This is both the easiest and most difficult task for next year.  Ger announced that he is wants to plan his curriculum and lessons for next year.  While I am very proud of the maturity he is showing, the mom in me is a bit anxious! You know, all that calculating credits thing. But he is a good kids who takes his education seriously.
He is definitely going to study the Middle Ages. I bought GreenLeaf Press’s Famous Men of the Middle Ages and Famous Men of the Renaissance to use as spines, but he will fill them out with library resources. I think Literature will be Robin Hood, The Black Arrow and the like, but he hasn’t enlightened me about that yet.   I think he is going to continue woodcarving (Grandpa’s teaching him), and Ancient Greek.  My husband is planning to begin teaching the boys computer programing and web design.  I AM sure he is doing Apologia’s Chemistry, Math-U-See’s Algebra 2 and Queen Homeschool’s Language Lessons for the High School Student.  Oh, and of course there are his bees.

Next week he is off at scout camp, but when he gets back we are going to have to sit down and finalize some things.  It’s the mom in me.

If you ever happen to come over to my house, please watch your step!  Our newest family member is probably going to be out and about.  He is a Russian Tortoise named Max and he is such a cutie!  Max came to us rather quickly, probably not the best way to get a new pet of any type. You see Mic had a painted turtle, Rex (also called Fred), that died suddenly from a respiratory infection and Mic was heartbroken.

My husband and I talked about it a bit and we decided to learn more about keeping tortoises, which we had been told were actually easier to care for than aquatic turtles.  I don’t know about that, but he is a lot cuter and has more personality than the painted turtle did.  The initial set-up cost far less than I expected, not that Max spends any time in his pen (a large rabbit cage) unless he is asleep.  Most of his days are spent wandering through the first floor of our house or out in the backyard under close supervision.  Contrary to what cartoons say tortoises are actually quite fast!  That may be due to his size at the moment, but I doubt it.  He should eventually get between 8 and 10 inches across his shell, he is about half that at the moment.  And he is expected to live at least 50 years (though I’ve read estimates as high as 100), the vet thinks he is about 9 months old now.

Like I said, he is rarely in his pen.  He seems to prefer to be with people, at least he follows us into whatever room we are in.  He also loves to go outside, and Mic takes him out as the weather allows.  But it has been cool and rainy recently, so Max has had to be satisfied with wandering around the house.  It actually reminds me of the days when we had a crawling baby, we need to remember to shut the door to the basement and every once in awhile we look up and realize that we don’t know where Max is!  Unlike a crawling baby though, a 4 inch tortoise is difficult to find.  He can fit into small places (like behind the guitar stand) and if you are not looking carefully he blends in with things.  I decided to circle him in this picture rather than have you play “Find the Tortoise” and it is still not easy.

Next year Mic is starting 8th grade. He is my tinkerer, he loves to take things apart and invent things. This summer he is working on building his own go-kart from parts he has collected. He doesn’t have any plans, he is just figuring it out as he goes. He is my true kinesthetic learner! It has been difficult at times, we have especially struggled with reading. He loves reading nonfiction, his first grade teacher told us that while most kids in the class would pick up Arthur books or other beginning chapter books, Mic went for nonfiction. But that made it was difficult for a few years because there is not a lot of nonfiction choices for mid to late elementary students and he didn’t care for the fiction choices. Fortunately, he did enjoy the Magic Tree House books, enough fact mixed with the story I guess. Then we discovered that he also liked classics, so as much as I don’t care for abridged versions of books, we bought him abridged versions of many classic books and that finally sparked a love of reading.

Mic asked to do Beautiful Feet’s Early American and World History program next year. He enjoyed their Ancient History program this year (middle school level), and like his younger brother wanted to do some American history next year. This program will also give him 1 history and 1/2 literature credit towards high school.

To finish his literature credit, I have many books on our shelves that he can choose from. He will also be using Queen Homeschool’s Language Lesson for the Secondary Child for basic English skills, and rounding out his Language Arts with copywork, and Spelling Power. Last year I picked up Writer’s Jungle to use for writing, but I never made the time to read it all the way through because the English curriculum we used this year included writing. So I didn’t use it this year. However I am not going with the same curriculum this year, it just wasn’t a good fit for my super-active son.  So I will be reading Writer’s Jungle this summer and using it for Mic’s writing next year.

