We go through the flash cards, point and count up to 30, but so far Hunter only knows 1, 2, and 3. 

So, in my quest to make sure he doesn't fall behind his actual preschool buddies, I've been looking for other ways to increase his number power. A really fun and interesting way:  board games.

Sure, get out Monopoly, Clue, Life, anything with dice and spaces and money. I know it's exciting for Hunter to get into the games with all their pictures and pieces, and he learns to count, read the dice, take turns with me, and recognize money.

I thought I was onto something and I found this article on classic games and their learning benefits:

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-board-games-help-children-learn-111657.html?cat=4

During our most recent game, we chose Barbie, Queen of the Prom–one of my favorites from childhood. Hunter had to gear up in his Jamaica head and wristbands before we started and God bless him for it, he likes to be prepared. We set up the game, divided up some cash, and away we went. Barbie is especially helpful because the die has numbers printed on it rather than dots, and H needs help recognizing those numbers.

We spent about 20 minutes with the game, counting, taking turns, and collecting our boyfriends, girlfriends, dresses, and clubs (Hunter got president of the Athletic Club, how apropos) while Isla got ready to go for a bike ride in her tutu.

I love my kids.

And I love this song:

The Roots on Yo Gabba Gabba

Incidentally, the first concert my husband and I went to since I became pregnant with Hunter was Yo Gabba Gabba in Wallingford, CT with Hunter, while I was pregnant with Isla. 

It was awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I love having it and we sure need our mud room here, but ours is beat up and ugly. Whoever owned this house before us was a master of the jerry rig, because we have weird things like a metal-encased woodstove in the basement, and more charming things like layers of linoleum over linoleum (the kitchen), ceramic tile over hardwood (the first floor bath), and linoleum over concrete (the breezeway).

I'll tell you, I slaved at this hideous piece of stamped pea-green flooring in our airy corridor with citrus solvent and a 5-in-1 for many of my seldom free moments trying to reveal the concrete beneath. It was tedious work with little payoff, half of it remaining stubbornly stuck to the cement. Annoyed at wasting precious time while also feeling the ghost of the former owner, I decided to take the chump's way and just paint over the whole mess. Yeah, right over the half-peeled away linoleum and mostly exposed concrete.

I scraped and sanded down all the rough edges while scratching up the surface with coarse sandpaper. Luckily I thought to wear a mask because who knows what all's mixed in with these old glues and paints (the concrete has an old coat of rust-colored paint on it that just dusts away everytime I sweep it). I sure don't want to end up breathing in some freaky asbestos/lead based crap, right?

After sanding and cleaning the floor, I decided to use some orange latex paint in a delightful color called "navel" that I had leftover from painting the main room in our small cape when we first moved in. I don't know why I chose this hue, my head must have been somewhere between Tibet and Florida, but I needed an orange living room, along with a yellow kitchen and a blue office. Looking on that last sentence, I am horrified. Not only did the "navel"  living room practically vibrate with the intensity of the color, but when you stood in a certain spot of the house, you could see all the rooms and their different colors at once. Suffice to say that it looked like our 2 year old son decorated the place with the help of a coloring book. God Awful.

I ended up repainting everything. The kitchen and office are white, the living room is a sedate greyish blue, and that's only on 3 walls, with the fourth being the same white as the rest of the first floor. Phew, now we could relax.

But I digress…

I had the orange paint, Hunter's favorite color is orange, and repeating history, I took the advice of a now almost 4 year old and painted the breezeway what? orange. 

Looked like Donald Duck's feet. 

Well, I'd say I've had enough of that orange, and it's true! If we move into an adobe house in Mexico, sure, but a New England cape? Sigh….

On we went to the hardware store to cough up some dough for the proper paint.

When choosing floor paint–and I highly recommend getting precisely that for any floor you decide to paint–you have limited color options. Beige, white, browns, greens, reds, and grey. Well, we have plenty of green all over the property and the beiges and browns were bor-ring, so I chose an old schoolhouse red. Plus, it was on sale and I'm not sure how long this type of half-ass job will last. 

So far I've only painted one layer of the red, did it with a wide brush rather than a roller since it's so textured, and I must say, it looks pretty good.

With all my home decorating research on the internet, I've come across a lot of wabi-sabi design and I love it. Less fuss, more harmony, retain only what is useful, beautiful, and necessary, and for god's sake, simmer down! No need to spend days scraping away at a dang floor trying to make it perfect. 

Anyhoo, I'm going to put down a few more coats of floor paint over the next week or so. I reckon the extra layers will hold up to traffic better and soften the texture changes, which I actually like. Screw a boring old flat floor.

And on that note, a beautiful song by Pavement:

Father to a Sister of a Thought

Wabi-sabi. 

