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A Holiday Weekend

4/9/2012

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We had such a lovely Easter weekend! Fred was off on Friday and it was sunshine-y and not too cold so we had three whole days to frolic about and enjoy family adventures! We went to Lake Superior (just like last year's Easter), and hiked down into the Swedetown gorge where 5 got to throw the biggest rocks he could lift into the water, and Hungarian Falls where these shots were taken.
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It's a bit of a scramble down to the falls, but if I could do it 8 months pregnant, I figured I could do it with a monkey on my back.
I was right.
No sweat.
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The boys took off their shoes and socks and bravely (foolishly?) plunged their feet into the super frigid water.
They survived.
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5 found that he (big surprise) preferred playing with mud and throwing rocks to the hypothermia-inducing water.
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They did manage to pull themselves away from rock throwing long enough to climb up as close as they could get to the falls (and it was pretty close- they got rather wet) for a little photo op. Those sweet boys of mine.

How did you celebrate the Easter/Passover/beautiful weekend?

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Spring Fever

3/26/2012

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My dudes playing in the fresh Spring air
Even though it is no longer unseasonally warm (we're back to 29 degrees), it's official, we have Spring Fever. From the time I spend wandering around in Blogland and other internet watering holes, it appears most of the rest of you are also all twitterpated about Spring.
I wonder though, are you as holiday-driven as the internet wants me to believe? Everywhere I look it's Easter crafts and St. Patrick's Day cookies and cupcake toppers etc. Honestly, I just don't get it. I love dyeing eggs as much as the next girl, but I guess I'm just not a holiday gal.
I'll tell you what does get me going come Springtime- projects! Gardening! Cleaning- as in getting rid of things, not scrubbing, I'm not much of a scrubber. Organizing my life, coming up with a million things I want to do, making a giant mess of things and then getting all confused and tired.
Also, there is a grand switch in cuisine here around this time of year. Soup is out. Yeah, I said it, I don't eat soup when it's not cold (or when I can delude myself into thinking it's not cold). In fact, I'm not making lunches for the whole week at the moment! Fred is getting freshly made lunches delivered to his office daily by yours truly and the wonderbabe. It's kind of exciting.
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It's nothing groundbreaking, but it guarantees that 5 and I leave the house. Every day. And that's a good thing because sometimes, I need help and/or a kick in the pants. Today my gentleman feasted upon a Wensleydale/avocado/lettuce/tahini spread sandwich with carrot and apple on the side as well as a sprouted almond milk chocolate chip mix for dessert. I've loved sprouted almonds for years, but they sell for 15 or 16 dollars a pound at our local coop and I just can't do it, so I was thrilled to find a recipe for them on nonchalant mom. It's so easy and they're sooo good!

What gets your motor going in the Spring?

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Springtime Dinner

3/20/2012

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All this warm weather has given my family a desire for Springtime foods that aren't really ready yet. We won't have much in the way of local produce for a while yet, but I think I did find a solution for this week anyway.
I paired Joy the Baker's Baked Lemon Risotto with huge portions of a simple green salad- just red leaf lettuce, marinated grated beet, and a few bleu cheese crumbles. Yum!
Starch girl that I am, I love risotto, but rarely have the hour to spend stirring broth into rice. Joy's oven baked variety worked great and was so easy and delicious.
I got the beet recipe from a naturopath I used to see and it's always great to have something both tasty and super good for you to throw on top of nearly anything. I grate one big beet and cover it with 2 Tbsp olive oil (the good kind, no messing around!) and the juice of 1 lemon. I let it hang out in a glass jar in the fridge and just take what I need each night.
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5 totally digs lemony starch and red stainy beet goodness. I think you will too!
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Family Adventuring

5/23/2011

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Five's First Parade

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Saturday morning the boys and I got to be in the Parade of Thanks! One of Fred's students made this bus into a mobile art classroom (cool!) last semester but wasn't around this weekend to represent Finlandia University in the parade. The Freds had a great time playing bus driver...
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The little one loved it so much he thought he'd go solo.
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Before anyone accuses me of being a Britney Spears mom, I thought I'd better include the proper safety pic.

