Martinmas

For Martinmas, or the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, I made St. Martin's Croissants, a Polish tradition.  While I don't have any Polish ancestry that I know of, Ray is half Polish.  That means that my kids are 1/4 Polish.  So that is as good a reason as any to adopt a Polish tradition for our household.  Especially when it involves making and eating sugared croissants!  I couldn't get a decent picture of them, though.  In real life they were all sparkly from the coarse sugar coating.  And mmmm, yummy!

While we were enjoying the croissants and hot apple cider, M re-told the story of how St. Martin gave a beggar half his cloak so he wouldn't freeze. Next year, if I get my act together, I think it would be nice to have the kids collect some coats to give to charity on this day.

Fall fun

This week we met some of our homeschooled friends at a local park.  It is one of my favorite parks because it is right on a beautiful lake.  The weather was perfect.  Chilly but sunny.  The children raked together a pile of leaves with their hands and feet then took turns running down the hill and jumping into it.

 

 

And a trip to this park would not be complete without playing with the ducks a little.

Small changes:2

A while back I wrote about the small changes I was trying to implement in my life to be more environmentally friendly.  A few months ago I tried another small change.  I didn't share right away because I wanted to see how it worked out first.  What is it?  Well....I have stopped using shampoo and conditioner.  I know, I know...you are probably thinking, "Eeeewwww!"  But it is actually great.  I haven't stopped washing my hair.  I'm just using much more environmentally friendly products.  Baking soda and apple cider vinegar.  My hair feels great, has tons of body, and I've gotten lots of compliments on my hair lately (from people who have no idea that I'm not using shampoo). 

This is how it works:  I keep a water tight container of baking soda on my bathroom counter.  I have a plastic one-cup measuring cup and a teaspoon there too.  The apple cider vinegar is in a bottle in the shower just like conditioner would be.  Before I get into the shower I measure out 2-3 teaspoons of baking soda into the measuring cup.  I take that into the shower.  When I'm ready to wash my hair I simply fill the measuring cup about half way with water.  Stir to semi-dissolve the baking soda.  Then I pour it onto my hair, trying to work it into the roots as much as possible.  It doesn't feel like it's working.  It actually feels like I'm just washing my hair with water.  Rinse well.  Next I pour a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into the measuring cup and fill the rest of the way with water.  At this point I gather up my hair and dip then ends into the cup for 10 seconds or so since my hair is longish.  Then I dump the rest over the top of my hair.  Rinse and I'm done.  It's amazing how well it works.  I will say that there is a bit of an adjustment period. But after you get used to not having a foamy lather to wash with, it is really nice.  The kids especially like it.  Also, they really like using apple cider vinegar instead of conditioner.  Conditioner always felt too "slimy" for them.  For a good article on the how and why of going "no-poo" check out Babyslime.

Mount Vernon

We live in a really fantastic place to homeschool.  There are so many wonderful museums near our home.  And so much history all around this area.  Last week we visited Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.  We had never been there before even though we have lived here for nearly seven years.   Well, we were really missing out!  George Washington said (paraphrased) that it was the most wonderful place on earth.  I find it hard to argue with him.  It was beautiful!  I wanted to sit on his back porch all afternoon and take in the view of the Potomac and watch the kids run around his lawn.  We spent all day, 9:30-5:00, walking around his estate.  When it was time to go I was sad to leave.  It is really a beautiful place.

 

a ha-ha wall

Placing flowers at George Washington's tomb

 

Playing "Revolutionary War soldiers" at Mount Vernon.  How awesome is that!

A large old juniper makes a perfect fort.  It's all hollow underneath.

 

Good bye for now, Mount Vernon.  I'm sure we will be visiting you again soon.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Guy Fawkes Day.  Bonfire Night.  Since we happened to be studying this period in English history right now, we tried to have our own celebration here "across the pond" in our own backyard.  The kids made paper guy dolls and we lit up a fire in our new fire pit.  We roasted hot dogs and burned the guy dolls. 

 

The kids had a good time even though we had some trouble keeping the fire going.  In fact, we had to roast the marshmallows over the stove after the fire went out and refused to light up again.

 Fun, fun! 

My first hat

After a couple of late nights tidying up, we are mostly back to a normal level of mess around here.  Thank goodness!

I wanted to share something that I made a few weeks ago.

This little hat is my first attempt at knitting in the round.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I forgot to start it with a couple inches of ribbing so it has a rolled edge instead.  I wasn't sure how big it was going to turn out, either.  While I was knitting it I told the kids that it would be for whichever child it fit the best.  C won.
 

Too much stuff!

Today we had the exterminator here spraying our house for carpet beetles.  Yuck!  I had to unload everything out of our closets and pull things away from the walls.  He went through the whole house.  Every room, bathroom, and closet, the garage, the basement, and our storage room.  As I was running around ahead of him picking up stray toys, books, and lost socks (among other things) I had one thought in my head..."How on earth did we accumulate so much crap stuff?"  One of my many New Year's resolutions that have been ignored this year was to take a car load of crap stuff to the Salvation Army at least once a month.   To get back on track I am going to have to donate eleven car loads this month.  It's going to be nearly impossible.  But it would feel so wonderfully liberating.  I must do it.

A few pictures of what my house looks like right now:   Aaaagghhh!

All this stuff crap is suffocating me!