Happenings from the Bush homestead

Life at ElCloud Homeschool/Homestead this week ...

Posted by ElCloud
09:14 AM, 2009-Jul-2 .. Posted in Our Family .. 0 comments .. Link

Today the sky is clouded with a soft gray layer, and a gentle rain is falling on the clothes I forgot to remove from the clothes line yesterday. (oh well) Our 23 chickens and 1 guinea hen are also getting a shower, since we still haven't fixed up the coop for them. Since the 13 Ameraucana hens were digging nesting pits in the dirt yesterday, they probably needed the shower anyway. I think the digging means they are about to start laying. I wonder if they will all use the same spot, as our guinea hen usually lays hers in the same location each day. If not, we'll be having daily easter egg hunts with the colorful easter eggs the Ameraucanas lay.

I have two boys sleeping on the couches in the living room beside me. They stumbled out earlier, said hi, laid down, and fell asleep again. Molly-dog did the same thing on the floor beside me. Although she didn't say hi.

The garden is enjoying the cooler temps and this morning's rain. We planted so many seeds and new plants this past weekend. Some are new to us, and we may be late on others, but it's worth a try. We planted pumpkins, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, sweet potatoes, burgundy beans, and tomatoes. We already had wax beans, green beans, lima beans, and potatoes planted. We harvested the last of our peas, and half of our onions. I blanched and froze the shelled peas, but I am still in the process of chopping and freezing the onions. I like doing that, even with store-bought onions, because they are ready to use in many of my dishes.

Ahh ... now I am typing around the 3 year old, and she's decided it's time to have a conversation.

She's telling me all about our adult cats, and our baby kittens. Now she's telling me about the baby bunny we rescued from one of our outdoor cats yesterday, and put in a rabbit cage on our porch. I told her that this morning Daddy and I rescued another one, and put it in the cage as well. I guess I'll send children out to pick grass and clover to feed the baby bunnies today. We put lettuce in yesterday, but I remember when we had a house rabbit for awhile that iceberg lettuce isn't really healthy for them. We do have carrots, too. I'm not certain this was wise, but we really couldn't stand by and watch the cat eat baby bunnies. He's supposed to be catching RATS, not bunnies.

Speaking of our baby kittens, they are 2.5 weeks old now. Most are doing well, but one is definitely a runt. I should bottle-feed him more often, but I keep forgetting to ... or he gains weight and I hope that he's improving and quit, only to have him slack off again. Melody is a good mama, even though this is her first litter. For the first time in our cattery, we have a waiting list to contact first when they're ready to go to new homes.

There is no water running into the house today because the main pipe into the basement started spraying everywhere yesterday. We don't use many cardboard boxes in the basement, but the ones that we do use sit on top of plastic totes since the basement does leak when it rains. Unfortunately if it's raining inside from a spraying pipe, they can still get soaked and ruined. Two chairs, and 4-5 boxes are soaked. We'll see if any of it can be saved or not. I filled pitchers and buckets with water, and if I have to, I can turn the water main back on long enough to re-fill the pitchers. Life will be interesting today, and the laundry will have to wait another day or two.

The girls are still excited about their first 4-H judging event yesterday. They took their sewing projects in for judging in the Fiber Arts category. 13 yo A's 9-patch pillow received a blue ribbon. 12 yo R's striped drawstring tote bag also earned a blue ribbon. 10 yo C's watermelon drawstring tote bag earned a red ribbon. If you're not familiar with 4-H ribbons in KS, there is Purple first, then Blue, then Red, and finally White. I'm so used to thinking of blue-ribbon as being first place, that I usually forget that purple is best when we're at the fair. Now that we've been judged once, it's much clearer to me. I won't forget again. Since none of the girls earned purple ribbons, they won't recieve any of the grand champion or reserve champion prizes. But it was a good first year ... and a good first attempt at sewing with their sewing machine. They may not take sewing in 4-H again (they're undecided), but they will continue to sew.

8 yo J will be spending his evenings and weekend finishing his woodworking project with Steve. His judging is on the 7th. As usual, he dislikes the boring work of sanding involved in the project. I told him it was similar to his sisters not liking to iron their seams open or take the time to pin each seam in sewing. But those tedious details make a better finished product.

Our 2008-2009 school year is officially finished, but the TOS Homeschool Crew has also officially begun. Our first review curriculum (Grapevine Bible Studies) is shipping, and we'll start that soon. Our school year won't officially start until August 17, but we'll be doing light schoolwork before then.