Springtime in the Keweenaw

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My sister and her boyfriend have been visiting this weekend. On Sunday we had a brief period of kind of sunny, not raining time so we decided to enjoy waterfall season in the Keweenaw! My favorite, Hungarian Falls, is just a 15 minute drive from our house and a perfect example of how gorgeous it can be here.
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Five slept through a lot of the walking, but woke up as soon as we got to the falls. He LOVED the waterfall, and he LOVES his Auntie Ariel (hence the big smile in the picture).
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photo by Patrick Dickerson
Five doesn't remember (I don't think), but he'd actually been here before. Last October, my friend Rachael took some beautiful pregnancy photos of me here. It seemed appropriate that we capture the moment upon our return.
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photo by Rachael Pressley
What adventuring are you doing this week?
Join me Wednesday for a new tutorial!
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Mmmm Delicious Springtime

5/2/2011

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Well, I was almost ready to finish my post this morning, I wanted to finish one of my nearly done projects so I could include it, but...
The little man has decided that he now sleeps every hour and a half. It must help the teeth come in. So, I got a bit behind on my to do list and then...
I ended up joining the boy in one of his naps. I slept for an hour and it was sooooo lovely. After I woke up I discovered I had a crippling need for PANCAKES!
So simple to fix, you think. Pancakes are easy, right? Not so much for me. I have made pancakes through so many different types of restricted diets (I have even made pancakes with just eggs and almond flour) that I now chronically overthink them. I haven't made a good batch since V was born. Boo.
All was not lost, however. My shining white knight of a husband rode to the rescue! He swooped over to the coop and got some (gasp!) wheat flour and made a beautiful batch of fluffy, buttery PANCAKES!
Now that I have been fortified, I can finish this post!

Pancakes!

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A May Day Repast

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ramp leaves with fresh mozzarella
Spring is probably my favorite time of year for seasonal, local-ish produce. Many of the things I still think of as local are actually more local to my previous Southern Wisconsin residence, but still...
I was at the coop doing the shopping for the week yesterday and saw that the first delivery of ramps was in! If you have never had ramps and you live in a place where you have access to them you must go out right now and get some! Their season is, like, three weeks long and only comes once a year. Ramps are kind of like if an onion and a leek had a wild love child. The bulb-y part is good for sauteing and has a mild onion flavor, but the leaves are the bomb. Really. They are the bomb.
My favorite meal this time of year consists of ramp leaves wrapped around fresh mozzarella bits. That's it. Nothing else. You should try it. Mmmmmm.

New Pants

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I have now made my first foray into baby pants-making. They were mostly successful, a little frumpy at the waist. I didn't need quite as much extra fabric as I thought. Now that he is so big, he will likely fit into the same size pants for a while (just as a different shape). So I thought it was time to make him some pants! I scouted around, read 10 or 15 tutorials, and decided to make the super crazy simplest ones first. These pants could not have been easier.
I took two adult sized shirt sleeves, and made sure they were the same length. I measured the distance from the back of the diaper to the front of the diaper (front and back rise) and divided it in two. I then added one inch, making 9 inches total. I cut down the seam of both sleeves 9 inches and then sewed the two sleeves together along those cuts.
I made a casing for elastic, popped it in there, and I was done! Yay pants!
Now that I have made one pair that was not a disaster, I will make many many more, and probably get a bit wild with it.

Coming Wednesday
New Product and my Mexican Lasagna Recipe!