So, things are HOT right now. Planted a hellebore under my pear tree and a Robusta rose in one of the afore mentioned pricker areas. I've got to somehow overrule all the weeds, and I'm really digging my use of the tree bark. It's all over the place and I read that it breaks down well into soil; all the worry about too much acid on the ph side of things, it's a myth. So yes, wood chips, bark, etc. all over the place. Free mulch.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/wood-mulch-z10m0hun.aspx

I would love to throw some big nasty poison on the base of this giant pricker, but no, I cannot. My organic soul tells me to be patient and get rid of it with other means. Namely, lots and lots of bark.

Been piling on the woodstack. Perfect weather for it, really. 73 and sunny with a few passing clouds. God, we need rain here. Supposed to come tonight.

I debated over setting out the next 90 sproutlings of my recently 6-pack cell planted onion sets, but I am going to wait until after this coming inclement weather. If I lose 180 onions I am going to be bummed. Better to save a bunch in case that area of the garden gets washed out. 

Yes, I have to mention that we are situated on a declining ancient area of bedrock that slowly degrades down to a rushing creek. Too much water can be an issue here, and I don't want to lose a bunch of effort to Mother Nature.

Been enjoying a truly summer drink after all these days of hot hard work, the classic gin and tonic. I pour 2 ounces of Cold River gin over much ice and add a really good tonic water like Fever-Tree, which is a naturally light tonic you can get at any high-end super market. I squeeze a couple of lime wedges in the drink, and then throw the fruit away. I don't like the bitterness of soaking pith.

The Cold River Gin, banging. From Maine and we always like to support local-ish small distilleries. Wish I had a distillery…

http://www.mainedistilleries.com/cold-river-gin.html

Here's something nice I that happened last night. Hunter and I were sitting out back a little past dusk, waiting for the bats to come out, and we saw what looked like a big orange cat traipse through our future orchard. I was like, hold on, that cat has an awfully long nose. Guess what?, it was a fox! Pretty sweet. I've never seen one alive and in the yard, and neither has Kins (Hunter). We watched it trot behind the vegetable garden and head out to the north. Then we went inside to gloat over it to Pat and Isla. They were definitely jealous.

Hunter and I were psyched to see it, no doubt it will be rare if we ever see that creature again.

And we know the hens are safe in their fortress.

And speaking of raising crops, I know I'm not raising dental floss out here in CT, but I heard this song on the radio yesterday on the way to the co-op and sang it at the top of my lungs. Hunter was like, shut up, but I said NAYYYY!

Montana, 1973

It's hard to believe that I was on my Frank Zappa high 20 years ago. 20 mother-clucking years.

Dude does not get the credit for being as awesome a guitar player as he was.

Oh, and the asparagus…  DAMN.

This is the first year we have been able to harvest our asparagus crop and the stuff is Goo-ood. We grilled it with olive oil a few nights ago and steamed it last night served with hollandaise (ala Julia Child) and fresh haddock filets that Pat caught off the coast of Gloucester that morning.

It is so worth it to give your asparagus crowns big, beautiful, care-taken beds, feed and mulch them, and have patience. In a couple of seasons they will produce sweet, tender stalks that you will miss when gone.

Did I mention Damn??

The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are thriving, although most of the peppers and all the eggplant took their sweet time to come out.

All of my annual flowers are reaching towards the sun, and this season's biggest seed challenge, perennial delphiniums, have also finally emerged. I was worried about those, they are tricky germinators that need to be kept in a cool (60-65 degrees), dark place in order to sprout. Luckily, the northeast corner of our bedroom is just such a place. It is the one room in our house that doesn't get blasted by the woodstove, and the delphiniums broke ground about 13 days after I planted them. Let me tell you, I am totally psyched about those plants and I hope they make it through the whole summer and into the next.

Look at these dang onions. I mean, really, I've never had my onions look so good so early and I credit it all to that Mother Earth News article recommending starting the sets in 6-pack cells. Hunter and I transplanted this group of 90 on the second day of April's full moon and despite our lack of rain, they are doing well. Naturally, we've been at them with the hose.

And to the left of them there, are my spinach seedlings just starting to come up. I planted those 10 days ago and they are almost all up. I rolled out a row of my black landscape fabric, cut 2 inch circles in a grid separating the circles by about 6 inches, and planted 1 or 2 seeds per circle. Again, trying really hard to minimize my weeding this summer. 

My peas are doing great, about 3 inches tall and happy. I only lost 2 or 3 during the past few weeks they've been in the ground. Nice.

I planted some Envy Chartreuse zinnias that sprouted in about 2 days as did all my marigolds. Also going in cells today are State Fair zinnias, nasturtium, mignonette, along with Resina calendula and Valerian for the medicinal herb garden. 

I am so totally psyched right now. The weather is pretty nice, it's fighting between rainstorm and sun. Really rooting for the clouds today because Connecticut's been dry.