Mic has decided that he wants to focus on science next year. He has chosen The Rainbow from Beginnings Publishing. It looks like an excellent program and it is VERY hands-on, exactly what he needs! He also requested to learn about robots. That took some searching, but I finally found (on clearance) a curriculum produced by OwiKit that uses several of their robot kits in a discovery sort of way to learn about robotics. I was leery about just setting him loose with the kits, which would have been a lot of fun, because I wanted to direct his attention to the principles of robotics (his chosen career field at the moment.) We will also be using a couple of literature guides from Queen Homeschool to do literature directed nature study in addition to our regular nature studies.

Let’s see what else… Mic is going to start Math-U-See’s Pre-Algebra for math and DH is going to teach the older boys computer programming and web development. I have NO idea what or how, maybe I’ll sit in on the classes and learn something too.

Ger turned 15 today.  My ‘baby’ is now an incredible young man.  I am very proud of him.   He is finishing his first year of high school and has done very well.  He is a big help around the house, he loves to till the garden for me.  He has been helping my DH this year with the cub scout pack and he is really good with the younger boys.  And he DOES smile, just not when his little brother takes a picture of him as soon as he gets out of bed!

Good morning everyone! I am finally caught up on my laundry!!! I got behind a few weeks ago, when I had a couple of funeral receptions, and I’ve been playing catch-up ever since. Yesterday I had finally had enough and made a concerted effort to get everything washed and put away. Now, I didn’t have mountains of laundry, I’ve just been a load or 2 behind and doing some laundry nearly everyday. Unfortunately if I start a load of laundry on a day that I don’t normally do it, I tend to forget about it. So I end up with wet stinky clothes in the washing machine the next day. Blech! Now I have to get the rest of the house done. The boys are pretty good about doing their chores, but they don’t pick up the end tables, or sweep behind the furniture etc.

I also made 4 loaves of bread yesterday and baked a pan of brownies. It was a cool day so I thought I’d get some bread made up for the freezer before the weather heats up (not that it is supposed to for the next few weeks at least.) Besides it warmed the kitchen up a bit. Last night was Ed’s last cub scout meeting until school starts again and they were having a small party, so I baked a pan of brownies and sent them in. I need to clean my freezer up a bit and then I’ll bake some cookies and muffins to put in there for the coming summer months.

I still need to make my to do list for today. Let’s see:
Febreeze the dog’s bed
turn in room request forms for next year’s scout meetings
grocery store to pick up milk (we are out again… teenaged boys and their milk!)
fold the dish towels I soaked overnight
get to Gander Mountain and pick up Ger’s birthday present
start getting the house cleaned up for this weekend’s birthday party
bake breadsticks for dinner
take my online class
make sure Ger remembers HIS class
pick up my nieces

I’m sure there are others, but that’s it for now. Have a great day!

Ed is going to be in 3^rd grade, well age wise he is anyhow. He is about half a year ahead in his math books and his readers at this point, so I’m guessing that by the end of next year he will have finished fourth grade readers and math. Really surprising considering he was nearly 7 before he showed any interest in reading at all. I am going to move him into more of a Charlotte Mason type of method, but still keeping my eclectic bent. We are going to stick with Math-U-See, Pathway readers, and Climbing to Good English. These are working very well and have short, to the point lessons.

For history I am going to do something a little different. This year we used Story of the World Volume 1, which I love and used with the older boys. But Ed wanted to do some American History, he LOVES the book Farmer Boy and wanted to learn more about our country’s early history. So instead of continuing with Story of the World Vol. 2 (Middle Ages), we will be using a combination approach. I am primarily planning to use biographies and literature. We have read one of the D’Auliare biographies and enjoyed it very much and I have several biographies from a series that I was given by a librarian when my elementary school closed in 1980. I had assumed that they were out of print, but I was delighted to find that I was wrong. I loved biographies as a child and I am looking forward to sharing some good ones with my son. I am also using some wonderful books that while they are fiction give an accurate picture of life during the time period. Books like the Little House series, Ben and Me (a household favorite) and Mr. Revere and I. And since Ed is an 8 year old little boy, we simply MUST have a hands-on component to his studies. For this my favorite series is the American Kids in History series, they provide great hands-on projects, games and recipes for various time periods in our history. We will be using Colonial Days, Revolutionary War Days and Pioneer Days, I also bought Wild West Days in case we get that far, but I don’t think we will.

