Strawberry Pie with Orphan Quilt Patches

When I photograph things for my shop, I try to shoot the angles a non-virtual customer would look at.  And I try to photograph a little story too, because I like stories. 

When I made a strawberry pie the other day, I suddenly realized I had a little story in four parts for my four new hotpads.  A box of berries.  A tart crust, cooling.  A measure of sliced berries.  A pie!

If you like potholder #4, you better buy it before I change my mind, unlist it, and stick it in my kitchen drawer.

Smoke: A Theme

First, I needed black tea and I noticed a canister at the market stand labeled "Russian Caravan tea."  Turns out, it's smoked black tea.  It's fabulous.

Then I re-read a favorite book, Diddakoi by Rumer Godden.  All about a little gypsy girl who lives in a caravan. . .

". . .She spoiled the look of the school, 'And those clothes smell,' said Prudence, wrinkling up her pretty white nose.  They did, but not of dirt.  Gran washed them often, hanging them along the hedge, while Kizzy wrapped herself in a blanket; they smelled of the open air, of wood-smoke, and a little of the old horse, Joe, because she often hugged him." 

And finally, I have to confess that I have a penchant for liquid smoke.  I love smoked and grilled food, but in a pinch sometimes a few drops of liquid smoke will do.  Is liquid smoke toxic?  Well, I just don't know and my research turns up nothing conclusive, so I use it lightly and (if I am not too braggy) successfully.  Do you use/like liquid smoke?

"These Buggers are Everywhere!"

Naomi calls from vacation:  You want to pick our strawberries?  We got a gallon on Saturday.
me:  Sure!  We're totally out of strawberry jam.  Thanks!

Well.  It was 90-some degrees by the time we had rounded up enough sun protection and buckets on Memorial Day (this before hitting a store sale for Genevieve's school uniforms for fall, making jam, and going to a cookout).  But Ben looked under the leaves of the strawberry patch and said excitedly, "these buggers are everywhere!"

Genevieve was happily absorbed in getting enough ripe berries for jam - she didn't really eat as she picked. She was very excited about finding the perfectly red strawberries and filled up her little bucket all by herself.

Ben ate a lot.

And he also spent a lot of time watching Brutus Hannibal (thanks, Naomi!), the enormous old koi.

And then I made 5 batches of freezer jam (yield:  20 1.5 c. boxes), stopping to run out for more sugar because I was unprepared for summer preserving.  The tyranny begins!

Chore Chart for the Moderately Scheduled Household

By moderately scheduled, I mean that we eat supper at about the same time every day and try to have the kids in bed by 8 o'clock.  And that I clean the house on Fridays and pay the bills on Mondays.  But everything else gets shoehorned in. 

The first few chore charts I made did not work.  They were based on days of the week or month and there was not enough parental readiness for another layer of schedule in our days.  We have been feebly attempting to follow various chore charts since January.

Then I saw my friend Sharon's brilliant chore chart:  just a column for each job, with a sticker awarded when the job was done!  Simple to follow, with no shame for missed days, yet a growing body of stickers to feel proud about.  And I can modify it any time I want to, instead of waiting for a month to end.  I told my kids that when they get 10 stars, they can have a piece of candy. ("What kind?" Genevieve wanted to know. Good heavens, is she old enough to start driving a bargain?!)

I started with a chore chart because the children wanted a rag, wanted to vacuum, wanted to help put sheets on the bed, heck, wanted to help with anything I was doing.  I think children are initially attracted to adult work because of the novelty, but then they need to be taught how to actually do the job and then keep on doing it, even if they don't feel like it. 

Genevieve habitually carries her dishes out to the kitchen after a meal without prompting, so I didn't put that on her job chart.  She is working on jobs that challenge her skills a little.  Ben, on the other hand, has a column for "clear place setting."

They have each earned a piece of candy so far.  Sometimes they remind me of the chart, and sometimes we don't talk about "shiny stars" for a few days.  I like how this is working for our children.

First Strawberries on Dessert Biscuit

I almost titled this post "finally" because it feels like we've been waiting for strawberries for ages with worries that the excessive rain was rotting them, but here they are, only a few days later than last year. 

We had our first strawberry shortcake on Tuesday, by which I mean strawberries, whipped cream, and some kind of cake-ish thing.  When I grew up, it was "cottage pudding" from Mennonite Community which was really a short cake.  I sometimes make Carla's Hot Milk Sponge Cake from More with Less, but here it was dessert biscuit following Rebecca's instructions.

To my whole wheat biscuit recipe, I add an egg and a little sugar.  I pat it into an 8x8 pan and bake it about 10 minutes longer.  Cut into squares, break open, top with lightly sugared, sliced strawberries and freshly whipped cream.

What I Did With a Ripped-Up Bedspread

The bedspread came into A's creative reuse shop ripped in half - useless, right?  but there were pretty parts to it.

I pieced together three hanging hand towels (oven towels) out of it.

Towel one went to PunkRizz. The topper is made of genuine feedsack.

Towel two went to a church lady at a fun church bazaar.

And towel three is the only one left, looking pretty in a bathroom or a kitchen.  It's in my shop!

Introvert - pretty, happy, funny, real

I just realized, thanks to this post, that I am an introvert.  I really thought that because I'm not shy and quiet, I'm an extrovert.  But it's more a question of what energizes me and what drains my energy - introverts are drained by people and energized by solitude and yes, socializing slowly drains away my energy. 

(Ben after playing in the rain - we've had so much rain!)

Suddenly my marriage came into focus:  all the times my husband eagerly accepts social invitations while I pluck at his elbow wondering if we can go home yet.  An hour at parties is enough for me, but my husband is just getting going.

I still recall the endless stream of visitors after Ben was born when I started to panic because I just couldn't bear to socialize anymore and that sent me into a guilty tizzy because these were dear friends and family!  But, duh, if I had only realized then that I am an introvert, I would have been kinder to myself and firmer to the visitors that I would see them another day. Or handed Ben to them and gone off for a little solitude.

Now it wonders me if all homemakers are introverts. . . energized by nesting, solitary puttering, and domestic projects.  Do extroverts like being at home if they can entertain a lot?

Chime in and tell me:  are you an introvert or an extrovert?  How does it affect your homemaking?

(linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter's collection today - go check it out!  I picked photos of my children to illustrate the pretty, happy, funny, and real aspects of our life together.)