Aidan's Build-A-Bear

Our lovely neighbors got Aidan a gift card to Build-A-Bear for his birthday. We finally got around to taking him to pick out his bear. It was a great way to get him out of the house on this rainy day, that's for sure!

He liked this dog the best.

He liked chewing on him...he was a little wet when we handed him over to be stuffed.

Aidan tried kissing the heart...he didn't exactly know what to do but thought it was cool.

He didn't see it boxed up, but he knew he wanted that box in the car.

And he got it...

We got him some spiffy overalls too!

Thanks so much, Ann and Jess!! I'm sure Spot will be a keepsake for years to come.

New Crochet Blanket

Well, remember that dishcloth I started? I finished it. But...I was searching for a new edge pattern and found a great blanket pattern in the process. After I finished the dishcloth, I switched gears and started making a baby blanket. I might make a set out of the dishcloths, but I don't know if or when that will happen.

This blanket is made using the V-stitch and it works up SO quickly. I started it on Sunday, and I haven't spent too much time on it. I found the pattern here.

I never would have known this until having a baby myself, but crochet blankets have special powers for babies and new mommies. The holes help calm the mother's fears of suffocation, and babies love them. Aidan loves to chew on his. I'm afraid he's going to break it because he takes a string behind his teeth and pulls.

My problem now is I started this with some yarn I had left over, and now I went to buy more and it's just been clearanced out. I have to either use the dark blue sparingly or find a close match.

I really want to start making whole blankets, but I've never finished a large one myself. Aidan has the biggest one I've made, and it's baby size. I wish I knew the pattern that my great grandmother once taught me. I can try to study her work in the afghan she made for me, but I don't know how well that will go. For now, I'll stick to this V-stitch and finishing this blanket I've started.

Salvadoran Chicken Soup

As promised, here is the recipe for Aidan's Aunt's Chicken Soup. I've tried to give some measurements, though most of it is done to taste, or by looks. After all, this is soup we're talking about...you can pretty much take anything you want, mix it together, add some water or broth and cook it down until you think it's done.

Rough Ingredient List:
(numbers in parenthesis are my amounts but up to you)

1 Split Chicken

Tomato (1)

Onion (1)

1 tsp Consomate Chicken Flavor

1/2 tsp Salt

Potatoes (5)

Zucchini (1)

1 Cup Long Grain Rice

Achote

Yerba Buena (Mint) (1/2 tsp)

Cilantro

I started with a BIG  pot to cook it all in. Our usual large pot would probably have worked but been just a little too small, and this pot is just a little too big. I only filled it about half way. (This is the lobster-roasting pot.)

Then I cut up and washed a whole split chicken, and added it to the pot.

You can probably use pretty much any piece of chicken you'd like. The first time I made it I heard about how I'd bought the wrong kind of chicken because someone was expecting legs only. Guess what, it tastes just fine and I distinctly remember the original chef using a whole chicken at some point. The moral of this story: use what you have/what you like. I will definitely try legs next time for the sake of having less bones.

Then I added enough water to cover the chicken. The first step is to boil the chicken. We'll cook it until the meat is just about falling off the bone. Or longer if you like.

It took me about an hour just to boil the chicken. In this time the fat and impurities float to the top. Then I took a spoon and removed as much as I could.

Here are the "impurities" I'm talking about...

Eventually it starts to subside.

There is probably a better tool for this, but for now I use a spoon and a bowl for the process.

While the chicken was cooking I cut up the vegetables. I used one tomato and the better half of an onion. Again...it's really up to you how much you want to add/leave out.

Cookin', cookin', cookin'...I had to add some more water at some point to keep it well covered.

I put the tomato and onion aside because they won't take long to cook and I had more to prepare.

I love the potatoes in this soup...that's the Irish in me coming out. See that second to last one? It didn't make it. It was replaced. Too soft, probably not good anymore. Ahem, wash and peel...

Then I cut them up into large pieces. Sorry, I forgot that picture.

I cut up most of a zucchini, I quartered the bigger slices and halved the smaller ones.

Towards the end of the chicken cooking, I added the tomato and onion.

This isn't exactly what Aidan's Aunt uses, but it's the same idea. Chicken & tomato flavor.

I added about 1 tsp of the Consomate, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Then I added the potatoes and zucchini.

Long grain rice is important, too.

I used about 1 cup for this batch...last time I had way too much, this time it was about right. Again, it's really up to you and your taste.

Here's the secret ingredient: Achote. I think. It's like a paste, I don't know much about it except it was handed to me when I was told what to put in the soup. I'll soon be learning where and how to buy this. For now, I used just a little bit, it has a really strong smell.

I used my cilantro for this, too. I really don't like chopping the cilantro though, it's kind of a pain. Last time I used fresh mint ("Yerba Buena" in Spanish), too, but I didn't know we had some in our garden this time, and I used dried flakes instead. It tastes ok, but it looks different.

There's still a lot of fat in this batch...it doesn't look very appetizing, but it is!

