Snapshots: What Hope Looks Like

This post is going to be the counterpoint to the stories from Ukraine have been dominating the news this weekend. It is all terrible, and frightening, and none of us know what's really happening or how it will turn out.

And none of us can do one thing about it, either. 

What we can do is focus on the things in our lives that bring us hope, rather than despair. Everyone has those, hard as they can be to see through the forest of anxiety sometimes.

Here are some of mine.

Instead of heading down the road with the dogs this weekend for my morning walk, I've been walking to the adjacent pasture to check on . . .

LAMBS!

With unfortunate timing, the ewes started giving birth this week. The frigid, windy weather has not been at all hospitable to new life, however, and we did lose a few. But there are four healthy lambs at the moment--two girls and two boys--and one of them I actually watched being born through the window of the kitchen right at sunrise.

I didn't want to get too close, so I don't know if you can even see it, but it's right there at its mom's nose.

I was very grateful that that particular ewe chose to have her lamb where I could see it from the house--the others were way out in the pasture when they gave birth--so I could see that this lamb was not getting up and nursing as quickly as it should. 

Given that it was only five degrees outside, that was not surprising.

A. wrapped it in his wool coat with a jar of hot water to warm it, and then gave it some homemade glucose solution (water, salt, and honey) to give it the strength to stand up and start nursing. It did eventually make it up and figure out nursing, and it's doing well now.

The horses waited patiently for their hay and ice breaking during the post-natal check-ups.

Aaaaanytime, lady.

Bill was not amused when I came right by the fence with a small piece of metal rather than a flake of hay.

That camera is not going to satisfy the inner pony.

The cabbages and kohlrabi are growing happily under their lights in the children's bathroom, and there are signs of plant life outside, too.

Daffodils, yay!

I totally gave up on covering the one garden box that had some things growing in it over the winter, but a few lettuce plants actually survived in one corner of it. Soon I'll be planting more lettuce seeds, arugula, and radishes.

Seeds will grow, lambs will frolic, and life will go on. Amen.

Friday Food: The One With the Sheep's Head

Friday 

Short version: Sheep's head, roasted potatoes, raw tomatoes

Long version: A. decided to get a new ram this year, which meant the old one had to go. So he killed, skinned, and gutted it this day.

When he dresses out a sheep, he always cuts the head off along with the hide. He has always disposed of the head with the innards and hooves, but Rafael told A. that when he was a boy, they always roasted the head.

And that is how I ended up with a flayed ram's head in my oven.

It was just as gruesome as it sounds. The teeth are very noticeable when the skin is gone, giving the effect of a ghoulishly grinning head. And the eyes are just . . . there. When it's raw, they stare. When it's cooked, they collapse into the skull and turn white and opaque.

It is, in a word, gross.

However!

A. took care of the cooking of it, which entailed roasting it at 425 degrees for about an hour. He also prepared potatoes to roast along with it by slicing whole potatoes in many thin slices most of the way but not all the way through, and then dousing them in olive oil.

There isn't a whole lot of meat on a sheep's head, apart from the cheeks. But there was enough meat on the cheeks for the four that ate it.

Cubby's throat hurt, so he just had chicken stock. And I was frankly repelled by the sheep's head, so I just had a salad with some leftover pork in it.

A. said the cheek meat was good, though. And the three children eating all tried the eyeballs. So there you go.

Saturday

Short version: Leftover tacos, split pea soup, fresh bread, ice cream or chocolate milkshake

Long version: I had a ham bone in the freezer and Cubby's favorite soup is split pea, so since his throat was still hurting him, I made him the soup. 

The children who didn't want the soup had tacos with the leftover meat. Everyone had bread, and everyone had either ice cream or a milkshake with the ice cream A. had picked up for Cubby.

Pause for a random dog photo!

If you're wondering why almost all the pictures are of Jasper, it's because Odin the Neurotic Runt is usually hiding under the bunk bed in the porch. Weird dog, Odin.

Sunday

Short version: Cheese omelets, bread and butter, raw radishes or frozen green beans, chocolate milkshakes

Long version: I was really, really not into cooking, and we had a rather ridiculous quantity of eggs on hand, so I asked A. to make the omelets.

I made the milkshakes for our Sunday dessert because there wasn't quite enough ice cream for everyone to have a bowl of it, but blending it with a bunch of milk makes it stretch quite a bit further.

Monday

Short version: Turkey and potato soup, cheese

Long version: The last container of turkey soup I made and froze the day after Thanksgiving. Starches get too mushy when frozen and thawed, so I left that part out and just added whatever was around when I thawed the containers.

This time I had some potatoes left from Friday, so I chopped those and added them to the soup.

Tuesday

Short version: Taco meat and potato skillet, frozen peas

Long version: Two big nuked potatoes sliced and fried with the leftover meat, more spices, and some shredded cheese.

Why yes, I DID have to work this day! How ever could you tell?

Wednesday

Short version: Tacos, raw radishes and cucumbers, german chocolate cake

Long version: And there's that same meat, this time originally presented in corn tortillas with cheese. It was a really big pan of taco meat.

Jack's teacher made the cake. She made it for an event that didn't happen and brought it as a treat for her class, but then only a few of the kids actually had any. Jack had two pieces and was so vocal in his appreciation that she sent the rest of it home with him.

He was pleased by this. So were his siblings.

Thursday

Short version: Breakfast sausage links, rice, cucumber, more cake

Long version: For some reason, I can never find sausage links at the stores we go to. 

A. got these in Santa Fe when he got the Italian sausage. They were definitely not as good as the Italian sausage, but the children enjoyed them anyway.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

T.T.: Heat, Glorious Heat

Any of you who have been reading for a long time might remember how cold our bedroom at Blackrock was. 

It was frozen-fish-tanks cold. 

It was literal-ice-on-the-walls cold.

It was pillows-frozen-to-the-wall cold.

It was the coldest bedroom I have ever experienced and likely will ever experience.

The worst part of a very cold bedroom like that is getting into bed at night. The sheets are cold, and it takes a really long time for body heat to warm them. The old-fashioned solution to this is either a hot water bottle or a soapstone, the latter of which I used to use to warm toddler Cubby's bed before he went to sleep.

Both of those items help, but they aren't as good as the modern equivalent: The heated mattress pad.

A. bought one at Walmart almost ten years ago that we used up until this year. I finally replaced it because it was only producing a token amount of heat. 

I recall the one A. bought being something like $30. The new one I got was about a hundred dollars. But even with the much higher price, it is definitely SO WORTH IT.

Especially since I got one that has dual controls. This is my personal thermostat, which, as any married person can tell you, greatly contributes to marital harmony.

I'm always cold when I go to bed. My feet, in particular, take forever to warm up when I'm trying to go to sleep. The makers of these mattress pads obviously know this, because most of the heat is produced at the bottom of the bed, creating a toasty little pocket exactly where my feet go. 

I turn it on high about an hour before I want to go to bed so it can heat up, and then I turn it off when I get in. If you're a really cold sleeper, though, you could leave it on a lower setting overnight. A. looked at the instruction manual for the new mattress pad and discovered that it uses less electricity than a lightbulb, making it much more economical than running a furnace.

A. usually isn't very cold when he goes to bed, but he does often feel cold in the early mornings. So on weekends when he doesn't have to get up to drive the school bus, I turn it on for him when I get up and he can sleep longer because he's not cold.

I also sometimes get in bed to read on very cold days, just so I can turn the pad on and warm up. And let me tell you how nice it is to bake in a heated bed if you're sick and have chills from a fever. VERY NICE.

My initial concern about these pads is that I would feel the wires under me, but I don't notice them.

So, in summary, if you too wish to be enveloped in heavenly warmth on a nightly basis, try a heated mattress pad. It's a very affordable and highly satisfactory indulgence.

Snapshots: 2020 Has Finally Ended

Almost two years ago exactly, our school first closed down because of Covid. 

A few months later, I posted this photo of the decorative iron divider between our entryway and the living room. 

As of this Thursday at 3 p.m., which is when we saw the official announcement that New Mexico's indoor mask mandate has been lifted, that same divider looks like this.

Free and clear.

The cabbage and kohlrabi seeds I started a couple of weeks ago are growing quite happily in the children's bathroom under the lights A. rigged up:

A definite improvement over the junk-farmer grow box that lived in the corner of the dining room.

I got in my morning walks this weekend. This is what the windmill looked like when I first went out.

With sunflower silhouettes.

