The Bluestocking Belle

Scout Camping Trip

2012-02-03T16:41:00.000-05:00

We're off on a camping weekend with our Scout troop! The forecast calls for rain, which is just perrrrfect.

Happy weekend!

Confessions of a Mediocre Cook: Surprised by Yogurt Success!

2012-01-31T13:03:00.000-05:00

This totally should have been a complete failure. It was a yogurt do. Here's what happened.

First off, someone used part of my half-gallon of whole milk. So I had to use approximately half whole milk (that sounds weird!) and half of my watered-down whole milk, which we use daily.

Second, I did not unplug my crock pot after two and a half hours. I thought I did, but I was mistaken. When I finally unplugged it, at least another hour had passed. After consulting a friend, I planned to let the milk cool for four hours instead of the usual three. But I had to leave the house for a few hours, and I'd miss the timing to mix in the half-cup of yogurt (starter). So I only cooled the milk for three hours and then mixed in the starter.

As you can see, I'm breaking rules all over the place. I figured I'd just see what happened.

Due to all the extra time, I had to get up at 1 AM to pour the yogurt into containers and refrigerate. Right away, I noticed it seemed thicker than my earlier batches. This was an interesting development.

This morning, when Tiny Girl and I took a peek, we were delighted with the results. My homemade yogurt resembles more closely store-bought yogurt in thickness. For Tiny Girl's breakfast, we chopped up some maraschino cherries (her choice) and stirred them in a small bowl of plain yogurt. She deemed it not sweet enough, so we added some sugar. Twice. (!!!!!)

I'd expected a total loss, but have now decided to change my original recipe. Since this kind of thing rarely happens to me kitchen-wise (total losses are nothing new), I'm thrilled!

Confessions of a Mediocre Cook: Our Daily Bread in a Crock

2012-01-29T17:01:00.002-05:00

Okay, so you've probably heard about this bread-in-crock thing. I'm a little slow with news flashes. In case you're like me, I'll fill you in. Basically, you mix up a bunch of bread dough, let it rise a bit, and then store it in the fridge to use in the next week or so. One recipe supplies enough dough for several bread needs: pizza crust, rolls, country loaves, sweet rolls, etc. After some research, I opted to give French Tart's (love the pseudonym) recipe a try. I've now made two batches, and here's what happened.

Miss Priss measures the flour.

I read all the comments on French Tart's recipe and printed several of them to help me with my endeavor. I learned I might need to experiment with oven temp and baking times. I also got some ideas on gussying up the basic recipe. With my first batch, I made rolls in a six-cup muffin tin, a round loaf of cheese bread (which was underdone), and cinnamon rolls.

Each time I baked something was a learning experience. I found with each baking that I needed to let my dough rise more than the suggested 20-30 minutes. With the cinnamon rolls, I made them the night before and let the rolls rise overnight in the fridge prior to baking the next morning.

To be honest, after my first attempt, I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole thing. Everything was tasty, but left something to be desired (except the cinnamon rolls, which were fantastic). But I knew I must be missing something because there were so many positive comments on the original website. So I decided to try again.

The remaining two cinnamon rolls. We scarfed the others down immediately.

The mixed dough.

With my second batch, I let the dough rest on the fridge for a few days before I baked anything. Then I tried my hand at parkerhouse rolls. As you can see, I started out with too much dough per roll, because they rose to a massive size.

These look like something out of a science fiction movie.

They tasted pretty good, but still. A few days later, I was tired of having a big bowl of dough taking up so much room in my refrigerator. I pulled it all out, shaped an oval-sized loaf, and set it to rise. I ended up with a gargantuan, flat "loaf" that I almost threw away. Himself said go ahead and bake it and see what happens. So, with a cynical heart, I did.

The blob.

Quelle surprise! The resulting bread may have looked less than I'd hoped, but it tasted wonderful. The several days' rest in the fridge brought out a sourdough flavor, and the crust was baguette-crispy.

Delish!

I'm still not sure, however. I didn't have as much success as I'd hoped to have, so I'm not sure it's worth the (albeit small) trouble or refirigerator space. Also, I'm not at all certain if I have the heart to continue experimenting with the recipe. Have you tried anything like this? What's been your experience?

Adventures in Frugality: Homemade Slow Cooker Yogurt

2012-01-28T16:31:00.000-05:00

I love yogurt and eat a lot of it. I eat it straight from the container, I use it in smoothies, I strain plain yogurt to make it Greek-style, I play around with it. But I'm not so jazzed about some brands' ingredients, so I'm careful what I buy. Oftentimes, being careful what one buys equals paying more for what one buys, since quality can cost more than, you know, not-so-quality.

So I was excited to discover Stephanie O'Dea's recipe for slow cooker yogurt on her website. (Thanks to Tricia at Hodgepodge for the link!) I've made two batches and feel confident enough in the process to write about it.

The first time I made it, I used two percent milk and nonfat yogurt as my starter. This was in direct disobedience to Stephanie's advice, which stated whole milk, especially for one's first attempts. The resulting yogurt was tasty but quite liquidy. It made great smoothies without adding any extra liquid. I strained some of it for a thicker yogurt, and this was successful. But I wanted to try whole milk the next time, which I did.

On my second attempt, the result was thicker than the first batch but still runnier than store-bought. Refrigeration helped. But let me hasten to add that the texture and taste are both marvelous. Never has such silken loveliness graced my tastebuds. Tiny Girl and I experimented by adding strawberry preserves to a bowlful and then freezing it. More like a granita than ice cream, our fro-yo was delightfully tangy, sweet, and strawberry-y.

In another experiment, I strained some of the whole-milk yogurt, which resulted in a super-creamy, rich, and thick yogurt for which there are no words to describe its magnificence. It was better than the strained yogurt from my first batch. I swirled a touch of honey atop a dollop of strained yogurt and was in heaven (or at least my imaginary approximation thereof).

I learned that some folks add gelatin or other ingredients to their homemade yogurt to get more of a store-bought texture, but I prefer not to do that. To me, homemade yogurt's texture is far superior to any gelatinous goo from the grocery.

Homemade yogurt is incredibly easy and frugal, but it seems luxurious. What a perfect combination!

Weekly Happenings: Excitement Galore!

2012-01-27T16:56:00.001-05:00

We're clicking right along with life. Good stuff going on!

The most exciting news for me: I wrote my first-ever review for The Curriculum Choice website! I reviewed Spelling Power, which we've used for almost two years. If you are looking for an effective and easy-to-use spelling curriculum, pop over and read my review. I highly recommend Spelling Power. I'll be contributing regularly to The Curriculum Choice, so look for me (and other great reviewers) there.

In other exciting news: earlier this week I had my first-ever unqualified bread-baking success when I made sandwich buns. Of course I blogged about it; I had to brag and I also included a link to the recipe. If I can make these well, anyone can. Trust me.

The girls are playing "Fur Elise" for their piano practice this week. I never get tired of listening to that piece. Tiny Girl has selected it for one of her recital pieces. She'll often plop down at the piano and play it. Both my daughters play well, but Tiny Girl plays for enjoyment; Miss Priss plays out of duty.

The weather has not been conducive to riding, so we've stayed home more this week. Today was pretty but chilly, and Tiny Girl opted to wait until tomorrow to ride. We're still searching for a medium pony for her. It's hard to find just the right thing.

The girls have been reading a lot this week. Miss Priss read Savvy, by Ingrid Law; The Wish, by Gail Carson Levine; and In the Face of Danger, the second of Joan Lowery Nixon's Orphan Train Quartet. Tiny Girl read The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson; Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes; and The Mysterious Miss Slade, by Dick King-Smith. I'm thrilled that they are readers, but it can get in the way of actual lessons. Miss Priss in particular is loathe to interrupt reading a "fun" book for something so mundane as lessons. I can empathize, but school must go on.

For Christmas, Miss Priss gave Tiny Girl a Michaels gift card, and with it she purchased a triops kit. Triops, for the uninitiated (which included me before she bought the kit), are freshwater crustaceans (shrimp) that one raises from tiny eggs. Their scientific name is Triops longicaudatus. Some websites refer to these creatures as "prehistoric monsters," which I find hilarious. They are not monsters; they are small shrimp. One of their names, in fact, is "fairy shrimp," a name which does not strike fear into the hearts of humans. Several eggs hatched initially, and the biggest one, whom she named Lionel, after Lionel Hardcastle in the britcom "As Time Goes By," ate up all but one. The remaining victim, Leonardo, was moved to another tank to keep him away from Lionel. This isn't a great photo, but here is Lionel. As you can see, his water is a tad yucky:

See him down in the corner?

Here's a better photo from mytriops.com. This is not Lionel, of course. But he looks just like it.

Tiny Girl keeps both small tanks in her closet with three lights on: the overhead, a lamp, and a fish tank light. Needless to say, it's warm in her closet. Just right for egg hatching!

Tiny Girl also took time to tackle a puzzle. She and I enjoy puzzles, but not the insanely difficult 500-piece (or more) variety. We bought this one at Dollar Tree (350 pieces), and she did 99 percent of it herself pretty quickly. It's amazing to me how she can pick up pieces and just know where they go. Sometimes she has to play around a bit, but most of the time she simply fits pieces in like magic. It's kind of weird.

Did I mention she's also a natural with math? Did I mention than I am not? Here's the finished picture. It's called "The Wishing Well." My guess is that the kitten is wishing he could snag those titmice before they fly away.

Look for posts this weekend about my yogurt-making and rustic bread-baking adventures. I've lots to say -- both good and meh -- about those topics.

Happy weekend!

Confessions of a Mediocre Cook: Quick and Easy Sandwich Buns

2012-01-26T16:28:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday, I remembered that I had a container of pulled chicken in the fridge that needed to be used, so I decided to make some chicken barbecue sandwiches. I didn't have any buns, though, so I hit the internet in search of a recipe. Plus, it had to be easy and quick -- look who's in the kitchen, after all.

Shazam! Alisa's recipe from Alisa Cooks is a real winner. I followed the recipe as it's written, except I kneaded the dough with the dough hook in my Red Steel Beauty, and I let the buns rise a bit longer than ten minutes.

Aren't they gorgeous?

Everyone in the family loved them, except for Himself, who abstained. He's not a bread junkie. (Weirdo.)

My delectable chicken barbecue sandwich.

The next morning, Tiny Girl asked for a bun made like cinnamon toast. Miss Priss just ate hers plain.

Cinnamon toasted bun for Tiny Girl.

Today, I had another chicken barbecue sandwich with the last of the buns. Friends, this recipe is a keeper: frugal, fast, and fabulous!

Weekly Happenings: Getting Back on Track

2012-01-21T11:14:00.002-05:00

Despite some lingering illness -- now overcome, thank heaven! -- we managed to get mostly back on track this week. Finally. Here are some highlights:

Both girls have decided to add German into their studies. This year, we've been using PowerSpeak online through our county library system (free). So Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they'll work on French, and the study German on Tuesday and Thursday. We have a few friends who live in Germany, and we're entertaining thoughts about visiting them next year, prompting a sudden interest in the language. My response? Go for it!

We spent more time this week with our friend, Fuzzworth (lovingly named by Miss Priss several years ago), our nebulizer and Georgette's nemesis. She despises him. Maybe it's his smarmy smile; maybe it's his insipid bow tie; maybe it's the very LOUD noise he makes. But every time we switch him on, she barks and lunges at him. she calms down quickly after her first attack, however.

Georgette, 8 months

Here is the lovely little Georgette. When we gather in the family room for our readings, the dogs snuggle up with us. A home educating lifestyle comprises so many cozy moments, doesn't it?

In grammar this week, we learned about predicate nominatives. I didn't know these existed until high school, myself. Both girls now have a decent understanding of these; it's not perfect, but it's a good foundation for the years to come.

Jasper, 2 years

And here is Jasper. He and Georgette have very different dispositions. Sometimes he's like a grumpy old man around her! I'm his favorite (she said with a bashful yet proud smile). Update: Tiny Girl read this yesterday and objected to the last sentence. "You are NOT his favorite," she said emphatically.

In literature, we continued our reading of Pyle's King Arthur and His Knights and began "The Three Worthies." We also began Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. This selection is part of AO's Year 4, but we are just now fitting it in. The girls were resistant at first, but now we are all enthralled, after only three chapters!

John Greenleaf Whittier continues to make our hearts happy. Our favorite poem this week: "Storm on Lake Asquam," which we discovered is in New Hampshire and is now referred to as Lake Squam, Asquam being its Abenaki name. I thought you might like it, too.

Storm on Lake Asquam

A cloud, like that the old-time Hebrew saw
On Carmel prophesying rain, began
To lift itself o'er wooded Cardigan,
Growing and blackening. Suddenly, a flaw

Of chill wind menaced; then a strong blast beat
Down the long valley's murmuring pines, and woke
The noon-dream of the sleeping lake, and broke
Its smooth steel mirror at the mountains' feet.

Thunderous and vast, a fire-veined darkness swept
Over the rough pine-bearded Asquam range;
A wraith of tempest, wonderful and strange,
From peak to peak the cloudy giant stepped.

One moment, as if challenging the storm,
Chocorua's tall, defiant sentinel
Looked from his watch-tower; then the shadow fell,
And the wild rain-drift blotted out his form.

And over all the still unhidden sun,
Weaving its light through slant-blown veils of rain,
Smiled on the trouble, as hope smiles on pain;
And, when the tumult and the strife were done,

With one foot on the lake and one on land,
Framing within his crescent's tinted streak
A far-off picture of the Melvin peak,
Spent broken clouds the rainbow's angel spanned.

-- John Greenleaf Whittier, 1882.

I also intoduced hymns into our schedule. I'm almost ashamed to admit that we've not done this before. My thoughts were that we sing hymns in church, and the children will learn them there. But then I looked over AO's hymn rotation and was pleased to see some "old favorites" that we don't sing in our church. This month's selection is "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." I love that one.

I also baked bread and made homemade yogurt, but those deserve posts of their own. Keep an eye out!

A Tale of Two Birds

2012-01-19T11:49:00.001-05:00

Tuesday was a dreary day in our neck of the woods. At breakfast, Tiny Girl, who is now suffering from fifth disease, bless her, looked out the kitchen window and exclaimed over three very BIG birds up in the tops of our backyard trees. The birds looked black, but beyond that, identification was difficult due to the grayness of the day and the falling rain. But we persisted.

Tiny Girl Googled "huge black bird" and came up with some possibilities, which we investigated online. Only one seemed likely: the black vulture. We've seen turkey vultures here in our neighborhood before. But we could not get a clear view of this bird's head, so we were still unsure.

However, there were a few other clues. The birds high in the trees were silent. There were, as I said, three of them. They weren't gathered together in one tree, but they seemed "together." Their legs were light-colored in contrast to the rest of their bodies. And there was a murder (or flock, if you prefer) of crows haranguing these large, black birds. We've seen crows behave the same toward other vultures and hawks.

When the rain slowed to a sprinkle, I ventured out, camera in hand. I was able to get a decent shot, much to my delighted surprise. While I was outside, one of the birds spread its wings and held them outstretched, a behavior we've observed in turkey vultures.

In the above photo, you can (sort of) make out the shape of the bird's head, but you can't really see the pattern on its wings. I could see both clearly from my spot in the yard. After I took a few more snaps, the bird silently lifted off and soared away.

With all the information we'd gathered, we positively identified these birds as black vultures.

The second bird in my tale makes me happy every day. It's a solar dancing penguin. I'm fortunate to have two of them in my kitchen window because each of my daughters received one in a birthday favor bag from a friend. When sunlight hits the small screen on the white base, the little penguins rock back and forth. One of them is a sedate waltzer; its rock is in a series of four with a pause between each series. The other is more frenetic, rocking energetically and continuously.

What can I say? It doesn't take much to make me smile.

Is It Worth Reading?

2012-01-15T15:00:00.001-05:00

I'm slogging through Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. This book had been recommended to me by several people whose tastes I respect. It's also been lauded by strangers: a lady in the doctor's waiting room saw me with it and said, "You're going to love that book."

Well. I don't.

I'm in the second part, and I find the book mildly entertaining at best. So what to do? If you find yourself in the same boat, what do you do? Do you hang in there, hoping that you'll end up agreeing with the book's admirers? Or do you throw in the towel and move on to something else. After all, life is short.

Thoughts? Ideas?

New Books on the Way!

2012-01-14T17:42:00.004-05:00

Recently, the girls have hit a wall regarding their independent reading. Perhaps I shouldn't admit this, but they much prefer many of AO's free reads as read-alouds as opposed to personal selections. So I pulled out my much-loved Honey for a Child's Heart and surveyed some options.

I've always loved poring over this wonderful annotated bibliography of children's books. Of course, it's much more than just a book of lists; Gladys Hunt's opinions and perspectives on reading mesh well with my own, and have actually informed my expanding viewpoint on literature's great value. Of course, she's preaching to the choir when I read her work; I have a master's degree in English. But I find her words exhilarating and empowering all the same.

I also use Honey for a Child's Heart as a checklist. I mark off those books the girls have read and make note of other works by the same authors. In the past, I've also highlighted those titles that are on other lists I consult, such as AO's free reading lists. These guide me in making informed choices.

As an added bonus, I've earned an admirable amount of points on Paperback Swap. Time to shop!

So I sat at the computer and compared Paperback Swap's offerings with my list. Of course, not everything was available. In one or two cases, I chose a title that wasn't on the list but either its author was (other books listed) or one of the girls had already read and enjoyed a book(s) by said author.

Here's what's on the way to us:

The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson
Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes
Our Only May Amelia, by Jennifer L. Holm
The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
Mysterious Miss Slade, by Dick King-Smith
The Children of Green Knowe, by L. M. Boston
Bluish, by Virginia Hamilton

Since Miss Priss is on the cusp of teenage-dom (small shudder -- I can't believe it and I'm not ready for it!), I also have on my shelf of resources Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Teen's Heart. It never hurts to be prepared.

Happy reading!

Weekly Happenings: Illness and Manic Homekeeping

2012-01-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

It had to be the caffeine.

This week of damp and now chilly weather is perfect for tea-drinking (frankly, the weather matters not in this household -- we drink tea all the time), and I brewed pots and pots of Yorkshire tea for myself. I needed the extra oomph of caffeine to handle the extra work of sick children.

We hardly touched our scheduled schoolwork. We managed a couple of readings one a couple of days, and Tiny Girl completed two math assignments. That's all anyone felt up to doing, except for naps on the couch and watching movies.

But there I was, all caffeinated up. I had to do something. So I did.

A good friend of mine recently let me borrow, for as long as I want, her KitchenAid mixer. I know! It's like when the Victoria and Albert museum permanently loaned the Marian hanging to Oxburgh House! I'd mentioned during dinner conversation that I'd like to have one, but even on sale they are pricey. She said she never uses hers; but since it was a gift from her beloved husband she can't sell it to me or even actually give it to me; but it now resides at my house for as long as I desire. Ah, how I've benefitted from her largesse.

This week, I've burned some electricity with this baby. I've made forgotten cookies, pumpkin muffins, chocolate chip cookies, and tried my hand at Our Daily Bread in a Crock. (More on the latter later.)

I was on fire. I made homemade yogurt in my crock pot. I started using homemade dryer sheets: I cut squares of fabric from worn-in and worn-out jeans and left them to soak in a small bucket of water-diluted fabric softener. To use, I wring one or two out and toss in the dryer with a load of clothes to dry. I cleaned the kitchen with a baking soda/hydrogen peroxide mixture. I mopped the kitchen floor. I made soup. I baked maple corn muffins.

But it's not all about me. Between doctor visits and when the girls felt able, they entertained themselves with a few easy projects. They worked on friendship bracelets. They played Wheel of Fortune on the Wii. Tiny Girl constructed this foam manor she received for Christmas. Note the penguins on the ski lift.

They also drank a lot of tea. Tiny Girl switched between peppermint sweetened with honey and (decaf) chai with sweet cream. Miss Priss stuck with decaf chai (sugar only).

The doctor's visit today yielded good news. Miss Priss has really improved, AND we can discontinue the oral steroid -- which resulted in behavior somewhat akin to Linda Blair in The Exorcist (a movie I ill-advisedly watched when I was sixteen. What a dumb idea.). She's still on the antibiotic, of course, and breathing treatments will continue for the next few days. Tiny Girl shows no signs of pneumonia, so her ailment is just of the virus type. She's now on the oral steroid (fingers crossed for her reaction to be better!) and will continue breathing treatments all next week. But after one day of steroid use, her cough is already MUCH improved. We are very thankful.

I'm linking up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, so pop over for some fun blog-reading!

Adventures in Frugality: Multi-Mealing

2012-01-11T14:01:00.001-05:00

Most frugal souls out there will tell you that multi-mealing (I just made that up -- clever, eh? But I bet someone else beat me to it) is a subject that is near and dear to our hearts. You know, cook something once then make other meals with the leftovers. Since I like to get the most bang for my grocery buck, I tend to multi-meal whenever I can.

For example, I cooked up a mess of collards for New Year's. (Yes, I am the only one who eats them, but why not? Greens are good for you.) After eating them a couple of times as is, I tweaked them to make something a bit different. I drained a can of great northern beans, tossed that in with the collards, and then covered everything with some water. I stirred in some ham base and onions. Ta da! Soup!

That was no big deal. A couple of days ago, I oven-roasted a nice, bone-in pork shoulder, which I'd bought on sale. Despite my following the directions, it was not cooked through at suppertime; so I sliced off some, zapped it in the microwave for a minute, and we ate it for supper. The next day, I put the remaining roast in my cast iron Dutch oven, poured in two cups of water, and put it in a 325 degree oven for a few hours.

Friends, it was amazing. It fell off the bone and was so meltingly tender I nearly swooned. I shredded the meat, which we ate on buns with barbecue sauce.

Two days later, I chopped some of the meat finely in my food processor and then added some of its broth and some spices: chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I didn't measure a thing. After heating the meat, I spooned some onto warm tortillas and served with chopped tomato, lettuce, taco sauce, sour cream, and shredded cheese.

I still have quite a bit of pork left, which I'm going to freeze. Talk about multi-mealing!

Now. Keep in mind that I have a smaller-sized family: two children, both of whom eat small helpings of most things except dessert and popcorn, and two adults. So I may get more meals than your family would.

Multi-mealing does require a bit of thought, but it becomes more natural the more you do it. With my multi-mealing perspective firmly in place, I now tend to re-think leftovers. Instead of simply serving that chicken again, as is, I might boil the meat off the bones (I detest picking meat off bones -- it grosses me out), which rewards me with a nice broth for soup (or cooking veggies) AND chicken, which I either use right away in a casserole, dumplings, or pot pie OR freeze for later use. Leftover spaghetti sauce gets tossed in the freezer for use in soup, chili, or as pizza sauce.

My guess is that you already know all this stuff. I grew up with parents who'd been raised on farms. Farm people multi-meal naturally. But for me, there was a gap between knowing it and making an intentional effort to do it.

Another bonus: throwing out spoiled leftovers that languished in the fridge for far too long is a wasteful thing of the past.

A New Diagnosis

2012-01-10T12:40:00.000-05:00

I may as well give up for the week! The doctor diagnosed Miss Priss with pneumonia this morning, and now Tiny Girl is also on breathing treatments for her cough. I am so thankful for a lot today:

- good medical care
- medicines in our reach, like Orapred and Augmentin
- home nebulizer machines that keep children out of the hospital
- the girls feel well enough to continue our readings (with my reading aloud)

Situations like these clutch at my heart for those who are less fortunate than we. What if I couldn't get the medicine? Or it was too expensive? What if a home nebulizer machine was out of my reach? How would I face a restrictive list of options while my child struggles to breathe?

I have fears for my child's health, of course, but I also know she's getting the best medical care. And that certainty is priceless. What if I knew more could be done, but I couldn't afford it? What would it be like to suffer that particular certainty? I could attempt to empathize, but that's just Method acting and guesswork.

So while I snuggle with my precious children, I can't stop thinking about other precious children who suffer. I know the Lord is at work within me.

"Do you see the least of them?" He asks me. "Do you see them?"

Foiled Again! When Life Gets in the Way of My Plans

2012-01-09T21:27:00.000-05:00

Today was the day we were going to get back up to speed after a three weeks' holiday. The study was reorganized, the plans were revamped a wee bit, and everything was in place for a triumphant first week of lessons for 2012.

So of course something had to go wrong.

This past Friday, Miss Priss awoke with a mild fever, congestion, and complaints of chest tightness. She suffers from asthma (not acute, but she does take two meds every day for ten months out of the year), so any chest issues make her mama nervous. Off to the doctor we went. After a strep test (negative), blood test (counts were a little off), and a chest X-ray for pneumonia (also negative), we trooped back home with instructions to use her nebulizer machine every four hours and come back on Tuesday.

We tussled with a fever all weekend; last night, it reached a high of 103.3, but today the highest was 101.5. She had chills this afternoon and generally feels yucky. We'll see what the doctor says tomorrow morning.

Not to be outdone, Tiny Girl suffered her first migraine last night. It didn't completely disappear until this afternoon. Now she too has a mild fever and chills. So I'm taking her to the doctor with us tomorrow.

I ask you, ain't that always the way?

Instead of twirling into our second term, today saw me brewing herbal tea (which I do all the time, anyway), dispensing medicine, fetching cool cloths for foreheads, rewetting said cloths, and snuggling with pitiful babies on the couch. I also tried hard not to feel a tad tetchy.

But why, oh, why is it that my best-laid plans go awry? Not my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants "plans." Not my let's-see-what-happens "plans." And certainly not my let's-just-get-through-this "plans."

(Aside: it occurs to me that it's a good thing these so-called "plans" see us through when I need them to do just that. Otherwise, I might not be able to hold everything together on those days/weeks. But that's beside the point here.)

It's the plans I'm proud of, the ones I've mapped out on a spreadsheet, the ones that inspire visions shining in my imagination like the cover of a Sonlight catalog -- those are the ones that seem to beckon trouble with an irresistible bull's eye. And before I know it, I'm making new plans that have nothing to do with our lessons and everything to do with life.

Educating my children at home teaches me, too. I've loved learning academic material along with them and also seeing things I'd already learned come alive again in their eyes. But some lessons are more for me than for them. I've had to learn to be more flexible and to roll with it, baby, as Steve Winwood sings (his best song, in my opinion).

My best-intentioned plans will lose none of their glow after a few days' time on the shelf. The babies need tea, medicine, cool cloths, and their mama right now. So I changed my plans.

I squelched my tetchiness and snuggled on the couch, sipping tea as my girls napped.

Tea, the Blessed Elixir: Matcha at First Sip

2012-01-04T22:03:00.001-05:00

"When tea becomes ritual, it takes place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things."
-- Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog (one of my favorite books)

The girls and I were at the mall a couple of days ago and stopped in at one of our favorite stores, Teavana. Since we visit the mall a handful of times per year, we stocked up on an old favorite blend of ours, Youthberry and Orange Blossom, and we tried a new herbal tea: Citrus-Lavender-Sage. They were holding a sale on all tea accoutrements. I've been interested in trying real matcha tea, so I purchased an Imperial Matcha Collection, which included a tin of ceremonial matcha tea powder, a bowl (chawan), and a whisk (chasen), at a 75 percent discount. Yay!

Matcha, in case this is new to you, "refers to finely-milled green tea, most popular in Japan. The cultural activity called the Japanese tea ceremony centers on the preparation, serving, and drinking of matcha. . . . Matcha is a fine ground, powdered, high quality green tea and not the same as tea powder or green tea powder" (Wikipedia article).

Following the directions on the tin, I mixed one teaspoon of matcha with eight ounces of hot water. Then I whisked it until frothy-ish. I don't think I whisked it long or briskly enough, though. Next time I'll put more effort into it.

I was surprised at the bright green color and opaque quality of the prepared tea.

According to the Wikipedia article, matcha comes from shade-grown tea leaves; the tea bushes are covered to protect the leaves from direct sunlight. After harvesting, the leaves are laid out flat to dry. They are then called tencha (碾茶). The tencha is deveined, destemmed, and stone ground to powder (matcha).

Looking for more info, I hopped onto Teavana's matcha webpage. You can see a photo of matcha in its powder form there. Apparently, the directions on the tin are the "contemporary brewing" method, which produces a thin tea (usucha). The traditional preparation calls for one teaspoon of matcha to four ounces of hot water, resulting in a thicker tea called koicha.

Matcha is touted for its health benefits, including fiber, antioxidants, and amino acids. But I must be honest; its flavor did not knock my socks off. Teavana describes matcha as having a "smooth, complex vegetal flavor with a full palette and a silky finish." I can attest to the vegetal character. Spinach came to mind. I actually like spinach, both cooked and raw. (In fact, I regularly add raw spinach to my breakfast smoothies, along with the yogurt, water, and frozen fruit.) The "vegetality" of the matcha didn't disgust me; however, it's not something I've come to expect or anticipate in my tea.

So I added some sugar, which improved it immensely.

Will matcha replace my favorite brew? Nope. But I enjoyed learning about it. And I can always spoon some into my smoothie.

One more thing occured to me. As I stood in my twenty-first-century American kitchen, heating water, carefully measuring, and whisking my new chasen, I thought about a Zen tea master -- who had trained for years -- presiding over a somber tea ceremony in fifteenth-century Japan. We couldn't have been more different, he and I. But my actions, a mere shadow of his ritual, served as a sort of thread connecting me with the tea master in my imagination.

Some Thoughts on the New Year: Refining

2012-01-03T16:00:00.001-05:00

A very happy New Year!

My last post focused on my decluttering activities, which were an unqualified success. As far as they went. But at my house, some decluttering is far, far better than none.

Now I'm thinking about our home school. Barb, at Harmony Art Mom, recently posted this excellent article about minor changes she's making to their lesson plans, i.e., improvements and refinements, as well as helpful links to resources they are using. Both the girls and I feel we need to do some revamping and refining around our house and school, too.

Here are my targets:

Be more organized. This fall, we all felt less organized and more scattered than we have in years past. It did not help matters that the study was a disaster. Also, I fell asleep at the wheel on our chore rotation, figuring I'd just ask the children to attend to chores as they arose. Let me now proclaim loudly that This Does NOT Work Well.
Be more liberal. We did no Shakespeare, artist study, or composer study this past term. I hate that, because, for me, these pursuits are the hallmark of a well-rounded education. I cannot say for certain why we neglected them, but my guess is that bullet point number one may have had something to do with it. Hmmm.
Be more intentional. The girls read more "fluffy" books this past fall and fewer (what I deem) quality selections. I like cotton candy now and again, myself; but one cannot make a steady diet of the stuff and come out better for it. To be honest, they gave me more grief about some of the titles I suggested, and I gave in. No more! Going foward, I will assign a literature reading from the AO free reads list; they can read fluff on their own time.
Be more focused. In the past few months, I found myself scurrying around doing too much and not doing any of it well. I tended to squeeze lessons in with my home management activities. Some of you may do this effortlessly; I felt as if I were spinning plates -- badly. While multitasking is a useful skill that has its place, it's out of place in our home school.

I know some of these are a bit vague -- like #4. I'm not certain exactly how I'm going to accomplish all these goals. (Any advice will be appreciated, by the way!) But I am uncomfortable enough to want to make the changes; for me, that's the essential step.

Some Thoughts on the New Year: Decluttering (Yawn!)

2011-12-31T17:58:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you, but I never make New Year's resolutions. I have enough failures upon which to ruminate should I so desire; why add to the list?

However, I do like to contemplate fresh starts, clean starts, if you will. And in that spirit, I've been hard at work here at home. The first order of business: our study.

Command Central: the computer and desk

When one begins a large project, say, the cleaning out and reorganization of one's study (schoolroom, kitchen, closet, etc.), one often begins with energy, vigor, and enthusiasm. Here's a tip for you: keep at it until the job is complete. I had to break up my study reorg over three days. Day Two found me standing amidst piles of stuff, looking disconsolately around me, and wondering where to begin. I didn't have near the verve of Day One. And by Day Three. . . . You get the picture. It was depressing and robbed me of a portion of joy I should have had at the completion of this Herculean task.

The storage shelves were so cluttered, the girls had resorted to keeping their supplies on the floor.

So. No matter how onerous, boring, or just plain yucky the task may be, throw yourself into the job and get 'er done. That's my decluttering advice.

Our art supplies chest and my bookshelves

I thoroughly cleaned out and reorganized our art supplies chest. In fact, I amassed a nice box or new and nearly new craft items that we don't use (or won't use anymore) and have listed it on Craig's List for free.

The girls' bedrooms are on today's list. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled they are at the thought. But I am standing firm. Their rooms, which are small to begin with, now boast of a small path leading from door to bed. Every other surface -- remaining floor, bookshelves, dressers, chests, bedside tables -- is covered with all manner of things. Miss Priss, who readily admits to slobbery (if that's not a real word, it should be), happily walks on top of discarded clothes, shoes, quilts, and other sundry items that litter her floor.

Now, it's a well-known fact that I have a high tolerance for clutter. But even I cannot stand another moment.

It's the New Year. Time for a fresh, clean start.

A Blessed Christmas to You All

2011-12-25T10:20:00.002-05:00

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly minded,
for with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords in human vesture,
in the Body and the Blood
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of Light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the powers of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.

At his feet the six-winged seraph;
cherubim with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the Presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry,
"Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, Lord Most High!"

-- The Divine Liturgy of Saint James, Fourth (or Fifth) Century A.D.

Here are two renditions perfect for the mystery of the miracle. The first is an instrumental.

The second is an a cappella solo.

May the peace of Christ, which transcends all understanding, rest on you and yours this season and forevermore.

Craft and Gift Idea: Gussied-Up Picture Frames

2011-12-24T12:30:00.001-05:00

While wandering around Michaels a few weeks ago, I saw a project sheet for holiday picture frames, and I thought, "The girls could make these for their grandparents for Christmas." (Every once in while, inspiration strikes me, especially when it's right in front of my face.) So I bought four unfinished frames for $1.99 a piece, Mod Podge, and an X-ACTO blade. The girls selected scrapbooking paper, paint, and embellishments.

You know me; I never follow any directions exactly. Where's the fun in that? As a loose guide, we used the directions for the Santa frame. I never found any Terrifically Tacky tape at the store. If the girls had chosen to use ribbon on their frame edges, we would have used the Mod Podge instead. However, they both painted the edges at the same time they painted the backs.

We completed the project over two days. On the first day, the girls painted the backs and edges of their frames and left them to dry. Miss Priss chose a metallic gold paint that went well with the papers she'd selected; Tiny Girl opted for white paint.

On Day 2, it was time to trace the frame and frame opening onto the back of their scrapbooking paper.

Since I didn't relish a trip to the emergency room right before Christmas (been there, done that), I used the X-ACTO blade to cut out the tracings.

The girls then spread Mod Podge onto the backs of their cut-outs and smoothed them onto each frame.

After that, they added their embellishments. The stickers were all adhesive, so we didn't need a glue gun. Miss Priss used Mod Podge to adhere her ribbon. And here they are!

Tiny Girl's finished frames

Miss Priss's finished frames

Last night, a friend -- a high school junior whom my girls adore -- came to hang out with the girls while Himself and I attended a company Christmas dinner. "These frames are great!" she said, and added that she'd like to make some for her friends.

The frames can be fun or fancy, depending on your paper and embellishment choices. Plus, Michaels has tons of frame ideas on the company's website. Check it out to get some ideas!

Christmas Goodie: Homemade Ganache

2011-12-23T20:34:00.004-05:00

Flush with the grand success of Wednesday's salted caramel, I flung myself into today's project with gusto. Homemade ganache was my goal. I Googled around and came across this recipe from Foodie with Family. I armed myself with the necessary ingredients, chocolate and heavy cream, and sped into action.

The ingredients. Note the lovely brown bowl, which I inherited from my precious Mam-ma.

After adding the hot cream to the chocolate chips, wait five minutes and then begin to stir.

Just keep stirring until you get a bowlful of bliss.

The first cute little jar sitting amid our Christmas village.

I made two batches, which perfectly filled the four cute little jars I bought at Michaels, with a tad left over for the chef. I then adorned each jar with a Christmas-themed adhesive border from Martha Stewart Crafts(bought on clearance at Michaels) and a tag with suggested uses for the ganache. I'll give these away as gifts.
Not too shabby for a culinarily- and craft-challenged girl like me. Although I must point out that ganache is easy-peasy to make.

And don't worry that I'll become impossible to live with after a few kitchen success stories. I know better than that. When one's ambitions far outreach one's actual capabilities, one learns to expect catastophes from time to time. One also learns to savor the moment when things turn out nicely, too.

Christmas Goodies: Chewy Chocolate Drops with Salted Caramel Frosting

2011-12-23T13:47:00.000-05:00

Oh. My. Word. If ever a taste combination was fashioned in heaven, this is it.

The cookies are Soft and Chewy Chocolate Drops, the recipe for which I found on the back of a box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate squares. The recipe calls for a glaze of melted Cool Whip mixed with melted semi-sweet chocolate. However, I used the salted caramel frosting I made yesterday.

And I am so glad I did.

With my handy-dandy Pampered Chef cupcake decorating kit, I piped a swirl of frosting atop each little cookie.

Then I arranged them in cookie boxes I bought at Michaels for neighbor gifts. Not all of them, mind you. Some stayed here to spend Christmas with me.

Aren't they precious?

Each bite is a tiny bit of joy.

Christmas Goodies: Salted Caramel and Salted Caramel Frosting

2011-12-21T20:53:00.001-05:00

So far, my Christmas baking has gone well. Not one catastrophe yet. So I thought I'd up the ante and try my hand at salted caramel frosting.

I found two recipes I liked, the first from Daydreamer Desserts and the second from Blackberry Farm. The first recipe calls only for sugar, water, vanilla, heavy cream, and salt. The second uses different amounts of those ingredients and adds butter and lemon juice as well.

I attempted the Daydreamer's recipe first. It was a debacle. Since she's had success, I can only assume it was my fault. No surprise there. Here's what I ended up with:

Chunks of rock candy in vanilla cream. It was actually tasty, but not what I'd hoped for. Plus, it wouldn't make good frosting. If I'd saved the cream to sweeten my coffee tomorrow morning, I'd have to call this one a minor, albeit surprising, success. Alas, I poured it out along with most of the sugar chunks.

So then I tried Blackberry Farm's salted caramel recipe. All went smoothly, and I ended up with a bowlful of delectable, gorgeous caramel.

The sugar, water, and corn syrup bubbling away.

The sugar syrup turning amber.

The finished salted caramel. Ahhhh....

When it came to making the frosting, I opted to go with Daydreamer's version, which calls for butter, confectioner's sugar, salted caramel, and salt. Blackberry Farm adds cream cheese, which I am sure is wonderful. However, I wanted a pure salted caramel flavor this time. And, since this recipe calls for merely 1/3 cup of the salted caramel, I had some left over. Woot!

It was all I could do to keep from sticking my face in the bowl.

Tiny Girl showing off the frosting. After I took the photo, she dug in!

This, my friends, is ambrosial perfection. And it's waiting in my fridge.

I'll let you know its final destiny tomorrow....

Christmas Baking: Butter Mint Cookies

2011-12-20T14:09:00.002-05:00

I'm enjoying my second foray into Christmas baking this season, the first being the cut-out cookies for our Girl Scout meeting. So here's what's in the oven at my house this afternoon:

Butter Mint Cookies
1 cup butter mints
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 T water
1 t vanilla
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour

Finely crush the butter mints. (I used my small food processor, and it made such a racket that both dogs started barking hysterically.) Pour crushed mints into a medium bowl. In another bowl, beat butter at high speed for 30 seconds. add 1/4 cup crushed mint and the powdered sugar. Beat until combined, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the water and vanilla. Beat in as much flour as you can, and then stir in the rest with a wooden spoon. (I was able to beat in all the flour.) Cover and chill dough for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake about 15 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Cool for one minute on a wire rack. Pour remaining crushed butter mints into a bag. Shake warm cookies, two at a time, in the bag of crushed mints to coat them. Cool completely on wire racks.

