My first cheese!

Doesn't that sounds fancy! I have been playing around with the idea of cheese making a long time, acid cheeses are really yummy but I longed to be pressing mysterious rounds into yummy things to slice and serve my family and friends. Jim and the kids got me a bunch of supplies about a year ago, somehow, it was too precious to touch. Well, a few weeks ago I gathered up the courage and jumped into making my first cheese!

 I was trying to make a cows milk feta, and I am only slightly successful. I made cheese, it is tasty and most of my family ate it. It is not really Feta, stuck somewhere between a dry ricotta and a feta, it is not what i was aiming to make, and yet, it is yummy and unquestionably cheese

.

More cheese making adventures are in my future. Lots more.

Hope your projects are going well and the your failures are still usable! ~ Julia

Yummy Things

 Getting back into the swing of life here at the MoonBound Home and that means making tasty things. I would show you the finished bread but it was gone before I could take a picture!

 I am trying my hand at fermentation with cool lids my parents got me for Christmas. This will/should be apple cider vinegar when it is done. I have made pineapple vinegar before but not apple so we shall see.

This is something I eat a lot. Basically it is potage. Sort of based on a soup a friend made, hers was very Japanese in style, mine - well sort of. I boil the dickens out of leftover rice, in chicken or beef stock. After the rice has broken down I beat an egg and toss it in then top with green onion and peanuts. The egg thickens the broth. I have been adding other things but always add those things. Lately, I have been cooking onions, mushrooms, and cabbage in with the rice and garlic is especially nice in the beef broth.

Hope you are cooking tasty things!
~ Julia

Mondday Musings

New for this segment next week I will cover how well I met my expectations.

This weekend... Friday night was school movie night, Jim took the girls to watch. Mouse stayed home with me and did homework. He is a brilliant boy but has poor time management skills and is often in some imaginary realm when he should be buckling down and getting the work done. That in combination with advanced topics and the expectations of a self-directed school program lead to many nights of me asking if his homework is done. If one of us sits next to him and re-collects his attention when he drifts off he can get the work done quite quickly, and sometimes we do that, but we want him to learn himself too and notice when he needs to refocus. This makes the lesson less of Geometry and more about self regulation and knowledge.
Saturday was kind of a Jonas day for me, I was woken suddenly and believed it to be in anger. I couldn't shake the idea that those around me were upset with me and mostly for for things I couldn't reasonably be expected to have done. This is on me. I am frustrated with my body and healing - yes it is coming along but it has been so long and so much has been left undone because of it. I ended the day having made everyone around me upset.
Sunday we were all easy with each other, I have a cold and dosed off and on throughout the day, Jim and the kids played many board games and it was nice hearing them play.

Right Now... The bread is cooling. The sauerkraut or rather what hopefully will be sauerkraut is macerating on the counter. My parents bought me some fermentation lids for Christmas. The kids are doing homework, Bunny while signing. I have a cup of honey lemon tea for my cold and I don't intend to leave the house again. Jim is taking the girls to violin. Soon, I will be re-taking all of these duties but not just yet.

Plans... I want to work on my socks and my spilt back tank top. I would like to cut out fabric for a new skirt. I need to darn a pair of Bunny's socks. I want to encourage more music practicing. I need to read another book for my COE - This week Handspinning Art & Techniques by Allen Fannin. I have been refreshing my German on Duolingo and want to continue on with that. I need to get some organization brough back into my business which I mostly have not done much with, in specific to take inventory and make new listings to launch a shop update.I also want to have Nate help with filming a tutorial while he is home. There is also some clean up work I need to do for our 4h club. I am slowly cleaning the house and plan to also slowly de-clutter everything. I want to set a small amount of time aside every week to write a novel that is rolling around in my head. I don't know if it will go beyond getting it out of my head but I want that.

Prayerful Intentions... I pray for understanding and healing. I pray for friends who are struggling with family members terrible health.

Where I am now.

 My cast came off a week ago and this picture is what my foot looked like underneath it. All the steri-strips are gone now and so is a bunch of dried skin - though not all. I am getting used to walking again first with a set of crutches and holding most of the weight off the foot, now with a cane for balance. I am walking around the house and resuming picking the kids up from school. It feels good to slowly get my life back. My husband, the kids, friends and family really helped out and pulled together. Two ladies whose daughters are friends with mine and an old friend of the family did all the kid pick ups for six weeks. They are amazing! It is very cold right now and when it warms up a bit I will be walking outside. I have an old walker and will be taking that on outside walks to help balance especially with ice and snow on the sidewalks rather than count on a cane. Each step still hurts but not as badly as they did the first day.