Baby G is awake now, and snuggling in my lap for his morning feeding. He's crawling, pulling up, and cruising along the furniture now. Unfortunately, it also means he sometimes over-reaches and falls down. He has a bruise on his cheek from the coffee table at the moment. But at least he falls over backwards less often. He is our first baby in a non-carpeted house and it was hard to get used to the little bruises on the back of his head when he was learning to sit up. We actually used the boppy pillow with him while he was learning to sit, and I've never used it that way before.

The past several weeks Baby G was slowly cutting 3 more teeth, and ended up with an ear infection. They're finally all in, and he finished his antibiotics ... but now he has a summer cold, so he's still miserable at times.

More and more of my day lilies are blooming. The fair is early enough this year that I might be able to enter day lilies in the open class flower category. Usually all our flowers are gone when the fair gets here. I'll have to see what is still blooming next week. We don't really have any veggies to enter, and I'm not ready to try to enter our chickens. Maybe next year one of the kids can enter our rooster. I know I'm not practiced enough at bread baking to enter that category, so I may just fall back on my Grandfather-in-law's beautiful choice of day lily varieties he planted and enter those only. Next year we all hope to enter photography. Some of the girls want to pursue it as a project, and I enjoy it, as well.

I have a stack of books I'll be reviewing this month and part of next month. And then I really am going to slow down on book reviews. Curriculum reviews will keep me busy enough.

I've rambled on long enough, and I can't think of anything else to share ... so it's probably past time for closing this post. This feels like a chatty letter written to my friends, so I'll close with

Love,

Sewing Diapers

Posted by KimMC
08:42, 2009-Jun-26 .. Posted in The Sewing Room .. 2 comments .. Link

This is one of the diapers I've been sewing. It's for dd1, its from the FattyCake pattern. I love it! The outside is an upcycled shirt, the hidden and inner layers are sherpa. Then there is a trifold sherpa lay in soaker.

Busy gardening, sewing and hot weather

Posted by KimMC
08:37, 2009-Jun-26 .. Posted in Just Thoughts .. 1 comments .. Link

I haven't had time to post here for a little while. I've been very busy trying to catch up with the gardens. We went from very cool and wet weather (yes even needing to use the wood stove!) to extreme hot and dry weather. Dh set up the AC a few days ago and that helped a LOT. I have a hard time breathing when the weather gets into the 30's C and humid. During the day we've been just trying to keep cool. Come evening I've been working non stop in the gardens. I'm not sure what's worse, gardening during the hot day or the bugs in the evening! LOL
The weeds had really gotten away from us during the rainy spell. Now I have almost all the beds cleared out. I just need to finish around the cabbages and some tomatoes. I will need to finish it up tomorrow as it looks like we are in for another week of rain.

We had a cold front come through yesterday. It didn't make it any cooler then, although today is lovely! But we did get some nasty storms up this way. The worst of it just skirted around us, we received mostly rain and some thunder. But others had large hail and there were a few tornadoes.

This morning I went to the annual library book sale in a nearby town. It's pretty big and goes by donation. I look forward to it every year! There didn't seem to be as many books as last year and it was VERY crowded, but I still found some great deals. I'll share more about my finds tomorrow, but I picked up 30 videos on different topics from animals, science and drama. Lots of books on history and countries around the world. Perfect for our unit studies this year!

I've been busy sewing an knitting to. My dd3 is working hard at potty training (yahoo!) so I'm sewing trainers for her. DD1 started reacting a while back to the liners in her pocket diapers. They have a suede cloth liner that she doesn't do well with. So I'm switching her over to fitted and wool/fleece covers. Then little ds is an odd size lol so doesn't fit into many that I already have. He has a wide waist and long rise. Soooo yup I'm sewing up a new stash for him to!

I also have a big stack of skirts I've cut out and need to sew.

Flower Photos

Posted by KimMC
08:16, 2009-Jun-26 .. Posted in Down The Garden Path .. 0 comments .. Link

I was talking some garden photos the other day. I really liked how these came out!

Summer School Adventures Starting

Posted by HandsNHearts
08:43, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

Summer School Adventures starting...

What do you do when the heat index passes 100? You take a field trip to a park and do some nature exploring, of course :o) Yes, I've been known to be a bit insane at times. Man, it was hot. It was beyond hot. Way off yonder on the other side of hot and muggy. Way. Off. Beyond.

