iSonto #25

Elnathan was eager to complete a puzzle he called "the quite hard one" at every opportunity.

Mercy was amazingly happy during her "room time", playing for half an hour or more on her own. I would take a peek and she would be happily examining her toys.

From garden to tummies . . .

Here we are eating pizza with our tomatoes, basil, and zucchini on top. The chooks were eager to have some and Daisy (the boldest one) even hopped up on us.

This week we are thankful for the thriving basil crop, and the climbing beans that were stunted and stopped growing but have now recovered and begun to produce.

The sunflower poking above the corn has delighted us.

Nate said the sunflower was big and beautiful and "you made the sunflower for my birthday, didn't you?"

I have also been very thankful for Mercy's predictable afternoon naps of an hour or more. After a year of challenges, this is lovely! 

A book we enjoyed together was "You are Brave", a sweet story about the ways you can be brave. We have now borrowed "You are Friendly" and "You are Helpful" as well.

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from Are you happy?

One funny moment was Nate dancing with a little friend. She glided around the room with ballet-like flowing motions. He jumped up and down vigorously, providing a funny contrast!

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iSonto #23

Elnathan was so sweet this morning when he hugged Mercy and said "Do I love my sister?" Here he is intently doing a puzzle that would have been too hard for him a few months ago. I have enjoyed precious moments this week watching the two of them focus their tiny hands on puzzle pieces.

Natey's memory verse was "All Scripture was given by inspiration of God".

Mercy was delighted to pull apart a rose on the front porch.

This week we are thankful for the . . .

* Lovely abundance of corn and pumpkins and gem squash and climbing beans all together at the back corner of the garden, and the marigolds at the front entrance

* Happy days with cousins on holiday. Esther came one day, Jeriah another. Esther is an excellent play mate and shows the little ones how to use their toys.

* Curls on the back of Mercy's head

* A great time at the beach this morning, with Mercy loving the water with Daddy

* A picnic with friends at the beach this evening.

* Mercy is walking beautifully, which is an absolute delight to me and my sore back as I don't have to pick up and carry her much anymore. It is also just very cute, and she took off boldly up the beach this morning, with great determination to go who knows where!

* God slowly showing me what meekness is

* The stillness sleep brings to active bodies and curious eyes

* Shells to decorate a sand tortoise

* Songs for Saplings ABC CD teaching us God's word as we do our work or play

From garden to tummies . . .

We have had lots of butter beans, which Nate likes to eat raw. I had them all in a bowl and Mercy tipped them out, and it was so cute when she obeyed us and started packing them away again.

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, a deep and vibrant call to a life of thanksgiving.  


One funny moment was when Dave came in and said to Nate "Is that my boy" and Nate replied "I'm not a boy, I'm a car". He has started contradicting most things we say. This presents a new training challenge, but also brings some comedy.

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iSonto #20

Elnathan was practicing jumping a lot this week. There are few sweeter things than watching a child delight in something so ordinary. He was also a cute but wayward sheep in our church's nativity.

Natey's memory verse was "The wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits" from James 3: 17.

Mercy was happy to "help" Daddy with podding the broad beans.

Mercy has also been delighting us with her smiles, standing on her own, walking when we hold her hand, and affectionate way of coming up to us and saying "hello". 

From garden to tummies . . .

Turnips were delicious with a roast last night. I have discovered that God has packed lots of  vitamin C and other nutrients into turnips. Our zucchini has produced its first fruit, but they are all female. Without any male flowers they will just die. So we decided to harvest them with their flowers and eat them fried with eggs for breakfast. Yum! I just found out that they are a source of potassium and folates.

A book we enjoyed together was "The Jesus Storybook Bible".

We are thankful for the roses and silverbirches outside our window, the memories of how God has provided for us in the past, the prospect of getting a new kitchen with a dishwasher which will help my back pain, our Advent calendar, and opportunities to talk about Jesus.

Isonto is a Zulu word for both week and Sunday, so Dave suggested it as the title of this little update I plan (God willing) to put out each Sunday.

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iSonto #16

Elnathan was happy to help with the watering. I was happy to see that the water ended up on a plant! These are our new bush bean seedlings. We have enjoyed great germination. It is lovely the way bean seedlings unfurl and pop out of the soil.

Natey's memory verse was Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, "let the little children come to me". It did us good to see him sitting on the floor saying this to himself after only a couple of practices. It was a reminder to me of the worth of putting in that little bit of effort!
 
Mercy was happy to begin to push the block walker we gave Elnathan for his first birthday only 18 months ago today! Now we have an all new, unique person to practice walking with it.

From garden to tummies . . .

Broad beans have been enjoyed in soup and risotto.

A book we enjoyed together was Faster, Faster Little Red Train, a delightful book with illustrations that can be talked about for a long time. At the library this week I realised our little boy's interests have diversified since I first brought him six months ago, and I am no longer searching only for books about cars..

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. This is a treasure trove of information and ideas. I can't wait to order the all new and expanded version for next year. I last read this when I was breastfeeding Elnathan, and now I am re-reading it while feeding Mercy. It is fun to now have ideas of real life application as Elnathan will become a  preschooler next year.

We are thankful for the lovely first birthday party we attended for a little friend born one week earlier than Mercy. These two babies had the same due date.

It was a delightful Tasmanian day.

We have a beautiful flower corner in our veggie garden this year.

The garlic are looking brilliant, with thick stems.

I am also extra grateful for Dave after having him away for  a couple of days. As well, I've been reflecting on how grateful I am that I used the "extra" quiet time when Elnathan was a baby well. It disappeared this year!

Isonto is a Zulu word for both week and Sunday, so Dave suggested it as the title of this little update I plan (God willing) to put out each Sunday.

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Growing, drying and eating borlotti beans

It is the time of year for beans! As well as the butter and climbing beans, we also grow borlotti beans for drying. I don't think we will do this again, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is a hassle! They take up room in the ground for a long time if you leave them planted while they dry (which is recommended). If you remove them, you then have to take care of them while they dry. I have removed some (pictured above) to make room for carrot, beet and radish seed. They are drying on our deck, but I try to bring them in during rainy weather. Once they are dry, you have to pod them. Secondly, the yield is not great and dried beans are cheap to buy. It is fun to try to grow a staple like dried beans, and we may do it again if we have more land in future. Our inspiration for growing borlottis is a bean and rosemary risotto we enjoy. This recipe uses canned borlottis and we enjoyed substituting these for our own borlottis after last year's harvest.

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Climbing beans - great to grow, eat, and preserve

 

This year Dave and I have enjoyed growing Purple King climbing beans. In the picture above you can see them growing up our corn plants, and the other two pictures show our bean tipi. Growing them up corn is a great use of space, and you feel very productive when you see them twirling up the stalks with pumpkin and squash vines making their way beneath. However, the beans are not quite as productive as they have to compete with the corn for resources.

I love this pic with our house in the background and the boys on the lawn. I prefer growing climbing beans in comparison to bush beans. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, they are neater. They do not flop everywhere like bush beans and they are harder to damage accidentally. Secondly, they take up less space. As well as the Purple King beans, we grow the Scarlet Runner climbing beans that have pretty red flowers.

 

Purple King beans are stringless when young, so they can be eaten in the same way as bush green or butter beans. They do not retain their lovely purple colour when cooked, but change to grey-green. Their purple colour does make them easier to see on the vine though. These beans do develop some stringiness as they get older, so if you want to eat the pods you have to remove the strings or chop them finely for a soup. We enjoy eating our climbing beans steamed, or in bean salad, bean dip, or stir fry. They are also great to blanch and freeze for later in the year when we don't have them fresh. In fact, that is what I have just been doing! It is easy to use up excess beans in this way.

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Growing and eating butter beans

January and February are exciting times in the garden! Each day when we are home I like to steam some fresh veggies for lunch. Today we had butter beans, baby carrots thinned from a row, purple king beans, scarlet runner beans, and a patty pan squash.

We have a lot of bush beans in the inner section of our garden. We grew butter beans because we remembered how much we enjoyed them last year. Butter beans gain their name from their colour, and perhaps also their creamy texture. You eat them like a stringless green bean.

This year, however, ours do not look like the beans in the picture! They have curled a lot, and have not formed many beans in the pod. Many young bean pods have shriveled and died, even though we have been picking the mature beans in order to promote the growth of the younger. Do any of you know about the causes or treatment for this problem?

As well as steaming the beans to go with our meals, we have enjoyed them in risotto. Last week Dave made a garden risotto with green beans, butter beans, peas, a carrot, and the usual base risotto ingredients (oil, onion, garlic, short grained rice, wine and stock). We loved it! It was unexpectedly tasty.

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