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Today, as we listened to some cello concertos during lunch I asked, “What instrument is this?” Judah responded, “The Cello.” (thank the Little Einsteins – I certainly couldn’t have told him that!)
I asked, “who wrote this music?” They weren’t sure, so I told them, “Johann Sebastian Bach.” (Judah at once informed me that this was what he was going to say, only then he thought it wasn’t, so he didn’t..)
Ezra, remembering an earlier conversation piped up, “But some people just call him Bach.”
He folded his arms, stuck out his chin, and said, “And I’m one of those people who only calls him Bach.”
Charlotte Mason recommends teaching children “handicrafts,” as in useful skills, in addition to their liberal arts education. Upon reflection, I decided that while I could not teach my kids plumbing or electrical wiring, I probably should be able to teach them to cook, or at least, to bake. So a few weeks ago on Friday (our “other” day in the school week) we made pretzels! Yes, I know, important lifetime skill, that. We had just had a really good one from Auntie Anne’s in the mall that week, and I thought, “I bet I could make one of these…”
Hey, it’s baking, right? We found a recipe on about.com, and had a good time. I’m not sure they turned out as well as Auntie Anne’s – but it’s hard to say as I overtoasted them when attempting to rewarm them later in the day, and never ate one fresh out of the oven.
 Look pretty good, huh?
For those of you who commented (on facebook) and prayed, thank you! Monica woke up this morning without an itchy bump to be seen and seems to be feeling fine. She slept in really late, which is kind of odd, but other than that, she seems to be normal. Praise God!
Monica got hives last week. Yes, I know, it’s an icky topic. I especially think that hives are icky; just looking at them makes me feel slightly sick to my stomach and itchy all over. But, indeed, she did get a terrible case of hives last Wednesday morning, which continued until Friday and only stopped, so far as I know, because of the steroid the doctor kindly prescribed her to ease her discomfort. We’re talking about full-body, head to toe, itchy red bumps, spreading to patches that didn’t fade for a long time and made my baby, and yours truly, totally miserable. Why? I don’t know! I wish I did, but I have no idea what caused the reaction.
Saturday morning was the first morning she didn’t wake up all broken out again and I was just thinking we were home free after 4 hive-free days when I saw one jump up right under her eye where I noticed the first one 6 days ago. That was this evening, and you can bet I dosed her with an antihistamine right away. The hive faded significantly, then I put her to bed, and I am praying SO HARD that that was the only one and was just a final insult from a case of a finished hives breakout. But only time will tell. So, although this hardly qualifies as a life-and-death scenario, and of course, children have suffered much worse than hives, I would appreciate any prayers for my little girl – for NO MORE HIVES!!
I feel like I’m in school again. Currently I am reading not one, not two, but three “big” books of the harder, good-for-you variety.
For my book group here in Oregon I am reading The Book of Margery Kempe an autobiography by a medieval mystic. Here’s an example:
Then it was our Lady’s turn to speak with me, in my soul: “Daughter, you are well blessed, for my son Jesus will flood you with so much grace that all the world will sing your praises. Be not ashamed, dear daughter of mine, to receive these gifts which my son will give you. Never be ashamed, dear daughter, of him who is your God, your Lord, your love……
Margery endured much “shame and criticism” because when Jesus visited her with “much grace” she inevitably wept, sobbed, and frequently cried out in an incredibly loud voice, sometimes thrashing about on the floor. Oddly enough, she didn’t seem to be very popular among her neighbors and fellow pilgrims. I’m supposed to finish it by early February.
My next book is St. Augustine’s Confessions, which I’m reading with my friend Mystie. It’s a good thing we’re planning on taking all of 2010 to read it, because it’s a huge book, and so far (although I’m only 24 pages into it!) cannot be described as “a real page turner.”
And last but not least, in the spirit of “It’s time to really set our nose to the grindstone and DO this homeschooling thing,” I’m attempting Volume 6 of A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason.
Commonly we let reason do its work without attention on our part, but there come moments when we stand in startled admiration and watch the unfolding before us point by point of a score of arguments in favour of this carpet as against that, this route in preference to the other, our chosen chum as against Bob Brown; because every pro suggested by our reason is opposed to some con in the background.
