Bird and Little Bird

The Week That Was.

A few notes from the past week...

- Zak has now entered the phase of babyhood where he is very, very interested in knowing the whereabouts of everyone in the house at all times.  He never takes his eyes off of us, and it is hilarious. 

- We had snow again.  I know, I know, it wasn't much and I should have expected it, but I was so ready to sign on for spring already!

- Have you seen this?  I just happened to be watching just after she laid the second egg last night and she was trying to get comfortable for an evening of sitting.  Amazing.  I think the bird doing the sitting this morning is the male. 

- I had a great time talking to Dawn on the phone yesterday morning.  I don't know how an hour and a half went by so quickly! And, I'm sure we could have kept talking for another two or three. 

- I think I've just about finished up work on Volume Six of Alphabet Glue.  And, you may notice that I've made some changes to the Alphabet Glue page here on the blog.  I wanted to make it easier for folks to look at each issue individually rather than having to scroll down and down and down...  A few more changes will be on the way soon, one of which I think you will really like and I will be ready to tell you more about next week.  In the meantime, Volume Six will launch Monday! 

- I made vanilla cupcakes for Mariam's birthday from this book.  They were ridiculous. Totally dairy, egg, soy and wheat free and so, so good.  I think I might even like them better than a "normal" cupcake.  Dan ate two of them despite the fact that his motto is "I really don't like cake." 

Okay, a few more minutes of heron watching and then off to small people orchestra practice!  Happy weekend, friends.

Eight.

Yesterday, my girl turned eight.  Eight! Looking at her baby brother now, it seems amazing that she was ever that small.  That there was a time when she always wore pajamas with feet and I carried her everywhere on my hip.  And here she is now. Eight. 

Seven was a big year for her.  She was diagnosed with celiac disease.  She got a baby brother.  And she handled both of these significant life changes with a grace that I didn't always quite manage myself.  Seven was mudboots with dresses and striped tights, messy science experiments, a hundred castles built from blocks on the living room floor and for better or worse, relative mastery of the art of sarcasm.  She read thousands of pages from books about fairies and decided to like kale.  She caught frogs, demonstrated remarkable skill in the bathing of uncooperative cats, and discovered why Calvin and Hobbes is so funny.  Additionally, she mastered the art of extending the bedtime routine into an epic nightly event. 

So, happy birthday to my smart, funny, freckle-faced little girl.  I don't know what eight will bring, but I expect that it will be pretty great too. 

 

Library Monday: Miss Rumphius.

This morning, when I saw that Kara, from Simple Kids, had written a post wondering if anyone had a good "guerilla style" gardening activity to accompany Miss Rumphius, the lovely storybook by Barbara Cooney, my first thought was something like "Oh! I love that book!"  And then, shortly after that, "Wait! I totally have a fun guerilla style garden activity to go with Miss Rumphius."  Those of you who have a copy of Volume One of Alphabet Glue floating around your hard drive may remember the wildflower seed pods from that first issue .  You see, Miss Rumphius was the first book to be featured in the Inspired by Literature section of Alphabet Glue, and for good reason.  It a heartwarming and gently inspiring tale that reminds each of us that we are not only able, but in many ways responsible, for leaving the world a better place than we found it.  It is one of those rare picture books that has something to offer readers of any and every age, and it is a permanent favorite of many families that I know, including our own. 

So, I thought that I would share the Inspired by Literature feature from Volume One of Alphabet Glue with you here today.  Click on the link below to download a PDF copy of that section of the magazine; it includes a short review of Miss Rumphius, as well a tutorial for making wildflower seed pods to get your spring season started off in the spirit of making the world around you a little more colorful and bright.

download seed pod tutorial

In the Glue Department: A Sneak Peek at Volume Six.

  You may think you know what's inside this book, but  I'm guessing that you would probably be surprised.

 

Well, things are moving along here in The Glue Department.  Volume Six is about a week away from arriving on your digital doorsteps, and project tutorials are being photographed, booklists compiled and quirky little illustrations created.  And, I believe that I promised you all a preview, now didn't I?  Fair enough.

 

Poet-trees: simple children's poetry, brought to life in three-dimensions

Volume Six is all about gardens and poetry.  It's about taking to flight and about finding inspiration for creative living here on the ground.  You will find tutorials for handcrafted books of the most whimsical and unusual variety, instructions for origami with a perhaps unexpected purpose and of course, book reccomendations to keep you and yours headed to the library time and time again.  There are a couple of projects in this issue that I have been literally waiting to share with you since the day after I published Volume One, over a year ago now.  The season for these favorite little how-tos has finally arrived at long last, and I couldn't be happier about finally sending them in your direction.

So, I hope that you'll check back next week to share in the celebration of real and proper spring with the April/May issue of Alphabet Glue.  In the meantime, there are still a few hours left to take advantage of the anniversary sale and get copies of any back issues that you might be missing at a discount.  Enter "oneyear" at checkout between now and midnight tonight for 25% off. 

 

How Did I Miss This?

Apparently, yesterday was not only the first day of spring (which is plenty noteworthy when you live in northern New England, let me tell you), it was also World Storytelling Day.  I'm not sure how I missed that bit of news, considering that it is exactly the sort of event that I would normally regard with much enthusiasm, but miss it I did.  However, in the spirit of Better Late Than Never, I've got a little present for you all in celebration of storytelling traditions the world over.  Click on the link below to download a PDF copy of Around the Table, a storytelling game that was included in Volume Four of Alphabet Glue.  Happy yarn spinning!

  Around the Table Game

An Alphabet Glue Anniversary.

A year ago this week, I launched Alphabet Glue.  I'm not wholly sure what I was expecting from my little project, or even what I was hoping for, but I believe that I said something to Dan about being perfectly satisfied if I could get maybe 100 copies of the magazine into the virtual laps of my readers.  Since then, the support and enthusiasm that I've received has been both gratifying and humbling, and I think it is safe to say that more than 100 copies of Alphabet Glue have found their way into the world.  Quite a few more.

So thank you.  Thank you to all of you who have supported this endeavor with your kind words of encouragement, your supportive emails, the blog posts that you've written, the photos that you've shared.  You have reminded me that the world is increasingly filled with parents, teachers, people who are cultivating a shared vision of childhood creativity and imagination that takes us outside the bounds of busy daily life into a place where the stories that we make, write, draw and tell are just as real and as important as anything else.  Through this project I have made connections with folks across the globe, kindred spirits who feel just as strongly as I do about the ways in which story, craft, and imagination in action can help children to deepen their connections to the world around them and the people who live in it.  Alphabet Glue began as a whimsical idea to create a quirky little publication to share with people already visiting my blog; in the last year it has become so much more, and I am incredibly grateful to each of you for that.

Over the next week or so, I will be hard at work behind the scenes, preparing Volume Six for an April 1st launch.  I'm already getting anxious to share the upcoming issue with you, and am continually tempted to ruin the surprise of what's inside by just telling you already.  Maybe a sneak peek post will be in order sometime this week.  In the meantime, here is a little discount code in honor of A Year of Glue: anytime between now and Friday night, enter oneyear upon checkout and get 25% off your order of any (or all) issues of Alphabet Glue. 

Birthday Blankets and Medical School Musings.

This past Monday was Annie 2.0's birthday.  I might have mentioned this sooner except that it took me until mid-week to finish stitching up her birthday gift.  Because it was that sort of week with the baby.  But I did manage to finish it up pre-birthday celebration dinner, which I felt like was a decent sized accomplishment.  I made her a lap duvet ala the Purl Bee and I now pretty much want to make one hundred of them.  So soft and lovely.  I didn't originally plan on actually using Nani Iro for the main fabric, because it is generally the sort of expensive that you might justify for a wedding present but maybe not a birthday gift.  But, the brushed twill was on sale at nido and so I was able to use the good stuff afterall.

 

If you are a longtime reader of this blog, you might remember various things about Annie 2.0.  For instance, we have learned that she is equally comfortable grabbing a garden snake with her bare hands or driving a small tractor.  It's handy to have a friend like that around.  But also, she is perhaps the only person in my life at the moment who can totally understand the plight of the medical school spouse.  I try very hard not to complain excessively about the whole affair, but having a husband in medical school can be crazy making at times, and it is nearly impossible to explain it to anyone who isn't also living it, however loving and well intentioned they may be.  Having a friend around who is wedged in the same position and still manages to remain reasonably positive about things is a sanity saver, to say the very least.

Happy Birthday, Annie!

Coming Back Around.

