Michael and Jaspenelle

The Family Centered Weekend

In one of my Aunt Ruth’s recent blog posts she asked: “Do you enjoy summer picnics, with your family or community? Or am I right in thinking they are becoming a thing of the past?” Which kind of inspired me to write this entry, though I do not get to answering her question until later.

This weekend was very busy for us. After Michael came home from work on Friday, we turned around and left to take Damian to his one year check up. He is doing fantastically well. Dr. Kincaid was amazed by his height, how well he is walking and all those teeth.

I’d like to say I was totally present at the checkup but I was a bit out of it since I had a migraine. I would just like to say that there is a difference between a headache and a migraine. When I say I have a migraine it means that bright light and noise causes pain so intense that I vomit continuously. I have gotten then for as long as I can remember but I know most of my triggers so I can prevent or at least reduce the intensity of most of them. However I cannot avoid them at three times, when I menstruate, when I ovulate and, apparently, when I am in my first trimester of pregnancy. I had them with Damian and now I have them again. I have been getting them one to three times a week (or rather once a week for three days in a row…) I cannot take any medication that would take the edge off since I am pregnant. However, I have discovered relief. Obey the Cravings. If I obey my cravings 80% of the time they go away.

So after the doctor, Michael took me to Panda Express (Chinese fast food place) since I was craving white rice and steamed veggies. You would think I would have eaten rice and veggies on Wednesday when the migraine began to manifest but I guess the cure just seems so ridiculous to me that I always think it won’t work (last time the “cure” was Dick’s hamburger and fries. Mmmm healthy…) Anyhow the migraine was gone before I finished eating, leaving me with just a blissful (and I mean that) headache.

So then we came home, and since I was feeling all renewed, we tossed some stuff in the van, turn around and drove out to Willow Bay for a second dinner of steak and potato salad with Michael’s of the family. (I am going to blog about that separately so I can profess my deep love for getting out of town and pretty bird houses.) But I wanted to answer my Aunt Ruth’s question. I throughly enjoy summer picnics with family, we actually do a potluck on the third Sunday of every month with Michael’s side so that we don’t fall out of touch. I do think those type of events seem to be falling out of favor with my generation though, maybe in favor of the thing we did on Sunday, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

On Saturday we shopped, and then shopped some more and then shopped… We are going to a big three day campout next weekend so we had to pick up everything we needed for that and did our monthly Costco trip. We also stopped at Michael’s work and bought a 14 count case of organic broccoli, a 10lbs box of local organic snap peas and a 25lbs box of rainbow rotini (pasta salad season!)

On Sunday we ended up running out for a few more things and I processed the aforementioned case of broccoli for freezing. (My feet hurt.) And then went to see more “family” since Andrea and Peter invited several of our friends over for dinner. Homemade gnocchis, strawberry rhubarb pie, fruit salad… Yummy! I brought broccoli (surprise!) and carrot salad. Did I mention that there was pie?

So now I want to add on to my answer to my aunt’s question. I think staying connected to family is important, but I also think, as far as my generation is concerned, the term family has grown beyond biological (enough so that there is the newer term out there combining friends and family, “framily”.) I know that I do the things with my “framily” that I would do with family. We go on picnics, meet up several times a month, go on camping trips, have potlucks, share some holidays together… Our closest friends are Aunts and Uncles to Damian rather then just our friends.

I enjoy family and framily gatherings, but I do think the generational family gatherings are falling out of favor these days in favor of “framily” gatherings. I can see why some people have drifted with family gatherings, you can chose your friends but you cannot chose your family. In a lot of ways it is often easier to be who you are and find acceptance among like-minded friends rather then family that might have preconceived notions of you formed during your youth. However, I think we forget that even though families have their own squabbles, that there is a unique kind of love that can only come from those you were surrounded by growing up. There is a whole set of learning experiences stems from interacting with family. We have to understand where we came from to know where we are going. At the end of the day there is room in my life for family and framily and I deeply love and enjoy both.