I know -- I've been here in Mississippi for 4 years now, and we've made a few drives down the Natchez Trace, mostly as a by-pass kind of trip, but nothing really in-depth -- nothing you'd even call skimming the history even.

But, that's about to change for this homeschooling brood. We spent about an hour in the park, checking out the swings and playground fun, then walked around the 'lake' there and found all sorts of things...the sun-drenched playground, some hungry geese who thoroughly enjoyed our bread, a hidden Muscovey nest under the wooden band shell, lots of interesting tree shapes to add to our notebooks, even several trees with lines/rows of markings (wood peckers maybe? I'm not a nature person so maybe someone else knows what they are...lines and lines up the trunks as far as we could see, little tiny holes that don't realy go very deep), and the biggest bullfrog I've ever seen in my life. Maybe I just don't get out much, but that baby was huge, let me tell you. I had to sort of lean way over, hanging on a tree limb and squatting down and stretching out my cell phone to get his picture way up under the brush and tree swamp stuff.

And on the way home, we took The Trace (to by-pass Tupelo traffic really) and decided as we were already dripping with Mississippi summer heat, we might as well stop at a couple roadsides and check them out. We walked the trails around the Chickasaw Village site, and the Olde Town Lookout site. Then we pulled into the Visitor Center there at the Tupelo exit. Can't believe I've wasted 4 years not stopping in there! I could spend alot of time and several chunks of the school book budget in there. All manners of books covering the history of the area, the history of the Trace itself, tthe Indian tribes from the area, Civil War sites around, etc. Tons of stuff. I'm going to see what I can find online to get us started with the summer long unit study.

We may even join their Junior Rangers Program, and starting this weekend, we'll make the rounds with their Pioneer Day and their Dulcimer Day they offer each month. We are even taking our dulcimer along for some lessons. I'd like to take a trip and follow the entire 444 miles of The Trace, stopping at all the side areas along the route itself. For now, we will contend with looking through WebRangers and then see what we can gather this coming weekend at the Pioneer Day gathering.

I think we can even tie in our Trail Guide to U.S. Geography studies as well -- doing a virtual tour of the various National Parks online, and meeting up with online folks from those areas.

Of course, you know me...I like my curriculum...I found this the other day, and I would like to given it a try, too. Looks interesting. But...the last thing I need to is to be tossing another iron in my fire, heh? We'll have more than enough read-aloud material after visiting The Trace Visitor Center again this weekend! shhh...don't tell Dewey I'm adding even more curriculum...let's surprise him :o)

Adding to the Summer School fun...and a baby shower gift

Posted by HandsNHearts
08:41, Thursday, June 25, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

Adding to the Summer School fun...and general fun

You know me, I have a hard time sticking to just one plan. I like to do a few things spur of the moment. I like to infuse a little 'homeschooling on the fly' into my life. It can be a curse, sometimes, but mostly, it's just fun.

Ok, got a great email from The Long Thread....OH. MY. GOODNESS. If you haven't checked out her site, or signed up for updates on her blog, get over there now...just stop reading my drivvel and get over there. She shares such cool ideas it's just amazing.

The sharing I received today was on 50 Summer Crafts For Kids...lots of links to a collection of great ideas for summer projects to have fun with. Sort of a carnival of summer ideas.

After finding tons of cool projects we can do during these hot and humid days, I checked out her archives of Crafts for Kids and found these (among about a hundred other great ideas!) Those paper stars would be such fun to do and have a start exchange with our postcard buddies. And just hanging them all over to brighten up things. Gifts for Grandma. oh, the places you could use those pretty little things!! We are definitely going to make a bunch of them.

Along the same bent, we found these too -- what a cute gift idea.

And a Fabric Butterfly Mobile...and some pretty Paper Butterflies...
Ok...well...there's plenty more to keep you busy making all sorts of neat crafts this summer.

We've signed up for the Nim's Island CurrClick Live class that starts July 8th and runs for 8 weeks. They offer so many Live Classes at CurrClick...and so many good resources. It's worth checking out the fun there, too. We found the book at Amazon for next to nothing and ordered it as well, and while we wait on it to arrive, we'll just check it out at the library. Hope it turns out to be a great read-aloud!

And we have 2 nightgowns finished now, and I'm moving along to the baby shower gifts...that diaper cake for sure, made from cloth diapers and plenty of fun burpies, and maybe some of those fabric butterflies for fun, and a couple of receiving blankets and changing pads. And I'm definitely decorating the cake with some ideas from the sites shared below...like the baby sock roses.

Here are some tutorials on make the Diaper Cake:
About.com Diaper Cake
How to make a Diaper Cake this one is to buy a video, but the photo's will give you lots of decorating ideas
A YouTube Video for a Diaper Cake
How to Make a Diaper Cake

2009-2010 TOS Homeschool Crew Vendor Review List

Posted by ElCloud
09:42 AM, 2009-Jun-24 .. Posted in Homeschool Crew Reviews .. 0 comments .. Link

This is a list of the vendors that the TOS Homeschool Crew will be reviewing this upcoming year. This list can still grow, but this is the current list.

This list, and the reviews by other Crew members can be found at the TOS Homeschool Crew blog. You can click on any of these links below to look at the companies and their products while you're waiting for our reviews, though.

• 3 P Learning/ Mathletics

• ABC Teach
• ACT, Inc
• Aleks
• All About Spelling
• American Heritage Education Foundation
• Apologia
• AVKO

• Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting
• Barnum Software- Quarter Mile
• Beeyoutiful
• Bible Charts and Maps
• Bonnie Terry Learning
• Bright Ideas Press
• Brill Kids/Kreative Land

• Christian Keyboarding
• Classical Legacy Press
• College Prep Genius
• Critical Thinking Co.

• Dollar Homeschool/Ray's Arithmetic

• Educaching/ SDG Creations Ltd.
• Educational Diagnostic Prescriptive Services
• English for Life/Madsen Method
• Exploramania

• Grapevine Studies
• Growing Healthy Homes
• Guardian Angel Publishing

• Handipoints
• Homeschool Library Builder

• Journey Through Learning

• KinderBach
• Kregel

• Maestro Classics
• Master Innovations
• Math Mammoth
• Math Score/Accurate Learning
• Math Tutor
• Maverick Books

• Nature Friend Magazine

• Passkeys Foundation
• Professor in a Box

• Sarah Books
• Saxon Harcourt
• Sense and Sensibility Patterns
• Sue Gregg Cookbooks
• Sue Patrick's Workbox System

• Talking Fingers Inc.
• Tektoma

• Virginia Soaps and Scents

• Web Design for Kids -Click Drag Solutions
• We R Fun Life on the Farm
• Worship Guitar Class

• Zeezok Publishing/The Book Peddler

Trusting in Him,
April

ElCloud Disclosure Policy

Posted by ElCloud
09:42 AM, 2009-Jun-19 .. Posted in Miscellaneous Chatter .. 0 comments .. Link

The more I blog, the more I learn about how I'm supposed to blog. It seems that as a blogger who is now doing reviews, I should have a disclosure policy. This post will be linked in my sidebar from now on, so it can be easily referenced at any time. Although I post my Homeschool Crew Reviews here, most of my book reviews are posted only at my ElCloud Homeschool blog.

So here it is in a nutshell:

Companies send me free books and products to try out, then I write an honest review of the product.

They do not pay me with cash, trips to day spas, or buy me new wardrobes.

I write what I believe, although I try to be nice and polite about it if I don't like something or it won't work for my family.

If a product won't work for my family, I try to present ideas of who I think the product might work for.

If I receive a product I've agreed to review, then I will be posting a review of it, but I will be honest.

I try to choose books to review that interest me anyway, because my reading time is limited. So, if many of my book reviews are positive, that's because I chose wisely.

And now the formal disclosure policy:

ElCloud Homeschool Blog Disclosure Policy
This policy is valid from 19 June 2009

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact ElCloud (dot) Homeschool (at) gmail (dot) com.

This blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we will and do accept and keep free products, services, travel, event tickets, and other forms of compensation from companies and organizations.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Trusting in Him,
April

Bacon Potatoes Au Gratin (from the garden, in the crockpot)

Posted by ElCloud
02:47 PM, 2009-Jun-18 .. Posted in ElCloud Kitchen .. 0 comments .. Link

It was 90* in our house last night, after a day of upper 90's temperatures and the use of the stove for supper preparation. Today is supposed to be about 95* again, and I am NOT going to use the stove or oven.

So it's a crock pot night! And to make it even better, this meal is mostly locally grown. The pork cured bacon is from a local pig (not ours) and the peas and onions are from our own garden! The potatoes and everything else came from the grocery store, though. Maybe later this year we can try it again with our own potatoes.

