The New Homemaker Newsletter for November 22, 2008
Dear Readers,
I need to apologize to those of you who come to TNH and don't log in; last week for an unknown number of days (at least one) you all got an "access denied" message. That was NOT on purpose. The database that runs the site somehow got a bit screwy and because I'm always logged in I didn't know until someone told me. That's why I always love to hear about site problems, so if you ever run into one, please write me at editor@newhomemaker.com and tell me. I'll be grateful!
Boy, what a week. Here in Oregon we've been pounded by storm after storm. Normally I never complain about the rain; I moved here for the rain, believe it or not. But this year...well, when you start seeing scuba divers swim down your street, you start wondering. I'm about ready for spring.
At our house, the chickens have started laying eggs in earnest again, on average two a day. Jumper, the barred rock, is losing feathers and I'm not entirely sure why. I will tell you this, though, with all this rain I now know the full meaning of the phrase "mad as a wet hen."
Josie (8) and I finished reading the Kit books from American Girl, set in the Depression. She is now trying to read it on her own, and doing fairly well especially considering that not long ago she insisted she couldn't read. And she is copying Kit and writing her own newspaper, on an old typewriter that belonged to my uncle. She asks a lot of questions about homeless people and poverty that we often cannot answer, but we try. Every time I start to worry about this whole unschooling thing, Josie starts on a project like her newspaper and I realize I'm being foolish. She's doing great.
Louisa (not quite 5) is still basically a big nut. Her saving grace is that she's an unbearably cute, funny and affectionate nut. She wants to have sewing lessons like the ones I give her sister, and she wants desperately to learn to knit, but she just doesn't have the dexterity yet. I give her burlap and yarn in a big-eyed needle and it keeps her happy for a little while, but she knows it's not "real" sewing and it drives her bats. Josie is competing in the Knitting Olympics (Team Knifty Knitter if there is one) and that makes Lou even madder, even though she has her own knitting loom and knows how to use it.
John and I are working on the dining room this month-- a bunch of us at TNH are doing a room a month, you pick the room. We're extremely happy with the way this experiment worked last month, which was the kitchen. Our kitchen isn't sparkly, but it works much better than it did. Things get put away easier, and it stays much cleaner. There is now room for two chairs at the kitchen table, and we find ourselves spending more time in there looking out the big picture window at the mad, wet hens. :) Our dining room contains our desk and filing system. Yeah. We're not enthusiastic. But we are committed. Or will be when we're through. If the men in the white coats come for me I won't be surprised, let's just say.
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