#The Hearthkeeper

[the-tropes-are-hungry]

it is with regret that unless I axe 3k of words I really love, these characters are gonna talk their way through the Big Important Conflict of this story instead of fighting each other in the mud as I, their God, intended.

[lightthewaybackhome]

[kryptidkhaos]

Cleaning Supplies That Actually Make My Life Easier: Disabled Edition

O-Cedar EasyWring Spin Mop & Bucket System

All the housekeeping influencers have been raving about this thing for ages and I really thought it was going to be a complete gimmicky rip-off. I was wrong.

I've tried a ton of other mop and bucket styles out there, I had one ages ago that was similar in style to this one, but instead of the foot pedal for spinning like the EasyRing, you were meant to push the mop down into this colander type thing that would squeeze the water out. It would usually work for maybe 2-3 sessions of mopping before the plastic would just completely shatter from the pressure you needed to put on it to squeeze the mop. We even had a full on industrial janitor style one on wheels for awhile, but that took up a whole lot of space and was a huge pain to fill up. All them have been more trouble than they're worth. I've been relying on a simple spray mop with washable pads for a long time now, and while they can be great for small messes, it wasn't enough to really mop the whole floor with. (Not that it hasn't stopped me from trying, and going through about a dozen mop pads in the process)

We've had ours since February and I love it so much. Mopping is a task that I have a massive love-hate relationship with. I enjoy doing it, it's a highly satisfying process, but it's hell on my body, so I need to reduce the amount of back and forth for buckets, pads, cleaners, etc. as much as possible and have it be a simple enough process that I can give the floors a quick once over nearly every day instead of having to do big scrubs that keep me bent over and on my feet for long periods of time.

With this system, the bucket is small enough for me to fit in my kitchen sink and carry around the house without too much strain on my arms and shoulders. I don't ever have to bend over or put my hands in the water. The pedal/spinning action is really smooth a good 85% of the time. If you try to push the pedal down too hard or fast sometimes the teeth on the plastic gears inside will skip/grind and make a horrible sound (I though I'd broken it the first time it happened to me), but I've yet to have it actually cause a problem.

Third party replacement mop heads are in abundance and I've found massive bulk packs of them for super cheap, no difference in quality from the name brand. I toss them in my washing machine when I'm done with them and I think I've only thrown away two out of the 12 pack I bought back in February. (Sometimes you mop up something so Gross that you never want it touch anything again, no matter how many times it's been washed)

I really want the RinseClean version with double tanks, but haven't been able to justify it yet. The mop handle on ours is starting to give out after heavy daily use for almost a year, but I know it'll be way cheaper and less wasteful to just replace that when the rest is still trucking along just fine, but I'll definitely be upgrading once it...

...kicks the bucket.

[hearthenhome]

𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄.

「 HEARTH'S HAVEN 」 is an 18+ community for the girls – if you consider yourself a girl in any shape ノ way ノ form, you're welcome to join us! we seek to uplift and surround ourselves with positive energy and channeling that into supporting one another. ⟢

community gates: we are open! admin staff ノ mods ノ members. ⟢ the hearthkeepers will do their best to answers asks as fast as they can!

⟢ 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐃𝐎 𝐈 𝐉𝐎𝐈𝐍?

⟡ send us an ask to obtain the discord server link ! ⤷ admin staff will screen through – we accept everyone, but we need to see an age for us to be able to admit you ! ⟡ we'll send you a link to the discord once we see you ♡ ⤷ if you're turning 18 soon, please only apply to join when you've turned 18!

⟢ 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒

⟡⟡ 18+ only, no minors! ⤷ this haven is 4 the girlies! doesn't matter if you use different pronouns or you don't define yourself solely as a girlie ⤷ if you identify as a girl in any part, shape, form, or way – you're welcome here! ⟡⟡ blank and ageless blogs will not be given the link ! ⤷ please have an age in your blog when you ask for the link!

