It’s Tradition, Damn It

December 20, 2012 by WoolyMama

Is it just me or is the week before Christmas pretty much a throw away? Everyone has checked out at this point.

Since we can’t seem to concentrate on work, school has nothing but been various crafts and some reading.

The big craft day was spent making gingerbread houses. This year I ordered the kits from King Arthur Flour, and I am pretty happy that I did. Usually we just grab the kits from WalMart or Michael’s, but they honestly taste pretty bad. Like dog – food bad. We have fun assembling them, but then they sit there for a month until I finally throw them away.

This year’s kits were much tastier and came with better candy.

In the evening afterwards we packed into the car – as our tradition dictates – and drove around looking at the christmas lights.

Doesn’t it sound idyllic and warm and cozy and sweet?

It wasn’t.

It was more of an exercise in extreme parenting. Oona was entertained for all of 20 minutes, and then she and Neve took turns hitting and pinching each other, crying, whining and complaining “But it’s HER fault!”

You want to know the other part? This is how it is every year. EVERY. DAMN. YEAR.

Yet we do it anyway. We even look forward to it, naively believing that this year will finally be better.

It’s a tradition, and darn it one day they will be thankful we suffered through it every year. One year I brought hot cocoa and homemade white chocolate – mint popcorn for everyone but they ended up spilling the cocoa, needing to pee every 5 minutes and only 2 of us liked the popcorn.

We don’t do that anymore.

I was seriously starting to get a good holiday cheer going – really getting into the spirit at first.

By the time we got home I just wanted everyone to go to bed so I could have a nice stiff drink.

You know what? We’ll do it again next year. Traditions are like that. Sometimes in the moment they are painful, but the more you do it (and perhaps the further away you are from it in time) the rosier they seem and the more meaningful they become. For us, the annual viewing of the lights means christmas is less than a week away. Our holiday season would be incomplete without it , temper tantrums and all.

Sugar High

December 17, 2012 by WoolyMama

Yesterday we hosted our annual Cookie Exchange – today we all have food hangovers. Which we are treating by eating mostly cookies.

I didn’t manage to take many pictures – too busy having fun with friends, you know – but Paul got some with his phone.

Oona had to be held back from eating the cookies I made for the party.

I think I was telling them about the mole Orzo had dug up during the party. I had run out there after people were telling me they saw him playing with something (I was afraid that despite the colder temps it might be a snake) and found him grabbing at a very fat mole. My first instinct was to grab it and chuck it outside the field, but then Orzo grabbed it in his mouth and flung it – right into my face. It shrieked and I was caught off guard. So I held Orzo back while it burrowed away.

Emily took advantage of our internet – it has not been working properly at Juniper Moon Farm.

I love this picture of Keith and daughter Katie.

Everyone wore their poinsettia pins we made for them!

Even blurry, Jessie looks great. I tell ya.

You can focus on it being a terribly unflattering picture, or you can focus on the fact that I finished my dress in time to wear it for the party.

Good lord my friend Theresa makes cute babies. I just wanted to grab little Teddy here and snuggle him all day.

A rare picture of Emily in the wild. She has decided the only pictures of her that she will allow are during JMF photoshoots. You know, when you’ve had a personal stylist and professional photographer working with you, I guess it would be hard to go back to “normal” pictures. Or she is just pulling the “surly teenager” card.

Maddie and Gully spent plenty of quality relaxing time after the party.

We were worn out from all that fun! And food! (And just maybe the wine and the delicious hard cider that Theresa brought).

Warm Winter Flannel, Take Two

December 13, 2012 by WoolyMama

In between working on my new plaid dress I have been working on finishing up flannel pj’s for the girls.

You know, because it is so cold out (insert crazy sarcasm here).

I used the “Little Nighty Night” pattern from Favorite Things for the pants (it’s actually a pattern for shorts – I just lengthened it). The shirt was a random white tee shirt I sewed a matching pocket onto. And voila! Jammies!

Perfect for her favorite activity: laying in front of the fireplace, reading (even when it is 70 degrees outside. Clearly these kids are not mine).

Making Days

December 11, 2012 by WoolyMama

As the days start to pick up speed toward christmas we’ve been spending a little less time with math and science and more time with reading, writing, baking, and crafting.

While the orgy of cookie and cake baking hasn’t quite begun in earnest, there are some being made.

Maddie made both butter cookies for frosting and hamantaschen.

I hadn’t ordered the really good gel food coloring from King Arthur Flour as I had planned, mostly because the box we got from the local Food Lion promised to give true colors. But, as you can see, we got more of a pastel effect from them than we would like.

Oh well. Next time.

The hamantaschen will not last long. There’s a long list of cookies that we will make out of tradition, and there’s a long list of cookies we’d like to try. I think the kitchen will be working pretty well non – stop for the next two weeks.

