Spring, Sweet Spring

Suddenly, this past weekend, the lamb of spring arrived and chased away the lion of winter. In fact, after such a snowy winter, this March has been remarkably mild. On Saturday, the sun shone and a warm breeze blew, rapidly melting the large piles of snow and transforming the landscape into a mess of muddy ponds and tiny leaf-filled streams. Even the first tiny crocuses appeared in the only part of my garden not blanketed with snow.

On such a beautiful day, the annual Maple Sugar Festival lured us out of our house to brave the crowds at Malabar Farm. We were fortunate enough to arrive early and get parking, since they had to close most of their parking due to the mud and turn many cars away. After quite a long wait in the mud, we finally reached the front of the line for the wagon ride up the road to the festival.

As we climbed into the wagon, the assistant asked if Hannah and Ben would like to ride up front with the driver. They loved it!

In spite of all the mud and snow, the kids enjoyed trekking from station to station, learning about maple syrup. A Native American man explained how the first people in this area processed the sap to make sugar.

Using sticks as tongs, he removed very hot rocks from a fire and placed them into a log trough filled with sap. This kept the sap boiling, evaporating the water and leaving the sugar behind. The kids enjoyed smelling the steam, with its appetizing cotton candy scent.

The next station demonstrated how early settlers in this area made maple syrup and maple sugar.

Afterward, each person could taste a tiny amount of maple sugar.

Finally, we visited the "Sugar Shack," where they still make maple syrup today.

Inside, a large vat full of sap simmered and boiled, as steam billowed up to the ceiling and out through the vents.

The kids look forward to this part each year, because, after waiting patiently for the end of the presentation, everyone got a small taste of fresh maple syrup.

Before we left, we purchased our yearly gallon of maple syrup and a few maple candies, and then we rode one of the horse-drawn wagons back to our car.

Although the kids wailed and yawned and squabbled from exhaustion the whole ride home, we all had a wonderful day together. We look forward to the Maple Sugar Festival each year as one of the sweetest signs of the coming of spring. Well... perhaps with the exception of those first lovely flowers!

Gifts for Growth

All three kids received many wonderful presents this year for Christmas. A few gifts, however, have captured their creativity and curiosity as they encourage them to develop their minds.

Ben's favorite gift this year is a Snap Circuit set, which allows him to build circuits that perform various functions. So far, he and Josh have built light switches, a musical doorbell, a radio transmitter that acts as a microphone, a "helicopter" launcher, and many others. Ben has learned how to create his own circuits as well. Yesterday, I heard a buzzing sound as he was playing and, concerned, I asked him what he was doing. "I accidentally bypassed the switch," he explained. "I'll fix it." He also surprised me by asking if I had seen the CV capacitor he needed. I had to tell him that I did not even know what a capacitor was!

Hannah has two gifts that she enjoys very much. We gave her a tub of craft supplies - tissue paper, streamers, stickers, feathers, rick-rack, doilies, googly eyes, pom poms, paper, pipe cleaners, and more. Additionally, we gave her a large roll of tape and a bag full of toilet paper rolls I had been saving. She has been cutting and gluing and taping and creating constantly since Christmas morning!

Well, almost constantly... Grandma and PopPop gave her the best gift this year. It is a kit with plastic dinosaur bones encased in stones. Using a chisel and a hammer, she has to chip away at the stones until she can extract all of the bones. When she finishes, she can assemble a complete model of a t-rex skeleton.

Unfortunately, we discovered that the stones fly all over the house when she chisels them, so she has to work on it outside. Grandma stood outside with her in the cold for hours yesterday as Hannah slowly and carefully tapped the tiny rocks off of the bones.

She has revealed a few bones so far, but I think this will be a long term project rather than a short term activity. Though she felt quite disappointed when she discovered that the bones are plastic and not real dinosaur bones, she still loves to work on it, practicing to become a paleontologist someday.

I love giving the kids gifts that encourage their minds and their creativity to grow. They focus so intensely, exploring and learning and experimenting, that I can almost see their little brains working. They each have such individual interests and aptitudes, and I enjoy watching them develop and grow as they get older. I wonder what they will be and how they will continue in their passions when they are adults. For now, though, I am glad to know that these gifts for growth are not only my favorites for them, but their favorites as well.