And here's the same spot ten minutes later on my way home.

Just as the sun snuck over the horizon.

And in the other direction . . .

Sunflowers, the schoolhouse, and the moon.

And now for something much less aesthetically pleasing. Please stop reading now if a dead animal is going to bother you.

A. decided his ram needed to go. Which of course at our house means into the freezer.

The children helped A. move the massive bulk of the ram on the utility wagon, with A. pulling, Calvin steering with the back hooves, and Jack and Poppy steadying either side of it.

Then A. had to climb into the tree to set up the pulley so the carcass could be hung up while he gutted it.

Jack brought his lunch out to watch the excitement, because these children have not the slightest bit of squeamishness in them.

Jasper also watched the proceedings closely, and was rewarded for his patience with a lung. He's not squeamish, either.

This time A. skinned the head and roasted it, and you can all thank me for NOT taking photos of that. So gruesome.

There you have it! My (edited) life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Homecoming Brisket

Friday 

Short version: Concession stand dinners

Long version: We got spirit, yes we do! 

This was homecoming night, which at our school is during basketball season. We always go to the game, but this year, we went for alllll the games. That meant A. and the older two boys were there for 8 hours (they wanted to watch their friend's PeeWee basketball game before the school teams played), and I was there with the younger two for 5 hours. 

We had to stay until the very end because Jack was the crown bearer for the homecoming king. He wore a little suit and yes, it was just as cute as you imagine. I was too far away to get a really good photo, though.

Also, the older elementary kids have been practicing basketball skills all year during P.E. so they could do a demonstration during one of the half times, complete with the Harlem Globetrotters music. It was quite entertaining.

I was actually pretty impressed at how far the kids had come with their ball-handling skills. Good work, P.E. teacher!

Anyway. 

I suppose I could have packed food to bring with us, but this is one of the very few nights in the year that I even have an option for food prepared by someone else, somewhere else. And they went all out at the concessions for this game, offering a brisket dinner with green beans, rolls, potatoes, lemonade and dessert. So that's what we all got. It was actually very good. I knew it would be, because the English teacher smoked all the briskets in her smoker at home.

Hooray for tiny schools in cattle country. And hooray for not cooking OR doing dishes.

Saturday

Short version: Beef pot roast, boiled potatoes, roasted beets, still-frozen green beans, baked apples

Long version: The oven was on for quite a while for the pot roast, which is why I also made the beets, fennel (which we didn't actually eat until the next day, because I totally forgot about it when I was serving up), and baked apples with the apples that were in the frozen Misfits Market delivery.

Sunday

Short version: The belated birthday blowout--shrimp, Italian sausage, spaghetti alfredo, baked fennel, chocolate cheesecake

Long version: Cubby's birthday was Friday, when we were at homecoming. And I was too busy Friday (in addition to homecoming, it was a teacher in-service day) to make his requested cheesecake (I use this recipe) so it could chill overnight. So I made it Saturday instead and Sunday dinner included all of Cubby's requests.

A. bought the shrimp and Italian sausage when he was in Santa Fe for Calvin's hunter education a few weeks ago. The sausage was just store-brand links, but it was real Italian sausage and I was so excited. We literally cannot get real Italian sausage anywhere at any of the stores that are "close" to us (you can imagine where we live as the remote center of a wheel with spokes that run 90 miles in different directions to get to three bigger towns with grocery stores).

Unfortunately, since A. didn't know if it would be any good, he only got two packages. But you can bet next time he goes there (which is probably not anytime soon), I'm going to have him buy them out. I do miss Italian sausage.

Monday

Short version: Leftover shrimp, scrambled eggs and bacon, leftover potatoes, raw tomatoes and radishes

Long verison: Oh, could you tell this was a work day? Yeah.  Here, have a random picture.

We only have one child still young enough to ride on Daddy's shoulders.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover cafeteria hot dogs, leftover baked beans, leftover eggs, bread and butter, raw tomatoes

Long version: And you could probably tell from this that it was another work day, although not a typical one for me. I was subbing for the other teachers aide. The hot dogs were left over from lunch the day before at the cafeteria, and they're actually pretty good all-beef hot dogs. Not that hot dogs are ever health food, but as hot dogs go, these aren't the worst by a long shot.

