growing and learning

homeschool quiz - what would you do?

01:42 PM, Tuesday, September 29, 2009 .. 4 comments .. Link

I got this quiz today, and am curious how you would respond.....

Question

Just for fun (and out of curiosity) If you are in the middle of your school day and the neighbor kid walks in and says, "My mom said I can play." Do you:

Send the child home, then call the parent and tell them that while you are a homeschool family that does not make you free childcare when public school is out.
Simply tell the child you will send your child over when they are done with their school.
Invite the child in and hand them a math worksheet, directions for a science experiement, a creative writing prompt, supplies for a history diarama, and let them know their music lesson will be in 15 minutes.
Invite the child in, hand them a broom, and tell them to get busy cleaning up from the volcano experiment.
I have so many kids coming and going all day I wouldn't notice.
That's why I live out in the sticks, so I don't have that problem.
Declare a holiday for your children as well and send them out the door.

I made cheese

07:42 PM, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

very exciting. and very tasty chevre with a friend.

earthquake

05:07 PM, Wednesday, June 3, 2009 .. 11 comments .. Link

so here I was sitting at the computer holding my sleeping baby, and suddenly, my house was shaking. We get some pretty seriously strong winds on this mountain top, and that is what it felt like -
except -
winds are accompanied by noise, and there was no noise -
and it felt different. the shaking vibrancy was too fast; it was too sudden, too weird

I immediately skyped dh who is working upstairs; before he could read it, he came out ans asked if someone was on our roof. nope, but I felt it too. Bear (dd5) felt it, but Bug (ds7)(sitting at the same table) did not. I did not ask dd2, Lion - did not figure she would know what I was asking.
ferw minutes later, dh's boss/best friend about 5 miles as the crow flies, told him he had felt it too.
yup, definitely earthquake.

cool

ok, so I do not live in CA, and earthquakes are small in Utah, more a feature of oddity then a freightening experience. It was kind of different. I only remember 2 others, although I have been told there were earthquakes those around me felt and I was not paying attention at the time.
one was in 5th grade at school. small shaking, lots of talking about it after.
the other I was sleeping in the couch bed with my younger sibs, couldn't have been more than 11, and I woke up thinking my dad was playing some trick on us by shaking the bed vigorously.

so, anyway, it measured a 4.0 on the scale, about 12 miles from here. 2 people in SL I spoke to did not even feel it.

cool

(I know, I am weird to think a small earthquake is cool, but I do.)

Lack of planning on my part....

12:41 PM, Tuesday, March 24, 2009 .. 12 comments .. Link

does not constitute an emergency on anyone else's....
We ran out of raspberry jam. our homemade-tastes-like-raspberries-because-there-is-VERY-little-sugar raspberry jam. And we are down to 2 half-pints of strawberry. Luckily, we are coming into berry season. But part of the problem is that we had not been eating a lot of jams/jellies for the year leading up to August last year, so when I checked our stock, and should I do any more last summer, the answer was no. we had enough.
and then, we started eating a lot of jam - on pbj's, on toast, on pita, on crepes. And we are out of blackberry, huckleberry, raspberry and almost strawberry. We have 2 half-pints of strawberry, one of dandelion and 2 pints of peach that no one likes (from like 4 years ago).
So at the store last week, dh wanted to buy raspberry jam. silly husband - almost every jam in the store has cheap sweeteners in it, which means he would not eat it (he cringes at my parents who eat this type of jam). And the ones who actually have sugar, well.... I reminded him that he would probably not like it. He is always telling me that I (and my cooking) have spoiled him - he cannot eat store bought processed foods anymore - they taste wrong or too sugary or just not good enough. We try this occasionally. He tells me to buy something he used to like quite well. Only when I buy it, it is not the way he remembers. And he has told me LOTS of times he likes our homemade low-sugar jams - it tastes like the fruit from which it is made, not sugar. So I know that he will not be pleased with the results.
But do not fret, my dear, berry season is almost upon us, and I will make us lots and lots and lots of yummy jams for the next year or two. I promise.

