'Roma Eggs

From a very small chicken. . . 

. . . comes a very small egg.  

Aroma ('Roma to Caedmon) has been laying a tiny egg almost daily for a few weeks.   In my very limited chicken eggsperience, it's rather eggstraordinary (hey, I just couldn't help myself!) for a chicken to begin laying so close to the winter solstice in the darkest days of the year.   'Roma is after all not an average chicken.

Advent

This is the fourth year we've done our little advent calendar of activities.  We have really enjoyed it, and it has allowed us to do lots of fun holiday activities without overwhelming the kids on  just one or two days.  I try to include lots of little things, a few bigger things, many free things, some of the same things, and some new things.  

Here is our list for this year:

Put up Christmas decorations. 

Read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 

Make mulled cider. 

Read the nativity story. 

Make hot chocolate.

Read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Make warm vanilla. 

Watch Rudolph. 

Wrap Daddy's Christmas present. 

Make a paper chain. 

Sing Owen's favorite Christmas carol. 

Tell a story about Caedmon at Christmas. 

Sing Daddy's favorite Christmas carol. 

Tell a story about Mama at Christmas. 

Tell a story about Daddy at Christmas. 

Sing Mama's favorite Christmas carol. 

Tell a story about Owen at Christmas. 

Visit the Hillsboro Christmas lights. 

Read The Snowman.  

Decorate the Christmas tree. 

 Make a popcorn garland.

(We also made one of dried fruit while we were at it.)

 Make paper snowflakes to decorate windows.

(The boys got into decorating the windows with cut snowflakes and made ones with window markers too.)

 Visit Santa.  (We took a little trip to the big city.  At The Bass Pro Shop the boys enjoyed looking at  the fish in a tank and the grizzly bear which Caedmon noted was male.

We popped over to the Grand Ole Opry Hotel to hear some of the students from Abram's school give a choral concert.

Caedmon had a little nap while we waited in line for our turn to see Santa.

This was the first time either of them had gotten a picture with Santa.  There were a fair number of screaming babies, but mine were not among them.  This Santa was the real deal with his own beard and a real (taxidermied) reindeer.  I believe, yet again, that I might be living a Jeff Foxworthy joke.

Afterwards, we had a wonderful dinner at Bombasha Brazilain Steakhouse, a local Nashville establishment and a super treat.)  

Make orange pomanders. 

Souvenirs From the Beach - Remembering

Almost every year, my Nanny hosted a beach weekend for her whole family.  (That's Nanny with baby Sarah last Christmas.) This year was the first one without her and only the second one I was able to attend.  Nanny loved to be outdoors and loved the beach and picking up shells.  

We picked up lots of shells along the beach and brought them home along with a bag of sand to do a little project Mom had suggested.  

We added water to the sand and made a mold with it around a 15 oz can inside a coffee can.  The boys selected  small-ish, pretty shells, and I pressed them into the sides of the sand.  I poked a piece of wicking into the sand and secured the top on a skewer.    

I melted the wax in the oven (on 225 F) in a reused disposable aluminum pan - much easier than on the stove - and poured it into the sand mold.

After they cooled, we had a candles with sand and shells on the outside.

I made ones for my Aunts Rubye, Beckie, and Kathy using wax that Nanny had given me from Pawpaw Hyatt's (her father) barn many years ago.  The wax was from bees he kept.  (I remember him with dark hair.)  I had saved that wax and carted it around the country with me for a while (since high school), and this was finally a suitable use for it.  Those candles have now been sent to my aunts with a note telling them about the candles asking them to remember Nanny when they look at and burn them.  

I also made some for some other special ladies with regular candle wax.  

I hope that the recipients will all feel the love with which these were made.

Lovely Leaf Lard

Lovely leaf lard from local pastured pigs and rendered by me!  At our house, lard is a health food.  Really!  Lard is not the same as Crisco which is definitely NOT a health food, and not all pig fat is the same.  

I rendered it by placing the fat into a chicken roaster (or other deep oven-safe dish).  Then I cooked it on 250 F, periodically dipping and straining liquid fat into jars until no more fat remained (about 4 or 5 hours for 6-8lbs).  You can use the cracklin's, but funny enough, I'm not a cracklin's fan, so ours went to the chickens who LOVED them.  The lard will stay good indefinitely in the fridge.

What is your unexpected health food?

 

Dressing ('Cause We're From the South)

Using this recipe for GF apple and leek stuffing:

sweet smells

hands helping,

stirring, and

sharing with family

Soup, Stew, and Similar

 white beans, chicken, tomatoes, carrots, celery, oregano

beef and artichoke stew with greens and egg

beef stew with carrots and potatoes

chicken and rice with carrots and celery

chicken (no noodle) 

 tortilla soup (sans tortillas)

 split pea with ham

 fennel and potatoe

 red beans and rice

 miso

 chili con carne

 pumpkin

green (with sausage, greens and potatoes)

Unschool

home economics (brewing)

shop (building)

fine motor skills (chopping)

 fine motor skills (stacking - and, look, another use of the rocker board!)

 art (painting)

 more art (water color painting)

 play (fort and babies at the table)

 play (cooking)

 P.E. (leaf play)

 handwork (pre-knitting)

 art (drawing)

 art and fine motor skills

 shopping (Why, yes, I did buy 2 sushi plates, a stapler, food coloring, and 2 dog slicker brushes at Publix - for lunch, stapling, play dough making, and carding fiber, respectively.)

 P.E. (balancing)