I was very glad to crawl into bed last night knowing that I did not have to go anywhere today! With it being the beginning of a new semester, I've been putting in some long days at work (I have a carpool option that has me leaving Fruit Farm Lane at 4:50 in the morning; those first 3 hours at work are quite productive with no one else bothering me!). When we all returned home after an evening event, it was clear that Jason and the girls had had to leave in a rush for their afternoon errand. It was one of those days where the "Alida-tornado" had been at work, along with a little friend who was over to play. I couldn't muster the energy to do anything about it, knowing my "morning burst" would have it done in short order. As I was drifting off to sleep, I heard noises in the front room which sounded like someone putting things away. I knew Jason was busy at the computer following up on a possible chicken breeding connection (exciting!) and Alida was drifting off beside me. When I got up this morning the living room was spotless other than the farming game which the girls enjoy playing for days in a row. Kali took it upon herself to clean it all up before bed (knowing full well, she had not generated much, if any, of the mess). What is this world coming to?!
I really should not have been that surprised - she has been so consistently pleasant and helpful! I try not to make unhelpful comparisons of our girls, mostly just enjoying how unique and special they both are. In this particular area they are clearly at very different developmental stages, while also being quite different in personality. Our family meeting the other night highlighted those differences! We made it through, but just barely. When Alida is not interested in doing something, she not only just doesn't participate, she attempts to make it hard for anyone else to participate. She definitely comments on various agenda items but about 75% of the time her responses really make little to no sense. One of the items we discussed in the meeting was what things each of us wishes to make time and space for each week. Jason and I named things like carving out reflective spaces, doing a mindfulness meditation, and reading together. I believe Alida wanted to have Curious George read to her. Kali wanted to make a meal once a week. She did her first lunch this week and while it was a very late lunch, or so I was told, all those present enjoyed it. She is steadily improving for her first meal a few years back where we had toast and sickeningly sweet fruit smoothie!
I did some fun food experimenting today. We are nearing the end of Alida's pink sauerkraut and have no more cabbage to make more. We are still avoiding grocery stores - I was actually in the co-op the other day picking up some snacks for a work event and was proud of myself for leaving without succumbing to temptation (I will admit to calling Jason on my way there to bolster my resolve!). I also intend to stop taking probiotics (in pill form) when my current bottle runs out. That means I need to ferment some things! We are making half of our milk share into yogurt, which is great, but I want some fermented veggies too. What do we have a lot of? Winter squash! So onto google I hopped to see what people do to ferment winter squash, if they do it at all. They do! And now I have! I sure hope we like it as we now over a gallon of trombone squash fermenting - some plain, some with fresh sage, and some with cloves, cinnamon and ginger. If we like it, that is likely to be the future of the other large trombone squashes. To be reported on later...
The longer we go without grocery shopping the more things we are running out of, obviously! And the more creative I'm needing to get in planning ahead for our week and making sure there are good options for hungry bellies. I decided to make a double batch of polenta today so that we can slice off and fry polenta to go with eggs for breakfast, to eat with pasta sauce as a main dish or have as a side with soup at lunch or dinner. Little did I know that I would end up hardly doing anything in the process of making it. Alida got interested in grinding the corn and grind she did. I couldn't believe she stuck with it as long as she did. At one point I told her how surprised I was how much corn she was grinding all by herself. She corrected me, telling me that she wasn't grinding it by herself but that her "friends" were helping her. I had just missed them (since they are imaginary), but clearly they provided her with some additional strength for grinding.It cracks me up sometimes the things our kids argue about. After lunch there was a little more to do and Kali wanted to help. Alida wasn't too keen on this and had a fit about it. In the end they happily took turns stirring the polenta and now we have one plain loaf setting up and one with romano cheese. Yum! I thought a short video of Alida grinding was worth sharing, since pictures don't capture the background noise we got to "enjoy" today.
Today is Jason's first day back on the bathroom job following a day on chicken coop rehabs and a day filling our woodshed with Jonathan for next winter. He's been wrestling with the electricity today. When we sat down to steaming bowls of chicken, pinto bean, butternut, kale soup for lunch, he was distracted and rather annoyed at the state of things. I think the soup and our company helped to perk him up a bit - at least it was soon after lunch that he had a break through on the main source of the morning's frustration. He has now wrestled his way through the worst of it and is currently working on the last outlet. I believe framing comes next, which is always fun because of the quick and visible progress. 
I've been trying, when I'm able, to do little tasks for Jason that might free up a few extra moments for him to continue on the bathroom project. To date, I've not saved him any time since my one attempt the other week ending up creating much more work for him (and I could have burned down the composting chicken coop - let's just say that I wasn't very impressed with myself for adding our ashes to the chickens' dust bath when they were still too warm. That could be a blog post in and of itself but I'm still getting over that one!). The one task I'm very ready to do for him these days is let the chickens out to roam about. Not only do I love watching them make their rounds, I love to go into the coop and see the progress of all the new little families getting started. The second round of chicks has now hatched and they are just as cute as the first. All 9 in the first brood are looking as healthy as ever and 8 out of 10 hatched in the second brood (we never have this high hatch rates when using an incubator). We've got a third brood less than a week from hatch and another hen has gone broody and Jason will set eggs under her tonight. So the coop is full of peeping as I approach it. The mamas weren't so sure of me with my camera today and were calling the chicks to them. The older chicks love sitting on top of her, which I think is about the cutest thing ever. 
So it feels like it should be warmer outside with chicks hatching, but the cold reminds us that it is still winter. It is fun to see the onions growing on the shelf in the common room. Since we are now completely out of onions from last year and making fast progress through our shallots, I'm getting eager for the upcoming growing season. Until then, I want to soak up the evenings together by the woodstove. In order to enjoy the one upon us, I better get moving folding the 3 large loads of laundry I just hauled inside!
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