Perspective

I have a little baby who seems to be allergic to everything under the sun.  For sure it's eggs, soy, and now I think dairy.  Poor little buddy has such a hard time seeing the other kids eat fun things like cheese sticks, crackers, etc. while he eats another banana. 
The other day in a nursery I volunteer in, I was helping a baby about the same age as mine eat his lunch.  There this baby was with his Wonder bread and Kraft cheese slices with mayo slathered in between.  He also had a baggie of Cheez Its, and I started wondering, does this mom know how lucky she is to be able to give her baby anything to eat?  To not have to worry if someone is going to sneak him a bite of a Three Musketeers and watch him break out all over his body, taking days to recover?  I was a tad bit (or more) jealous of this mom and her baby.
Not even five minutes later, a boy about 2 years old came into the nursery.  He had a feeding tube surgically implanted into his stomach, and his pouch of liquid food in a backpack dragging behind him as he weaved between the toys.  The lady helping him into the nursery showed me how to disconnect his tubing after his feeding was done, and then told me about his short life experiences---on the verge of death soon after birth, needing a liver transplant and then receiving one with many surgeries before and after to rectify his defects from birth.
Perspective.
It's a strong word when you get it and digest it.  Allowing yourself to really feel it searing into your soul with painful humility.  Bringing me to my knees in gratitude for my blessings and the minor problems of my baby that are easily dealt with and remedied.  How humbled and silly for me to feel put upon by this tiny inconvenience when others suffer so greatly.  What joy it is to realize blessings in my life that I've been to prideful to notice. No matter the weather outside, this day will be bright and beautiful.

Teaching Textbooks Review

Last year I had heard of Teaching Textbooks, some CD program for math for kids, but when I checked it out it was pricey!  So I decided to research it out, wait a little to see if it was really something great, and try to find it cheaper somewhere else.

So I waited for price to fall.  Nothing.  I checked Craigslist, Amazon, all the hot spots.  This program is holding it's value, there must be a reason.  So I look into it a little more.  After a year, I finally bought Level 4, full price, at a homeschool convention.  And let me tell you.  It rocks for my oldest.
Ramses loves computer games, but he's also a huge people pleaser, so when I gave him some math workbooks to work through, he grinned and bore it.  I could tell he was NOT loving it though.  So after a year of hard work and no complaining (ok just a little), I splurged and bought TT.  Ramses opened it and started it and hasn't looked back since.  I don't have to remind him to do his math.  He's either already done it or in the process.  He listens to the lecture at the beginning of each lesson, does the practice problems, and by the end of the lesson, he's mastered the concept--all while I was doing something else!  It's wonderful! 
He loves it so much he got Goldie interested in it, and she was begging me to do the program.  She's only in 2nd grade, but I told her if she could understand it she could do it, and she's just a few lessons behind Ramses now, and loves it just as much.
It is GREAT to have something my kids love to learn with, that also allows them to be independent, freeing me to fold laundry be with the younger ones. 
The beginning of the CD is a lot of review of past math concepts, but I'm letting them do each lesson as a solid review.  The lecturer's voice is decent, and the program is quite intuitive.  I have the big spiral workbook that accompanies the CD, but haven't busted it out yet.  Maybe I'll pull it out later in the year when they need more practice, but as for me recommending this product, I endorse it 100%!

Constitution Day

September 17th is a special day---it's my sister's birthday, for one.  And for two, it's Constitution day!  I think it's so important we teach our children about this important document and the reason we have it, and why we need to protect it.  Too many people have no idea how this document protects our God given rights, and keeps our government from becoming too powerful. 

Seventy Times Seven

Tonight Goldie "accidentally" hurt Pinkerbelle, and of course P was pretty upset, so I asked Goldie to apologize, almost on autopilot. (of course after receiving the apology, Pinkerbelle emphatically exlaimed, "It's NOT ok!")   I hear a scream/cry/shriek of anger and my reflex is, "Who did that?  Say sorry.  Give hugs...."  But tonight I decided to wisely add a lesson.  I mean come on, we were in the Suburban eating Jr. Frosty's at 9pm, what better time for a life changing lesson?

I asked the kids, "Do you remember how many times Jesus said to forgive?  Seventy time seven. Do you KNOW how much that is?"  I turn to make serious eye contact with each child, driving home the point of being kind and forgiving.  All I saw were kids licking hands and arms, chocolate ice cream all over faces, and glazed over eyeballs.  Fail.  I start brainstorming on how I can be as dramatic as I can to really stick it to them, and my husband pipes up, "Hey guys, I think you're almost to that number, just a few more injuries and you won't have to forgive each other anymore."

Thanks, Daddy.  Appreciate the help.

Field Trips are the BEST

We just started school on Monday, and I was already itching for a field trip!  It was a spontaneous trip to Seattle to the Ballard Locks to see the salmon ladder.  We've been there several times before, but we've never seen any salmon in those stinking ladders!  Today was our lucky day.  Jackpot!

We talked about the life cycle of a salmon, and of course I had to mention how amazing this whole journey is, traveling all the way back to their birthplace to spawn, even though it's upstream the whole way.  (Is this an appropriate time to say how great smoked salmon tastes?)

We also spent some time watching the boats go through the locks, and it was a great chance to talk about how locks work, and even daydream a little about where each boat was going and what they'd be doing.  The sun was setting in Seattle, it was a gorgeously sunny day, so I'm sticking this in my memory bank to latch onto in about two months when the "gray winter" hits the Pacific Northwest.