I am slowly taking back household duties and very glad of it. I have often struggled with the idea of self-worth as a homemaker in today's career focus world. I have had woman angry with me for being a traitor to the women's movement, not realizing that the whole point was choice. This is my choice and I accord you the privilege to make your own choice regardless of your gender, identity, or upbringing to make it. I mourn for those whose circumstances do not allow for any choice, most especially those who feel trapped by those circumstances. Still it is hard to feel your self worth tied to very repetitive and often very unappreciated tasks. Seeing the impact of my labor, effort, and care being removed from our lives has focused my understanding of the value of my labor. So hobbling along in my boot, I am reclaiming my role, blessing my family with my labor. I am also working (or planning to work) toward simplifying, streamlining, and setting systems in place to ease and safeguard against future problems. A lot of that means more work but that is okay.

I want to value my work more and value myself more. One of the ways I am doing that it to focus on my health and to make clothing and things for myself that make me feel good. I will be making for my family too. 

The first cast on of the year is for me, this split back tank top. The photo is of my computer screen and is the designers image. I am making this in a white recycled cotton yarn for the edging and a cotton and seacell - rayon made from kelp - yarn in blues and mauve. I am really loving it.

Fingers crossed that I have enough yarn as both are discontinued and have been for years. This is also a stash busting project! I bought these yarns years and years ago from Beading Heart Studio which is also long gone! Miss it and the community of ladies who supported it. It will be the first project I make for the year of the garment kal with Kristen at Yarngasm podcast.

~Julia

some changes

What is my hair attacking?

As I am trying to bring my juggling into focus I am making some changes. One thing I am trying to do is plan more. Not plan more things into my day! but simply to plan. One way I am doing this is not to plan to get up earlier in the morning - I won't, I have a terrible time falling asleep but an amazing ability to stay asleep - but to plan that I will be running late by the time I drag myself out of bed. Realizing this about myself, I am now trying to do the dishes the night before and have the kids' lunch boxes out on the counter with apples and milk monies in them, so that I can just make sandwiches (and a pasta salad for Bunny ***) and some jello.

Then when I get home from drop off, I can put away last night's dishes and do the kids' breakfast ones while my breakfast is cooking. I never like to eat first thing.

While eating breakfast, I am doing my computer work, writing blogs, designing layouts, soon editing videos(more on that later) Then I am free to create or go to the gym.

I am trying to exercise more, my parents bought me a membership to the gym that is on my drive home from the girls' school. My initial thought was to go right after drop off and I tried that but I want to use the machines and the pool. in that order. I am done with drop off at 8 and the gym has a swimming pool based class - that I could join but don't really want too- at between 8:30-9:30 depending on the day. I just can't seem to get the timing right to use the floor and the pool and not have to wait or spend three hours or race through the floor and get irritated with the class for getting into the pool early. I want to do this to feel better and that includes mentally, I don't need the stress. So home to write first, exercise later.

Another thing I am trying to do is make my house prettier and easier to use, ORGANIZE ALL THE
THINGS! And while I want that done, I don't want to do it that way. I am instead doing a small something each day, hoping to end up in the same place.

Tuesday, I boxed up some glassware that we want to keep but don't use often, to make room for the wonderful new mugs my MIL made -she is an amazing potter and I will be selling some of her work, so excited! - for our Christmas presents. Mine looks exactly like what I picture them serving ale in at Tolkien's Green Dragon.

I found this, I love this, why have I not already used it?

Wednesday, I sorted through all my yarn, I now have it in four categories - partial, weaving, handspun, and stash. Then I inventoried the stash in excel. I plan to track my usage. I found several things I have forgot about and ordered a second ball of two sock yarns so I would have enough to make socks.



Thursday, I spent about a half hour, ok it was the length of one episode of The History of Byzantium Podcast, cleaning and rearranging my studio. It is not done. It is a start. But with having done both of those things I could easily make Bunny a "powdered wig" out of a partial yarn that I knew exactly where it was. Had I not done either days' pretty-ing project I would have done it but it would have been hugely stressful. 

(*** in case I forgot to mention it I am changing Butterfly's nickname to Bunny, she is actually a bit afraid of butterflies, and it struck me as silly to nickname her something she doesn't like. Bunnies are one of her favorite animals and she dressed as one for Halloween.)

New year - old thoughts

A few years ago I decided that instead of making a resolutions list, I would come up with a thematic word for my intentions for the new year. I rededicate myself to that idea.

I would like to work on being a HAVEN for my life.

My mind and body a haven for me. I have set a goal of reading 200 books - and I would like few of them to be pulp fiction. I would like to put into practice more of my ideals of how we should live our lives and less living practically. By which I mean faster and easier not actual practicality. I would like to make my body healthier and stronger. To camp and hike more.

