Farewell to more Redi-Shades

Ethan amazed me yesterday morning by taking a 3 hour nap (he must have known I needed some time to myself...), so I managed to put up the shades (blinds? No wonder they call the danged things "window treatments" now!) that had been languishing in their boxes under the couch since June. 

Only 2 more Redi-Shades left in the house!!

The dining room is far from being done, in fact we haven't even started, but having actual shades instead of accordioned paper makes a huge difference.  Yay for non-ghetto windows!

This year's harvest and next year's plans

Since I started my journey last year to become more self-sufficient, I've learned a lot about how to process and store various foods.  Learning almost completely from internet sources, I froze beans, peas, corn, carrots, peppers, and broccoli and canned peaches, applesauce, and spaghetti sauce.  The produce put up in the summer and fall lasted nearly til the next growing season, and I had to buy very few veggies from Meijer or other stores. 

This year I did even more.  While I am in no way close to being as food self-sufficient as I eventually want to be, I've made a lot of progress (especially considering that I was pregnant).  Starting in the spring, I planted a small 4x8' garden with broccoli, two types of tomatoes, and yellow peppers.  Some of the broccoli I started from seeds, but the rest were started plants from a local nursery.  I've never had a vegetable garden before, and I am amazed at how well everything grew with very little care.  I had a decent broccoli harvest, LOADS of tomatoes, and a few peppers. 

I also learned how to make jam.  I bought strawberries from the farmers market, but harvested my own mulberries (from my backyard, no less) and raspberries.  All of the jams turned out well, but raspberry was everyone's favorite.  That one was made kind of spur of the moment, after a friend mentioned that he had a bunch of wild black raspberry bushes on his property.  He let my mom and I pick (and brought me a big container that he had picked himself), and I made the jam with the last berries of the season. 

I picked blueberries for the first time, which is loads of fun when you're gigantically pregnant...!  I ended up with almost 10 lbs.  I dehydrated some and they turned out like little blueberry rocks, but they softened up after being in storage for a little while.  The rest are in the freezer for pancakes, muffins, bread, and maybe pie.

I dehydrated cherries from the market to use in my homemade granola bars or in salad.

I froze the same veggies as last year, minus carrots which are always available locally, but refined my technique a bit.  I've learned to let broccoli dry a bit so that it doesn't get soggy, plus I steamed it instead of blanching.  Last year's was only suitable for stir-fry since it was so mushy.  I bought a Reynolds Handi-Vac system, which is basically a cheap vacuum sealer, and used it for all my freezer veggies.  Hopefully it will work to prevent freezer burn, since last year's veggies ended up very frosty after a few months.

I canned corn and peaches.  Peaches are a major pain in the butt to can, but they taste like a little bit of summer when you open a jar in the middle of winter.  The corn was because the frozen corn starts to taste like the freezer after about 6 months...  So hopefully that canned corn will get us through once the frozen runs out.

I learned how to make basil pesto and froze some of that for later. 

My spaghetti sauce turned out WAY better this year than last year's.  I found a great recipe online, then tweaked it to my taste.  Even my mom likes it.  :)  Most of the tomatoes were bought from the market, but I got about 5-7 lbs off my plants that were tossed in as well.  There's really nothing better than making something edible from something you grew!

Then came applesauce...  I bought mixed seconds from the market instead of using just golden delicious and fuji.  I don't know that it tastes any better, but it was loads cheaper.  I also bought an apple peeler/corer/slicer which sped things up a lot.

On Saturday I bought another half-bushel of seconds and made apple butter.  It turned out well, but not seasoned enough, so this morning I dumped out my jars, added more spices, and cooked it more.  I ended up with 8 oz less than I had, but the flavor is much improved.  Thankfully apples don't require a long processing time, otherwise I would have just had to live with it.

As an experiment I boiled a chicken, froze the stock, and canned the meat.  I haven't yet tried the canned chicken, but it'll be very convenient to have on hand for stir-fry and other recipes.

In addition to learning to store more foods, I also learned how to cook more.  I've found awesome recipes for beef stew, chicken pot pie, roasted red pepper cream sauce, basil cream sauce, no-knead bread, and quite a few others.  It may not sound like much, but until a few years ago I never really bothered with cooking from scratch.  I had a few staples that I'd make (sloppy joes, some crockpot meals, steak, stir-fry), but wasn't interested in learning more. I still don't have as much time to cook as I would like, but I'm getting there.

Next year we are definitely going to have a bigger garden.  Shayne is going to make me more raised beds, and we'll remake the existing one so that it's deeper (and nicer looking!).  I'm going to stick to the 4x8' size, since it makes organization easy and I can reach across the beds without having to step onto the soil.  I'm going to plant a full bed of roma tomatoes (16 plants), red and yellow peppers, broccoli, potatoes, onions, and maybe some corn, squash, and carrots.

We're also going to build more shelves in the basement for more storage space.  As I learn more about canning and storing food, I'm finding that our existing pantry and shelving just aren't cutting it.  Plus, most ready-made shelving has a large area between shelves.  If I'm storing canned goods, I only need a 12 to 16" between shelves.  So I'm wasting a lot of space.

And, I'd really like to get those chickens.  We've been taking about it for 2 years.  I bought coop plans last spring.  Maybe next spring or summer we can get 2 or 3 hens and see how it goes.

Dear Ethan,

Today you are one month old.  I know it's a cliche, but I still can't believe how quickly it has gone by.  Tomorrow will be the start of my 5th week of maternity leave.  Only 7 weeks left to stay home with you full-time.

You are a very easygoing baby, and I really don't have any complaints.  When I was pregnant I tried to prepare myself for being up all night with a screaming baby, but that hasn't happened (yet).  Our first night in the hospital you slept for 6 hours straight.  You haven't duplicated that yet, so I'm lucky to get 4 hours between feedings at night, but you do go right back to bed after you eat and get a diaper change.  You sometimes have fussy periods during the afternoon or evening, which I think is due to your tummy bothering you.  I'm looking into remedies for that, but it might just be something we have to get through.

We're still waiting for your first "real" smile.  You smile like crazy after you've eaten, or in your sleep, but not really in response to me or your dad.  There have been a couple times when I thought you might be smiling at me, but I'm just not sure.  Most times, though you don't seem unhappy, you have a permanent scowl on your face.  It's the exact face that your dad makes when he first wakes up.  He's not a morning person, and I'm thinking you probably aren't either.  But he's afraid that you won't like him, since all you do is scowl at us, so you should really work on that smiling so he'll feel better.

Eating is without a doubt your favorite thing in the world.  You very rarely scowl while you eat.  And you're getting plenty, since you've already shot up to 12 lbs 4 oz and 23.5" at your last pediatrician appointment.  You're off the growth charts and already into 3-6 month clothing.  You also outgrew your x-small diaper covers.  At this rate, you'll weigh about 65 lbs at your first birthday... 

For the first few weeks we always swaddled you before a meal.  You got to know the routine, and when we wrapped you up, you would get so excited you'd start to snort.  Now you just make your mouth into an O shape and breathe really fast.  It's cute, but not as comical as the snorting.

You also seem to like going for walks in the morning.  Even when it's chilly I've been trying to get us both out for some fresh air.   Sometimes we take the jogging stroller (and yesterday I even jogged!), and sometimes I put you in the Beco carrier.  Either way, you usually go right to sleep.

All-in-all, everything is going much better than I expected.  I guess it can pay to expect the worst, but you're pretty much the best baby two clueless parents could hope for.  We appreciate it!

Love,
Mom

Old house pictures!

Today my neighbors across the street (D and M) gave me the most incredible gift: 2 pictures of my house, one from the '50s, the other from 1960. D's sister lived in the house in the 1950s, and when I talked to D a year or so ago about the house's history, he said that he'd ask her if she had any photos from when she lived there. Since it's been so long, I assumed he had either forgotten or couldn't find anything. I wasn't going to be a pest about it. But today when Shayne was leaving, D flagged him down and gave us these two photos. How exciting!

D's wife M wrote the following caption for this picture: "D's sister bought the house like this." To me, the exterior appears to be in completely original condition. My guess is brown on top with white below, which is a common color scheme for foursquares. The screen door is the same one I found beside our neighbor's garage and "rescued" on a hunch that it belonged on our house. I'm so glad I did, since the neighbor cleaned out the junk pile over the summer, and it would probably be long gone otherwise. The porch floor looks like it's wooden, and I love the lattice on the bottom. You can just barely see the original garage in the back. The tree on the right may be the same one that's there today. The one on the left, which is obviously a maple, is still there for certain.

The second photo is dated June 1960. M wrote another caption: "Then closed in the porch." I wonder why they changed it? I generally don't like screened-in porches, but I don't think it looked too bad. This one confirms that the maple is the same one there now. The second story looks to have been painted white., but not much else has changed. You can barely see the original garage in the back, as well as the fence along the railroad easement. Maybe it's the picnic table and swing, but I love how homey this picture makes the house and yard look.

And a year or two ago. Is it just me, or does the house look WAY smaller? I think the spindly porch supports make the house look less substantial. And the windows look so naked without trim! The 2 car garage was moved to the property at an unknown date. D told me the '50s, but it wasn't there in the 1960 picture. The original is still behind the new one, but I'm not sure now if that's its original location. It looks closer to the house in the old pictures. Obviously the original porch is long gone. And it's been "updated" with vinyl siding and fack brick. Ick. I'm almost positive that the mailbox on the left is the same one, it's just that the little slope leading up to the yard is higher.

I never thought we'd have old pictures of our house. Thanks D and M!!

Minor adjustments

Ethan is now almost 3 weeks old, and I've been on maternity leave for a few days more than that. Since then (aside from pushing the not-so-little guy out!), I've accomplished pretty much nothing. I have cooked one meal, vacuumed a few times, mopped the floor, and kept the kitchen mostly clean. I've washed diapers galore. I'm really scared to see our utility bill this month...! On nice days I put Ethan in the stroller or sling and go for a walk (except today because I'm lazy). But even when he's sleeping (which he does most of the time), I'm too chicken to be more than 10 feet away from him because I'm worried he might wake up and cry. 

Oh, the joys of being a new parent!  :)

I know I'm normal. I know babies cry. I know than the extra 4 seconds it would take me to run down, or up, the stairs wouldn't permanently damage him. But even when he's just sleeping, I feel like I should be doing ...something... with him. Or that I have to stay very close by in case he wakes up.  I do wear him in the sling or Beco carrier, but even then I end up playing on the computer instead of cleaning up the house.  When he's awake, I talk to him, and "play" with him, but that's only for maybe 20 minutes at a time. 

I've gotten out a few times, to the grocery store, Barnes and Noble, and to Applebees with Shayne or my mom. But aside from outside destinations like going hiking or something, there are not a lot of places I want to go. I'm not much of a window shopper, so I'm kind of at a loss for what to DO all day.  I don't even know what I want to do.

I'm not feeling any pressure to get things done, but I need a little bit more to fill up my days besides staring at the baby.  I like being a mommy, but I need a little structure or something.  There are plenty of things around the house I could do, I suppose.  Organize the "new" hall closet, make and can more applesauce, organize the back porch/laundry room/mud room, finish writing thank-you cards from the baby shower... 

My goal this week is to accomplish one small something each day, even if it's just getting out of the house.  I'm making a list, and every day I stay at home, I'll try to get something crossed off it.  If I can pry myself away from the sleeping baby...