Super Hero Soup (Hamhock and Beans in a French Pot)

 Little bit of a story first, my kids first looked at their bowls of bean soup with disdain and distrust. They like kidney beans, but all these funky beans, all in one pot? No way. So, I started eating one bean at a time, sharing the back story and the magic of each of the six beans.

1) The ability to sing like an opera star! Ahhhhhhh! LALALALALA! Figaro!
2) Jumping as high as a monkey!
3) Dancing forever!
4) The antidote to magic non stop dancing
5) The ability to sneak like a ninja
6) Super strength silly beans!


The carrots get eaten for night vision, the onion for stinky monster breath, the ham for protein and brain power and strong bones, celery for sonic hearing, and.....apples for good health (protection against monster sneezes).

The gobbled the soup. They asked for seconds. Dinner was hilarious. Easy. Frugal.

Without further ado, I present Super Hero Soup!!!!

 Start by running hot tap water, fill a bowl or pot, and cover the beans in the water by 3x the depth and then cover, set aside.

When they are ready to use they take up all of the water. I let them soak all day until an hour or two before the meal time.

In a separate pot, a crock pot or an oven roaster, place a hamhock and sprinkle with seasoning of choice. Salt, spices, and a bay leaf. Do not forget the bay leaf, it is very important.

 Add 3 stalks of chopped celery. I like to use the leafy greens of celery too. Next 3-4 large carrots chopped into bite size. 1 large onion, 2 medium tomatoes, and 1 gala apple. Any sourish apple will work, but I like gala or braeburn the best.

 Fill the pot with water and roast at 220 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 hours. Low on a crockpot, if that's what you are using.

A good hamhock will have a lot of good, deeply flavoured meat. It is hard to get to when making cuts, but falls of the bone when slow cooked.

 

This one had two full pounds of perfect, tender ham.

 

About 2 hours before meal time, drain, rinse, and then add the soaked beans.

Continue to cook until the beans are perfect and tender. 

This makes about sixteen servings. I freeze what our family of five doesn't eat. 

Recipe: Super Hero Soup

1 2lb hamhock

4 carrots

3 celery stalks

1 large onion

1 apple

2 tomatoes

water

2 cups of bean mix

seasoning and salt

bay leaf

Soak the beans while the meat and veggies simmer all day. 

Cook meat and veggies and spices in a pot of water for about 8 hours at 220 degrees Fahrenheit or in  a crockpot on low. Add the soaked and drained beans 2 hours before serving and finish cooking.

Serve with a hearty French bread or cornbread.

Jump around and be super silly while eating dinner. Savour the smiles, laughter, and sweet joy of children.

Now Is The Part Of The Show Where We All Do Dishes

Food is a huge part of our homeschool. Food is a huge part of our life and lively hood. We farm, we raise meat animals, we educate and hand hold those who are starting the whole/real food adventure.

That means we dirty a lot of dishes. Oh yes we do. The children are big enough to help clean up, even Isaac. There is nothing cuter than when he grabs his cup and walks it to the kitchen sink. He LOVES handing me dirty dishes to wash, gleefully he helps.

I both hate and love my kitchen.
I have huge dreams for the remodel.

Chores for dishes break down like this:

• Lily is in charge of keeping the under cabinets organised. This serves two purposes, the first is she knows where everything goes (to put away and to get out while cooking) and the second is a lesson is spacial math. How to get everything to fit and have it make sense.
• Holly is in charge of the spoon drawer. Her job is to put them away, keep it tidy, and bring those to the table at meals.
• Isaac helps when he can, as he can. He's two.
• I do a sink load of dishes in the morning after breakfast.
• Lunch and Supper dishes get washed after the meal, usually by Chad, while I head upstairs to bathe Isaac and get Holly and Isaac into bed if it is that late or they are that tired.I still have to wash all the cups because Chad can't get his hand in them to get them clean. Maybe I need to buy a bottle brush?
• Lily and I share putting away the clean dishes that go up high. I want Holly to start helping with this, but right now there are too many appliances being used and hot on the counter she would have to stand on.

No dishwasher means we have to keep up on this task. Doing it together, each having responsibility, is awesome.

Chad opened dinner the other night with a monologue about the children not having a maid, and that mama should never be treated as such.

My children do pick up though. In fact, they have a lot of chores. Not paid chores, not assigned chores, but things we all do together to keep our home tidy and nice to be in. Usually the kid working with me on a task is the kid who wants to be and the kid who needs that extra one on one time. I tell them stories if they help me and I am a fantastic storyteller.

In a typical day Lily and Holly gather dirty laundry and take it to the laundry room. They gather eggs, feed the bucket calf, and tidy the media room if they want to watch television or play computer games. Music time requires that room be picked up. The dining room table must be cleaned before every meal or before a major art project comes out. They know this, they do this.

The kids, all three, did most of the work today cleaning this room up.
It was full of toys and instruments. They let me vacuum though. ;)

Their rooms are something else. Lily keeps hers tidy on her own. It is very small so she has to for her own movement sake!

Holly's room gets attended to by me. Holly helps sometimes. Isaac makes the biggest messes in here, so I usually take care of it.

Lily told me recently that she decided that it takes less time to just do what I ask her to than it does to argue about it and that's why she gets her work done quickly and heads outside with Isaac. Works for me, though I have made extra effort to praise her and let her know how needed her work is.

Chad keeps his desk tidy and takes care of all things outside. He works, commutes, comes home to hours of outdoor chores, and still finds time to help with anything I ask him to. He watches the kids while I write, he cleans up dinner, he tidies spaces with us. He does all of this on top of things I cannot help him with. Plus he's intelligent, caring, and handsome. Seriously. I am one lucky lady!