Sorry I have not posted

02:28 PM, Friday, March 20, 2009 .. 2 comments .. Link

Been kind of busy with the baby and all. He is growing - and a good thing too - he is not only the smallest baby I have had, but also SKINNY. My other babies were fat with lots of good rolls. This one is just skinny.
Ashley, I have 2 boys and two girls now:
Bug: ds7, so named because when he was a baby, he would only stop crying when we took him outside; dunno why, but he liked it outside, so friend dubbed him the "Outside Bug" and the name stuck.
Bear: dd5, so named because she LOVES honey. She is my little Honey Bear.
Lion: dd2, so named for two reasons - when she was younger, her hair was wild around her face like a mane when she woke up in the mornings - I am talking a serious crazy bedhead of a mane. And, she is fierce. Very fierce. Which she has to be in order to hold her own with her very loud and opinionated older siblings.
?????: ds2 weeks. Right now we are calling him various things, including "joey" because he seems to like being worn in a baby wrap on my chest like a baby kangaroo; also "worm" because he is squiggly. The kids are calling him "Joey worm" which is an interesting animal picture!

We will see what animal will be his avatar eventually. I recall that Lion went through a good number of animal incarnations (including Camel because she SPIT, Kanga because she liked the door frame jumpy toy, Bird because I was looking for another 1-syllable "B" word) before she settled on Lion (although, she sometimes prefers to be a little "Lamby" and we have to sing "Daddy had a little Lamby, little Lamby, little Lamby; Daddy had a little Lamby, and her name was [Lion]" but mostly she likes to roar and be a fierce lion.

I am chomping at the bit to get going though. It is spring, and I have a list of things that need to get done. And I am being a good little chicken and "resting." But I do not like it. So I am making plans for what to do when I am allowed to start being human again. But I feel better already - I can bend over and grab stuff off the floor, and I can SIT on the floor and do puzzles with my children. so nice.
anyway, a bit from my life.....

Baby here (copied from husband's email announcement)

03:41 PM, Tuesday, March 10, 2009 .. 11 comments .. Link

Well the little rascal is finally here...

for those who care, here's the numbers:

born on 10 Mar 2009 at 1:18am
weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz. (our smallest one yet!)
length 20 1/2 inches

Everything went fairly problem free. The one complication was that he decided to stick his arm above his head, which caused him and mom some extra pain.

For those who were unaware, we had our baby at home -- with the help of a midwife. Mom and baby are happy and healthy.

************
more details to follow.....

pita bread recipe changes, and honey crystallization

02:21 AM, Saturday, March 7, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

being awake for a 1am feeding
no, no baby yet,but he still wakes me up in the middle of the night to eat. and if I do not, I am not allowed to go back to sleep. sigh. so, I wake up, eat a bowl of cereal, and a piece of toast, or tonight, anyway, I am eating fresh homemade pita and hummus. I finally found a hummus recipe I liked! YIPPEE!!!!!! And I have been experimenting with my pita recipe too. I have decided that when I change a tried and true recipe, I need to change just ONE thing at a time, and make sure that ONE thing works consistently before I move on to a new change.
On my pita bread, that ONE thing is using whole wheat. and making sure it still puffs. So the last two times I have pita-ed, I have taken the first amount of flour (2 cups) and mixed it with the yeast and sugar like usual, except I have been using Hard White wheat. Then, instead of 1 3/4 c water, I use 1/3 whey in that 1.75 c of liquid. And then I have been letting it sit for upwards of an hour. Amazing the gluten strands I have been getting. Then I stir in my salt and remaining flour (I am still using white flour for this part). And my pita is so soft and, well, not moist because who wants MOIST pita, but it not dry either. Oh, and I have only been cooking them at 450, not 500. They crisp and turn brown at 500. and I like them soft and white.
sorry HomeMom, I would love to take pictures for you of this process. But that would entail finding the camera and taking pictures, then finding someway to download them (we lost our cable - my computer guru husband gerrymandered a system on his computer, but I am not sure how), and then learning how to download them. I can probably do that at some point, but it is not high on my list. But these are really very easy to do.
My next change will be honey. I am having a honey problem these days though - over the winter, my honey has all chrystalized, and my preferred honey liquidification method will not work until it is slightly warmer outside. I use raw honey, so throwing it on the stove in a pot of boiling water will not work for me (I mean, it will liquify, but I would rather not cook it!) I like to place it on the back dashboard of a car, park that car so the rear windshield is facing either south or west, and close all the doors and windows. in just an hour or so, I have liquid honey. I do not know, maybe this is too hot too for those raw honey ensymes, so if anyone has a better method, feel free to let me know.

hummus recipe

03:32 AM, Friday, March 6, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

M's Hummus

1 can garbanzo beans, save juice (drained, toss juice)
1 tsp minced garlic (2 roasted cloves)
3 tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup tahini (2 T)
3-4 tbsp. lemon juice (¼ c)
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp cilantro (½ t dry)
1/2 tsp. cumin (¼ t whole seeds)
pinch cayenne pepper (¼ t)
salt and pepper to taste

Put all in food processor and puree until smooth. I added some of the bean juice as well as more olive oil and lemon juice because it was so thick.