⟡⟡ negativity is part of growth. you are so loved. (yes, that's a rule.) ⤷ positivity is welcome here, so do support one another! uplift! <3

⟡⟡ this community is space for creatives too :') we love u ! ⤷ share your creations !!! we want to be a part of your journey too !

any questions ? pop by our inbox !

[sagescented]

@autisticslp asked (on the old blog):

So a lot of cooking advice that people tend to give that seems very basic honestly comes from decades of experience; there's a post that floats around Tumblr sometimes, actually, that talks about how a lot of "cooking from intuition" isn't actually intuition at all. It's deeply ingrained memorization about the "laws of cooking" that we've learned over time, that feel like second nature to us to the point where we no longer have to think about it or physically reference recipes or tutorials anymore.

In essence: We're good at "taking what we have on hand and making a meal of it" because we have a lot of practice! We've built up a skill! A skill you're lacking in. And that's not a bad thing! But it also means that you shouldn't be too hard on yourself because you don't know or can't seem to grasp this stuff that seems so "second nature" or "easy" to a lot of the cooks you know. You're still really new at this! And with various disabilities and mental illnesses, cognitive issues, etc? Of course you're going to struggle harder at it than "most" seem to, to you!

As a secondary aside to that, you mentioned growing up on a farm. But farming and gardening, and the various forms of food preservation that frequently comes alongside small family subsistence farms, is a very different skill set! Knowing what's seasonal in your garden doesn't necessarily inherently translate into cooking it, and building a full meal up from scratch unless you also had someone who had that skill as well to teach you that.

I know my Husband's mom sure as hell didn't. He grew up on a farm like that, and she could can all day ... But Lord. She couldn't cook to save her life. She attempted to impart neither of these skills to my Husband, either ... I grew up on one, as well. But where my mom couldn't can or garden to save her life, she was a damned good cook and imparted those skills to me. Now I'm passing them on to my Husband decades later, because his mother failed to.

What you're ultimately missing is a fundamental set of basic skills, and a knowledge set built up over time and practice. And the good news is, those are really simple skills to learn. The bad news is, it does take a while to learn them and to build up that pool of knowledge. Most of it's experimentation, though, and not a lot of it's super difficult.

For basic knowledge of cooking science and spices, I'd recommend The Science of Cooking and The Science of Spice- both by Dr. Stuart Farrimond. I own both and love them dearly. They'll debunk some common myths, and give you a basic understanding of certain food sciences that are honestly really helpful.

When you feel like you're ready to actually sit down and experiment with spices, I love The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs: An Essential Guide to the Flavors of the World by Padma Lakshmi. It has information on various spices, tells you their cultural contexts, mentions what they're usually used on in those contexts (vegetables, which meats, etc), and even gives you some common cultural spice blends (though doesn't provide measurements). It's a thick boy, but it's a really fun one to work through if you have no introduction to spices or idea how to use them.

Past that, something you need to build yourself is a well stocked pantry with staple basics. I can't tell you what those are for you. That's something you have to figure out for yourself based on what you cook, how often, etc. But my minimum has always been at least 2 months worth of food in my pantry at any given time, across a broad enough spectrum that I can pick just about anything out of a recipe and only really need to shop for the fresh or immediate-need ingredients each week.

Staple Grains like Rice, Lentils, Cous Cous, and Quinoa.

Pasta Noodles of various types- like Elbow, Rigatoni, Bowtie, Penne, Fettuccini, and Spaghetti

Potatoes in the form of Mashed Potatoes and Scalloped Potatoes both, as well as a "fresh" bag each of Russet, Yellow, and Red Potatoes

Onions. I keep a mesh bag each of Red and Yellow (or White; whichever's cheapest at the time I'm shopping) on hand at all times.

Boxes of Stock (Chicken, Beef, Vegetable, and Protein Broth when I can find it)

Canned items that I use a lot of, like Diced Tomatoes, Tomato Sauce, Tomato Paste, every kind of Bean (Cannellini, Great Northern, Dark Red, Light red, Black, Pinto, etc), and Chickpeas; plus canned fish (Tuna and Salmon, Sardines, etc)

Condensed Creams Of (Chicken and Mushroom are the two we use most often)

Spices. Of every kind. You literally do not want to see my spice box. It's insane. Yes I'm proud of it. But it would make the average person cry with confusion and fear.

