This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

2000

We were expecting 2000 new pets today!

Before they arrived, the kids helped me shred and cut paper to make them a nice bed.

 This guy supervised.

 

 Next we piled our shredded paper into a bucket and filled it with water.

We squished and squashed the paper, making sure it was nice and wet all the way through.

 

Then we wrung out hand fulls of this paper pulp.

We thought it ended up looking rather pretty!

It also ended up being a great tactile activity.  Right up Kian's alley.

 

 Once wrung out, our paper balls were carefully separated back into strips(ish) and placed in our pets' box.

 

And finally, after arriving in the mail, our new pets were lovingly placed in their new home, on their nice, wet bed of paper mulch.

They were also loved on a bit too.

And may I add, I love that my kids love on worms.

 

We are excited to be vermicomposting once again!

 

Kian

I have a lot of thoughts running through my head lately about this sweet boy.

Kian.  My longest baby.  I got 3 full years with this little guy as my baby.  The longest yet.  Maybe that's why I feel the change of him NOT being my baby so much more than I experienced with Logan and Felicity.  I don't know.  But I know he feels it too.

Kian's in a "coming of age" phase, for lack of better words.  It seems like a lot is rocking his world, or has rocked his world, lately.  In addition to having a new baby brother, he is making that classic three year old boy change, where he starts to pull away from Mama, and relate with Daddy and the male world more.  I remember watching Logan go through this same natural, yet hard change when he was three too.  As wonderful as it is to watch him cling to his Daddy and all that is boy, its also hard to watch and help him make this transition.  And though this transition is happening at the same age it did for Logan, I have no doubt that Kian's transition is being pushed due to the fact that Mama has another baby in her arms.  Yes, I had a baby when Logan went through this stage, but not a new baby.  Felicity was cruising the couch and eating finger foods by that time. 

Kian cries some mornings when he wakes up because "Daddy left."  I remember Logan, at 3, watching Zac drive away each morning and I'd wake to his screams and find him in his window.  Thankfully, Kian's not that early of a riser but when he wakes, he knows, and many morning begins with tears.

And while he is connecting with Zac so very much these days, and priding himself in doing big manly things (like peeing standing up....ahem), he is torn and still drawn to me quite a bit.  Sometimes I will praise him for being such a big boy and he loves to hear those praises.  But every once in a while he will remind me, "no Mama, I'm little."  Sometimes he exclaims that he's big like Daddy and Logan!  And other times he quietly whispers to me that he's my baby boy. 

Group settings have become pretty hard for him.  Not that he was ever too great in this area to begin with.  It seems my kids have all gotten my shy genes.  Yep, bet you wouldn't know it by how much I can go on and on here on my blog, but as a kid, I was fearfully shy.  So much so that the Kindergarten screener told my mom she should take me to a child psychologist (she flipped him the bird...mentally).  I didn't come out of my shell till I was 15.  Anyways, always quiet in groups, Kian now cries even if I'm there.  The other week, as our home school co op group transferred from one room to another for a different activity, he was beside himself and in tears, even though I had him by the hand.  And when it was worship time and the kids were allowed to play amazing instruments, he refused to even step near the box to choose his, even though he LOVES instruments.  Its hard for me to always know what to do for him in these situations.  I don't want to push too much, but want to encourage him just enough.  So I walked with him to the box, him stiff as a board, and I picked an instrument I knew he'd enjoy, and I sat with him on my lap and played the instrument for him.  By the last song he was slyly playing too, and in the car on the way home, he talked about that instrument so excitedly that you would have thought he performed 3 solos.  He deprives himself of participating in things he really wants to.  And I can relate.  I remember doing it myself.  He just can't muster up enough courage yet.  On that day, I was thankful to have a friend getting her baby fix with Arrow during that time so that I could really help Kian.  But lets face it, that's not always the case.  Sometimes we have to work these situations out with Arrow balanced on my hip.  And sometimes, like later on that day, I can't help Kian at all because I'm nursing Arrow.  And so he just stood next to me instead of participating.  And therein lies another transition for him.  He's not the baby anymore.  But he loves his baby brother, and I know he'd rather hang back with Arrow and Mommy than participate anyways.  So he sits close, even if only at my feet, and takes everything in, stuck between two worlds.

So, is this all related to the fact that he's 3 and is moving into boyhood?  Partly, yes.  Is it related to the fact that his title of "baby of the family" has been taken from him? Probably.  And many other things feed into it too I'm sure.  No matter what, he's definitely walking the road of transition right now.  And just as we as parents long to watch our kids grow while also wanting to hold onto everything that makes them so little, Kian too is wanting to grow, but hold on to the safety of his little-ness, all at the same time.  I'm sure it can be quite overwhelming.  In fact I KNOW it can be.  This little guy hasn't napped in over half a year but naps have been reinstated the last few months.  It takes a lot of energy to grow.

Butter

We are learning about the Pioneers in school right now.  And of course, when you learn about Pioneers, you MUST read a Laura Ingalls Wilder book.  I decided to start with Little House in the Big Woods because so much about their way of life is talked about in that book.  Hunting, trapping, food preserving, gardening, cooking....all that good daily life stuff.  I hope to finish this book and move into Little House on the Prairie next, where they are true Pioneers setting off on a trail to the West, before the end of March when our home school group will have a tour of our local Pioneer Museum. 

I wanted the kids to get a sense of how hard the Pioneers had to work for the things we take for granted today, such as the ease of a grocery store.  So, we made butter.  We did it as close as we could to how the process was described in the book.  We didn't have a churn, so we used mason jars with a marble inside to act as the dasher.

First we grated a carrot, added the shredded carrot to just a bit of milk, boiled it together, and strained out the orange colored milk with cheese cloth.

 Milk boiled shredded carrots, orange milk, and 3 jars of cream (plus someone's cup of milk from breakfast) :).

 

 In the book, Mary and Laura argued over who should get the biggest portion of the milk boiled carrot.  But in our house, no one argued.  We all tried it, but only Felicity and I liked it.  She happily downed it all.

 

We added a bit of the orange milk to each jar of cream, plopped a marble in each, and then the real work began!

 

 They rolled their jars........

 

 .....and shook their jars like crazy.

 

 But in the end, they decided the best way to make butter was to run circles through the dining room and living room area, shaking as they went, while listening to the Narnia soundtrack, and By and By by Selah  (if you take a listen, the dance part starts a minute into the recording).

 

 After what felt like eternity to Kian, the butter started clumping up in the jars!  When the sides of the mason jars became clear again as everything was clumping together, there was much excitement!  The kids each scooped their pads of butter out of the buttermilk, which these two then guzzled down.

 

We then washed and salted our butter. 

For lunch, we ate buttered sourdough, apples, cheese, and meat slices.  We each tried one slice of bread with store bought butter on it, and one slice with our homemade butter on it.  We all agreed we liked our butter best, though, we may have just been proud of our accomplishment and biased. 

:)

 

 

Note to self: This house NEEDS boy aprons.  Add that to the ever growing, sadly ignored sewing list.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama