 pressure canner that I use most frequently has a lid system where you screw down the lid with bolts.



Then I turn the heat on the burner to high and wait for steam to come out of the vent pipe.


I tried to take a shot to show you the steam coming out of the vent pipe, but couldn't pick it up with the camera - it is still venting, though, you'll have to trust me!

Once the steam is actively exiting the vent pipe, I set the timer for 7 minutes. That's the amount of time I need to allow the steam to exit the canner before placing the pressure regulator weight over the vent pipe. I place the weight on at 10 pounds because for my altitude I'll process the ground beef at 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes. If I had packed them in pint jars I'd process at 10 pounds of pressure for 75 minutes.



With the burner still set on high heat I watch the dial gauge waiting for it to read about 10 pounds of pressure. Once it reaches 10 pounds I typically need to reduce the heat on my stove to about medium (it reads 6 on my stove).


dial gauge reading between 10 pounds and 13 pounds of pressure

Once it reaches 10 pounds of pressure I'll set a timer for 90 minutes. I need to continue to monitor the pressure gauge and adjust the heat on the burner to keep the pressure between around 10 and 13 pounds of pressure. One of the features I love about the All American pressure canners is that the pressure weight jiggles and has a distinctive sound to indicate when the pressure is getting too high. This allows me to leave the kitchen as long as I'm still within hearing range. I know when the rattling sound is too frequent that I need to go back and reduce the heat to regulate the pressure. With my Presto canner I do need to stay with it and visually monitor the pressure gauge.

After 90 minutes of processing I turn the heat off and wait for the pressure gauge to read zero. That typically takes about 20 minutes. After the gauge is at zero I unscrew the lid and remove it. Then I use the jar lifting tongs to remove the jars and place them on a sheet of cardboard on the countertop.


five quarts of canned ground beef cooling

When the jars have completely cooled I'll remove the rings, wash down the jars, and label them with the contents and date.