Sima - a Finnish Spring Mead

Sometime ago a friend told us about a special drink her son had made - a fizzy, lemon drink.  I knew E would be interested because he loves anything lemon, enjoys being able to make things himself and anything fizzy is an unusual treat around here.  The friend was kind enough to share her recipe and I tucked it away in E's folder and the months went by.

Then on Saturday I was looking through a library book - Lotta Jansdotter's Handmade Living: A Fresh Take on Scandinavian Style - and saw a Swedish drink called Mead  that looked and sounded very much like the Sima that our friend  had let us sample.  I found her Sima recipe again and sure enough...it was very similar. 

I told E about it Sunday morning and he decided that we Must make it Now!  So after our walk in the woods we stopped at our neighbourhood shop to get some lemons and sugar and came home to make it.

E boiled the water and added the sugar, lemon rind  and lemon juice then left it to cool a bit.  Once it was cooled to the right temperature he added a bit of yeast and then we left it overnight.

The next day we bottled it with a few raisins in each bottle - meant to tell us when it was ready by floating to the top of each bottle...I do love a clear indication of things going well!!

Then the next day E checked on them and two of the bottles had raisins floating and tiny bubbles in the neck.  He was thrilled.  Of course, he had to sample immediately...and was delighted. 

The other bottles are in the fridge and I have a feeling they won't last long. ;-)  He wants to make this regularly and I'm hoping he will make it for May day as the start of a new tradition.  We've read that Sima is a traditional May Day drink in Finland and who doesn't like a special drink to celebrate Beltane - the renewal of nature and the beginning of the bright half of the year? 
Speaking of that  "bright" half of the year, rather than waiting patiently for it to bring us blooms, I decided to "force" the issue and bring in some Forsythia to force.  The branches of yellow flowers bring a bit of cheer to our living space!

Edited to add recipe -
Here is the recipe from our friend - we actually used two lemons and, after removing the zest from them, instead of slicing them we juiced them so that we wouldn't have to bother removing the white pith.  You can see another similar recipe and directions here.

Sima
1 lemon

5 liters water

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. yeast

additional granulated sugar and raisins

Remove zest from lemon and place in a large non-aluminum pot. Slice the lemon and set aside. Add the water and sugars to the pot and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugars dissolve. Remove from heat, cover and cool to 110 degrees F. Stir in lemon slices and yeast. Cover and let stand at room temperature until the next day. Bubbles should appear. Strain through a sieve and fill five 1 liter bottles. Add 1 tsp. sugar to each bottle and 2 raisins. Seal and store in a cool place until raisins rise to the surface (2-4 days), Chill until ready to serve.

Snow, Pinecones, Knitting and Other Good Stuff

Our days lately have been a delightful mix of busy-ness and quiet times.  In theory this time of year is our "quiet time" - the time of year when the pace of our life slows down naturally due to the change of season and...I'm forced to admit, in large part, due to the shorter days - one just can't work as much outside when it gets dark so early.  For me this is a good thing,  I'm the sort of person who needs external forces to slow me down (I'm working at learning this on my own). I feel pretty much "done" at the garden for this year,  certainly there is more I'd like to do but I am content with what I managed to get done before the snow.

The garden is mostly all tucked in - some under fall rye, some with garlic planted and mulched, some with a blanket of chopped leaves and some, very sad indeed, with no covering due to lack of rain to sprout the rye seeds and very hungry birds (who ate up all the unsprouted seeds).  Still, I'm pleased with how it looks and I've still got lots more bags of leaves to compost with manure that can be added in the springtime
(or next week if the weather cooperates!).  I'm looking forward to seeing loads of worms under this leaf covering come spring and really realizing how much of my love of gardening comes from the joy of building soil.

 

So with gardening come to a close that leaves me with a lot more time for relaxation, rest, rejuvenation...OR...

knitting!

And decorating for winter.  And baking!  Musn't forget baking.

(E finally got to make us some caramel apples - he has been wanting to do this for ages)

Actually I love all these things and find them very relaxing.  Over the years we've managed to whittle down our holiday preparations to the things that are most important to us and it makes this time of year much more enjoyable for us.

(E's first mini snowman of the year last week)

On our afternoon walk earlier this week we started collecting pinecones and greenery for our decorations - it wasn't quite the same as the last two years (where we lived in the woods) but I think we'll easily manage to find enough greenery in our neighbourhood to decorate our home.

Usually at this time of year I do a big clean up before decorating, this year I've been going a bit further than usual.  For several months (ahem) I've been working on the virtue of orderliness (you can read more about these virtues in Pace of Grace  or try doing some virtues picks on the right sidebar of this website - I love these cards and find them extremely inspiring ).  Orderliness does not come naturally to me and so what I had thought would be a 3 month virtues pick is still with me.  ;-)  At any rate, it means that my usual pre-holiday season clear out has taken on a deeper meaning.

