Life goes on in the New Year at elfland. We have had some bitter cold earlier this week. But weather mellowed down a bit and now we can come out of our hibernation. The chickens have been a focal point. They drive us out, no matter what weather. Unfortunately, they have caught the fancy of a couple of hawks! With the extreme cold, the hawks have been circling around with the hope of grabbing one of our precious girls. Tanya and Leena have been hanging outside while we let allow our chickens to free range to protect them. It would be great if our dog would take on the protector duty, but she loves chasing the chickens and that doesn’t work out so well!

The girls have been up to their usual antics. Tanya put on a Tweak and Dashi puppet show from the unfinished toys. This was the one and only show using these puppets, because they have been sewn and are now stuffed toys.

2016 is behind us. I, for one, am glad. Back in October I had an injury in my knee (ACL tear) which pretty much consumed the rest of the year for me. Luckily thanks to minimally invasive surgery and excellent physical therapy, recovery is on track.

Moving to better news, we had a good fall, and a great Christmas break. Christmas was a nice family time with lots of cooking, chicken-playing time for the girls, and movie-watching time for Johan and me. It was a relaxing week. Kids are back in school now and we are busy with – elfie the school bus, organizing, physical therapy and crafts. I will not be teaching this spring.

We have been crafting. Santa gave Tweak and Dashi (characters from TV show “Octonauts”) to the girls. Tanya is making Tweak and I am doing Dashi for Leena. Works in progress.

And finally, end of the year is a time for parties. We partied a bit. What fun!

 

We have been busy baking cookies and sweet bread. We have the ultimate shortbread cookie recipe using almond flour, ghee, maple syrup, vanilla essence and a pinch of salt. Mix, form balls, insert chocolate chips (I found a sugarless Stevia-sweetened version at Nature’s pantry), and bake at 325c for 20 mins. Easy peasy!

Finally, Tanya and I are using the neti pot to keep the sinuses in check. Tanya is doing well, I am very proud to say!

Last week was action packed. Arts fest came along but before we could get into it we were in court for our ongoing lawsuit against neighboring Ferguson township. The lawsuit was filed to preserve our water by stopping a luxury student housing development on what is currently Penn State’s land by out of town Toll brothers.

Dad and Wes joined Johan and me to the Bellefonte courthouse. The courthouse was packed and the hearing fun. Afterwards we hung around and had Websters coffee. Was quite an experience.

Psst, a little birdie has told us that we won the case. Yay!

After that was kids fest. Fun as always. We went shoppin’ and later through the parade.

Next came street painting by Tanya  and me. We drew Rosie. Here’s a set of images from start to finish.

 

Then came the bitter part. Dropped parents off at Newark airport. We had a good drive and they made it home safely after many delays and additional adventures.

Back to a quiet State College after the arts fest hullabaloo.

 

 

Elf land has seen a lot of action lately. We first had visitors from India. Noopur and her kids Bunnu and Priyanka came along with Papa and Mummy toward the end of April. Johan worked hard to finish our latest camper, fondly known as Elfie.

Elfie is still a work in progress. Pics of the progress to follow.

The family’s trip here was a blast. We had a great time here in State College, and sis and the kids had a grand finale – a trip through the Outer Banks NC. It was memorable, for the lack of a better word! We drove from Outer banks to Newark and dropped sis and kids off at the airport. Mom and dad are here until next weekend.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are very happy to introduce some new members in our family. Christened Lazy Laurie Zwart, Dandelion Zwart, Chocolate Sprinkles Zwart and Baby Zwart, you can see some of these lovely ladies in our yard pictures below.

These fine feathered chickens are the latest addition to our family. They have elegantly taken over the job of ridding our backyard of flies and other pests and digging around with their delicate feet, much to the jealousy of Rosie.

And finally, not all relations had positive outcomes this year. Soon after Easter we witnessed a very short but intense love story of Rosie with Bugsy, Leena’s school pet guinea pig. Unfortunately Bugsy came over for a weekend but was at the end of his life. He spent a day and a half at our place and despite some heroic efforts from Rosie, passed away at our place.

Although sad, we were very proud of Rosie’s compassion for poor little Bugsy.

Next week is Arts fest. Yay!

At the end of the fall semester in December 2015, Tanya, Leena and I packed our bags and went to India. We had a great time with Tanya and Leena enjoying the company of cousins Bunnu and Priyanka, mausi, “mufasa”, nani and nana. The warm weather was nice too.. who wears shorts in December?!

The cousins had a gala time! We also saw Oma in Delden on our way back. Johan was there at Amsterdam and we took a train to Delden. Fun times.

