Sooner or Later…

I hope to get this posted tonight. The internet has been a real trip the past two weeks, first on our end with what ended up being crappy wiring in what has turned out to be much more of a fixer-upper than we ever imagined. Then the past two days with a big something being wrong with the phone company. Wrong enough that McDonald’s & Subway cannot run debit cards and lots of people have no or little internet. Forgive this short I at least want to get started.

I have three kids that are homeschooled and one four year old that is ready to do anything that her older siblings are doing. Our curriculum is Ambleside Online ( http://amblesideonline.org ) but not exactly. When Thomas and Lindsay were beginning their schooling my mother in law was doing chemotherapy, then she died, we moved and a whole lot of life happened – so we have been using their booklists, reading a ton of books but not really following the plan.  Which was ok, kind of mostly…not entirely  pleasing to my like my ducks in a row loving heart but ok until this year.

This year Thomas turned thirteen and the official homeschool forms had seventh grade marked on them and
kinda of mostly isn’t cutting it anymore. He and Lindsay must, must,must begin schooling like the Jr High students they are. Luckily for me I had already kind of been down this path when I was planning his older brothers schedule for high school. Older brother had never done lower levels of AO + has a learning disablility + is hard headed. Older brother ended up in public school (another story) but the idea of what to do was there.

1.  This year Zach is finishing up AO year 1 and beginning year 2. Year 2 studies history from 1000AD to Middle Ages.

2. HEO – the Jr High and High School Levels of Ambleside Online – begin in Year 7 and study history from 800 AD to 1400 AD.

Almost a perfect overlap isn’t it?

Next I made a chart of what subjects are studied in each of the different years & the books used. I hope this posts as pretty as it looks right now. There’s some of my working notes in the last column.

Years 2 and7

Looks like a lot doesn’t it? If the internet continues to work I’ll post more tomorrow. This is not the working plan yet.

It’s pear season and a friend with a very productive tree called asking if I wanted any pears this year, she had used all she wanted and did not want to see the fruit go to waste. Yes! The next day, which was as perfect an autumn day as we have ever had, Robert & I went and picked pears. He climbed for a few more, shook the tree a lot while I stood on an overturned bait bucket. Our friend was out for the day & her ladder had a new home in their new shop. We brought home four clothes baskets and a five gallon bucket full. We shared with Ms. C (who always shares her finds) and two friends who just wanted a few to eat.

This is the second time we have picked pears from this tree & it seems to be a good producer with mostly large fruit. The pears seem to be more of a dessert (cooking) pear than fresh eating though if you do not mind a more “gritty” texture the raw pears are also good. One down side is the pears do not seem to keep very long. Maybe we are picking them dead ripe and they need to be picked green to store I just don’t know. Last time we ended up giving the chickens a fruit feast because they went from too hard to cut to mush in about a week.  The too hard this weekend lets try next…now they are mush disaster. This year the ones with dings are getting used right away (if possible) or passed on to friends, the green and more perfect ones are stored in both drawers of the refrigerator to see if that increases their shelf life. The long range plans have always included growing our own pears but perhaps not so many especially until the storage problem is solved.

The second problem is there just are not that many recipes for preserving pears. Or there are not many recipes for using pears period. Lots for variations on baked pears with a flavored sauce and that’s just about it. For canning there is plain pears canned in a syrup or pear honey (from Ms. C) and that seems to be the extent of the choices. I have been digging around old cook books to find ways to use ours. One recipe seems to be a keeper & Grits asked on facebook for the recipe. The actual recipe first.

Cranberry-Pear Cobbler*

Like all those steps? Do you really think that is what I did?

Perhaps you recognized those first seven ingredients of step one as homemade cranberry sauce? I do not have packaged fresh cranberries but there is some whole berry cranberry sauce in the pantry. The can was opened, the sauce placed in a microwave proof bowl. The bowl and contents were heated in the microwave in 45 second intervals stirring between times, until it was soft and mixable.

