Hugel Update (Wow)

So, uh, our hugel has turned into what I now call The Food Jungle. Don't believe me? Check this out:

Every single day I come back to the house with armfuls of yellow squashes, zucchini, and cucumbers. Some days I have a butternut squash and some tomatoes. It's crazy. 

So basically this means we've been eating a lot of squash and cukes. Nbd here, though. We've found some great recipes and since we're vegetarians, this is saving us a lot on groceries! 

Last week I made some kosher dill pickles from some of our cucumbers. I've made cucumber sandwiches and Benedictine for crackers and bread. Husband has made some amazing meals that are squash-heavy (Classic Calabacitas being one of our favorites!). 

All in all, we are very grateful to our mighty hugel for providing us with so much food. We've never gotten this much food out of a garden before and we've tried for years! Even when I am picking armloads of vegetables, I can see all of the things that will be pickable the next day. 

Long live the hugel! 

Homeschooling

I mentioned a while back that there was some news from our family. You might have guessed it from the title: we have decided to try homeschooling our older daughter for the coming year. If it goes well, we will continue. If it doesn't, we gave it our best shot and hopefully helped her out a bit. Our younger daughter is going to be attending a special STEM school, which we are thrilled about, so she is not going to be homeschooled at this time.

I have been preparing by researching curriculum online, talking to friends who currently homeschool and finding out what has worked for them, and gathering some great resources on my Pinterest board, "Schooling at Home". Since our reasons for homeschooling are not religious, it is a little hard to filter through the multitude of religious homeschooling sites which initially look promising. However, I feel like I'm getting a little more comfortable with putting together lessons and such, and we will start full-on homeschooling when Sister goes back to school in a few weeks! There are some really helpful internet resources out there.

We are already doing a few lessons and getting caught up on math. For this I used (at Eryn's amazing recommendation! Thanks, Eryn!) Singapore Math's placement tests to find Miss S' actual math level. I ordered books off of Amazon (some were used and very cheap, so we got a great deal!) and we started in right away. I really like the way Singapore Math goes about teaching concepts. It seems to keep Miss S interested for a longer period of time than the math lessons she would bring home from school.

I also found some great apps, one of which sparked an entire unit we are going to do that is based around an Edgar Allan Poe poem! It encompasses (so far): art, reading, writing, public speaking/recitation, history, math, Spanish, and cooking/life skills. I'll share more info about this soon, as I'm still working through making the unit cohesive instead of just stuff I'm jotting down every time an idea hits me.

Although it's sort of daunting, I'm really looking forward to this challenge. Any advice would be much appreciated from those of you who are currently homeschooling a middle-schooler (or who have in the past).

Felix's Travels

Hi! It's been a while. I thought I would share some pictures that were sent to me from Felix the Fox's new home in Australia! So exciting!

I'm so happy that Felix has such a great new home. What a lucky fox! ^_^

All Hail Our Mighty Hugel!

Wow. So, hugel update: the hugel is master of gardens. You may remember the pictures from when we first built our burial mound...uh, I mean hugelkultur. Now look at it!

Here lies our ancient king. Kidding, kidding...

Just look at it!

We aren't pulling the grasses up, because they are holding in the soil on the mound. These plants are getting enormous. Check it out! 

...and that's with my hand slightly closer to the camera!

Mr. Gnomey is being dwarfed by the plants. Heh.
(Don't even act like I don't know the difference between gnomes and dwarves. I'm just using some fanciful language.)

Plant fight! Intense!

So many flowers!

We planted three tiny tomato sprouts that we grew from seeds into the east side of the hugel, just to see how well they would do. Here are some small tomato plants we sprouted from seed that we planted in the normal old non-hugel ground:

There, in the center of the tomato cage. =/

Now look at them in the hugel:

Woah.

These were started from the same seeds at the same time, planted at the same time, and basically everything is the same except the first picture is in the ground and the second is in the hugelkultur. !!

So there you have it. I'm convinced. Hugel > normal ol' dumb ol' flat ground. Anyone who has been using the hugel method, I would love to hear about your progress!

Chicken Trouble (or Not All Craigslist People are Shady)

We ran into some trouble with our chickens, Muffin, Gertrude, and Francis.

Hi, "ladies"!

The trouble was that we got them from a very shady character, way out in the country, who assured us that they were female (we can't have roosters in the city). Since they were so young, we couldn't tell. Well guess who started crowing this last weekend? All of them.

Yep, all three of them were roosters. Pretty infuriating, huh? We were pretty panicked about getting them out of the city and who would take them, but things turned out better than we could have imagined. 