Frozen Veggies in the freezer (Green Beans, Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli, Carrots, Squashes, etc; personally I prefer the frozen to the canned)

I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting. But ultimately when you have a full pantry and only have to buy your fresh or immediate-need ingredients? It not only massively saves your grocery bill each week, but it also makes it so much easier to "make things with what you have on hand". Because a large part of the trick is, honestly, having things on hand to make stuff with in the first place. And that's really the big secret that goes unspoken in a lot of circles. But it really shouldn't be an unspoken secret, because it holds so many people back.

Another secret is just knowing basic cooking methods. What is chopping vs dicing? How do you pan fry? What's a dry fry vs a wet fry? What about baking? Broiling? Boiling? What happens if you stew an ingredient instead? How big does it have to be for each of these methods? How does it perform with rice as opposed to cous cous? How is it raw- if it can be eaten raw? Other than that, just knowing recipes is really going to be the big key.

Unfortunately I don't have a recommend for learning any of these ones, since I learned all this the hard way. I do see some cook books that could be useful (like Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored Vegetable-Focused Meals by Nik Sharma; or Vegetables: The Ultimate Cookbook Featuring 300+ Delicious Plant-Based Recipes by Laura Sorkin). I can't personally recommend them, however, because I've never read or used them. But there's a lot of information out there on youtube that can be very helpful, especially for methodology since it's a visual medium- which is, I think, the best way to learn some of these skills in particular.

Personally, I did the recipe thing by looking at cuisines from regions where those foods or ingredients were really popular. So take your Eggplant for example. Eggplants feature a lot in Mediterranean, Levantine, and Middle Eastern cuisines. So when you want to learn how to use Eggplant and build up your knowledge about it? Looking at the people in those regions who use this ingredient a lot already is going to be really helpful to you. They know what they're doing with it!

When you've made those dishes a few times, you're going to get an understanding not only of how to prepare Eggplant for various methods of cooking, and how to cook it for those methods. But you're also going to get an understanding of what flavors pair well with it. And after a while of doing that, you're naturally going to start thinking "what if I do x instead?" and start experimenting on your own. Play with them. Get to know the ingredient on the most foundational level. And yeah, throw some herbs on it if you're comfortable! See what meshes with what flavors. What do you like? And yeah, some of those are going to be flops. But by the time you start thinking "what if" your skills are usually further progressed than you'd think to give yourself credit for. Just ask my Husband, ha!

As for the stuff regarding disability, mental illness, and cognitive function, I gotchu, babe! One of the most distressing things for me when I became disabled, started suffering really bad from cognitive decline, and started dealing with memory loss, was looking at the potential of never being able to cook for myself again. And that scared the piss out of me, because cooking is my joy. And so my Husband and I sat down and prioritized cooking and making it disability friendly for me. Here's some of the stuff we did.

First step: Get your butt a stool that's a comfortable height for your counter height. Once acquired, sit as much as you can in the kitchen. It conserves energy and lets you use more of it to focus your head.

Second: Get yourself all those fun little gadgets you think look interesting or helpful. Personally I have a fruit slicer (that works on more than just apples), a slap chopper microplane thingy, and a few others. Mostly I got these because occasionally my body loses my hands and has no idea where they went and it's safer for me. But I can't tell you how nice they are even when my body knows where my hands are, ha; they speed up prep, keep your fingers safe (usually), and leave more room for the brain to do its thing.

Third: Make as many lists as you can! I have a list on the inside of all my pantry doors of the staples that are in that section. When something needs refilling it allows me to put a mark there so I know to put it on the grocery list. But it also provides a quick reference when my brain's tired; it's so much easier for me to read a list than try and decipher box labels with various colors, font sizes, etc. Make lists wherever you need them and always keep them accessible.