I've been continuing my work on decluttering but also focusing on putting what's left (as well as my habits and our routines) in order.  And since I like to always include some fun in any project I take on, I'm making sure that decluttering remains interesting and leaves me with a feeling of being productive.  Hence...

trying to use up as much of my thrifted yarn stash as possible in each gift I make. ;-)

I also have plans to us up the rest of my felted sweater bits to make another one of these patchwork quilts.  This one gets used constantly and with four of us and a cat there is always someone wishing we had another.  And so this month is passing quickly as we work towards being Orderly before our busy time next spring.

Autumn Crafts

Many an autumn afternoon used to be whiled away doing nature crafts with my boys.  These days they're not quite as interested as they used to be in some of our old standbys but last week they humoured me.  We went for a walk around the neighbourhood in the sunshine and collected some leaves.

We came home and got out our old tin of crayons, wax paper and the iron.

 A short time later...

Love these!  I first made them when I was in elementary school and have had a fondness for them ever since.  It is quite possible that the next time I make these it will be with my grandkids. Now there's a thought.  Perhaps some of my friends with little ones will take pity on me and start sending their kids over for craft time with me and I can continue to indulge my love of playdough and other such lovely stuff.

In the meantime it looks as though I'll be spending some of our afternoons on a new pursuit - driving lessons with my newly 16 year old.  Oh for the days of playdough and mud pies!

Friends

I haven't felt much like writing on this blog lately.  Two weeks ago my very dear friend of ten years lost her struggle with Inflammatory breast cancer and I am missing her dearly.  I think that if we are very lucky we will be blessed with some amazing friends throughout our lifetimes and I feel very lucky to have been blessed with this friend. I am heartbroken to lose her.  She was eight years older than I am and also a mom to two homelearning boys.  She had been there for me since the start of our homelearning years and was always a source of quiet wisdom - not just on learning at home and respectful parenting but on living life with grace, patience, consideration and zest.  Her calm, her steady pace and the way she never felt the need to rush were qualities I admired even though they were (and are) not natural to me.

I always felt that she was a person from whom I could learn much and in the last years, when she had been doing her utmost to beat her illness, she was even more of an incredible inspiration to me.  If I can live my life with even a portion of her grace, if I can face my difficulties with just a fraction of the positive attitude with which she faced hers, if I can move through life (even the challenging parts) with a sliver of her delightful sense of humour and if I can be as kind, considerate and joyful as she was throughout the years I've known her, then I will feel that I have lived my best life - well and truly.

I know she would want me to start trying to move forward now - past the sadness - and I'm going to make my best effort.  Whenever I start feeling sad I'm going to stop and think about her gorgeous laugh - the one that would literally burst out of her so that sometimes she would put her hand to her mouth as if to stop it - and her delightful giggle (yes, an actual "hee, hee" giggle!) which was joyful music to my ears and always made me smile.  She was an absolute treasure and I feel so very blessed to have known her, loved her and learned from her.  She has taught me so much about choosing joy and not sweating the small stuff  that I will be forever grateful to her.  And I'm sure for the rest of my days I'll be listening for her laugh...that beautiful, joyous laugh.

Children as "Teachers"

I always thought it was sort of strange that adults are usually the "teachers" and it is often believed they have the most to teach to children.  I've undoubtedly had my best, most important lessons from my children.  Theirs is such simple, true wisdom that I think it is often overlooked and that is a great loss, in my opinion. 

Today I am trying to get a lot of things done at once as well as finish canning all those tomatoes and so this morning I made a list to divvy up the work amongst the three of us in the hopes that we will have time for a tea break in the sunshine before  our company arrives.  I just checked "The List" to see how we were doing and noticed an addition from one of the boys.  It's a good thing I have them to remind me to live in the present and remember what's important.

After all, what would life be if we never took the time to play or to dance?

Hoping you take time to play and dance this weekend too. ;-)

Living, Loving and Learning

There are so many reasons why we learn at home.  When we first chose this homelearning journey I'm sure I had several simple reasons and an easy explanation for when people questioned this choice.  These days I find it harder to explain...there are just so very many things I love about it that are hard to describe easily. 

Last week W(my 13 year old) and I were spending some quiet time together in the evening.  He often comes and joins me just before bedtime wherever I am reading so we can have a chat at the end of his day.  (quiet time without little brother there)  We got talking about our move and how we were feeling about it now that a few months had passed.  We were talking about how what seemed like such a big, huge difficult thing (leaving our home of 10 years and all that that included) turned out to be...well, just fine.  Yes, it was difficult to work through and very emotional but here we are, in a new place, with lots of differences and...we're still fine.  In fact, we're just as happy as always. 

Then he told me that he figured this life experience was much like his most recent experience mountain biking.  He and S had been taking a difficult run and, each week, they would skirt a particularly difficult looking jump. (not the one shown in these photos) This jump was one where you have to take off from the wooden jump but then you can't see the landing from where you are. You just have to jump and trust that you will make it.  As he went around it the first few times he would think to himself that it looked quite difficult and he wasn't ready.  The next week he would think that maybe he should try that soon.  Another time skirting it and he would think that he really should give it a go, it would probably be fine.  Each time past it his mind talk would change, get more encouraging, a little more confident as his biking improved. Another time down and he told himself that he could do it and would go ahead and try it.  Along, Up, Over....Great Landing!  Yes!  He did it.  Thinks to himself that he should have tried that along time ago.  Why was he waiting?  It was such fun and he could have been doing it all Summer.

His insight was this:  It is hard to take off when you can't see where you are going to land.  And he compared this to our move.  We were leaving our home and we weren't yet heading to our hoped for acreage...we didn't really know where we would land.  He says it makes it scarier to take off when you don't know where or how you will land but he couldn't imagine the alternative - choosing never to take off. 

Imagine if we allowed fear to hold us in a place,  anyplace...even a good place.  If we're letting fear get in the way of living our best life, of taking good risks, of trying new things...well, let's just say that I am so pleased he has learned this lesson already.  And this, this time to talk, this time for meaningful conversations, this time for my children to learn and to teach me such important life lessons, this is one of the things I love most about living, loving and learning at home.

It is hard to take off when you can't see where you are going to land.

But...it is ever so worth it, don't you think?

Earth Day, Dandelions and Dogs...Oh My!

We spent the afternoon at the beach for Earth Day (well, except for the latter part of the afternoon which was spent hunting for our neighbour's lost dog for hours, finding him, getting bitten by him, and then bringing him home on my bike once he had calmed down from his ordeal and returned to his normal lovely self). The beach near our house is surrounded by dry rocky slopes - the perfect environment for Arrow-leaved Balsamroot flowers. The hillsides there are so beautiful right now. E had his plant book with him and I had mine so we were identifying edible plants. We tried a little nibble of the balsamroot leaf as all parts of this plant are apparently edible, we found them to be very bitter. While we were soaking up the sunshine sitting on our blanket E thought up a recipe that he wanted to try with some dandelion greens. The minute we got home he disappeared into my garden and came in with a whole bunch of dandelion plants - roots and all. He washed and trimmed a few of the greens and then cooked them up just so.

He heated some olive oil and then melted some butter in it (for extra flavour, he says) then sauteed the greens until wilted. He added a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and sauteed for another couple of minutes and then sprinkled some grated Romano cheese on top. It was quite good (although W wasn't impressed). E ate some of it as is and then decided to mix the rest in with the pasta that I had made for dinner. I liked it that way as well so then we had to make a bit more so I could have some in my pasta as well.

How much do I love that my 9 year old thinks up recipes for wild food and then immediately makes them and, not only that, but enjoys them? So much more than I can say.

A love of leaves

I've been wanting to wax some autumn leaves with E for a few weeks now. We finally had a day to ourselves at home and some time on our hands so, after spending the morning reading together, out came the craft supplies.First we painted backgrounds for an autumn tree watercolour that we wanted to do. While those dried we did some leaf rubbings. We've always loved to do these but this year I saw on Mom in Madison's blog a new twist on this old favourite. We cut out and then painted our rubbings with watercolour washes (or splodges depending on what floats your boat).Not sure if this was pumpkin innards smeared on the wall or just paint. In our house crafts = mess. Actually, in our house life = mess.
We melted some wax and poured it into a pie pan. I put the pie pan on the top of a pot with simmering water in to keep the pie pan warm so the wax wouldn't harden. The boys had already gathered some leaves. We gave each one a quick dip in the melted wax and then let it dry on a piece of wax paper.
When W brought his leaves in I looked twice and said that they looked like they were mouldy but he really liked the colours of them. Once he pointed them out to me I took another look and had to agree that they were quite beautiful. They had a really interesting speckle pattern going on and these two below were very different in colour.Hard to tell from the photos but they're lovely. Somehow this started a talk about how different people see things differently...how beauty can mean different things to all of us. Then we talked about how some things or people might be considered physically "beautiful" on the outside (to our society's notion of what beauty is) but may not be what we would consider "beautiful" (loving, happy, kind) on the inside. E thought that people who care about the earth would be beautiful to him. ;-) Then he scored bonus mama points by telling me (in a completely serious manner) that to him I was beautiful inside and out. (Well, at least it gave my husband something to laugh about when I told him about it over dinner) ;-)Anyway, we got some of the leaves dipped and dried and we think they are lovely - dried, waxed, speckled, rotting, composted, we love leaves anyway at all. We've collected many bags of them from our neighbours too. (big plans for even more front yard edible gardens. ssssh, don't tell my neighbours...or my husband)

A week away

The only downside that I can see to gardening is that so much of it goes on in the summer. I know, I know....duh! But this can be a problem for a person who likes to go away a lot in the summertime. The boys and I got home yesterday from just a week away and E called me to come look. His hands were full of his Brown Berry cherry tomatoes. (he loves them and already plans to save the seeds)I joined him in the garden and he showed me all the things that were ready for harvest. We started picking the zucchini, looked at the cucumber plants and then realized we would need a big basket to hold them all. While I was picking poles beans E was talking about what we would make with all this produce. What I love is that he said, "When the baskets are filled with all our treats..."I love that he thinks that beans, zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers are "treats". I think just that alone makes for a very good reason for children to have a garden...because home-grown veggies really are a treat.
I could seriously use some new zucchini recipes though.

Time just keeps on ticking....

The past little while I have been thinking a lot about how quickly it seems that my boys are growing up. Right from the moment W was born over 12 and a half (almost 13!!) years ago I knew this time in my life, and their lives, would go by quickly and I promised myself that I would enjoy every moment of mothering. I decided then not to try to rush any bit of their childhood to get to the next step but to enjoy it for what it was at the moment - to really be in the present with them. Of course I learned that's not always possible but I do think I have done a good job of fully enjoying all the pleasures and lessons that motherhood has to offer.

A lot of circumstances have been coming together lately that have me mulling over how quickly our babes grow up - a friend living in the "full on" stage of mothering (she is attachment parenting twins and not getting much sleep) that I remember so well it seems as though it was yesterday; another friend who will soon be welcoming her new baby into her family life that already includes two lovely little ones; some drawn out health issues that have necessitated even more independence on my boys' parts; the realization that my first born is entering a new stage of his life (a teen) and that I will soon be learning new mothering lessons and the realization that my "baby" is getting Huge! and no where near a baby anymore.

It seems that most everything in my life right now makes me think of "those mothering years", the ones from birth until about 6 years of age, when things are so completely absorbing that I didn't have time to think of anything else. I look at the tire swing and think of all the games that the boys made up that revolved around an old tire. I look under the plum tree where the sand box sat for 8 years until last year they sold it at a garage sale because they didn't use it anymore. A trampoline has replaced the swing set that my little ones played on for many years and the Tonka trucks sit mostly unused in the playhouse. When I look out my kitchen window at the walnut tree I think about all the hot summer afternoons when we sat on a blanket and read together.This year is the first time in 9 years that we have not had a bean teepee in our garden...and it makes me sad. E decided that this year he would have a sunflower house instead so when I saw the book Sunflower House at the library I brought it home for us to read. It was lovely. And it reminded me even more how quickly time passes. I look at each mudpie he makes and wonder how many more there will be.
I guess even though I always knew how quickly this time would pass I still find myself surprised at how quickly it did pass, especially since they have always learned at home and I have always been with them. I can't imagine how I would feel if they were away for most the day. So, for now I will continue to enjoy my days with them, I will work to be even more fully in the present with them and ...

I will stop and watch and smile every time I see this.

The Well-adjusted Child

My kids have always learned at home, so with my oldest being 12 I feel like we have been at this for awhile. Whenever someone new to homelearning has asked me about it I always suggest that the first thing they read is Marty Layne's treasure of a book. Reading it really gave me a sense of how I wanted our life of learning to look and, more importantly, how I wanted it to feel. When I read her book I felt as though I was sitting down for coffee at the kitchen table of a wise friend, someone who was able to gently guide me to where I wanted to go...even though I didn't even know that place existed yet. She gave me a real insight to how gentle, loving, fulfilling and natural learning at home could be...for my kids and for myself.

A couple weeks ago I ordered The Well-adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling from our library and now, whenever someone new to learning at home asks me for some book recommendations, I will tell them about this one as well. What a fantastic book for someone new to learning at home... and also for someone who has been at it for years. I think it covers every cause for concern someone (or someone's relative) could ever have. It is a very empowering book, it gives all kinds of supportive information in a very straight-forward, clear manner as well as lots of stories from homelearners themselves.

One of my favourite parts is the story the author tells in the introduction, it starts out "Once upon a time, all children were homeschooled." Something that our society seems to have forgotten.