The pic of the butter was fascinating because they sold spring grass butter in grocery stores in Holland. Impressive!

Back home now..

 

 

 

Summer of 2015 proved to be the best summer for Tanya so far. She stayed at home all summer and was left to her own devices (which essentially means that I asked her to disappear after breakfast until lunch!).

Disappear she did! And started re-appearing with beautiful art. She wanted to make felt toys so I quickly taught her how to make knots on a thread and how to thread a needle. After that she was on her own.

This is “Stitch (the alien)” from “Lilo and Stitch”. Her best so far. She also made a lovely birthday present for dad – a felt hammer with a letter P on it. Lucky dad!

Tanya also went oven baked clay happy. She made a lot of stuff with oven baked clay. Here’s some…

She’s something, isn’t she?!

Closing off with a picture of my monkey and my garden helper..

 

 

We just had a nice visit from “Oma”, Johan’s mother from Holland. Nicely enough, the weather cooperated and State College showed off its best side. We had some brilliant sunny days and soaked up the sun!

Other than that, the kids are back in school and so am I. Work at the house continues with Michael painting and us trying to get things together. Next post on Tanya the artist to follow!

We had a blast last weekend with the arts fest. Tanya helped me with my street painting for the first time, and I am excited to report that it was a super success! We did Gandhi (original artist: Ange Hillz) and Tanya did the entire background! It definitely took the monotony out of the street painting.

Tanya couldn’t wind up without doing her own little art work. She made Stitch from Leroy and Stitch. The pic below has her arms outstretched pretty much the same way as Stitch in the art work!!

It was not all hard work at the fest. We had some serious water fun.

And some serious bubble fun!! Check out the giant bubbles this guy was making at the fest! We were so inspired that we tried it at home: 1 gallon water, 1 cup dish detergent and a couple of squirts of glycerine. We also made a bubble maker by stringing yarn through two straws and tying it up. Idea source: http://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-for-kids/really-big-bubble-maker/

Arts fest is gone, but we enjoyed every minute of it!

Great news, I am now officially able to bake a bread, using no yeast! I tried the sourdough from cookbook “Nourishing traditions”. The procedure involves making a 7 day starter out of rye flour and water. Following this, you use the starter with spelt, salt and water to bake the actual bread.

Why sourdough? Sourdough is a great recipe because the bread undergoes a process of fermentation in the same way as dosas in India or Injera in Ethiopia. The result is that you have a bread that is easily digestible and very flavorful and healthy. The best part for me was that I didn’t need to use yeast.

Here are pics.

We had the bread with raw honey, and also as a pizza base. It was good:) Sourdough is now our new favorite!!

I also attended a food seminar presented by Sally Fallon, the author of Nourishing Traditions. Was great. I met this nice couple, the Brubakers, and we exchanged addresses. Last week I found a package in my mailbox with a sourdough that they made! It is the other bread in the picture above. Delicious! I sent my bread to them:)

My culinary experiments also led me to spring butter. It turns out that butter from green grass fed cows is the best. Luckily for me a local farmer carries spring butter, so now my freezer is full of 30 lbs of spring butter. Here’s a comparison between winter and spring butter. Note that the yellower the butter, the better it is.

Ending the blog with some pics of the girls. Next week is arts fest.. yay!

Tanya is becoming skilled at sewing. She made Stitch from Leroy and Stitch all by herself. Here she is working the thread in a needle.

The last picture is of Herman the chipmunk with Tanya’s friend Wyatt, Tanya and Leena. Wyatt’s mom Sandy found Herman behind the school. Young Herman was hurt and Sandy took him in. Unfortunately poor Herman didn’t survive being away from his home. He now lives in our blog.

So how do you go sugar free on a road trip?
We implemented it seamlessly on our Florida trip! We had a little fridge with ice packs in its freezer. On our first day at Daytona beach we stopped at the Loves health food store. Got milk, yogurt and produce. We ate that for the rest of the day. Our breakthrough idea came the following day after breakfast at Flagler beach. The girls were upset about not getting to have pancakes for breakfast because I wouldn’t let them have the syrup. We stopped at a farmer’s market and hit the jackpot: a jar of Orange blossom raw honey.

So our future meals were simple. We ate breakfast out at restaurants. We took honey along. The girls could enjoy pancakes with honey. We would then map out a health food store and get dairy products and produce for the day. The ice packs in the freezer kept the fridge cold enough through the night! Our fridge used energy from solar panels. Wait…. What?! Here’s a pic!

So our experiment on trying to go sugar free on the trip was pretty successful and we can now travel in the country with some confidence that we can do it!

Ending our trip story with pics!