I would like for my company to be a haven for my family and my friends, that they can take comfort and rest in my love. For them to know that I am always there for them, but I also mean that I want to make my life such that dropping everything for a friend in need does not put my family into a tailspin that I must scramble to keep ahead of. I want to focus on showing love to my family and my friends.

I want my house to keep my home a Haven for all who enter, but especially for my family. I want them to feel special and comfortable in a house that is ready for use not one that needs frantic tending before we can let anyone in.

I want to use my resources more responsibly, to focus on our family's goal and dreams rather than on ease for the moment. I don't want this to be a strict diet destined for failure, but rather a change in outlook.

I want to grow as a business owner and writer and to make certain that the choices I make in those spheres of my life enhance the rest of my life.

I would like to do all the things. Make to family cookbook, finish the projects, use what I have, write more, cook more, be more present. Fingers crossed.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Mom's birthday

It is always my mom's birthday at Thanksgiving time, so a birthday cake always happens. The girls are using a present Badger - who hopes to be a candy maker and baker when she grows up - got for her birthday. A five part cake pan.


The girls made the cake mix with no help from me, divided the batter into five equal parts, with some help from me. Then they each added food coloring to two bowls and Badger got the fifth bowl. In to bake out to cool. Then I will trim them, layer them with jam and frost them.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

This one is my sister-in-laws recipe - modified of course!

Here is her recipe:
 Pumpkin Bread
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Clove
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Pumpkin
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 Eggs
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
Sift together dry ingredients (less sugar)
Cream together wet ingredients and sugar
Add dry ingredients to wet.
Add 1 cup chocolate chips.
Bake in loaf pan at 350°F for 1 hour.
Bake muffins at 400°F for 20 minutes.

I double all the spices and add a teaspoon of cardamon. I also never make less than 3 batches at once. I also add a cup of apple butter or apple sauce to each batch.

This year in honor of Seal (my beautiful, clever nephew) we are doing one small loaf without chocolate. My Bunny helped with the start of this but the girls are running out of steam with the baking day. 

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Apple Pie

Moving right along to an Americana classic! Apple Pie!

We are using a variety of apples but heavily leaning to granny smith. We have apple trees so we have this cool gizmo to help us process apples!

You will need two pie crust sheets. (secret I am not much impressed with crust so I use store bought or make my own interchangeably and I never notice the difference, it is to me simply a baking vehicle, but as I cringe when my husband says the same of bread, please I understand it you love it, use your favorite and ignore me!)

Apples and lots of them, we used 10.

1t cinnamon
1t ginger
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
lemon juice - you can use vinegar you just need a bit of acid to keep the apples from browning while you work.
1/4 cup flour
3 T butter, melted
egg wash for brushing the top
sugar for dusting the top - ideally it should be a large grained sugar but regular will work
apple or apricot jelly warmed up.

A peak into the oven shows the Pumpkin too!

Peel, core and slice apples, as you work drop them into a bowl of cold water with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. When all the apples are done, drain them, add spices, sugar and flour to bowl with the apples, toss to coat well. Place one pie crust into pan, carefully layer apples into pie, top with second crust. Crimp edges, cut vent holes, brush with egg wash and dust with sugar, carefully pour melted butter into cut holes, bake at 325 until crust is completely done. brush with warmed jelly and sprinkle with sugar.

Thanksgiving Desert Table - Pumpkin pie

I decided to make a series of posts on the recipes we use for our Thanksgiving feast! We are in charge of deserts this year, while my sister is handling the rest of the meal. The girls helped me with all of this.









Pumpkin Pie
Before you start you need to bake the pumpkins. Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds (bake these later to munch on) and place the pumpkins cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until they are nice and soft - about an hour. Let them cool, scoop out the flesh, and run through a food processor or squish up with a potato masher.




This recipe is from the Doubleday Cookbook Volume two. This is a go to book for me. I don't know if you can get it still, but whenever I see a copy of either volume, I grab them and give them away. So if you see one at a rummage sale grab it.




I modify nearly everything that comes across my hands.

One pie crust, unbaked
3 eggs lightly beaten
1.5 cups pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
1 T Whiskey (recipe calls for brandy)
1 T molasses (we used extra as I am using white sugar - this is because I am out of brown)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar




1 teaspoon cinnamon (this is double the original recipe)
1/2 teaspoon ginger (this is double the original recipe)
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves










mix all ingredients together pour into pie crust bake at 450 for ten minutes, reduce temp to 325 and bake 45-50 minutes until filling is set (knife into center should come out clean)






Also I make my pumpkin seeds by cleaning all the pumpkin off, soaking them in salt water for a few hours, then marinating them in Worcester sauce, soy sauce, and a bit of hot sauce for a few hours. Bake them at 300 stirring frequently, watch this as burnt seeds smell bad and taste worse!

