:: Adventures In Daily Living ::

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

2012-01-17T11:41:00.000-08:00

Combine:

3 cups rolled oats
1 C shredded unsweetened coconut
2 2/3 C flour
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
2 C light brown sugar

Melt in saucepan:

1 C unsalted butter
1/2 C maple syrup
2 T corn syrup

Combine, then add to maple syrup mixture:

2 t baking soda
1/4 C boiling water

Add

1 t maple or vanilla extract

Then add:

the dry mixture
2 C chopped toasted pecans

Roll into balls. Flatten slightly.

18-20 minutes at 350

from relishmag.com

Nutmeg's First Grooming

2012-01-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

Here is Nutmeg before her first grooming. This was an indoor shot.

And here she is after. She is super-fluffed due to the blow-drying, but it has settled down into ringlets. This was her professional grooming right before Christmas.

A couple of weeks later, I redid everything -- it was way easier than I thought. I recommend, if you are new to dog grooming, to get it done the first time by someone who has a clue, and then start doing touch-ups right away, while you can still see the lines of the first trimmings.

New Year's Resolution

2011-12-31T14:29:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to me on keeping my toughest resolution ever. On this day in 1993 I smoked my last cigarette. Yeah me!

Last year's resolutions were:
1. Stay out of the hospital. -- Mostly successful. I did enter the building, but only as a worried daughter, not as a patient.
2. Wear fragrance and nail polish more often. -- Yup. I've been sparkly and scented all year long.
3. Make and adhere to weekly menu plans. -- Yup. I use Google's calendar to keep organized.
4. Go for more walks. -- FAIL.
5. Go to the gym 1-2 times a week. -- FAIL.
6. De-clutter the house, basement, and barn. -- FAIL.
7. Buy myself a miniature Australian Labradoodle. -- Resounding Success. Oh my goodness, what a good decision that was. Expensive, yes, but much cheaper than therapy and way more effective and fun.

This year's resolutions:
1. Be a kinder, more patient, more fun Mom. Pray for me on this one please.
2. Get the kids up at 7:00 on schooldays in order to get the mandatory work done before we leave the house. Somehow we got involved in lots of midday activities and none of us are any good in the classroom after 3:00.
3. Go for a walk or ride my exercise bike 4 times a week.
4. Go the gym twice week.
5. Grow and preserve more food.
6. Learn to trim Nutmeg's nails, keep the mats out, and do all the other grooming tasks.

management fees

2011-12-01T10:07:00.001-08:00

Once I ask my children to do something I may (or may not) give one free reminder, but after that I charge management fees for my reminder services. Management fees are payable in small acts of service (fetch things for me, make my bed, etc.), nothing too dire, but enough to make them wish they had just done whatever it was in the first place.

If nothing else, it gets my bed made on most days.

How to fix your Honda Odyssey power doors that stopped working after a freeze

2011-11-15T16:15:00.001-08:00

From the fuse box near the driver's left knee, pull out fuse 13.
From the fuse box under the hood, pull out the fuses labeled "Sliding doors" and "Back-up AC".
Start Car.
Turn off Car.
Replace Fuses.
Start Car.
Turn off Car.
Try doors.

There are other simpler fixes to be found on the internet, but they didn't work for my car, a 1999 Honda Odyssey. This did.

The Raven

2011-10-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

October seems like the perfect month for Poe's The Raven:

Classic Poetry Aloud offers an elegant reading of this classic creepy poem.
StoryNory offers a perkier version.
and you can hear the Allen Parsons Project version as the soundtrack to this whimsical home-movie interpretation of the poem:

pics

2011-10-23T20:59:00.001-07:00

God’s World

2011-10-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

God’s World

O World,
I cannot hold thee close enough
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise.
Thy wood, this autumn day, that ache and sag.
And all but cry with colour!
That gaunt crag To crush!
To lift the lean of that black bluff.
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough.

Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this:
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart –
Lord I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me – let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

October

2011-10-19T13:54:00.001-07:00

October

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost –
For the grape’s sake along the wall.

-- Robert Frost

The Daily Listen

2011-10-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned this before -- using iPod playlists for instruction -- in my post about Breakfast Devotions. Since then I have expanded it to include:

Memorization Work:

The BSF memory verse for the week set to music or merely read aloud, if we can find it in iTunes.
The poems that we are memorizing from Andrew Pudewa's Linguistic Development Through Poetry.
Our vocabulary words for the week from Wordly Wise.
The current unit's chapters of Prima Latina.
The books of the Bible.

