Green and Thrifty: Red Edition

I have been blogging for over ten years now and Posy has featured in these pages since they were four years old. Over the summer Posy changed their real life name (I do not actually have children named Rosy and Posy), and to reflect the changes in their life Posy's blog name has changed to Red and their pronouns to they/them. I am so grateful to have this kiddo in my life. Like all of the children Red has challenged my thinking, expanded my vision and most of all made my heart a bigger and better place. Like many new parents I fondly imagined that I would be the one nurturing and guiding my children into adulthood, and although a certain amount of that has gone on, I believe that it has gone just as much the other way  - that it is the children who have nurtured and guided me in many ways; they certainly forced me into adulthood, lickety split, ready or not. The journey has always been extraordinary and is ongoing, with me learning more every day.

These last few weeks have seen us re-emerge as a homeschooling family. Once upon a time, when the children were young, that meant I was nominally in charge. This time is different, and Red is definitely in charge of steering the education ship, something they are well capable of doing. As well as the odd foray into maths, mainly to appease me, there has mainly been an explosion of writing and handicrafts. And mess. There has been candle making. Paper making. Stacks of journals and scrapbooks. Jewellery making. And very much cooking and experiments with herbs. Did I mention the mess?

I am happy because at last, after many years of struggle of dealing with school and feeling both underwhelmed and overwhelmed by it all, Red is home and Red is quietly happy. They are free to have down time and work through those times without the pressures of school. At the same time, here in Tasmania we have a splendid opportunity for part time enrolment at school for homeschoolers, so Red gets to spend an afternoon at week at their very nice ex-school doing the Creative Learning Program and spending time with their friends. We are not homeschooling because the school was terrible, far from it. But even at the best, most supportive small school that has allowed many children to thrive when they were not thriving anywhere else, it was still not the place where Red could thrive. So here we are. And it is good. We are learning to function while occupying the same small space and enjoying each other's company.

This week I have been very unwell, days of dizziness and nausea where all I have been able to do is to stay in bed very still with my eyes closed. Lots of enforced thinking time. Luckily Red is an accomplished cook and fire wrangler. They chose this time to spend days in the kitchen making paper. Oh, the mess. But thankfully for most of the time I was unable to see it and stayed blissfully unaware in my bed with my eyes closed.

The paper is absolutely beautiful and is headed straight for the journals and scrapbooks.

Red also found a box of old candles I was planning on renovating, and did it for me. If you have a bunch of half-burned up candles in nice jars, here is how to save the jars and make new candles. First, pour boiling water into the candle jar. The wax will soften and melt and float to the top of the jar, and when it cools it will solidify on top of the water and you can just lift it out, or break it an lift it out. Save the wax for reuse, and save the little metal doodad that holds the wick for reuse as well.

Wash the candle jar with hot water and soap (or use any jar, teacup etc). Glue the metal wick holder into the bottom of the jar. Attach the wick to the metal holder with pliers. You can buy wicks from candle making suppliers. Red has tried using string for wicks and it doesn't work. We could experiment with coating string with wax but we haven't done that yet.. Put the wax into a tin can in a pan of water (we keep an old frying pan for candle making) and boil it slowly until the wax melts.

Tip the wax carefully into the candle jar and let it cool. And there you have it. New candles from old!

Pretty much the most active thing I have done this week is to make more dog food. This week he has chicken with brown rice, sorghum, silverbeet and broccolini from the garden that started to get away from me..

However something that both Red and I have done is more visible mending - Red embroidered this fabulous mushroom onto denim and patched it into their jeans.

And before I got sick I darned a beautiful cashmere shawl for a friend - she had caught it on something sharp and torn it. I used a single thread of pale green embroidery thread to darn it and I love how it has turned out. I hope she does too.

That is our week then, very productive on Red's part, and very meditative on mine in these, the darkest days of winter. How has your solstice week been, whether celebrating high summer or the deep winter?

I leave you with a picture of our yule log. Red decorated it with a jaunty bow. It sat on our table for a week and then we cast it into the fire on the winter solstice with our hopes and wishes for the new year of returning light.