The thing is, I know that this is a blessing. I know that not all households work like ours. I know that even when we all prioritise other things over tidy and clean up, that he will help me catch up. We are almost 15 years into this crazy beautiful marriage and housekeeping is very much not my gift. Recently however, I did two things: I hired someone to essentially teach me how to do it and I started directly asking for help. I try not to get upset when people are unable to help me, not giving them grief about it is my way of being respectful  to their needs. This includes children. I never ask them to drop a game or movie in the middle to help with a task, in exchange they show me the same respect.

Things go a lot more peacefully when I am mindful of this respect. I won't lie and say that I never end up yelling about the left open drawers or the mountain of unfolded clean clothes that takes over my bedroom and threatens Armageddon. I do. I do dramatically, like an angry dragon with a thorn in her side.

Eventually, I put on my super hero belt and tackle that monster. If I have made everyone hate being near me by being nasty and mean to them, then I have to do it alone. If I bring chocolate and promise music and story time, then little heroes and dragons appear by my side, swords in hands.

That's how I prefer to tackle life too, chocolate and music and good stories surrounded by dragons and heroes and peaceful, joyful progress.

If I fall behind on tasks, I have a back up coming with relief supplies. Several back ups, actually. Knowing this alone takes a lot of the stress out of it and that makes a huge difference. 

How do you handle kid chores?

All Dressed Up

 We have one whole closet dedicated to dress up clothing. I pick up retired dance recital gowns, old prom dresses, post Halloween clearance rack, and odds and ends to round out accessories.

So much of my kids' play requires costuming. I am cool with that. I encourage it. I find that by having a broad range and attire they are more able to explore who they are inside themselves. It is also a gateway to many other things too, like history, sewing, theatre, social norms, and the like.

A day in the life of our homeschooling usually involves mud, costumes, cooking, reading, games, puzzles, sunshine, and jumping and dancing and spinning and swinging. These kids are at the can't sit still stage. I am so glad I can homeschool them so they are not confined to a chair or desk and can learn through play. Some kids learn best sitting still and focusing on one task, mine do not. Mine learn best on the go.

I also let them wear their costumes all year round, out and about. Especially to the grocery store. They get the attention they crave, act like princesses and princes (or pumpkins), and I get the shopping done. Win, win.

Caught in the Rain

Caught in the rain. Summer rains here in Iowa, this year in this drought, when we have prayed, begged, and pleaded for relief from the dry and heat, came today. It was only an hour and my children had just headed out to play on the play fort and swings. When I heard the rain start, I headed out to carry Isaac inside, knowing it would be slick and he's still learning to be sure footed on the grass and gravel. I was worried he would be scared too.

Half way there, I spotted all three of my children, laughing and snuggled up under the tarp on their play fort. Lily with her arm around Isaac, was laughing and pointing about something I could not translate in my distance.

I stood there, in the rain, soft and gentle and warm, and watched my children love each other and be completely in that moment. Suddenly I felt like I was invading their moment and I quietly, gratefully headed back inside. The full hour that the rain fell, I watched them passively out the window as I cleaned and organised their art supplies with Jessica.

Today, I am grateful that they can take care of each other, that they snuggle and include Isaac in the magical play that happens in their secret world of faeries and dragons and fantasy. Today started out stormy and ended with grace, forgiveness, and love.

Too many people are held back from moving forward by fear of the rain or they shelter others from venturing out, even though it is perfectly safe. Not all storms are hurricanes, not all blue skies are perfectly safe either. If we move through life afraid of the worst always, we lose such precious gifts that quiet moments offer us.

Today was a reminder of that.

So many years ago, I woke up to a hotel room alarm that turned the television on. We were staying at the Julienne Hotel in Dubuque and needed to get up early for the days work. The image on the television was of a burning tower, a skyscraper, panic, fire. I sat up and watched, thinking it was a science fiction movie. We (the lady I was partnered with for work) watched as the second plane hit, through the collapse of both. I called Chad and he hung up on me thinking I was pranking him, this early in the morning (he worked nights).

I wish I was.

We were stranded in Dubuque because of car troubles. Through my absolute panic, I just wanted to be home and couldn't be. We called the central office and begged for someone to come get us, but they were not sure that sending more state employees out right then was a good idea.

Soon our supervisor was on his way personally. He had a daughter our age, on the east coast, who had not called home and driving out to get us would keep his mind busy. No cell phone, we delivered the message to him on arrival as the office had called the hotel, that she called and was ok.

He sat down in the hotel lobby and cried. That was when I knew that my fears were real. This was a great and tragic moment in history. Enormous, changing our lives forever.

Soon after, our jobs as interns were eliminated. Collecting GPS of important and significant buildings was now dangerous to do and dangerous for the greater good. We were chased out of one small town by a guy with a shotgun on a small farm tractor. Another small town resident called the FBI on our surveillance crew. Just a few weeks later, we were let go. My dream job, slipped through my fingers and it seemed a small loss compared to what was happening around the world.

America has been in a perpetual war ever since, at war with the world and with each other.

Tonight, as every night since, I pray for peace. I pray in those lovely moments with my children that the world they will inherit will not be blood soaked ashes. I pray that my family members who bravely serve, will not be called out yet again to fight more of this war, though they will, proudly. I pray for their children too. I pray for the refugees and the survivors.

I pray for peace, not just on this anniversary, but every day. Please God, please intervene and bring peace to our world.