New Blog Address!

ATTENTION: We have moved!

please come check us out at www.stirredupsoup.com (our very own web page). It is still under construction to some degree, but is now up and running. Let me know what you think!

Peace,
Mama Soup

Homemade Grape Juice

I blame Megan (www.shewearsboots.blogspot.com). She signed me up for this amazing CSA and yesterday I got my first share. I had a huge bunch of concord grapes that smelled fantastic. I quickly popped one in my mouth and realized why people dislike them. First, the grape did not "pop" like grocery store grapes, it was firm, but jelly like. Then, as I bit further in I hit the seeds (which is when I realized I could not give them to my toddlers). Finally, the skin was impossible to chew all the way up, I just had to swallow it.

All that said, though, they were delicious! The flavor was wonderful and I did not want my young ones to miss out on such a fabulous fresh taste (worlds better than the fake fruit flavors that line the grocery store shelves). I thumbed through the rest of the share and realized that they had (cleaverly) provided suggested recipes and their facebook address to reference for further ideas. I quickly looked on line and found the link for homemade grape juice.

Perfect! What child does not like grape juice and it would be such a treat. My children never get juice; it's too expensive and basically just sugar (so why bother is what I usually think). But fresh, homemade grape juice from perfectly ripened and locally grown concord grapes is a different story entirely.

Here is where I started (recipe from simplyrecipies.com). Gorgeous, honestly, fresh food just does it for me.




Then I washed the grapes and removed the stems.




Next, I poured them in a pot over medium high heat and mashed them slightly (I used a potato masher).




Finally, after 10 minutes and one other mashing, I had this.




I took the above and strained it. I left it straining on the counter, covered with a kitchen towel, while I went to fetch the children from school. My kitchen smelt so fruity and sweet I couldn't wait to leave so I could come back in and have that fragrance hit me as I opened the door (which is exactly what happened).

Upon returning the kids rushed into the kitchen, stripped their shirts (because I made them) and climbed up for their cup of homemade grape juice. Here are the results. I think the pictures really sum it up.

I tried to get them to look at me for a picture, but nobody would put down their cup. I don't think Elias even breathed.



This might actually be my favorite. I think you might have to know Bebe to appreciate it fully, but either way it's impressive.




Elias seemed to have less smeared around because he drank it all in one gulp.




So simple and so delicious. Thank you Horse and Buggy. I will be calling you tomorrow for more grapes (actually Jonah wants to try grape jelly too, maybe that's tomorrow). Cheers.




Peace,
Mama Soup

Comment problems

I understand that a number of people have tried to comment and have been unable. So sorry. I am going to do my best to remedy that problem. Please check back tomorrow, as I am hoping that tonight I can come up with a solution. Upcoming topics, just to keep you interested, are as follows (in no particular order):

CSA

Swimming pools

Green products

Cloth diapering

and more on.....

House size (can you tell I'm obsessing?)

Peace,
Mama Soup

Closet is done

Turns out I have even more clothes than I thought. Surprise, surprise. I bet most of us would say the same if we truly sat down and laid them all out. Really, there was no way I could wear all of the clothes I had, partly because some of them didn't even fit.

Here is where I started.


This is the pile of stuff I actually wear day to day (which is why it is in a pile).


This is the rest of my closet.


And this is my dresser.


I began by just dumping everything on the bed and sorting into piles. 1. Throw away 2. Give away 3. Possibly sell (will probably just give it away though, to get it OUT of the house) 4. Keep. From there I sorted my keep stuff into seasonal and type of dress. Quick aside: I have three big totes of random "winter" clothes in the basement that are really just stuff left over from when I lived in Maine. Now it is hard to figure out what to do with a giant wool sweeter when it never even comes close to - 30 degrees. So that project is for another day. It is more memorabila stuff than clothing at this point.

Once all items were organized, I cleaned out the closet space and started adding stuff back in. Here is what I ended up with. Keep in mind I am not on "Wear this, not that" or whatever it's called. I'm a simply dressed person or as my NYC living fashion designer best friend from LA says, I have no sense of style. I like it that way. So just take note of the amount and organization of the whole thing, not the actual articles of clothing.



