Blueberries and lavender

I haven't posted recently, because I can't seem to upload photos.  It wants me to sign into Google, and when I am and browse for a photo, try to upload it, nothing happens.  

This past week, we picked blueberries at a nearby farm.  I made fresh blueberry muffins yesterday!  

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 c. milk
• 1/4 c. lard, melted and cooled to room temperature, which we rendered from fat from a recently butchered hog (you can also use butter)
• I blended the 1st four dry ingredients.  I mixed the egg, milk and lard, then added it to the dry ingredients. Filled 12 liners, about halfway. Bake at 350° f 20 minutes.

Elijah is 10 months old now and has 7 teeth.  Unfortunately, he has a cold right now.  He woke up with a runny nose and one eye shut with discharge.  Thankfully, he's cheerful, but nursing a bit more than usual and sleeping more.  All things we need to heal, fluids and rest!

I went out with a friend of mine (our husbands had the children) to a lavender farm and then to several small town shops, with pretty paintings, ceramics and a soap shop.  I came home with a bouquet of dried French lavender, a Munstead lavender plant, and one pretty bar of soap. Inspiration to pick up my paintbrush!  And a rejuvenated mama!!  Also, thinking of making a lavender blueberry muffins next!

The Atlantic

Low tide in Gloucester, MA yesterday. The kids found clams, sand dollars and crabs at the beach.  We didn't take anything with us, although the kids wanted to, because this is their habitat and we can't recreate it.
Strawberry season just ended, although there are "ever bearing" strawberries!

My sister and her family came for a visit.  

Also, two of my cousins, Jeff and Beth came with their spouses for a day trip.  I didn't take any photos that day, unfortunately.

Elijah enjoys bananas and here's a video to go with the above photo. I do take a lot of little videos.

And a beach clip: https://youtube.com/shorts/YfMlVVYLzJ8?si=dmJ4FlcwXYOZ7PCm

I'm reading a book by Kristin Hannah called The Women. It's about a young nurse and reminds me of our daughter, Olivia, who finished nursing school this past spring.

Beautiful

We went to an infant baptism.  It was so very beautiful and to hear the prayers that were read for me in my baptism, when each of my five children, and as Godmother to my Godchildren.  The Godfather here was especially sweet.

These chicks are a month old now.  Growing well and I'm looking at the comb developing on 2 of them and wonder if we'll only have 5 new hens.  Our other batch of chicks are doing well, still under the red heat lamp.

More garlic scapes to chop up and cook with eggs one day and ground beef the next.

Camping

With every child, I've documented their firsts, whether writing it down on a calendar, in a scrapbook, or taking a photo. Some are hard to see in a photo, like 1st tooth, so I wrote that down.  However, a photo documents Elijah's 1st time camping!

I made homemade marshmallows using gelatin, water, sugar and vanilla extract.  I let it sit in the mixer too long afterwards, so it wasn't easy to spread smooth, but after it set for a while, I was able to cut it into cubes. I put them into 3 jars. We toasted them over a fire, SO good and melty for s'mores.

On the summer solstice, we went hiking to the caves and waterfall that we like so much.  We walked in the water, cooling off on the 90° day.  It's been hot and humid all week.

Yesterday, we had field trip to the Farmer's Museum.  The school teacher rang a bell out by the door, she had two maps on the wall, long bench "desks," and everything written on the chalkboard as it would have been in 1845.  She also had a basket of individual small slate chalkboards. I prefer chalk to the dry erase markers and shiny boards.  She said all work was done in cursive.  That's something I want to do more of, as all old letters from relatives and documents are in cursive. We saw sheep, pigs, chickens, and cows.  The same animals we have at home, but different breeds. Oh, there were goats, too, we don't have goats!  The calf below is a Jersey Hereford cross.

The ride on the carousel is always special.  The animals are local animals, beautifully depicted, maybe personified, with clothes, or a crown of flowers. Can you tell Elijah is on a loon?  He didn't like it once the music started and we began to move up + down and around.  He clasped onto me with both hands, but didn't cry.

Honey bees

We got honey bees on Wednesday, from our friend, Father Paisios, who is a monk at the monastery.  Here's a little video of him showing us the frame and transferring them from the box to the hive in our yard.

I spent $10 at a yard sale and got this Japanese paper print, a set of 8 wide teacups and saucers, 7 books, a watering can, plus, the boys had their own money and got an old wood rubber band gun and a backpack.

From the eve of Ascension this past week, they have the Litia outdoors when the weather is warm.

This little guy will be 9 months old in a couple days.  He crawls and is starting to pull up and hold on with just 1 hand.  Here, he is tossing the blocks to the carpet.

And here is another video, little bubbles for little brother. George is wearing his suit, because we just came home from church. The boys do dress nicely almost every Sunday (as we've gotten a lot of nice hand-me-downs from my nephews) at least a button up shirt and slacks.

I made a macrame hanger!  I ordered this cotton and bamboo cord from this Belgian company about 6 months ago: https://funemstudio.com/ We've made about 10 already using the natural colored fiber, gave most away as gifts.  Now, we are using the teal and blue cord!

These days

Did you know Smokey the Bear has been around for 80 years? 1944 is when the campaign started, so we read the story at the library about how we can help prevent forest fires.  The librarian had a craft to make a flat Smokey (like Flat Stanley, which is a laminated cartoon character on a popsicle stick, and you can document the adventures you go on with photos, or draw, or write what you do together). First stop was the lake! 

Second stop was visiting Dad at work!  He's with 2 other guys painting a bed + breadfast this week. Cream and a pale dusty rose color.

I made queso fresco and added delicious chive blossoms on the top. Below, you will see the hive my husband has built.  We'll get bees this week!  We all love honey.

We made a dozen cupcakes for a friend's birthday.  I made homemade whipped cream, by skimming the cream off the top of our raw milk.  I've had a Kitchen Aid mixer for a year now and it's easy to make whipped cream, butter, cookies, cake batter, yeast bread dough (although I DO like kneading by hand), etc. I keep thinking about getting the ice cream bowl that you can freeze and the special paddle attachment, but am just not sure.  

Here, the chicks were 1 week old.  Now they're 2 weeks old. Out of 20 eggs only 7 hatched, so we put another batch of eggs in the incubator.

We started a wilderness class and this week, focused on learning knots and how to use them when camping, setting up a clothesline or to tie your drawstring pants in a way that will be secure, yet easy to undo.  These videos by The Bear Essentials are great!

This was Sunday afternoon at the lake. Two families who we are friends with also came later, which was really nice.

My mom commissioned this icon of St. Elijah from Father Paul Akmolin.  Isn't it just beautiful?