A friend had an extra "scoby" (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast - yummy), so I thought maybe I'd try to make some kombucha. It's been twelve days, and no new "baby" has formed, so I have no clue if I've done it right. I'm still waiting on my friend to get back to me on my questions. I did taste it, though, and it is very interesting. Right now it tastes like apple juice mixed with ginger ale (sort-of). All I did was brew black tea, add white sugar (supposedly the scoby eats all the sugar), and put the scoby on top. It's been fermenting for 12 days now. Hmmmm.
In other news, Evan loves my sourdough biscuits. I made some a few nights ago to go with soup, and I just put one by his plate. He ate it then said, "Wow, that was outstanding!" ;-) Yes, it made me happy. He still doesn't want sourdough pizza crust. And he will NOT taste the kombucha. ha ha ha
Currently I'm trying to get back into a monthly menu plan. I don't know that I ever completely got it down before, but over the holidays I was really going from week to week. I put two meals in the freezer this week just by splitting casseroles, eating one half and freezing the other (shepherd's pie and Mexican lasagna).
Nathan's school is going well, all fifteen minutes of it. :-) Well, it would probably be closer to an hour to two hours, depending on the day, if you added all the time I read to him outside of our Bible story. Of course, if you counted the time that I cook with him, talk to him about the water table, or show him how to measure with his tape measure, we could be talking a hefty amount of school time! :-D
Oh, I'm also going to be starting to work on his manners at the table. He isn't that bad whenever it's just us, but when other people come over he is not pleasant. I need to research something fun to do with him that includes being a gentleman and having manners. I guess I should be doing that right now. That, and researching the link between saturated fats and heart disease. Evan is convinced that I'm going to give him heart disease. My reply is that, if he gets heart disease, I will blame his stress level and lack of exercise. ;-)
P.S. This article made him feel better.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Sour dough
So, I've officially burned out my husband on sourdough. Poor thing. He says it smells rotten. :-) He likes the pancakes, crepes, and crackers, but he doesn't like the bread, pizza dough, or English muffins. Oh, he also liked the sourdough pasta I made. I guess I should give up the things he just doesn't like and move ahead. Or only have the kids and I eat them. ;-)
I made pasta again today, but it is just difficult to get it the right consistency for my extruder. I guess I should make the regular recipe to try to get the feel for the consistency.
I'm making kombucha. Evan is taking that really well, actually. I think he's curious. I told him not to look at it because it would gross him out, but he did anyway. He said that I'm crazy. ha Good thing I don't always take him seriously.
This month I am hoping to get back on schedule with Nathan's school work; I just really need a few hours without distraction to work on it, and I haven't gotten that yet. :-) We read like crazy, and Nathan is such a thinker. When it comes to sounding out words, though, he totally balks. I am going to take a very slow approach, but I'm really wondering if he's even ready. I've heard enough people talk about their children and reading that I'm not worried that he won't. I'm just worried he won't be reading on his daddy's schedule. And daddy is a little anal about such things. Okay, not a little. ha We've just seen some really bad homeschool examples set, and Evan is determined that I will not homeschool like that. I think the biggest problem is that I've done all the research and reading, and it all makes sense. He just pops his head into our world occasionally (like when he's not in school), and he freaks out because our world doesn't look like he thought it would. :0) If I take the time to really explain my philosophy to him, he seems to get it and relax.