I have nothing in my dresser and I am happy about that. Those drawers are annoying to open anyway.

I'm pretty happy with the results. I have two giant trash bags full of Goodwill items along with another box of "possibly sell" stuff and a small trash can I filled with things that should have been thrown out years ago.

I still have more than I need, but at least I am headed in the right direction and it feels good.

Peace,
Mama Soup

De-Cluttering update

In a nut shell, it's not going well.

Hum, let me put a positive spin on that; I still have a lot of opportunity to organize in my future.

Why you ask? What has happened? Children. Children and (to be honest) just keeping up with my daily tasks that would take much LESS time if I simplified all the stuff I have to do. Simplifying is much harder than it seems like it should be. I think I need to break it down and be more black and white.

Tomorrow is a good day to start. Three of the four children are in school and the fourth usually happily goes along with whatever I suggest. Tomorrow I will go through my clothes.

I'm not a crazy fashionista by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have way more clothes than I need. I generally only wear the top layer of stuff from the pile on my closet floor, so I'm pretty sure the stuff on the bottom I could actually just set aside for Goodwill and never know the difference. However, I will have to go through it and just look one more time to make sure (you never know what I might find).

So, tomorrow it is. I have committed. I will post my success (and maybe even a picture) when I am done. Wish me luck!

Peace,
Mama Soup

How much house do we need?

At the end of the day, when all the children are asleep and most of the mess is picked up I sit down to take a few breaths and just look around. What I have noticed is that my house feels huge. I am not bragging, not at all. The only reason we have this huge house is because we snatched an amazing deal and we are renting.

Skip the next paragraph if you know me well; you already know this.

Brief history: We lived a an adorably cute tiny cape cod right downtown with an equally adorably cute tiny yard. We loved it. We had one child and it was perfect. Then, all the sudden we had three children and directly after another one on the way. Our house started feeling claustrophobic. We agreed that the size was difficult at times, but the layout was impossible. The house was full of tiny rooms and you could not see or hear anyone from any other room (great if you are trying to ignore someone but not great from a small child safety standpoint). So, we put our house up for sale for about one week. One week was all it took for me to decide that this was a terrible idea and there was absolutely no way I could keep my house clean with all those hands and feet bopping about. Fast forward three months and I got a call from a realtor that wanted to know if we were still interested in selling. "Yes" I said, trying not to sound too excited. A few more weeks later and our house was sold, we had no where to go and our 4th baby was due very soon. That is how we ended up renting (something we said we did not want to do but are happy we did).

The house we are in now is about 3 times the size of the house we sold. It is interesting how quickly you can fill up space with unnecessary junk. When thinking about simplifying I wonder, how much house do we really need? I am curious about other people's opinions. We have this house rented until June, at which point we are considering purchasing. We would like to buy a home that we can raise our children in and hopefully pay off sooner rather than later.

I have read up on the statistics of house sizes. It is pretty eye opening. Here is what I have found.

As the average size of our American families decrease, 3.1 people in 1974 to 2.6 people in 2004 the average size of our homes have drastically increased from 1,695 sq ft in 1974 to 2,349 sq ft in 2004. Interestingly, this scary market crash/ foreclosure nightmare has actually had many more people re-evaluate how much house they truly need. In 2008 the census data showed that the average size of homes under construction fell from an average of 2,629 sq ft in the second quarter to 2,343 sq ft in the fourth quarter.

To sum it all up, I feel like my "McMansion" as a dear friend calls it, is in deed just that, over the top. While I love my giant walk-in pantry, my laundry room that is the same size of my old kitchen and a master suite that is larger than most people's NYC apartments it does not seem necessary and actually has some draw backs. Number one on my list is cleaning. It takes me all week to go through the house and clean all of my rooms (7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms). My old house I could clean in an afternoon and happily spend the rest of the time playing with the children. Also, our utilities bills (while somewhat better than expected because this is a newer home) are still much more than need be. And then the issue of accumulated junk, as mentioned before. If I am really going to simplify, and I am serious about this, then I think my home should reflect my values. What are your thoughts?

