Lanterns for St. Martin's Day


We haven't painted as a family in quite a while and I knew I wanted t0 make some lanterns for St. Martin's Day so we combined the two activities.

We started out by laying red and yellow paint down next to each other and then placing red on some of the yellow and yellow on some of the red - this brings out different shades and showed me what the children could do with their colors (we have some work to do). The tree is made by bringing blue in with a smaller brush and then going over the blue tree with more red and yellow. The tree would probably be a bit much for a younger child - Aidan wanted a tree so I put one down for him and then he went over it with his brush.
After the painting had dried (the next day) we drew in little lanterns that would decorate our tree. The girls and I carefully cut out the shapes with an exacto knife as below
Another option is to enhance the picture with coloring - Aidan wanted a St. Martin figure which I do admit to "massaging" into a more recognizable figure - I always ask permission before I "help" with a drawing.
When the cutting and coloring is finished, the edges and glued together - our smaller lanterns were made with one painting - the larger ones are two paintings glued together. We used good old Elmer's glue and just held it in place for a bit to dry. The smaller lanterns were fit around a metal lid from a ball mason jar. A handle can be added to the smaller lanterns by threading some florist wire through the top. The bigger lanterns we will keep on a table top and just enjoy the glow.

Happy Halloween

We stopped off to visit Nana before our fun evening with friends.
I actually really cheated this year and simply raided the costume box we keep in the attic. We already had the Robin Hood costume and Little Red Riding Hood's cloak - my oldest daughter took an old bridesmaid dress of mine and printed out a butterfly Mardi Gras mask we found online. The only thing I had to do was take the large mouse years off the 3T sweatsuit and stitch them onto to Despereaux's 5T sweatshirt. What! You don't know who Despereaux is?? Well if you don't recognize him now maybe you will this December - we are all very excited to see the movie - a rare treat in our house. (But read the book first!)


After a hearty healthy dinner of chili, cornbread, and butternut squash soup everyone was ready for some serious trick or treating.
Among the girls we had Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ann of Green Gables, Little Red Riding Hood, a Masquerade Butterfly, Mother Theresa, and a princess. The boys? As you can see they were all boy - Robin Hood, a Ninja (who managed to jump out at members of our group a time or two much to his delight!) and our very unusual mouse.

A First Holy Communion

We have been busy but I wanted to share a bit of a very special day. Our son Christian, age 8, received his First Holy Communion on Saturday morning, May 4th. We had another commitment later that afternoon so his party was held the next day. All that week I fretted over impending weather reports - we have a small house and we were counting on an outdoor barbecue. Saturday was a bit drizzly and cool but the by the next afternoon the clouds opened and the sun was shining!


We covered the picnic table with a light blue table covering and added a beautiful bouquet of flowers in blue and white and our Mary statue - we had completed a Novena of our own to Mary under her title "Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament" to help Christian prepare for his First Holy Communion. (I really think she had something to do with our beautiful day!) I also put out some of the books and resources we used for our First Holy Communion preparation.

I had spied a lovely cross shape cake in a bakery that we like but the price was a bit more than what we felt would be appropriate. So we made our own. We didn't have a cross shaped pan or time to order one so we simply took our cake recipe and baked it in a 9x13 Pyrex baking dish - it was a little tricky to remove but - that's what frosting is for after all! To make the cross we simply cut off a section lengthwise and cut that into two pieces to add onto each side of the larger center piece - there was a little extra left over for snacking. Alternately, you could also make a template out of wax paper. we trimmed all the edges square. Then we just covered the whole pieced together cake with frosting.

Christian helped big sister Katie bake the cake the night before which is from one of my favorite books for old fashioned desserts, The Country Mothers Cookbook

Daisy's Nutmeg Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, grease and lightly flour two round 9" layer cake pans (we used a 9"x13" Pyrex baking dish)

2 cups sifted cake flour (we used unbleached white)
2 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (we used ground)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Sift these ingredients together into a medium sized bowl, set aside

1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup buttermilk

In a large bowl cream butter and vanilla together until light. Add sugar gradually, creaming until fluffy after each addition. Add beaten eggs, one-third at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.