Fourth: The recipe box. Yes. A good, old fashioned, classic recipe box. I have mine filled with tried and true recipes that I know for a fact my Husband and I love, that I know we have at least 90% of the ingredients on hand for at any given moment. So if all else fails and I can't think of anything? I can just go pull something out of the box and have him jot down to the store for anything we don't have.

Fifth: Keep easy meals on stock, because some days you really can't cook. Your brain won't let you, and that's ok! That's fine! But you still gotta eat, right? So we keep stuff like bagged Blackened Chicken Alfredo, Dirty Rice, Mongolian Beef, Jambalaya, Broccoli Beef, Red Beans & Rice, etc, on hand in the outdoor fridge. If at any point I just can't do it? We grab some of those instead.

And the good news is, you can spruce up a quick meal! Making Dirty Rice? Throw in some bread and butter, and a side of boiled Green Beans from the garden. Blackened Chicken Alfredo? Throw some Bell Pepper on in there; you can bulk this stuff up easily with your produce, and it takes even less effort most of the time.

As for the Covid sense of taste / smell? Keep trucking. It does get better; I suffered bad from Post-Covid Parosmia for nearly 2 years after I caught Covid the first time- bad enough to the point I couldn't bathe myself because of the smell of our water being nauseating to me; couldn't eat anything with Corn, or Wheat, or Onion, or Garlic in it for a year, either. the second I tried, my body auto rejected it. Bananas tastes like Iris flowers smelt ... I feel your pain so hard.

But it does get better. Your system is just rewiring itself completely from scratch right now. And Lord, it's so unpleasant. But the more you give it to taste, and smell, the better it does and the faster it rewires itself. Don't force yourself to eat things that are nauseating or unpleasant. But do branch out. Experiment. Even if it tastes left of how you remember it, keep going! I can't promise you'll get everything back (Lord knows there's still some things that aren't quite right for me, even 4 years later now). But it gets better!

I hope any of this helps- even if it's not as helpful if you'd like it to be. Hang in there, love.

My ask box is always open and Anon is currently ON.

[ladyhearthkeeper]

There is something inherently spiritual in domesticity.

I think this is why I was always attracted by the idea of hearthkeeping which offers a deeper depth to homemaking.

As I was kneading dough to make bread, it made my soul soar. It might be a mundane task but it's an ancestral action.

Something that connects me to my bloodline, to all the countless women who have done the same. And in the awe and thankfulness I feel when I turn flour into an actual bread; I connect with my Creator.

In homemaking there are many hidden gem that feed the soul.

[cozyhestia]

🍁my home is a warm and happy place that supports well-being🍁

[vidis-forge]

Heroforge models of my party for my campaign, The Unseen Sun!

Lore and Info dump below the cut!

It is... adjacent to Grimhollow's The Citadel of the Unseen Sun in that I didn't have the money to put out for every chapter (and didn't want to, honestly, in the beginning!)

Maybe someday I'll go back and run The Citadel of the Unseen Sun from beginning to end as intended. Originally, I just wanted to run a game in Etharis and choose the spooky vampire-ridden Ostoya because, I also wanted a vampire game!

I bought chapter 5 of the Citadel of the Unseen Sun to get canon information Nov Ostoya and get the maps that come with the book-- then became interested in Kasimir Sundrinker as a big bad (maybe I'll post him some day, after my players get to meet him in game!)

But, campaign lore dump time;

Here we see each of them and their current relationship to the Unseen Sun.

For Tzipporah, who *is* the Unseen Sun, we have responsibility. She is among the last of the divine, and her grandeur has been stripped from her yet *still* feels like shackles. She reaches up, begging for help from higher powers that have forsaken and abandoned her.

For Wulfgar, we have a man who has been reborn over and over to accomplish his goal of defeating Kasimir Sundrinker. As he learns more about his past selves, about the truth of Tzipporah's nature and what he is destined for, he regards the Unseen Sun as his partner. An extension of himself in their interwoven fates.