My philosophy? Well, I suppose that, in regards to reading, I think that Nathan is already a well-read child. I was thinking about the books he has already had read to him, and it's quite a list. He loves it, though. His mind, his thinking, is being formed. He has a great vocabulary, and he uses it. He cannot read, though. But the physical act of reading will come when he is developmentally read for it. It's my job to constantly be on the look-out for his readiness. Every day we work on sounding out one word, two or three letters long. He still tries to add letters that aren't there or making ridiculously long words out of three letters. He often looks away while sounding out the word. He's not ready yet. But I really believe that it will come. If his mind is busy making other connections right now, I don't want to force the reading. I read in Endangered Minds that children who are taught the higher-level math skills at a young age will learn to do those equations. Their brains will force a path, no matter how crazy and crooked. However, that path will not be the easiest path, and it will require much mental effort (and often lack understanding) and that is always the path the brain will follow. If the children are taught the higher-level math skills when their brains are ready, their brains make simple paths because all they have to do is build on to what they already understand and what their brains are ready for. Goodness, that was hard to explain, and I'm not sure I did the best job explaining it. Long story short, I believe that when his brain is ready, he will take off. And he will love it. I know two moms whose boys did not learn to read until they were eight years old. By the time they were nine, they had read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Of course, I doubt they had only had Cat in the Hat read to them up until that time. ;-)
Homeschooling is a huge responsibility. I have to be willing to stay alert. I have to know my child well enough to know when he is not ready for something as opposed to just being too lazy to put forth the effort to do it. But I'm happy because he would not be given the opportunity to learn at his developmental level in school. He would be forced to conform to whatever nonsense standards the schools put out there. He would also learn, like I did even in college, to work a system to get the desired results, which does not always entail learning or knowledge. Of course, I've said nothing about the highest reason why I homeschool; this is just one of the many reasons.
Goodness, I think I've said enough. I wonder how much of this I will agree with in a year. ;-) I'll say this, though, I am so excited to be able to walk this road with my kids. That's why I love the Charlotte Mason philosophy: it involves all of life, created through Him and for Him. There is a purpose. :-) If my kids get that point, I'll be happy.
I made pasta again today, but it is just difficult to get it the right consistency for my extruder. I guess I should make the regular recipe to try to get the feel for the consistency.
I'm making kombucha. Evan is taking that really well, actually. I think he's curious. I told him not to look at it because it would gross him out, but he did anyway. He said that I'm crazy. ha Good thing I don't always take him seriously.
This month I am hoping to get back on schedule with Nathan's school work; I just really need a few hours without distraction to work on it, and I haven't gotten that yet. :-) We read like crazy, and Nathan is such a thinker. When it comes to sounding out words, though, he totally balks. I am going to take a very slow approach, but I'm really wondering if he's even ready. I've heard enough people talk about their children and reading that I'm not worried that he won't. I'm just worried he won't be reading on his daddy's schedule. And daddy is a little anal about such things. Okay, not a little. ha We've just seen some really bad homeschool examples set, and Evan is determined that I will not homeschool like that. I think the biggest problem is that I've done all the research and reading, and it all makes sense. He just pops his head into our world occasionally (like when he's not in school), and he freaks out because our world doesn't look like he thought it would. :0) If I take the time to really explain my philosophy to him, he seems to get it and relax.
My philosophy? Well, I suppose that, in regards to reading, I think that Nathan is already a well-read child. I was thinking about the books he has already had read to him, and it's quite a list. He loves it, though. His mind, his thinking, is being formed. He has a great vocabulary, and he uses it. He cannot read, though. But the physical act of reading will come when he is developmentally read for it. It's my job to constantly be on the look-out for his readiness. Every day we work on sounding out one word, two or three letters long. He still tries to add letters that aren't there or making ridiculously long words out of three letters. He often looks away while sounding out the word. He's not ready yet. But I really believe that it will come. If his mind is busy making other connections right now, I don't want to force the reading. I read in Endangered Minds that children who are taught the higher-level math skills at a young age will learn to do those equations. Their brains will force a path, no matter how crazy and crooked. However, that path will not be the easiest path, and it will require much mental effort (and often lack understanding) and that is always the path the brain will follow. If the children are taught the higher-level math skills when their brains are ready, their brains make simple paths because all they have to do is build on to what they already understand and what their brains are ready for. Goodness, that was hard to explain, and I'm not sure I did the best job explaining it. Long story short, I believe that when his brain is ready, he will take off. And he will love it. I know two moms whose boys did not learn to read until they were eight years old. By the time they were nine, they had read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Of course, I doubt they had only had Cat in the Hat read to them up until that time. ;-)
Homeschooling is a huge responsibility. I have to be willing to stay alert. I have to know my child well enough to know when he is not ready for something as opposed to just being too lazy to put forth the effort to do it. But I'm happy because he would not be given the opportunity to learn at his developmental level in school. He would be forced to conform to whatever nonsense standards the schools put out there. He would also learn, like I did even in college, to work a system to get the desired results, which does not always entail learning or knowledge. Of course, I've said nothing about the highest reason why I homeschool; this is just one of the many reasons.