Best Telemarketing Conversation Ever

It has been a long few days, so I'm going to keep this short. We seem to have some kind of virus circulating through the house that causes hives, asthma attacks and extreme crankiness; for the adults it causes head aches. So here it goes....

I got a call the other day. The kind of call that you have say "hello?" two or three times before you hear a click and someone says, "Hi, Ms. Campbell" right at the same time that you have a discussion with yourself if you want to hang up or not. If you wait longer than .03 seconds then you know that you'll be caught for the next 5 minutes trying to figure out exactly what they are selling and how you can get off the phone politely.

Well, I didn't hang up when I should have. After I acknowledge them I feel it is rude to just hang up, but if they don't hear me say anything first then for some reason it does not feel rude. Do my eight readers feel the same? Regardless, I didn't hang up. A very bubbly girl started chatting to me about my prize package that I would be receiving shortly, blah, blah, blah.....and then, Cliffy started crying.

I went to Cliffy, wedged the phone between my shoulder and ear and picked him up. He did not stop crying so I kept listening to dumb dumb on the other end of the phone try to stutter through her lines as I bounced him around the house. Finally, she paused and said in an annoyed voice, "Ma'am, I'm just going to have to call you back later. That baby is hurting my ears."

I smiled at Cliffy and said, "great, bye."

I hope that conversation was recorded for quality assurance and listened to by her boss.

Peace,
Mama Soup

10 Things I Learned on the First Day of School

Today was the first full day of school for the twins. Last week was an intro week and they only went 1 1/2 hours. Today, however, they were there 8:30 - 3:30, along with Jonah. This means that for 6 whole hours I was with only ONE child (and a bubbly happy infant boy at that). Here is what I learned.

1) I need to wake up earlier.

2) I need to go to bed earlier.

3) Laundry is easier to do when people are not sleeping in their rooms on and off all day long.

4) It is much easier to move around the house without baby gates in between every room and every possible door shut.

5) The house is filled with all kinds of interesting house sounds that are audible when people are not screaming. I actually got scared today from a strange whistling sound that turned out to be the breeze in the trees. (Seriously, I'm not making this up).

6) I don't think I'm getting alzhiemers anymore. It is just really that much more difficult to remember information when 3 other people are talking to you. I felt like a genius today.

7) My house is really big.

8) No matter how much preparation, organization or planning you do, once your kids get home the chaos returns immediately.

9) I will be insanely depressed and lost when my kids no longer live at home.

10) I love school.

Slowing down

On holidays, no matter what holiday, I always feel that things move slightly slower. Well, maybe I just want things to move more slowly, but I think it's a valid desire. We need to take a bit to breath, actually see what is around us and enjoy all that we have worked so hard to obtain. Our culture pushes us to be continuously busy. Busyness equal productive in our eyes, or at least mine. Other countries have siestas, long lunches, shorter work weeks, more vacation, etc. In america, we try to fit 28 hours of work into 24 and say things like, "I don't really need more than 4 hours of sleep." If we are always moving this fast, how can we enjoy ourselves, our family, our friends, our loved ones?

Today, my family tried to slow down a bit. We did fewer chores and more matchbox car racing. Instead of getting all the laundry done, my husband AND I set up the train track with Jonah together (usually only one of us does this so the other one can be doing something "productive"). We even watched some family television this afternoon (unheard of in our house, as I do not like the TV on during the day) and had a great time commenting on what we were all focused on.

It is hard not to feel worthless when not accomplishing a task, but what we were accomplishing was truly much more important; we were building our relationships with each other. We set aside "things" and put first "people." As I write this, it is astonishing how little I value my time spent just being with someone and rather always evaluate the success of my day on how many "things" I get done. Because really, at the end of it all, its our relationships, not our things that see us through the hard times.