And here’s a sneak peak of the dress I am making for myself. The fabric is wonderful – a festive and soft plaid shirting from Robert Kaufman.

It will be my third time using this pattern from Sew Lisette. It’s probably my favorite one.

Soon we’ll be making gingerbread houses and settling in for nightly holiday movie viewings – though I am definitely putting Love Actually on tonight for knitting entertainment. Maybe a fire, too. And popcorn.

Warm Winter Flannel

December 4, 2012 by WoolyMama

That’s right. I am in the midst of making everyone warm winter jammies in the midst of a freaking warm spell. It’s been in the mid seventies for days now, and it isn’t going to get much cooler for awhile. See what I meant about how you can’t predict the winter based on fall’s weather? A week or so ago we were getting hard frost.

This is probably due to the fact that we just had a gigantic propane tank installed for the fireplace so we could be all cozy for school and for reading and knitting in the mornings and evenings. Now we’re just sweating in there, and the propane hasn’t been turned on once yet.

Of course, if I had my way the fireplace would be wood – burning……but you can’t win ’em all.

Oona gets a flannel nightgown, courtesy of this picture I found on Pinterest.

I pretty much just fudged my way through it. The fabric is “Nordica” flannel by Robert Kaufman.

She’s been pretty much living in it non – stop since I made it. I think I may have to make her a whole week’s worth of them. Especially as it goes rather well with a snappy pair of red cowboy boots when you’re sweepin’ the front porch.

The Sweetest Little Lamb

December 3, 2012 by WoolyMama

Yesterday I got to spend a good part of the day visiting with my friend Lisa over at Red Row Farm.

She and her husband Will welcomed their second child the day before Thanksgiving and I got to wait on Lisa and sweet little Marie for a few hours while Oona played with four – year old Alston.

I got my “newborn baby” fix in (she smells divine!), Oona had a blast, and I got to catch up with a dear friend that I have not gotten to spend enough time with lately.

Unfortunately, Lisa’s farm is a good 45 minute drive from us – close enough to be local, but far enough that popping in to each other’s houses regularly isn’t as easy as it should be. The good news is that Lisa’s husband is a fabulous cook (they do own a few restaurants around here after all) so I don’t feel too bad that I haven’t been able to drop off regular hot meals to them.

Baby and mama are doing just fine, and hopefully soon we’ll see a lot more of them.

Grateful

November 21, 2012 by WoolyMama

Tomorrow we all will hopefully be taking time out from our hectic and busy lives (and eating) to reflect on our many blessings.

I am thankful for so much this year: my family, my friends, my flock. A roof over our heads and food in our bellies.

Everything else is icing on the cake.

Happy Thanksgiving.

A New Normal

November 20, 2012 by WoolyMama

We’re starting to settle into our new routines. Going out before school in the morning to feed and check on everyone, and spend some calming, quiet time just listening to the sounds of the morning. It’s the time where I can best observe how the puppies will interact with the flock and where they need improvement. SO far they are doing well enough that I am letting them out with the flock all day (I’ve only had to do some minor corrections with them – this is the beauty of them having stayed with their father at Susan’s farm for so long, being trained by a seasoned guard dog).

It’s the time where I can watch the sheep and goats and see how they are faring. It’s also a beautiful alone time just for me to enjoy before the hustle and bustle of homeschool and the activities of a very busy family.

While everyone is working on their reading I have also been busy learning.

This book is my shepherding bible. It contains so much useful information that no one keeping sheep should be without it. I have spent the last few years learning as much as I can about sheep – and I have been crazy lucky to get so much of that hands – on experience from helping Susan whenever I could. This book fills in many of the gaps that I feel I still have in my knowledge. (Though, as my mentor, Susan will still expect to hear my questions from time to time….)

And yes, shut up, I AM still trying to finish my Halloween socks!

In the evenings, the kids usually like to come out and help with feeding and night check. We make sure the water tanks are full, everyone gets their evening feeding, and that all is well. It’s not as calm a time as the morning, but it is a lovely way to wrap up the day.

I love how sheep eat hay – head planted firmly in the bale.

I can’t tell you how much I love Milkshakes’ ridiculous beard.

Happy girl.

Jerry kept trying to photobomb everyone from directly above me. So I turned the camera on him.

And then he decided to go show Orzo who is boss. Orzo gladly let Jerry have that title, and wandered away to have a drink.

Soon we’ll be hauling in more fence sections to divide the pasture so we’ll have good grass this spring. We’ll grind up more of the stumps that are still out there and Paul has designs on putting in a centralized hay hut and shelter. It is shaping up slowly, but I am thrilled you’ll be able to watch the metamorphosis with us.