Getting Creative in the Kitchen

With all the stuff coming out of our garden, we're going to have to get creative with our cooking, which means venturing into brave new territory. With the crisp feeling of fall in the air, the time is ripe to sink our teeth into some more involved recipes. This, of course, means more than simply steaming veggies and serving them with butter and salt. While this is a great way to eat them, it can get a little old.

We've been eating salads galore, and now a bumper crop of string beans is in, so we're going to investigate some new cookbooks. I got an Indian and Vegetarian (Moosewood) from the library, so we'll see how it goes.

We made Jonny Cakes for breakfast in honor of our studying the westward migration. It was a recipe that A found and wrote down. They were good, but not as good as her pancake recipe, if you ask me.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Wooden Sculptures

We received some wooden sculptures from R's friend, and the kids were immediately taken by them. In typical fashion, they jumped right in poured over them, focusing and working hard. They got the first two, the mosquito and peacock, no problem, but the bison and the deer were a little trickier. Now what was impressive to me was that they built the first two without even consulting the directions. They simply based their moves on what they saw on the front of the box and logically placed the pieces together. This strategy worked fine at first, but then got a bit more complex and they asked for my help. I figured that the directions were in order, but upon reading them and trying to finish the piece, I realized they were not only useless, but made it much harder because they were so useless. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box. Kudos to A&N for that.

Anyway, I really struggled with that darn deer. In fact, and A got a huge kick out of this, I got really frustrated after a long duration because couldn't figure out how the legs worked when I finally realized that I'd been holding it upside down. Who was helping who here? After about 45 minutes, with a load of things I still needed to do, I told them it was going to have to wait. I had work to do, and we could finish this later.

Well, you want to know what the kids did? They finished the sculptures without me, and without the moronic directions. Pretty cool stuff, and the sculptures make a nice center piece for out table. Children never cease to amaze me.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Kids Helping Out

Wow, I am so impressed by how hard out kids worked on that deck, removing the tiles. It's tedious work, not unlike removing wallpaper, and not only were they enthusiastic about helping, but they did a fantastic job. They were so conscientious and diligent. And they had such a great attitude. And I'll say this - I couldn't have finished it yesterday without their help. It really made it enjoyable and possible.

Thumbs up to them. And thanks for reading.

Garden Bounty

It's been a disastrous summer for out garden in terms of potatoes and tomatoes because of the blight. Even the tomatoes that R picked green are beginning to rot after the fact. So sad. BUT, on other fronts the garden is doing just fine. In fact, it's kicking butt. We are slated to have a bounty of greens, especially peas and green beans. The picture shows only the tip of the iceberg, so I've got to start scrambling for recipes. There is also some serious lettuce and we're thinking we'll get a bunch of cucumbers.

Overall, the garden is doing very well, and R feels good about it, even in lieu of the blight issues. I agree, she did a fabulous job, and she seems to be getting the drill down, which bodes well for the future. Slowly but surely we're learning. I went out and got rid of all the potatoes and tomatoes the other day, and during the slaughter accidentally pulled up two potatoes, which are shown in the pic. So the potato harvest wasn't a complete wash. Personally, I like them small like that, they're easier to roast.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

More YKW and Coffee Concerns

I was at Board and Basket and found what I was looking for - a single dose drip device. I'd been using a funnel to filter my coffee, and it didn't seem to work well. If you can believe this, the filter seemed to clog and the coffee stopped flowing. So found an adapter that is actually designed to make coffee in. It, too, seems to clog, but at least it sits on top of the cup and looks kind of cool. I'm still figuring out this dilemma, and it's not over yet. One thing that dawned on me is that I realized this may be the way to go for camping. No need for French Presses that break.

On other fronts, if you can believe this, YKW called and left a message. She had the nerve to say that she hadn't seen A for awhile and wanted to have a playdate. I'm guessing her best friend wasn't around and that's why she was looking for a backup plan. Besides the distasteful nature of that, I will never be able to shake the image of YKW completely ignoring A as she desperately tried to connect and play with her while she was having a good old time with her twin. It struck me as cruel and insensitive. Couldn't she have at least said hello? And now this. As far as I'm concerned, we're never going back. She's shown her true colors, and even if they reconnected, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would be just a matter of time before she was once again done with A and it all started over again. No thank you.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Standing Up For Myself and the Pool

In the past, I've encountered situations that I felt were unfair but simply resigned myself to them because I assumed (usually incorrectly) that I couldn't change them or I didn't have the balls to do something about it. They were usually no big deal, but every now and then, a bigger issue would arise and my lack of ability to stand up for myself on the little things would carry over to the big things. It makes you bitter and resentful, because nobody is going to stand up for your rights, nor should they, more than yourself.

Two episodes happened within a day of each other, and in an effort to be a real man and set forth the proper example to our kids, I had to speak up, even if they were no big deal. The first was with my credit card. We don't carry a balance on our cards, even though we use them for everything. The other day I had problems on Amazon and had use my backup card, which I never use. So much so that they punished me by lowering the limit, but such is life. Anyway, I hadn't received a statement and the due date came and went. Being late, they stuck with me a late fee. Bummer.

For whatever reason, these things really get to me. They make me depressed because I feel I've failed, not to mention they cost more money. In the end, however, it's not the money that's the issue. Now in the past I would have simply accepted the fine as part of my screw up, because I should have been aware of the status of my account, and I was too spineless to speak up. Also, I figured they wouldn't believe me since anyone can claim they didn't recieve their statement.

But not this time. I called the company, and in light of the fact that I have a history of paying off the entire balance, they waived the penalty on the condition that I pay immediately, which I did. It just goes to show you, you might as well give it a shot if you've got nothing to lose. This sounds perfectly reasonable in theory but doesn't always translate into practice. Whatever be the case, the most important thing is that I scored one for my self-esteem.

The second thing was even smaller, but it boiled down to principle. We were at CVS and the M&Ms were on sale, 2 for $7. For whatever reason, the computer didn't know this and I got charged $8. One dollar, no big deal, right? I mentioned it to the guy, but it was crowded and I didn't want to make a stink. Usually I don't even pay attention to the receipt (my bad), but a deal is a deal. I went back to make sure, then went back to the register to tell them. The guy, who was the supervisor, seemed a bit peeved that he had to deal with it because he had to go through this whole rigmarole to refund my money and then charge me again, but I stood my ground. Besides, he should have gladly done it, it the store's screw up. I got the price I was supposed to, but still apologized, which I shouldn't have done but seemed to soften the whole situation.

Okay, one last note. We found a new pool, and we had fun, though it's a colorful crowd. I've been told the pool gets crowded on hot days, but it was only medium hot that day. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it was too cool to swim, and breezy. We were freezing, but it was fun, and the kids got to make a new friend, though she struck me as a bit crass, and very overweight. She said she was 8.5 years old, and she was all by herself. Is that illegal? Anyway, the pool grounds are nice, a big park if you will. It was the Lebanon Memorial pool, BTW, and you simply cannot beat the price. $7 for all three of us. If we go swimming again this summer, it's there. We are so done with Storr's Pond.

Either way, it was a good couple of days. Good results, nice new discoveries. Enough said. Until the next time, thanks for reading.

One Giant Step for Homeschooling-kind

I've often found that the biggest, not to mention the most difficult, step is the first one. I've been sitting and sweating over the whole curriculum thing, and finally started to give it some thought. Of course, once I started to work on it, it seemed more plausible than the doomsday scenario that I was nursing in my head. Isn't it always the case?

Bear in mind, I still have a long way to go, but at least it's taking shape in my mind, which is huge. Now all I have to do is finish the darn thing, get the stuff together, and then send it in. I have about three weeks to pull this off, so the sooner the better. We'll see how this one goes.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Chris Cockram for the pic.