Peace,
Mama Soup

Giving

Along side my theme of simplifying and organizing is Giving. There is something about the act of giving that humbles us and makes us re-evaluate that which we already have, that is if you do it with the right intention. I suppose Jonah does not really experience what I am talking about when he has to give Elias's train back.

It also has a snowball effect, from my experience, because it just feels so good to give. It is so easy to get stuck on yourself. Each person's personal situation seems of upmost importance to them, but to everyone else it is not. This is where a lot of people's frustrations come from, feeling like someone else (or maybe everyone else) does not appreciate, understand or acknowledge the challenges that are present in their life. And you know what, it is true. Nobody else understands exactly what you are going through, but it doesn't really matter. It's all just ego and self-centeredness. When we are able to turn away from ourselves and focus on the underlying connection in us all (not the inherently human competition) then we can find a new kind of happiness.

I have fallen into the pattern of "me" focus, as promoted by our society at large (this is not an excuse just an observation). I can fill my day with concern only for my direct situation and easily forget that, as Plato said, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

Recently, we have had some amazing experiences of people giving to us as a family. We are forever gratefully and feel so lucky. As I sat and contemplated what I could do to repay these people it occured to me that I wanted to BE these people. I do not mean that in a jealous way, but that they are good idols. I have such respect and love for them I thought I should include in my mission to simplify (in a way, get back to basics) Giving.

All this being said, the reason (now this is an excuse) I have fallen into a pattern of "me", is that I have such little time and such little extra money (all because of too much STUFF - see how this fits into my simplify theme) that I barely have anything left over to give. I witness people with much less than I giving everyday. I needed to think outside the box. What did I come up with?

My hair. Yes, it is a small step, but at the same time it is a huge step. It is the first step in the right direction, which is usually the hardest to take. I love my hair (I know, a little ridiculous, but I've idolized The Little Mermaid for years) and I have always wanted to have long hair. But really, do I "need" this hair? I have more than enough and as I researched online about cancer victims and the blow to their self-esteem (on top of everything else) that loosing their hair does, it seemed silly for me to keep mine. Not to mention, I needed a hair cut anyways AND it would not cost me anymore to cut a lot of it off and give it away besides a little bit of shipping. So that is what I did. I just went out without saying a word to anyone, except my neighbor who sat with my children as I did this (talk about someone who gives unconditionally - she is wonder woman). Here is a pic, just so you believe me.



Not too bad, huh?

Peace,
Mama Soup

Getting nothing done

There are some days when nothing is going to get done. Today was one of those days. I filled out my "Daily Docket" this morning (taken from Tsh Oxenreider) and got absolutely nothing crossed off. The idea is to write down the 3 most important tasks for the day and then another 7 tasks so your to-do list has 10 items. You cross them off in the order they are written and are supposed to be happy if you only get the 3 MIT's accomplished. I suppose tomorrow I will just cross off today's date and re-name the list Sept. 3, 2011. At least I can draw a line through something.

Why did I get nothing done? Well, I think it's because I wrote down the wrong to-do's. It's not like I sat around reading magazines and sipping Bloody Mary's. The only "me" thing I did was eat a couple of meals and pee. I was on drop-off and pick-up duty today (which takes a total of 2 hours) and then there was the camping trip. No, not me (in case that is what you thought) but I did assist in the prep.

My oldest, Jonah, and hubby, Papa Soup, packed up after school and left for their first ever boys camping trip. Jonah was beyond excited and I had to spend my time calming him down and reminding him to get underwear. I also had to keep a keen eye on Bebe who continually moved all the items that Papa Soup was trying to lay out to pack. We have yet to find one walkie-talkie and Papa Soup's car keys (he ended up taking mine because they were running late).

All that adds up to one thing, I got nothing done. This is a good lesson, though. You just can't be productive every day and it's not helpful to sit around and feel bad about it. Instead, I think I'll open a bottle of white (I'm having fish tonight) and just enjoy that I only had to put three kids to bed instead of four. And the best part.....all three are still in cribs which means no one will show up at my bedside unannounced in the morning. Enjoy the camping boys!

Peace,
Mama Soup