Then alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk by thirds to the creamed mixture - beating only til smooth after each addition - don't overdo.

Turn batter into prepared pans (or dish) - bake until cake is light brown and tests done when pressed lightly with fingertips - about 30 minutes. Turn out on a wire pan to cool. If using the Pyrex baking dish - loosen the sides with a knife and use an offset spatula to loosen the bottom.

Ice when cool - this recipe makes plenty -

6 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
4 cups sifted powered sugar

In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese, lemon juice, and peel. Gradually blend in powered sugar. If frosting is too stiff, blend in 1 tsp cold water at a time until desired consistency.
Katie collected and rinsed the fresh violets that adorned the cake - they are edible. The pan was dusted with powered sugar.

My mom found a little something for the center of the cake -
The rest of the menu included-
grilled hamburgers and hot dogs
fresh green salad with grated beet and carrot
walnut lentil salad
potato salad

Really very easy - we had some family and a few of Christian's friends - a bunch of boys running around the lake catching newts. fish, frogs - they loved it! Christian had a very special weekend - can you tell?

Our Morning Walk


What are little boys made of? Today they are made of pond water and muck,

Squirmy tadpoles....
Slippery newts and
Frog eggs!

Our Morning Walk
The mystery daffodil patch. Our walk was cut a little short today due to bugs! Everything is waking up and we were swarmed! Time to stock up on our natural bug repellents.

Our Morning Walk
This flower is a bit of a mystery - Hannah found a whole a patch of daffodils and jonquils off in the woods near another section of stream. They are not anywhere near a house - how did they get there?

The weather has warmed up quite a bit this week - buds and greenery are peeking through all over - finally! We made our way to The Court again for a couple of rounds of "Mother may I" - Hannah opted to continue adding some plants to her flower press for an ongoing Botany project.

Maple Sugaring - Evaporating

If you remember those old Dunkin' Donuts commercials where the very tired donut maker wearily keeps repeating to himself...."Gotta make the donuts" then you have a bit of an idea what this phase of maple sugaring is all about - except the ongoing phrase in your head is more like "Gotta feed the fire".

Once you have your sap then you've got to bring it to a boil..and then you let boil..and boil...and boil some more. You have to keep the fire going hot if you want to make progress and when you still have 50 gallons of sap waiting plus another gather looming in the afternoon - you want to make progress.

We started with large pots last year but we knew we were going to have improve on that for this year. At the beginning of the season we started with two stainless steel steam tables - like the ones you might see at a hot buffet.
This worked so much better than the pots...but we could do better. Ed was able to find a piece of stainless steel metal and a coworker was able to fashion a larger pan for us - he will be getting free syrup and other maple goodies for life! The best part about having a custom made pan is that we know it is absolutly lead free. Isn't it beautiful?

But believe me - this same pan looks a little different now at the end of the season. The larger shallower pan means more sap fits in the pan and more of pan being in contact with the flames makes for a more efficient boil. The picture below shows one of the smaller pans now acting as a warmer for the sap.

The basic routine Hannah followed was to strain the sap through cheesecloth and add that to the warming pan on top. Whenever the big pan started getting low - the sap from the warming pan was added to the large pan. We kept the large pan going until it was getting close to syrup - the sap obviously starts to slightly thicken and gets a more golden color, oh...and it smells wonderful! Once the syrup was getting close to finish, that is, when the temperature got to about 216 F degrees,the syrup would be moved to a large pot to finish inside on the stove.

Inside the syrup was finished at 219 degrees F. Once we had syrup we would let the "sugar sand" settle - next step - bottling!

An Unexpected Guest


I was in the kitchen when I heard something knock over our recycling can. We had a visitor alright - this must be a cub from last year. I looked over into the woods behind our neighbors house and saw 0ne...two...three...wait a minute...yes...four more young bears following one behind the other up through the woods. Five bears in a single sighting that is a record for us! This one just sort of sat there looking at us as we scrambled to get the camera and our bear measures ready - whistles and an assortment of pots and pans.
I took another pic and then we started our banging, our whooping, and our hollering...uh oh...no don't go up that tree just go join your brothers and sisters! He scrambled about 4ft up and then came back down and ran off up the hill.

