September Stroll

Afternoon Commute

I came home from work yesterday itching to get outside and enjoy the quintessential September day.  This month is one of my absolute favorites because of weather like this.  I knew it would be the perfect specimen of a day when I left earlier in the morning. As I swung the front door open the air had given me a refreshing wave of chills. I had fought with the heavy dew and the golden morning glow of the sun just to see out my windshield.  Then into the time warp of the school building I went...never to see sunlight again until 3 p.m.  As my wheels swung back into my gravel driveway I had my heart set on a walk.  I figured I'd go check on our ancient pear trees and determine if Saturday would be a pear canning day.  Like a little kid I crept into the house (certain that my husband was taking a needed nap).  I tiptoed to get my grubby jeans, decided to forego a change of top, grabbed my camera, and slipped on my chore clogs.  Then I carefully closed the screen door behind me wishing in vain that it didn't creak so vehemently every time it moved an inch.  Oh well...I was off into the wide world to see what I could see...

Cleaning: the Long & Short of It

It’s probably unwise for a woman living south of the Mason-Dixon Line to admit it, but I’m not religious when it comes to cleaning my home.  On the spectrum from Clean Jean to Messy Jessie, I prefer to be Sane Jane -- Jean’s artistic, active, and somewhat less-kept sister.  Because I’m not a fan of clutter or filth, I do the basic once over on a fairly regular basis.  But suffice it to say my home has a love-hate relationship with the white glove test.  I've observed that most creative homesteads accept a certain level of disarray in order to focus on living their convictions while maintaining sanity.  This notion has always provided me with calming validation.  As with so much in life, it’s all about balance.  Most people who know me recognize that I’m not a stickler for domestic customs.  Despite this truth, I can’t ignore that our home needs a proper scrubbing after both winter’s hibernation and summer’s flurry of activity.  As much as I like to clean to the beat of my own drum, I generally follow suit when it comes to Spring and Fall Cleaning.  On a recent Saturday Weldon and I put Cinderella to shame with our zealous energy to get our house back to spic ‘n span.  As a shout-out to my thoroughly modern husband, he was neither bribed nor threatened into participating in this event. We turned on some peppy tunes and each chose a weapon of choice (rag, bucket, vacuum, spray bottle). We moved furniture, washed baseboards, vacuumed every stitch, wiped every surface, and even did the little To Do’s that have hovered in limbo for months.  I don’t mean to brag or rub it in, but it gives me great satisfaction to know that not only is my house clean (for now), but we did the work without using toxic chemicals.  It’s neither as difficult nor as pricey as it may sound.  I’m sure there are plenty of Clean Jean’s posting their whiz-bang tips for a perpetually spotless abode, but below I've offered my personal nitty gritty on Sane Jane house cleaning. 

The Teacher Type

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”  -- Socrates

If Socrates were alive today I’d give his toga-wearing frame a huge bear hug, look him straight in the eyes, and thank him profusely for acknowledging this truth.  Then I’d ask him how in the world he said so many quote-worthy things that we still reference thousands of years later.

With the exception of one moment of weakness in elementary school when I said the words, “I want to be a teacher,” (out of adoration for Mrs. Most-Awesome-Teacher-Ever) I was otherwise convinced that the field was not for me.  I loved school but there seemed to be a mismatch between me and the profession.  I wasn't a softy-type nurturing personality that could warmly embrace snot-nosed little ones or repeat the basics of multiplication for the eleven-thousandth time.  Likewise, the idea of working with upper level students made me roll my eyes because, as everyone knows, aliens remove teenage brains and don’t return them until much later in life.  When I began setting my sites on viable career paths I objected to the entire field of education under the guise that I didn't have the patience for it.  The only thing I even hesitated to consider was a position on a collegiate level…but I think I was only intrigued by that because Indiana Jones was a college professor by day and an adventuring intellectual by night.  So, pretty much teaching was out. 

Ten years later, look at me…I’m working with middle school students five days a week!