Ed asked for a change in science. Having a science background, I just sort of “wing it” for science in the early years, but he wants a science book like his brothers. So we are going to do some fairly intensive nature studies using a variety of resources including The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, several books and study guide published by Queens Homeschool, and the Christian Liberty Press nature readers. We also have memberships to the local zoo and aquarium (which has a really cool tide pool exhibit.) To supplement our nature study, we are using Real Science 4 Kids Pre-Level 1 Chemistry. I really like the looks of this program, it seems solid, yet uncomplicated, and I think it will give Ed the “book experience” he is looking for. It also has a nice hands-on component. And fits my biggest requirement for science activity books, it tells WHY the cool reaction occurs.

To round out his language arts studies, we are going to be trying several products from Queen Homeschool, specifically Language Lessons for the Very Young, Learning to Spell through Copywork, and Pictures in Cursive. I have heard wonderful things about the products produced by Queen Homeschool, but have never used any myself. I do like the looks of them though, well on the outside they seem a little light but they look rich in content. And of course we will continue our use of great literature for read-alouds, but we tend to choose those titles based on our moods and what the library has available.

A recipe for a wonderful family favorite, in fact my husband requested that I put it on the regular rotation.  He has NEVER asked for that in the 18 years we have been married!  If you shop at Aldi, you can get all the ingredients there except for the sesame seeds.  I buy my sesame seeds in bulk at BJ’s, but you can also just omit them.  Please don’t feel like you have to pay the outrageous prices in the supermarket spice section!

Monte Cristo Sandwich Loaf

Makes 2 loaves
2 cans  refrigerated crescent dinner rolls, 8 ounce cans 
2 tablespoons  butter, melted
4 tablespoons  honey, divided
6 ounces  thinly sliced turkey breast
6 ounces  muenster cheese, sliced
6 ounces  thinly sliced ham
1/3 cup  raspberry preserves (for Aldi shoppers, substitute raspberry mango jam or strawberry jam)
1  tablespoon  sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Separate dough into 8 rectangles. Place rectangles crosswise on 1 large or 2 small ungreased cookie sheets (rectangles should not touch); firmly press perforations to seal. Combine melted butter and 2T honey; mix well. Brush over dough.

Bake rectangles at 375 for 8 to 12 minutes, or until light golden brown; cool 15 minutes. Grease a 15 x 10 x 1 inch jelly roll pan. Carefully place 1 crust on pan. Top evenly with turkey. Place second crust over turkey; top with cheese and ham. Place third crust over ham; spread evenly with preserves. Top with fourth crust; brush top with 2 tablespoons honey. Sprinkle honey with sesame seed.  Repeat for remaining crusts.

Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown and loaf is hot. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 6-8 slices.   I like to serve with a green salad and potato chips.

Are you a book person? My husband and I are! I suspect that many homeschooling families have at least one person who is. And when book people homeschool, storage becomes a problem. A big one!

Now I know some homeschooling families rely on the library for most of the books they use, we also make very good use of our library! But I like to have our core books in the house with no due dates or request lists. I know others sell their books online as soon as the year is over. I just can’t seem to do that! I would much rather donate the books we no longer need to a family that could use them. Of course with one child in 9th grade, one in 7th grade and my youngest in 2nd grade, that means I need to store some books for a number of years.

So what to do? Well I started keeping the books I wanted to save in a file cabinet, then a book shelf which rapidly became 3 and that was before the end of our second year of homeschooling! We are now finishing our 6th year and I have come with a much better system. I use a clear plastic blanket box for each subject (I started out with just 2 boxes, but it is now 1 per subject) that I store in our attic crawl space. The clear boxes are more expensive than the plastic totes, but they are much easier to know what is in them especially if I can’t remember if I called a particular book English or History. If you use Homeschool Tracker you can keep a list of your books and where they are located, right in the program. That way you won’t end up with 3 copies of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (don’t ask ) and you will know where to find the copy you have.