Our Morning Walk

If nothing else - this little project with the goal of posting a picture a day has shown me how busy and blessed our life is on a daily basis.

This past Thursday our morning walk was to the car to go see the Golden Dragon Acrobats- what an amazing show.

Friday our walk didn't happen - we were catching up from being out Thursday - besides the camera was already packed away in Papa's car ready for his trip to Raritan Bay where it was busy taking pictures like this one below on Saturday. He enjoyed his first Nantucket Sleigh Ride! What! You don't know what a Nantucket Sleigh Ride is? Well neither did I until my husband took up fishing. Just picture a kayak (small craft, no anchor), a very large fish, a fishing pole, and a grown man grinning from ear to ear.
Papa was back Saturday night and up on Sunday to get ready for the Senior Citizens' Prom that one of his student groups at the high school where he works puts together each year. The girls went to help out dressed in their Easter best and afterward I joined them to see the high school's production of Damn Yankees - they did a great job!

Which brings us to Monday - whew!
Sketch books in hand, the girls and I checked on the plants we have chosen to sketch through Spring. The day was beautiful - so our walk ended at "The Court" - it's an old cement basketball court where we jump rope, play hopscotch, sing, play recorders...you get the idea. Aidan, above, is playing a favorite variation of jump rope where you try to hop over the slithering snake and not get bit!

And here it is Tuesday - violin lesson day - in my vision of a perfect Tuesday morning we are all up and out to take our morning walk - the boys stay presentable and do not get covered in mud - and we all calmly and happily get in the car and on our way! Hmm...we'll just call it a work in progress and leave it at that.

Our Morning Walk


Today we took turn down towards the stream. We crossed the area that the children have named "The Treacherous Bog". I thought the name just a bit dramatic...until I missed a bog and came away with a boot covered in muck. We crossed the stream and walked along the other side. I can't say I have ever seen a fairy but if I ever do, surely it will be somewhere along this stream. Doesn't the above look like prime fairy territory to you?

Our Morning Walk


Another picture from yesterday - this morning it was enough to get to violin lesson on time. I love all those little birches that are surrounding Katie - they hold their old leaves until the new ones come out. This year I am watching to see just when those old leaves fall off.

Maple Sugaring - The Gathering


The most strenuous part of Maple Sugaring is gathering the sap. A nearly full 5 gallon bucket weighs about 40 pounds. There were days when many of the buckets were nearly full. In fact, some trees, which we called our "Gold Star Trees" would be full to overflowing within a twenty four hour period. It is truly an amazing sight. We gathered, with a few exceptions, everyday.

Katie who tried her best to keep a log of incoming sap, reports at least 5 days where we brought home around 100 gallons of sap. Any sap that could not be boiled off in day was collected in 55 gallon food grade barrels and kept very cold with sapsicles. It is mind boggling to think of bigger producers who collect thousands of gallons of sap!

I'd like to say that we always had smiling faces while we joyfully toted and poured buckets but there are times when it just wasn't fun - like in the pouring rain. I think some lessons in perseverance were learned through all this as well as many others. I don't think a day went by where we didn't ask God to bless those who do this kind of work to sustain their family!

Our Morning Walk


Mondays...ahhh....Mondays. There always seems to be a bit of an adjustment after the weekend. We did not manage to get out the door until 10:00am! But on our walk we did find some new discoveries for our Botany study and the girls and I each "adopted" a branch to sketch through spring. I also started Christian's Mass Book for his First Holy Communion this morning and read a couple of chapters from our current read aloud before we left the house - so we've accomplished quite a bit already!

We had started down our usual route along the dam of our small neighborhood lake when Katie said to me "Oh Mama - look you can see our Fort". Wow - this is just one of many "forts" that have been built over the years. This one, it turns out, has been an on again off again joint project with some friends since January! I had no idea. I know of other "forts" but this one took me by surprise!

I can only laugh now at how I used to longingly gaze at catalogs that included everything from petite playhouses to large cedar swing sets. But over the years I have come to see the hidden blessings in not having too many outdoor play structures..especially in an area such as ours where there are so many opportunities for the children to find or build their own "houses". Excuse me - forts - there is a big difference you know!