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Easter on the Third Coast

4/25/2011

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My husband loves Lake Superior. No, really Loves it. At my bridal shower before we got married (and before we moved up here), we played a version of the newlywed game where he answered questions ahead of time and I had to guess (or know) the answers. I got all of them right but one; "Where would Fred like to be right now?" Silly me, I guessed "with me". The answer was on Lake Superior.
Our son was born during the first snowfall up here last Fall and we drove home on the last gorgeous sunny day of the year. Fred REALLY REALLY wanted to take our newborn son to the lake, but I was way too wiped.
This is all to preface our little Easter outing and its huge importance. Yesterday was sunny and in the 50s here, nice enough to take the baby to the lake! Finally! How did he ever live five whole months without seeing Lake Superior?
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See son? This is what we call "majesty".
We are not really holiday people to begin with, we often completely miss them. We don't decorate, not even for Christmas, and have very little interest in celebrating when we are told to. This is not to say that we are un-celebratory people, just not so much calendar-followers.
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5 discovered that nature is delicious
The Freds had a lovely time testing the frigid water, throwing rocks in to make splashes, playing with sticks and leaves.

Home Sewing, Wa to the Hoo!

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the little man approves
I recently got the most fabulous hand-me-down baby carrier from my amazing friend Audrey. It is so comfy and easy and nice for the boy too. The only downside is that there are nylon webbing straps that are just in the right place for chewing, but are not absorbent or delicious at all! I end up with rivers of drool all over me, which will happen no matter what, but I thought I'd give him some texture to chew on. I made this little strap cover from some Amy Butler scraps I had and a piece of thick cotton prefold. The Velcro closure makes it reversible (in case one side get all drooled out) and the boy loves it!
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see those scratches? I'm trying to avoid those...
I also made something for MYSELF today! My sunglasses take so much abuse and I tend to wear them until I can no longer see through them. With all the baby stuff I carry around now I'm worried about breaking them altogether. So I made a case for them! I used some Echino scraps I had (my diaper bag is also Echino, I've never been so matchy-matchy in my life) a layer of Warm and Natural batting, and I lined it with some quilting weight purple cotton. I could not be more excited about my special present to myself.
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what others may call chaos I call inspiration
Finally, in my never ending quest to organize the office to perfection, I found some of my old weaving samples and some embroidery a friend of mine had given to me because she thought it was ugly (I love it). I decided to add them to my inspiration wall. It feels like they were always meant to be just where they are. I am delighted and my husband is only a tiny bit horrified.

Coming Wednesday
Recipes!
Root Veggie Pie, and possibly an Irish cabbage bean stew!

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Spring Walk, Shop Talk

3/30/2011

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A Lovely Walk? Don't Mind if I Do!

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The little man and I spent a beautiful two hours outside this morning, walking to the post office and bringing a certain someone his forgotten lunch. I put together a nifty hand-me-down stroller from a bandmate of mine (while V looked on in amusement) and we hit the road! It was sunny as all get-out, but only 37 degrees, so when we got home I heated up some tomato-free chili. Yum!

My Zipper Order Has Arrived!

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Yesterday I received 100 zippers in the mail. Yahoo! I'd been eagerly anticipating their arrival so I could start making my new upcycled coin purses! They're just the right size for ID, credit card, and some cash for a purse-less night on the town (or for a mess-free diaper bag.) You'll be able to find the first one on my etsy shop tomorrow!

Other Reasons to Cook a Week at a Time

I've been thinking, I originally started cooking for the week to save time (which it does) and my mind (also does), but there have been other benefits I've found.

-Saving Money. Always popular. We eat all natural and organic and local when we can, which can get spendy, but cooking in such large quantities has cut our grocery bill in half. That's right, I said in half

-Less Waste.  Face it, we all know about the starving children in Africa, it's not always enough to make us eat all the half-servings of random leftovers. When I use up all the ingredients I buy, and I cook exactly 10 portions, we see way less waste in the compost and in the garbage.

See you Friday!

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    Author

    My name is Ansley Knoch. I am the creator of Rispok, a line of accessories for big and little people made from repurposed materials. I live in Madison, Wisconsin with my husband, Fred, and our son, also Fred, better known as 5.

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