The rain is falling gently today upon the tulips, daffodils, dandelions, and lamb’s quarters. I feel susceptible to a nap, seeing as my baby is napping and I’m watching the water fall out of the sky and pool around the rocks. Last night we read a book about Insects, and in the back there were craft ideas, like painting butterflies. The littles saw this and asked if we could too today. So we did.
I always have to hustle to get the paint out. It is the most exciting moment- choosing colors and dipping in a fresh brush. I used egg cartons for the paint and that worked well.
Last night after we put the pips to bed, I mixed up overnight bread so we could have bread and butter on this rainy afternoon.
This is the Overnight No Knead Bread Recipe:
6 cups flour (hopefully organic whole wheat, ideally fresh ground)
4 cups water
3 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
Plus interesting things to mix in like rolled oats, leftover cooked grains, dried herbs, or seeds
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Put a lid on it. Let sit overnight (10 hours+). Stir up the mixture again in the morning, then dump dough in a bowl lined with parchment paper. Let rise for an hour. Preheat the oven to 450. When oven has reached temperature, put an oven safe pot in the oven for a few minutes so that it is super hot. Carefully remove from the oven, then lift parchment papered dough into the pot. Put the lid on. Set the timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes of baking, remove the lid and bake at 400 for another 30 minutes. Knock knock on the bottom of the loaf. If it sounds hollow, it’s done. Good job!
Steve fired up the outdoor sauna today so we could have a place to warm up. The Peach helped him and was very proud of herself for helping to start the fire. I asked her what she and Daddy did and she told me that “We wowked hawd an’ made a fi-ya.” Then she snuggled against me and I tucked her under the quilt for a bit to warm up.
This is the book I’m reading right now: Ayurveda and the Mind. One of the many things he discusses is the direction of our consciousness- whether its focus is on the exterior or the interior. He says (in my translation) that the senses, and processing the information that comes into the senses, can require all of our energy all the time. Because the exterior can consume all our attention, our focus can be entirely upon what we see, hear, smell, think, and desire. But here’s the rub! If we do give our sensations and thoughts all our attention, the exterior world only will seem full of light, and when we close our eyes, we may only encounter darkness. And apparently, it’s supposed to be the other way around. Lit from within, that’s the thing!
That’s basically the hoodwink of life. The smart phones and computers glow attractively, they’re totally addictive, and they suck our attention. Yet if we want to be more intelligent and aware, the wonderful world inside has to be more compelling than the wonderful world of people and movies and vacation photos. I’ve started taking a bath and reading before bed, instead of looking at a screen. It seems like a good start to being a meditator. I want to explore that inner world. Still in the travel guide section of it, though!
Steve just walked in a brought me a smoothie! I told him I wanted to start blogging again. Our dear mother’s helper is here so I get the chance to write a bit. Steve tells me this smoothie has avocado, cilantro, dandelion, stinging nettle, sorrel, and pineapple in there. We’ve been plucking the sorrel, nettles, and dandelions out of the backyard. Bitter greens go down easy when they’re blended with fruit. The rule is basically blend up half greens and half fruit with water. Since alkaloids are the medicine that goes missing from industrialized foods and depleted soils, we are trying to keep up our consumption of edible weeds, which tend to be bitter and hence mineral rich. Reminder that when picking greens- stay 100 feet away from the road and anywhere that is sprayed. Peace out and peace in!