I was complaining about how long it has been taking to finish Perry's sweater, but I have to admit, I have been getting distracted by various projects and leaving his sweater in the bottom of the basket for long periods of time. It sat in there for quite some time after I got to the part of the pattern where I had to unite the sleeves and body altogether on one needle- I was scared I would mess it up, so I just avoided it and worked on other things. I have pictures of a few of the things I've made when I should have been working on the big belated solstice gift. 

This top project is my knitting-while-the-kids-fall-asleep project. It lives in a little basket under their dresser and is growing very slowly as I usually only get a row or two in before they are off in dreamland (though sometimes I sit in the low light listening to them sleep and getting a few more rows in, which is pretty blissful.)

This is going to be a shawl for me. I found this super soft bulky alpaca wool at a local shop and wanted to make a warm shawl with it- something simple that I could knit in low light without a pattern to consult.  I became obsessed with a shawl I saw in the BBC Beatrix Potter movie I watched with the kids during the cold snap. I searched through a ton of stitch dictionaries trying to figure out how to make a shawl like hers but I figured that the shawl from the show was definitely not going to satisfy the simple-and-easy-to-knit criteria. So I searched for a stitch pattern that was textured like Ms.Potter's but still really easy and I settled on a drop-stitch and am just knitting it in a simple triangle. I am looking forward to having a warm shawl to throw around my shoulders on chilly mornings though it may well be a season or two of listening to my sleeping babes before this one is done. 

 This is an Elizabeth Zimmerman Ganomy which I had always wanted to try, but I thought I was casting on a baby size. I have this problem with EZ patterns a lot, I just don't have the knitting experience to figure out sizes from her patterns properly, unless I spend a bunch of time on Ravelry seeing how other people worked them, which I didn't with this one. But in showing this I can say who it was meant for, and slip in the news of something that is very exciting to me: it was intended for my sisters baby! She is expecting her first baby this summer and I am so excited for her, and the kids are thrilled to have a new cousin on the way. And I am thrilled to have a reason to knit little tiny things again! Though so far I have had little luck actually making something small. Oh well, Dori is quite pleased with this hat, and Ari says he wants one in red for his birthday. 

This is the starts on another EZ pattern, also much bigger than intended. It is going to sit awhile in the knitting basket until it becomes clear who it will be for. I am loving this wool though. Variegated wool is just interesting enough to make endless rows of garter stitch fun for me. It doesn't take much to keep me entertained.

And some slippers for me (in an awkward position as I attempt to catch my own feet in the dirty mirror with my 5omm lens) I knit these in a bit of a panic when my feet were freezing off during the cold snap in our drafty little house. A good use for two different balls of wool that were sitting in the bottom of the stash basket- one too scratchy and one with too much acrylic to be anything but slippers for me. I also knit myself a new hat, but have not managed a picture of it. Now, back to Perry's sweater!

 We've been dreaming about the garden this week, pouring over seed catalogs and reading though our garden journal. Ari enjoyed helping me choose seeds, and then, when that got tiresome, went to work on his own "home school project" of drawing the plants we will be growing.

 These are our pea vines and our brussel sprouts. They are now up on the kitchen wall helping us to remember that green things will grow again someday.

 Ari and Dorian attended a fairy themed birthday party last weekend. Ari insisted he needed a toadstool hat in order to be a "boy fairy" like the little characters in a Children of the Forest. He changed out of his PJs after these photos were taken and dressed all in grey, they way the children of the forest do. Dorian wanted to be a magical lion, though the costume was quickly abandoned once the party fun began.

 Lots of playing outside this week. Dorian is doing well on skis, but gets frustrated. We borrowed the ski attachment for the chariot stroller so I can pull him in it when he is not wanting to ski, but it is hard work! I am not a great skier, and the extra weight makes it rather tricky. Ari wants to ski ski ski and likes an adult with him, so we are trying to find a solution that works for all. Sometimes Dori sits in the garden and cheers us on while we ski back and forth in the front field.

I borrowed Joel Salatin's book from my mom and am enjoying his ranting and raving quite a bit! I was fascinated by the description of his farm in the Omnivore's Dilemma, and was hoping to read more about it. I'm guessing he must have other books that lay out his farming practices better than this one, but I am still finding it an enjoyable read as food security and homesteading skills have been on my mind a lot lately.

