Resolution Update

These were my New's Years Resolutions.  

1. Stay out of the hospital. So far, so good.
2. Wear fragrance and nail polish more often.  Gave up on the nail polish when gardening season started.
3. Make and adhere to weekly menu plans. Occasionally successful.
4. Go for more walks. Starting to do better with this, thanks to Nutmeg.  Need to replace my walking shoes.
5. Go to the gym 1-2 times a week. Took the summer off.
6. De-clutter the house, basement, and barn. Still in progress; still in the house.
7. Buy myself a miniature Australian Labradoodle.  Success!  Nutmeg is the cutest, sweetest, snuggliest, and best-behaved puppy ever.  

2011-2012 Curriculum for Home Education (aka Home-schooling)

Here is what we are doing this year.


Math: We will continue with Math-U-See because it works so well for us.  The nice man gives the lesson on DVD, the children do the practice exercises. It's great.  We've found that when the Epsilon text pairs nicely with the Fractions text from the very charming Life of Fred series.

Bible:  Bible Study Fellowship's Study of Acts, AOP's Monarch curriculum.

Language Arts: We will continue with the homey Amish curriculum Pathways Readers and Workbook.  We will also finish up -- but won't re-purchase -- last year's Monarch curriculum from Alpha-Omega Press.

Writing: I am looking into the Institute for Excellence in Writing products, particularly the one that pairs with the Beautiful Feet Books' Geography Through Literature packet.

Latin: We have left-over from last year both Prima Latina and  English From the Roots Up material, though I think we are joining a group this year to hire a teacher and have an actual Latin class.

Geography:   Geography Through Literature packet from Beautiful Feet Books; Maps, Graphs and Globes from Steck-Vaughn; finish up -- but don't re-purchase -- last year's Monarch curriculum.

History: We are just now starting Beautiful Feet Books' Gilgamesh packet.  When we finish this, we'll move onto Beautiful Feet Books' Ancient History packet, which we'll augment with the Story of the World material.  After the new year, we will need to listen to Washington - Our Home Audio Book as Washington State History is required of us this year, as Andy is entering -- on paper at least -- sixth grade.

Science:  Beautiful Feet Books makes a great Learning Guided titled History of Science.  It walks us through the great scientists via engaging biographies.  We will augment each topic with hands-on Science in a Nutshell experiment kits -- that is, when we are studying Thomas Edison's life, we'll also be doing experiments with electricity.  We will also finish up -- but won't re-purchase -- last year's Monarch curriculum from Alpha-Omega Press.




Music:  Piano Lessons

Cursive: Handwriting without Tears

Hillsdale Academy, affiliated with Hillsdale College -- where I should have gone to college if I hadn't been so young and foolish -- makes available online their complete curriculum.  I found several useful resources here, and was pleased to note that that many of the set reading lists are echoed in the Beautiful Feet lists -- though that is hardly surprising, as one of the Beautiful Feet curriculum writers was a graduate of Hillsdale College.

How about you?  What are you using this year?

psssst

I've started updating the other blog, btw.

Cookery

I started the blog as a diary that I couldn't lose under the couch.  And then I got readers.  And then I started writing for my reader's benefit.  That became too much pressure.  So I stopped blogging. I'm guessing that all my readers have lost interest and drifted away.

So here, just for my own record-keeping, here are some summerish dishes/menus to help me make yummy but no-too-fussy dinners this summer.

Sides

• rosemary polenta Barefoot Contessa: Family Style p 130
• scalloped potatoes: Andy can make.
• loaded salads
• pesto
• roast sweet potatoes
• white beans with rosemary and olive oil
• roasted leeks
• roasted corn salad Pioneer Woman Cooks p 26
• Corn Fritters
• Lentil Salad Recipes from a Greek Island p74
• Pea and Almond Salad Alice Bay p 81
• Potatoes Romanoff Alice Bay p 95
• Glazed Carrots
• Cucumber Yogurt Soup
• Summer Beet Soup Turtleback Farm Inn Cookbook p 60
• Panzanella (use up dry old bread) A Flavor of Tuscany  p 20

 Breads

• Tortillas -- use up the mix that you have.
• Biscuits

 Mains

• Piperade 50 Ways With Vegetables p 70
• Potato and Zucchini Roast 50 Ways With Vegetables p 72

• zucchini ratatouille
• gazpacho Linda McCartney's Home Cooking p 55
• fritattas
• meat pie
• grilled chicken Caesar salad
• supper onion pie How to be a Domestic Goddess p 85
• zucchini and chickpea filo pie   How to be a Domestic Goddess p 93
• mustard pork chops Nigella Express p 11
• real mac and cheese
• rib-eye steak with whiskey (or red wine) cream sauce Pioneer Woman Cooks p 166
• chicken clove enchilada (Christy's recipe, my recipe book)
• Penne with Prawns Pioneer Woman Cooks p 166
• Eggplant with Bechamel -- Mollie Katzen?  look up
• Quiche Alice Bay p 110
• Stuffed Vegies Recipes from a Greek Island p 68
• Stuffed Cabbage Recipes from a Greek Island p 68
• Chicken Bake
• Shrimp and Scallop Fettuccine Alice Bay p 107
• Halibut baked in Mayo and Tomato

Desserts

• key lime pie: recipe book
• trifle
• bread pudding
• semolina cake Recipes from a Greek Island p 68

on my mind

a broody hen: one of our Wyandottes has gone broody. She sits and coos and purrs at the other hens as they crawl in with her and lay their eggs. I've marked the four I'll let her hatch, and I go in and retrieve the rest each day.
a new puppy: Nutmeg has joined our family at last. She is so funny, and cute! She is turbo-cute. Here, see for yourself:

kitty surgery: our beloved Parsley has a rare injury that requires fancy and expensive surgery and then a month or two of a splint and confinement. She is so sad. I am so sad.
class prep: classes open (for online viewing) on Thursday, and I am expected to have everything ready for the students and to be available for questions, though I don't start getting paid until a full week later. What's up with this. I've taught the classes before, but summer quarter is only eight weeks long, so I'm laboring to smush ten-weeks of material into eight weeks of class.
day camp: each of the next two weeks has one of my children off to day camp. The absent child is having a wonderful time. The at-home child, not so much.
gardens: the vegie beds are full and weeded and I am pleased. The flower gardens, not so much.
jam: we are out! I have to add jam-making to my list of to-dos.

my Hero-Son

So, when we were at Disneyland, we went to the attraction "A Bug's Life". Part of the performance involves 3D bugs (what were we thinking?) so at some point, Chickadee is cowering on the floor at my feet. When the large horrific spiders dropped down from the ceiling, I covered her with my body.

Guess who leapt out of his seat to cover my body with his, protecting me from the spiders?

Dandy. It still just melts my heart thinking about it.

Happy Annivesary to Us

Seventeen years ago today I married the nicest man. We had a lovely small ceremony on a Sunday afternoon in my parents' living room, marrying in front of the fireplace with our parents as our attendants. My sister and brother provided the music and our reception was a wonderful open house at home. It was old-fashion, peaceful, and low-stress.

a perfect wedding

The morning of the wedding, my family went to church and I stayed home. I picked flowers from the garden and made the posies for us to wear or carry. We hired a portrait (not wedding falderal) photographer to come for one hour and take portraits. We did not photograph the wedding, but had it video-taped. Tonight we will share that video with our children and look at our albums.

It was a perfect wedding. I only wish I had invited a few more people; we kept the guest list too short.