Beltane

The last harvest was brought in and winter is past. The Sun god having spent his energies providing the light and warmth needed for crops to flourish hung low over the southern sky. The God was spent and soon died. Mother Earth also labored hard under the sun and needed rest as can be told by the withered grasses and fallen leaves. Gaia curls up in slumber and awaits the day her consort will again return to her while protecting the seeds of life deep within her self. At Yule the new Sun God was born young and strong he was yet too distant to warm the Earth but watches Gaia slumber from afar. The Sun grew and became strong learning of the beauty of the Earth and those lovely creatures upon her. Though tempted by other’s beauty he yearns to be close to Gaia, to reunite with her. Growing ever stronger he circles closer gently warming her till she begins to awaken. Beneath the growing warmth of the Sun Gaia gently pushes the first new plants through the melting snows. Having grown to maturity the Sun encircles Gaia, warming the Earth and fully awakening her. They dance about one another while his passion burns…

This is part of the narration during the Beltane ritual that we attended this past Saturday at Sal and Rusty’s home in Medical Lake. Sal and Rusty reenacted the Sun enticing the Earth to bloom into summer. It was a beautiful rite full of love and a healthy dose of humor at some points! I was very honored to attend and be a part of it (I called water and set up the associated quarter altar.)

Beltane is an ancient Celtic festival celebrated around May 1st that marks the beginning of the pastoral summer season. For our modern day celebration of the rebirth of the warmer weather about 40 or 50 people showed up, which is a fantastic turn out for our area. Beyond the ritual (which included a labyrinth walk and spiral dance) we erected and wove a maypole, built a belfire and of course a huge groaning board feast, drumming, music, divination and as well as the usual camaraderie. Later people jumped the belfire too, in the rain, which was fun to watch.

The Inland Northwest felt as though we had to enjoy all her wonderful aspects throughout the day so we started of with bright warm wonderful sun, then some wild wind, then rain and more rain and finally a bit of clearing before the day was done, followed by more rain.

I don’t think the weather dampened anyone’s spirits though. If anything the success of this ritual makes me look even more forward to the Pagan Campout on summer solstice, though I don’t think I will play such an active role in it. It takes two to take care of a toddling Damian and I know I left Michael hanging a few times. Sometimes it is nice to just sit back and enjoy.

(The grounding labyrinth, walked before the ritual. If you would like to read more about Beltane, I blogged about it a couple years ago. I also have more photos from the day up here.)

I hope everyone had a blessed Beltane full of love, wonder, joy and peace.

Smile for Mommy

Mommy wanted a smile for her birthday, so she gets smiles! Lots and lots of smiles, and a healthy dose of drool for good measure too. We are going over to Shannon’s tonight. I heard Daddy tell Mommy that Shannon might have found some wooden toys for me to play with when I am over there. Very exciting!

Busy

On Saturday we will be having our annual winter solstice gathering. So far it is looking like we will be fitting a record 15 (maybe 17!) people into our townhouse. I am use to at least a few people not being able to make it but I don’t think it is going to happen this year. I don’t mind really, just a little daunted.

I have so much left to do. I stayed up till 22:30 last night making snowflake pretzels and I still have one or two more batches to make. I have three kinds of cookies to finish for the gift plates and one kind of fudge. We will be feasting on pot roast, yams, a vegetarian/gluten-free dish, a pumpkin roll (or two,) egg nog, mulled cider and hard cider from Greenbluff. Most people are bringing a side dish to contribute too.

I don’t know if I have enough chairs… Or mugs…

I also need to finish my solstice cards (just need to glue them together,) ship some stuff to my mom, finish laundry (any ideas for getting red wine out of ivory jeans?) learn a ritual and finish a podcast. Well Michael has to just give it his magic touch, I already recorded it. I suppose I should find a moment to shower between now and Saturday too… Michael will help me clean Saturday morning (gathering starts at 16:00.) I suppose I also have to make dinners for us during this week too. And of course time for Damian, he makes me stop and take a breather.

I am making this all sound a bit stressful aren’t I? It is not that bad really, I kind of wish I had a hand but with some good music to motivate me I know I can get it done. I really enjoy having people over to entertain. Poor Damian though, he is watching mommy fly around doing a million things and I keep missing his potty cues for EC. Monday we had a tough day, I don’t think he was feeling very well and he cried so much and for so long that for the first time Daddy had to come home for a bit and rescue Mommy’s sanity.

Damian has been a bubbly happy little man since though and is cruising! That means he gets up against something (like the futon) and walks all along it using it for a bit of support. He grins huge when I look at him and gives lots of hugs when I need them. I sit him in his high chair with some toys so he can see what I am doing on the counter. We have started solids, he has had apples, carrots and yams and potatoes so far.

Kim (my mother-in-law) and her parents stopped by yesterday to pick up Lydia’s gift (Michael’s youngest sister) and drop off a few early gifts. Grandma Stott made us a really pretty appliquéd angel decoration, Kim made us caramel and gave me a little book, she also made Damian a stocking. I’ll get pictures of all those things later, probably on the Sunday. I’ll be making another big meal on Sunday for the Solstice and we will open our gifts. Sunday will be more relaxed though, since it will just be Michael, Damian and me.

The local news is calling for 4 to 7 inches of new snow by tomorrow. One benefit to renting is that we don’t have to shovel our walkway! Anyhow I am going to grab some breakfast and start on some chocolate chip cookies…

Harvest Festival

We went to Beck’s Harvest House in Greenbluff yesterday, this is our third year going out there to pick apples and it is always really fun. Our friends Andrea, Peter, Shannon and Rachelle came along (the photos in this post were taken by Andrea.)

Damian stayed in the wrap most of the time, snoozing, but he was awake for a bit and all happiness (except when he wet himself in his carseat… I would be cranky about that too.) We didn’t bring his potty and he was very unwilling to go in his diaper. We are going to have to start bringing it when we take longer outings. Damian loved the red apples, he loves anything red. I am sorting them today for peeling and he keeps grabbing at the reddest ones.

I love that creepy scarecrow picture. I also love the hat of that kid in the pumpkin patch. Orange for the win! Normally we drive up to Mt Spokane after the festival but the road is closed right now. It washed with the spring flooding and they are rebuilding it. That’s okay though, I was pretty tuckered out between carrying Damian and picking apples.

We picked a huge box of Valstars, Jonafrees and… something else (I don’t remember the name but it accounts for about 90% of my apples… They are crunchy and tart, my favorite type for pies and eating.) I also picked up a case of pluots, they are a plum/apricot cross. (They look a lot like something I called dinosaur eggs as a kid.) I am going to dry or freeze most of what we bought and also make some butter (some of which will be turned into fruit leather.) Oh we also got fresh pressed cider (one gallon of which I froze for mulled cider at Samhain) and two bottles of local wine (one cranberry infused one for Winter Solstice.)

Now to go make some apple pie! (Lots more photos from the festival here! I took some video too but I don’t have it on the computer yet.)

Greenbluff Harvest Festival

I just realized we are only a couple weeks away from our yearly trip out to the Harvest Festival at Beck’s Harvest House in Greenbluff to pick apples and celebrate Autumn Equinox. It is a big, though very informal thing for me, most of our friends go and we have always had such a blast. Where has the past year gone? It was around this time last year I became pregnant with Damian, now if that isn’t a harvest gift I don’t know what is!

Damian loves being outside so I am sure he will enjoy the Harvest Festival too. It is a love I definitely want to nurture in him and hopefully over time it will instill reverence for Old Wild Mama Earth.

If you want to come apple picking with us, let me know, the more the merrier! If you are worried about not having the storage space, I have a dehydrator and a canner, we can set up a date a few days after to preserve some of the bounty.