A little thick perhaps. And there’s plenty more where that came from: 5 more volumes, in fact. Miss Mason’s ideas and insights are worth slogging through, I think: her idea of what the point of education is, developing children’s personhood for their lifelong benefit, appeals to me, as do her simple and no-nonsense sorts of teaching “techniques.” But it’s not exactly a book I want to reach for when a spare moment arises.
So, wish me luck.
And would somebody please recommend a good novel?!!!!
I was alerted to this recipe by Mystie last spring. I think she send me the link to this time-saving tweak, as well. When I told my mom about making yogurt a couple days ago, she asked for the recipe, so I thought as long as I was retyping out my own variation on the recipe I might as well get a blog post out of it as well!
Homemade Crockpot Yogurt
Ingredients:
6 cups whole milk, pasteurized (as opposed to the 8 cups in the original recipe – it made a little too much yogurt, so I cut it back a little and it still works)
1/2 cup or more storebought plain yogurt with live cultures (after you make your first batch you can use your own yogurt to seed the next batch)
Pour the milk into your crockpot, set it to low and heat it for about an hour. The goal is to get it to 110 to 115 degrees F. If it gets too hot after an hour, turn it off and let it sit with the lid off until it gets to your target temperature. Similarly, if it isn’t hot enough.. heat it longer! After you’ve made it once or twice you should theoretically know exactly how long it takes to heat to the target temperature, but I always have distractions and can’t-get-to-it-right-nows, so it always takes me a while to get the temperature just right. When you do, TURN OFF THE CROCKPOT. Use an instant read thermometer or a candy thermometer to check the temperature.
Dip a large glass cup measure into the hot milk to get around 1-2 cups of milk. Stir in the plain yogurt. Dump all of it back into the crockpot and stir it in.
Now put the lid on, and wrap the entire crockpot in a large heavy bath/beach towel to insulate it and allow it to cool more slowly.
Give it about 4 hours, then check it. If it has worked (and it should if the milk wasn’t too hot (which kills the cultures) or too cold(which never starts them working) to begin with), you’ll see that it has turned into your own batch of plain homemade yogurt. The consistency is different than storebought yogurt… I’ve never gotten it to a sour-cream like consistency throughout myself, though I’ve read that others have. One thing you can try is to turn the crockpot on for 10 minutes after it sits the initial 4 hours, then TURN IT OFF AGAIN, rewrap it, and let it sit for another 2-3 hours. I’ve tried this before, but like I said, never gotten it to a completely sour-cream like consistency. I noticed last time I made it that it “gelled” more after it’d been in the fridge for a while though.
Plain yogurt is like a blank canvas – what you can do with it is only limited by your imagination. I have a limited imagination. But my kids love it plain with brown sugar, or with sugar and frozen berries/other fruit stirred in. Probably my favorite is mixing it with a little brown sugar and some homemade granola or grape nuts. I like to eat that for dessert as an ice-cream substitute!
One of these days I’m going to try it with half and half – I expect that would be REALLY good… if somewhat calorific.
I stopped making yogurt after a few months last summer/spring – I think we overdosed on yogurt after the first few months. But I started up again at the beginning of tax season. Just got the bug to try it again. Maybe it’ll be a seasonal cooking item with me!
Alas, the 4-year old tracked dog poop into the house.  Bleah…
For some reason, this post didn’t post when I scheduled it to, so this is referring to the first week of January, so you don’t get confused.
Michael took all of last week off, before returning to work to start working 10+ hour days for the rest of Tax Season. We spent the week organizing, cleaning, shopping, and generally taking care of things around here.. somewhat. But on Friday, after a prenatal doctor’s appointment we all went on an outing to downtown Portland (stopping at Mattress World in Clackamas to buy a new mattress, yippee!!).