And I am making some headway on Perry's sweater, though it still feels like a way to go. I've never knit anything adult sized before, and woah- there is a lot of knitting in an adult sized sweater! I might put off my plans to knit myself one for awhile and work on some small, easy, instant-gratification projects for a bit.

Happy Thursday everyone!

GAPS almond "brownies"- almond butter, honey egg and baking soda. A very yummy treat for special occasions.

I've had a quite a few questions of how the GAPS diet is going for us lately, and requests to hear about our experience with GAPS cooking/eating/living, so I thought I would write an update for those of you who are interested and for friends and family who are wondering what the heck this is all about!


This has been quite a journey for us. When Ari was 2 he was having a lot of allergy symptoms and we had his allergies tested then. He was sensitive to several foods which we cut out of his diet with good results. But slowly the symptoms started coming back and new ones were showing themselves and we had him tested again to find he had developed a whole bunch of new sensitivities. At this point I started doing a ton of research. It didn't feel right that a child would be developing an allergic response to the healthy, organic, local foods he was eating. I felt heartsick that the nourishing home-made and home-grown foods we had been working so hard to feed our children were making my son sick.  I wanted to figure out why this was happening and how we could help him to get stronger. I also wanted to be sure that we could have a nourishing diet for him to grow strong on, and this was feeling increasingly difficult as the list of problem foods grew longer. And I just wanted so badly for him to feel well. I wanted him to feel happy and comfortable in his own skin. I wanted what every parent wants for their child- for him to be vibrantly healthy.

Soup, soup and more soup- on the GAPS intro diet!

After a lot of research I discovered the GAPS diet. Of all the different ideas I read about for dealing with food allergies, GAPS seemed like it would be best for our family. I felt hopeful reading other families' stories, that this might be a way for us to actually heal the sensitivities, rather than just avoiding foods and changing diets when new allergies develop.


GAPS was started by a neurologist to help treat those suffering from autism and related disorders. Ari clearly didn't fall into that category, but GAPS is also known to help many different issues, and food sensitivities is one. The theory is that many modern disorders are caused by poor gut health, and when the the gut is in poor health it "leaks" foods through the damaged gut wall into the blood stream, causing an immune reaction. So the GAPS diet follows an intense regime of gut healing- taking out all foods that are damaging to the gut or hard to digest, and consuming only foods that are healing to the gut. We followed the introduction diet for just over a month- which starts with a very simple bland diet (broth, boiled meat,veggies, fermented foods,) and slowly adds in more and more foods until you are on the full GAPS diet.  The full diet includes propertly prepared vegetables, fruits, meats, nuts and legumes (eventually,) as well as a big focus on bone broths and properly prepared probiotic-rich foods to aid in gut healing. All grains and starches are avoided as are all sugars (fruit and honey are allowed,) as well as all processed foods.  

Heaps of local cabbage at a sauerkraut making workshop I attended this fall.

I have to say it has been quite a learning experience for me. I am fairly comfortable in the kitchen having grown up in a household that was very focused on wholesome foods and from mostly cooking from scratch myself in my adult years. Ironically, I think being a vegan and vegetarion gave me a lot of knowledge that I needed to do GAPS- thinking carefully about the ingredients in food, making things from scratch, not expecting meal prep to be easy and fast- even though I have never eaten more meat in my life than on this diet, and really had to figure out fast how to cook it while doing GAPS. But, also ironically, we are all eating significantly more vegetables than we ate as vegetarians/vegans. When there are no grains or starches to fill up on, it is amazing how many veggies go down the hatch!

coconut flour cupcakes with honey frosting: our go-to recipe to bring along to birthdays/occasions

