Last (Funky) Day of November

Yesterday it snowed all day, never really accumulating much because of the warm ground, instead creating a cold, mucky mess. Suddenly it’s winter and I feel a need to either hibernate (in bed with a book and the covers pulled over my head) or migrate.  I’m not quite feeling the coziness yet…

A Poem for Thanksgiving

Prayer

Our Mother Who Art
in the kitchen
cooking us up
hallowed may we see
all that is
Your kingdom here
delivered into our hands
Your will in children
and trees leafing out
on earth
as if it were Heaven.

Give us this day
bread we could feed
the world
and snatch us bald-headed
if we try to swallow it all.

Don’t forgive us
till we learn it is all for giving.
That salve you’ve got in a pot
on the back of the stove
only heals when everybody has some.

And heed us not
if we believe You look like us
and love us best
and gave us the True Truth
with a license to kill Others
writ inside.
Deliver us from this evil.

For it is Yours,
this kitchen we call Universe
where you stir up our favorite treat,
the Milky Way,
folding deep into sweet
our little sphere
with its powerful glory
of rainforests
and oceans
and mountains in feather-boa mist
forever
if we don’t blow it up
and ever
if we don’t tear it down
Amen

(Ah women
Ah children
Ah reckon She’s about fed up.
We better make room at the table
for everybody
before She yells – OUT!
and turns our table over,
before She calls it off
this banquet we’ve been hoarding
this paradise
we aim to save
with bombs.)

– George Ella Lyon

Men at Work

My brother has been helping get the front of our house ready for painting—I love to paint, but hate the prep work, so that’s what he’s been working on. When he isn’t cutting out snowflakes.

Cookstove Love

Last year, when DH finally got the little Jotul heat stove hooked up and working, I had had enough of the cookstove. 5+ years of heating with it alone had sort of soured me on the thing. But this year I’ve fallen back in love with it—it’s my kitchen buddy. It’s so delightful to use it for cooking when I don’t have to also use it for heating!

This morning it has a five gallon pot of water heating up for baths or dishes (yes, we do have a water heater, but it’s shameful to not take advantage of all that heat for free hot water!), a pot of boiling green peanuts, and the kettle (always).

All-Purpose Cleaner: A Recipe

Here is a wonderful recipe for an all-purpose cleaning spray that smells great, and works really well. It is so popular in our house right now that ED deep-cleaned her bedroom just because she liked the fragrance of the cleaner so much! It’s scented with cinnamon and clove essential oils, which are also antiseptic.

Cinnamon and Clove Holiday Cleaner

Not only does this preparation clean, but the essential oils disinfect and provide a natural fragrance.

1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon and clove essential oils
1 teaspoon washing soda
2 teaspoons borax
1/2 teaspoon liquid soap or detergent
2 cups hot water

Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake to dissolve and blend the minerals. I like to spray this cleanser onto a surface , then leave it on for 15 minutes or so before I wipe it up with a rag, to give the essential oil’s antiseptic qualities time to work.

Makes 2 cups

Prep time: about 1 minute
Shelf Life: indefinite
Storage: Leave in the spray bottle, or store in a glass jar with a screw top.