Oh, and look at my asparagus!! Eating those babies next week.

And leaving this post with a song that's been in my head all week, the result of finally going to see a Further show. Oh yeah, more on that later….

  Other One 5-26-73

Speaking of eggs, last year I read a great article in La Cucina Italiana about this wonderful farmer, Paolo Parisi, who lives near where my family is from in Italy. He tends an impressive heritage breed of pig called the Cinta Senese, along with goats and Livornese chickens. I have a crush on Parisi because I simply adore his creative methods of farming and also the way he markets his fare. This man gets over $4.00 per egg because he treats his animals with care and ingenuity.

The article I have read many times, and you can get an excerpt here:   

http://www.lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/article/materie-prime    

Here is my own recipe for one of our favorite quiches. It's easy to prepare, even if you're a novice to pie crust (buy a prepared one from the grocery store).

Spinach and Goat Cheese Quiche by Amy Chelko Lord

–a note on this crust–I use a big ceramic pie dish, it's a 9inch pan, but with high edges, so I have modified a traditional pie crust recipe to make sure that the edges of the crust reach above the sides of the dish by about a quarter of an inch. You sure don't want your quiche filling to spill over your crust or it will burn in the pie dish and stick to the bottom of the crust.

For the crust:

7 tablespoons of cold butter, 1 1/4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 3-5 Tablespoons of ice cold water or vodka chilling in your freezer.  I got this idea from America's Test Kitchen right here:  

http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=11482  

 I do this all the time, and it really works well.

You will also need a bag of kidney beans and aluminum foil for the "blind baking" of the crust.

For the filling:   

8 ounces of fresh spinach, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 8 ounces of goat cheese (chevre), salt and pepper.

For the custard:

4 eggs, 2/3 cup whole milk (we use 1% at our house so I just mix in some half and half with it), salt

In the Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment, I slow mix the flour and salt. To this I add the cold butter that I have cut into pieces and continue mixing on low until the flour and butter look sandy. Next, add the chilled vodka–or water–1 tablespoon at a time until the dough forms a ball. As soon as this happens, turn off the mixer. I find this is the trouble area with pie dough-making, over mixing the dough. As soon as that dough forms a ball, turn it off. Dump the dough onto the counter, form a ball without kneading it, and wrap it in plastic. Fridge for half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. You are going to blind bake your piecrust–that is pre-bake it to get it crisp, and then finish baking it with the filling and custard.

http://www.piemaven.com/blind_bake.htm

Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it's about 1/4 inch thick and larger than the pie plate. Gently lift the dough and place it in your dish. With a fork, make many pricks in the bottom of the pie crust. Take your aluminum foil and layer it over the crust so about an inch hangs off the side. Fill the foil with the kidney beans like so:

Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes until the shell is set. Remove from oven, take out beans and foil and return for another 5 minutes until the crust is golden, but not brown. Allow to cool.

Rinse well your 8 ounces of spinach. In a pan with a bit of olive oil, saute the spinach on medium low heat until it wilts and the water is evaporated. At the very end, add a tiny bit more of olive oil and the garlic, which should only cook for about 30 seconds. Hit it with some salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, whisk the 4 eggs, milk, and about half a teaspoon of salt. Obviously, I love salt and use small bits of it along the way while I cook. I prefer to have everything seasoned during the process rather than finish a product with salt. If it seems like too much, ease up on it.

Oven back to 400 degrees.

In your cooled crust, slice some of the goat cheese on the bottom, about 3 ounces. Spread the cooked spinach on top of the crust. Pour in the custard and finish with pieces of the goat cheese round the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes. This quiche is rich with the cheese and may take a bit longer in the oven. Essentially you want the custard set and the crust a nice golden brown.

Cool the quiche on a rack for about 10 minutes and serve. Equally good hot or cold.

On a small personal note, One of my all-time favorite authors just passed away on March 28th. Harry Crews was a southern gothic writer who told hideously beautiful tales of hardship and love with poetic hilarity. I know that sounds like a lot for one guy to pull off, but he did and God bless him for it. He was a writer who inspired me while cracking me up and I highly doubt we'll see anyone like him again for a long while.

On another note, a song I always associate with the first time I picked up A Feast of Snakes and my mind changed.

Swirlies, San Cristobal

Rest in Peace, HC.

Ok, we got the rototiller out, fired her up, and tilled about a 3 foot wide patch for the peas. It's at the eastern edge of the veg garden, beside a row of renegade celery that never stalked last year–my first effort at the tricky vegetable–but somehow survived the winter (more on that later). On top of this earth, we rolled out 2 rows of the landscape fabric. 

We dragged our homemade pea trellis, old woven wire fencing and tomato stakes set up tipi style, and hammered it into the ground through the fabric. Tacked down the edges of the fabric with 3 inch metal stakes.