At first, cooking for my family without many of the ingredients I was accustomed to using (and that my family was accustomed to eating,) seemed almost impossible. There were some very hard days. There were tears (theirs and mine!) But slowly we have figured it out and adjusted. The food we eat is simple, tasty and nutrient dense. My kids gobble up healthy food and squeal with glee over treats like fresh pears or dried peaches. I don't have to spend every waking moment in the kitchen anymore (because, yes, it was every.waking.minute for awhile there, and that was tough,) and I really don't think much more about food than I did pre-GAPS. The trickiest times are when we are going to be sharing meals with others, or are spending a day away from the house. Restaurants are out of the question with the kids (we've managed a couple simple meals out just us adults, but it is too tough with the kids,) and appropriate snacks are hard to find, so everything has to be prepared ahead of time and brought with us. But even that has gotten easier. I know what foods I can prepare that travel well and don't take too much time to prepare. And the kids have been amazing. They self regulate incredibly. My mom told me she was at the grocery store with the boys and heard Ari say "Dori- we can't eat those so it is better to look at things we can eat." Love these kids!

Homemade yogurt. After careful introduction, dairy is allowed on the GAPS diet, but it must be carefully prepared to make it more digestable. 

And we have had amazing results so far. All of us are feeling very healthy on this diet. Nearly all of the original symptoms that we  wanted to get rid of are gone, and Ari is eating several of the foods that he was showing symptoms with in the past. Our immune systems are strong, and the kids both are eating enormous amounts of good healthy GAPS foods, growing at amazing rates, and are seeming so happy and well balanced and good. It feels very worthwhile- crazy though it seems when I try to explain it to people, or see my kids scan the snacks tables at events to discover there isn't a single thing they can eat (I have learned to travel with dried fruit in my purse for such occasions!). But we are healthy and happy and that is what matters.

holiday GAPS-friendly cookie tray

We are not sure at this point how long we will stay on this regime, but I know that when we do transition back onto a more regular diet, there are some things that we will take with us from GAPS. In some ways it feels like the ultimate Real Foods crash course- I am comfortable now fermenting vegetables, soaking and drying nuts, cooking without sugar, soaking and fermenting legumes, cooking all sorts of meat and fish, making gallons of bone broth and throwing dishes together from limited ingredients. But the main thing is, after we got over our DTs from limiting carbohydratest, we started to realize how dependant we've been on grains and starches to feel full, and how much healthier we feel without so many carbohydrates in our diet. My own low-blood-sugar issues that I have had for as long as I can remember are completely gone. We will eat grains again (Perry especially dreams of rice on the plate again!) but I don't think they will ever be so central to our diet as they were pre-GAPS. And really, a supper of salmon, kale chips and baked squash with a cup of chicken broth on the side feels like a pretty darn nice meal unto itself!

There are several culinary discoveries that have made this GAPS thing easier on us. Kitchen gadgets like a crock pot and good thermoses are very handy, but it has been figuring out what foods are hits and figuring out  substitutes for old favorites that really has made it feel like we can do this. A good muffin/cupcake recipe to bring to parties is great. Waffles and pancakes are important to our weekend routines, and having a good recipe for those is great. The ever growing list of vegetable my kids will eat is both encouraging and helps me plan meals I know they will eat. A couple good bread-ish things are good. Smoothies are good. Grain-free granola is really good. Homemade honey marshmallows on the winter solstice bonfire was grand, and I imagine they will make an appearance on the summer solstice too. And cut out cookies that really cut out and taste good has been a saviour since so many of our celebrations and traditions have involved rolling and baking cookies together. So, here is our recipe for coconut flour cookies, for any of you who might need a good wheat-free, gluten free, grain-free option.

Coconut Flour Butter cookies

1/4 lb butter softened
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
3/4 to 1 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
lemon zest from half a lemon

blend butter and honey together with a hand beater (or mix hard by hand.) Add the egg and continue beating until smooth. In a small bowl mix zest, baking soda and flour together. Slowly add flour mixture until soft and pliable. Roll out on parchment, dusting with a little flour as needed (but don't overdo it or they will be dry.) Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Transfer carefully to wire rack to cool.
Enjoy!

Happy cookie making everyone!

Happy Valentines Day!
We've never celebrated much in the past, but this year we hopped into the February holiday with both feet, glad for the excuse for some celebrating. After all, when the weather is cold, and the spring is still a long way off, Love is keeping us warm, and that is something to celebrate to be certain!

I hope you all had a love-filled day, friends. 