Goodness, I think I've said enough. I wonder how much of this I will agree with in a year. ;-) I'll say this, though, I am so excited to be able to walk this road with my kids. That's why I love the Charlotte Mason philosophy: it involves all of life, created through Him and for Him. There is a purpose. :-) If my kids get that point, I'll be happy.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
That time of year
The time of year when I get a little sad and take to writing in my "me-blog." Now THAT is sad. ;-)
Nicholas would be three this December. I cannot imagine having a three-year-old along with Nathan. I think the holidays make it even worse because I feel like my kids are alone, especially Nathan. He gets so rambunctious with so many people around and no other kids, so this week we sent him in the backyard to play and run off some of his energy. I looked outside, and he just looked so lonely (probably more my perspective than his), and I couldn't help wondering what could have been. I probably wouldn't really think about it had I not been expecting him to have a little brother to run around and play with.
Well, that's about all. :-)
Nicholas would be three this December. I cannot imagine having a three-year-old along with Nathan. I think the holidays make it even worse because I feel like my kids are alone, especially Nathan. He gets so rambunctious with so many people around and no other kids, so this week we sent him in the backyard to play and run off some of his energy. I looked outside, and he just looked so lonely (probably more my perspective than his), and I couldn't help wondering what could have been. I probably wouldn't really think about it had I not been expecting him to have a little brother to run around and play with.
Well, that's about all. :-)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Quickly...
Just thought I'd pop my head (figuratively, of course) into the blog and say hi. :-) I'm still my same ol' weird self. Still drinking raw milk, still nursing my child (who is over a year), still cloth diapering (though not at night b/c we're having rash issues), and still homeschooling...somewhat. See? Still weird. Still here. ;-)
My new "thing" lately has been sourdough. I am having so much fun with it! I signed up for an e-course about sourdough (gnowfglins.com), and I have really enjoyed it. I've made all sorts of things, but my favorites so far are the crackers, pancakes, and English muffins!
I think my next thing may be trying to make my own elderberry syrup for the winter. :-}
Well, I said quickly, and I meant quickly!! ha ha
Ta ta!!
My new "thing" lately has been sourdough. I am having so much fun with it! I signed up for an e-course about sourdough (gnowfglins.com), and I have really enjoyed it. I've made all sorts of things, but my favorites so far are the crackers, pancakes, and English muffins!
I think my next thing may be trying to make my own elderberry syrup for the winter. :-}
Well, I said quickly, and I meant quickly!! ha ha
Ta ta!!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
One day at a time
That is going to be my motto for the next few months. :-)
I have had such a hard time lately keeping up with everything. It seems that the bathrooms always need to be cleaned, the floors always need to be mopped, and there are still several million things that I feel I should be doing.
Yesterday I did a bunch of cooking/baking so I can feel like I'm starting out Evan's semester with some back ups in the freezer. :-) I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, peach jam, chicken broth (by the way, don't put too much warm broth in the freezer at one time...), stuffed manicotti shells, and cooked pork (for fried rice). I still have to make a big batch of chili. I blend it and use it for chili-cheese toast, frito pie, and hot dogs. It's very nice to have in the freezer for quick meals. I really need to go through my freezers because I just don't have much space. I have lots of deer meat still, so that takes a lot space. I haven't figured out if it's okay to thaw, cook, and re-freeze meat. I should look it up.
I'm still working with Nathan on his vowels, but our school time is anything but school-ish. We've been known to do everything but the reading while I'm doing dishes. I just started putting the vowel magnets on the fridge, and we review them while I'm working in the kitchen.
