Team Bettendorf in Missouri

Sights of Summer

{ Posted by Chas }
{ 07:56, Thursday, August 14, 2008 } { Posted in Time with God } { 5 comments } { Link }

A garden lined with Sunflowers.... beautiful.

Major, the not so little foal behind my sisters new house.

A boat deck in the afternoon, with the mountain in the distance...

What a wonderful world God made.
My Cup Runneth Over...Chas

Midwifery = Superior Care

{ Posted by Daisyblend }
{ 09:00, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 } { 7 comments } { Link }

Oops. Didn't get around to posting this yesterday like I said in my comments.

"Heart & Hands - A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy & Birth" is an absolutely fantastic book. It was recommended to me by my first midwife and every midwife since. It has been the most helpful pregnancy/birth resource I've ever found. I got it out last week and was flipping through it, reading the section titled "Common Fears and Counseling Techniques" on page 39. The author describes common fears (duh) and ways to connect with your client ("client" not "patient," I've always loved that). It's so wonderful and balanced. The part I want to share stood out to me as I've been considering OB care...

"Contrary to the medical model's premium on detached objectivity, personal involvement is essential in the midwife/client relationship. Why so? By being personally commited to help a woman work through her problems, the midwife inspires commitment in return. And by letting her own character shine through, she helps her client feel confident and courageous enough to accept newly revealed truths about herself and her life. All this serves to elicit responsibility, for when the mother embraces her realizations and begins to make them manifest, the ultimate aim of counseling is achieved."

That is exactly what my first midwife did for me. I was so cluelses but she listened and taught without seeming like she was teaching (sharing?), she was open about herself (and boy did she have character!), she inspired courage and became a wonderful friend. During labor (my first two) she was such a comfort and always said or did the right thing just when I needed it. When I was scared and begining to fight the pain, she knew it and encouraged me. When she saw I needed to move around she got me moving, though I felt unable (this even aided in the easy birth of my rather large 2nd baby without my realizing we were experiencing a bit of shoulder dystocia). She left the room when she saw I needed time alone with Bobby and other times was right there quietly with her hand resting on my leg so I'd know she was present. She was everything a midwife should be. Look up Lisa Block-Weiser if you're in Arizona. She moved back there from MO right after my 2nd was born (right after - another midwife did the postpartum care). She hung around just for us. I'll never forget her and her daughter, Nora (her assistant and midwife-in-training). The more children I have, the more experience I have with other midwives or doctors, the more I miss the two of them!

A Trip to the Pet Store

{ Posted by Chas }
{ 08:15, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 } { Posted in Home Sweet Homeschool } { 2 comments } { Link }

Hello there!!! We set up our aquarium over the weekend and had to wait 48 hours to get fish. So yesterday evening we went to PetSmart to buy fish. The pet store is almost always an exciting trip. We got to look at the fish and the birds, reptiles and rodents... The kids always ask plenty of questions and it is a fun time.
Here the children are looking at a ball python and a bearded lizard.

Abram had a blast with the parakeets, on the front the cage is glass and on the side the cage is open. When one of the parakeets would fly over to hold on to the cage, Abram would yell, "Hey! Whatcha doing?" And the bird would fly away, he LAUGHED and LAUGHED!

What we came for... the fish.

We went home with 2 angel fish, a sucker fish, 2 shark with black tips called bela sharks, and one albino shark. Needless to say we stayed in the semi-aggressive tropical fish family.
Here is just a sweet picture as we were finishing up our trip through the bird aisle...

And YEP, it was counted as school!

My Cup Runneth Over...Chas

I made chocolate cake last night in the steamer!!

{ Posted by Panshrmu }
{ 01:50, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 } { 0 comments } { Link }

Puddle Cake

1 1/2c flour

3T cocoa

1C brown sugar

1t salt

1t soda

6T oil

1T vinegar

1t vanilla (i didn't have any, so omitted it and didn't notice !!)

1C water

Sift dry ingredients in pan. (ok....i did it in a mixing bowl as I was making two mini loave) Make a "puddle" in the top of the mixture by adding oil, vinegar and vanilla. Pour on water. Stir with wooden spoon till smooth.

**normally you would bake at 350F for 35-40min BUT BUT BUT I poured the mixture into two small loaf pans and steamed them for about 25 min I guess..........THE BOYS LOVED THEM!!! not much difference in texture either. I am so happy about this new "technique" granted, it isn't new, so I am having fun having my cakes again!!!! i wonder if this will work with biscuits and what other things it will work with.........hmmm.......