Now that you have an idea for dealing with school books you are finished with, what do you do with the books you are still using? As soon as all the books have arrived for the next school year I sort them into piles, 1 for each of the boys and 1 for common books. The piles for the boys will be put into their “School Crate” and the common books are placed on the book shelf. The “crate” did in fact begin as plastic milk crates, but last year we have purchased a 15 gallon tote for each boy to put their books and general school supplies in. The milk crates worked well, but looked messy with loose papers everywhere. So we decided to try totes since they have lids, MUCH BETTER!! We like to use the individual crates since we occasionally school on the road, my husband’s job requires that he sometimes travel and we like to go with him. Now all we have to do is pack the crates and we are ready to go! I also have a small file box that I put all of my things in. We prefer the Rubbermaid brand because the plastic is more flexible and doesn’t break as easily.

The biggest difficulty is this time of the year, when we are still using THIS year’s books, but I also have NEXT year’s books here. My system is to just leave the books in their shipping boxes, put them in my family room and work around them until the year is over. Not the best solution. Any ideas?

Here is a recipe I found in my Grandmother’s cook book.  I don’t remember her making them, but I very clearly remember her sister making them for family gatherings.  I made them for my children today and they were a hit.

Congo Bars

1 lb. Brown Sugar (2 1/4 cups)

gooey and yummy

3/4 cups shortening
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pkg. chocolate chips (she didn’t specify size, I used 12 oz.)
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Cream first 3 ingredients, add rest and mix well.  Spread on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until brown.

They will get a nice even brown when they are done.  I took them out when the edges were browned well and the middle was slightly brown, but they were clearly not done yet.  So I put them back in the oven for a few minutes and when I took them out they were perfect.

I seem to remember coconut in or on them, but that may have just been something my aunt did or I may be confused (wouldn’t  be the first time!)  I also think I may try them substituting some peanut butter for some of the shortening.

We have a tradition in our house.  Every Sunday is Pizza night.  The boys love it but Mac and I get a bit tired of pizza after a few weeks in a row.  So in order to mix things up a bit, I am on the search for different pizzas.  This week it will be pizza on the grill.  I got the idea after having grilled pizza at a local restaurant a few years ago and it has become a summertime family favorite. I have had a number of people surprised that pizza can be made on the grill, so I thought I’d share my method.

Start by making normal pizza dough, I’ll share my recipe below, and letting it rise. While the dough is rising, preheat the grill on high and then turn it down to medium when the crust goes on. After the dough rises,  divide the dough into balls and flatten them for individual pizzas.  My dough recipe will give me 16-20 balls of dough, so I freeze what we are not using.  Then next time I just pull out the dough balls and let them defrost and rise.  Once the dough is the thickness you want, it’s time to grill.  Put the crust directly on the grill and cook with the cover closed for about 5 minutes.  Next take the dough off the grill, flip it over so the cooked side is up and top according to your tastes.  Return the crust to the grill and cook for 5-10 minutes more, until the cheese is melted and the crust is as crispy as you like.

This is the pizza crust recipe I have used for years.  This will make 2 to 3 crusts depending on the size of your pans.  Using my restaurant sized cookie sheets this will make 1 pizza.

Basic Pizza Crust

3 cups warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons yeast

¼ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

8 -9 cups of flour

Dissolve yeast and sugar in the water. Add oil and 3 cups of flour and mix well. Let sit until bubbly, about 10 minutes. Add salt and remaining flour. If you don’t have a heavy-duty mixer, mix in as much of the flour as you can then turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in the rest. Knead the dough for several minutes then place it into an oiled bowl and let it rise. If you DO have a heavy-duty mixer put everything into the bowl and mix until the dough cleans the side of the bowl. Allow mixer to knead dough about 4 minutes and place dough into an oiled bowl to rise. If you are in a hurry (like I usually am) just let the dough rest 10 minutes, if you have more time let it rise the usual hour. Spread dough into a greased pan, top and bake for 30 minutes. I know some recipes tell you to pre-bake the crust before you put on the toppings, but I only do that if I am grilling it.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted! Things here have been pretty routine though. It’s nice when life moves along without any major surprises.

