Tuesday - More Imbolc Celebration

We stuck to our regular rhythm. Since we have spent so much time outdoors for the past week and a half, the inside is starting to get a bit messy. Blah! It seems like I can either work outside or inside, but not both.



Meanwhile, to celebrate Imbolc, we are "preparing the field for March's planting." Or in our case, clearing a flower bed to put in a plum tree. This picture shows what it was like when we started. A lot of tall flowers to deadhead. I like to leave the seed stalks on while I think the birds still might eat them.



This is the space we are actually clearing. It has taken 2 days to get it this clear. Brother is really interested in removing the ivy from the fence. The ivy is also trying to take root along the ground and has be ripped out by hand. I think one more day of clearing, and then we will be ready to start preparing the soil.

Yesterday for story I thought we could read a story about Baba Yaga, which is listed as a medium aged Kindergarten story. I was wrong. He hates Baba Yaga. Oops. So today I read a story called "The Gnomes and The Root Babies" by Melissa at A Little Garden Flower. It is found in her book, "Before The Journey." Here is her web page. http://www.waldorfjourney.typepad.com/
This story really captures what I am trying to do with our celebration including Mother Nature and her sister Brigid. Brother really enjoyed the story. Baby just kind of ran off and played with trucks. Baby did have me read his Nursery Rhyme book and his "Mother Earth and Her Children" book. I really appreciated the "Mother Earth and Her Children" book. There are root babies in it and it tied in really nicely with the Gnome story for Brother. I hadn't put two and two together to plan that out myself.



To welcome Brigid and her light, we baked bread. This one is supposed to be shaped like the sun. I had poured the center. Yes, I did say poured. The gluten free bread recipe I have has the consistency of pancake batter. So, it was hard to shape. Brother wanted to put his fingers in it and smoosh it around. In the name of Process over Product, I let him, so it is a bit lumpy.



Brother designed this "mushroom" on his own. I'd like to find a less runny gluten free recipe. I figure that with time we will work it out. I do need to stretch myself more by baking more bread. It is just a bit intimidating to me.

And for "socialization" we babysat today.

Monday - Baking Day!

We had Co-Op this morning. The kid played really well together and had a lot of fun. Brother participated in circle again, for the most part anyway. And I told a silk story of "The Sheep and the Pig" from The Baldwin Project.

We made pizza for the second time. The gluten free crust is really sticky. It went much better because I gave each of the boys a bowl and little of their own dough to work with. It was a real mess, but they had a lot of fun. Meanwhile, I added brown rice flour onto the top of the crust so that I could spread it out. It worked much better. Next week, I'll show the boys how to do that as well. Every week we learn something new - about pizza crust anyway!

Monday

This morning we hosted Kindergarten Co-Op. The kids had a lot of fun digging and running in the trees. Of course building trains is always a hit!

In the afternoon Brother and I started baking, but I had no eggs! Oops, so when Grandma came I ran out to the store and finished up the Zucchini cake myself. Then Grandpa joined us for dinner and we celebrated St. Patrick's Day a day early. 

I guess this week I get to count 1/2 of a baking day. We just started adding in the baking, so I need to cut myself some slack. Until now, I really hadn't been doing much of it. We're gluten free, so it is a bit of a challenge. Actually, I'm gluten free. Everyone else just gets stuck with my GF food. No one is complaining though. 

My favorite cookbook is Bette Hagman's  The Gluten Free Gourmet. It's an oldie, but a goodie. I tend to substitute brown rice flour for white rice flour though. So my baked goods do come out heavier.