Trust mommie

When my great big son Beaver was still my tiny baby boy, I used to say that as I washed his hair. He was afraid to get water in his eyes. So as I tipped him backwards to rinse his hair I repeated "trust mommie." over and over. It actually is older than that, I used to help wash my sister's hair and tried to teach her to float. She is 5 years younger than me and Julia was hard. So she called me "E." Back then it was "trust E."

At bedtime we always read a chapter of some book. Lately, Jim has been getting the girls, each one reading a chapter of her own book to him. Well Badger forgot her book at school, we were eating very late, it was already after bedtime and Mouse was refusing his salad. The rest of us were done. Mouse has been getting harder and harder to convince to eat veggies at all, green ones especially. Jim had had enough and decided to sit with him and encourage the eating of the rest of the dreaded green stuff. I offered to read Badger a story of my choosing. Doubt. Trust Mommie. I got Little House on the Prairie out. "I don't want to read that." Ok you can just cuddle and not listen while I read you the chapter. So down we snuggled on the couch, with the dresses quilt I made her and Goldie the tiger cat stuffie on her lap. I read the first chapter, she did not wiggle the whole time. We were done, but Mouse wasn't. Butterfly had curled up reading her own book waiting for Daddy. And a little voice from my lap said "Mommie, would you read another chapter." Trust Mommie, she knew you would like it.

When Mouse finally gave in and ate the lettuce - he caved on the broccoli much earlier as he actually likes it just not green - it was his turn for a story. We had just finished Magnus Chase and Gods of Asgard  The Sword of Summer so he was lobbing to re-read Biggles Learns to Fly. Nope. Trust Mommie. (Biggles btw is a great read set in WWI England and France.)

I got out Interesting Times. He grumbled. Plain red cover, boring title, what is Mommie thinking?! Well after he got over the sudden location shifts in the story, he was smiles and chuckles. Then I noticed it did not actually have chapters per se. He said "I guess we have to read the whole thing tonight." Trust Mommie, she knew you would like it. We settled on twenty pages each night - unless we are in an exciting part.

Hoping you get to enjoy and maybe even share a good book today!
~Julia

home and family

yummy salad I made last week, with blueberries, nuts, and goat cheese.

 My husband works from home. He's job is corporate and stressful. He spends lots of time on the phone, in meetings and fixing things. Planing things and what my daddy calls putting out fires. A lot of the time he will come out of his office - a 8 by 8 room in the corner of the house which contains the only south facing window and which I painted a sunny yellow - to fixed himself lunch and he will tell me about his day. Often, I really only understand the people/office politics aspects of his day, as what he does is super technical, and there are rules about what he can and can't talk about which he honors. He works really hard, often working straight until dinner and going back in after the kids are in bed. They get good value-I think-from his work ethic in exchange for him not having a long commute or us having to move. Sometimes I find it frustrating as it often seems that just as I start to work on something he comes out to make lunch or because I would like to have the music on or whatever. Sometimes we take for granted that he is always there.

This waffle was made from scratch, by Badger, who also decorated it.

Sometimes he has to travel for work - it used to be much more often - and my house is quiet. I could play music as loud as I want. I can make the bed (he hates having it tucked) but I sleep alone. I can leave half finished projects out, but they suddenly drive me crazy. I can get lots of things done, partially because I can't sleep. We miss him. It seems the house even misses him. Everything seems harder and lonely. Then he comes home and we fly into his arms and the hard and the lonely melt away. I am so glad he is -were he belongs- home with us, in a sunny yellow room in the corner of the house and later he'll sit opposite me at the table, ask the kids what their favorite part of the day was and really listen to their answers.

He got home Friday and even yet the light seems golden. Later I'll post about the things that got done whilst he wasn't home. Some at his request.

~Julia

Surgery around here

What does a mom do when her children are upset? When a stuffie is in need of rescue and emergency surgery? Why this of course...

The patient, belongs to Butterfly, it's name is Flewbie. She needs a eye transplant as the colored on eye is no longer allowing her to see properly.

Her family observes the entire procedure to make certain Dr. Mom does her job correctly.

The surgery prep table with all tools and the replacement eye at the ready. Butterfly's favorite color is pink, so naturally, Flewbie has selected a pink replacement eye. The little pocket knife belonged to my Grandma and came to me after her death in an old Altoids tin with some pins, needles, and stitch markers.