My pears were peeled, cored and cut into chunks as alike as possible but its a cobbler so I’m not stressing over perfection. There was a blister forming on my finger from the peeler so perfection was a  low priority.

Oh from looking at other recipes those 5 large pears seems to equal 4 cups of diced pears. Dump diced pears into warm cranberries and mix – this will help keep the pears from getting dark while you continue to cut and dice.

The whole wheat flour had bugs so white flour all the way. Around here cream is nicknamed “whole milk”. I rarely add salt to anything. I doubled the recipe because I like lots of stuff in my cobblers and there are seven of us.

I may have not doubled something in the topping because mine was not quite a batter but not quite crumbly either. It was more place blobs on the top which did not seem right but after (just now) looking at the picture in the cookbook it was probably fine. There was extra topping so in the future it will be double the fruit but not the topping.

My pears were not soft and mushy they were tender but firm. Take that however you want. It was a nice change from my usual mushy but mushy rules in cobbler too. And anyone knows that if warm cobbler is topped with anything it is vanilla ice cream – which we did not have but would have been nice with the tart sweet taste.

*Recipe from: The Good Housekeeping All-American Cookbookpublished by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. with permission of Hearst Books, an affiliate of William Morrow & Company, Inc. Copyright 1987.

Opening scene for "Joseph"

Our theater was performing “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” My Little Missy is in the white dress sitting on the narrator’s lap. The rest of the younger crew are also in the group: Li on the far left, Thomas in the blue shirt and Zach in the orange shirt.

The story begins.

This is the beginning of the story “Jacob & Sons.” The kids are on the platform and yours truly is “The Lady in Red.”

"Go Go Go Joseph"

“Go Go Go Joseph” a sixties style number complete with go-go boots and the last song before intermission. Kids on the platform and the lady in red too.

The celebration hoe down – Jacob believed the lie!  This is Thomas doing one of his five in a row split jumps.

The King

And what show is complete without the king himself?

And then:

Our flooded theater

The water was 36 inches deep in the building. This is the same stage as the first pictures.

Looking out from the stage

The white squiggles are light reflecting off the water, there was a strong current in the building.

Go to the link and see the rest of the pictures. What wasn’t pictured is the emptying of the building. I led a crew of a 20 yo girl, a 14 yo girl, my kids (12, 11 and 8), and their two friends (8 and 10). We emptied almost everything from the studio side: chairs, bookcases, damaged costumes, wooden benches along with lots and lots of stuff…an entire mountain of belongings. We had help with a few bulky items but 95% of everything was done by a bunch of kids with a bossy old lady in charge. Our teenage male help decided we weren’t glamorous enough and wandered off to not help the adults doing the really nasty stuff on the theater side of the building.

I am very proud of those kids. Those benches were solid wood, six feet long, heavy duty built and heavy when dry. Those kids carried them out without complaining. The next day they had sore shoulders & arms!! I spent a lot of time joking with my little helpers – yes we could have cried (and some did) but we were in a race against time, a race to beat mold and mildew that would mean more loss and more money we don’t have. Laughing at bad jokes is so much better for getting a job done than tears.

We have no pictures because there was work to be done. There are pictures and I will try to get some to post. There were plenty taken in hopes FEMA aid would be available but it’s not looking very good right now. FEMA is not helping very many people in this area. Red Cross  will only help those who flooded over 36 inches deep. Too bad most people flooded 28-32 inches deep so sorry… no I did not expect Red Cross to help our theater but there are so many people – working class honest people who were told they would never need flood insurance…

Ever wonder why no one had insurance? Not because they were to cheap to purchase any but because there wasn’t any to buy! Flood insurance was not available because someone had the belief that this area  “will never flood…there are levees to prevent that.”  Oh is that why there are levees along the river? Because the river never floods? Hmmm not sound logic. Me – I believe that if something can break it will break and a flood is going to happen sooner or later… Did no one pay attention to the disaster in New Orleans?

