Christmas Impressions

The last week was busy but oh so special. It's was the first Christmas with the boys and we had a great time with me mom and brother. We are starting our own traditions now and I can't wait to see how they will evolve over the next years.

Wishing you and yours a lovely start to the New Year

Making Merry

 

During the last week I have been busy. Once the boys were asleep I spend my evening decorating, wrapping present and making the last presents. The boys made cute little butterfly footprints for their Omi and Uncle, that needed to be wrapped. The glas jars contains homemade air freshener that I decided to give a try this year. Now all that is missing is baking cookies and I am all set for Christmas.

6 month

On Friday my boys turned 6 month already. They are still (usually) happy babies. They get more and more agile, turning from stomach to their back (and back in Niki's case) and trying to somehow move forward. Their head control is pretty good but no attempts yet to sit unsupported.
Nik has his first two teeth, which he got without problems when he was 5 month and 3 days old. His gums are swollen though and seeing how fussy he is at the moment I think more are on it's way.
Jake has no teeth yet, he is struggling for the past 2 month already and still nothing but swollen gums and pain. I feel really sorry for him as there is not much to do to help him.

Size wise they are wearing cloth size 68 right now and I will know more on their size in 1,5 weeks when we see the Doctor for the 'U5'.

We still go out twice a day, and in that time they usually have a 1 hrs nap. They also have a nap after lunch time, which is usually around 2 hrs (sometimes half and hrs more sometimes half an hrs less). 

I still don't get too much done around the house with them but it gets better and I can now leave them in the living room for some time, while I potter around the living room or kitchen.

Nights are ok, Jake is waking up 1-2 at the moment due to his teeth but goes back to sleep pretty quickly after he has his bottle. Nik nurses throughout the night when he is hungry but rarely wakes up now (he usually nurses about 2-3 times for a few minutes). 

So all is pretty good here :)

Tomato Sauce

It's that time of the year again and the tomatoes are coming in left, right and center. As far as I am concerned you can never have enough tomato plants ;)

So far I have made salsa and tomato soup but I have not canned any tomato sauce so far. That was something I have rectified this week. A combination of herbs, quartered and pureed tomatoes , as well as some red onion and my tomato sauce was ready to be canned. That will make a great dinner sometimes during the winter.

Chestnuts - laundry detergent

The other day I read an article about making laundry detergent out of chestnuts. As I always look for alternatives and am open to try new things, I thought about giving it a try. On Friday I walked past a chestnut tree in our street and collected a few chestnuts to give this a try.

It's actually quite simple to make: 

- use 5-8 fresh & dry chestnuts and cut them in quarters
- add 300ml (10oz) of water to a jar
- add the quartered chestnuts and leave for about 8 hours

This will make a soapy water that you then filter to put in the washing machine. It does not store for long, so you need to create it new each time you do laundry. The other option would be to create a powder out of the chestnuts, which will store longer, which I am planning to do next.

I used this detergent to wash the baby cloth and they turned out clean and with a neutral smell, so I was really happy. This is nothing for very dirty cloth but it's a nice alternative for cloth that are not overly dirty.

Practice

Practice makes perfect. It took Jacob ages before he was comfortable to lay on is stomach and lift his head. This picture is about two weeks old, from one day to the next he got it. Now he enjoys lifting his head up and looking around.

Garden Update October 2nd

garden

tomato plants

tomato plants

 

newly planted and mulched strawberries

mulched strawberries

weeds in the garden

my sunflower

raised beds

peppers

I guess this will be my last garden update for this year. October has arrived and the nights and early mornings have that fall chill in the air. The afternoons are still gorgeous though. I am working toward getting the garden winter ready. I decided against a fall garden this year. I have been barely able to keep on top of the garden this year and have enough work to do to prepare the garden for winter.

The first half of the garden is already done. I have been digging the soil on that side already, took the old strawberry plants out and planted the new ones. Right next to it I will plant about 50 onions for an early harvest next year (think June/July harvest). The second half of the garden still needs digging though and all the berry bushes need trimming back. 

Right now all I have left for harvesting are peppers and tomatoes (and apples). Depending on the weather I will be able to enjoy the tomatoes until late October. So far I have made salsa and tomato soup and stored them for winter. Tomorrow I plan to process another 5-10 kilos and make pasta sauce, to store for the winter.

All in all, I am more or less satisfied with the harvest this year. I mean between the twins, the weeds, no time and several root voles, I did harvest quite a bit, not as much as in previous years but enough to last us through the winter