I am trying to grow tomatoes from seeds for the first time. I have tried to start some of my plants indoors before, but they never do too well. This year my seed order included a sample packet of tomato seeds, so I though I would try again. I bought a plant grow bulb, planted the seeds and set everything up. About 75% of my seeds sprouted, but I had the bulb too close to the seedlings and ended up drying most of them out… OK, I cooked them. I did have about 4 that survived and were doing quite well so I thought I would start to harden them off. I took them outside and set them in a nice sunny location and… forgot to bring them in that night. Everything probably would have been fine if it hadn’t gotten so windy overnight. Now I think I am down to 1 poor little seedling, but there is another that may survive.

Next year I’ll go for the fluorescent lights and write myself a BIG note whenever I take the plants outside. Think that will help? Nah, I don’t either. But you never know!

Hmmm…  I wrote this post back in February and for some reason it never posted.  The boys had a good time on their trip though.  Anyway, here is the original post…

My boys are leaving today for a snowshoeing trip with their scout troop and I made this to send with them.  Hudson Bay Bread, while probably very yummy (I have never actually tasted it myself… I always send it all with the boys) is NOT just a light snack.  The scouts take it with them frequently when they are going to be active out in cold weather for extended periods of time (active teen aged boys, trying to stay warm)

There are many recipes out there for Hudson Bay Bread, and this is just my version.  I am sharing for all the moms of scouts, or moms who cook for kids who are engaged in long, active outdoor activities.  I will say that I know this one can be made in a home kitchen and turns out well baked in a regular home oven.  The only caveat:  I have a heavy-duty Kitchen Aid mixer and a couple of restaurant sized cookie sheets.  If you are making this by hand I’d suggest cutting the recipe in half.   One final note, if you choose to make this just for a snack be advised that each bar has over 400 calories!

Hudson Bay Bread

1 ½ pounds butter
4 cups sugar
2/3 cup corn syrup
2/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (the traditional recipe calls for maple extract, but I’ve found most kids prefer vanilla)
1 ½ cups chopped nuts
19 cups quick cooking oats (you can grind these into flour if you want, but it turns out fine if you don’t)

Cream the first 5 ingredients together. While mixing add nuts and oats. Spread in a 18×26 cookie sheet (or 2 smaller ones), press down well. Bake at 325 for 15-18 minutes, pressing the bread down again after about 10 minutes. After the bread is done, press down again to prevent crumbling. Cut while still warm. Makes 40 bars.

This weekend my husband updated the software that runs my blog. It looks like everything is working the way it should, though I must admit the new administration page is VERY different from the one I am used to. It will take some getting used to. If you find anything that doesn’t work as it should, please leave me a comment so I can try to fix it.

How do you schedule your school year?  Do you follow the public school calendar?  Do you school year round?  Or a bit of a blend?  To some extent it may depend on whether or not you children have ever been in a traditional school setting.  A child who has learned that summer means no school may not want to school year round.  Do you even get input from your children when scheduling? Every homeschool family has their own way of scheduling their school year and we are no different.  Actually, maybe we are since each of my boys follows their own schedule.  Really, it’s not as confusing as it sounds.  We all know that each child is different and that includes the way they like to pattern their days/years.

Ger (9th grade) likes to be “done”‘ by Memorial Day so he doesn’t take any breaks during the year except maybe Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  He is a self-motivated learner so it works out for both of us.  I’m sure you noticed that I put the word done in quotes, that is because he will continue 1 or 2 subjects into the summer.  This year he will have one book left from his history program and he is a bit behind in his literature program so he will finish this years literature program and then begin next year’s right away.