Bacon Potatoes Au Gratin
(this is my own recipe, combining ideas from several other recipes ... my favorite way to cook!)

Ingredients:
8-9 medium potatoes
1 lb. ham cubes or pork cured bacon
1 - 2 cups peas
1 large onion
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Cream of mushroom soup (10.5 oz. can)
milk
pepper

Directions:
Peel and slice 4-5 potatoes into thin slices. Layer in bottom of crockpot.
Chop onion and layer half the onion over the potatoes.
Pour half the peas over the onion.
Sprinkle half the ham or bacon over the peas.
Sprinkle half the cheese over the ham/bacon.
Repeat layers (potato, onion, peas, ham, cheese).
Pour 1 small can of Cream of Mushroom soup over it all.
Pour 1/2 can of milk over the soup.
Sprinkle the top with pepper.

Cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8-10 hours.

I have no idea how many this would feed. Six is probably a safe assumption. I'd like to take this to a potluck sometime.

I hope my kids will all eat it, but many of them reject potatoes in all forms except fried.

Trusting in Him,
April

2009 Schoolhouse Planner

Posted by ElCloud
08:36 AM, 2009-Jun-17 .. Posted in Homeschool Crew Reviews .. 0 comments .. Link

One thing I often hear when meeting someone, or discussing our family size is "You must be so organized!" I've been known to laugh at that comment, because I'm just trying to keep 100 plates spinning without dropping them. My husband assures me I am organized, but the plates often feel ready to come crashing down. When I get too overwhelmed with the 100 spinning plates, I start making lists. I like my calendar, and I love my lists!

Last year, I reviewed the 2008 Schoolhouse Planner as part of my application for the Homeschool Crew. As a certified "list maker", I really enjoyed the Planner, and was glad to find forms I hadn't even thought of creating. I knew many of the forms would be helpful ... either now or in the future. I printed the forms and wrote directly onto the paper, not really understanding the data entry capabilities of the planner.

Once again, I'm blessed to review the 2009 Schoolhouse Planner. The Old Schoolhouse has made some great changes, and added over 40 additional forms. There are 12 new articles from homeschool leaders and authors, and 24 new recipes. In addition to last year's 14 helpful lists, there are 12 new lists of important information. The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner has 375 pages, compared to last year's 247 pages.

Some of the new forms that have been added since last year include:

high school transcript
book report forms
preschool activities list
preschool planning sheets
weekly and daily schedules for different numbers of children, up to 5 children
attendance chart
alphabet copywork sheets
co-op planning sheets
home repair list
home project organizer
car maintenance forms
Bible study notes form

With my 13 year old entering 9th grade this year, I was thrilled to see the new High School Transcript form, as well as the high school hours tracking sheet, and the 12 year planning sheet. Those forms, along with the test grade record sheets and progress reports will help me keep track of our high school years. I know I need to keep more detailed records now that we're beginning high school, and the 2009 Schoolhouse Planner will make that so much easier.

I was also excited to see the 3 different homeschool co-op planning forms which are new this year. I will be working with another lady in our homeschool group to plan the co-op classes and meetings next school year. This is a new role for me, and I know these forms will help keep me "together". These forms will be helpful in organizing my thoughts, and communicating them to the other homeschool moms in our group.

There is so much information, and so many different forms in the 2009 Schoolhouse Planner, I know I will be referencing it for years to come. I appreciate the data-entry capabilities that will allow me to print a "finished" copy of my calendar, school records, report cards and especially our high school transcripts. My husband is making plans for us to start printing quarterly or semester reports for our high school students and file them in the fire-proof safe. That type of record-keeping appeals to him, as well.

The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner is a product I recommend for new homeschool families and veteran homeschool families. The lists, essays, and forms make it useful for more than just one year. Most of the forms come in more than one variation, so you can choose the style that works best for you, or try a new method each year. You can custom design a planner for Mom, a planner for your older students, and even one for Dad. It's a $39 value that will be long-lasting.

I've already typed our birthdays, holidays, and important events into the calendar, and printed it out. Now I'm set to take my folder with me to appointments and meetings ... after all, I have to keep up my "organized Mom" persona. I'm still working on organizing my 2009-10 school planner, but my personal planner is ready!

Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner at the top to read more reviews on this product by other Homeschool Crew members.

Trusting in Him,
April

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