We rode the MAX up one way, and the streetcar back the other, gathering a lot of smiles from people observing our little flock. Monica gets a lot of smiles for her irresistible cuteness and the boys’ general enthusiasm about all things on wheels/rails gets a few chuckles and cautious stranger smiles. We contemplated taking the kids to the big library but went to Fergusons, a much more exciting toy shop instead (didn’t buy anything). We stopped at Burger King on our way in (a big hit!) and I used a Starbucks gift card I got for Christmas to get a chai latte and a kids hot chocolate at the Starbucks in the Rotunda at Pioneer Place. Although we were tired out from all of that herding of small children and answering of questions, even us parents had a good time, and it was a nice final fling before the Dreaded Tax Season sets in. Judah took a picture of us at Pioneer Place (which is why he’s not in the picture).
Homeschool!
As I caught a whiff of exhaust from a passing school bus today, I thought of another way to sell homeschooling! Do it for the environment’s sake! Think of it… if one parent from every two parent household stayed home every day, rather than commuting to work – think of all of the gas not burned and the exhaust not exhausted from school buses and commuter cars! Think of the styrofoam takeout boxes, the preprepared/prepackaged food wrappers and containers not bought, used, and tossed! The schools not heated by expensive gas and electricity! It’s an environmentalist’s utopia!
Sorry.. I live in Oregon, that’s my only excuse. And I don’t have a problem with the concept of schools, just government schools, and when I smelled that exhaust today as I took a walk in the rare sunshine with my kids… well… I just couldn’t resist. 
I was going to write a post all about my frustration with the amount of time it takes to take care of all of this STUFF we have in our lives. January is the time when this hits home because we usually have a bunch of new and spiffy stuffy that we’ve accumulated during the season of giving – stuff that now needs to be put away in the already bursting closets, shelves, and cupboards. This intended tirade was brought on by my spending quite a bit of time last week going through the boys’ clothes (just the two boys!!) and sorting, organizing, downsizing and incorporating their new clothes received for Christmas and from a coworker of Michael’s who gave him 3+ large bags of clothes for the boys. It didn’t take all week, but I began it on Monday and had clothes in piles on Monica’s bedroom floor the entire week while I sorted, laundred and re-sorted again to make sure I had the complete picture before going through and counting pants, shirts, outfits, church clothes, etc. to see of what I had too much. Of course, by the time I was done, many of those clothes originally in piles on the floor had been worn and thrown in the laundry – so now I probably won’t be able to fit them into their drawers again when I finish the laundry this week!!! The conclusion of the matter – the boys have TOO MANY clothes.
But my friends at PinkPeppers are already addressing reorganizing/decluttering and probably doing it with more charm and wit than I can come up with, so I’ll just post a photo of my project for the day. Those of you who have been to my house may remember the disaster area in my home involving the coat rack and shoe pile right inside my basement slider? If you don’t remember, that’s good. But today, I solved the problem (I think) by buying baskets, sorting through all the shoes, vacuuming around and under the entire area and setting it all up again. And viola!
Better come see it quick, before it gets messed up again.
*Note: these are movies I saw for the first time in 2009, not that necessarily came out in 2009.
In no particular order:
- SlumDog Millionaire – an almost-fairy-tale set in India. The Brother’s Grim kind of fairy tale where eyes are gouged out and innocents are used and abused. Not for children. But uplifting and mind-opening nonetheless.
- Up – a poignant children’s movie. Makes one a little misty sometimes, but provides food for thought. And the kids liked it.
- Monsters Inc. – this is an old one that came out after I stopped watching kids movies with my family and before I had kids of my own. Cute and fun and the little girl “Boo” looked kind of like Monica in pigtails.
- Grand Turino – Not for children. An insane amount of language, brutality, violence. But a good redemption through self-sacrifice story. Our pastor recommended it (with cautions).
- Julie and Julia – Mmmmm. Makes me want to cook. Reminds me again of what an incredible actress Meryl Streep is. Fun to see Amy Adams again, too.
- StarTrek – So I’m a Star Trek nerd. We all know that. But lots of other people liked this one, too!
- Duplicity – fun. I love Julia Roberts. It was a fairly clever heist movie.
- Night at the Museum – another old one I hadn’t seen. Lots of fun and familiar actors (Dick VanDyke, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson)
- In Good Company – enjoyable. The predicament of a middle-aged manager, whose wife is unexpectedly pregnant, suddenly finding himself with a 27 year old boss – who falls for his daughter – well, it’s funny and poignant.
- The Nanny Diaries – an antidote to wishing you were a fabulously wealthy New York aristocratic type. A window into another world.
Movies I saw that didn’t meet my expectations:
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past – too lewd. So over the top that one felt guilty enjoying it – possibly a good portrayal of the emptiness of the theoretically perfect free and single life. (wouldn’t know – never experienced it!)
- District 9 – OK, but why?
Movies I saw and DID NOT like:
- What Happens in Vegas – the way to build a successful marriage is to do what you want to do without regard to what your spouse wants. No wonder marriage is in such a sad state in America.
There should be more on the previous list, but I can’t remember them right now.
And finally, movies that I like to watch from time to time, not necessarily every year:
- White Christmas
- Star Trek IV (the one with the whales)
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Hitch
- Stranger than Fiction
- The original Star Wars trilogy
- The Mask of Zorro
- Jane Austen flicks, especially BBCs Pride and Prejudice and Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility.
I just read this post at the Femina blog: An Uplifting Memory. The post itself and the reader’s comments had me almost hyperventilating! Good to know that all of one’s day-to-day small child related disasters are eventually a source of great entertainment – and that eventually one is OUT of that mode of life!
(The title is because I’ve never laughed harder than the Galaxy Quest scene where they transported the pig and it blew up – I know it’s cheap humor, but I could barely breathe!)
Did you see that my blog is all prettied up? Well, if you did, you can thank my brother, Ben and his wife, Emeth, who took it upon themselves to spend much of yesterday afternoon updating my blog. It feels nice to have a fresh new face on the blog. And perhaps I’ll be motivated to post more frequently?
But my real announcement is that: It’s a boy!
Yes, I had an ultrasound on Dec. 23, early in the morning before we left for my parent’s house for Christmas, and the results were unmistakable. A (currently) healthy little boy will be making his appearance somewhere on or around May 19, 2010. I would post some pictures, but doubt I’ll get around to scanning/photographing and uploading them.
We were going to wait to find out the sex of the baby this time, but as the days to the ultrasound grew nearer, my resolve weakened. Michael didn’t mind, so I asked the vital question and I’m rather glad I did. It’s friendlier to think of this frequently moving little person as “my son” or “him” rather than, “him or her.” Plus, we only have to pick out a boy’s name, which will save us considerable effort.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and continue on to have a grand New Year!
I haven’t had much luck yet with having my kids listen to tapes in lieu of read-alouds. They just seem to tune them out. I’ve gotten Redwall, Little House in the Big Woods and others out of the library on cassette tapes (yes, we still own a couple of old-fashioned tape players – Thanks Mom!) and put them on when they go to bed or while we’re on long car trips. But they don’t respond to the stories at all. They don’t talk about them later, or theorize about what-might-have-happened-if, etc. like they do about the books I read to them. It’s been rather disappointing.
But!! The other day I got The House At Pooh Corner out and they love it! What seems to have delighted them the most however, is Pooh’s first poem in the book. After bed the other night, I heard peels of giggles coming from their room at intervals and this is why:
The more it
SNOWS-tiddley-pom
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
On
Snowing.
And nobody
KNOWS-tiddely-pom,
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
Are
Growing.
To me, it’s just a pleasant, short, simple poem – only really funny because of Pooh and Piglet’s interaction regarding it. But not the boys: they try to recite it themselves, and always ask for the side that has “the funny part” on it. For some inexplicable reason, A.A. Milne really hit their funny bone with this one! Go Figure.
I sent the boys outside to play the other day. They were greatly excited about wearing hats and gloves so I helped them to find and put on winter accessories. I looked out a little later and what did I see?:
 I guess I forgot to remind them to wear winter COATS!
My bloglines subscriptions have been unusually quiet these days! I’m thinking maybe everybody is as busy as I am with holiday prep!
I just finished Table in the Mist by Jeffrey Meyers, a commentary on Ecclesiastes, a couple weeks ago. I loved it. I mean really loved it. It helped that a bunch of people I know had either just read it or were reading it and also loving it, but even without that, I think it would’ve made a similarly positive impression.
10 people can read a book and like it – all for different reasons. At this point in my life some of the points in the book impressed me more than others.