(I’ll get around to posting about this past weekend’s camping trip tomorrow probably, it is all typed, but I need to finishing editing some video first.)

Gone Camping

We are camping up at Skookum this weekend, see you on Monday! If I don’t post by Tuesday, Bigfoot got us…

Stewart Family Photos

In August, we hired Andrea to do the Stewart family photos (she also did the ones of Michael, Damian and I back in July.) Of course we somehow managed to pick the hottest day of the year to take them (I think it was 105F?) but we brought a water cooler full of Gatorade so it all worked out. We did the photos at Whitman College.

I love the shots Andrea took. I love this one with my father-in-law Greg and Damian. He was so happy to be outside and surrounded by people who love him. Damian is a total people person at the moment.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day (my favorite is the one with us all laying on the ground in a circle):

If you are in the Spokane area and looking for a photographer, I strongly recommend Andrea. She is very professional and has a lot of fun, creative ideas for poses. She can even get smiles out of my sisters-in-law! She is still working on her website at the moment, but if you want to get in touch with her let me know!

Whisperings of Autumn

Today was the first morning it truly felt like Autumn. The air had that beautiful cold crisp quality and when I went outside to get the paper I noticed the edges of the leaves of the maple were just starting to turn. The morning sky has that surreal blue hue that only seem to happen this time of year.

We usually have one more warm spell before we get our first freeze but it will not be this week. Last night’s low was 40°F (about 4°C.) I am glad my sleeping bag is rated down to 30°F for this weekend’s camping trip. With highs expected in the mid-seventies it is going to be perfect. Our group size has also increased, Sal and Rusty are coming with us! I have everything ready except the cinnamon rolls and cornbread, which I will be making today. I may make the cornbread while we are camping as I cook it in cast iron. I have never tried that before though.

In a few weeks the Apple Festival will be here, time for our little framily will head out to Harvest House in Greenbluff to celebrate the Autumn Equinox. We do it every year and it is always fun. Thinking about the harvest, we reminded our California friend the other day that it is time for her to cut back her tomatoes so that what she has will ripen. I have three huge zucchini from her garden waiting on the counter, the fresh green beans, peppers and corn are long gone.

Autumn is certainly on our doorsteps, while I love the sunny vitality of summer, the cool down always is a welcome guest.

The moment of truth…

I feel like I have been either cleaning or in the kitchen all day, and you know what? It feels really good (I think I need a foot rub though…) I feel like I haven’t had time to keep my house in order for weeks. I got a chance to try out the baking soda and vinegar cleaners some of you recommended to me awhile back and wow, they work really well.

Tomorrow Michael and I are going to a Beltane gathering in Medical Lake. It is a potluck so I made my potato salad and a whole wheat applesauce cake. The cake started life as a slightly more elaborate recipe which I have been simplifying over time, today I made the final jump from changing the brown sugar to honey. Now it only contains whole wheat flour, applesauce, honey, baking soda and cinnamon. Except for the cinnamon and probably the baking soda, it is a completely local cake. I canned the applesauce last Autumn (this was my last jar too!). I grind the wheat myself and it comes from this area. The honey I used is from a local apiary (I picked it up in Yokes though.)

I don’t know how many of you modify recipes but if you do, you know that moment of apprehension you have before trying a heavily modified recipe? I just experienced that before typing this entry with that cake. I was pleasantly surprised, the local honey has a really wonderful flavor. I love it, though I must admit I have an urge to cover it in cream cheese frosting. I’d post a picture for you but I seem to have misplaced my upload cable. (They should make wireless cameras for people like me…)

I love the challenge of cooking as locally as possible. I like supporting the local growers and in general I find the local crops to be much more flavorful. We have two farmers’ markets within a 20 minute bus ride of our home and I am really looking forward to them opening (one opens May 10th and the other June 5th.)

Anyhow, now to go chop the potatoes for the salad. Getting local potatoes in never a problem here as Idaho is virtually next door…