Ordinary Time

I came across an article about an international study a few days ago that I wanted to talk about. It was a study looking at key childhood experiences that predicted emotional well being in adulthood. For the well being piece, the researchers looked at health, happiness, anxiety, life satisfaction with social relationships, and a general trust in others.  There were three experiences in childhood which correlated with positive measures of these components. Just three. They were: Responsive care from parents (or caregiver), ample amounts of free play, and positive emotional climate at home.  It's actually pretty straightforward. You probably guessed that it was the free play item that caught my eye and was the reason I decided to share it.  Before I start making people unhappy, let's do a quick review of what free play is and why it's so important. Free play is child directed activity that is enjoyable for the child. This is not play or activities that are directed by adult...

When J. goes to work he takes whichever children have classes that day with him. They go to class, do homework, roam the school until their father is done for the day and then they all come home. It's a great system with no extra driving needed. It's a great system that is until J. needs to be at a meeting off campus two hours away all day.  While there is a shuttle bus that goes between the end of the Metra line in our little town and the NIU campus in DeKalb, there is no additional transportation from NIU to the community college in a small town three miles further west from DeKalb. (For selfish reasons, I really think there should be a regular shuttle between NIU and the community college.)  This meant I found myself driving children too and from school today. It was a lot of driving especially since I added in a bunch of errands on each return trip... Getting gas, Costco, farm store, equine vet (to pick up prescriptions, and the library all told. The library was the last s...

I feel I need to say out loud what I am not hearing said regarding the gang rape of a woman in a frat house at Cornell University. All 57 men who were involved in some way are cowards. The administration who swept it under the rug are cowards. The national governing body of the fraternity (from whom I've seen nothing at all) are cowards. They were all so afraid of drawing attention to themselves by doing what was right that they instead did nothing at all except pretend it wasn't happening.  Do you want to know who are not cowards? Any woman who reports a sexual assault. She knows exactly what she is in for. These woman are not treated kindly by the system. It takes guts to do what is right even though you know that it will exacerbate the pain of the original assault.  In my opinion, all 57 men who either participated or stood by need to be charged and prosecuted. At a minimum, all members of the administration who covered it up need to be fired without their golden parachutes...

I'll spare you my sad and frustrating story about the project on my floor loom. It's ultimately going to be okay, but I think I just need several straightforward projects after this. Moving on... I'm also weaving 100% wool scarves on my rigid heddle loom. Here is the first off the loom and all ready to go. The next one is already warped and I'm working on the weaving.  This one will be a plaid instead of hounds tooth.  And that's all I have for you. As a bonus, I wanted to share a picture of our drake whose colors are nearly all in now.  But what I want you to really pay attention to is the cute little curl he has in his tail feathers. I know it's a typical drake kind of thing, but I think it's so cute!

We had been wanting to ride on the boat that L. works on all summer. Finally today we were free, L. was working, and the weather cooperative. It was more than cooperative, it was pretty much the perfect day to take a boat ride.  That's L. at the end of the gang plank. I didn't take any pictures while we were on the boat, but we spent some time walking around the park the boat leaves from, so you can still enjoy views of the Fox River.

It sounds so good to find some good deals on produce to can and freeze, the trouble is it's only a good deal if you actually do the canning and freezing. Which is what I did today. All day. All day standing in the kitchen chopping vegetables. It is worth it in the end, but I'm beat.  The totals for today?  7 pints of sweet pickle relish (canned) 6 cups of frozen green pepper strips 20 cups of frozen mixed color bell pepper strips 4 dehydrator trays of bell peppers (they're still dehydrating so I don't know how many cups) Two dinner's worth of frozen sliced okra (to be fried) 5 pounds of ground cornmeal - we had run out and I needed it for the okra so needed to grind more I still need to prep and freeze the extra lemongrass that I bought yesterday. Plus there are still cucumbers which I need to turn into bread and butter pickles. I'm also guessing there will be enough cucumbers to make a couple jars of dill pickles. I'm hoping I'll be done with it all by ...