Almond Milk

My youngest, Little Bear, has had quite the time in his little year on Earth, with terrible itch-all-over-open-sores-in-all-the-cracks eczema.  While I was nursing him, I tried to narrow down what exactly was causing him to break out so badly, and finally decided it was eggs and soy.  But I've had my suspicions about dairy.  Now that Bear is a ripe old one year and I'm no longer nursing (yay I can eat scrambled eggs again!), it's easier to see what he's reacting to, and I do believe the whole milk is bothering him.  My friend Steph has been making almond milk for awhile now, and so after a personal tutorial...here I am.  Making almond milk!

The recipe:

raw almonds soaked in water for at least 8 hours (with a dash of salt)

(I soaked enough for about 4 batches, to hopefully last the week)

3/4 tsp vanilla

2 TBSP real maple syrup

4 cups water

Drain and rinse the almonds, add 1 1/4 cups of almonds to your blender.  I have a food processor.  It was messy, but got the job done.

Add in about 2 of the 4 cups of water, and blend for 60-90 seconds, until almonds are tiny bits and pieces.

 

 Add in the vanilla and maple syrup while blending, and the rest of the water, if you can.  My food processor couldn't handle that much liquid without making a HUGE mess, so I left a little bit out for the time being.






Get a cheesecloth (I used a flour sack cloth) and drape over a pitcher.  Pour the almond milk in.  This is when I added the rest of the water, right into the cloth!  Allow to drain into the pitcher.  Then grab that cloth, gather the top together, and wring out the rest of the liquid until all you have left is pulp, or "almond meal."

I spread out the almond meal from each batch on a cookie sheet, and baked it in the oven at 170 degrees for several hours, until it's all dried out.  Then you can food process it and bam!  You have expensive and fancy almond flour!  Or leave it more granular and Google up some recipes for it!  Yum!!

I feel like such a farmer, or chef after all this!  What a great feeling to be able to make milk for my little baby!  And know EXACTLY what's in it!  I just about put on my pioneer apron in celebration of this little moment.  I gave my little Bear a bottle full of fresh almond milk, and he drank it right up! 

Sore Throat Season?

Poor Ramses, he had a fever on Sunday with a sore throat, so we took it easy, stayed home, relaxed, and it was actually kind of nice to chill.  But Monday morning comes, and I'm ready to go, and he's still complaining about that throat!  So I hit the internet, looking for a natural cure for strep throat, in case that's what this is.  I found a great recipe, by Dr. Christopher, for throats:

Dr. Christopher's Sore/Strep Throat Remedy:
1 tbsp raw honey (preferable I'm sure, I used regular honey from Winco bulk section)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cloves of garlic pressed through a garlic press (I grated mine)

Take the ingredients and stir them all together.  Take 1 tsp every 30-60 minutes.  You'll need more than this, but it's a good place to start.

I whipped up this concoction, and was ready to administer it to Ramses like the good nurse that I am, and he was ready to take it, until he tasted it.  It's tough getting a nine year old to eat something he doesn't want to eat, but he did his best.  When using this, it's best to not drink or eat anything right after, to let it coat your throat, and to also take it faithfully while symptoms last.  We'll see if that happens or not.  But I'm excited to find something that I don't need to run to the doctor's for.  I'm all about being self-reliant, and this is a step in the right direction!

2013/2014 Here We Come!

I've been homeschooling for awhile, and yet I still feel like an amateur!!  Every year brings new ideas, and this year I've decided to blog our experiences, good and bad.  I'll try and be honest, yet optimistic, as I record our days.  Late at night, I've gone blog hopping, and after about 6.4 minutes I feel like a failure as I see everyone's great and fantastic projects, their perfect looking children, and the amazing lengths some parents have gone to when teaching concepts....as I sit on the couch, eating ice cream and Cheetos, after a day of "morning gone wild", where I've spent the whole day nagging, cleaning, and running around, with no schoolwork to show, and somehow the house never did get clean... So this blog is to uplift us all as I remember the great days, and give hope for tomorrow on those days I'd rather just sweep under the rug.

I have five children now, Ramses is 9, Goldilocks is 7, Luigi is 5, Pinkerbelle is 4, and Little Bear is 1.  My husband is affectionately known as Pa, since one of my favorite book series in the world is Little House on the Prairie...which makes me Ma.  We follow more of a routine than a schedule, and since I love something about every teaching method I've read, we mix in Charlotte Mason, Thomas Jefferson Education, Unschooling, and a little Classical into our days.

We've recently moved to a bigger home, with just under half an acre in the outskirts of town, I'm fumbling my way through urban homesteading...raising chickens, making jam, and dreaming of an underground bunker like the one on Blast From the Past (love that movie!)

I'm all geared up for my 5th year of homeschooling, using minimal curriculum, and hoping to keep the love of learning burning bright in each of my children, and myself.  Of course, I deemed tomorrow as our First Day of School, and the feverish pukes decide to make a special visit to my home today, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

I've decided to start our day with filling out our Compass plan for the fall--something from TJEd, where we record our goals for this fall and then we can keep ourselves headed somewhat in the direction we need to.  I also have high hopes for a weekly planner for the kids, because this seems to be a weak point in my life.  I start out so hopeful every Monday, and then with errands, life, and house craziness, I feel like school slips through the cracks a bit.  Cross my fingers, I hope this helps.

Here's to an exciting and wonderful school year! Maybe it'll be so smooth and awesome we'll start schooling through the summers!  hahahahah...That'd have to be pretty dang awesome...