Olympic Study Links

{ Posted by KimMC }
{ 02:38, 2008-Aug-12 } { Posted in The School Room } { 1 comments } { Link }

We are working on a Olympic unit and the girls have had so much fun! They love watching some of the events in the morning.

Here are some of the sites we've found helpful.

Homeschool Share Olympic Lapbook ~ This is one of the best sites I've found so far. We are using it as a spring board for our study.

The Official Website of the Beijing 2008

Olympic Coloring pages

Olympics Time line

Traditional Chinese Music

Learn How to Write Chinese Numbers

Another Chinese Number Site

Giant Panda Lap book

China Olympic Unit Study

National Anthems Around The World

Making Paper Lanterns

More Olympic Coloring pages

Olympic Coloring pages 3

CBC Olympics

Time draws nigh...

{ Posted by Chas }
{ 06:30, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 } { Posted in Sweet chatting among friends } { 11 comments } { Link }

Are you as eager as I am? Eager for Mums, Pumpkins, leaves falling, a chill in the air? Colors of red, orange, yellow and gold? As these scorching days of summer pass, it does make me all the more eager for fall.

I have been so unwell around here, just the necessities have been done. I have not been crafty or productive in the kitchen. Hopefully that is about to change and I will be able to bring you exciting things from my blog again soon.
Until then my friends, I hope you have a great day on your homestead!!!
My Cup Runneth Over...Chas

Mexican Hamburger Rice Bake

{ Posted by Mommaofmany }
{ 09:20, Monday, August 11, 2008 } { Posted in Main Dish } { 1 comments } { Link }

I made this for the first time tonight, and everyone, even my rice hater, liked it! Be sure to give it a try,

Mexican Hamburger Rice Bake
6 cups cooked brown rice (cook three cups dry rice)
1 1/2 pounds hamburger
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 10 oz can Ro-Tel tomatoes and peppers
1 8 oz can tomato sauce (I used Yellow El-Pato)
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup (or more) shredded cheese

Cook the hamburger and onion together till the burger is brown. Drain if needed. Add cooked rice, and all other ingredients and mix well. Spread into a buttered 11x15 pan and top with a little more cheese, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes to heat through and melt cheese.

I served this with corn on the cob and a Green Smoothie.

BTW, if you use regular tomato sauce instead of Yellow El Pato, it will be a milder dish. We like things a bit more spicy!

And doggie doctors, while I'm at it

{ Posted by Daisyblend }
{ 08:52, Monday, August 11, 2008 } { 1 comments } { Link }

I was a bit discouraged today about how much money it looked like we were going to end up spending on the new dog, Lucy. The officer who runs the pound said he takes donations and that dogfood and flea & tick shampoo would be great. I spent a little more than I should have on those items, I think. When I dropped Lucy off at the vet this morning I found out that if your dog has fleas or ticks they insist on treating it at your expense (so as not to spread parasites in their kennel). Well, the diatomaceous earth worked wonderfully on the fleas but apparently the ticks don't mind and the vet noticed, said she'd have to treat her with Frontline. Like a typical medical office, those things cost way more than if you bought them elsewhere. Also, she needed worm medication. I saw the bill racking up in my mind. I was a little anxious because we only had so much money set aside but it was a beautiful day and I prayed about it and just asked the Lord to somehow make it not cost so much.
We ran our errands and were home two hours after dropping Lucy off. The vet had called and left a message. I returned the call and was told that after they knocked Lucy out and shaved her they discovered a scar and think she's already been spayed. I still get the pound-puppy discount and they'll only charge me for the anesthesia, dropping the overall cost considerably. I'm trying not to kick myself for not remembering to ask them to check before they went through all that.... But hey! I'm quite happy, I must say.
Oh, in other news, Bobby finally got his pressure washer working correctly and was able to wash his boss's house. What a load off! Da Boss had pre-paid...and it was one thing after another with the machine... Won't ever let that happen again! It is for sale, by the way. craigslist.com, under St. Louis tools. Come on... you know you want it...

Fruit and Doctors or Fruity Doctors

{ Posted by Daisyblend }
{ 04:33, Monday, August 11, 2008 } { 2 comments } { Link }