I added ¼ - ½ c fresh water as well. Good on first try. will update as I eat it.

As usual, the original recipe I received is in black (or green, I guess is the case on my blog) and the red is my changes. I drained the beans just cuz I like to drain my canned beans of their water. I added other water as necessary though. I used whole cumin seeds because I ran out of the ground (remember that yummy lentil soup my BIL made a few weeks ago, well, we used all my ground cumin and I didn't know that. Not that I am upset at the use, but it would have been nice to know! LOL!). But I figured as I was going to be blending it all up anyway, it wouldn't matter so much.
This has a nice flavor. maybe a bit too much kick from the cayenne - that was because I thought it said 1/2 t, so I halved it... that is what I get for having my recipe folder (electronic) in the other room from my kitchen. LOL!

Bon Appetit seasoning

03:43 PM, Tuesday, March 3, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

fact: I really really like Bon Appetit seasoning mixed with sour cream for a veggie dip. nothing beats it for flavor.
fact: McCormick Bon Appetit contains MSGs, which I am trying to cut from our live and our diets.
conclusion: as much as I like it, I will not be adding it to my sour cream again....

solution: 1 t ground celery seeds
                1 t onion powder
                1/2 t salt
                1/4 t garlic powder (although even this much did seem to overpower it, so maybe less next time?; the very few sites I found which would give ingredients for this just listed the celery, onion, salt and MSG... I added the garlic on my own.)

I have 1 t of this mix in a 1/2 c of sour cream sitting and flavoring until dinner time. I will post results later tonight after dinner.

interviewing doctors

02:47 PM, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 .. 4 comments .. Link

has anyone ever done this? To find a good fit for your family? We are self-insured (HSA), so we will be paying out of pocket for everything. Which means I want someone that fits my family. I care more now that I AM PAYING MY MONEY FOR SERVICES.
We do not do doctors often. We are not sick people. We eat healthy and take care of ourselves. We suffer through colds, earaches and flues instead of running to the doctor for every pain. We do some homeopathic things. We do not vaccinate, and we homeschool. We are homebirthing, and will be co-sleeping (like all our other children). We want a doctor who will respect those choices and not give us inferior care because make different choices.
And ideally, I would like a doctor with whom we feel comfortable as a person as well as a professional.
I have a number of recommendations from my local homeschool group.
But when I have called to see if we could just meet the doctor and talk for a few minutes, basically interview him and see if he is "worthy" of being hired, I get "you can schedule an appointment with the doctor for $140." Ummmm I have to pay to see if I will hire you?

So, any ideas or suggestions?

it really works - soften your brown sugar

12:45 PM, Monday, February 23, 2009 .. 2 comments .. Link

I opened a 4-lb bag of brown suger, #5 of 8 I bought 2 years ago for food storage. It was hard as a rock. seriously. Of course, 2 years is a long time to expect brown sugar to not get hard, but still. So I did a search, and found a way that I thought might work to soften my rock-hard sugar.
I put it in a tupperware container (air-tight is what the instructions said) with the lid off at this point.
I folded a piece of foil to fit on the top of the sugar. It doesn't have to be fully covering the top of the sugar. In fact, I suspect it is better if it is more of an "island" on the sugar.
I then grabbed a paper towel and folded it about an inch smaller all around than the foil. Get the towel wet, and wring out until just damp.
Put that on the foil. Place the lid on top and seal. Wait a few hours, it will start being crumbly. After 12 hours, it should be completely ready to crumble in your fingers like fresh brown sugar.

YEAH!!!

36 week blues.....

