Ordinary Time

Spring means the stinging nettles start growing. Since we have a lot of stinging nettle around here, it makes sense to make use of the free food. Plus, they are really, really good for you. G. offered to do the cooking if I did the harvesting. I own gloves, so I was more than happy to agree. We decided to try nettle ravioli with nettle pasta and nettle filling.  The nettle patch after I harvested a lot of nettle because I didn't think to take a before picture. They need to be blanched before using them because the heat removes the sting. And like so many greens, what looks like a lot to start with becomes not quite enough after cooking.  G. making the ravioli with the nettle pasta dough. I had G. use semolina flour instead of the white flour the recipe called for.  The finished ravioli. They are boiled and then have a garlic and butter sauce put on them.  The inside. They were filled with a combination of nettles, marscapone cheese, and cooked potatoes. While they we...

It has been a busy week around here. I had three different fiber classes at Fine Line this week. They were interesting; I'm glad I was able to take them; I'm really glad I don't have three every week. To keep this ship running smoothly, I really need to be home more. The portable sheep fencing is working well. We've (well, J. and G.) have already moved it once. The sheep love having access to grass.  I think the wool break in the sheep that haven't been sheared is now to a point where we can roo them. I think we'll try Fred tomorrow. L. has started training for her job as a deck hand on a boat on the Fox River. Today was CPR and first aid training.  G. and Y. are still on the hunt for summer jobs. J. received a very, very nice early birthday present from TM and JH of tickets to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. J. was left a little speechless.  On top of having three classes which had me out of the house this week, I also had a Girl Scout troop here all afternoo...

Let's talk about expectations. I'm going to discuss them in terms of parenting, but if you are not a parent, I think it will be pretty easy to transfer the message into your life as well. This is because the simple message is that it is our expectations that get us into trouble and make us unhappy much of the time. Actually, to be precise, that would be our unmet expectations. I communicate with a lot of parents and frustration and feeling frustrated is often reported as a significant problem. This frustration often takes the form of anger or yelling. When people picture what they think they will be like as parents, being the angry yelling type rarely is imagined. I've lost track of the number of times I have heard a parent say, "I never thought I would be a yeller." It's not how parents really want to be, yet they still find themselves doing it. What's going on? Let's just get one false explanation out of the way. It's not because they are bad par...

K. has been taking pictures the past couple of days. 

I'm pretty sure that not a single one of you who read my Fiber Monday posts stops and thinks to themselves, "Gee, it's a shame that E. doesn't have enough projects to fill her time. Maybe she should learn something new." But yes, the woman who has at least eight different projects she is working on concurrently, did indeed sign up for a class to learn something new. At least this skill doesn't require large pieces of specialized equipment.  My Monday post is late tonight because I was in a class to learn hardanger, which is a Norwegian form of cutwork embroidery. I had actually done some years and years ago, but couldn't really remember much about it. Here is my first practice piece that I came home with tonight.  I put it on the green book so you could better see where the cutwork was.  Here's a closer picture.  Next week we'll start on a small project using the skills we learned tonight.  I have visions of weaving some linen yardage, drafting a p...

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon binge reading the final third of the book Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. I really, really needed to see how it ended. And now I want everyone else to read it so I have a group of people to process it with.  I put the book on hold several months ago when I first read about it on a list of books being published this year. It is about a social media influencer who creates content about homemaking and raising her family who suddenly finds herself in the pioneer West. I won't post any spoilers, but I will say it is shelved under fiction and not fantasy or science fiction.  The author does a pretty decent job skewering of influencers and their followers, patriarchy, conservative Christianity, conservative homeschooling, preppers, conspiracy theorists, the "manosphere", and  politicians. It is a book filled with people who are so afraid that they won't do things right, that they aren't important, that someone will find out they ...