These turned out to be quite tasty, like a minty shortbread. The girls did not care for them, but Jasper and I did (one fell on the floor, to Jasper's delight). Later today, I'll brew a cup of tea and enjoy one or two of these alongside.

Backyard Sighting: Cooper's Hawk

2011-12-14T16:24:00.001-05:00

I happened to glance outside my bathroom window just in time to see a Cooper's hawk land on the deck railing below. My camera was downstairs (of course!), so I contented myself with spying on it for a minute or two before it soared away.

I can hear you now. So, Ellen, how do you know that it was a Cooper's hawk and not the similar-looking sharp-shinned hawk? Well, it just so happened that I did NOT know for certain, so I did a bit o' research, as is my wont. I came upon a wonderful article, Tricky Bird IDs: Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk, from Project FeederWatch, which cleared up the conundrum. Now I know my particular hawk was a Cooper's.

As much as I like seeing hawks -- we mostly see red-tailed hawks in our backyard -- I admit to a touch of anxiety when they stalk our feeders. Yes, I know they need to eat, too, and that their entree of choice is other small birds. But I don't like witnessing such National Geographic moments in my face and in real time. You know, in reality.

For your viewing pleasure (not in real time or reality), here's a photo I found on the GeorgiaInfo webpage:

Photo by Vicki DeLoach

In addition to this hawk, we were glad to see the dark-eyed juncos arrive! What are you seeing in your backyard this winter?

Book Review: Great Joy, by Kate DiCamillo

2011-12-13T17:14:00.000-05:00

Like many of you, we have our favorite Christmas books that we re-read every year, and I also love to find new ones to add to our enjoyment. Last Sunday, I saw Great Joy, by Kate DiCamillo, in our church library's Christmas display, and I snatched it up. Ever since we read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane we've been DiCamillo fans.

Great Joy is a picture book, gorgeously illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (who also illustrated Edward Tulane), and the girls and I snuggled on the couch last week to read it together. This is one of those rich and layered stories best enjoyed by older children and adults. This is not to say a young child wouldn't love it; but the themes of homelessness and compassion, so delicately interwoven in the fabric of the narrative, are certain to spark thoughtful discussions between you and your children.

Here are some questions that came to us:

What prompts Frances's concern for the organ grinder and his monkey?
Why might Frances be especially attuned to their situation?
What might be an explanation for Frances's mother's response?
Why do you think the organ grinder responded to Frances's invitation as he did?
Are all the problems solved at the end of the story? How is this realistic?
How would you continue the story?

This simple yet powerful story will stay with me for a very long time.

Weekly Happenings: Rollin' On

2011-12-10T13:28:00.000-05:00

I didn't find much time to post this week -- a disappointment. I wrote down some ideas, but I have been busy with other things, not the least of which is looking for some paying freelance work.

But we're rollin' on with our lessons! We're enjoying our advent candle, which we light during our morning devotion and prayer time. And we've also enjoyed some of the chocolate from Tiny Girl's advent garland. One of the notes this past week asked us to call someone we hadn't talked to in a while. So I phoned a dear friend, an elderly gentleman who is our neighbor in Maine. He spends winter in New Jersey. It was good to hear his voice.

Here are some highlights from the week.

Howard Pyle's King Arthur stories and Plutarch's "Poplicola" continue in their vaunted position as favorites. We do wonder when the ousted king of Rome will give up his fight to regain the city, though. He's one tenacious guy, but one would think that, after his multiple defeats, he'd get a clue. The girls get a kick out of one of Pyle's favorite expressions, in which he likens the noise of battle to thunder. Every time I come across that in our reading, I say (dramatically, of course), ". . . with a tumult like to a monstrous roaring of . . ." and the girls shout, "Thunder!"

In the Storybook of Science, it was spiders again, this time the epeira. We wre intrigued by Fabre's detailed description of this spider's web-weaving. Did you know that the word epeira comes from the Greek eirein, meaning "to fasten in rows, string together"? Neither did I until I looked it up on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. (Another point of note: "Epeira is currently in the bottom 10% of lookups on Merriam-Webster.com." I'm not really surprised; are you?)

Our favorite thing this week was that we took some time on Thursday to visit our local dollar theater to see Dolphin Tale, which was marvelous. We highly recommend it. The movie was a celebration, in part, of the remocal of Miss Priss's cast. Woo hoo! No more playing beauty parlor at the kitchen sink!

Our Girl Scout Cadettes had a blast decorating cut-out cookies for a local charity. They ate a few, too, of course. They were pleasantly surprised that the cookies were just as good (better, in my opinion) naked as they were frosted. If you missed my post of that particular recipe, click here.

Our other activities rolled along, too: riding, piano, drama, choir, and mid-week Bible study. Next week is the children's Christmas program at church!

I hope you had a great week! I'm linking up with The Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Join us!

Simply The Best Recipe for Cookie Cutouts

2011-12-06T18:36:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know that's a bodacious claim, but I believe it to be true. Deliciously, lip-smackingly true. A delicate-tasting cookie with more flair than your basic sugar cookie cutout, these are even wonderful plain -- sans icing or frou-frou decorations. Although both are fun!

Our Girl Scout troop is going to decorate Christmas cookies for a local charity at our next meeting. I'm making the cookies and icing ahead of time. Regular sugar cookies are fine, but if you really want to surprise folks -- in a good way -- try this recipe this season.

Simply the Best Cookie Cutouts
2 ½ cups plain flour
1 t cinnamon
½ t ginger
½ t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
3/4 cup butter
½ cup honey
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg

Stir together flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Cream butter, honey, and sugar until smooth.

Beat in egg.* Stir in half the flour mixture, beating well. Beat or stir in rest of flour.

Cover and refrigerate for 1 ½ hours or until firm enough to roll and cut. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a well-floured surface (flour your rolling pin as well!), about 1/3 of the dough at a time. Cut with desired floured cutters.

Place on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies.

After the cookies cool completely, ice with your favorite cookie icing (the kind that sets up is best) and decorate in the way that makes your heart the happiest. Don't forget to much a few naked cookies!

* I emphasized this step because I forgot to do it in my first batch of dough and had to add it in after the flour. The cookies didn't suffer a bit, but it's easier to add the egg when you're supposed to.

Streaming Christmas Music -- From Europe and UK Web Radio

2011-12-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

For an interesting twist for your Christmas listening at home, check out this website: ListenLive.eu, which features radio stations in Europe and the UK streaming live on the internet. Last night, I rolled and cut out cookies while nodding along to music broadcast from France, and this morning it's the UK.

I love hearing old favorites in new (to me) arrangements, as well as songs I know and unfamiliar tunes. I've never heard Lou Rawls's wonderful rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" until I hopped on Cherie Noel last night.

And the best? No commericals! Every once in a while, a Voice says the name of the station, but that's it. On Cherie Noel, the Voice also flung out something more I couldn't comprehend. So much for my conversational French.

I'm going to work my way through the list this season just for fun. Why don't you come along?

Weekly Happenings: A Few Beginnings and Advent

2011-12-02T18:13:00.002-05:00

The house is very quiet. Himself and the girls have gone on an overnight trip out of state to see Himself's alma mater play in football play-offs. Although I've been looking forward to some quiet time alone, and I enjoy my own company, I have to admit the quiet is deafening. This must be how the dogs feel when we leave them behind.

We began two new AO Year 5 readings this week: Abraham Lincoln's World and Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis & Clark. We said goodbye to Abigail Adams last week; you can read my thoughts on that here. Other readings we enjoyed included King Arthur and His Knights, This Country of Ours, Gods and Heroes, and "Poplicola" from Plutarch's Lives.

Much to Miss Priss's revulsion, we learned about spiders and silk in Storybook of Science this week. I was so intrigued that I hopped online to find a video and more information. I blogged about my findings, and you, too, can learn more by popping over to that post. And in A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth (which is a tweak of mine; AO schedules volume 2 for Year 5), we tried our hand at a project that depicts the moon's gravitational pull on the ocean tides.

Gravitational pull project.

Our geographical study of gravity nicely coincided with our recent readings from Sir Robert S. Ball's Great Astronomers and its biography of Sir Isaac Newton. While we'd been following along quite adequately until last week, Ball's writings on Newton's gravitational studies are too esoteric even for me. We managed to understand that Newton proved mathematically Kepler's laws of observation regarding planetary movement in our solar system; but I felt we needed a bit more explanation. Turning to the online world once more, I found what I was looking for at Physics4Kids. Here's the link to the article we found most helpful.

Miss Priss has been making strides with Math Mammoth, but then I found (via Blossom at North Laurel Home & School; thanks, Blossom!) cK12.org, the home of "customizable, free, curriculum-aligned content for K-12." So we did some work in their sixth grade math program, which was a review for her. I only wish they offered a teacher's edition of this flexbook! It would save me some time. Tiny Girl began a geometry segment in MEP math, working with perimeter, area, and volume of solid figures.

We also got a handle on direct objects with our new grammar program. Read my post on that here. And we also began a new online and free French program, provided by our library system.

But it's not all been work, work, work! We managed to get in some Christmas decorating. Our tree is in all its glory, the Christmas village bedecks the top of the piano, the stockings are hung, and the nativities are gracing our foyer dresser and bookcase. Both Tiny Girl's advent garland and our advent candle, a gift from our friends from Germany who visited for Thanksgiving, add to our time of preparation.

My first nativity, a gift from my mother many years ago.

A smaller, funkier nativity, another gift from my mama.

Our Christmas village, a mix of Dollar Tree finds and handpainted treasures from Michael's.

Miss Priss, still sporting her purple cast, decorating the tree.

Today was our second morning of hard frost. Miss Priss was so taken with the hoary world that she ventured out for a few photos.

A sweet gum ball leaf in the grass, both silvered with frost

Look at the lacy edges of these tiny leaves!

Tonight I will be cutting out and baking Christmas cookies for our Girl Scout troop to decorate at Sunday's meeting. We each eat one or two, but we give the majority to a local charity for women and children. A double batch of dough chills in the fridge while I type. Perhaps this will be the kick-off to my Christmas baking bonanza! If you need something to get you started, I'll post the recipe in the next couple of days.

I'm linking up with:

Spider at Work -- With Silk

2011-12-01T14:45:00.001-05:00

The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.
-- Edwin Way Teale

Today the girls read Chapter 25, "Spiders," from The Storybook of Science, by Jean-Henri Fabre.* Uncle Paul's description of the spider spinning its web is facinating, but seeing such a work in action makes an unforgettable impression. I searched on YouTube for a video that clearly showed a spider's spinnerets in action, and this one is really nice. A few seconds into the video, the camera zooms in for a close-up view.

The Smithosonian National Museum of Natural History has an excellent article on spiders here. Although technically dense, I found especially intriguing the three paragraphs related to spider silk. Did you know that a spider can produce different types of silk to use in different ways, such as one for spinning webs, another for cocooning eggs, and yet another for wrapping captured prey? Silly me; I thought it was all the same!

Silk is also extremely tough. This article on Wikipedia states, "A frequent mistake made in the mainstream media is to confuse strength and toughness when comparing silk to other materials. As shown below in detail, weight for weight, silk is stronger than steel, but not as strong as Kevlar. Silk is, however, tougher than both [toughness being the ability to absorb energy before breaking]." The article goes on to delineate many other of silk's impressive qualities. I had no idea it is so remarkable.

At our Maine cabin, there's always a spider or two that makes a web in the corner of our picture window (outside!) or in the corner where the exterior wall and roof overhang meet on the deck. I let them be. I like watching them in action when I can, although they tend to be secretive. To me, their webs are things of beauty.

* The Storybook of Science is a new addition for science in AO Year 4, but I'd heard pleasing things about it in the past and decided we'd read it even though we're in Year 5.

Daily Grammar: A Comprehensive Grammar Website

2011-11-30T13:00:00.004-05:00

I am the King of Rome, and above grammar.
-- Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until 1437

I happened upon a thorough and well-done grammar website I wanted to share with you. Daily Grammar, which describes itself as "a great teaching tool for both public and home-schooled children, ESL students, and anyone needing to refresh English grammar skills," offers 440 free lessons and 88 associated quizzes. Click on the Archives button at the top of the page to access the lessons.

The Archives are very simple to use. Lessons are arranged in two ways: by number, e.g., "Lessons 71-75 -- Prepositions," and by subject, which functions like an index. Just click on the hyperlink of the lesson(s) you need. Each lesson comprises a blessedly brief (but not too succinct) explanation with examples and then five sentences or items in which the student identifies the part(s) of speech or part(s) of a sentence or supplies information as instructed.

Another most helpful feature is a Glossary defining grammar terms. Each definition also includes hyperlinks to that term's associated lessons.

Daily Grammar offers a workbook and ebook available for sale; however, I have found the free lessons to be more than sufficient for our grammar needs at this level.

Grammar, which knows how to control even kings.
-- Moliere

Take that, Sigismund!

A "Study, Pray, and Serve" Advent Garland

2011-11-29T08:00:00.002-05:00

In Sunday school this past weekend, Tiny Girl made what I call an "advent garland." It's now draped across the fireplace mantel in our family room.

It's made of plastic wrap, curling ribbon, ornament-shaped cards with notes printed on them, and Hershey's Kisses.

The notes on each paper ornament include Bible verses to look up and read aloud; good deeds to do, such as "Contribute a toy to a toy drive for children who don't have toys"; specific prayers to say; and many opportunities for family discussions. After completion of the day's "task," the children can enjoy a Kiss.

I found instructions for making a similar garland here at Vanilla Joy; in her version, Kelsey tucks Scripture readings in with the candy, and she only uses one piece of candy per bundle. Tiny Girl's garland attaches the paper ornaments with the curling ribbon when tying off the Kisses bundles, and includes two candy pieces: one for her and the other for Miss Priss.

You might be inclined to have each child in your family make his or her own advent garland, perhaps with different Scripture readings (or individual verses of a reading), good deeds, service opportunities at home and/or in the community, prayers, and topics for family discussion pertinent to the season.

What I love about this advent garland is that it actively engages children in both study and service, making the countdown to Christmas more meaningful.

Closing the Book and Saying Goodbye

2011-11-27T12:51:00.001-05:00

We finished Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution, an AO biography for Year 4, the day before Thanksgiving, and it was like saying goodbye to a friend. The last few paragraphs I read through tears. Even Tiny Girl, who did not like this book at the beginning, was sad to see her go.

I wish I could have known Abigail. I am sure her industry would have shamed me, but oh, to witness her quiet strength, to learn from her uncommon wisdom, and to share, even in the smallest fashion, her experiences would be astonishing.

And what a time to be alive! It was certainly a time of grave uncertainty and horror, not merely due to the events leading up to a revolution, but also due to the immense difficulties of the every day, the spider's web-fragility of life. Abigail and her contemporaries suffered losses and trials many of us avoid today due to our improved health care knowledge and resources.

The lack of education for girls greatly irritated the young Abigail, and as an adult, she deeply believed in women's primary role as wives, mothers, nurturers, and healers. But she also believed that husbands and wives were equal partners in life. The precarious position of women in society prompted her to write to her husband:

... and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.

Along with the confusion, anxiety, and fear of war came to chance to create something new. Abigail, through John, was greatly involved in these events. John sent her "a feast of letters" detailing events in Philadelphia, and Abigail followed military operations on her own map. Joh relied on her to run their farm, but he also relied on her good sense and wisdom, which she sent in numerous letters of her own.

Reading this most wonderful book allowed my children and me to live vicariously though Abigail. We were concerned when she faced difficulties, like her many and long separations from John, her "dearest friend." We were sad when she grieved her losses. We appreciated her wit, so evident in her letters to others. We, too, wondered at the outcome of events. We watched the birth of the United States. Together, we learned much.

As for me, I've so often longed for a quiet life, but Abigail had something to say to me about that wish. On her way to join John in Europe, Abigail's ship endured a dead calm, which left the ship motionless. She wrote: "a Calm is not desireable in any situation in life. . . . Every object is most Beautiful in motion, a ship under sail trees gently agitated with the wind & a fine woman danceing (sic). . . man was made for action" (p. 124). And so am I.

What a lovely, blessed life to celebrate!

P.S. If you're interested in reading more of Abigail's letters to John and others, please see, About.com's page on John and Abigail Adams, which features links to digital bookshelves.

A Heart Full of Thanks

2011-11-24T08:35:00.001-05:00

A heart full of thanks is one of the greatest blessings.

We are packing up to make the trip to my cousin's house for our extended family Thanksgiving. My mother is the ninth of ten children, so there is always a large gathering -- typically around 70 people -- and that's not all of us, either!

Children run in and out, a few of the younger males congregate around the TV to watch football, the more senior members gather in the sunroom to chat, and someone usually plays a few tunes on the piano while others sing. It's really great fun. It's also my favorite day of the year.

And the food! With everyone bringing a dish or two, our buffet line is bounteous. Turkey, of course, along with ham, casseroles, salads, other side dishes, and homemade yeast rolls. My sweet aunt who always made her famous dressing passed away this summer; I wonder if someone else will attempt her recipe. I hope so. In keeping up traditions, we pass on the important things to our next generation.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Chocolate Thanksgiving Dessert

2011-11-23T16:47:00.000-05:00

Every Thanksgiving, my extended family gathers at my cousin's house for a big potluck hoopla. (More on this later.) Since it's about an hour and a half from my house, I can't bring anything that needs to stay hot, so I tend to select a dessert, salad, or appetizer. This year I'm bringing a dessert for the dessert buffet table, and my offering is Anne Byrn's "Darn Good Chocolate Cake," a Bundt cake featured in her cookbook, Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor (page 116-117).

Darn Good Chocolate Cake, by Anne Byrn (with notes from me)
1 pkg (18.25 ounces) devil's food or dark chocolate fudge cake mix (I chose Duncan Hines devil's food because all Duncan Hines cake mixes were BOGO)
1 pkg (3.9 ounces) chocolate instant pudding mix (Be careful here! Jell-O brand was the only instant that measured correctly)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water*
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark chips)

* You know I tinker with recipes. Instead of using plain water, I heated 1/2 cup of water in my microwave til hot and then stirred in one heaping teaspoon of instant coffee. I let it cool before proceeding with the recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray with nonstick spray and then flour a 12-cup Bundt pan, shaking out excess flour, and set aside. (I used Pam for Baking, which includes flour.) Place in a large mixing bowl cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, water, oil, and eggs.

Blend with electric mixer on low for 1 minute. Stop machine and scrape down sides of bowl. Blend for 2-3 minutes more on medium, stopping to scrape down sides again if needed. Batter will be thick. Fold in chocolate chips, distributing them well throughout the batter.

Velvety smooth goodness!

Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth out with rubber spatula.

Place pan in oven. Bake til it springs back when touched lightly, about 58 to 62 minutes. Remove pan from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around edge of cake and invert it onto a rack to cool completely.

At this point, you could dust with confectioners sugar, but I did as Byrn suggests. I gilded the lily with her "Martha's Chocolate Icing," because, with chocolate, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing.

Martha's Chocolate Icing
1 cup granulated sugar
5 T butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat sugar, butter, and milk in a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir til mixture comes to a boil. Continue stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips, stirring until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Pour icing over cake and let it flow over the sides.

I opted to use a ladle to pour the icing, and I found it set up quickly, hence the uneven appearance. I tried to smooth it out with a spatula, but that made things worse, so I let well enough alone. There was a bit of icing left over, which I quickly scarfed down. That stuff is wonderful!

The cake is now resting in my cake saver, awaiting the moment tomorrow when it will be revealed in all its glory.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Going On Right Now...

2011-11-22T16:20:00.000-05:00

Oh, my word. Have we been busy! This past weekend was the horse show season finale for one of our state's largest equestrian association, and Tiny Girl qualified. We were at the equestrian park most of Thursday AND Friday, from 6:30 AM til 2:00 PM Saturday, and from 10 AM til 3:30 PM on Sunday. My folks spent Friday and Saturday nights with us to watch her compete. On Saturday, she won three eight-place ribbons out of 18 other riders, so we were happy for her. But during Sunday's derby, her pony, Tappy, ran out on one of the 10 jumps (she ran around the jump), so they didn't make the cut. It was a shame because the rest of the course was beautiful. Ah, well.

Last night was the Christmas piano recital. Miss Priss, bless her heart, had to sit out this year; her cast for the broken right wrist keeps her from playing.

Today, we made sandwiches for a homeless shelter downtown. Several of our church members are going there on Thanksgiving Day to serve the men, and we're also providing bag lunches for the next day. The girls and I made four loaves of sandwiches and also provided packs of cookies. And this evening, tonight's my night to cook supper for a neighborhood family whose son was just released from the hospital following surgery.

Since our school week was cut short last week, we are catching up on some readings and working on multiplication tables this week. And of course we're gearing up for our family Thanksgiving. More on that tomorrow!

What's going on at your house right now?

Adventures in Frugality: Potato Soup

2011-11-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

This has been a super-busy week for us; more on this later. However, one night I threw together a really nice potato soup that began with a recipe and then I changed most of it. Typical. Here's exactly what I did. Feel free to alter at your pleasure.

Potato Soup
Eight cups water
Six heaping tsp Better than Bouillon chicken (a real measuring tsp, not flatware)
5 red potatoes, peeled and chopped
onion powder to taste
cut-up ham (I had some leftover and I just used that; I didn't even measure it)
1 cup half-and-half
2 1/2 generous handsful of shredded Cheddar

Bring water and bouillon to boil and add potatoes. Cook til tender. Reduce heat to low. Scoop out at least half of the potatoes with some liquid and carefully blend in a blender til smooth. Pour back into soup pot. Add ham, half-and-half, and Cheddar. Stir til cheese is melted and soup is heated through. Serve.

If you happened to have any on hand, sour cream and/or chives would be a nice touch. I pureed half the potatoes because I didn't have any (and never do, actually) dried potato flakes, which so many potato soup recipes use as a thickener.

The girls and I loved this; Himself enjoyed it, but pronounced it "very soupy." He prefers his potato soup thicker and chunkier. If you do, too, simply reduce the water (and bouillon) and skip the pureeing.

Ah, soup. One of the best delights of chilly weather, to my way of thinking.

Fine Autumn Fare: Busy Lady's Cassoulet

2011-11-13T18:05:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in my latest post about book club that I planned to serve a fake cassoulet. It was well received! I started out with a recipe I found online, and then I altered it quite a bit, as I am wont to do. Here's the recipe, which I made up as I went along.

Busy Lady's Cassoulet
This is best made one to two days ahead for flavors to blend.

3 slices of thick bacon, coarsely chopped
2 lbs fully cooked smoked sausages, cut into rounds and casings removed (I used 1/3 Andouille and 2/3 kielbasa. Use all kielbasa for less heat.)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp jarred chopped garlic
1 T chopped fresh rosemary
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup red wine
3 15-oz cans Grest Northern beans, drained
2 14 1/2-oz cans diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups chicken broth (I used 1 cup water mixed with 1 tsp Better than Bouillon chicken base AND one cup homemade chicken broth I had saved in the freezer)
3 T tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 to 2 cups chopped cooked chicken

Panko bread crumbs
2 T butter
Big handful shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook bacon in a heavy large ovenproof pot (I used a cast iron Dutch oven) until brown and crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove to a bowl. add sausages to drippings in pot and saute until brown. transfer to bowl with bacon. Add onions and garlic to pot and cook until beginning to soften. Stir in rosemary, thyme, and red wine. Simmer a minute, then stir in beans, tomatoes with juices, chicken broth, tomato paste, allspice, and cooked chicken. Return meats to pot and bring to a boil. Cover pot and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover, cool one hour, and refrigerate covered til next day or so.

When I was ready to continue the next day, I transferred the cassoulet to a rustic pottery baking dish I have because I wanted everyone to have some breadcrumb topping; the Dutch oven is deep.

To continue: bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, adding more broth of dry. Meanwhile, melt butter and mix into panko breadcrumbs with a fork. Then mix in parmesan. Sprinkle over cassoulet. Increase oven temp to 400 degrees and bake uncovered til topping is golden.

This makes a delightful fall or winter meal and is much easier than traditional cassoulet. Crusty French bread is a natural accompaniment, as is a nice red wine. I served Bogle Cabernet Sauvignon.

Make plans to try it on a particularly chilly evening!

Weekly Happenings: When Things Go Wrong

2011-11-11T16:58:00.000-05:00

Another busy week. This one included a few planned and a few un-looked-for events that intervened into our already packed schedule.

In my life this week:

On Monday, we were back at the orthodontist's to make new molds for Tiny Girl's replacement retainer. Did I tell you last week that the dogs managed to get the case off the kitchen table, open it, and then chew it up? Well, they did.
On Tuesday, Georgette was spayed and has thus been sporting the so-called Cone of Shame (from the movie Up) all week. Today we noticed her incision was seeping and reddish, so off to the vet we went. The verdict: a bit of infection and some pulling. We need to do a better job keeping her still and quiet. A five-and-a-half-month-old puppy.
Also on Tuesday, I had to put my van in the shop for leaking oil and I attended the women's Thank Offering service at my church. Thankfully, my dear friend, Carol, was able to taxi me around.
Last night I hosted book club. It was lovely and fun, as usual. It also took some shopping, preparation, and cleaning time, which I enjoyed (okay, maybe not the cleaning, but I enjoyed the result).
Also last night, about an hour before the book club ladies were due to appear, Miss Priss came home from a friend's house with a hurt forearm and wrist. She was in a lot of pain, but Himself (who was out to dinner with friends) and I decided to wait and see what the morning held. The verdict: this afternoon's x-ray revealed a broken wrist. Now she's sporting a purple cast.
Tonight we are going out to dinner with two fraternity brothers of Himself, one of whom lives here and is bringing his family, and the other who is in town from New England.
Tomorrow is Miss Priss's twelfth birthday party, which my parents are hosting at their home in the country. This afternoon, I made her cake (cookies and cream cake) while she was at the doctor's. Now some alterations to our plans are necessary to account for the broken wrist.

In our home school this week:
Of course, not everything was harriedly atypical. We still managed to pull off a decent week of educational pursuits. The girls are really enjoying several of our readings, i.e., King Arthur, Gods and Heroes, Abigail Adams: Wintess to a Revolution, and "Poplicola," from Plutarch's Lives. In our biography of Isaac Newton, which the girls find interesting, we began reading about his gravitational studies. Just for fun, we also watched the Schoolhouse Rock episode, "Victim of Gravity."

In this week's chapter of This Country of Ours, we read about the United States under its first president and new constitution. We've already read about these topics in George Washington's World and Abigail Adams. However, the girls noted that each author presents information a bit differently and adds or omits details. They decided they like reading different authors' takes on the same topics as it gives them a broader and deeper understanding.

I saw this in action when we watched another episode of the PBS production, Liberty! AS I've mentioned before, this is an excellent series, but, due to its nature, some information is omitted. While we watch, the girls ask us to pause the DVD so we can talk about things. Or one or the other will simply say aloud, "They left out part of that." I'm realizing how little I learned of my own country's history when I was in school.

In math, Tiny Girl worked on multi-digit multiplication as a review. Miss Priss continued with her Math Mammoth lessons. I am still pleased with this curriculum for her. She's gaining some new math confidence that was lacking before, and it makes this mama's heart happy to see it.

I'm cooking...
For supper one night this week, I made some fabulous broccoli-cheese soup, which I served in homemade bread bowls. I whipped up a fake cassoulet for book club, which everyone seemed to enjoy. I'll post recipes this weekend.

Here's a quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder, which I read in a British home decor magazine, of all things:

The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.

Sometimes things just go wrong, and we do our best to roll with it. That's what we did this week and what we're still trying to do.

I'm linking up with:

Book Club Tonight! And We're Eating Cake

2011-11-10T17:29:00.000-05:00

I've been part of my book club for many years, and it's one of the things in my life that really makes me happy. I'm grateful to Himself for encouraging me to join, indeed even asking one of the members (they worked at the same office) if there were room in the club for me.

I know some book clubs are more social than literary; ours is a mix of both. We have a great time together at our monthly meetings, but we also discuss the books we're read. Whoever hosts the meeting picks the book and wines and dine everyone, too.

I chose Eat Cake, by Jeanne Ray, for our November book. I've read it before, and the storyline pops into my mind from time to time. It's meatier than a beach read, but not as heavy as some we've read. Frankly, it's delightful. I'm looking forward to discussing it this evening.

For supper, I'm serving a (fake) cassoulet with crusty bread and fried green tomatoes alongside a nice red wine. The weather is cooperating with my chosen menu: it's windy and chilly outside this evening. Dessert will be ginger-pear cupcakes with creamy lemon frosting. I considered a fancy cake in keeping with our book, but I just wasn't up to it mentally or culinarily. (I'm quite certain the latter is not a word, but it suits perfectly what I wanted to convey.)

I'll leave you with this quotation from the book:

Cakes have gotten a bad rap. People equate virtue with turning down dessert. There is always one person at the table who holds up her hand when I serve the cake. No, really, I couldn't, she says, and then gives her flat stomach a conspiratorial little pat. Everyone who is pressing a fork into that first tender layer looks at the person who declined the plate, and they all think, That person is better than I am. That person has discipline. But that isn't a person with discipline, that is a person who has completely lost touch with joy. A slice of cake never made anybody fat. You don't eat the whole cake. You don't eat cake every day of your life. you take the cake when it is offered because the cake is delicious... a cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what's served on the happiest days of your life.

So I will bite into my cake this evening with relish!

Weekly Happenings: Gathering Treasures

2011-11-05T12:02:00.001-04:00

When I think back on this past week, I think of a week of gathering treasures. One of my memories is of the girls, dogs, and me snuggled in the family room one evening, reading our books while the rain poured and the wind howled outside. All was quite and cozy. I love times like that.

Earlier, I wrote a post about one of our favorite treats: pumpkin muffins. I included a link to Tricia of Hodgepodge's recipe for chocolate-chocolate chip-pumpkin muffins. Yum!

I'm reading a most delicious biography about Beatrix Potter by Linda Lear; I wrote a review of it here. Ambleside Online suggests possibly reading a biography of Potter for Year 5, but does not recommend a particular title. I'm in the process of reviewing several, some for adults and others for children. When I finish my research, I'll write a post about my findings.

We finished up our Year 4 readings of This Country of Ours, and we've almost completed Abigail Adams: Wintess to a Revolution. The latter will be like saying good-bye to an old friend when we close the cover for the last time. The girls and I have learned so much about this particular era of history. I quickly realized that my prior knowledge was quite sketchy, and I've been impressed with AO's history selections. I'm also immensely cheered by the depth and breadth of my girls' understanding of this period, both in America and abroad.

Miss Priss's drama troupe learned their play and parts this past week. The musical is Wonderland, a jazzed up version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Miss Priss was chosen for four smaller parts. She is elated!

I'm going to leave you with a well-known quote of Beatrix Potter:

"Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality."

Happy weekend!

I'm linking up with:

She Is Too Fond of Books: Review of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

2011-11-03T17:44:00.000-04:00

"Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality."

-- Beatrix Potter

I am reading a most wonderful book, and I wanted to share it with you. Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, by Linda Lear, is an in-depth biography for older teens and adults -- one might say tome -- of that most gifted naturalist, author, illustrator, and countrywoman. For me, the name Beatrix Potter brings to mind delightful children's stories of anthropomorphized animals accompanied by equally delightful watercolor illustrations. That alone was enough to interest me in her life. I'm only one-third of the way into the book, and her complexities continue to astound me.

Possessed of an inquisitive nature, an indomitable spirit, and a keen interest in natural history, Potter delved into many areas of intellectual inquiry, a samplng of which includes geology, archaeology, and mycology. Her research into mushrooms and lichens actually broke new ground, a fact not recognized in her lifetime, as she herself tried to break into the increasingly specialized arenas of the professional scientists, who were often skeptical of the amateur.

Fettered as she was with the familial obligations and social pressures of most Victorian ladies of her class, Potter declined to languish within stifling the confines of the era. But her strong desire to be useful in life was often at odds with her parents' -- particularly her mother's -- expectations. Miraculously, Potter was able to balance her position as dutiful and respectful daughter with her own personal interests most of the time.

Immensely readable and engaging, Lear's biography is peppered with wel-chosen excerpts from Potter's journal, faithfully kept for many years, and her correspondence, enabling me to "hear" Potter through her own words. Although shy and somewhat reserved, Potter was no shrinking violet and stood her ground firmly when she felt she must. She also had an acerbic wit, which I find amusing.

And then there is her artwork. The book contains several photo and art pages, but not nearly enough, in my opinion. Lear does an admirable job of describing many of Potter's sketches and painings, but such descriptions merely whet my appetite to see them myself.

According to the Beatrix Potter page on the Visit Cumbria website, although Potter is "a household name around the world, her personal life and her other significant achievements remain largely unknown." Moreover, some of what we had thought we knew about Potter's life has recently been revealed as erroneous. Lear's book brings to light and life the Beatrix Potter we thought we knew.

For Love of Pumpkin Muffins

2011-11-01T15:47:00.000-04:00

Confession: I love pumpkin. I do not love pumpkin pie. And a mouthful of plain pumpkin puree is not so tasty, either. Trust me, I tried it.

But pumpkin muffins... Heaven on a plate.

We recently tried Tricia at Hodgepodge's chocolate-chocolate chip-pumpkin muffins, which only have three ingredients. Rich and darkly fudgy (I used a dark chocolate cake mix), Miss Priss and I found these to be scrumptious. Eureka! Baked in a mini muffin tin, they'd make a wonderful addition to a dessert or cookie buffet.

Since she's not a chocoholic, Tiny Girl prefers our more familiar variation on the theme, which is like pumpkin spice. Predictably, I like these, too.

Here's our recipe, from my good friend, Julie:

Pumpkin Muffins
1 box yellow cake mix
15 oz can pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix all, spoon into greased muffin tin, and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Makes about 18 muffins.

Since we don't eat all 18 muffins at a time, I freeze the leftovers in freezer bags to have on hand. Muffins are marvelous to have on hand, don't you think?

Weekly Happenings: Freaky Busy But Keepin' On

2011-10-28T22:30:00.007-04:00

The autumn leaves have been putting on a glorious show this week. The days are bright and clear, cool in the mornings but warming up in the afternoons. The nights are on the bracing side. What a beautiful time of year!

We've been busy, busy this week getting ready for ANOTHER horse show (thus, more time spent at the barn), doctor appointments, and our usual activities. So I considered this a week of essentials only. Spelling, French, poetry, grammar, copywork were all short-changed. While we spent some time on each of them, none got the full attention during the week that it deserves.

We kept up with our AO readings, math, piano, and Thinking Skills and Latin Roots for Miss Priss. In math, Miss Priss has been reviewing long division. I've been pleased with our choice of Math Mammoth for her; she is not as thrilled, but math is not her favorite subject, either. So I'm not surprised nor chagrined at her less than enthusiastic response. Long division has been challenging from the outset for her because she has trouble remembering all the steps of the algorithm. This week, we wrote out the steps together, and that helped some. As long as she remembered to refer to the steps.

In MEP Year 5, Tiny Girl has been working with time and measurement and plotting and interpreting data, as well as basic computations. I'm getting a bit of noise from her because her sister's math lessons are a bit shorter than hers. Injustice! (I find it interesting how quick they are to point out -- vehemently -- injustices as far as they themselves are concerned.)

We are completing our AO Year 4 readings. This week we finished George Washington's World! And what a great book it is. It's a world history spine in the Year 4 curriculum. All that remains is Abigail Adams:Witness to a Revolution.

We received from Netflix the first DVD in the PBS Liberty! series and watched the first episode one evening. Himself popped the popcorn. A combination of actor monologues, historian commentary, and vague dramatic scenes (you know, wagon wheels splashing through a creek, mist on a mountain, etc.), this documentary does a good job of bringing the era to life and explaining events, policies, and people within context. I especially like that the actor monologues are actual quotations from letters, journals, and the like. The girls, who balked at watching the DVD at first, ended up enjoying it. They often asked us to pause the DVD so they could comment or ask questions. I love it that they are learning so much about this period of history and actually making connections themselves! Caveat: there are some instances of strong language; e.g., Sam Adams says "kiss his ---" in one of his monologues. Best suited for older children.

I'm linking up with The Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to share our week.

I've also been invited to join a new link-up:

Stop by all these and have some fun, get some ideas, and find a bit of encouragement from others!

Have a great weekend!

Free Artist Studies from Concordia University

2011-10-24T16:20:00.000-04:00

Kudos again to the Homeschool Freebie of the Day website for letting me know (via their weekly email subscription) about this resource.

Concordia University in Chicago has developed FREE monthly artist study lesson plans for grades one through six. Here's a link to the site. I looked over their offerings and selected the plans for grades two, four, and six and dowloaded the Adobe file.

Northern River, by Tom Thomson, featured artist for Lesson 2, Grade 6

Each plan provides a biography of each month's featured artist and background information on the selected artwork. The the plan suggests ways to lead students in "directed observation" of the piece, which consists of several questions and things to consider. The plan wraps up with a Things to Do section for students, offering options for their own artwork or comparisons with other pieces by the same artist.

Since picture/artist study is not my strong suit (read: I need all the help I can get), I'm looking forward to utilizing this resource in our home school.

Weekly Happenings: Finally, A Field Trip!

2011-10-23T22:35:00.002-04:00

The idea of field trips appeal to me, but I have a hard time finding time in our schedule to accommodate any. So it's nice when a homeschooling friend calls and invites us to one. It's especially nice when that field trip educates us on our own town.

Isn't it funny how you often know more about other places than your own?

The girls and I learned a lot about the history of our town by watching a video and listening to a speaker at the visitors center. After a picnic lunch, we hiked through an old part of town, where we saw "the Bricks," apartments built for millworkers prior to the Civil War and some of the oldest apartments in the United States. They are now lovely townhomes. Meandering past the historic sites of the old mills, which were burned during the Civil War, we hiked through woods to the antebellum-era dam and waterfall, which powered the mills.

Along the way, I snapped some photos of wildflowers we saw. The only ones I can identify are the purple morning glories, which are annuals and have to be planted each year. I wonder how these came to be alongside the trail. Birds, perhaps? Or maybe there are actually folks who plant them each spring.

The dam and waterfall, which powered the mills more than 150 years ago

Besides our field trip, we've enjoyed other activities, too. Last weekend, we attended a UKC dog show in another state. In the photo below, breeder extraordinaire, Leslie Reed, and the girls are showing the three amigos (and siblings) in the puppy match. Charity, the pup on the far right, won! That's our precious Georgette in the middle, and Tony's on the left.

This weekend, Tiny Girl competed in horse shows both Saturday and Sunday. Himself was Super Special Show Dad on Saturday, as I was attended Girl Scout training all day at a facility about 1 1/2 hours away from home. On Sunday, I took over equestrian pursuits, while Himself and Miss Priss attended both church services for Music Dedication Sunday. Miss Priss's middle school choir sang.

Tiny Girl and Tappy

Educational highlights:

Inspired by the name cards exchange in Little Town on the Prairie, the girls made their own out of colored cardstock.

Miss Priss is making great strides with the Math Mammoth curriculum, new for us this year. It's really boosted her math confidence, which had been lacking.

"Poplicola" from Plutarch's Lives and Gods and Heroes continue to be favorite readings. Miss Priss also cheers when it's time for Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution. Tiny Girl's response is a tad less enthusiastic, but at least she doesn't gag. Right?

Here's a quote that caught my eye in the book Im reading, A Little House Sampler, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane. The quote comes from one of Laura's Missouri Ruralist columns, from 1919:

"Why should we need extra time to in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at slated intervals, when we can get tijme, or when we have nothing else to do."

I need to remember this every day. Now here are two who enjoy life every day!

Jasper and Georgette, taking a break from rough-housing at the dog show.

I'm linking up with The Homeschool Mother's Journal. Pop over and read some blogs! And have a fabulous week!

Keeping the Sabbath

2011-10-18T17:57:00.000-04:00

Last week, I started a new Bible study called Brave, by Angela Thomas. It's my neighborhood study, which I've attended for years. Whatever Carol, the teacher (and one of my dearest friends) chooses as the curriculum is fine by me. Who wouldn't want to be brave, right?