The #1 point that I took away from the book is that I am not in control. God is. I can’t play my cards right and force Him to bless me. I can’t do everything right, control all aspects of my life, or my kids lives, to somehow leverage the way God works and make everything turn out as I would like. And that’s OK, because God “has made everything beautiful in its time.” This, frankly is a relief. Not that I actually thought that I could control God, but the burden of thinking that everything depends on us and our desires and actions, is a major tenent of our modern world (The Power of Positive Thinking, anyone?). Knowing that God’s plan is unshakeable and ultimately just and good (whether we live to see its benefits or not), notwithstanding our poor, muddled, sinful human ways, allows us to relax. Because the world is unpredictable, and uncontrollable (by us), men are able to “be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil – this is God’s gift to man.” (Ecclesiastes 3:12) If you thought it all depended on you, how could you ever take a moment and just enjoy the ride?
“Every time out lack of control over life is brought to our attention we tend to treat it as some sort of anomaly, but the fact is that all of life is like that.” (p. 79)
In the discussion of sacrifices and vows in Ecclesiastes 5, Mr. Meyers makes a point particularly salient for me and my friends. He’s talking of foolish verbal sacrifices that we offer to God, under the category of “look-at-how-pious-I-am radical resolutions.”
“..I have been dismayed by this kind of talk particularly among young parents who are eager to set themselves apart as more holy than those parents who have older children. The verbal offering of look-at-how-pious-I-am radical resolutions comes too easily to their lips. Beware of the words never and always:
“I’ll never send my children to day care.”
“I’ll never put my children in a public school.”
“Well, I will never allow my teenagers to do such and such.”
“I’ll always homeschool my children. “” (p. 114)
*blush* Ahem. Well, hopefully I haven’t said such things too often, but surely I’ve thought them before and the arrogance implied is stunning.
And on money:
10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.
11 When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?
Ecclesiastes 5: 10-11
“Do you really want more wealth, more “goods” more land and cars and houses and everything else? Really? Do you realize that when wealth increases responsibilities increase as well? Do you think you can have one without the other? It is a foolish dream.” (p 121) That nice furniture, that lovely hardwood floor, beautiful deck furniture, nice car – all have to be protected, maintained, cared for. And because they’re more valuable, they have to be protected, maintained, and cared for MORE than my used furniture and torn linoleum. This is a point I need to remember often.
There were a ton of other good points in the book – there’s a lot of meat in Ecclesiastes. I can’t quote them all, and don’t remember them all, and glancing through the book as I prepared this post made me realize – I need to read it again! So, check it out, buy it, or borrow it: this book will change how you view your life!
During devotions, Michael asks Judah if he ever thinks of doing something bad, but doesn’t because he thinks he might get in trouble. Judah responds in the affirmative and is eager to give an example.
“Today, while Ezra was getting water out of the refrigerator, I thought about going over and pushing button for ice.”
Michael, “Oh?”
“Yeah. I thought about it, but I didn’t do it.”
A brief glimpse into the mind of a 5-year-old boy.
As I glance through the boilerplate on the After-Visit-Summaries from our recent doctor’s well-child checkups:
“Offer water when your child is thirtsty. Do not give your child soda or juice drinks more than one time a day.” I feel smug and give myself a mental pat on the back.
“Do not use TV and videos as a babysitter. ” I snort derisively (and maybe a little defensively) and scoff, “who do these people think they are, doctors or child-training experts?!!”
My kids barely knew the word, “Transformers,” until Ezra got one for his birthday a month and a half ago. (he asked for one, but I’m not sure exactly how he knew about them, of it was what he was expecting) Now it’s Transformers all day every day around here. Judah scraped and saved to buy himself a Transformer, so now they both have one. But did it end there? No, there are Transformers zoomed about the house, Transformers described, Transformers drawn and cut out, and Transformers built:
 Homemade Transformers I mean, really, like I told my mom, what could be cooler than cars that turn into giant robots? The premise seems like something taking directly from a little boy’s most delightful dream and turned into a merchandizing empire. And, since God made little boys, I feel like you could almost (but not quite)say they’re divinely inspired.
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