Under normal circumstances, I would probably go to the trouble to issue various complaints against the recent time change and all of the havoc it wreaks on small person bedtime routines.  However, I have realized something very important this year: when you live in the northern country, and have spent an unusual amount of time inside during the months of winter, an extra hour of sunshine can literally save your sanity. 

So here is to the sun, coming back around, and, to the season ahead.  It's so close now, and so very, very welcome.

Library Monday: Tar Beach.

Tar Beach, by Faith Ringgold, is one of those classic children's books that you often see a lot more of each February, when Black History Month rolls around.  Which is precisely why I waited until March to share it with you.  Tar Beach is a unique, colorful and beautifully rendered tale of the power of hope and wishful thinking and it belongs in the book basket just as much in June as it does in February. 

The story of Cassie, an eight year old girl growing up in 1930's Harlem, Tar Beach is based on a painted quilt by the same name that Ringgold, an artist, created in the late eighties.  Cassie views the limitations of race and economics in the same way that any young girl might, but her imaginative response gives the story a sense of magic and resilient optimism.  As Cassie envisions herself flying through the New York sky, taking ownership of everything that she needs to ensure her family's happiness, the reader is gifted with a child's eye view of what freedom, fairness and security really mean. The context for the story is indeed the historical reality of race in Depression era America, but the narrative events have more to do with Ringgold's personal memories of a Harlem childhood, and the message of the story itself is universal.  It is a multi-faceted book that encourages discussion of history, of race, of art, of the power of imagination. 

I have been working on booklists for the new issue of Alphabet Glue, including one with theme of flight and flying.  The first book that came to mind when I began the list wasn't about airplanes, or kites or even birds- it was Tar Beach, a book that is about flight in the most human sense of the word.

Strange (But Also True).

I'm happy to report, however cautiously, that I believe we may be making progress on the gluten-free bread project.  This comes as some relief, I must say, because I was starting to feel pretty discouraged about the situation.  I think that the fundamental issue has something to do with the fact that so many gluten-free bread recipes are attempting to replicate white sandwich bread.  We never ate white bread when we could have gluten in the house, and I'm pretty sure that we don't want to do it now. We are whole grain people, really.  So spending countless hours trying out complex recipes to replicate a food none of us ever liked in the first place seems a little crazy.   

Anyhow, until this week I had been thinking that I would just give up on the idea of baking bread at home altogether.  I came across a really decent gluten-free bread at Costco (of all places!) and since Mariam liked it, I thought we'd just start buying that.  But, it has sunflower seeds in it, which Dan is allergic to (his nut allergy extends to some seeds as well) and it also has eggs.  Yes, eggs are now a problem.  Because as it turns out, my longstanding (and long ignored) minor allergy to eggs is no longer so minor.  At least not to the little guy.  Despite the fact that I can eat eggs with only minor symptoms as a result (generally eczema) the baby's reaction to my eating anything containing eggs is a little more um, dramatic.  Apparently I'm not allowed to use the word "projectile" to describe the situation because after spending a month on the internal medicine service at the hospital, Dan claims to be deeply and painfully aware of what that word really can mean, and he says that it does not apply to the way that our baby spits up.  But, the spit-up scene post-egg consumption is still untenable.  Not to mention the nasty rash that comes along with it.  So, back to the bread baking I go.

This is where we get to the reason for the title of this post.  In looking at recipes and ways to get around the problem of gluten-free baking being very egg dependent, I happened upon various sources who claimed that you could use a mixture of ground flax seed and water as a replacement for eggs in gluten-free baking.  No one seems to know why this works, but the reviews are in, and it does indeed seem to do just that.  I made the Gluten-free Crusty Boule from Artisan Bread in Five using flax seed instead of eggs and not only did the bread still come out, it was probably my best attempt to date.  I was low on brown rice flour, so I also substituted a bit of teff flour for the rest of the brown rice.  I measured each of the flours by weight this time, rather than by volume, and I think that this made a tremendous difference as well.  I'm starting to suspect that measuring by weight could be the secret to gluten-free baking success, and it was almost certainly the reason that I was able to substitute the teff in without ruining the recipe.

So, this one is a keeper.  Which is good news, indeed.  It does not, however, solve the problem of feeling like our family should be starring in a sketch comedy/parody about people who can only eat cardboard because they are allergic to everything else.