A Birthday to Remember

A friend of ours made this astonishing cake.
Those veggies are FROSTING!

I love birthdays.  Yours, mine, ours, theirs…it doesn't matter; birthdays are one of my favorite things.  I like the idea that for one day in the year an individual can be loved on, feasted with, sung to, and given gifts.  Every one is worth that.  Of course, I realize that for some the loving may come from a pet, the feast may be a candy bar, the song may be on the radio, and the gifts may be green traffic lights and a pretty sunset; but, if that person acknowledges these things on their birthday, it is still a special day.  I think birthdays give each one of us an opportunity for reflection and hope.  Unlike New Year’s Day, when everyone around us is encouraged to acknowledge the annual passage of time, a birthday is personal, private even.  Only you have lived the exact moments of your days past and will experience the fullness of your days to come.  Only you know the wish that you make when the candles are blown out (or your head hits the pillow that night). 

Making A Kid-Friendly Wooden Puzzle

I have a posse of nieces and nephews that I adore.  The youngest of the bunch are twin boys who just turned one year old.  These toddling cuties have recently been my inspiration for a homemade gift.  Of course, I often find myself in the position of having an awesome project in mind that I have no clue how to produce.  It’s one of those yin-yang predicaments.  I’m the type of person that prefers to try new things, particularly when it comes to creativity.  But I’m also the type of person that likes a plan and wants to do things well.  This polarity yields itself to frequent occasions where I am eager to jump into a creative process I've never tried before AND equally freaked out because I have no idea what I’m doing.  Experience has taught me two things in these moments:  First, give myself as much time as possible to think through, research, and tackle the process.  And second, have a back-up gift idea should the outcome look like a kindergartner made it (not cool when the intended recipient is an adult).

This post is my experience making two adorable wooden puzzles for my incorrigibly feisty twin nephews.  Let’s hope the puzzles are played with more often as puzzles than as clubs! 

Totally Tomatoes: How To Can Tomato Sauce Starter

I've been known to go overboard with tomatoes.  I used to plant by the enticing mantra, "if some are good, more are better!"  In my first few seasons it wasn't uncommon for me to take up a third of my garden with staked tomato vines.  By July, I’d be scrambling like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory conveyor belt – desperate to put up the overwhelming influx before the next wave tumbled into the kitchen.  Thankfully, the more seasons I have under my belt, the better sense I get for what we’ll actually use.  I've learned to reel myself in during planting so that later I won’t feel the urge to stash tomatoes left and right simply to get them out of my sight.  No matter what, canning tomatoes is a big job.  For me, the payoff makes it worth the effort -- the rest of the year I have the delicious luxury of canned garden tomatoes (in all their glorious forms) at my fingertips.  

Last summer I posted about one of my favorite finales to summer canning: salsa.  This year, the season has been wet and late, so our tomatoes are just now coming in strong.  I’m rolling up my sleeves and gathering pots and pans to re-stock my pantry with another canned-tomato staple – what I call “sauce starter”.  This simple recipe is the foundation for my soups, pasta sauces, and stews.  Though I've given a basic tomato-canning “how-to” with the recipe below, it is best to familiarize yourself with the guidelines from expert resources such as Ball’s Book of Home Preserving.

Summertime: All Good Things Must Come to An End

None of us wear just one hat.  Some folks adorn themselves with a veritable plethora and other folks stick with a classic and comfortable few.  While homesteader, farmer, food-lover, writer, and wife are the top five of mine you read about on this blog, a great number of hours in the year I'm also a teacher. So alas...though the humidity still makes my hair frizz and the garden is still pumping out its glorious produce, "summertime" for me has ended.   I'm off to another creative, inspiring, growing, challenging, and intellectual place --- the middle-school classroom!

No need for concern, I'll be continuing with plenty of homestead and kitchen activities to fill the blogosphere with my tales of hilarity, pontification, and how-to.

I spent the first moments of this beautiful muggy morning reminiscing about how much I've ALWAYS loved the first day of school -- and how awesome my grown-up insulated lunch box is.