Flewbie in the recovery room with her family standing by. Butterfly was very pleased that the surgery was a success and Flewbie was back to her cuddling duties by evening-time.


Hope you take the time to really enjoy all the little and big things you get to do as a parent!
~Julia

starting

a diet and exercise program. I really want to be healthier and bendier than I am. I am planning a backpacking trip with my husband and sister in law and a few friends. SIL is super healthy and in shape, and while I am certain I can hike for three miles, I am not so certain about doing carrying 40lbs on my back or enjoying any part of the rest of the trip especially not if trying to keep to the pace she sets. I don't want to worry about it and I don't want to hold the rest of the group back. I also want to be able to relax and enjoy the area, which if I am exhausted I won't. Hence the diet and exercise.

I told Beaver, he plays football and weight lifts for fun. He worked up a work out schedule for me. Cringe. So I got through the first work out and did not die. He was very sweet about only laughing at me in his head, but he is a very expressive boy and I know him well. 

That is my before picture. I hope there is a nice after or even a couple alright during pictures. (& I swear that is a stack of clean laundry!) 

Off to fold Laundry,
~Julia

Tiny Ones and tiny knits.

At long last I am posting this picture of the baby knits I made for my friend. Her baby is here and all is well! I caught a terrible cold over the holidays so I haven't met her yet, but hopefully, I will get down there this week. I plan on making some soup and a loaf of bread to take with me. 

I also made two of these sweaters for my sister's baby who I will call Beluga here - that is my sis' favorite animal. Little Beluga arrived in October. I got to go visit them for a while this past month. I rode the bus for 20 hours to get there. Buses are an interesting way to observe society, but not necessarily the best way to get to somewhere. I wanted her not to have to drive to a different town to pick me up and in that at least I got what I wanted. If I ever want to write a paper on how to pay to be irritated and inconvenienced I may ride the bus again. I think I'll try the train next time. My sister and family are looking to move back closer to home, which I couldn't be happier about. I cried on the way home at the thought that my nephew wouldn't know who I was the next time I see him.  Hopefully, we can use technology to circumvent that a little bit. 

Oh the sweaters... Well it seems that my thinking that my sister - who knits and crochets - would be safe to make the sweater out of wool for... yeah I neglected to consider my brother in law - who also crochets, I'll point out. He washed it. In the university's machines. I had asked my sis how they fit, she told me, while I was knitting the long white stripe one, that he had already outgrown the one. I was so worried that the sweaters I had made for my friend's baby wouldn't fit! Nope, the sweater is now sized for a doll. Maybe I will make Belgua a doll to go with his sweater! 

My younger three decorated this tree in the yard.

~Julia

what we bought

Last year My husband and I decided to buy a place by the water - a lake or river that felt like home - to vacation and make memories at with the kids. Not to do this someday, but to do it now. To do it now so that our kids had childhood memories of this home. We didn't know what we wanted other than, the most we could get for the money we had, clear water good for swimming, boating, and fishing. We didn't even have a targeted county, just wanting something that we could drive to in under 4 hours so we could go for a weekend without having to take a day from work or school. Honey and I traipsed through all sorts of places, we learned about set-back laws, we - or rather I - got stuck knee deep in a peat bog that was not the dry land the seller claimed. We saw beautiful places, but after a ten hour day none were home. I was discouraged. We went again. We found it. A river property, with prairie and forest, with neat boulders and nice beach area, with a bay for the kids to swim and learn to handle a kayak in. Then the stress of buying it. By the time it was ours it was too late to show the kids more than photos. After Thanksgiving and ten inches of snow.

Christmas was kayaks and life vests, sleeping bags from grandma, stuff sacks hand made by auntie, fishing gear, and such.

This summer was camping trips, getting a driveway put it (and the nightmares of bureaucracy and expense) that come with it, building fire-pits, then enlarging them, exploring on foot and kayak, meeting the neighbors. It found Mouse researching primitive skills - he loves electronics so this was a mix of both worlds. It saw me starting a knitted quilt for the cabin we dream of building and a knitted welcome mat for same, working on these while we travel up and around the campfire.  It saw plans to learn to backpack and go on longer trips. Butterfly and Badger made sand castles and when visited by cousins spent hours building forts in the woods. We saw the most beautiful skies day and night, and even had to hide in the tent during a hailstorm. It saw us living the way we hoped and dreamed.

This dream was a stretch, we are still, and likely will for a long while, feeling a terrible pinch in money for this dream - I mentioned driveways were expensive right ?! But the dream is worth the work. Find your dream, work your dream, then live it.

~Julia