A Little Woman

Every year we see a few Cedar Waxwings in the ornamental pear tree outside the kichen window. Usually 4 to 8, once in the spring and once in the fall since they migrate through here. This spring, we have seen many groups. Last Friday, we were sitting in the kichen eating breakfast when we saw a huge group (Dad said there were about 100). They landed in the tree and flew around. Dad left for work, and mom and I watch them until they left. They stayed about 45 minutes. We have seen several groups of 25 to 30 since, but there are hardly any berries left on the tree!

If you don't know what a Cedar Waxwing is, there is a nice picture at:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1082/719882067_14dbb032f8.jpg

We used the chocolate chip cupcake recipe in the February 2009 Issue of Martha Stewart Living.

I just happened to look over and see this little girl sitting on the window sill.

To substitute honey for sugar in a baking recipe use 3/4 cup honey for 1 cup sugar and reduce liquid by 1/4 cup (like in cakes). If there is no liquid in your recipe, add 4 tablespoons extra flour for each 3/4 cup honey used in cookies.
Honey is acidic. If there is as much as 1 cup of honey in the recipe, you can add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda per cup of honey and get a levening action as well as neutralize the the acidic quality.
Bake at a temperature 25 degrees lower then called for because, baked goods with honey brown faster. Cakes, cookies, and breads will be miost and stay fresh longer because of the honey's moistness.
I got the information from The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery

For a brown color, use a little browned flour, a little burnt sugar, or caramel. Pounded, uncooked spinach leaves make a rich green. Adding some spinach leaf puree makes a lovely deeper green. This green can also be used to tint icings, desserts, ect. Another way to make a cooked spinach green coloring is by washing some spinach, boiling it until tender, and pouring off the juice for your coloring extract. For a stronger green, let the spinach cool, sqeeze dry, mash by pounding, and then put through a sieve. Cooked green peas make a lighter shade of green; slit pea soup makes a very pale green color. The coral of a lobster pounded and put through a sieve yields red, as does vinegar or water that has stood on sliced boiled beets.
-Carla Emery The Encyclopedia of Country Living

We have been cracking our black walnuts. It is not difficult to do, but the nuts are really hard.

First, you have to crack the nuts open. We have found good ways to do this, with a hammer or in the vise. To hammer, it helps to have some way to hold the nut still besides your hand because it would be easy to hammer you hand by accident. Then, hit the walnut on the sharp point until it breaks. Or turn it on its side in the vise and tighten the vise till it breaks.

It is easiest to finish opening if they are in at least four pieces.

Use wire cutters to clip the shell away from the nut meat (also called a kernel).

I have been spinning with the wool/silk blend. It is fun to try but I think I like plain wool better. My spining is geting thiner and it keeps braking off. So I took the yarn off and made it into a ball. It looks smaller than it did on the spindle. I think the wool/silk is heavier than plain wool because my pound of wool/silk dosn't look any bigger than my half pound of wool was.

I made noodles yesterday. They were good and easy to make although they require some time and energy to make.
Here is the recipe:
2 eggs and a pinch of salt, add as much flour as they can absorb. You can add 1/4 cup butter which should make them more tender. Roll out the dough as thin as possible and cut them into strips. You can dry or freeze them. To freeze, wrap them in wax paper and put in a freezer bag. They cook for 20-30 minutes.
I got the recipe from The Encyclopedia of County Living by Carla Emery.

Mom made Broccoli Soup on Thursday. It was very good. The recipe is from:
http://pleasantviewschoolhouse.blogspot.com/2009/02/four-soups-for-lunch.html

Mom made these for us for Valentines.

I made this amigurumi* bear to go with a baby blanket I made.

* "What is amigurumi? Tell your friends you have a book on amigurumi and you'll find it is a lovely word to say. You can use you whole mouth to form the word in a variety of different voices...Aa-mii-gaa-ruu-mii." Amigurumi Animals by Annie Obaachan.

Spencer made chocolate chip pan cookies and mom cut them into heart shapes soon after they came out of the oven. The left over edges will make good ice cream topping.

"I believe it would be much better for everyone if children were given their start in education at home. No one understands a child as well as his mother, and children are so different that they need individual training and study. A teacher with a room full of pupils cannot do this. At home, too, they are in their mother's care. She can keep them from learning immoral things from other children."
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

Dad had the day off work on Thursday. We went to the zoo.

I made Fabric Window Valentines. I got the instructions from: http://www.purlbee.com/fabric-window-valentines/

We tried quilling on Saturday. I tried one of each design we had directions for.

Dad made the tight white circle.

This is a button sewn on to a silk flower on a bobby pin.
I got the idea from http://amoretti-designs.com/products/delphiniumpins.php

We worked on ribbon embroidery at craft club last Thursday. I embroidered either corner of a bread cloth that I meant to make last fall, but, I never got further then hemming it. We got the patterns from Seasons at Home.
http://www.joyoushome.com/

Some People think that horses are evidence for evolution, but, they are much better evidence that evolution never happened. Evolutionists say horses evolved in this order:

Eohippus who had four toes on the front feet and three on the rear was the size of a badger had browsing teeth, and a short snout.

Mesohippus was slightly larger than Eohippus had three front toes, and browsing teeth.

Merychippies has three toes, and grazing teeth.

Pliohippus was the size of a pony three toes, and a longer snout.

Equus is the modern horse, larger than the others had one toe and grazing teeth.

If horses evolved, then Eohippus would have to be:
A. less complex than Equus
B. lower in the rock layers

But,the number of ribs in these fossils are:
Eohippus 18 ribs
Pliohippus 19 ribs
Equus 18 ribs.

Our modern horse has the same number of ribs as the first horse. Also the fossils are in order in some places but, in South America, the fossil record has a one toed animal in with three toed animals. In Oregon and Nebraska, one toed animals are in the same layer with three toed animals. Creationists think that all these animals lived at the same time, and each animal was created on the sixth day of creation week.

I learned about this at:
http://www.jonathanpark.com/

Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.

Make the best of circumstances. No one has everything and everyone has something of sorrow.

Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Don’t let criticism worry you. You can’t please everybody.
Don’t let your neighbors set your standards; be yourself.

Do things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.

Don’t borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than actual ones.

Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities and grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.

Have many interests. If you can’t travel, read about places.

Don’t hold post-mortems or spend time brooding over sorrows and mistakes.

Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.

Keep busy at something. A very busy person never has time to be unhappy.

If you would not be forgotten
as soon as you are dead and rotten
either write things worth reading
or do things worth the writing
-Benjamin Franklin

Little House in the Highlands was written by Melissa Wiley. Its copyright date is 1999. It is available from Harper Trophy.

This story takes place in the Scottish highlands in 1788. The main character is Martha Morse who grew up to become the great grandmother of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Other characters include Mum and Father. Martha’s three brothers Alisdair, Robbie, and Duncan, and her sister Grisie, are also in the story. In the story Martha is 6 ½ years old and the youngest of the Morse children. Martha’s father is a Laird and the family has two maids and a cook. Martha’s mum and father want her to be a proper young lady, but Martha would rather play out of doors with her father’s tenants or visit cook in the kitchen.

This book tells a lot about everyday life. It also tells about their beliefs, customs, and foods. Martha enjoys playing on the moor and going to see the new baby at the tenant’s cottage. Martha wants to learn to spin, but she is too small to reach the peddles on the spinning wheel. She goes to ask Auld Mary and Auld Mary gives her a spindle.

This is the first book in a four book series about Martha Morse. It is interesting because it tells about life in Scotland a little after the American Revolution. I think this is a good book to read. It is a good book because by reading it you can learn a lot about history and Scottish customs.