Read-Alouds

Any Old Testament chapters from The Message that are part of our study for Ancient History from the guide that Beautiful Feet puts out.
The chapters from The Message that our BSF study is covering this week.

This plays during the time of the day that we are doing chores, moving about the house. While we are doing schoolwork, we listen to an all Classical playlist.

Later this year we will study Classical Composers, so their works will be added one at a time to the list, so that we can start to distinguish them from one another.

Wordly Wise

2011-10-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

We have just started with this Vocabulary Building curriculum and I rather like it. I download the audio presentation from the Wordly Wise website and add it to our iTunes "Daily Listen" playlist, which I will tell you about in an other post. After a couple of days of listening, we tackle the worksheets. The children get most of the answers right and feel all clever and "Good at English". The webiste also includes fun review games which are a nice carrot for children who complete their lessons promptly.

Besides, what's not to love about a curriculum that includes this sentence: "Only the Congress of the United States has the authority to declare war."

P.S. Just found the Wordly Wise Word Lists here, so if you wanted to you could just work with the word lists and the audio and the games.

Stuffed Pumpkin

2011-10-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Oh how we loved it. It reminded us a bit of a good cheese fondue, but more healthful. I based it on Dorie Greenspan's recipe.

Dice and cook:
3-4 strips of bacon

Cut the top off of, and hollow out:
1 large pumpkin, about 4-5 pounds

Combine, and then fill the pumpkin with it:
the bacon
1 loaf of white artisan bread cubed and dried out in the oven.
1/2 C pinenuts
6-8 cloves garlic,
minced 3/4 C cubed cheddar
3/4 C cubed Swiss
1/2 C homemade soft cheese that I had to make when the yogurt I was trying to make curdled
1/2 C cream cheese, diced
1 C half-and-half
1 T nutmeg salt and pepper

Bake on foil lined cookie pan for about 2 hours at 350. Serve with apple and tomato slices.

Dorie's instructions are much more detailed, so if you have questions, go see her post, linked above.

Pork Shoulder Roast

2011-09-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

Very easy, very yummy.

Puree together

1 T crushed garlic

1 T oregano

1 T cumin

1/4 t chipolte pepper

1 T salt

1 T wine or cider vinegar

as much olive oil as you need to make a paste

Rub the paste all over the pork roast.
Put in your baking pot

the roast

1/4 C water

Roast at 300 for about 3 hours.

Serve in taco shells with sourcream and salsa and a side-dish of black-eyed peas & spinach (reduce the liquid and leave the hamburger out of the soup).

Chocolate Applesauce Cake

2011-08-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

I apologize. All these posts and I've never shared the recipe for Chocolate Applesauce cake. My sister shared this with me when I was newly married; perhaps it is the secret to our years of happiness.

1 1/2 C Sugar
2 C flour
1/2 baking cocoa
1 t salt
2 t baking soda
2 C applesauce or apple pie filing
2 t vanilla extract
1 C vegetable oil
chopped nuts if you wish
350 degrees 30-40 minutes.

20 great reasons to home-school

2011-08-23T10:38:00.001-07:00

Pin It

Zucchini Pie

2011-08-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

Very yummy. Very easy.

Steam together:
1 large zucchini, peeled and quartered, or the equivalent in small zucchini
1 onion, quartered.

When soft, mash them up in the bottom of a pie plate. Cover with:
sprinkling of feta
sprinkling of herbs
6 eggs, blended together with a splash of milk

Top with:
1 sleeve of Saltine crackers smashed into
1/2 C melted butter.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Resolution Update

2011-08-03T15:50:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-07-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-31T12:34:00.001-07:00

I've started updating the other blog, btw.

Cookery

2011-07-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Easter Morning

2011-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Easter Morning
Edmund Spenser 1552?-1599

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,
And, having harrowed hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win;
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we, for whom thou didst die,
Being with thy dear blood clean washed from sin,
May live forever in felicity:
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again:
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought;
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

Easter Week by Charles Kingsley

2011-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Easter Week
by Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875)

See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices;
Fields and gardens hail the spring;
Shaughs and woodlands ring with voices,
While the wild birds build and sing.
You, to whom your Maker granted
Powers to those sweet birds unknown,
Use the craft by God implanted;
Use the reason not your own.
Here, while heaven and earth rejoices,
Each his Easter tribute bring-
Work of fingers, chant of voices,
Like the birds who build and sing.

listen to the poem here, thanks to Classic Poetry Aloud, one of my favorite podcasts