Maple Sugaring - The Beginning

It all began on Sunday February 3 - I remember because it was Superbowl Sunday. While many were enjoying the game, we were out enjoying Super Sap Sunday! After a trial run last year we decided that Maple Sugaring would be Hannah's (13) big project this year.
All those buckets were washed and the tubing was cut into sections. The only other equipment needed were the taps, Dad's electric drill, and a mallet.

It is a thrill to see that first trickle come out of the tree!

The tap is inserted into the hole and we wait for...The first drip! Now keep in mind that it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup - that's a lot of drips!

Our Sunday Walk
Well...it was sort of a walk. We pulled all our taps today from Maple Sugaring. It was a happy time - collecting all the buckets and the last bit of sap for the season. I think we have all had our fill of hauling buckets of sap, firewood, and smelling like a wood fire everyday! We had a great season. There's still a bit of boiling to be done and tomorrow we will be washing a lot of buckets.

Mama's Morning Walk

It was one of those mornings...one of those mornings where it seems like everything that could possibly go wrong does - from missing jackets...scrambling for socks... to the car needing to be jump started! After a hectic time helping Ed get all four children out of the house in time for orchestra rehearsal this morning, Mama took her own little walk.

The picture shows what is known in our family as the "Pump House". In recent years it has been locked, but inside there is an old water pump that used to provide water to the neighborhood homes years and years ago when this was a little community of summer vacation homes in the 50's. No one had indoor plumbing in their little summer cottages, in fact, when we first moved into our house (which did have indoor plumbing at the time) an outhouse still stood on the hill in our backyard.

The Pump House was the destination for walks when all the children were under age 7. We would all toddle down to the little house and pump the handle until the water came gushing out. Then it was time to return home. Everyone took a turn with the handle and it never ceased to delight my small children. We never visited much during the winter. One spring, on our first visit after the winter, we pumped and pumped and pumped and finally a mouse in a jumble of leaves tumbled out!

Now that I am thinking about it, Aidan, age 5, may have never heard that particular story - I'll have to share it on our next walk down that direction. Off to enjoy a glorious morning of uninterrupted Spring cleaning!

Our Morning Walk



My husband was about to leave the house this morning when I notice the camera around his neck.
"Are you taking the camera?" I asked.
Yes - he needed the camera to send some pictures to folks over at Trout in the Classroom. While we were on our walk this morning - a rainy morning but refreshing and very peaceful - the camera was actually taking pictures such as this one...
But when hubby got home, I did run over and snap a picture of the birch that caught my eye this morning. I tend to want to curl up on cool wet rainy mornings and we were moving a bit more slowly this morning but we did it - into rain boots and out of the house by 8:30am!

Our Morning Walk

We'll join Jennifer in an attempt to post a picture a day for the month of April! Our theme will be "Our Morning Walk". Our homeschool days always seem to go better if we begin the day with a short walk. Getting everyone out of house seems to help our day actually begin in a more timely fashion. My hope is to get everyone out of the house by 8:00 or 8:30 am and be back by 9:00am. We'll snap a picture along the way each day!

The day was cloudy, rainy, and wet but also very warm....throughout the day we wondered... could it be? Will it be tonight? Yes! Time for the spring peepers! For us these are the little heralds that sing in Spring! My oldest daughter would really like to participate in an Amphibian Crossing program but this year we settled for our own frog hunt and watch last night when we heard their calls. We slowly drove down our dirt road and when we spotted anything hopping we stopped and made sure they got across road safely. Here's a sampling of the critters we saw...

This fellow was the largest and we think must be a toad.


This one was a little smaller.....

And this one smaller still....

We ended by taking a walk around our local lake where we found two more species...
And finally, our favorite...so small!
We are hoping to do it again and bring Daddy along (he missed this one because he was still at work). We'll let you know if we spot anyone new! I did try to look them up but I'm pretty baffled...the most obvious one is a leopard frog but we're not sure about the others. We do know it is the last littlest guy that makes the loudest peep.