Max's "New" Bike

I've been searching CraigsList for weeks now for just the right bike for Max. Just the right bike for Max has to be just the right price for mum. It has hand brakes and gears! I surprised him after school on Monday with it. And guess what? He hated it the moment he laid eyes it. Hm. How did I mess that one up so badly? It's blue, it looks like a bmx bike, it's for big kids. Okay, so it's used. But really, c'mon. It had weird stickers on it, I guess. We peeled off the stickers and Chris shined it up a bit. Coleman told him he thought it was cool. This helped. A lot. He climbed on and sped off down the road, stopped fast and made an awesome skid mark. Sold! Skid marks are cool. Now, so is his "new" blue bike. Phew.

Max woke at 6:30 in the morning on Tuesday so he could get to the bike park before school! Which didn't really work out because Coleman was still asleep and Max wouldn't go without Coleman. So he settled for riding around the neighborhood. Later that day the three boys (Max, Coleman, Chris) made it to the bike park and had a blast there together.

Rain, Chickens, Baking

I was going to title this post "Rain, Rain, Go Away". But I've decided to complain less. Be more positive. It has to be good for you and the people around you. Karma. I saw a quote recently online: "You become what you think", or something like that. I think that is somewhat true. True enough to think more good things than bad. We can think ourselves into such a tizzy. I'm working on getting my Zen on. That's really what I want to share with my wild children. Calm, compassion, love, happiness. Therefor, less complaining. I've got to start somewhere.

During this rainy weekend I've spent some time baking. I hiked in the rain with Kitty yesterday, awesome hike. The boys have built a cool Lego world and continue to perfect it. I've spent a little too much time on my computer. Chris is going to try to fit a bike ride in before the rain starts up again this afternoon. We've had a good weekend. Tonight we're going to a pot luck with Max's class. We were supposed to be camping this weekend with them, but the rain was significant enough to change plans.

I baked Nana's blueberry muffins (a Jordan Marsh recipe I think) only we used strawberries because that's what we had. Slightly less fabulous than the blueberry version. We'll do a re-do on those later this week. I love those darn muffins! Find the recipe here!

For dinner last night I made the guys a calzone each and I had a much craved for pizza with caramelized onions, ricotta and sun dried tomatoes. Dinner was yummy for all. I have to work on getting them all out at once, because by the time I sat down for dinner Coleman was finished and ready to leave the table. Ah, social graces. We're all in need of some over here at Tese's Place. We're a pack of wolves ripe and ready to for finishing school.

There was a break in the rain today and Max chased around some of our chickens - just to give them some much needed love, mind you.

What did you all cook up for dinner and do for fun this weekend? Post me a comment!

This Week in Images

{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.com 

Max's First Business

While Max isn't the only one who participates in the egg selling, he is the most consistent. It seems he is always up for a walk around the neighborhood to collect money. I mean sell our kind neighbors some fresh eggs. He also just loves those chickens. They are his pals. He's Chicken Boy, after all. We sell the eggs for $4/doz and Max gets to keep $2 and the rest of the money goes toward chicken feed and care. Ah, the life!

{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.com 

The Walden School

It's amazing to me how difficult it was to choose a name for our home school. It was required of some paper work I had to file. So I had to come up with one. Coleman suggested: "Totally Awesome Education Academy". That can be our tag line, I suppose. Walden School, a totally awesome education academy! The name comes from, I'm sure you can guess, Henry David Thoreau. I happened to be reading "Walking" by Thoreau around the time I needed to choose a name. We do a lot of walking in the woods, Coleman, Kitty and I. The whole spirit of the book struck me as perfect for us. And so, that's our school name.

Coleman has gone back to drum lessons and is learning to read and write music for the drums. He's pretty keyed up about it. Me too. He spends 3 mornings a week in Karate. He likes to get there a half an hour early and practice before class, so he spends almost 5 hours a week doing karate. Our karate routine: we drive to town, park the car, he runs up the stairs to the dojo and I go to the Ugly Mug to either do some freelance work or surf the web to plan more lessons...Sometimes I just read.

We're trying to eat more healthfully, with as much protein as possible. The boys went for their well-exam a couple weeks ago and Coleman discovered he may be an inch and a half shorter than Max when they are grown-ups. I told him if he ate more protein he could catch up. I hope I'm not lying. The boy eats so little, more food has to add up to more body somehow. Hopefully it will amount to vertical inches.

Egg yolks, it's what's for lunch, for Coleman. (shh, there's spinach, egg whites, tofu & probiotics in his smoothie)

Spider, it's what's for lunch for a bigger spider. (photo taken on our hike Vienna Woods)

Extra curricular activities; self portrait by Coleman.

Fun with math - not. But at least we got to write on the wall.

Home Projects: Towels and Bread

We've got hard water and  I use environmentally friendly laundry soap (which, let's face it doesn't work as well as the toxic stuff).  Our white towels were icky. They were perfectly serviceable, however. So Coleman and I made a quick change to them this week. Coleman chose a color called Golden Ochre from iDye, I bought two packets. Set the washer on the hottest setting, placed towels and dye into the washer and two hours latter; Voila! New towels. Check out the fancy one that had a man-made fiber in the design (top image).

Ah, that's better.

home made bread, mmmm

I've been baking a lot of bread these past few weeks (except the week my back was hurting me). My favorite recipe so far is from The Complete Tassajara Cookbook, which Chris gave me this year for my birthday. It's for potato bread, which is white bread, yes. Indeed it is. I'm working on getting the boys to expand their dietary horizons, but they are committed to white bread.

Tassajara Potato Bread
Makes 2 Loaves

1 Tbs dry yeast
1 3/4 C warm water
3 Tbs honey
1/3 cup milk powder
3 C unbleached white flour
2 to 3 small potatoes, uncooked, or 1 1/2 C cooked potatoes, mashed
2 tsp salt
3 Tbs oil (I use canola)
3 to 4 C unbleached white flour
Egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tbs water)

Dissolve the yeast in the water along with the honey. Add the milk powder and 3 Cups unbleached white flour. Beat thoroughly to form a thick batter. Cover and set aside in a warm place and let rise for about 45 minutes.

Cook the potatoes. When they are done boiling, remove them from the wter and mash well. (I save the water from these and use it in the above step).

After the batter has risen, add to it the salt, oil and mashed potatoes. Mix well to blend. Fold in two or more cups of flour, turning the bowl a quarter turn between folds. When the dough comes away from the sides and bottom of bowl, turn it out onto a floured board and begin kneading. Knead for 5 minutes or so, adding flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. Place the dough in a n oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 50 minutes.

Punch down and let rise again, until doubled. About 45 minutes.

Shape the dough into 2 loaves, place in oiled pans, and let rise until doubled. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while the loaves are rising.

Slit the tops, brush with egg wash, milk or butter. Bake for one hour or until golden brown on all sides. I prefer it with the wash, but the crust stays softer if you don't do a wash at all, and that's the way the boys like it, so that's what I do. Also, I have had mixed results with the slit top, so I've stopped doing that as well. I really like the way it looks, but if your timing isn't right and you've waited to long on the last rise when you slit it the loaves will fall.

Coleman choppin' up the potatoes for our potato bread.

{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.com

{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.

tradition from soulemama.com

. . . . . . . .