So I was surprised when I delved into the first week's work and found that the topic was weariness. Actually, I wasn't surprised as much as I was struck. I've been weary for a while now, not just in body but in spirit, too. It really couldn't be a coincidence. Could it?

Well, in a word, no. There are no coincidences with God.

But just so you know, I am not one of those women who can say with confidence, "God told me to... (fill in the blank)." God doesn't really tell me anything. I sort of baby-step along, and if a red flag pops up or I feel miserable about something, then I pretty much know that's a NO from God. It's all very What About Bob? in my life. (Aside: What About Bob? is a funny movie if you haven't seen it. Very quotable, which in my house, makes it a good thing. Bob baby-steps a lot.)

Back to Brave. And weariness.

One of many excellent points Angela makes in this study is the importance of a Sabbath rest: "The Sabbath rest is God's gift to us" (p. 23). She goes on to say, "To observe the Sabbath we should worship the Lord and rest from our work. . . . On the Sabbath I rest from my work and all the words and studying. To make dinner for my family is a joy for me. It restores me. I believe I have permission from God to enjoy what feels like rest for me" (ibid.).

In years past, I've had more of a Sabbath attitude than I do now. Saturdays were usually errand and work days, and I left Sundays for reading or crocheting while Himself watched sports on TV or (yes!) even napping. All after church, of course.

But things have changed. My Saturdays are often busy with my children's activities, which leaves Sundays for school planning, errands, work around the house, etc. This is clearly not working for me. Why have I ignored God's gift to me?

Caught up in the busy-ness of our lives, I have viewed the day of rest as another day in which to get things done. And instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment, I've felt exhausted.

I need to get back into a Sabbath mindset. But what does that look like in my life? After a bit of thought, I believe it means a day of no planning, no schoolwork, no computer. I'd also like for it to be a day of low cooking and housekeeping responsibilities.

What about you? Do you need to establish a Sabbath practice in your life? Or, if you already do, what are your thoughts? Care to share?

Adventures in Frugality: Freezer Soup

2011-10-17T15:28:00.001-04:00

Today, I felt it was time to clean out the freezer, dump lots of stuff into the Crock Pot, and have soup for supper. This is really a no-brainer, but I can't tell you how many times I've had to throw away tidbits of frozen leftovers -- earmarked for soup -- that ended up freezer burned and useless. So I'm pretty proud I remembered this time.

What's in this soup, you ask?

Assume everything was frozen first: chicken broth, chicken, ham, tomato, tomato puree, limas, black-eyed peas, corn, potatoes, green beans, and yellow rice. It smells wonderful!

I'm about to toss into the bread machine the makings for onion, garlic, and cheese bread, too.

Sounds promising!

UPDATE: the soup was quite good, but the bread was excellent. Here's where I got the recipe. I altered the recipe a bit by adding in the garlic, onion, and cheese at the beginning instead of halfway through. Makes fabulous buttered toast!

Weekly Happenings: Blurred, Wet, Silvery Days

2011-10-14T16:53:00.001-04:00

Last week's weather was autumn glorious; this week it rained. But that's okay. We need the rain. And there's something lovely about being cozy inside on rainy days. When my mother was a child, one of her teachers called rainy days "blurred, wet, silvery days," and I think that is a perfect description.

A few highlights:

R. E. Francillon's Gods and Heroes continues to be a favorite with the girls. I schedule two readings per week, but they both tend to read two at a time! Their narrations are quite good, so I don't deter them. Most of the stories are quite short. They've read Rick Riordan's novels, so they enjoy comparing what they recall from those novels with the more traditional myths they read in Gods and Heroes.

We're also reading a biography of Isaac Newton excerpted from Great Astronomers by Sir Robert S. Ball. This is a well-written selection, despite the author's hero worship of Newton, and we're enjoying it. I knew very little of Newton prior to this, so I'm finding it fascinating.

The girls are relieved that we've left Wordsworth behind for the moment and moved on to Kipling. His poetry is more accessible for their ages, so they appreciate it much more. I'd hoped to find online a recording of Kipling reading some of his work; however, I learned that very few of his recordings survive. Apparently, the most accessible is the CD The Spoken Word: Poets, produced by The British Library Sound Archive. Many other famous poets are included. Here's a link if you're interested.

A hit with the girls is a new one for us, The Book of Think, by Marilyn Burns. One of the Brown Paper School books from the 1970s, this is a fantastic and fun book about critical thinking. The children enjoy the activities, and they want to read more than what's scheduled. Since I want them to absorb the material, I have them stick to the plan. But it's a joy to see them so engaged!

On a culinary note, I made homemade crescent rolls! I found this wonderful, super-easy recipe online. I mixed the dough up after supper and let it sit overnight. In the morning, I divided the dough in half, rolled each half into a circle (okay, it wasn't perfect), smeared it with butter, cut it into eight triangles using a pizza cutter, rolled them up, and let rise before baking. One half of the dough I merely rolled into crescents and then froze to bake later. They were delectable with honey butter.

Right now, we're getting packed up for an overnight trip. We're headed for a UKC dog show, our second. Tiny Girl is showing Jasper in the altered class with hopes of winning his second championship point; and Miss Priss is showing Georgette in the puppy fun match. We'll be seeing the dogs' breeder and our good friend, Leslie Reed from KeelMtn, at the show, too. We're excited!

I read a wonderful quote this week I'll share with you:

The value of life, to me, is that it is so big, and we are so small, that we can never get hold of all of it: there is forever something more, still unknown.
--Rose Wilder Lane

I'm linking up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and The Homeschool Mother's Journal. Have a great October weekend!

Review: The Gazebo, By Ethel Pochocki

2011-10-11T18:42:00.001-04:00

I am drawn to gazebos. One summer evening, Himself and I pledged our vows to one another in a gazebo, our family seated inside and our friends gathered around us. I am also drawn to charming, quality children's literature, so I was as pleased as pleased could be when, several years ago, I acquired an autographed copy of Ethel Pochocki's treasure of a book, The Gazebo.

This is the story of Mary Rose, a wealthy child growing up in the city a long time ago, and her lifelong love affair with gazebos. As an adult, she works as a diplomat, but when she retires, she builds for herself the perfect gazebo. Mary Beth Owens' delightful period watercolors perfectly complement Ethel Pochocki's elegant prose. Moreover, I admire the quiet message that lingers just below the surface of the story: our life stories have many chapters.

Although this is a picture book, it's written for older children (and adults!) and is best shared with someone you love and a cup of tea.

I've known for a while that Ethel Pochocki hails from Maine, the town of Brooks, to be exact, which we drive through on our way to the coast. I think of her every time, Wouldn't it be marvelous to meet her? I learned today, however, that she passed away less than a year ago, in December, at the age of 85, the author of more than 30 books. She lived a long, lovely life and left a legacy of literature for us to savor.

Malevolent Genes and a Bit of Chopin

2011-10-10T21:08:00.001-04:00

Miss Priss suffered her first migraine headache this past Saturday. Despite our hopes that that particular gene would pass over our children, we were fairly certain one or both would suffer. Himself and I both do; his mother does, and both my parents do. Our gene pool is full of it. This is how I picture the hateful things swimming around:

Photo from Ugly Animals.

Nice, huh?

Himself only gets a very few per year, but they are the BIG CLASSIC variety when they hit. I suffer from cluster headaches mostly, with only a few horrid episodes per year and no vomiting. Poor Miss Priss was struck with a classic. Bless her sweet heart.

Regarding the Chopin: This afternoon, I plunked down in front of the piano and opened My First Book of Chopin: 23 Favorite Pieces in Easy Piano Arrangements, which I ordered from Dover Publications.

I've picked through a few of these, and today my piece of choice was "First Ballade," a kid-friendly theme from "Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23," transposed to C major. I was pleased I was able to stumble through it.

My interest piqued, I hopped on YouTube to see what this piece really sounds like.

Well. What can one say after that, besides Brava!

If you're interested you can download a FREE score here. But I assure you it is very different from the arrangement I played today. If your skill level is along the lines of mine, here's an option for you. Yes, there's a drawing of a young girl playing the piano on the cover. I don't let that bother me.

I just play for the joy of it.

A Week in the Life: Perfect Days

2011-10-07T19:29:00.000-04:00

When the girls were younger, they adored the videos from the World of Peter Rabbit and Friends collection, a BBC production. Each video featured a live action segment followed by an animated story. Each detail of the entire series is marvelous. Some episodes are available on YouTube. However, the title song is what tends to come to my mind every now and then, "Perfect Day," sung by Miriam Stockley.

We've had a series of perfect days here. The nights were pleasantly cool, and the days were lovely, with temps in the high seventies to very low eighties and the sun shining in an October blue sky. The word "blue" just doesn't do it justice. Azure seems more fitting. Or cerulean.

Our work has progressed well, too. The girls are especially enjoying The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, by Howard Pyle; Miss Priss remarked this week, "I like the way they talked then." She's her mama's girl, that one!

In history, we're learning about the troubles and crises that led to the making of the Constitution (to replace the weak Articles of Confederation). One of our resources helping us is the DVD A More Perfect Union: America Becomes a Nation, which I picked up for a buck at a homeschool used curriculum sale a few years ago. I'm planning to write a review of it in a couple of weeks, so be on the lookout!

We also began a serious study of Plutarch's Lives, delving into "Poplicola." Thank heavens for Anne White's marvelous study guides! To prepare for the first lesson, the girls read the chapter "Rome Kicks Out Her Kings" from Hillyer's A Child's History of the World, as Anne suggests. I was happy with the girls' understanding of the material; I'm looking forward to continuing our Plutarch studies!

After much thought, I decided to replace the reading of Shakespeare's plays with actually seeing Shakespeare's plays. Our city has more than one Shakespearean company, so opportunities abound to see those scripts come alive onstage. One company even offers productions aimed at school-aged audiences where they tone down any bawdiness.

Tiny Girl and I made applesauce this week. It was tasty (it's all gone now!), but seemed almost like apple butter instead of sauce. But I consider it a culinary success, still and all.

We also sipped our fair share of homemade iced coffee, that elixir of the gods.

Oh, and Tiny Girl stepped on a nail at a friend's house, which pierced her Croc and her foot. Thank goodness she was wearing shoes! I shudder to think what could have happened had she not. She was almost due (a few months) for her DTP booster, so we went on to the doc for that and got a flu shot as well. We made a list of things to be thankful for even in such circumstances, but these sorts of adventures are not my favorite.

Pizza delivery tonight! Ham, pineapple, and black olive was the request. Hope the weekend is lovely where you live!

Of Apples and Homemade Applesauce

2011-10-05T21:46:00.002-04:00

"Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits." -- Henry David Thoreau, Wild Apples

Apples are a mainstay at our house. Only Himself is not a fan. My year-round stand-by is Gala. It's crisp (never mealy -- I detest a mealy apple), sweet with a hint of tart, and pretty to look at, with its rosy yellow skin. In the fall, however, there is an abundance of varieties to be found, and we like to sample the more exotic of the grocers' bounty: Honeycrisp, Cripp's Pink, Jonathan....

I bought a small bag of Jonathan apples at Trader Joe's last week and determined to make applesauce in my Crock Pot. Last night, Tiny Girl and I began to work.

I used my Pampered Chef apple-corer-slicer thingamajig to core and slice 10 apples. Tiny Girl peeled them. We dumped them into my slow cooker and added 3/4 cup sugar, a tablespoon of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of vanilla. I stirred it all up and cooked everything on low overnight. Fast forward to this morning.

Our resulting applesauce smelled heavenly and was a dark red, thanks to the cinnamon. It was also more liquidy than I like, so I drained some of the juice off (and saved it to drink, of course!) After a taste test, we added quite a bit more sugar. Those tart Jonathans didn't mellow -- they cooked up mouth-puckering tart! I then dished up a small bowl for Tiny Girl. Miss Priss declined an offer to taste.

Tiny Girl cautiously sampled a bite, shuddered slightly -- the tartness, you know -- and then ate a bit more. She's the sort of person who really wants to like new things, so she ate her miniscule helping. Then came her pronouncement, which I overheard her make to Miss Priss at the breakfast table:

"Once you get used to the weird taste, it's actually really good."

And there you have it. A true success.

Icing on the Cake: Activities and Pursuits

2011-10-03T17:51:00.000-04:00

When I posted about our academic plans, I neglected to include our activities. Granted, activities may not fall under the academic umbrella, but they do add to our enjoyment of life, provide learning opportunities, and encourage personal growth. So what's not to love?

(Maybe the hectic schedule they help to create? Can I get an amen?)

Mondays: Tiny Girl has her riding lesson, and Miss Priss has her (new for us) drama troupe.
Tuesdays: Piano lessons
Wednesdays: Practice ride for Tiny Girl; onCore (our program for elementary-aged children) for Tiny Girl and me (I teach 4th and 5th-grade girls in Bible class); Bible study for Miss Priss
Thursdays: FREE
Fridays: Practice ride for Tiny Girl
Saturdays: Free or another practice ride
Sundays: Church and then late-afternoon choir practice for Miss Priss. Girl Scout meetings MAY meet on Sunday evenings as well (once a month), since that time slot works best for our troop.

Those of you well-versed in equine activities will know that any trip to the barn takes at the very least two hours and quite often more. So we're there a lot. I like it best when the temperature is not freezing cold or blistering hot.

Compared to many of our neighbors, this is an easy activity schedule. Only on one day do we rush from one activity to another (Monday), and there's even an hour of breathing room between! For me, our schedule is just busy enough. One more thing, and I'd be pushed to the breaking point. Or crazy point.

What about you? What's a balanced schedule to your way of thinking?

By the way, as far as icing goes: my new personal favorite is salted caramel frosting. I'm having palpitations just thinking about it.

The Personal Within the Mystery

2011-10-02T22:51:00.000-04:00

Today we observed World Communion Sunday at my church. The music was inspiring, the hymns meaningful, and we celebrated communion in my most favorite way: intinction. In case this is unfamiliar to you, I give you these words from:

Wikipedia: "Intinction is the Eucharistic practice of partly dipping the consecrated bread, or host, into the consecrated wine before consumption by the communicant."

Merriam-Webster Dictionary: "the administration of the sacrament of Communion by dipping bread in wine and giving both together to the communicant"

I realize that some faith traditions have a problem with intinction theologically, but I try not to get bogged down in questions such as these. Instead, I immerse myself in the moment. Here's what happened this morning.

I stand with my pew row and walk to the front of the church with my family while the choir sings You Satisfy the Hungry Heart. I'm directed to a station where two ministers stand holding the elements. I select a piece of bread from the basket.

This is the body of Christ...

I dip it into the cup.

The blood of Christ shed for you, Ellen.

I partake and return to my pew.

There was no lightning bolt, no mystic vision, no epiphany. I was merely one of hundreds in worship this morning who came forward to dip bread into cup. And yet...

And yet.

For me, intinction as a means of celebrating the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is much more personal than the pass-the-tray-along-the-pew method. It's more active, requiring commitment on my part. I stand. I come forward. I take the elements. Then, those beautiful words.

The blood of Christ. Shed for me.

And since the ministers know me by name, I am called by name. No longer just one of the crowd, I am known. And it means so much to me that I am known -- not by the ministers, you understand -- but known by Jesus.

This is for you, Ellen, all for you.

It's all for you, too.

Our Academic Plans for This Year

2011-09-30T21:19:00.001-04:00

Yes, I do realize I'm a wee bit late posting about our academic plans as tomorrow begins October. But it couldn't be helped. In an effort to delay no longer, I'm sitting in front of my computer on a Friday evening, writing. The girls are reading, and Himself is planning his weekend picks for a college football pool in which he's participated for years. All is quiet.

I had big (and broadcasted, unfortunately) plans for continuing with our AO readings through the summer in an effort to finish up Year 4 before autumn. Alas, those were for naught. June was a whirlwind of activities and everyday busy-ness (two words: swim team), and, once we arrived in the haven of Maine, we settled into a routine of reading and relaxation. Could some of those book choices have been our school assignments? Admittedly, yes. But the girls were thrilled to be able to select their own books, and they read like mad. It was fabulous, really, and I couldn't squelch that particular joy.

So here were are, finishing up Year 4 and poised on the brink of Year 5.

AO's advisory board recently made some science changes to the curriculum, and, after looking over the alterations, I decided to amend our plans a bit. I didn't want us to miss certain of the new selections. Also, in some cases, I've chosen differently from the AO suggested titles. I'll note these changes below.

For our daily Bible study and prayer time, we are still enjoying Keys for Kids devotional. We all enjoy the stories, and I particularly like the "conversation" at the end of each that focuses the story's lessons on our own lives.

We're reading selections from William Wordsworth, a Year 4 poet. I wish I could say the girls love his work, because I admire much of it. But he leaves them cold. It's disappointing; they usually enjoy our poetry readings. I may leap to Rudyard Kipling, the Year 5, Term 1 poet, instead of continuing to force an appreciation for Wordsworth. For now.

Tiny Girl has begun MEP Year 5 for math. So far, much of it is review, and she's a bit bored. I've insisted on us completing both the lesson plan and workbook activities, which may be a mistake. If she's got it down, we should move on.

Last year, we used the Critical Thinking Co.'s Mathematical Reasoning for Miss Priss's math text, and she really liked it. Unfortunately, Level F is not yet available. After a few weeks of working through several lessons in that same publisher's Math Detective A1, we began Math Mammoth this week. Miss Priss enjoys Math Detective, but I felt like I was leading her too much in the lessons. Math Mammoth will provide a solid foundation for my linguistic-minded child. We'll still use Math Detective, but only on Fridays.

Also last year, we happily used Scott-Foresman's free grammar curriculum, and I'd planned to use it again. Imagine my shock when I discovered that it is NO LONGER FREE. (Turns out I was wrong and it is still free. See Comments.) After some quick research, I decided on Groovy Grammar. I'm not keen on the name, but I enjoy the lessons and links to other sites for more activities. I'm planning a separate post on this curriculum. Spelling Power is still our curriculum of choice for spelling.

Since Miss Priss abhorred Latina Christiana, we dumped it. This year, she's focusing on Latin roots in the Critical Thinking Co.'s Word Roots A1. Both girls are still working through Rosetta Stone for French.

I've selected a few titles for strengthening thinking skills. Both girls complete a few pages in their Building Thinking Skills 2 workbook every day. On Fridays, they each work through one page from their Analogies workbook and Balance Benders workbook. I've also added the fun book, The Book of Think, by Marilyn Burns, to our weekly reading assignments.

Our AO readings right now:
George Washington's World (Yr 4, finishing up)
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution (Ditto)
Poor Richard (Ditto)
Gods and Heroes (a substitute for The Age of Fable)
The Story Book of Science (This is a new Year 4 book, but I'd heard about it from the Queen Homeschool catalog, so I added it to our schedule.)
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, by Howard Pyle
A Child's Geography, Volume 1 (Actually, Volume 2 is scheduled for Year 5, but I liked this book as well. So we're reading it. We'll read volume 2 when we've completed this one.)
This Country of Ours
a biography of Isaac Newton
"Poplicola," in Plutarch's Lives, with the aid of Anne White's indispensable study guide

And then of course we have selections from AO's Year 5 free reading list!

Scribblings from Maine: Daylilies

2011-09-19T21:58:00.000-04:00

When we bought our cabin, one of the "things" we inherited from the previous owners was mature landscaping: hostas, shrub roses, peonies, and daylilies (genus Hemerocallis). A lovely bed of lemon-colored daylilies graced the flower bed by the front door. They were brilliant in the afternoon sunlight.

There's something special about daylilies -- each bloom's lifetime of just one day literally ephemeral. I take time to look at a daylily bloom, to notice how its color changes with the light at different times of the day. By nightfall, that same bloom will have withered, a fleeting state of grace.

Sadly, my daylilies did not survive our recent construction project. I saw nary a bloom this summer, and I missed them.

All was not quite lost, however. I'd noticed a newspaper ad for daylilies for sale the summer before, and now I noticed a small sign at the top of my road and in front of a farmhouse where a Mennonite family had moved in two years ago. Perhaps I should stop in to look around.

But I have a thing about driving down someone's driveway for commercial purposes. It seems so intrusive. What if it's not a convenient time? What if they're closed, and someone is forced to come outside to tell you so? What if I interrupt a heated argument? What if they're in the bathroom? (All of them, Ellen? Come on.)