Also, they went perfectly with the container of almost-Grandma-Brown's baked beans from last week that I froze. It was kind of like a summer meal in winter.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover spaghetti, fried pork, sauteed green beans

Long version: Yet another work day, but not all leftovers. Yay me!

I had roasted tomatoes and garlic along with the pot roast on Saturday, and I used my immersion blender to puree that along with some cottage cheese to make a sauce for the spaghetti, which was extra I had cooked on Sunday.

The pork was two cans of the commodities canned pork, which is always surprisingly not-gross when it's cooked. It comes out of the cans looking and smelling like dog food, but so does the bull meat I canned myself. Anyway, I just fried it with spices and added some of the tomato sauce to it, and it was good.

I had to use up the fresh green beans from the Misfits Market order the week before, as they were on the verge of no longer usable, so I actually de-stemmed and sauteed green beans, which, yes, counts as an impressive feat on a worknight for me.

Thursday

Short version: Ground beef tacos

Long version: I made the corn tortillas, and we had lettuce AND tomato, so it was a Deluxe Taco Night. Or something.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

T.T.: Turning the Tables

This has been a bit of a whirlwind couple of weeks, and although I did have some ideas for a tip to post here today, I decided instead to let all of you do the heavy lifting. Which means I'm going to ask YOU to share a brilliant tip with ME.

And, of course, with everyone else who reads here.

The great thing about this is that my tips tend to fall within very narrow categories--or, actually, almost entirely within the parameters of the kitchen--whereas I'm sure all of you have more areas of expertise.

So, what can you share with me and the Internet at large that will make us all go, "That's such a good idea!"

Jasper is all ears.

Snapshots: Valentines and a Tea Party

If you know me at all, this picture will shock you:

If you even know what you're looking at, that is.

I always make the kids make their own Valentine's cards for their classmates, which most years are nothing but folded pieces of construction paper with "To:" and "From:" inside. My boys are NOT into making valentines, and I'm not willing to press the issue. We stick these bare-bones cards onto bags containing a crispy rice treat and call it good. 

However! 

Some sort of madness overtook me this year, and in an effort to make it more fun (for them, not me), I let them choose paper from a giant box of origami paper my sister gave Cubby (thanks, sis!) AND I carved a heart out of a potato and let them potato-stamp with paint. 

They were pretty wonky-looking hearts, to be honest, but the kids did find it fun. It took a lot longer than just writing names in the unadorned cards, though, and the reasons I dislike crafts with four children of various ages were again made clear, but it's done. 

My Christmas gift from A. this year was a blender, since I have not had a functioning blender in, uh, four years.

But not just any blender!

It's a PARTY BLENDER.

I mostly use blenders in the summer, so it sat in the box for awhile, waiting for a party. Finally I asked A. to get the ingredients for margaritas, because you know what makes this a party blender?

Pick your poison.

I laughed pretty hard when I saw the button labels up there, but I did dutifully use the "margarita" button, and it did make margaritas. It's been years since I've had a margarita--maybe as many years as I've had a non-functioning blender?--and they were delicious, but WOAH, I forgot how strong margaritas are.

The children had a much more temperate party of their own yesterday when Cubby asked me if he could make some cream tea. Poppy had been asking for a tea party, and I told her we needed to wait for her brothers to be home to make it an actual party. So when Cubby asked for tea on a snowy Saturday, I figured it was a sign.

Our tea parties are much more humble than the elegant affairs Grandma used to have for the children when we lived at Blackrock, a house with more than its share of tea cups, pots, saucers, sugar bowls, and cream jugs.  I don't have the room to store any of that stuff, and anyway, all the important elements were there, if not elegantly presented:

Food, cream, sugar, mugs, tea strainer, and tea in a pot (mostly white tea, with one black tea bag for flavor).

I was, of course, reminded by one of the children that Grandma used to make cookies or scones for tea parties. To which I responded that I would take away the apples, cheese, and spiced nuts if they deemed that inappropriate for their tea party. They elected to eat them. And they very much enjoyed their cream and sugar with token amounts of tea.

I don't have a new morning walk picture because, thanks to weekend activities involving teacher in-service and homecoming at school, I have not been taking a morning walk. But since it snowed Friday night, it looks just like this old picture I took a couple of weeks ago:

Sorry, dogs. Maybe next weekend.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.