Saturday Gertrude started crowing. A family took now-King-Gert (thanks, Eryn, for the name!) to be their rooster on their farm. He was set out with all the ladies and looked prouder than ever. We got a brown hen and named her Betty, and she's been giving us a brown egg everyday. 

Woooah Brown Betty, bam a lam

We brought Betty home and Muffin and Francis immediately started mounting her...and crowing. We were not out of the woods yet on this. After some frantic craigslisting, we met a woman in a parking lot of a nearby restaurant and she took Muffin and Francis to live on her five acres where she takes in unwanted animals to just hang out and live their lives. Wow! This really couldn't have gone any better. 

The moral of the story is that there are a lot of good-hearted people out there. Strangers, even. Also, now we are on the search for another hen. 

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

It's the Time of the Season for...Coffee

Yesterday's temperature was in the 90's. It was glorious. My mom picked up the kids for a few hours and Husband and I made some cold soba noodles in peanut sauce and fresh rolls, and we had ourselves quite the romantic picnic at a park (I'm not saying there was wine...but there may have been wine). We threw the frisbee around while the sun was setting. When we came home, the kids got home shortly afterwards and we played Carcassonne, then played in the backyard with our pretty lights on the deck. It was really a spectacular evening. We slept with our windows open last night, ceiling fans going, and woke up to a perfect temperature in the house. I went out to feed the chickens in a t-shirt and maxi skirt and didn't even freeze. Ahhh, summertime.

For those of you who know, summertime brings about a special kind of coffee at our house that we try to always have on hand. Why? Make it and you'll know why.

This recipe is from Bon Appetit and is simple and delicious! I'd even say perfect.

The ingredients are simple (it helps to have a scale): 9 cups of water to 1/2 lb. of ground coffee beans.

I apologize for anyone who has already read this recipe from other blogs I've posted on...I just had to share here on MCA. It's a warm-weather favorite!

Vessel + coffee

First measure out the coffee. Tip: using a less-fine grind will be better for straining. Grinding the beans yourself works well, but buying ground coffee is fine, too. :)

Add 9 cups of water.

Husband is such a great hand model. He should be a professional.

After the water is added to the coffee, stir it all up and leave it alone!

Put on the lid and set it on the counter overnight. In the morning you will wake up to a glorious, caffeinated surprise!

(WARNING: This next part gets tricky at first...we ended up having a big mess to clean up on our first try. The mixture of coffee grounds and water is very...sloshy.)

Set a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and pour the contents of your container into it. This will strain out MOST of the grounds. Throw those grounds away (or put them on your plants or in your compost pile or make a hat...whatever you want to do, really) and pour the strained liquid into another container. Wash out the bowl you just used because you are going to use it again! Whee!

Don't stop here! Go to the next step! (Sorry, I know you're thirsty.)

Now you will put a coffee filter into the strainer. This part goes a little slower, but it is worth it if you want the smoothest brew, trust me. Slowly pour the once-strained liquid into the filter and let it drain. You will have to do this a bit at a time, as it will not all fit into the strainer at once. Your patience shall be rewarded.

Mmmmmmm

Throw out the filter and pour your fabulous new coffee into some sort of carafe. This one is supposed to be for orange juice, but now it is for coffee.

Hello, I'm Coffee Carafe. My OJ past is over; please don't bring it up.

Now for the part you've all been waiting for: IT'S DRINKING TIME! Here is what goes in my coffee:

Coffee, milk, and homemade vanilla syrup...in a stemless wine glass because I'm fancy like that.

We do 1/2 cup coffee and 1/2 cup milk (my husband uses almond milk), and a shot of syrup (we just eyeball this). 

And here it is, ladies and gentlemen, Iced Coffee. I drink mine sans ice cubes, but Husband prefers ice in his. Just a warning: this stuff is GOOD. You might go through it pretty fast. Don't say I didn't warn you! =)

Instagram Peeps, Where Y'at? (New Fun IG Stuff)

I have found a new project of sorts on Instagram...selling vintage/pre-loved/antique/awesome things I find while treasure hunting. Until a few months ago I didn't even know this existed. There are so many truly nice people on there who buy, sell, and trade great finds, so I thought I would give it a try, too. 

My IG seller account is annaliesefindsthings. As my short bio says, "Like Pippi Longstocking, I am a Thing-Finder. Come browse my treasures". If you don't know the reference, you should read the book! (Pippi is so cool.) 

I recently came upon a fairly large quantity of antique and vintage books. Some are from 1902! You can imagine my excitement. I felt like I had just found a buried treasure or something. 

Other than the Instagram fun, I am still working on things for my Etsy shop and taking care of my family (humans, felines, and birds), our home, and our outdoor paradise (or so I like to think of it) full time. We have some changes coming up for the kids in the way of schooling after this school year is over in a few weeks; changes that affect our whole family and that are big and awesome changes. I'll get into that later. =) 

I hope everyone has a chance to spend some time in the out-of-doors this week!