Mic (7th grade) doesn’t decide so much on the length of his year, he decides on the length of his days.  His school year then is a bit longer, usually until the end of June, because he doesn’t accomplish as much in any given day.  But once he is done, he is DONE.  He much prefers to have his summers completely free of book work.  But he is my “tinkerer”, he will spend the summer taking things apart and trying to fix them.  If he can’t fix them he will save parts for his inventing.  Now, if I could just get him to throw away the parts he is not going to use…  He is also working on building a robot from scratch.  Can you tell that book work is complete torture for him?  I have tried to make his school as hands on as possible and where I can not be hands on I use living books.  He loves the Genevive Foster books for history.  He also loves true stories, this is the child who was upset when he found out Robinson Caruso was mostly fiction!  So we try to use biographies as much as possible too.

Ed (2nd grade) has never been to a traditional school so he doesn’t care much about grade levels and schedules.  He likes to follow Mic’s schedule for the most part and say he is done at the end of May, but he will continue much of his work into the summer.  This year he wants to continue with math all summer and he will do some reading and science as well.

So we are getting close to wrapping up with the books for the summer.  Then we learn from God’s creation.  We will be learning about gardening, woodland plants and animals, weather etc.  Even if the books are put away the learning never stops and THAT is about the most important lesson I can teach all year.

I am finally getting ready to say spring has arrived here in western NY.  This morning when I changed my sheets I took off the flannel and put on the linen.  I left the winter blanket on though.  One of the things on my to-do list today is to plant my tomato seeds.  I have never had any luck starting things from seeds, but this packet was a freebie when I ordered my seeds so I thought I’d give it another try.

This weekend I need to get out and pick up some new line for my clothes poles, I think I could use some new clothespins too.  I enjoy hanging my laundry outside when the weather is nice, but we had a tree branch come down on the lines during a storm and snap them all.  I bought some sweet pea seeds to plant around the poles which will make it extra nice to be out there.

Today is a beautiful sunny day here and the temperature is supposed to be in the 60s.  It is most definitely time to open some windows and freshen the air in here.  I know we all could use it.

I know both of my readers have been wondering where I have been.  In fact, I gave up my computer “play time” for my Lenten discipline.  But now I’m back and ready to post again.

We have had a wonderful end of winter.  I’m not sure I’m willing to call it spring just yet, we had snow a few days last week.  But it is beautiful today.  I am fighting the urge to get outside and clean out my flower beds.  We are not past our last frost date yet, in fact we are still about 5 weeks before our last frost date!  So if I clean out the leaves that accumulated there in the fall I will risk exposing some of my more tender perennials to frost.  The snow killed the flower buds on my daffodils, that’s enough for one year.  I do have some seeds to start next week though, so I will be able to tame the gardening urge for a bit.

I don’t know if any of you have seen the Kids Bowl Free web site.  All you need to do is to pick a bowling center in your area and fill out a short form.  Then they will e-mail you a coupon each week that allows your kids 2 free games each day all summer.  Each center has different times, so be sure to read the side bar.  For example the one closest to us limited the hours to 4pm-9pm, but another one a bit farther away had no restrictions on the hours.  We signed the kids up, and bought the family pass.  It sounds like a really good deal and a perfect thing to have for those rainy days when the kids need something active to do.  The only “catch” I see is that the passes are only good at the lanes you sign up for, so if you are vacationing somewhere you would need passes there too if you wanted to bowl.

I purchased our books for next year and they are dribbling in.  I know most people don’t order until well into the summer, but I like to order early.  We generally use our tax return to buy the books so I order before something else comes up.  I also like to order before the price increases some companies have in June, when their new catalogues come out.  I get my orders faster when I order early and I have fewer problems with back-orders than I have had when I ordered later.  Besides, in years where I put together my own curriculum I need the whole summer to plan my lessons.  I have to work through everything and get it down on paper so I can see it working, and to make sure I didn’t forget anything.  I’ll do a post as soon as everything is all here and I have had a chance to look over the books, kits, supplies etc.  I made some changes for next year, some the boys requested, some were to correct problems, and some I just felt led to make.  I tend to have “issues” with being flexible in my thinking and tend to stick with something once I start it.  That’s great if what I’m doing is working, but when it’s not working…  Well I have been getting better, at least I can say I know I gave it time!

Lent is upon us.  I typically plan simpler meals during Lent, adding in more meatless meals and cutting back the amount of meat in the meals that still have it.