More to come soon!!

A Window Into The Past

I'd like to share with you my latest discovery in my ancestry search. This, my friends, is my great-great-great grandmother, Weltha Decker Kirkbride.

She lived from 31 Jan 1837 to 17 Jan 1917.  She and my grandfather William had 11 children, her first that I know of when she was 18 years old, her last when she was 40. Can you imagine? I suppose that was what life was like for women back then, they started young so they could build their large families before they were considered too old for childbearing. Though 40 was probably "too old" at the time anyway.

I can't find a larger photo of William, but that's him above. He lived from 22 Jun 1835 to 24 Mar 1910. The two of them are buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Findlay, Ohio. I plan on visiting their memorials in my ancestry quest.

All of this ancestry research has me thinking in a different time. It's almost an adventure to imagine how they lived back then. It kind of speaks to me now in particular. I am feeling almost like parts of myself disappear in my role as a mother every day. I need some time to go and be myself without worrying about what Aidan's doing. I can't imagine how women used to live. I suppose that was part of why they had so many kids, because they eventually could help out.

Things were still a lot harder back then. I can't imagine many of the differences in our lives. Of course no air conditioning, and when they went to cook dinner, which took all day, they were in front of a fire. They were moving heavy cast iron. They were harvesting and making things from complete scratch.

Laundry is a different story. Today, I enjoy hanging sheets and the occasional piece of clothing on the line. Back then if it was raining, the laundry didn't dry. They had no choice to use a dryer for it. Then, there's the ironing. They'd fill the bottom or their iron with hot coals to keep it hot, and they ironed everything. Most young women these days don't have an iron.

It's been hot, hot, hot here and we've had no rain. My poor crops are devastated. I haven't been diligent about watering them. I'm...sort of...growing butternut squash, cilantro, and bell peppers. The peppers aren't growing, but they got hit by a truck and knocked over, so I'm not surprised.

I've been inspired to begin more crocheting lately. There are so many things I'd like to make and do with my time, but as always not enough time to do it. Crocheting is something I can take with me when Aidan wants to play outside and I can work on quick projects. I'm working on a dishcloth. I'm around beginner-intermediate in my skills. I can make things much bigger and more ornate than dishcloths, but I've never made a dishcloth. If I have it wasn't made well and not put to use.

For some reason the camera just can't capture the brilliance of the multi-colored yarn. It's beautiful, in my opinion, in person. I've had it for a while, too, and needed to do something with it.

I leave you with a picture of Aidan. I have started cleaning out 20 years of things stored in our attic. I am making great progress. This desk is for my American Girl doll, and it's much too small for Aidan, but he wanted to sit in it anyway.

Ancestry Obsession

I think it's official; I'm obsessed with this ancestry search I've started. I don't have enough time to move fast enough to do everything I want to do with this, either. I am finding out so many things I never imagined every day...and some that I could guess. Like the Kirkbride side of my family came mostly from England. BUT, I found out that, if my sources are right, we came from Kirkbride, England itself. I didn't entirely know there was such a place. I have a vague memory of someone elder telling me that once, but it slipped my mind.

I now know (again, if my sources are right...) that Joseph Kirkbride was born July 29, 1662 in Kirkbride, England. At some point he got on a ship and later died Jan 1, 1737 in Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania. As far as I can tell so far, with little research, Kirkbride is a very small town. I mean small, small town, or really probably "area" I don't know if it's a "town". It's just west of Carlisle, close to a bay that opens into the Irish Sea. I will try to investiage it further, and if I can, find a history and photos/drawings.

This map comes from a good site with the different counties of England, check it out for more detail! We're from Cumbria County.

A few generations further back were born in "Hesket-in-the-Forest" England. It seems to be a general area of lots of towns, in the same location.

The point behind all of this: there is SO much to explore. All the different places my family comes from, places I've never heard of.

I'll have to share with you our other new discovery: we come from Portugal. Not just Portugal, but Madeira, which turns out to be an island in the Atlantic. It looks like it's closer to Africa than Portugal. The Portuguese in me is by way of my father's side. His great grandmother's name is Medaris. As I went back, the last two generations to immigrate had culturally reflective names: Charles Carlos Sr. (B. 1635) and Domingo. Domingo means Sunday in Spanish. Portuguese isn't quite Spanish, but they're similar.

It's the island so small it almost disappears behind the marker...there are maybe two dozen large roads that I see marked on the map.

It looks beautiful, yet awfully rugged for people to survive there in the late 1500s and before.

Check out this blog for some amazing photos of the island.

Between trying to find the oldest ancestors, those who made the dangerous trek across the ocean, to investigating where they came from, to the activities closer to home, there is SO much I want to do. I'm also working on visiting and photographing all the graves that I can. Many of them are here in Ohio, a lot of them are actually close together in the same counties, too.

I'll share more as I learn more and as I get the time.

Happy 4th of July everyone!! I'm remembering my ancestors who fought for our independence. I have a fascinating one named George La Bar, he lived to be 112.