Understanding Food

In a previous post, I wrote about my desire for my kids to know more about their food and its origins. In the past few weeks, we have experimented with food in several exciting ways, and the kids are experiencing the joy of eating food we have produced instead of food bought at a store.

We began by trying a new whole wheat bread recipe. My last recipe turned out quite bland, and the bread was only slightly edible when loaded with jelly or peanut butter. This recipe, however, resulted in two wonderfully light and tasty loaves of whole wheat bread. The kids enjoyed watching the whole process and look forward to helping out more next time, now that I know that the recipe works.

Additionally, I had a bunch of mushy apples and plums that we accidentally froze by turning down the temperature in the fridge drawer too far. I found a delicious recipe for Plum-Apple Butter and made some of that as well. I cut the sugar in half and estimated the amount of apples and plums because I do not have a food scale, and it was very yummy - much better than any apple butter I have purchased at the store. The kids love it with peanut butter on a sandwich instead of jelly.

I also splurged and bought myself supplies for making yogurt, mozzarella and ricotta cheese, and sour cream. I have not attempted the cheese or sour cream yet, mostly because of a lack of ingredients, but I have already made two batches of yogurt. Hannah and Ben love the homemade yogurt, even plain or sweetened just with fruit, like bananas, berries, cherries, or peaches. Becca will eat it in small amounts, but she has never liked yogurt much. She does eat more of my yogurt than she does of store-bought yogurt, but it still is not her favorite food. I made the first batch while the kids were sleeping, but I encouraged them to watch me make the second batch. They were amazed that simply heating milk, adding a small amount of plain yogurt or yogurt culture, and then letting the mixture sit in an insulated container all day resulted in a fresh batch of plain yogurt. I am still learning the best way to culture the yogurt, as my second attempt came out a bit more sour than the first, but I am excited about the health benefits (and cost benefits) of making my own yogurt instead of buying it in the store.

Finally, after a productive trip to the farmers' market, I taught Hannah and Ben about preserving an abundance of food. I began by measuring a bit more than four cups of blueberries into a bowl. Then, I handed Hannah a potato masher and told her to crush the blueberries as much as possible. When she was finished, I gave Ben a turn and then did the last little bit myself. When we had four cups of mashed berries, I combined sugar and pectin in a bowl and then mixed that with the berries. Following the recipe on the back of the pectin, I stirred for the required length of time, poured the mixture into plastic "jars" and allowed it to rest and thicken for 30 minutes. Voila! Freezer jam! The kids love the taste and enjoy eating something that they made on their toast and sandwiches each day. I also found an excellent recipe for freezer pickles, which Hannah and Ben also helped me make and love to eat.

So, now the kids have a bit more understanding of what goes into the jars of food on supermarket shelves, and I have begun having healthier and cheaper options for our family by making a lot of it myself. Amazingly, the recipes are very simple and tastier too! Not bad for a couple of fun and productive summer afternoons...

The Fix-It Family

My husband is Mr. Fix-It. Apparently now, so are my kids...

Last week, Becca's toy vacuum broke. The ends of the yarn frayed and wrapped around the part that spins, which caused the gears to lock up and make a loud clicking noise whenever Becca pushed the vacuum. Josh had to take the vacuum apart and remove the frayed yarn.

He had quite a team of assistants:

Because it was Becca's vacuum, Becca got to be the primary helper. First, they laid out all of the screws.

Then, Becca put each screw in the hole.

Finally, Josh tightened the screws. The kids jumped up and down with joy as they told me how they fixed the vacuum!

How Stuff Works: Heaters 101

I discovered another benefit of having a husband who loves to fix things and take everything apart. The kids learn some interesting lessons about how appliances and household items work.

On Monday, after Josh fixed the heater (it was an igniter, not an ignition coil, I think), he brought all of the kids downstairs into the basement, removed the cover from the side of the heater, and asked me to turn up the heat. Then, keeping them at a safe distance, he explained to them exactly how the furnace worked as they watched.

This morning, the kids were running around and playing a game.

Hannah: "Oh, the igniter is broken! Quick! We have have to fix it!"
Ben: " OK, now turn the heat on. See - the igniter is glowing orange. Sssssssss... here comes the gas! Whoosh! Now the pipes are blowing blue fire. Yay! It's fixed!"

Josh and I just laughed.