11:20 AM, Monday, February 23, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

I am getting to the point where I just do not care..... about cleaning the house or schooling the children or making dinner or breakfast or anything else. I have a hard time breathing, and my comfortable temperature level involves opening every window and door (which means my poor family would FREEZING to death! So I content myself with quick jaunts outside every 15 minutes or so). I just want this baby to come. Yes, I know I still have a week before it is really safe to be wanting it over with. But come March 1......
But we got school done anyway, and I made waffles for breakfast. We are having chicken Florentine for dinner tonight with pasta and garlic bread and salad.
I will finish cleaning my bathroom today, and maybe even the one on the main floor where we "live" all day.
I did get all the newborn clothes washed, folded and put in the drawer. I have started collecting the supplies my midwife has requested to be in one place when she gets here. I need to make my menu for March, taking into consideration the fact that someone else might be making these meals for my family (husband, mother, etc). I think we are stocked up on grocery stuff, except for fresh produce, eggs, and milk. Which reminds me, I need to purree some onions and jalapenos for freezing in ice cubes.
Remember that 16# turkey I bought at Thanksgiving for $.02 (yes, that is 2 cents)? I think I am actually going to bottle the meat. I need to wait until April though - the last thing I want to do is start that just before I go into labor - LOL! But I cannot wait much beyond April, canning is hot work, and well, after April, things start heating up nicely.
I never did get any seeds planted. sigh. and my boxes are buried again under the snow. oh well. Hope springs eternal, and I will have some kind of garden this year. I will.

and sometime in the next month, I will have a beautiful little baby to hold and snuggle and love.... I hold to that promise to get me through the next couple of weeks.

I forgot to tell you... (and Dying Pasta)

03:58 PM, Saturday, February 21, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

about my dd5's birthday. Are you familiar with Fancy Nancy books? They are the perfect books for little girls - innocent and fun and about a little girl who just wants to be fancy. She turns her "plain" bed into a canopy bed with a mop, broom ,and old sheet; she uses ribbons and bows and tinsel to dress herself up; she is always wearing tu-tus, and crowns and frilly socks (even while playing soccer). Anyway, for Bear's birthday, we had a Fancy party.
The little girls came “plain” and we curled and styled their hair; they painted their fingernails and even put on stickers. Then we went into the other room and put on Fancy dresses – both the dress-up toy kind and the old-grandma's-dresses – with ribbons and shiny belts. We had plenty of dress-up shoes and hats and boas and tiaras. And the piece-de-resistance: a large “treasure box” of my grandmother's jewelry. Not anything expensive, in fact, most of it I would say was rather gaudy and tasteless, but it was bright and shiny and colorful. She even had a number of big clip-on earrings – the type popular back in the 60's. It was kind of funny, opening that box for the first time since mom had packed it up after grandma's death – it still had her perfume, and made us think of grandma. Mom pointed out that she was the type of person who would be just tickled to have little girls wearing her jewelry to a fancy party. I am actually a strange one in my maternal line – my mom, sister, grandmother, and even great-grandmother (she was a flapper!) are “fancy” types. I am a plain type, I guess. My girls are fancy types, however, and so I guess they fit right into the family.
So once the girls were dressed, we took more pictures, and then had a fancy lunch: cut out bread (hearts, flowers, squares) with deli meat and cheese; thin sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and avocado. Served, of course, on fancy dishes - the Depression Glass dishes that will one day be mine. Then we had mini cupcakes that they got to frost and make “fancy” with all sorts of sprinkles and frosting.
We read some of the books, and then we made Fancy necklaces from colored pasta. That was their only party favor – everyone divested themselves of the fancies when the party was over, but they got to take home their necklaces. Have you ever dyed pasta? I looked online for the instructions, and they were all the same. And they were all just a little unclear – do you cook the pasta first or not. You do not. It is really easy!

Dying Pasta
place uncooked pasta in a ziploc bag
cover pasta with rubbing alcohol
add food coloring. the more you add, the darker the color
wait an hour or so. we actually ended up waiting about 4 hours (we went swimming) and our pasta is VIBRANT and dark.
drain and spread on a cookie sheet to dry. Try to not let them touch – once they dry, they will break as you try to get them pulled apart.