One last thing, we joined a farm! ha We bought a membership (you can work it off, but I'm not even going to try that this year), and then we pick our own produce and buy it for very low prices. The farm has hoop houses, so we'll have something to pick almost year round. And it's all natural; no pesticides or chemical things are put on the crops. I've gone a couple of times, and I think I'm really going to like it. We get grocery shopping and nature time done at the same time! :-) And Nathan loves to help me pick. We also can get our eggs right down the road, and our farm also sells raw milk!! I was very blessed to find this place.
I have had such a hard time lately keeping up with everything. It seems that the bathrooms always need to be cleaned, the floors always need to be mopped, and there are still several million things that I feel I should be doing.
Yesterday I did a bunch of cooking/baking so I can feel like I'm starting out Evan's semester with some back ups in the freezer. :-) I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, peach jam, chicken broth (by the way, don't put too much warm broth in the freezer at one time...), stuffed manicotti shells, and cooked pork (for fried rice). I still have to make a big batch of chili. I blend it and use it for chili-cheese toast, frito pie, and hot dogs. It's very nice to have in the freezer for quick meals. I really need to go through my freezers because I just don't have much space. I have lots of deer meat still, so that takes a lot space. I haven't figured out if it's okay to thaw, cook, and re-freeze meat. I should look it up.
I'm still working with Nathan on his vowels, but our school time is anything but school-ish. We've been known to do everything but the reading while I'm doing dishes. I just started putting the vowel magnets on the fridge, and we review them while I'm working in the kitchen.
One last thing, we joined a farm! ha We bought a membership (you can work it off, but I'm not even going to try that this year), and then we pick our own produce and buy it for very low prices. The farm has hoop houses, so we'll have something to pick almost year round. And it's all natural; no pesticides or chemical things are put on the crops. I've gone a couple of times, and I think I'm really going to like it. We get grocery shopping and nature time done at the same time! :-) And Nathan loves to help me pick. We also can get our eggs right down the road, and our farm also sells raw milk!!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Butter and other things
I made butter today! I pretty much just followed these directions (except I used my food processor), and I have butter! AND it was made from raw cream from the dairy. Very neat. I think Evan was upset that I didn't have anything for supper that would call for butter. ha He really wanted to try it out! So tomorrow I've got to start my bread. I'm completely out, anyway.
I've been trying my hand at sourdough bread lately, but I haven't gotten used to it yet. The last loaf was pretty dense, and we left not too long after I made it, so it got very dry. I stuck it in the fridge to keep it from molding, and today I cut it into cubes and made croutons out of it. They smelled so good baking in the oven! At least I didn't feel like I was wasting! My sourdough pancakes and sourdough pizza crust turned out great, so I'm happy with that.
We are still trying to keep our 15 minutes of "school time" as part of our daily routine, and I think it's going well. I've had to make several changes (banging, stomping, etc. while counting; standing at the refrigerator to go over letters), but he's learning his memory verses and getting very excited about that! :-) I've been looking at some book lists online and checking out books from those lists; the only problem is that they are long books. My vocal chords are going to be calloused by the time he gets old enough to read on his comprehension level! I still haven't found the limit to his attention span when I'm reading to him. My throat starts hurting before he gets tired of being read to. I shouldn't complain, though, because it is honestly a wonderful problem to have. I'm just having to learn to lay down things that aren't so important and make time to read to him.
I've been trying my hand at sourdough bread lately, but I haven't gotten used to it yet. The last loaf was pretty dense, and we left not too long after I made it, so it got very dry. I stuck it in the fridge to keep it from molding, and today I cut it into cubes and made croutons out of it. They smelled so good baking in the oven! At least I didn't feel like I was wasting! My sourdough pancakes and sourdough pizza crust turned out great, so I'm happy with that.