The next afternoon while Isla was taking a Thank-God 2 hour nap, I cut individual holes in the fabric all along the bottom of the wire trellis and yes, planted a sprouted pea in each little hole. No joke. I filled the hole with potting soil so each pea has some protection and watered every hole. No one has ever taken such pains with peas ever before. And they're not even my favorite thing to eat. Oh well, I am a true gardener at heart and I had to try this out. The entire time I was out there on this 80 degree Thursday in late March, I couldn't get this Tom Waits song out of my head:

Way Down in the Hole

This is how the little seedlings look 3 days later:

After I finished this task, I broke a 10 day alcohol fast with a delicious cocktail–an ounce and a half of Finlandia vodka, a half ounce of Peachtree schnapps, finished with Ginger Ale over ice. 

Slamming.

I sowed 6 Opalka paste, 6 Orange paste, 6 Sun Gold cherry (summer isn't summer without Sun Golds), 3 Green Zebra, 3 Pineapple, 3 Purple Krim, 3 Brandywine, 3 Pink Ox Heart, and 3 Cour Di Bue.

Yes.

All in 6-packs, all in the greenhouse, brought indoors on the colder nights.

And I finally got my backorder CT yankee Mix Delphinium seeds from Fedco. Yeah baby. Planted 48 of those yesterday and keeping them in the cool to germinate.

Oh mama, get her done.

Here are the onion sets I planted in 9 packs that will be transferred to the garden once they lush out green on top. 

Today I sowed 36 different peppers: Early jalapenos, Relleno Ancho, Chocolate sweet, Lynx hybrid, and a mix of random hots. 

I got my Rosa Bianca and Rhapsody eggplants in, along with the Italian flat leaf parsley.

My spicy smelling Chabaud La France carnation is in soil after the seed sat in the freezer for a week.  

All of these new plantings will come inside at night until late April. 

I planted all my onion sets in 6 pack plastic cells, something I've never done before, but got the idea from a past issue of Mother Earth News. If, for whatever crazy reason, we get a freak hard freeze, I'll be able to bring them inside.

My sugarsnap peas are nestled between warm damp paper towels in a plastic plate. I've taken to sprouting them inside and then planting them out since they are picky germinators. it works pretty well.

Next, the spinach and maybe some more lettuce….

Planted 17 Oriental lilies and 1 pink Tiffany rose. 

Sowed 54 Oriental poppies, both purple and white, 12 cells of cumin, and 12 cells of Marine heliotrope. Also a shallow wooden crate full of Winter Marvel lettuce.

Not bad for March 15th.

So, after some research into great homeschool sites (mainly http://first-school.ws, which contains many printable worksheets), I worked out a small curriculum for Hunter that we do a few mornings a week. He also goes to 2 hour and a half play school type groups on Tuesdays and Fridays, the first being a music and movement class and the second a preschool activities class, but these don't get too into the letter and number writing, and are more singing, dancing, and crafts with some alphabet recognition and counting.

So, here is our class time.

We begin by saying hello and taking a few deep breaths (my yoga and meditation experience), then we both sit at a small table while Isla, the 1 year old, sits on the floor with either a puzzle or some other age- appropriate activity. 

We start with a printout calendar of the current month and say the day and date. Then Hunter looks out the window and we do the weather with card printouts picturing wind, sun, snow, rain, etc.

After the weather, we do a run with number flash cards. These have the number printed on them along with images representing the given amount. Hunter counts through the images and then says and points to the number.

When we're done with numbers, we do a sheet out of his Kumon tracing book, a gift from my sister, Liz, who teaches the fourth grade in Erie, PA. The tracing helps Hunter with lines, curves, and direction, essential for letter writing. The Kumon workbooks are really great, a little pricey, but worth it. You can check them out here:  http://kumonbooks.com, and I've seen them for sale at Barnes and Noble.

Next we move onto letters and the alphabet. We go through a printout of the whole alphabet with upper and lowercase letters and Hunter points to them as we say/sing it slowly. Then I ask him where various letters are. I then take out his individual letter printouts H, U, N, T, E, R, and we work on those. I thought it would be best to have him begin with his name, then go through the rest of the alphabet. So far Hunter can write up t the N. We are working on the E and R, which seems to be the hardest. 

After his name, he works on a connect the dots–http://coloring.ws/connect-difficulty.html–, and then we both color a picture with crayons. That's our day of school. 

It takes a lot of patience, but we have been at this for a couple of months now and he is really learning. It's pretty exciting. I go through each lesson slowly and give him time. If he gets frustrated or seems bored, we try 1 more time and then move on. He gets rewards of Pez (he loves it, must be the toy/candy combo) and always many words of praise. It is a good experience for both of us. 

So, if you stay with your kids and aren't quite ready to shell out the big bucks for preschool, try a little homeschoolin'. It's win-win for both you and your kids.