Lentil soup

01:38 AM, Friday, February 13, 2009 .. 3 comments .. Link

My BIL is up here for the week. He is finishing our basement for us. well, the mudding and painting, anyway. And maybe get the bathroom down there ready to use. It is only the guest bath anyway, but right now the walls are not finished and the shower is not caulked, so it is pretty useless other than a toilet. Oh, and ther eis no door on the bathroom

BIL is an anomaly in his family. He likes food, and he likes to cook, and he is good at it. Seems like everyone in my in-law family has a serious food issue (one SIL will not eat ANYTHING with garlic; FIL will not eat anything with a "funny" name: Sharp cheese, sour cream, funeral potatoes - although he will eat them if a) he doesn't know what it is, or b) we change the name; dh will not touch - or smell - fish; a number of people will not eat beans) except this one BIL - he will eat anything. I mentioned that I am in need of some lentil recipes - no sense storing lentils if I have no idea what to do with them! So on Tuesday, he made us a YUMMY lentil soup. He was unsure of measurements, but I watched him, and helped a bit, and made him tell me so I could write things down.

so, here we go:
soak 1 lb lentils for 3 hours; drain (now, he and I both know you do not HAVE to soak lentils, but he said he likes them better that way, and since he was the cook.....) add 2 c chicken/turkey/veggie broth and enough water to cover the lentils.

chop 5 carrots and carmalize with
4 onion cubes in butter
chop 3 roasted garlic cloves
add to lentils

toast and grind 1 teas cumin seed. add a bit more ground cumin when adding it to the lentils.
salt to taste.
about 30 min before serving, add 1 c rice.

This was really good. Made a lot, but he said it freezes well, so we have a bowl in the freezer enough for another meal in a month.
For lunch the next day, I experimented with it a bit. I had a small bowl with some sharp cheddar in it - tasty. just enough for flavor. Then an hour later (hey - I am pregnant: I can eat 10 snacks a day, right?), I had another bowl, and this time instead of cheese, I added a small bit of pico de galla. mmmm that was tasty too.
In fact, just thinking about this, I think I will go have another small bowl right now - baby is hungry, and hey, a small bowl of lentils at 2am is not so bad......

dairy goat owners, I have a question

07:08 AM, Thursday, February 12, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

can I make buttermilk from goat milk?
what about sour cream? Or at least a sour cream substitute (sour milk?) should I just use a drained yogurt?

my garden thoughts - will they work, not work?

10:00 AM, Saturday, January 31, 2009 .. 4 comments .. Link

last year my soil was frozen when I wanted to start sowing my seeds for early veggies - peas, lettuce, carrots, spinach. And by the time I was able, I only had a few weeks before it got HOT and cooked these poor plants. So this year, I took all my garden soil and put it in the garage. It is still cold soil, but it is not frozen clumps of ice-soil.
Yesterday we cleared my bedroom deck of all the snow piles that had accumulated there (I think I worked too hard shoveling taht snow and breaking the ice...). This morning, I sat down with a piece of paper, my seeds, and a pencil to determine what I was going to plant. I have some patio boxes, approx. 24" x 10" x 9" for these items. So, using the SFG method, I mapped out how many seeds we could put in each box - I have 10 of these.
is it too early to sow these directly in the soil outside in a warm sunny spot?
I had a neighbor back in Salt Lake that would sow her spinach seeds at Thanksgiving and just wait for the snows to melt come spring, and voila - lovely spinach underneath. can I do this with other veggies?
My dad always swears that you have to plant peas in February if you want a crop that year. It is supposed to be in the mid-40s this week. But last year, we had a BAD, snow-us-all-in-cancel-church snowfall the first week of Feb. Should I worry about that?
Should I wait on the carrots?
Well, here is my list of things I want to plant outside today:
lettuce, peas, carrots, onion, and beets
I am thinking that they will not germinate until it is warm enough, right? but then, I was thinking about the ideas on http://wintersown.org/ about sowing seeds in the winter. Should I cover these boxes with plastic (with small slits for air/moisture) to help warm the soil, or would that make it too hot for these to withstand the cold later?
The oh-so-imprecise-this-far-out weather predictions for the next 15 days says very little snow, mostly in the high 30, mid 40 during the day, although there is a few days around the 10th that will get down low in the high 20s. Should I wait for that to pass before I actually PLANT my seeds?

But I want to get some of it done NOW because I will be having a baby in March, and I know that come March, when things want to be planted outside, I will have other things on my mind. I think a March baby is a bad idea from a homesteading perspective - I had crippling morning sickness (HAH! afternoon, more like) at harvest/preserving time, and a baby at planting time. Not to mention, at this point, I am only getting bigger and having a harder time bending over and getting up again. In 3 weeks, it will be even worse! So get what I can done today, and then we can work other stuff in later, right?

well, we will try. I might just get all the boxes and soil upstairs today, and wait till next Saturday to plant. My children are all very excited to plant a garden, and are chomping at the bit.
I have prayed for garden help, explaining the 2 main reasons I want a garden to do well this year, and asking for His help and guidance on it. I want to do very small garden this year so that I am not overwhelmed. I also want so badly for a garden to WORK this year. Something harvested that I can say "I had a garden, and we got food from it!" I have planted a garden both summers we have lived here, and have gotten NOTHING out of the work, money and time put in. I am trying to see those failures as learning experiences, and not get discouraged, but it is hard.
I want to blame the grasshoppers, and I know that they are a big part of the failures, but are they the whole of it? Is it my fault? did I give up on weeding or watering when the grasshoppers came? Was there more I could have done? What else can I do?
well, dh is coming to help get things going, so farewell for now, and if you have any suggestions, do let me know!

Update on scripture reading

07:27 AM, Wednesday, January 28, 2009 .. 5 comments .. Link

Do you all remember, back in October, I blogged about wanting to read my scriptures daily again? Well, it has been 3 months, and I am happy to say, I have done so! Well, mostly. When we go to my mom's and spend the night, things get hairy, and since my whole family sleeps in the same room, and I am used to a) going to bed AFTER my children and b) reading in bed just before sleeping... well, it just hasn't happened there. But that has been the exception. Every night, I pull out my bible study book and my New Testament, and read about the Life of Our Lord.
It is interesting reading the Gospels like this. Always before, I have just started in Matthew 1 and read through to Revelation. This study has directed me to read the same event from 3-4 different points of view. And it is interesting to see what the different Gospel writers thought was important. SOme skip certain events all together, and sometimes there is a lot of detail given and sometimes almost none. It is like a puzzle, fitting together. Like the verse in Matthew 18:16 "that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." They each saw the same thing, but it struck them differently, and they recorded it differently. And together, we have a whole picture!
And the humility of the writers. For example, when Peter and "the other disciple" ran to see the empty tomb, recorded only in John, you HAVE to wonder if that "other disciple" was John himself, and he didn't want to mention it, but it was such an intimate recording of the situation, it seems that he was the one there.
I am almost done with the Gospels, and I cannot wait to move on to the Epistles. There is so much to learn, and I am so grateful I have been able to get back into this.

I forgot the rice

06:11 PM, Tuesday, January 27, 2009 .. 2 comments .. Link

Just when you think you have got it all under control.....

so I was all pleased with myself... dinner would be on the table at 6 (which is our standard dinner time... it has not been happening the last two weeks. Maybe I need to start earlier) tonight.

only, I just did an inventory:
strawberry lassi - check (dd5 helped make that)
aloo masala - check (dd2 helped with that while ds7 cleaned some frying pans)
chicken korma - check (freezer meal - easy peasey)
pita - check (dd2 helped with that, and I pulled 37 pitas out, all but 4 FULLY puffed. those four were mostly puffed)
house clean - check (kids did that while I did dinner)
dishes done - check (kids managed to get the dishwasher emptied in record time tonight)
rice - rice. Rice. RICE!!! AAAGGGHHHH WHERE IS THE RICE!!!!!!! I have forgotten the Rice! And since it is a good rice, it is NOT going to be ready in 5 minutes when everything else is.

sigh. well..... at least it will be good when we get around to eating. Korma night always is. Too good. We all have a tendency to overeat on Korma night.

My kids LOVE history

11:24 AM, Monday, January 26, 2009 .. 1 comments .. Link

I am a history buff. I love history. I have since at least the age of 10 when I was caught reading my history book under the desk instead of paying attention to the teacher (I remember him being very surprised at my illicit activity!) I majored in History in college, I will sit and happily read a history text and LAUGH at parts. To me, history is just a story that is (mostly) true and really happened. I like the memorization of dates, and looking at the whole picture and the minute details. I love what we can learn from history, and how it can effect our lives. I really wanted my children to love history too.
A while back, I ordered the Story of the World from the Well-Trained Mind website, and started it. I make a photocopy of the pages for each chapter for each of the kids (including, dd2, who MUST be included in schoolwork!). So far, for each chapter, there is a coloring page and a map, and sometimes something supplemental.

Now, since my kids are 7, 5, and 2, so we do not do a whole lot of details. We are just covering the basics right now, maybe giving a love of history. The WTM schedule has you repeating these every 4 years anyway, so in 4 years, we can go into more detail and more work at that time.
I read aloud the chapter from the “textbook,” while the kids color the coloring picture – something for their hands to do while their ears listen. We do the oral questions from the activity book when I am done, and they seem to remember a lot of it. On the second day we do History (it is a 2-day a week subject), I read the second half of the chapter, usually a story about someone living in the time/place of the text. Then we do map work. When we were talking about ancient writing, the supplemental page was the alphabet in cuineform and hieroglyphs, so everyone wrote their names in those forms. That was fun, and ds7 asked if he could do his copybook in hieroglyphs! LOL!
I also have a few books from the library, the DK “Eyewitness” books that have a lot of information and a LOT of pictures to help with the lessons. Anyway, the kids are always BEGGING me to do history. And it has already related to a lot of things in daily life. :):) They are often the ones who see the relation, although I have pointed out a few things. And I am so glad they like history.

"Green" living

11:04 AM, Saturday, January 24, 2009 .. 4 comments .. Link

What does it mean to be “green”?
I was at my parents last weekend, and my BIL had brought home a directory of “green” businesses in Salt Lake. Mom wondered why, my sister, B, said she thought I might like it.
Me: Why would I want it?
B: Because you do a lot of Green things.
M: You think I am Green?

now, green is my favorite color... by a LONG shot. And as a kid I thought being “green” meant that you were Irish, or at least celebrating St. Patrick's Day effectively. But now, I was rather offended that someone thought I was “Green.”

B: You do a lot of Green things.
M: But I am not Green. I do not believe one drop of that Global Warming stuff. At least not that we have done anything to cause the earth to warm.
B: I don't think we are doing everything, but we are contributing.
M: No, we are not. Temperatures started dropping about 10 years ago. Right about the time the sun spot activity stopped. And Mars has had the same trends we have had – did we cause that too?
B: I think we have something to do with it, maybe not everything.

(this is my sister – trying to play both sides of an issue, agree with everyone.... That sounds like a condemnation of her. I love my sister, and she is a good person. Just, well, a pleaser.)

M: England used to produce wines. It is too cold there now to have a serious wine production. But they used to be warmer. Under the melting ice caps in Greenland, they have found remnants of villages and civilizations. Did people dig out the ice to build homes? No, it used to be warmer in the polar regions than it is now. Did cars and other modern living practices make it warmer 1000 years ago?
My dad jumps in at this point, spewing something about man-made global warming, but I was done with the argument and have forgotten what it was. My sister was done too, and the topic dropped completely.

but.......

I keep my house cooler than is readily comfortable this winter; we try to keep the air off in the summer; I turn off lights compulsively all of the time. To save fossil fuels? No – to save money.
I do not drive a lot. To save fossil fuels? No – to save money, and time.
I do not buy a lot of pre-packaged foods (almost none, really). To save the land fills? No – to save money and to save my body (there is a lot of JUNK in packaged foods)
We do not eat a lot of meat - oh we eat meat, but not a huge slab o'beef – maybe a deck of cards worth of meat each in a meal; maybe; probably half that. To save the poor defenseless animals? No, to save money, and well, we just don't like a lot of meat.
I like to shop at the farmers market for fresh local produce. To save the environment from diesel pollution? No - to have fresh produce grown and ripened here. And to support local people in their desires to share their bounty for monetary gain.
I receive used clothing for my children, and we wear our clothes till they fall off or are outgrown. To save the environment? No – to save money.
I want a garden and some chickens for eggs. To save the environment from diesel pollution? No - to have fresh produce grown and ripened here; to know what is in my food.
I line dry my clothes when I can. To save fossil fuels? No - to save money. And to save my clothes!

I guess these would all be considered Green activities. But really. I have some friends who would consider me quite green for all this. But really. Did you look at my motivations? Mostly, to save money. So, far from being altruistic and “Green,” I am being quite selfish and miserly. LOL!

So, if my family thinks I am Green, do random strangers see me and think that I am “Green,” too? And what does that say about me?

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