Woah, it has been a very long week over here. Some combination of poor sleeps and Febuary funk and full moon I suppose. I am realizing too, that the state of the world right now, and the ever more upsetting issue of the pipeline project is really weighing on my heart. There is so much to be saddened by, to be infuriated by, to feel hopeless over. And yet, here I am, mama to these two beautiful children, living on this beautiful land, surrounded by beautiful people. There is much to be thankful for and I need to always keep that feeling of gratitude in my heart. Because being informed and involved is important, but I am of no help to anyone as a sad, grumpy mama alone with her kids  in a cabin in the woods!

So I had some time to myself yesterday and I hauled my old meditation cushion up to my sewing nook and moved a few baskets of fabric and unfinished craft projects out of the way and I sat for the first time in, well, probably going on 6 years. That would be my entire mothering career. 

When I think about it, it is rather funny, that as a mama and homeschooling parent who often struggles with keeping it all together and keeping my cool, that I have let this part of my life slip so far away. Ironically, one of the things that I felt most drawn to when I began to study Enki education (about, oh, six years ago!) was the focus on teacher and parent health and on mediation as a practice (for the adults, not the kids.) It sounded right. I wanted to study an education model that put self reflection and mindfulness and meditation as core pillars of their philosophy. And yet, this dusty old meditation cushion has not seen the light of day in all these years of teaching and mothering.

 I am reluctant to mention meditation, as if I have suddenly found a solid practice again (or to imply that I ever really had one to begin with- I was on-again off-again at best in my life before children,) and, after all, I have only sat once so far, so I am not going to make any promises I can't keep, even to myself. But I do know I feel more settled and able to meet my children after spending some time breathing deep and sitting in the silence. And I will keep that little cushion up there in the corner of my sewing space, waiting for me to slow down and just sit and breathe.

I am tired tonight though, and don't have many more words to share, but I thought I would post some links I've been meaning to share here before I head off to bed.

• Perry bought me this book for my birthday and I am loving reading about different ways to preserve the food from our garden this year- including recipes for things like lacto-fermented radishes and chard rib pickles! I am also loving the seed catalogues that are arriving in the mail- dreaming about green and growing things is a good balm for the February funk.
• I have been listening to this song obsessively over and over. Though Morlove is a friend's band,  I would love it just the same even if I didn't happen to love one of the band members!- it is just magic, I think. 
• I want to make some of these mittens (so easy!), a  bag like this for me, and something like this for Perry's birthday (don't follow that link, my love!)  with better materials.
• This is such a cute valentines craft idea, though I don't know if we'll get to it this year...
• I've had a lot of questions about the slippers I made Ari a million years ago- the pattern is here and I knitted it with 2 strands of worsted weight wool of the andes and they are holding up very nicely to all the winter wear they are getting.
• the pavlova I showed a picture of awhile back is from this recipe, with coconut cream and frozen berries from the garden- such a treat!
• This dance video was exactly what I needed last night. There is nothing like goony dance moves in public to make me giggle uncontrollably.

Goodnight my friends!

 Oh, hello there! Sorry to disappear for a bit- it has been a little crazy at our house, first that cold weather, then the chicken pox, and then, well, just recovering I suppose. I had a birthday somewhere in there, and it was lovely, despite my poxy children (who weathered the pox very well, I should add.) I was spoiled up quite nicely with flowers and breakfast in bed and a cards and gifts and a birthday supper. Lovely.

the kids insisted on setting up a birthday table for me, and setting out the star path for me to follow- birthday traditions that they love and want all of us to follow!

 And other than that, we have been just keeping busy with all that fills the days with 2 sick-ish kids at home. I hardly took the camera out, but a few random pictured made it on there:

 ::reading- lots of reading,

::fishing on the deep blue sea,

::baking

:and playing playing and more playing. These constructions are getting ever more impressive, and I can only convince them to take them down by promising to photograph them to show Papa once he gets home. So though there is a shortage of other photos, there are plenty of photos of impressive towers and towns and villages.

There has also been some great outside time, but it has remained unphotographed. We had a terrific ski this afternoon and there are some very impressive snow piles left from ploughing our driveway that are much fun to play on. And now we can get out again and we are looking forward to a more regular sort of week and time with friends. 

Happy Monday friends.