I'm already planning next year's garden. Why wait, right? Do it while things are fresh on my mind. I'm going to pass on most of the fall crop I'd thought about planting. Might still try some peas. I need to put some thought into next year anyway as I'll be planting garlic next month.
       I tried both a softneck (Silver Rose - I believe the same as you commonly find in stores) and a hardneck (German Red). The hardneck started growing shortly after we planted it and grew a bit throughout winter, in spite of the snow. The softneck came up about the same time as the daffodils. The hardneck bulbs grew bigger and seemed to need less attention. The hardneck varieties also have the bonus feature of scapes, which the softneck apparently do not (from what I've read and witnessed). The scapes are a part of the top which forms the seed head and they grow in this charming curly-Q. If you pick them young you can make a wonderful pesto or use them in stir fry's or as you would use green onions. They have a wonderful, but not too strong, garlic flavor and are a harvest all on their own. We didn't get to ours soon enough and they were too tough and woody to blend up well, but we did make a rough pesto with olive oil, parmasean (sp?) cheese, a dash of lemon juice and salt. Wonderful! I'm thinking of putting in tons of garlic (I love a plant that needs so little help from me), making it a sort of specialty. Maybe drying and selling the powder like my Deliberate Agrarian friend.
          Next year I'm not going to bother with carrots. Mine didn't do so well. I think I crowded them and the onions together and neither liked it. I do want to attempt onions again, but first I must figure out if the crowding was why they all died early. Squash, like I explained a couple posts ago, will go elsewhere and I've set my mind on sweet corn, probably Country Gentleman, to take it's (and the popcorn's) place. I can't wait to see how my mangle (aka fodder or stock) beets turn out. They sure don't like the heat, but if they grow to the size they're suppose to and I can feed them to the goats and chickens then I'll attempt to grow a bigger patch of them next year. I must say, if you're interested in growing feed for your animals and want to try mangles, check out rareseeds.com and order early. I went back to order more at planting time and they were sold out. Not many places carry them, but rareseeds.com (out of Mansfield, MO) is a fantastic source for everything heirloom. I am so impressed with them.
         I'm liking our tomatoes alright, but think I'll try a couple different varieties next year. The Siletz don't pack the big tomato flavor I was hoping for, but they're pretty good fresh and the size and shape is nice for processing.  When I settle on a variety then I'll grow it exclusively and start saving seeds.
        I'm also planning for fruit next year. I'm determined to get some black berries in and hopefully some strawberries. My sister did some blueberry picking this year with a friend and brought us fresh blueberries... we sure went through them fast. They were fantastic! We'd have to have a LOT to proccess because we enjoyed them so much fresh. I'll probably pass on blueberry bushes since we have so many local u-pick places.
        We are now harvesting our very first ever peaches. There are two peach trees and two pear trees on the other side of where we planted the barn. We call it "the orchard" and I hope we can add apple trees to it this fall. Last year we had nothing from the trees because of that late frost and I was able to get to the peaches during the winter and prune them. I haven't done another single thing to care for them, not spraying or mulching, weeding or watering, and they are bearing the most delectable peaches I''ve ever eaten. We'll, I've never even had a white-fleshed peach before. I didn't know peaches could be so good. I'm hoping beyond hopes that I'll have enough for preserves, but if we eat them all fresh I suppose that's okay, too. The pears, however, I didn't get around to pruning them. They're very tall and very overgrown and have fruit on only a couple branches between them. This fall I'll tackle that. My very first friend from this fellowship brought me a 5-gal bucket of her pears soon after we moved here and I made yummy pear butter. I'll never forget.

I'm going to interupt myself to tell you how special my kids are. I hear Farra and Atira in the bedroom singing, "... No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jeeeesus!" out of our hymnal. Not having been raised in church, I know only a handful of songs in that hymnal, but I know them well and we like to sing them though we're all quite terrible singers. It blesses me to hear them doing this together, without urging from me.

Okay, now about doctors. I finally got around to calling the first OB on my list today. The OB I had with Royal worked at his clinic at the time but has moved on to become employed by one of the hospitals. I never even caught a glimpse of this doctor (at his own clinic) and know little about him. I did see a picture and he reminded me of Colonel Sanders, of KFC. Anyway, after a bit of discussion with the receptionist and much waiting while the doc went over my chart, I was told that he wouldn't take me since Dr. Williams had dismissed me on behalf of the practice. Hmm. I kinda wondered if that would happen. I thought it was funny.  The offical dismissal was something about not being able to form a suitable doctor/patient relationship. He saw, "trouble-maker" and I can't say I blame him - that's entirely correct. I'm sure it has the diagnosis Dr. Williams gave me near the end and I'm sure it doesn't show the outcome (you know, since we did it on our own) which proved the diagnosis incorrect. But we mustn't dwell on these things.  Only, now I'm not sure which route to take and really wondering why I should bother with prenatal care at all.

Jump Start Games?

{ Posted by KimMC }
{ 12:51, 2008-Aug-11 } { Posted in The School Room } { 4 comments } { Link }

Has anyone used the Jump Start computer games? I was thinking of getting some for the littles but want to make sure they are worth the money.

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