Sunday
Breakfast: blueberry coffee cake
Lunch: sandwiches
Dinner: Pizza

Monday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Tuna Melts
Dinner: Baked Ziti, salad

Tuesday
Breakfast: Biscuits and Jelly
Lunch: Tomato Soup
Dinner: BBQ Chicken, corn, salad

Wednesday
Breakfast: Banana Muffins
Lunch: Biscuits and Gravy
Dinner: Tuna Casserole

Thursday
Breakfast: Breakfast Casserole
Lunch: Tacos
Dinner: Turkey Black Bean Chili, Cornbread

Friday
Breakfast: Oatmeal/ Cream of Wheat
Lunch: Leftover Chili
Dinner: Black Bean Nachos

Saturday
Breakfast: Granola
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Waffles and Sausage

This is about the time of year when I start getting anxious for spring.  Winters here begin about the first of November and end in the middle April, no matter what the calendar says.  But that doesn’t stop the mailman from bringing all those garden catalogues that tempt me to sit down and imagine that spring is already here.

This year I would really like to redo most of the house gardens, I have some ground cover that has taken over the sunny spots.  So much so that no amount of weeding makes the garden look like I have done anything.  Obviously the ground cover must come out, as will much of the columbine and violet.  I also think I will split the irises again, they are getting too big.  I really need to wait until the snow melts though before I make any definite plans.

I also have to rethink my herb garden.  It is located right next to a big hay field and I must work to stay on top of it, or the weeds take over.  I am suspicious that someone may also be shooting the grass clippings into it, but I’m not naming anyone.  The sage and rosemary are thriving, but that is about it.  I also plant dill for pickles and to dry.  This year I need to buy a few more plants to put in it (I’d love to try to plant a ginger root!) and maybe some mulch this year to make the weeding thing easier.

Then there is the vegetable garden.  I never know what to do.  Ideally I’d like to be able to plant most all the vegetables we would need for the winter, but that means a lot of processing time in the fall.  But some years I end up so busy in the fall that the food never really gets done.  In addition to that, I never seem to have any luck in starting things from seeds unless I can directly sow them in the ground.  So I end buying plants for tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and anything else that won’t grow in our short summers.

So I have some decisions to make someday soon, or else I won’t get anything in the ground.

Monday’s are pancake breakfast days here most of the time.  This Monday however my oldest two boys were not home from a snowshoeing trip so I decided to just use up the open pack of bagels I had.  My husband likes bagels, but he seems to only get 1 before the boys finish them off.  I made the pancakes for breakfast today and I realized why MONDAYS are pancake mornings!  You see, my husband has a weekly lunch meeting on Monday.  So I don’t need to pack his lunch on Mondays, giving me one less thing to think about in the morning.  That is important on pancake days because I have to make 2 different recipes, a regular one for most of the family and a dairy free one for Ed.  Today I got the pancakes right, I remembered my husband’s lunch, but I forgot the coffee!!!  I never forget the coffee!  But I did today.

So I decided to make tea instead.  That means heating the tea kettle, which means it will soon be time for Ed’s job.  Ever since he was very small (maybe 4 or so) Ed has made it his responsibility to turn off the tea kettle.  I don’t know why.  He will come charging in to the kitchen from where ever he is in the house just to turn off the kettle.  He usually just slides up to the stove (in his socks), turns off the burner and runs off again to resume what ever activity the whistle interrupted.  Occasionally I (GASP!) turn off the kettle myself!  In the past, I had to turn the kettle back on so that he could turn it off.  Now though, he just grumbles at me.  This is definitely one thing I am going to miss when he grow up.

Cabbage Patch Stew

½ to 1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup celery, diced
2 cups cabbage, chopped
2 cups water
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 ounces, undrained)
2 cups navy beans, cooked (could substitute 1 can of your favorite beans)
a few tablespoons of oil

Brown the ground beef in a skillet, transfer to a soup pot. Add oil to the skillet and cook the vegetables until the onions are translucent and the cabbage is wilted. Transfer vegetables to soup pot. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 30 minutes. (Adapted from The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook)