Spring 2011 Edition of Rhythm of the Home

It’s here!  I am honored to be a contributor again to this beautiful publication.

My piece is entitled, “The Sign of the Robin.”  I’m also part of the give-away being hosted to celebrate the launch of the spring edition here.  Thank you to all of you who come and visit me here as your presence encouraged me to write for ROTH.  And to those of you who are visiting for the first time as a result of ROTH, I’m so glad to have you here.  Welcome!

Now–go check out all the amazing projects and articles in the Spring Edition!

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Signs of the Season: Seedling Stalking

My yearly February ritual of planting the tiny little black seeds that will become aromatic additions to our meals in the form of onions.

How many of you find the smell of wet soil uplifting? I do, at least in February when the soil is generally under snow which may or may not be white and the sky is generally some shade of gray. I drop into the rhythm of garden beginnings with glee: pour the soil, add the water, mix it around almost kneading it like bread dough, fill the cells, drop the seeds, cover, begin again. This happened a little over a week ago… And now?

Oh yes, the time has begun.  My onion seeds have sprouted along with some seeds I started for a friend’s garden.  I’m still waiting on the reticent celery seedlings to make an appearance. Despite the rain washing over our snowy world today with nary a sunbeam in sight there are these slim bright green stems that can not help but brighten the room (that and their grow lights). Tomorrow I’ll be sharing more about the rhythm of spring in our family, so stay tuned!

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Signs of the Season: Anticipation

Most winter mornings are gray, without much color where I live, especially in February.  Sunshine and blue skies are a gift and make even the bitter cold seem warm.  On this gray morning I sat eating a bowl of steel cut oats across from L4, looking out the window into the backyard.  What was different today wasn’t the color or the snow, we’ve been seeing that for months now (and I don’t mind, really!).  It was that our seed starting bench was sitting there, Loki perched upon it studying the squirrels and birds in the yard.

As I watched him watch the outdoors I also looked at that blank white surface.  It’s much like an artist’s canvas because it holds the potential of the beauty and bounty to come in the growing seasons of this year.  Sipping tea, munching the oats with my girl, I felt anticipation welling up inside of me.  Soon our seeds will arrive in the mail (maybe today?) and we will begin planting and tending.  The seed stalking will begin, as I wrote about last year.  As soon as those thoughts came I realized that this anticipation is part of my winter ritual.  Oh how I hope the mail carrier brings me a package from Fedco today!

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Signs of the Season: Back in the Saddle

It’s January and my bike is sitting on the trainer in the living room, bike shoes at the ready. I will ride through out the winter without knowing how “far” I go, but I will still get sweaty and breath more heavily and it will feel good. This is part of my winter rhythm.

My winter rhythm also includes more time for my Etsy shop and creating in general as my teaching load always seems to be less in the spring. For instance, that skirt I designed back in November? It will be IS for sale in my shop starting this week. I’ll also be working on a winter version of this dress:

And maybe, just maybe I’ll finally get my web page made and “live.”

This is my winter: contemplate, create, plan for the growing seasons ahead, nourish the bodies and souls of my family and myself through warm comfort food.  I love living in a place with four distinct seasons.

How about you–what does your winter rhythm look like?

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Holiday Adventures: Day 3 & 4

After our celebrations with our family we headed to NH to visit with our other “family.” This trip we didn’t “take to the woods” for a walk as we usually do, but walked about their town and even stepped into Maine!  The kids had fun having a foot in each state:

The walk about town revealed many vintage shops like this one:

slightly blurred because I was feeling silly stopping to take the picture

There were so many things that I wanted to stop and photograph, but I felt like I was slowing our walk too much. Here are a few of the sights I did capture:

Random little plot along side the road, complete with New England stone wall

It is the Granite State, after all.

I couldn’t stop staring at that red building. I don’t know if it was the color in stark contrast to the winter landscape or the lines against the sky, or something else entirely, but it captured my attention.

One of the best things about that walk? It was sunny enough for sunglasses and warm enough that L4 could tromp through the snow at the end of the walk like this:

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Holiday Adventures: Day 2

As part of our fourth holiday celebration we went ice skating! It was the first time ever for myself and the kids. Rollerblading in my early 20s paid off because I didn’t fall once, and actually enjoyed it. I won’t be doing any fancy maneuvers any time soon, but it was good.

The kids loved it, and have asked us to find ice skating opportunities near our own home.

L4 was especially enamored.  Falling did not deter her, she would just get right back up and keep going. Truly, she was a good role model for me in that way.

L1 and I spent most of our time going along slowly, encouraging and helping the kids. But we did get a few circuits around the ring together, and they were sweet, like the days we used to rollerblade the side streets of our college town. Sometimes those moments together feel stolen, because they are so rare and apart from our daily lives.

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Holiday Adventures: Day 1

We had FIVE holiday celebrations. They were all just right, but left us quite drained as we returned home after being away. In all of the celebrating I’ve barely had time to consider what my word for 2011 will be. While I let those thoughts percolate, I thought I’d share some glimpses into our holiday adventures.

After our solstice celebration we had our traditional Christmas breakfast with my parents and my grandfather came, too. And we forgot our camera! But it was a morning full of good food, company, and smiles.

Our third holiday celebration was with L1’s father and his wife. As usual it was a relaxed, fun affair by firelight and candlelight and full of good eating.

L3’s violin made the journey with us so he could keep up his practicing. He was able to play for his grandparents and they tried it out, too. Lots of fun to see grown-ups trying to hold a half-size violin and then to play it, too!

I’ll be back tomorrow to share our adventures on ice skates as part of holiday celebration #4!

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A Little Solstice Cheer

Handmade PJs for solstice? Check. This year with some new fleece socks, too, because it’s been a couple of years and guess what? Their feet have grown! 🙂

The kids weren’t the only ones happy with their gifts this year. . .

We never knew Jasper would like a stuffed chew toy so much! He stands over it when he eats and sleeps with it, too. Maybe it will ease his neurotic tendencies?

As for the cats, we were pretty sure that Loki and Piper enjoy catnip. We weren’t disappointed!

Holiday sweaters to be photographed sometime in the future. I’m happy to report, though, that they were well-received by both kiddos. Oh, how I love my boy in a sweater vest!

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“The Sun’s Born in the Longest Night”

Just like I wrote about here, we celebrated last night and this morning our annual ritual of dark and light with the advent of the winter solstice.

A simple, favorite family meal was had, along with great conversation and words of love passed ’round the table. We even watched a deer pick its way through the remnants of our garden as we sat down to eat.  Those moments of togetherness fill my heart and helped me stay grounded in all the chaos that overly-excited and tired children bring to a night. But still–it was beautiful in its own way because it was OUR family’s night, not someone else’s far away that I don’t know or trying to make it something other than our own. (BTW–last night I found out that I am loved by all of my family for the food I provide. I never knew!)

We set an alarm to watch the lunar eclipse, but there was nothing to see here with thick cloud cover abounding.  It was disappointing, but we could see the diffuse light all about, reflecting off of the snow.  Or maybe it was the massive lights from our nearby grocery store?  😛 The morning was dark and cold, but we were merry and bright.  As is often the case in upstate NY in winter, the cloud cover blocked a view of the sunrise.  We watched the sky’s gradual lightening together and sang and drank our hot chocolate. It was hard sending everyone off to school & work today, but soon we’ll have many days together and visiting with others, too.

Wishing you and yours a happy winter solstice. May you find those moments of what is right and true for you and yours.

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Signs of the Season: Jumping Santa

When I was 19 I visited with L1’s family during the holidays for the first time. As you can imagine, it was interesting to learn about all the different traditions his family had compared to my own. One of my favorites was “Jumping Santa.”  This entailed a little Santa figurine that had jumped around L1’s house through out the holiday season to “watch” if you were being naughty or nice.  One never knew where Jumping Santa might show up, he’d keep you on your toes.  When we were married, we received our own Jumping Santa from L1’s mom.  It was such fun in our first years together before kids to find and hide him on each other.  Now that we have children, Jumping Santa has become more special.  As you can see above, he’s had some surgery over time, but is very loved in our home.  Each day the kids look for where he might have jumped to while no one was looking.  He’s sneaky like, Jumping Santa, only moving when you aren’t watching and he also tends to move to places where he’ll need to be watching YOU.  Last night I think he guarded the remainder of L1’s birthday cake in the fridge!

Have you adopted any holiday traditions in adulthood that you didn’t practice in your youth or childhood?

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