firewood

The truth about wood stoves:

They gobble up a lot of firewood.

We have had a hard time keeping up with its demands and have already gone through all of the humongous stash we'd accumulated in the carport, along with several "refills."

So we decided it was finally time to purchase our own chain saw for serious cutting action.

Gabriel's carpool buddy, Mark, generously offered us felled trees on his property, and since it was his first go-around with the new chain saw, Gabriel wanted Liam and I to tag along just in case.

It was a balmy 34 degrees here on Saturday, so Liam and I bundled up, packed some extra blankets and hot cocoa, grabbed some books to read, and went to watch Gabe reduce a tree to manageable rounds.

He did great with the chain saw, except he is still learning how to make the cuts without getting the saw pinched. It happened numerous times, leading to the most muttered cursings I have ever heard escape from his mouth...

Liam thought the day was a wonderful adventure. He climbed on the rounds, played with sticks, met the farm dogs, and saw cows in the neighboring pasture. But whenever the chain saw was going, he stayed glued to my legs. The sound was pretty scary.

Going at a big trunk:
Success!

Time for a little exploring.

Happy boy.

mystery book

I received an unexpected package in the mail a few days ago:

A Kid's Herb Book by Lesley Tierra

I have no idea who sent it for me since it came by way of Amazon. I didn't order it, but I don't think I could have chosen a better book. I have been wanting a resource to help me incorporate more natural remedies into our daily life, and this book is full of them. The pages offer kid-friendly uses for a huge assortment of herbs: everything from medicinal balms to fun crafts. I can't wait to start trying them out.

To the mystery giver, thank you!

slightly-healthier popcorn balls

I made popcorn balls for the first time today.

I never liked them as a kid, but last night they were all I could think about. I needed them.

So today I pulled out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (the only one out of my 2 dozen or so cookbooks to actually have a popcorn ball recipe...), and set about making some modifications:

We buy our organic popcorn kernels from the bulk section at Ozark Natural Foods. I popped them on the stove-top in our hand-cranked kettle corn popper with just enough oil to keep them from burning/sticking.

Instead of refined white sugar, I used Sucanat (dehydrated cane juice...also from the bulk section at our co-op). In recipes it can be used 1:1 for standard granulated sugar. Sucanat gives the candy a lovely caramel flavor and color.

I'd like to try this with agave nectar instead of the corn syrup, but since we were out of the former, and I randomly had some corn syrup, that's what I used.

It's finished with a splash of vanilla extract. I use Frontier's fair trade organic vanilla.

The result is delicious. They are caramelly, not too sweet, and just the right amount of salty. And I made them a more manageable golf-ball-size instead of the baseball-size-monsters I remember from childhood.

Slightly - Healthier Popcorn Balls

ingredients

• 18 cups popped popcorn (roughly 1 1/2 cups unpopped kernels)
• 2 cups Sucanat sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup corn syrup (or agave nectar...there's always next time)
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• Softened butter

equipment

• Roasting pan or other large oven-safe container
• Large, heavy saucepan
• Candy thermometer
• Stirring utensil
• Parchment-lined (or lightly oiled) baking sheet

instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Pop popcorn and transfer 18 cups of it to a lightly-oiled roasting pan or other oven-safe container. I made a little extra, which Liam and I snacked on while we finished making the popcorn balls. Place pan in the oven to keep the popcorn warm.
2. Combine Sucanat, water, corn syrup, vinegar, and salt in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil, about 5-6 minutes.
3. Clip-on candy thermometer and reduce heat to medium (or whichever temperature your stove needs to keep the mixture at a gentle rolling boil...mine was more at medium-low). Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 250 degrees, the "hard ball" stage. This takes about 20 minutes.
4. As soon as it reaches 250 degrees, turn off the heat, remove the thermometer, and stir in the vanilla. Remove the popcorn from the oven and carefully pour the candy mixture over the popcorn, stirring gently to evenly coat.
5. Allow it to cool just enough so you can handle it. Don't wait too long because the candy hardens as it cools. I took a quick potty break, 2-3 minutes, and it seemed just the right amount of time.
6. Rub butter on your hands (this mix is sticky...) and quickly form the popcorn mixture into golf-ball sized rounds, placing them on the parchment-lined baking sheet as you go. You have to work quickly to make it through all 18 cups of popcorn before it is too hard to stick to itself. It's not difficult to do, but you can't take a coffee break in the middle of the shaping...
7. They are ready to eat right away. I put mine in the cookie jar, or you could individually wrap them as treats to share.

Potty training update

Liam has good days and bad days:

On the good days, he goes on the potty every time.

On the bad days, the potty doesn't get a drop, but the floor gets nice and wet.

But we had another potty training first the other day. We were eating out, and Liam was wearing a diaper. When he told me he needed to go, we rushed into the bathroom, took off the dry diaper, and he peed while sitting on the edge of the big potty. Up until that point, he had refused to go on a full-sized toilet. Apparently, he really had to go.

Needless to say, he got a treat from the candy vending machine. Another first for him.

ice, snow, and more snow

We had big plans for this weekend:

Thursday evening, my mom and I had been planning to go out to Mimi's Cafe in Rogers, just the two of us, to celebrate our birthdays. Even though the rain was supposed to turn into ice that evening, we decided to chance it and go out anyhow. We had a great meal and even better conversation, keeping an eye out the window the whole time to make sure the roads weren't getting to slick. They were by the time we left. The ice was coming down quickly, and Hwy 412 might have been an extra long skating rink by the timw we got to it. But we made it home.

By the next morning, a half inch of ice covered everything. By mid-afternoon, the ice turned into a snow storm, which blanketed everything with a good 6 inches of snow. I know that this is nothing for our Iowa relatives, but for Arkansas, this is a LOT of snow. The most I've seen here yet.

Needless to say, we had to cancel our big Dallas trip for Saturday. Boo. The roads between here and there were guaranteed to be impassable and an icy mess. So, we're rescheduling for 2 weekends from now. Ikea, here we come...soon.

Despite the disappointment, we made the most of our wintry weather. Gabe came home from work early on Friday, and went to pick up my mom in Springdale so she could spend the weekend with us.

We drank a lot of tea, kept the fire going, and played in the snow.

Here's a view of our street, before the snow had stopped falling. It's a big mess of snow drifts now.

Liam had lots of fun. He kept saying, "More snow!" all day long. He's played outside a few times, and he really enjoys just tromping around in it.

An improvised sled...

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so hopefully it will be warm enough to melt the snow instead of creating more ice to deal with.

Molly's post on Arkansas

Click on the title to see some of Molly's pictures from her visit with us a couple of weeks ago...

a weekend visit and Liam on the swings

Our friends Rachael and Joseph flew out to visit us for the weekend. It was a pretty relaxed and low-key visit. Activities included grocery shopping and library perusing in Fayetteville, a chilly walk to the park, church Sunday morning, and making homemade pasta together. Liam wowed everyone with his potty training skills, all of which made for some nudity-induced funny moments.

It was a good visit. We had some good talks. I really miss Rachaels' company.

Of course, we didn't really take any pictures, except when we went to the park. Here are some favorites of Liam on the swings: