Problem-solving in action

Um, two things about yesterday's post. I probably should have included a teeeny bit of additional information about the searching for the sheets. You see, Oliver is not the great communicator that his brother is. So he didn't exactly say: There's no sheet so I'm gonna find one. Instead, I watched him go first to RT's room, come out empty-handed, then walk down the hall to my room. Curious, I followed him and stood in the doorway watching as my boy yanked the sheets from my bed in a very determined fashion and then dragged them back to his room! Oliver never once thought to look in the linen closet. Or maybe, knowing what kind of housekeeper his mother is, he just knew better!

The boys and I did make jelly today. We spent a good hour this morning stirring and mixing and ladling. Then I did the hot, heavy work of canning while the boys swam. Unfortunately, we'll have to put our problem-solving skills to work later this week when we figure out how to redo our hard work. It appears our jelly didn't gel! As frustrated as I feel about this, after spending most of a ninety degree day in front of the stove, I had to laugh when Sami turned the teaching tables on me and consoled: "It's ok, Mom. We'll figure it out and do a better job next time!"

Yes, indeedy!

What goes into a jar of jelly

September is approaching and I couldn't be happier. Once again, August has kicked my butt. I'm exhausted. My feet hurt from standing in the kitchen for hours and hours. My house is filthy dirty from all the produce that gets lugged in and out on a daily basis. And yet? Yesterday I brought home about 50lbs of grapes (that I got for free!!) that hopefully will soon be made into juice and jelly and will bring a bit of summer sweetness to the days ahead when we need to conjure it most. And maybe you would be surprised to hear that this is on top of the 75lbs that I brought home a week ago (also free, free, free!)!

I write here about our efforts to eat locally and I believe that this is a manageable, important bit of activism and that it is a vital part of teaching my kids to live in this world. But unless you read between the lines you might not get a good glimpse of how much my children participate in this part of our lives. This week, for instance, the kids have worked right alongside me as I picked grapes, carried them home, sorted them, removed the stems, crushed them, stirred them, poured them into a strainer, then made jelly and juice for canning. My kids work as hard as I do, but -- between you and me? They think it's fun!

I give most of the credit for this to RDI. If Oliver didn't have autism and I was just parenting the way I hope I might have, maybe I would have come to this kind of "extreme cooperative venture" parenting anyway. But probably not. Maybe it is an  unexpected gift of autism that I've found a way to slow down and include my children in just about every thing that I do. And the truly stunning part for me is to realize how much a kid can learn about problem-solving and decision-making in little moments throughout the day that we might otherwise rush through. Like: What can we use to stir this? How do you know if a grape is good enough for the pot or should be thrown into the compost? What size bowl should we use? How do we know when it has cooked long enough? Of course each kid is contributing and being challenged on different levels, but they are both there with me, learning together. And do you know what? I am new to most of this, too. So we are learning and figuring things out together. And honestly? It feels like a grand adventure!

So yes, that is very cool and it is extremely rewarding when everything is going well -- it doesn't always, trust me! But yesterday, when we were taking a rest from the great grape escapade, I asked the kids to please go and clean their room. And can I just tell you how amazing it was to watch Oliver and Sami work together to 1) pick up all the books and put them away, 2) make the bed, 3) put their own folded clothes away and 4) vacuum the floor? I mean, Oliver blows me away. A year ago I was writing about how much trouble he was having just locating his clothes in the closet to get dressed in the mornings! All those times when we have worked together cleaning their room, problem-solving along the way and now I see that it really has come to pass that he can figure things out. Today, for instance, there were no sheets for the bed so Oliver went from room to room looking for a sheet! In times past he would simply have given up and gone on to do something else.

When I do these every day kinds of things with the kids it is never really with the intention of teaching them how to make jelly or juice or whatever. Rather, it is teaching them how to approach thinking about things: how to plan, how to react when something doesn't quite go the way we expect, how to decide when something is good enough, how to work together. But the upside? The beds are made and we will have a bit of summer sweetness to carry us through the winter months ahead!

And speaking of food. ...

I have a new post up at (Never) Too Many Cooks about how to get started eating locally. If I haven't scared you with my tales of the tomato, click on over.

It has begun.

The great tomato carnage of 2010 has begun.

The Tomato Post -- that wasn't. Or, About a boy and his words.

So, I'll bet you thought this post was going to be about how we to took that gazillion pounds of tomatoes and handily whipped up giant batches of sauce and salsa that will keep us going all winter, right? Um, yeah. Well,  instead, it is about how I begin to hyperventilate every time I go near the kitchen and catch a sight of these angry veggies staring back at me:

What was I thinking? And there is at least that much again on the vine outside. I ought to have my head examined! Clearly I am a warped individual.

But instead of persevarating on the tomatoes, I'll tell you a nice little story about a mostly non-verbal little boy. Oliver, it seems is figuring out this communication thing. And it is happening in great, giant, delicious bursts. Full sentences like: "I want to sit here. Get up." and "Sami, I want to draw pictures." and, "Papi, can I have a quarter?" And my personal favorite (said while handing me a plate full of green beans): "I don't want to eat this. I want chips with cheese."

All of Oliver's words and sentences are said slowly, with space in between the words, in which I imagine the words and the sounds traveling some complicated neural backwoods road. But they are finding their way out and he is making himself understood. For a boy of almost eight, a boy who once could not produce a single word, it feels like we are nearing some mountaintop of achievement.

It makes me think anything is possible. And that, my friends, is a very nice feeling.

The pickle post

It's August. It's hot as hell. And I've got like a hundred million pounds of fruits and vegetables waiting to be put up for the winter. "Put up." Sounds kind of quaint, doesn't it? Well it in no way imparts any kind of useful information about how much work is involved in canning.

We didn't do so great with our 100 mile challenge this year. Last year I'd say a good 85% of our food for the entire year was locally produced. This year I let myself off the hook a little bit and found it soooo easy to slide back into the convenience food trap. BUT, the garden we put in didn't get the message and now that August has arrived we are inundated with veggies.

So despite the fact that it was 98 degrees here in Virginia today, the boys and I got to work making pickles. And, since I still have just slightly less than a hundred million pounds of tomatoes waiting for me, you can expect many more picture posts involving food in the coming days. I understand if you aren't too interested, trust me. But you'll probably have to wait awhile for another real post to appear (though you never know!).

In the meantime, behold the pickles:

And the mess that goes along with it (Yes, we live like this!):

 And then? A trip to the river cools us off:

And wild blackberries for dessert:

Life is good.


Next up? Tomato sauce and salsa.