The past month has been spent cleaning & clearing. After two weeks of practice we are having the final recital for the kids this week. (And all those costumes had to be washed!) It hasn’t been easy. A person could sit and cry but what good would that do?

“Joseph” is on the road to try to bring in money.

And that is why there hasn’t been much to say.

I seem to be getting the hang of this new computer – a big plus if you home-school or do anything more that read the top selling books on the librians book list. Now to find my links which is a chore and a half with no good starting point. Do  you know how ofter homesteading, do-it-yourself, living green and prepping all overlap? So did that excellent “how-to” come from the hard working but broke homesteader, the only dreaming one, the pioneer living guy, the eco-warrior, the extreme paranoid with great writing skills, the frugal normal lady the next state over or the group that just might be on someone’s watch list.

With all the new “trying to catch bad guys” and guilt by bad clicking laws, do I even want to try to find those old trails?

Right now I’d just like to find the on-line garden calculator where you plugged in the last frost date of spring and the first frost date of fall and if it was a spring or fall garden the -> when to start what plants. Yeah I could get out a paper calendar and count backwards…ummm…no excuse but its so much easier to read “start by ___” and “last chance ___”

Will the computer guy can ever find where he put the files he rescued (too many flooded people after me).

Maybe my brain is failing but what happened to the search engines?

And just where did that link go?

Sooner would be much nicer than later!

Our computer had been acting a bit off for a few days – turning it’s self on and other less obvious twitches. Our’s had a terrible case design and to avoid overheating a loud fan had been installed. It sounded like a airplane taking off – literally. So the turning on was quite noticeable.

Nothing a horror movie loving teenage son loves more than a computer with a mind of its own – a loud mind of it’s own.

Nothing turned up on virus scans so I was worried. We had purchased a large memory thing but who wants to save a virus?

Then…it would only load the DOS prompt. Remember DOS?

Neither do I. One semester at college that began with the instructor announcing “You won’t really need this because next semester we are introducing Windows.” A cheer from the computer geeks so it must have been a good thing.

So the computer was dutifully hauled back to our lovely computer dude 60+ minutes away. Trust that guy. The next day came the bad news of the hard drive death & the good news that he was recovering our files.

Then everything in Arkansas decided to flood so the files are still 60+ minutes away. A night of terrible storms with no weather access & I went to the closest store to get this machine. I’m in Arkansas guess where I went? But in self defense there was only one direction to drive and one Walmart we could reach due to severe flooding. Kind of like living on an island I guess.

So now I get to learn a new microsoft product (miss that old xp) and while we were without firefox also upgraded. It’s like being in computer 101 all over again.

So once again I shall try to visit more often, a girl needs her imaginary friends* right?

*what a real life friend calls on-line friends you’ve never met.

I resolve to….

I’ve been thinking on many different aspects of our life & schedule, there’s so much going on, so much that’s needs to be done, and even more that is a bookmark on the side. This would not be a problem if something were be accomplished but alas that is not a possible.

One of my favorite bloggers, the DHM at The Common Room , posted an excerpt that is worth taking the time to read. The following is entirely her work & her post which I have blocked off to try to prevent confusion.

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
Adventures in common sense
By Frank Crane 1920

The New Year is here. It is inventory time. Let us look over the stock of habits, ideas, and relationships we have accumulated the past twelve months and clean up.

The New Year’s resolution is a good thing. Why drift along, the slave and plaything of our unmanaged desires and of our accidental circumstances? Why not be our own master and live one year like an intelligent human being?

Examine your habits. Lop off the bad ones. Free yourself from any ways you have fallen into that make you lazy, unhealthy, miserable, and disagreeable to other people.

Determine this year to be master of self; that you will control your thoughts, regulate your passions, and guide your own deeds; that you will not let events lead you by the nose.

Resolve to be happy. Remember Lincoln’s saying that “folks are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

This year you shall not neglect your friends. They are too valuable, as life assets, to lose.

You will adopt some system and stick to it, knowing that nine-tenths of our irritation comes from lack of system.
Lay out a course of study. No one is too old to learn. Resolve to give some time each day to reading some helpful book. Cut out the trash.
Resolve to keep an account of all the money you get and of all you spend. You may have tried this many times and failed. Never mind; you are still alive and have the chance to try it again.
Save. Put a certain fraction by of all you make. There’s no friend like money in the bank.
Don’t spend any money till you get it. Don’t go into debt. Beware of buying all those things you “must have,” for you mustn’t have anything until you can pay for it.
No alcohol this year. Let your body rest 365 days from this poison and see how you feel. Don’t get into a moral fever over this. Don’t “try” not to drink. Just don’t drink.
Resolve to take that daily exercise.
Eliminate worry. This year make up your mind to fret over nothing. Adjust yourself to facts instead of getting into a stew over them. If a matter can be helped, help it; if it cannot be helped, forget it.
This year resolve to keep discord out.of the house. Nobody can quarrel with you if you do not quarrel with him. Say to yourself that you will not once in 1916 speak crossly to your children; that you will not say one unkind word to your husband or wife, and that you will keep agreeable if it takes a leg.
This may be the last year you will have. Make it a good one.
You know how you ought to live. At least, you think you do. And if you do as well as your own judgment tells you, it will be an advance.
This is old-fashioned advice. But happiness is old-fashioned, and life. There is no new-fangled way to be content.
And learn this of wise Marcus Aurelius:
“To change thy mind and follow him that sets thee right is to be none the less the free agent that thou wast before.”
Also: “The happiness and unhappiness of the rational social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.”

emphasis added wherever I thought it especially a good point.

And like the DHM, I too plan on posting some goals for the coming new year.

Happy New Year!!

Yes I forgot about the promised cow…

Last summer dh comes home and begins telling me about his day: the good, the bad and the boring. I love that man but its the same frustration with the same co-workers and the same boring details. Sometimes I zone out.

Then he changes direction:

Dh: Remember whats-his-name?

Is he the one that drives the bread truck?

Dh: Yes.

Kinda…

Dh: He’s gonna get you a Jersey.

You are kidding me right?

Dh: No. He raises cattle, we were talking one night and I mentioned you wanted one to milk and he said he’d get you a good one.

Oh When?  

Dh: He said to give him some time but he’d get you a good one.

Oh that’s nice…inside my head “yeah right”

.

Fast forward 6 months to about the beginning of December:

.

Dh: Oh yeah your cow is on the way.

What cow?

Dh: That cow I told you about.

What cow?

Dh: Remember whats-his-name? (cause I still cannot remember his name but he lives in Missouri)

Does he drive the bread truck?

Dh: Yes and he said to tell you he has your cow.

What cow?

Dh: The  one he said he’d get for you. Remember we talked about it late last spring?

ummm…No…

Dh: He said he would get you a good cow…

Who in their right mind believes someone is going to get them a cow?

Dh: You said you wanted one.

Yes but how many complete strangers get someone a cow?

Dh: I know him.

How many people get the unknown wife of the loading dock receiver a cow?

Dh: Well you have one coming.

When.

Dh: When the weather is warmer.

Warmer meaning she won’t freeze in the field, warmer in spring or warmer in summer.

Dh: I’ll ask. He said she’s going to be all ready for you.

Ready? Does that mean she’s a calf and she’s all ready because she’s weaned? Or is she all ready to give birth any day now? Or she gave birth and is ready to be milked?

Dh: He didn’t say. Just she’d be all ready and she’s a good one.

Ok. So is this cow free or will we have to pay for her? Cause a good Jersey calf starts somewhere around $400 and goes up. A good milker is usually at least $1000. It won’t be too nice for him to have a cow and we can’t pay for her.

Dh: He didn’t say, I’ll ask the next time he delivers on my shift.

.

Seems reasonable to forget a cow under those circumstances. Guess I’d better read up on cows.

Didn’t think to ask about delivery…

Ah the lovely menu planning. I’ve never been much of a menu planner preferring to keep a well stocked pantry and deep freeze then cooking what sounds good. If you’re southern a “had my mouth set for…” frame of mind.

At this season of our lives this system is not working very well:

• dh has gone on afternoons while he earns a degree. This has thrown the cooking schedule into chaos as food must be finished by 2 pm – 4+ hours earlier than before.
• with dance and other Studio activities we arrive home most evenings around 7 pm.
• grocery prices are rising – need I say more?

To borrow a phrase from The Common Room I am trying to use “what’s in my hand.” Dhm at the common room also recommended the Super Cook website.

Supercook has free registration & no spam. Click on ingredients you have then in the search box a recipe or ingredient you’d like to use. The site searches the web for recipes and suggests ones you have ingredients for. An additional box (under your ingredients) has additional ingredients to click to increase the choices or recipes suggested will have little + boxes for any additional ingredients needed. For those with allergies there is a special diet box for gluten free, low fat, and so on.

I know how to substitute for alcohol, packaged seasoning mixes and canned cream of soups so if one of these ingredients are suggested in the box under my pantry listing I click it & increase the choices.

My basic plan: 2 chicken meals, 1 bean meal, 1 soup or stew, 1 pasta, 1 casserole, 1 ground beef and left-overs.

To be honest ground beef is rare on our menu.  A visit to a grocery store (phone bill) where I found good quality ground beef for 1.19 a pound added a ground beef meal to the list for the next few weeks. Usually this store’s price on ground beef is too high for my budget but they regularly mark down unsold meat and put it in the freezer case. It is luck to arrive on the right day & before it is all sold. Whenever we are in that town I stop to check and today was my lucky day.

Chicken is most often chicken leg quarters.

So this week’s menu:

Two Chicken Meals

1.      Asian Spicy Chicken Thighs (Leg quarters)

2.      Cheesy Chicken Tortillas

One Bean Meal

3.      White Chili with corn or graham muffins

Soup or Stew

4. White Bean & Barley Soup w/ homemade rolls

Left-Overs

Noodles

6. Garbanzo Bean and Sea Shell Pasta

Casserole

7. Broccoli Potato Casserole

Ground Beef

8. Ground Beef Gyros w/ homemade pita bread

The shopping list:

• 2 packages of chicken leg quarters
• cheese
• tortillas
• potatoes
• frozen broccoli
• turkey bacon? suggested but not mandatory in my opinion
• yogurt
• 2 cucumbers
• lettuce
• medium shells
• tomato juice

Milk of course and the odd refills on staples. Its a start.

When using perm rods the correct name is perm papers not rolling papers.

Neither is sold at the dollar store.

Posting a lot later in this case…

Last fall (2009) my dh decided it was time to go back to school to get a degree in something – seems that 25+ years of experience is not as valuable as a piece of paper with some school’s name embossed in big swirly letters.

Dh also still works.

Which means on the days he works & goes to school he is at home about 3 hours & spends the entire time sleeping. Imagine that!!

During the school year I am pretty much a single parent with intermittent back up. We knew it was not going to be easy & thankfully this semester ends in a few week with only one more to go.

While the government lists me as stay at home wife the stay at home part is a lie…a lie…which is kinda what you’d expect from the government. The kids all have their Studio classes – a special family rate – which is paid for by work-study.

The latest effort worth telling about (because who wants to hear about cleaning the kitchen) is sewing for the theater’s production of Dracula. Someone has firm faith in my abilities as a seamstress has seriously stretched me. I sewed my first coat – an Edwardian styled coat out of canvas or maybe duck cloth.  Take a look:

Dracula fight

A slightly better one

Just for pretty sake here is another shot from the show:

Remind me to tell  you the story of the cow I forgot.