Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2008 by Laura
Merry Christmas!

We love and miss you all!

Rejoice for Christ our Savior is born!
Posted in love | Leave a comment

Milk

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Laura

We’ve started buying our milk from South Mountain Creamery.  They’re located about 65 miles from us and are the only dairy selling milk at our farmer’s market.  For awhile, I bought 2% but for the past few weeks, I’ve been buying whole, non-homogenized (and consequently, cream on top) milk.  I originally started buying the whole, non-homogenized milk because Dad had mentioned to me that homogenized milk was actually quite unhealthy for you. I just did a bit of searching and found some info which suggested that homogenized milk has been linked to higher rates of heart disease.  So, until we can find a source for raw milk (which we are looking into, which is hard to find legally), we’re going to stick with this.  We also like that it come in a glass bottle so we’re not producing any waste.  Every week, I take back our old bottle and get the new one.  So health and the environment are two good reasons why we’re sticking with this milk.

But, to be totally honest, the main reason why we like this milk so much?

It tastes good.
Really good.
As in, I could drink the whole bottle and love every swallow.
I never liked to drink milk before.  I didn’t like how it tasted.  I didn’t have any attraction to it.
But this?  I think it tastes like milk is supposed to taste.
It makes milk from the grocery store taste like watery nothingness.
It makes me never want to buy milk at the grocery store again.
Even if we pay a good $1.00 more per half-gallon.
It’s worth it.
Now, I want to go have a glass of milk.
It tastes that good.

Posted in cooking | 2 Comments

We Are The Champions!

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Laura
WHITE TEAM WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WE’RE NUMBER ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO WHITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my school has this tradition that happens the afternoon of the last day of school before winter vacation.  It’s called HOG Day – HOG meaning H[the name of my school] Olympic Games.  The school gets divided into half – white and red (our colors) and then kids volunteer to compete in a number of fun games, like carry a stack of Christmas presents or tape up Santa to the wall or drag your friend on a blanket.  I competed in the teacher relay – we had to sit on a little scooter and pull ourselves across the gym hand over hand with a rope that two students were holding.  My partner and I won for the White Team!  Go White Go!!

In the end, the White Team was the winner.  And, even though this is pretty silly, I’m still fairly hyper an hour later!

The only unfortunate thing about having a White Team is that there was a bit of, “White Power” chanting going on.  Not exactly the most racially sensitive thing to say.  (And I think most [I hope all] of the kids really didn’t realize the implications of what they were saying.)  Oops.

And, now we have twelve whole days of vacation!  It’s true – the teachers look forward to this more than the students!

Posted in school | 1 Comment

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Laura

Only two more days of school and then 12 days of Christmas break!!  And so, I’ve decided to do some serious blogging – as in, I’m challenging myself to do one blog post a day, for the entire break. 

(The entire break, that is, except for our 2 night, 3 day Orlando vacation which will not include anything Disney.  I’ll blog about that once we return.  What?  No one knows about this?  That’s probably because even I’ve been forgetting about it.  We had some vouchers to use up from last year’s Christmas debacle so we’re going to Orlando from the 29-31.  Should be fun!)

Anyway, here’s some of what has been rattling around in my head for a few weeks and will hopefully be coming out soon:
1.  multiple posts telling the story of our trip to Greece.
2.  “On Eating”
3. our CSA harvest season, in pictures
4. pictures and maybe even a tutorial of the cafe curtain that I’m going to be making for our bathroom.  I haven’t made it yet but it’s my number one goal for Christmas break.
5. an update on our garden planning
6. homemade Christmas pictures (once all the presents have been opened)

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Posted in just for fun | 1 Comment

The Last Cabbage

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Laura

I bought my asparagus farmer’s last cabbage, of the year.  Bye bye cabbage until next year! (At least from him.)  And, it only cost a dollar!  (I just call him the asparagus farmer because I always buy asparagus from him in the spring.  But he also sells lots of other things.  We always talk about Alaska.  He’s a funny guy.)

I just roasted some Delicata squash seeds.  They’re tiny, and oh so good.  Too bad we won’t have any more of those until next year either.

The joys of eating seasonally!

Posted in cooking | Leave a comment

By the numbers

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Laura

Two boxes mailed.
Three more presents to make.
One more box to pack.
One more box to mail.
Four more days of school.
One birth of Jesus our Lord!

Posted in family, school, sewing | 1 Comment

Poetry Thursday

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Laura
The Yak
by Theodore RoethkeThere was a most odious yak
Who took only toads on his back
If you asked for a ride
He would act very snide
And go humping off yickety yak

Posted in books | 1 Comment

Sick

Posted on December 2, 2008 by Laura

Well, I managed to make it to December without getting sick so I guess that’s not too bad.  I definitely got sick a lot more my first year so I think there’s some truth to my body building up an immunity to sickness.  But Nik caught the cold last week and lots of my students have been sick.  So I’m drinking ginger-lemon-honey tea, and trying to rest.  It’s a good excuse for me to have to whisper to my kids and force them to listen very carefully!

On the crafting front, I bought tons of flannel at JoAnn’s on Friday morning.  I actually got there at 5:50 and was probably among the first 25 in the store.  I chose my flannel fast and didn’t even have to wait at the cutting counter.  It was fun to be part of the Black Friday buzz – I’ve never bothered to do it before.  My warm bed was always more inviting than the sales!  I’ve finished six of my sewing projects and only have 7 more to go.  So I’m almost half-way there.  I really love sewing.  I’m looking forward to sewing new projects and learning more.  So far, I’ve learned how to make the bottom of a bag to have square edges and use fusible interfacing.  I’ll take pictures of what I make but I won’t be able to post them until after Christmas!

Posted in sewing | 1 Comment

Thankful

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Laura

In lieu of poetry on this Thanksgiving Thursday , I thought I’d share a few reasons why I’m thankful, from the past few months:

Projects begun and finally finished (like the driveways and mopping all the wood floors in the house):

The farmers who worked so hard to bring us such an abundant harvest:

An incredible trip to Greece:

Well-loved students and coworkers:

Precious friends:

A wonderful husband:

Even one-year-anniversary mayonnaise!

Life is good!  And I am thankful to the Lord for his many blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Posted in reflecting | 1 Comment

This is just to say…

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Laura

that I miss my family in the blog world.  I didn’t realize how much I depended on hearing from you all until now that we’ve been silent for a few days.  I miss you!  I know, I should probably just join Facebook but I really can’t bring myself to do it.  So anyway, Happy Monday of Thanksgiving week!

Posted in family | 3 Comments