Aleksi is a tortured man with a life-long history of trauma, abuse, and control. As he steps from the shadow of his past and into the light, he finds himself unsure how to navigate this new world. To him, the Unseen Sun is a beacon that casts light to his shame, and overpowers anyone's ability to see his struggles.

And lastly, for Keres, a strange aberration who was already out of her depth joining the world at large, the Unseen Sun is her friend. Or at least... she'd like it to be. She holds it close, as a symbol of her desire for a better world, and to be part of that better world once the Unseen Sun is liberated.

[perilegs]

is there anything that points to how exactly it is chosen which god someone's vallaslin will represent? da wiki says "They still revere the elven pantheon, and in a ritual to commemorate reaching adulthood each member of a tribe will have the symbol of their chosen god tattooed on their face." but there's no source for that and ive never before seen that in game so idk. ive always thought someone else picked it for the elf in uestion but being able to pick it yourself makes sense with the reflecting on gods stuff

[the-tropes-are-hungry]

Before I can keep writing I need to sit down and do some plotting/planning and you know what I don’t want to do? Any plotting or planning.

[lightthewaybackhome]

www.pinterest.com

[kryptidkhaos]

i dream of fantastical future for myself in which i don't have to wash a re-liquefied coat of landlord white paint off my hands every time i wipe down the walls with cold water

[hearthenhome]

three more days til we open the community! do remember to send us an ask so we can send you the link to the server on the fifth ♡

[sagescented]

Well, I didn't destroy the cake! From the crumbs I got to taste, it came out really good- maybe one of the better Chocolate cakes I've managed, actually. And when putting it together, I didn't smush all the filling out the sides. So I think I'm winning so far. Crumb Coat's on now, and it's back in the fridge to solidify. Then I'll be able to put on the final coat of frosting and decorate it (though I still don't know how I'm going to wind up decorating it yet, since I don't have much frosting left). Huzzah!

If I'm honest, I'm loving pushing myself with baking again. Especially cakes- even if it's nerve wracking for me and I'm always questioning myself; the last time I really did any serious new baking like this was all the way back when we were back in our old house in 2015 / 2016, after we were married (but before my Gastroparesis got too bad I was literally starving to death) ... Idk. It's just been nice to get back into baking again, finally.

ETA: She's done. Definitely not my best cake, but considering I had to salvage it, it came out ok enough.

I didn't have enough frosting (the recipe in the book absolutely doesn't make enough to actually fully frost it properly). So I tried to do a ganache to help cover up some of the bald spots. I was aiming for a nice drip, but the Ganache was too thick and too hot when I poured it over. So the icing separated and melted in places 😩

Wound up with pseudo-marbled-esque sides with a ganache-adjacent top instead. That's about the best I'm going to get it. It is what it is, unfortunately. Ah well! There's always future attempts!

ETA2: This is maybe the most delicious cake I've ever made in my life. 200 / 10. Absolutely recommend. Best chocolate based cake to exist, ever; it tastes like those Queen Anne's Chocolate Covered cherries, but a million and one times better (and not sickly sweet).

[ladyhearthkeeper]

I thought that once I got married, I'd have more things to share on this blog... but... the truth is, I'm so determined to keep our lives private that I don't want to share too much. And one can't always make general statement about marriage as each couple has a different dynamic.

I wish I could share those lovely thing that makes my husband so precious... But it's too precious to share like this

[cozyhestia]

Homemaking This Week

I've got a busy and plentiful week ahead of me, starting a day behind! We got our booster vaccines this weekend and had to continue resting until yesterday. Here are the goals for the week:

-continue cross-stitch (I want to post a one week progress picture tomorrow)

-create partner's birthday gift (a coupon for a tent they'll get to pick out)

-organize tupperware cabinet

-bake more oat cups for breakfast

-send out invitations to a post-halloween celebration to our friends

-begin planning out the thanksgiving menu. My mom is having surgery a few days before the holiday, so I'll be the one cooking for all of us!

-check on my finances for the month thus far. I've been slacking on it recently, but money is tight right now!