One afternoon, I somehow overcame all these (ridiculous) misgivings, and the girls and I turned down the drive. The sign read OPEN. That seemed promising. When we parked the car, a little girl, dressed Plainly in a long calico dress, white cap, and bare feet, opened the screen door and obligingly asked, "Are you here for the daylilies?"

Yes, indeed, we were.

She led us back behind the house, past the vegetable garden, the chickens, and a pen of little goats, to a field full of daylilies. Our arrival must have started something; moments later three more customers arrived, prompting the lady of the house and several other daughters to join us in the daylily field.

It was a gorgeous afternoon, sunshine in a cerulean sky. We meandered around the garden, following the straw-covered paths between each row. Some flowers were still blooming and others were finished; but the family showed us a small photo album of all their offerings, so we could see each variety in all its glory.

On my price list, I marked each one that interested us, the girls calling out names of varieties that caught their eye. We narrowed down our selections. A few I vetoed due to their price. Miss Priss, especially, has expensive tastes. Finally, the girls each chose one variety, and then went off with the two youngest daughters of the house to chase Bandy chicks and pet the baby goats.

Since I'm the mama, I allowed myself to choose two varieties. It's one of the perks of being the mama. Right?

Our selections were carefully and generously dug up and bagged. Once we got back to the cabin, I planted them quickly just to get them in the ground. They are not where I want them to live permanently, but I'll make adjustments next summer.

And I hope they thrive. I hope that, years from now, the girls and I will admire them and say to each other, "Remember the day we bought these? Remember how nervous Mama was just to drive down the driveway?"

A Perfect Match: Iced Coffee and Middle School Girls

2011-09-18T17:50:00.000-04:00

Today was mission Sunday at church, and many of our youth led worship. The middle school choir, to which Miss Priss now belongs (Did I just type middle school? Yikes! But that's material for another post.), sang at two of our morning services. A few days ago, the choir director asked choir parents to bring in some breakfast things for the kids to snack on between services, so I signed up to bring pumpkin muffins and, in a moment of misplaced inspiration, iced coffee. The middle school choir is made up entirely of girls, and iced coffee is so sophisticated, so Starbucks, I thought they'd enjoy it.

I say "misplaced inspiration" for two reasons. One, this was also a horse show weekend. But since I am Superwoman, I can do all things. Two, simply making coffee and serving it with milk and sugar over ice wasn't going to cut it. I had to go all out. Which is why I was surfing the Internet yesterday afternoon, buying the ingredients, and making the stuff last night AND this morning at 7 AM.

I prefer to try completely new recipes at the eleventh hour. I live on the edge.

And sometimes, like today, it works out fabulously.

The recipe, Perfect Iced Coffee, comes from The Pioneer Woman website. Since she's a much funnier and better writer than I, I direct you to her post and recipe. (I opted for decaf coffee: Cafe Bustelo dark roast for espresso, to be specific.) Read her whole post; it's a hoot.

But of course I had to kick it up a notch. So I brought a gallon of the coffee base, a half gallon of half and half, and three bottles of Coffee Mate's all-new Natural Bliss creamers: vanilla, caramel, and sweet cream. To serve each girl, I filled a glass (okay, a styrofoam coffee cup, because that's what was available) half full of ice cubes, poured in the coffee base til the cup was half full, splashed in some half and half, and then added the chosen creamer flavor to each girl's desired level of sweetness, which was, shockingly (not!), pretty sweet. Surprisingly, only one went with caramel; everyone else chose vanilla. (Note: to serve adults, I'd fill each glass about 3/4 full of coffee base.)

If you follow Ree's recipe, you're going to end up with a vat of the coffee base, as I did. I now have a pitcher in my fridge, a half-full gallon jug in my freezer, and another half-full gallon jug in my garage fridge to take to my sister on Tuesday. If you'd like, you could make coffee ice cubes to use in your libation so it won't get all watery from regular ice cubes. Ree also offers a wonderful-sounding variation, Vietnamese Iced Coffee, made with sweetened condensed milk. Now that I've got to try.

The choir girls loved their individualized iced coffees so much that I was elevated to rock-star status for about three minutes. Then everything went back to normal, and I was just another minivan-driving mom.

But since I was sipping my own cup of perfection, I was okay with that.

The Sound and the Flurry

2011-09-17T15:56:00.000-04:00

Well, at least the flurry (of my life) of my life this week. I can't produce the sound here.

Here goes:

Himself out of town, middle school choir, riding lesson, drama troupe, parent meeting, prayer group meeting, orthodontist, piano lessons, sick dog, practice ride, pony bath, Wednesday night church, practice ride, shopping for new horse show clothes suddenly needed for weekend horse show (ch-ching!), another practice ride, another pony bath, sick child, re-check for sick dog, doc-in-the-box appointment for quick strep test for sick child (negative; just a virus), library visit, equestrian center for schooling to prep for horse show, ANOTHER pony bath, cleaning tack, Himself returns home (yay!), awake at 4:30 AM today, up at 5:20 to get ready for horse show, horse show (3rd place overall in division), nap, grocery, make pumpkin muffins for church tomorrow, get things ready for second day of horse show tomorrow, get other girl ready for church tomorrow (singing at two services)....

Oh, and we did school, too, in the midst of all that.

Our First Dog Show!

2011-09-11T16:00:00.001-04:00

Last weekend, we traveled to our first UKC dog show. Our primary reason for going was to pick up our newest family member, puppy Georgette. Breeder Leslie Gene Reed, from KeelMtn Kennels, and husband extraordinaire, Bob, were going to be showing their corgis, so we opted to meet them at the show. Secondly, the UKC offers classes for altered dogs (spayed or neutered) in conformation, and Leslie suggested that one of my girls might want to show Jasper. Tiny Girl jumped at the chance. Here they are!

Jasper won Best of Breed in his class and later competed for Best in Show - Altered. Exciting! (They were in the last show of the day, so there weren't many spectators left. But they still got a rousing round of applause from those who remained.)

Adding to the experience, Tiny Girl, Miss Priss, and Himself (along with another young girl) showed Leslie's four puppies -- Georgette and three of her littermates, whom Leslie is keeping as show prospects -- in the puppy match. Miss Priss was nervous; we had to cajole her into giving it a try. But it was so cute and fun that she loved it.

Keeping the corgis in line was quite a challenge. Himself and the girls had their hands full! "Chaotic cuteness" is the best way to describe the puppy match.

We had a fabulous time, and now Tiny Girl has the dog show bug. Now that Jasper has one win under his belt, he has only to win three more times to earn his UKC championship. There's another UKC show in October that's about three hours away from home, and I have a feeling we'll be there. And Miss Priss says she may show Georgette in the puppy match.

Introducing Georgette!

2011-09-10T22:16:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday, we traveled to a UKC dog show in the central part of our state to collect our new puppy, Georgette (KeelMtn My Fair Lady) from breeder Leslie Gene Reed. (Tiny Girl also showed Jasper [KeelMtn I Do Declare] in conformation at the show, but that report is in another post.) Georgette had been hanging out at Leslie's with three of her littermates -- whom Leslie is keeping as show prospects -- and the rest of Leslie's gang, patiently awaiting us to return home from Maine.

She is a darling!

Jasper and Georgette have the same dam, Cheery-O, but different sires. Whereas Jasper is a red-headed tri-color, Georgette is a sable, like our Lily was.

They have really hit it off! The play together, often drink out of the same water bowl at the same time, and have even been caught chewing their bones next to one another on the same bed. However, Jasper is not averse to putting Georgette in her place if she needs it, though he often capitulates. He has such a sweet temperament.

It's been hilarious watching the dogs interact. They chase each other around the coffee table and then into the kitchen, often colliding with the water bowls and splashing water everywhere. They roughhouse for quite a while and then collapse for naps near one another. If Jasper has something Georgette wants -- which happens a LOT -- she sidles up near him and watches him closely. As soon as something else catches his attention, she nabs the desired item and prances away triumphantly.

She is perky and confident and loving. And we are in love with her.

Homeschooling Meme

2011-09-02T16:24:00.001-04:00

Thank you, Jeanne, at A Peaceful Day, for including me in your homeschooling meme! These are always fun, and I enjoy reading others' responses to glean encouragement and ideas. Perhaps my answers will help someone else. Who knows? So here we go...

1. One homeschooling book you have enjoyed
I've read quite a few homeschooling books through the years, some of which I reach for again and again. So I really can't narrow it down to one. Here are some I continue to consult: A Charlotte Mason Education and More Charlotte Mason Education, both by Catherine Levison; When Children Love to Learn, by Elaine Cooper; and The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.

2. One resource you wouldn't be without
Our computer + online access. We use it for subjects, like Rosetta Stone French; for research; and to access AO Yahoo groups and blogs (including my own), to name a few uses. Our research opportunities would be limited to library trips without the computer and online access. We can't jump in the car and head for the library every time someone has a question. Moreover, as a homeschooling parent, I would feel isolated without my computer.

3. One resource you wish you had never bought
I've bought a few things I wished later that I had not bought. Some I've been able to resell. Others sit on my shelves, mocking me. To wit: boxes of educational card games that we either played once or did not play at all.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year
Spelling Power has turned out to be a wonderful fit for my children. One is a natural speller, and the other needs more practice. This curriculum works well with both.

5. One resource you will be using next year
We'll be using Ann Voskamp's A Child's Geography, volumes 1 and 2. I've perused these and am really pleased with the content and how it's presented.

6. One resource you would like to buy
At this moment, nothing leaps to mind. I'm always buying books, though!

7. One resource you wish existed
A special balm I could use that would magically erase all doubts, anxieties, and worries peculiar to the homeschooling mother and household manager. Prayer, of course, is good, but it usually requires work on my part, i.e., I have to work through things. I would really prefer it if yuckiness just goes away. Okay?

8. One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading
I love Rainbow Resource and consider it invaluable. I also enjoy thumbing through the Winter Promise catalog for literature ideas.

9. One homeschooling website you use regularly
Ambleside Online, MEP math, Groovy Grammar (more substantial that it sounds, trust me), and Heart of the Matter. I also read a number of homeschooling blogs for ideas and encouragement. See why my computer is indispensable?

I'm supposed to tag other homeschoolers to play, but I think I'd rather just rhow it out there to anyone who'd like to play along. I would love to hear from you all!

Scribblings in Maine: The War Zone

2011-08-30T17:54:00.000-04:00

I wrote a lot of posts while we were in Maine this summer, but I couldn't publish them to my blog due to sketchy internet availability. I thought I'd publish them as a series (which seems a bit presumptuous; a "series," indeed) so you can read about what I was thinking and doing during that time. I'm much more thoughtful when my life is not crazed and chaotic.

Here's the first:

I'm living in the middle of a war zone, and this time my daughters are not the combatants. As I write this, I'm sitting on the deck of our cabin with a lovely view of the lake where the girls are swimming. I am filled with a quiet joy.

Out of nowhere, a thrumming buzz behind me interrupts my peace. A few mouse-like squeaks and then something swoops perilously close to the top of my head with another something hot on its tail. "Tail" is an appropriate word choice.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds on the warpath.

Small in size but huge in spirit, ruby-throated hummers are aggressive, fiercely guarding "their" territory and feeders, of which I have two. I have seen a hummer take a few sips and then dart up into a nearby tree to watch the feeder. Should an unwary interloper arrive -- and they always do -- the first hummer zips down commando-style to chase away the enemy.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

I attributed this feeder-aggression to a need for constant nourishment to fuel their extremely high activity level. While this is important, I recently learned that aggression levels tend to peak in late summer and early fall, when ruby-throats are gearing up for migration, which includes a 500-mile trip across the Gulf of Mexico. Makes perfect sense.

Summer's End

2011-08-23T12:15:00.000-04:00

The weather has turned cooler here in Maine this week, and a maple tree in our yard is flaunting orangey-red leaves. Fall is in the air.

We are packing up to begin the journey back home. It's always a bit sad for me, the end of our summer life. I will miss the unstructured days, the relaxed visits with friends, the boat. I love "messing about in boats," as Rat says in The Wind in the Willows.

But there are things waiting for us at home, some new adventures in the wings. A new year of learning. And that newness, the fresh sense of discovery and rediscovery of things and people we love, brightens my outlook. There's always something new waiting to be sampled and enjoyed.

And I have in the fridge the makings for one last pitcher of Skip and Go Nakeds. That's something!

Cooking by Serendipity

2011-08-13T11:39:00.001-04:00

I, the admitted and confirmed mediocre cook, made wonderful French toast (ahem -- "eggy bread" to my Brit friends) earlier this week. No one was more delighted than I. Here's how it happened:

I had made decent French toast last weekend and still had left over 1/3 of a loaf of extra-thick French toast bread. I also had left over a bowlful of lightly sweetened homemade whipped cream that had started to liquefy. Inspiration struck.

Mixing three eggs, a touch of vanilla, and a generous amount of the liquidy whipped cream produced a lovely, foamy soaking bath for the bread. I sauteed -- which sounds SO much better than fried -- the soaked bread triangles in a lightly oiled skillet until glden brown on both sides. The resulting French toast was remarkably velvety and scrumptious, especially with real maple syrup. It was also prettier than my normal French toast, which was a niuce bonus.

Now. Will I go to the trouble of whipping cream three days before I make French toast again? I doubt it. But when I happen to have leftover whipped cream, I know what's for breakfast very, very soon....

Summer Afternoon, Summer Afternoon...

2011-08-05T11:35:00.000-04:00

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon. . . the two most beautiful words in the English language.
-- Henry James

To which I say, Amen!

Himself arrived last night to spend a few days with us at the lake. After a bit of dreariness, the sun is shining today, and the expected high is 78 degrees. Tomorrow, friends arrive to spend the day. We are looking forward to lots of boating, bright blue skies, lobsters, and a high of 82.

Bliss.

Close Encounters of the Owl Kind

2011-08-03T11:30:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago, Tiny Girl and I were headed to her riding lesson when she cried out, “An owl!” I hit the brakes and reversed the car. There, in a tree just a few yards away, perched a rather large owl, staring at us while we stared back. I only had my phone with me, so I took a couple of (sadly unsatisfactory) photos before it soared away. After some rsearch at the library, I identified our owl as a barred owl. Here are some Wikipedia photos that put mine to shame. Note the dark eyes and yellow beak. We could clearly see those in our close encounter.
It was a nifty sighting, but a few summers ago, Himself and I had an even closer encounter with another owl. For several daysthat summer, we'd been hearing this strange whistling, hissing call and had no idea what it could be. A neighbor’s dad, who was visiting, identified it as an owl. And here I was thinking owls only said, “Who?”

A few nights later, at about 10:30, Himself and I were engaged in a highly competitive game of Scrabble when we heard that same call. “Let’s go look for it!” Himself suggested. Grabbing a flashlight, we headed outside.

Himself waved the flashlight at the tops of the trees. The eerie hissing whistle continued, tantalizingly close, but the owl remained hidden. A few moments later, we heard a whoosh of air and a big rustle of leaves on the ground to our right. We swung the flashlight beam that way. And there it was: a large barn owl, not five feet away. We stared at each other for a few seconds before it lifted off, silently, back up into the treetops. Here are some photos of barn owls, so you can see the difference.

We haven't heard any barn owls for at least two summers. I miss that hissing whistle.

A Tea Drinker's Take on Coffee

2011-07-15T12:30:00.001-04:00

As you know, I am an avowed tea drinker. Coffee is just not my thing. Plus I have something personal against paying lunch prices for a fancy cup of joe. Although I did develop a penchant for McDonald's' mocha frappes last summer....

On our recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, Himself (who drinks even less coffee than I -- exactly none) and I spent a few days in Kona, land of the quintessential coffee. One morning, we stopped in for a free tour at Greenwell Farms, a coffee farm in existence since 1850 and still owned by the Greenwell family. The tour was extremely informative and interesting. Since the tours are informal, there were only five people in our group, so we could ask all the questions we wanted. (I have some photos of coffee trees more than 100 years old and still producing, but I'm still on the library computers and can't upload the photos.)

Of course, there were samples galore at the end of the tour. Greenwell does not offer sugar or milk with their samples, as they want the coffee's individual flavor to take center stage. Himself and I both sampled several varieties, and I fell in love with the chocolate macadamia nut (decaf for me, please). I bought a bag to bring home, and I drink it black, thanks very much. Me, who has always added sugar and milk! Alas, Himself is not a convert; he thought a few were pretty good, but that's all.

Then again, I'm no convert either. I'll always be a tea drinker. But it's nice to branch out once in a while, isn't it?

Getting Settled In

2011-07-13T12:16:00.000-04:00

We've been in Maine for almost two weeks and are just now getting settled into the cabin. The place was a disaster after the renovation project we had done over the fall and spring, and it took lots of elbow grease -- not to mention cleaning products -- to get it ship-shape. Plus, the washing machine started leaking water all over our new wood floors, and we had to have that repaired.

I'm also having laptop issues, so I'm typing this on a public computer at the library. I thought I'd gotten everything fixed, but today, when I plugged the thing in, it wouldn't power on. Aarrrgh.

Such is life, eh?

Not all is glum, however. I love seeing the hummingbirds at my feeders. Laundry on the line and blowing in the breeze makes me happy, too. Jasper is having a blast playing with our neighbors' dogs, and we've fit in plenty of time to visit with friends and have fun on the boat. Small joys like these season our days.

She Is Too Fond of Books: Playing Catch-Up

2011-06-28T15:33:00.000-04:00

It's been weighing on my mind that I've written NO book reviews in ages. But I have been reading. So I took a break from packing to share a list of what I've read over the past few months. These are off the top of my head, so I'm forgetting a few, but this is better than nothing, right?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, by Stieg Larsson
Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson
Tyler's Row, by Miss Read
Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian (not as good as The Double Bind)
House Rules, by Jodi Picoult (Okay. Learned a lot about Asperger's.)
84, Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, by Helene Hanff
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, The World According to Bertie, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, and Love Over Scotland, all by Alexander McCall Smith
The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton
The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain

And my favorite thus far:

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson

If you're looking for titles for your summer reading, these should get you started. Happy reading!

A Tale of Two Summers

2011-06-27T17:54:00.000-04:00

Holy cow. I don't know about you, but I am worn out. June has been its usual (at least for the past three years or so) frantic, frenetic, frenzied, barely controlled chaos with a few added sparks tossed in just for fun.

There was a security breach on my Amazon account, resulting in my account being closed, which discombobulated my seller account (and I had pending sales!). It's taken a bit of time to get sorted out, what with my Kindle (yes, I lost some books there). Amazon gave me a gift card to cover the loss of my downloaded books I lost; I was grateful. Then there was a mammogram scare that turned out to be nothing. And that was just last week!

Betwixt and between the unprepared- and unlooked-for events, we've juggled daily swim team practices; weekly swim meets (this year, I co-chaired concessions for two home meets -- a new experience for me); practice rides and lessons each week on the equestrian front; three horse shows; Miss Priss's first-ever middle school choir mission trip to Pensacola, FL; dental, ortho, and eye appointments; getting together with friends; pool visits (the girls can go by themselves this year -- hallelujah!); a complete overhaul of the study/schoolroom; Jasper's weekly obedience training; AND our trip to Hawaii. Plus we're getting ready for our journey to Maine, which is a monumental task with a multitude of its own requirements.

June in the deep South. That's my first summer.

By this time next week, we'll be in Maine, and my second summer begins. More on that later.

Aloha!

2011-06-14T19:01:00.000-04:00

Have you missed me? Or have you been too busy with summer activities to notice my silence? I'm guessing the latter!

Himself and I returned Saturday afternoon from a glorious week sans enfants on the Big Island of Hawaii (or, as they say, Hawai'i). Part of the time was a business trip for him; all of it was recreational for me. We had a blast. We rented a venicle and made a tour of almost all the island.

Polulu Beach Overlook, north Kohala

Some Things We Saw:
- black sand beaches
- waterfalls
- rainbows
- southernmost tip of the U.S.
- sea turtles
- dolphins
- volcanoes
- snow atop Mauna Kea
- surfers
- beautiful flowers and flowering trees

My toes on the black sand of Punalu'u Beach Park

Some Things We Did:

- hiked through a rainforest AND a volcano crater
- snorkeled
- ziplined
- sailed on a catamaran
- toured a coffee farm and sampled delicious Kona coffee
- drove over rough, four-wheel-drive only roads to reach some places off the beaten path
- ate fabulous food

The trip home was a bear. We left Kona at 9:00 PM and, after five hours in the air, reached Los Angeles at 5:00 AM Pacific time. We boarded our second flight at 6:30 AM and landed at home at 1:30 Eastern time. We both tried to sleep on each flight, but were largely unsuccessful. So we were exhausted on Saturday and Sunday. Himself wonders if the return flight is worth the whole trip. I have no such ponderings. Hawaii is worth every minute of it!

Of course, now we're back home and smack into "real life" in real time. . . .

Weekly Wrap-Up: Finish Line! (And a Book Recommendation)

2011-05-27T10:24:00.000-04:00

This week was the last of our official school year. Yay! I say "official" because we are continuing some AO readings through the summer since we are behind on those. It doesn't make sense to stop in the middle of a book simply because it's a "school" book. Good books are good books, period.

Activities have wound down, too, just in time for the swim team season to gear up. Those practices are every day, but it's at our neighborhood pool, and the girls can ride their bikes with friends. Yay again! Also, the piano recital is next Tuesday evening, and that will wrap up music lessons until September. Ongoing will be Miss Priss's middle school choir at church until mid June, when they go on a choir trip, and Tiny Girl's riding, with two shows slated for June.

I wanted to let you know about a wonderful book both girls have been reading as part of their history studies: The Reb and the Redcoats, by Constance Savery. First published in 1961 and now part of the Living History Library collection of Bethlehem Books, this work of historical fiction offers a British viewpoint of the American Revolution. From the back cover:

Charlotte Darrington and her brothers and sisters can't understand Uncle Lawrence's bad mood. What could be more interesting than having their own American prisoner of war? The children are determined to make friends with the young rebel -- but they find themselves thwarted by Uncle Lawrence and the prisoner himself. It is only after a near-disastrous attempt to reach France that the Reb allows himself to be drawn into the life at White Priory in southern England. The children are happy to become his "redcoats" -- but they know that as long as the rebellion in the Colonies is going on, the Reb is likely to escape at the first honorable opportunity.

Both my girls have enjoyed this book tremendously. Tiny Girl practically devoured it, and Miss Priss told me, "I like that it shows what English people thought (about the war)." So do I.

I found this selection on the fabulous website, A Book in Time, which I use frequently to locate living history books for my girls. I love the way the site is organized, and I also appreciate the age guidelines (ex. JH or UE for junior high level or upper elementary level) and annotations. When you visit the site, don't overlook the World History tab; that's where The Reb and The Redcoats is listed, since the story takes place in England.

So what educational pursuits are you planning to continue through the summer (if any)? I'm interested to hear!

Adventures in Frugality: Crock Pot Beans and Tasty Recipes

2011-05-19T12:05:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I mentioned to my dear friend, Jennifer at Half-Baked Homeschool, that I passed up the canned black beans at Publix because I knew I could get them cheaper at Aldi. She said, "You know, the cheapest thing to to do is buy dried black beans, cook them yourself, and store them in the freezer."

I'm always amazed by how some extremely obvious facts fail to make an impression on my feeble mind.

Anyway.

I love to use my slow cooker as much as possible so I don't have to think about what's on the stove while I'm attempting to educate my children. I did a bit of research to discover the best way to cook dried beans in a Crock Pot. Kalyn's Kitchen has a clear and helpful article. As I type, black beans are simmering away in my slow cooker, and I'm feeling both productive and frugal.

In case you're wondering, we don't eat black beans by themselves. I use them in recipes, such as Impossibly Easy Taco Pie. But I make changes to the original recipe. I don't ever use packets of taco seasoning; I use a homemade blend (see below). And I typically don't use green chiles, since I don't keep them on hand. Third, I use a mixture of half ground beef (or ground turkey) AND -- you guessed it -- black beans.

Homemade Taco Seasoning
After browning and draining about a pound of ground beef or ground turkey, mix in:

1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. each: ground cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder
2 T. ketchup
1/4 cup water

Stir all together and cook over medium heat about five minutes. This recipe comes from Desperation Dinners! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross.

For the taco pie, I use half the seasoned meat and half black beans. I freeze the other half of the meat for later use.

Another recipe that features black beans is Santa Fe Chicken Casserole. I alter this one, too. I usually omit the green onions. And I don't buy the cooking creme; I just mix softened cream cheese and salsa. Medium salsa, which is usually too fiery for the girls, is good here, since the cream cheese cools in down. I typically use shredded Cheddar instead of the Mexican blend cheese.

Black beans are also good in chili and Chicken Tortilla Soup. The link is the basic recipe; when I made it for book club, I used my slow cooker and made a few changes. I can't recall now what those changes were, exactly. Be creative (within reason, of course)!

I'm on a roll with this frugality stuff!

Adventures in Frugality: Coming Clean

2011-05-18T17:58:00.000-04:00

How's this for coming clean: I aspire to be more frugal, and sometimes I succeed.

Here's one of my successes. Inspired by Tricia at Hodgepodge, I made my own laundry detergent today. (My camera was AWOL, so I have no fab photos; but Tricia does, so visit her blog to see what I did. Ha ha!) I opted to make the powdered version from the Duggar Family website, the same recipe Tricia used.

After some research, I discovered that the liquid/gel recipe is the best value, but I don't have a five-gallon bucket with a lid hanging around my house. Maybe one day....

I bought all three ingredients at my local grocery store in the laundry detergent section. If you can't find them, check online.

Here's the recipe:

1 bar Fels Naphtha laundry soap, finely grated
1 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda)
1/2 cup borax

The girls and I used my crank cheese grater to grate the soap. Then we mixed everything together and stored it in a clean and empty OxyClean bucket-style container, along with an extra plastic tablespoon measure I had. Voila! One tablespoon per load is all that's needed. Use two tablespoons for really soiled clothing.

I've already washed a load of clothes with this concoction, and everything came out clean. Which I sort of expected, since hundreds of other people have had success with this recipe. It's not like I'm cutting-edge or anything.

The best news is that it's so easy to make that I might actually stick with it. Thanks, Tricia!

First Sighting! Indigo Bunting

2011-05-16T20:10:00.001-04:00

First it was a northern flicker, and now it's an indigo bunting, another bird I've never seen before.

Yesterday, as we were leaving Tiny Girl's horse show (after about eight hours, but that's another story), Himself pointed to a bird on the ground beside the barn and said, "Hey, look at that really blue bird!" So we did.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

I said it wasn't a bluebird, and Tiny Girl commented, "It looks more teal than blue." I wondered aloud if it might be an indigo bunting, which I've read about but never seen.

We looked it up in our bird book when we got home. Lo and behold, it was a male indigo bunting. After a bit more research, we learned that males sport bright blue plumage only during breeding season, after which they fade to a brown more like females. Also, their feathers have no blue pigment, but are actually black. According to whatbird.com, "the diffraction of light through their feathers makes them look blue. This explains why males can appear many shades from turquoise to black."

Other interesting facts about indigo buntings (thanks, whatbird.com!):
- A group of buntings are collectively known as a "decoration," "mural," or "sacrifice" of buntings
- These migratory birds migrate at night, using the pattern of stars nearest the North Star to guide them

For a birdwatcher like me, it was exciting to see another new-to-me bird. I hope I see another soon!

The F-Word for Christians

2011-05-11T22:32:00.000-04:00

My women's small group (there are five of us) met yesterday at church. We've been together for several years and know each other very well. As one of us related a story involving a particularly frustrating and disappointing event, another one piped up, "Here it comes. The Christian f-word."

I cocked an eyebrow at her. (Lifting one eyebrow is a useful skill; that one action conveys so much meaning.)

She grinned back at me. "You know," she said. "Fine."

Sure enough, the story-relater ended with: "Everything will work out. It'll all be fine."

And we all laughed. Because she said it. The f-word.

Fine.

Don't we all say it?

How are you? You seemed sad yesterday.
Oh, I'm fine.

How's your brother? (The one who's divorcing.)
Pretty good. He'll be fine.

And one of my favorite examples comes from a woman I know who called a friend's husband to check on the friend after one of her many ultimately useless chemotherapy treatments:

"So how's she doing?"

Husband replied, "She's good. She's fine."

The woman I know thought to herself, "She's dying, but she's totally fine."

No matter what's falling apart, we're all just fine.

I suppose one reason we automatically reach for the f-word when people ask about our lives is the whole "keep a stiff upper lip" philosophy. After all, everyone has problems, right? And whining is so unattractive.

Also, fine functions supremely well as a self-imposed gag. It's one thing to keep our bad stuff inside our own minds; but to give voice to them is to make them more real, to acknowledge that something is not okay. And once we've spoken, can we ever take it back?

And the f-word has another seductive quality: it keeps other people at arm's length and ourselves under control. Perhaps it was easier for the husband in the story above to tell people his wife was fine than it was to admit that his world was turning to ashes and there was nothing he could do about it.

Of course, sometimes fine means just that: everything is wonderful. For me, however, that word has taken on new significance. It's now a red flag, albeit a small one, alerting me to the possibility of a knee-jerk response, that there might be more to the story. I pray for wisdom to discern when that might be the case.

And I pray for grace enough to take the time, when someone answers me breezily "Oh, I'm fine," to respond gently, "Honestly? Because if not, I want to do what I can to help."

Vacation Homes: The Agony and the Ecstasy

2011-05-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

If you've been with me for a while, you may recall that our family is blessed to have a small, rustic cabin on a lake in Maine. Emphasis on small and rustic, which means it will never grace the pages of a glossy "lake living" magazine. However, I am well aware that the phrase "on a lake in Maine" nullifies any mention of the showering-with-weird-insects characteristic we also enjoy. I suppose that's part of its charm.

Yet another trade-off is the way our cabin siphons funds that should be going into the girls' college savings accounts. Himself points out that, until this year, we've never done anything "major" to the place. A water heater here; a new circuit board there, et cetera. Emphasis on et cetera.

Until this year.

The front part of our cabin is quite old and was built on wood pilings as a foundation. The back part was added about 20 years ago and had a concrete slab foundation. Since the yard can be wet, we had to run a dehumidifier in the back part of the cabin to keep the floor (indoor/outdoor carpet) dry. Otherwise, if I kicked off a blanket during the night, it'd be damp by morning. Two years ago, we noticed that the floor was bowing, an indication that something was wrong with the wood pilings. Turned out to be rot. So this fall, we hired a contractor and put in a crawl space.

A couple of weekends ago, Himself and I made a whirlwind trip up there to check on the status of the work. Our contractor, who was stuck in Florida with car issues, couldn't meet us as we'd planned, which was a bummer. But we did meet with the mason to make plans about repositioning the chimney and wood stove. Here's what the place looks like now:

Looking from the sliding glass door in the family room to the kitchen. Note the sub-floor in the kitchen.

Looking into the girls' bedroom, which is crammed with stuff: the wood stove, the TV, books, and various furniture.

The family room. Yes, that's the back of the fridge and our brass headboard, which needs a good polish.

Clearly, there's still lots to do. And we're due to arrive in eight weeks, with our packed-within-an-inch-of-its-life minivan, two children, and a corgi. It will be a nail-biter!

Weekly Wrap-Up: On the Homestretch

2011-05-06T20:55:00.000-04:00

The finish line is in sight! We've already wrapped up a few things: spelling, our Friday homeschool classes, and poetry. There are only two units remaining in our grammar curriculum and only two more logic puzzles from Mind Benders. Miss Priss will finish her math curriculum in about three weeks. As far as activities go, there are only two more weeks of piano lessons, which culminate in the recital, and three more weeks of tumbling. The children's program at church ended this past Wednesday; the musical is on Mother's Day.
In other news:

We spent a few hours Monday attempting to ascertain whether or not Tiny Girl's elbow was fractured. She and Miss Priss spent the weekend with my parents while Himself and I were out of town. On Sunday night, Tiny Girl slipped on a throw rug, fell, and slammed her elbow onto the hardwood floor. Thankfully, it was just bruised, and she's back to normal now.

We are having a wonderful time studying history just prior to (and leading up to) the American Revolution. One of the best things about the Ambleside Online curriculum, in my opinion, is the time allowed to really immerse oneself into a particular time period, culture, and mood. Moreover, the excellent book selections provide much more than a cursory survey of events. The girls are really gleaning a deep understanding of the young American colonies and their struggles; in fact, it wasn't until college that I learned and/or appreciated much of this material.

Due to my dithering earlier this year, we are now "behind" schedule for the Year 4 readings. After asking for feedback on the AO Yahoo groups and giving it some thought, I've decided to simply continue our readings into the summer. I don't want to take a long break now, just when we're really getting into the story; nor do I want to put the pedal to the metal and zoom through just to finish up. That would sort of defeat the purpose of immersing ourselves into the early American zeitgeist, wouldn't it?!

We continued our Work pocket for the Colonial America history pockets. We also continued our study of the human body, reading more about the muscular system. Keys for Kids for Bible, Rosetta Stone for French, copywork, math, grammar, and piano practice are part of our daily lessons.

That's our week in a nutshell! To read more wrap-ups, visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Happy Mother's Day!

Shaken

2011-04-28T17:11:00.000-04:00

Nothing makes one feel quite as helpless as witnessing the powers of nature at their worst.

I've lived all my life in the American South. To the uninitiated, this means I've spent a lot of time huddled in basements during spring, the tornado season. You'd think I'd have a healthy respect for those particular storms, and, theoretically, I do. But I've flown for cover at the weatherman's command to "seek shelter" so often that I've grown a bit cavalier.

This is not to say I've never been close to one. They've zipped around my environs, destroying houses, snapping trees like toothpicks, and harming people -- ruining lives -- my entire life. But you know what they say about familiarity breeding contempt.

Until last night.

Himself, the girls, I, and my parents who were visiting huddled around the TV anxiously watching the Weather Channel last night. Footage of the massive tornado that slammed Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was on its way to Birmingham made me hold my breath and clasp my hands. I wondered, Did the pillar of cloud that the Hebrews followed on their exodus from Egypt look anything like this?

4-27-11 Tornado Tuscaloosa, Al from Crimson Tide Productions on Vimeo.

I hope you noticed some things: the debris swirling around the outside of the vortex; the size of the tornado compared to the buildings on the left side of the screen; the strange, whirling sound of the winds; and the heavy, panicked breathing of whoever shot the footage from his/her car. If you didn't, watch it again. It's that powerful. And there are more out there to watch, too; I've viewed several. They make me feel slightly nauseated.

The thing was on the ground for hours, and, instead of losing strength as typically happens, it gained strength as it moved northeast from Birmingham and out of Alabama, leaving more than 100 people dead -- and the death count continues to rise -- into Georgia, where it nearly demolished the town of Ringgold. More people died there. Then it was on to Tennessee.

Another tornado/storm system farther south in Alabama also crossed the Georgia line. It came across Georgia south of Atlanta. Thus this major metropolitan area was largely spared immense damage.

At our house, we suffered only thunder, lightning, winds, and some rain. The girls and my mom slept in the basement anyway. I myself slept upstairs, but lightly, one ear tuned for the tornado sirens. The Weather Channel may do its best to track the path of tornadoes, but last I checked, they are not under our domain and tend to go where they please.

The death toll for the more than 100 tornadoes that spanned five southern states on Thursday is now more than 200. They are saying this may be an historic tornado season. "Historic" does not always mean something good.

It's impossible for me to be nonchalant any longer. I don't think I'll ever be able to rid my mind of those images.

First Sighting! Northern Flicker

2011-04-26T12:55:00.001-04:00

This morning, Miss Priss called to me from our second-story hall window (she was inside, of course), "Come look at this weird bird. It looks like a woodpecker, but it has a hummingbird beak."

Bird-in-question was in our front yard, eating bugs off the ground. It looked similar to a red-bellied woodpecker, which we see fairly often in our back yard. But the body was darker and speckled, and it featured a handsome black semi-circle on its throat (properly called a "necklace," I soon learned).

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

I ran downstairs and snatched our handy and much-loved Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds: Eastern Region. With its clever color-grouping arrangement, I quickly found our bird: a northern flicker. We'd never before seen one.

Then we hit the 'Net. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website is fantastic. We read about northern flickers, listened to recordings of their different calls and drums, and watched a short video. And that was our introduction to the northern flicker.

Maybe we'll see one again!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Two Weeks of Reading Like Mad

2011-04-23T11:35:00.002-04:00

Last week, I missed writing our wrap-up because we were off to a Girl Scout Camporee! And I ask you, what camping trip with girls is complete without tornado sirens blaring in the wee hours and huddling in the cement-floored bathroom while said tornado blew through 1.5 miles away? None. But Saturday and Sunday were beautiful. What memories we'll have, right?

Educationally speaking, we've been tearing it up. Since much has been going on, I'll simply list some highlights:

We've been reading. Our AO readings continue (Poor Richard, This Country of Ours, Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution, and George Washington's World), and we've thrown in others for added interest, most notably Ben and Me for Tiny Girl, which she zipped through and really enjoyed, and Calico Captive for Miss Priss. For the first time Miss Priss has chosen to read her assigned literature over her independent selections. High praise, indeed. I wrote a review of Calico Captive here, in which I also suggest other captivity narrative resources.

To add to our poetry and composer studies, we read Emily Dickinson: American Poet, by Carol Greene, and short biographies of Frederic Chopin. Tiny Girl read Frederic Chopin, by Mike Venezia, and Miss Priss read Frederic Chopin, by Jacqueline Dineen.

In our studies of the human body, we moved on to muscles. First we read the muscles section in Uncover the Human Body; then we watched a fun video from KidsHealth.

Tiny Girl has wrapped up spelling for the year, and Miss Priss is about to cross that particular finish line as well. We've only a few more lessons in our Scott Foresman grammar and our Mind Benders A4 book. We completed the Daily Life pocket and began the Work pocket from our History Pockets book.

For more fun, encouragement, and ideas, visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to read more Wrap-Ups. And thanks for taking time to read my breezy offering this week!

Happy Easter!

Shadows

2011-04-22T21:02:00.007-04:00

What language shall I borrow
to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever,
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love to Thee.
-- attr. Bernard of Clairvaux,
1091-1153

FREE Shakespeare Copywork

2011-04-12T10:23:00.000-04:00

Today's free resource from homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com is a PDF ebook, Quotations from Shakespeare's Plays for Copywork, Recitation and Discussion. Living Books Curriculum provided the ebook, which is usually priced at $10 and includes more than 30 pages of quotations, articles by Charlotte Mason regarding recitation and copywork, and several lined pages. The quotations, selected by Edith Nesbit, author of Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, are arranged by topic.

To click or not to click, that is the question....

(Sorry. I couldn't help myself.)

Weekly Wrap-Up(s): Playing Catch-Up

2011-04-09T12:50:00.003-04:00

I've missed writing Wrap-Ups for two weeks prior to this week, for various reasons, most of which involve life at break-neck speed and upsets. I've blogged about some of those already, and you can read the posts if you'd like.

Last week, the hubbub was about getting ready for Tiny Girl's next horse show. The weather was not good, so we had to practice ride when we could. This meant fitting school in between show preparations.

On Friday, she spent a good deal of time cleaning her tack. We'd discovered the night before that her show shirt no longer fit, necessitating a trip to the store Friday morning to find a blue shirt. Nothing like last minute things to do that you hadn't planned to do!

Saturday morning, we were up super early and at the equestrian park before 7 AM, Chick-fil-a chicken biscuits and coffee in hand. Tiny Girl could only manage a chocolate shake, which I made at home before we left.

It was a big weekend for us. Tiny Girl and Tappy the pony showed both days, and we added divisions as we went along because they did so well.

Cantering along

Over crossrails

Jasper had a great time both days. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, though.

He's always SO serious for photos.

One of the divisions we added included a crossrails course, as opposed to just four in a square shape. Tiny was really excited about this.

On Sunday, we added a prehunter over fences division, which featured vertical jumps courses (as opposed to crossrails). I did not get any photos of this, and I don't remember why! Probably because I was anxiously watching my child.