P.S. Oh! Husband and I started watching a documentary on the Celts...we had no idea that they were all across Europe and did not originate in Ireland. Minds --> blown. Why didn't we learn about this in school? 

P.P.S. Felix the Fox now lives in Australia! Bon voyage, Felix! I hope he's having a great time. ^_^ 

Bawk Bawk, Chicken Lovers!

Well here is the big backyard surprise I mentioned in my last post...we got chickens! Three of them, actually: Gertrude, Francis Pistachio, and Muffin the Cheep Cheep. They are cute little weirdos and we rescued them from a place that was not keeping their animals very well. They have a much better life now, but we are having to treat them for some problems. =( People can really be awful.

Check out Muffin, cheeping for me to pick her up:

We think she looks like a giant little peep with feathers. ^_^

I hope everyone is enjoying their outdoor spaces, be it your backyard, a park, or balcony.

Oh! And don't forget to follow me over on Instagram! I've been selling a few things over there, plus you'll get to see snapshots of our family's life and you even might get some more chicken videos. Later!

Shop News from Annaliese's Emporium and Life Stuff from Annaliese!

Hey there!

I have a bunch of fun stuff going on with my shop right now! I have been adding new items, one of which are bow tie pasta hair bows, which are buy three get the fourth one free. You pick the color and I'll make 'em for you!

These are great for party favors! I'm actually going to be making some for Miss G's birthday party, which is coming up in the next couple of weeks!

How are my kids getting so old?? Eek! 

Here is a sneak peek at the new dolls that will be in my shop soon! If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen these:

I love their cute little faces!

They will be in the shop very sooooonnnn!!!

I've been making a few fun Etsy treasuries you might check out, too.

And our family has been really working hard on our yards and garden, and spending as much time outside as possible in this nice spring weather. We have lots of little green sprouts coming up in our starter trays and containers inside and they should be ready to plant outside soon! We're also building a hugelkultur garden and we planted two apple trees! I'm hoping for a mini food forest at our house someday. ^_^

Not a burial mound. A hugel!

Even though we are in the middle of a city, I'm trying to make our backyard a bit of a lush oasis. The privacy fence helps. :) We should soon have some exciting news about our outdoor adventures! 

Lots of fun stuff going on around here. I hope everyone is getting some warmer weather, too!

What's Going On

Hey there. It's been pretty busy over here! Not only have I been working away on shop stuff, but we also have had some major home repairs and projects (hooray for tearing out ceilings of lathe and plaster!...not) and having family time of course. :)

My husband was on tv to play a couple of his new songs and I got to hang out at the station with him. Television stations are very interesting and it was a neat experience. 

I have also worked on some new art pieces and started a new line of hair accessories and brooches! 

"The Master & Margarita" inspired self-portrait.

A few of my new hair clips or brooches...I can turn them into either one!

Husband soundchecking at the tv station.

Me checking out the studio.

Look at us, we're news anchors!
(No, I'm not really that tall. My chair was high and his was low.)

Views around my workshop.

More sights around my workshop.

And for my international homies:

Hear ye, hear ye!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Our Leprechaun Trap Cake

The kids and I had a great time making this Leprechaun Trap Cake from Not Martha!

Our cake! <3

Our measured quantities of colored dough in sandwich baggies for easy piping into the pan.

When we cut off the top of the cake (which ends up being the bottom), we saw that the purple and white didn't "make the cut" (heh...little joke there), as well as some of the blue. At this point I was sort of wondering how the inside would look and if we had totally messed up the rainbow.

Mmmmm rainbows...

I made my mom's easy icing for the crumb coat and an almost-as-easy cream cheese frosting with stuff we had on hand (cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar...and lots of green food coloring of course).

I used Wilton tip 233 to make the "grass". Boy were my hands tired.

Adding the grass over the crumb coat.

Our trap door over the hole.

Sign by Miss S.

The finished product, complete with pretzel ladder and gold coin bait.

While their dad and I were making dinner and they were playing in their room, a leprechaun apparently snuck into the kitchen, stole the gold coin, and narrowly escaped before we saw him; his little golden shoe was stuck between two of the sticks on the trap door! We also found footprints in the frosting!

The girls had a good time searching all over the kitchen for evidence of the leprechaun, and Miss S said she was going to take the little shoe to her crime lab.

One of the best parts for me was when we cut the cake and WOOHOO the rainbow was there!! We were all very excited. 

Not a great photo, but yayayay do you see that rainbow??

What a fun cake to make! Thanks to Not Martha for a super awesome idea. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!