We are still trying to keep our 15 minutes of "school time" as part of our daily routine, and I think it's going well. I've had to make several changes (banging, stomping, etc. while counting; standing at the refrigerator to go over letters), but he's learning his memory verses and getting very excited about that! :-) I've been looking at some book lists online and checking out books from those lists; the only problem is that they are long books. My vocal chords are going to be calloused by the time he gets old enough to read on his comprehension level! I still haven't found the limit to his attention span when I'm reading to him. My throat starts hurting before he gets tired of being read to. I shouldn't complain, though, because it is honestly a wonderful problem to have. I'm just having to learn to lay down things that aren't so important and make time to read to him.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
School?
So, I have begun. I got The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and started going through that with Nathan. The first lessons are just teaching the sounds of the alphabet, so I'm going to go through those and see how I like them. Also, at the end I can decide if we should go on, take a break, or go back through the letters. Or we could scrap the book altogether and decide to try something else. :-) The lessons are very plain, but I think I like that. So far, our "school" consists of prayer for the lesson, memory verse, counting to 30, and the lesson. All of this is usually done in about 10 minutes, which is just about all Nathan can handle. :-) It's funny how he can sit an hour or so at a time to hear a good book, but getting him to ten minutes of school requires at least one "we're almost done, and we're going to finish." I go back and forth on what I think, but for now I think it's good to train him to do something a bit uncomfortable as long as it's short.
I've been battling a sore throat this whole week, and last night my ear started aching. Ugh. So I've been trying to deal with that without going to the doctor. However, if it's still hurting tomorrow I'm going to go in just to make sure I know what it is. I just want a nice weekend! I started taking olive leaf extract today per my MIL's instructions, and I also started putting ear drops in my ears. The ear drops seemed to help quite a bit today. It's amazing how a dull aching pain can really throw one's day off. Anyway.
I'm desperately trying to go through my freezers and make a master list of the things I have in them. I am very thankful for my chest freezer in my laundry room; but if I were to give my opinion to anyone, chest freezers are very hard to dig through, especially when one is short.
Noelle has been drinking about 4 ounces of goat milk a day for the last few days. After being exhausted then getting sick, I think my milk supply was really off in the evenings, which was causing Noelle to wake up more at night. I started giving her some milk in a sippy cup at supper (nursing her again before bed), and she's been sleeping at night! Yay! Sleep for her means sleep for me, which means more milk, too! ha I'm very happy that she's been taking the milk, though, because when I first bought the milk she didn't seem interested at all.
One more random fact for the night: Noelle got three mosquito bites on her back yesterday in the 20 or so minutes we were outside. I found them as I was bringing her inside, and I immediately went to the internet to see what natural remedies there were. I opted to cut a garlic clove in half and rub it on the bites. An hour or so later, all that was left was little pinprick marks! I was impressed, so I thought I would pass on the info. ;-)
I've been battling a sore throat this whole week, and last night my ear started aching. Ugh. So I've been trying to deal with that without going to the doctor. However, if it's still hurting tomorrow I'm going to go in just to make sure I know what it is. I just want a nice weekend! I started taking olive leaf extract today per my MIL's instructions, and I also started putting ear drops in my ears. The ear drops seemed to help quite a bit today. It's amazing how a dull aching pain can really throw one's day off. Anyway.
I'm desperately trying to go through my freezers and make a master list of the things I have in them. I am very thankful for my chest freezer in my laundry room; but if I were to give my opinion to anyone, chest freezers are very hard to dig through, especially when one is short.
Noelle has been drinking about 4 ounces of goat milk a day for the last few days. After being exhausted then getting sick, I think my milk supply was really off in the evenings, which was causing Noelle to wake up more at night. I started giving her some milk in a sippy cup at supper (nursing her again before bed), and she's been sleeping at night! Yay! Sleep for her means sleep for me, which means more milk, too! ha I'm very happy that she's been taking the milk, though, because when I first bought the milk she didn't seem interested at all.
One more random fact for the night: Noelle got three mosquito bites on her back yesterday in the 20 or so minutes we were outside. I found them as I was bringing her inside, and I immediately went to the internet to see what natural remedies there were. I opted to cut a garlic clove in half and rub it on the bites. An hour or so later, all that was left was little pinprick marks! I was impressed, so I thought I would pass on the info. ;-)
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