The ribbons she and Tappy earned

We've had a lovely spring break this week: playing with friends, meeting friends for lunch, enjoying a few craft projects, reading, and the like. I feel refreshed and ready to start our homestretch toward summer. I'm also getting excited about planning for next year. We'll need to play catch-up this summer a bit to stay on track, but that's okay. We always enjoy reading good books.

That's a snapshot of our last couple of weeks. I hope things are good at your house!

Belated Birthday Musings

2011-04-07T16:03:00.000-04:00

We celebrated my (ahem) birthday a couple of weeks ago. On Friday night, Himself took me and Miss Priss out for dinner (Tiny Girl attended another birthday sleepover) and bought me a lovely cake. Another day, friends threw me a little tea party with homemade lemon scones. I received several books, including One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp, and The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, by Alexander McCall Smith, and FOUR Amazon gift cards. I've used about half the value on Kindle downloads. Yay! We also went out to eat with my folks and my sister and brother-in-law.

By Sunday evening, Himself asked me, "Are we done celebrating your birthday now?"

My absolute favorite gift came from my daughters: a handmade certificate, which read:

This certificate is for Mama

for an Amozon (sic) Gift Card

for ~~$20~~ $25

and you don't have to pay!

First, I love it that I was deemed worthy of another five bucks. Second, I am supremely happy that I don't have to pay.

Knocked Off Balance

2011-04-05T16:28:00.000-04:00

The phone rang before breakfast. Nothing unusual. It was one of my best friends, who often calls in the morning before our homeschooling days fully swing into action. When I answered, she immediately asked:

"Have you checked your email yet?"

No, I hadn't.

She named another close, mutual friend. "Her dad died last night."

And everything changed.

Birth, death, emergencies. These are the things for which we don't schedule or pencil into our calendars. Even "planned" C-sections happen when they happen; it's really difficult to custom-order life passages. So when something unexpected bursts in on the scene, we're at once surprised, knocked off balance, discombobulated. And if that something is a loss, we're also shocked. Grieved.

Four of us got together via phone communication and discussed the best ways to help. Our dear friend and her family had a long drive ahead of them, decisions to make, responsibilities (of which they have many) to hand off or complete before their departure, and a lot on their minds. So we got snacks for the car trip and a gas card to help with travel expenses. We made several meals: muffins and fruit salad for breakfasts; soups; chicken salad, ham salad, and homemade bread for lunches; and several casseroles for immediate suppers or to freeze for later.

And we prayed.

I did my best to orchestrate something of a school day for my girls while in a cooking frenzy, with only minor success. But I was also aware of the life experience this episode provided for my children. Things happen in this world that surprise us with turmoil and throw our plans into disarray. They not only upset our schedule, they change our perspective about what's most important at that moment. And we respond, not with annoyance, but with grace.

Our schedules and our plans necessarily take on the role of lesser things as we gather around the one who's suffering.

We pray, and we help. We help, and we pray.

Springtime Sabbath

2011-04-04T14:00:00.000-04:00

Spring is my favorite season. The girls prefer summer, which I enjoy as well; but as for pure loveliness, it's spring for me.

We are taking a break from lessons this week, and, since it is spring break for our county, we have no outside activities scheduled. We've all been needing a break, and my hope is that this week fills us with a sense of renewal, perhaps even revival. The latter may be more for me than the children, frankly.

So we talked about some plans for the week, and here is what we decided: a trip to a pottery painting studio; playing with friends; a trip to the bookstore and lunch out with some friends we haven't seen in a long time; just generally relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

For myself, I envision lounging in the hammock with a book and a glass of homemade lemonade. Perhaps Jasper will curl up beside me and snooze.

Here are the books I'm planning to read:

Tyler's Row, by Miss Read
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
The Full Cupboard of Life, by Alexander McCall Smith

I also want to get back to blogging more regularly. I hinted in my last post about life interruptions -- which are really just parts of life themselves -- that have been the focus of my thoughts and energy lately, and I've been percolating ideas about those things in particular and how they occupied me. I've been wondering if I learned anything that I could shape into any sort of would-be wisdom to share. Probably not, but that won't stop me from sharing anyway.

Here is what I have planned not to do this break week:

Lesson planning
Worry about lessons or lesson planning
Worry about anything

Here is what I've actually done thus far:

Taken the girls to the library for a one-hour yoga retreat for Girl Scout Juniors, which was instructed by a Cadette troop as part of the Silver Award (I perused the library's shelves for reading materials and actually checked out some books for school. So I've already broken one of resolutions for the week. Alas.)
Cleaned my bathroom
Taken care of some laundry
Attempted to assuage the feelings of one daughter whose friends are not available to play (while her sister biked away to spend the afternoon with a friend)

Hmmm. Do you sense a pattern, or is it just me? Many's the time when I have some free moments, an afternoon perhaps, that I fill with busy-ness: housekeeping that needs doing, chores I really must tackle, meal planning, sink scrubbing, et cetera. I sense a pattern developing, and I'm determined to stop it in its tracks.

I feel a deep need for quiet calm. I feel the need for sabbath.

The sun in shining, a breeze is blowing, and a hammock is calling my name.

Why I've Been So Quiet Lately

2011-04-02T19:45:00.000-04:00

Remember a few posts ago when I exulted that I had embraced my new, busy lifestyle?

Well.

That's all fine, except for when it interrupts the life I think I'm supposed to be living, and then I get irritated.

These last few weeks I've lived at break-neck speed for various reasons, all of which have something to do with the adage, "Life is what happens when you're busy making plans." Or something like that.

I've composed many a blog post in my head, but I've had precious little computer time. I hope to be back in the next day or so, and I'll talk a bit about what's been going on and what's been on my mind. Such as it is.

In the meantime, blessings to you and yours!

A Glimpse of Spring

2011-03-21T18:25:00.000-04:00

When my friend, Blossom, from North Laurel Home & School, commented on my green grass in a photo for a Weekly Wrap-Up, I thought I'd post a few photos of spring in my neck of the woods.

Daffodils are Blossom's favorites, and a favorite of mine as well.

I love this periwinkle-colored phlox at the foot of my driveway. Notice all the buds? They have now burst into bloom.

Just a few weeks ago, I severely pruned my six red Knock-Out rosebushes, and they put out new growth almost immediately. Another rosebush of mine, a yellow one, already has buds on it.

Some trees' new leaves start out red, which looks sensational mixed in with the white flowers of ornamental pear trees, the pink of ornamental cherry trees, and the bright lavender of redbuds.

This is one of two ornamental cherries that grace the parking area of our neighborhood pool and tennis courts. Not only do I love their flowers, which are actually pinker up close, but I also love their shape.

Another spring favorite of mine is forsythia. But I don't have any, nor are any close enough to my house to photograph. So I have to content myself with catching sight of them while I drive around town.

About to enter the spring scene big-time are the dogwoods, which are beginning to bloom, and the azaleas. I have two large white azalea bushes in my back yard, and one has just started blooming. Blossom (and everyone), I'll post photos of that when it's in its full glory.

I hope you are seeing signs of spring where you live!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Colonial Tempers and the Weather Are Heating Up

2011-03-18T17:08:00.000-04:00

I was a slug-a-bed this week, as was Tiny Girl. The time change, which has never bothered me before, cooked my goose this week! But education continued apace, thank goodness! And so did the arrival of spring. Ah, books and spring. Two of my favorite things!

In many of our subjects, we are clicking along smoothly, e.g., Bible study, poetry, copywork, piano, and French. Once the girls complete their current Spelling Power levels in a couple of weeks, we'll wrap up spelling for the year. We focused on pronouns and their referents in grammar. In math, Miss Priss worked on long division, with and without remainders, graphs and charts, and basic operations. Tiny Girl practiced basic operations and word problems, as well as more fraction work.

The weather's not the only thing heating up. It was excitement galore in our readings this week. In George Washington's World, we read about the French and Indian War, the Seven Years' War in Europe, and Britain's strong presence in India. Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution painted a vivid picture of colonial discontent with the mother country. What with the Stamp Act and the Townsend Acts -- taxes, all -- tempers are running high. And in This Country of Ours, we learned about the French exploration of the mighty Mississippi River and the many trials, struggles, and heartbreaks the early explorers endured. I appreciated how this particular chapter underscores the difference between the French and British attitudes toward the New World: for the French, America loomed large as a land for exploration and adventure; but for the British, America was a new homeland.

To accent our readings, we began the Daily Life pocket from History Pockets. We focused this week on colonial dress:

Each paper doll featured separate articles of clothing, such as a shift, petticoat, gown, apron, pockets, and coif for the colonial woman.

Once colored and cut out, the clothing could be placed atop the doll in order and glued at the top only. That way, you can see all the articles of clothing. It looked to me like they would have been sweltering in the summer!

In our literature readings, Miss Priss finished Anne of Green Gables and is halfway through with an adapted version of The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper, which is set during the French and Indian War. She continues to enjoy Redwall, by Brian Jacques, and The Peterkin Papers. Tiny Girl finished The Borrowers and continues The Princess and Curdie. I reserved Calico Captive at the library; it's also set in the French and Indian War. You can read my earlier review of this book here, if you are so inclined.

Together we are reading Robinson Crusoe, which the girls are enjoying more now that I'm reading it aloud. they know there are cannibals in the story, and Tiny Girl anxiously awaits their arrival on the scene. I'm wondering if that should worry me. . . .

And of course there were tumbling class, Wednesday night activities at church, and horseback riding going on this week as well. This weekend are two sleepovers, World Thinking Day with the Girls Scouts (our troop is hosting a booth on Ireland), and a birthday party. Whew!

Pop over toe Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to read more fab Wrap-Ups!

Wrestling with Daylight Savings Time

2011-03-15T15:25:00.000-04:00

Is anyone else having a problem with the time change? This has never been an issue for us, even when the girls were very young. We just rolled with it, baby.

No longer. I have barely been able to drag myself out of bed at a decent time this week. This morning, I gave up and stayed in bed til after nine. Nine! So did Tiny Girl. Fortunately, our schedule is such that we are still able to get our work done.

Moreover, Miss Priss is having a hard time settling down at night. For two nights now, she's been up past ten, reading. Ergo, she is tired in the mornings. Unlike Tiny Girl and myself, Miss Priss has trouble "sleeping in" no matter how late she retires the night before. She always has. Friends with older children tell me she'll get over this hang-up and will sleep in with the best of them in a year or so, but I'm beginning to doubt it.

So our mornings have been slow. We eat brunch instead of breakfast, although we're all ready for lunch around one. We've claimed victory over our to-do lists thus far, but it's only Tuesday.

I just hope our bodies get used to the time change by tomorrow...

Weekly Wrap-Up: Vats of Tea Required

2011-03-12T14:26:00.001-05:00

I'm a tad late writing my Wrap-Up for this past week. Yesterday was too crazy-busy, and this morning we were bike shopping for the girls. They'd outgrown their other bikes quite some time ago. Now they are happily tooling about the neighborhood with their friends.

We had an odd week, but in a mostly welcome way. Due to weather two days this week, our regularly scheduled activities were cancelled. Another day, we spent the morning doing chores, since we were overdue for a cleaning and straightening up detail, and we did our lessons in the afternoon. On one of the rainy days, I awoke with a headache, took some medicine, and went back to sleep until almost 10 AM! Our Wednesday evening church activities were cancelled for the Ash Wednesday service, which I blogged about here, and last night was our church's Big Event for fourth and fifth graders: capture the flag, pizza, and ice cream sundaes with 53 nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds.

When we were at home, the girls stayed in their pajamas and we all drank copious amounts of hot tea all week long. Miss Priss favored a chai mate/white tea mixture we bought recently at Teavana; Tiny Girl opted for peppermint most days; and I sipped (on different occasions) both PG Tips and another Teavana blend, Lemon Lime Kampai and Blueberry Bliss rooibos.

Despite the unusual aspects of the week, our lessons clicked along smoothly. Here are some highlights:

- To add another element to our study of Emily Dickinson, we watched Act One of The Belle of Amherst, a one-act play starring Julie Christie from 1976. Tiny Girl was diasppointed that it was not a real movie; but both girls enjoyed it when they recognized lines from poems we've read.

- Both girls began practicing their two new piano recital pieces. These are typically longer and wee bit more challenging than their weekly pieces; but we are all pleased with the selections.

- I stood over their shoulders a couple of times while they did their Rosetta Stone French. Since this is independent work, I wanted to check their progress. Tiny Girl still needs my help with the writing portions, but other than that I am amazed at how well they are doing.

- They spent about an hour one day with their card-making kits from American Girl, which I found for 40 percent off at Michaels. Tiny Girl wrote thank-you cards for her recent birthday gifts...

... and Miss Priss made a birthday card for an upcoming party.

As you can see, this was on a pajama day. Note the blue Fiesta teacup on the table. In Tiny Girl's photo above, you may be able to catch sight of her orange Fiesta teacup behind one of the cards.

- We did a lot of bird-watching. I attempt many photos during the week, but only a few do I deem worthy of sharing. Here's a brown thrasher I caught on "film":

Brown thrashers are very shy and don't typically visit feeders; however, this one feeds from our tray feeder, suet feeder, and on the ground. I suppose s/he feels safe in our yard! The goldfinches are still prolific, and the males are beginning to show their brighter yellow coloring. I can't wait til they are all decked out, black facemask included. We often see pine siskins in amongst the goldfinches.

Other birds that escaped my camera lens but not our study this week: dark-eyed juncos, cardinals, Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees, downy woodpeckers, titmice, white-throated sparrows, a song sparrow, and robins. On two occasions, we also watched with our binoculars a red-tailed hawk.

That wraps up our week! To read more, swing by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Thanks for stopping by!

Ashes

2011-03-10T11:27:00.001-05:00

I grew up in a denomination that doesn't formally recognize Ash Wednesday, and even though I am now part of a denomination that does, I'd never been to this particular worship service. Miss Priss had expressed a desire to attend. She was intrigued with the idea of ashes marked on her forehead, and she longed to celebrate communion by intinction, an ancient custom in which worshipers come forward to the altar, take a piece of bread, dip it in a cup of wine/grape juice, and then partake.

But she vacillated. It was raining hard. The thought of a game of Clue with the family in front of a nice fire was appealing. So I changed my plans also. Instead of showering, I took a nap, something I love to do on rainy afternoons, and put off supper plans until later.

Imagine my irritation when she announced, an hour and a half before the service was to begin, that she'd decided she'd really like to go. No argument from me about how this was now a difficulty made a difference to her. Muttering with frustration, I jumped into the shower, and an hour later we departed, leaving Himself and Tiny Girl at home, everyone supperless.

It's possible I could have been in a mood even further from worshipful than I actually was, but I have trouble imagining it.

Sitting in the darkened sanctuary, surrounded by friends and strangers, I found myself untangling on the inside. I breathed more freely. I relaxed. I smiled at Miss Priss when she caught my eye and returned my smile. We held hands.

The service began, and together the congregation heard again the old story of Abram and Sarai on a journey from Ur to Haran and from there to Canaan. We considered God's faithfulness along their journey. And we connected that particular journey to our personal journey through Lent toward Easter. We joined our voices in hymns of praise.

When it was our turn to go forward and receive the sacrament and marks of ashes, I stood behind my little girl, my hands on her shoulders and my heart full. We smiled at each other as we walked back to our pew; she knows intinction is my favorite way to celebrate communion. And I was so thankful for the grace that flooded through me during worship and changed me.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
Isaiah 61:1-3a

Weekly Wrap-Up: High Octane Cruise Control

2011-03-04T21:15:00.003-05:00

Remember how I've moaned and groused about the speed at which our lives are now moving? How I prefer a quiet life? How we need to make some changes around here?

Well.

Changes have been made, but not to our schedule. Wonder of wonders, I think I'm getting the hang of this plate-spinning gig. It's still not my preferred way to live, but at least I'm no longer grouchy or miserable. And here's what's keeping me going:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
-- Matthew 6:34

Ain't it the truth? So we're cruising at high speed around here, and I'm not worrying about tomorrow.

Anyway, this week was a good one. The usual things went on as they should, and here are a few highlights.

- Miss Priss and I worked on fractions (again) for a part of the week, equivalencies and simplifying fractions. Here's a snippet of our real conversation:

Me (excitedly): You're really getting this!
Her (off-handedly): No. I just play along.

Ah, well.

- We also continued our study of the brain. This great mini-video from Discovery Health helped us out.

- Our History Pockets project for the week was a diagram of a Southern plantation. They are not quite complete -- hence, no photos. We also enjoyed reading George Washington's World; Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution; and This Country of Ours. Due to my education hand-wringing earlier in the year, we're behind; but I'm not going to let that bother me. Much.

-The girls are enjoying Robinson Crusoe more now that I'm reading it aloud.

- In our artist study, we considered Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph and Woman with a Pink, in our What Makes a Rembrandt a Rembrandt? book.

We also sat at a mall for a few hours selling Girl Scout cookies; we watched a lot of bird activity; Miss Priss tumbled, Tiny Girl rode her pony, they both had piano, and we all had fun at church Wednesday night; we admired spring as it burst upon us, in the form of daffodils, flowering trees with white and lavender-pink blossoms, and a thunderstorm; and today we fasted, as part of our hunger badge for Scouts. We went to IHOP for supper with friends to break our fast. Pancakes never tasted so good.

How was your week? Pop over the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more encouragement and ideas from other blogs, and have a great weekend!

FREE Today: U.S. Constitution Resource

2011-03-02T14:22:00.000-05:00

Here's another FREE resource for you: Creative Learning Connection is offering an e-book, Understanding the U.S. Constitution, by Catherine Jaime. I learned about this from Homeschool Freebie of the Day, a site and service I heartily recommend.

This is usually $12, but is free today only. So hurry and click to get yours!

Education Resource: LearnOutLoud.com

2011-03-01T20:56:00.001-05:00

As you know, I love to read. I love holding books (or my Kindle!), lingering over particularly eloquent, meaningful, or humorous passages, and thumbing back to read favorite parts. But I also enjoy audiobooks, and so does the rest of the family. Perfect for passing the time on car rides or while doing chores at home, audiobooks can be a mama's good friend, whether a home educator or not.

Thanks to my friend, Blossom, who pointed me to a wonderful resource, LearnOutLoud. Claiming to be "the Net's largest Catalog of educational audio books, podcasts, downloads, & free audio & video [with] over 25,000 titles from hundreds of authors and publishers," LearnOutLoud is impressive. I was especially enamored with their FREE audio downloads, but LearnOutLoud also offers other features, e.g., you can listen to a sample before you buy. LearnOutLoud's catalog highlights titles from many publishers, one of which is LibriVox, a familiar resource to many of us.

The website boasts an extensive Kids section, which you can browse by age range or topic. You can also click the Free Stuff tab (as I immediately did) to discover the treasure trove there. Many a title on homeschooling lists is awaiting you.

I visited the site and downloaded February's freebie, a dramatization of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. I can't wait to listen to it!

I also can't wait until I can sit down with a cup of tea to peruse LearnOutLoud's catalog at my leisure. I know I'll be downloading lots more.

BibleYear.com: Read the Bible in One Year

2011-02-27T18:10:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, the girls' piano teacher told me about this new Bible she has, a chronological one-year NIV translation. The idea intrigued me at the time, but I didn't want to spend anymore money on this Bible just then, so I put it on the backburner for the time being. Cut to present-day: A big thanks to my friend, Silvia, who pointed me to a wonderful website, BibleYear.com.

Now, I know that reading the Bible in one year is not a new idea. But BibleYear.com, offering five reading plans -- beginning to end, straight through; chronological; historical; New (Testament) then Old; or a passage of Old and New each day -- and more than 50 translations, is huge help to anyone who wants to meet the challenge.

First, you select your preferred translation and reading plan. I chose the Holman Christian Standard Bible because I downloaded the Kindle version for free from Amazon. Next you choose a start date, either the first or 15th of a month; I chose March 1. Presto! Up pops a daily reading plan for a calendar year. And, should you decide to read at your computer, each day's reading is a link to the passage in your preferred translation on BibleGateway.

I think this is just marvelous. Silvia, thanks again!