Beef, Taters, -n- Biscuits....Grass Fed Ground Beef Soup

I'm at it again, pirating recipes off the internet and doctoring them up, Robin Dracula-Style.....more expensive, more time-consuming, but better-tasting and better for you.


How this happened tonight is.... I became sucked into the moment all day, on another blog entry and various things with the house and kiddos. It was 4:30pm when I had my OH SHIT moment....I had nothing thawed for dinner, and no plan. Ground beef is easiest to thaw in a hurry. I actually cook it from frozen. I have cabbage I need to use and a plentiful supply of carrots. Hmmmm. Google: Ground beef, cabbage, carrots. Select recipe that I have all of the ingredients for. (You really have to work on your spice collection to be able to do this and do it well...) Wave the magic wand and make all of the ingredients from the original recipe natural and organic. 


1 pound of grass fed ground beef
1 cup of minced organic onion
1 box of Edward & Sons Organic Mashed Potatoes ~ Roasted Garlic Flavored (the original recipe calls for cubed potatoes, but as God as My Witness, I will never peel another potato again, as long as Edward & Sons Organic Mashed Potatoes are attainable...)
1 cup of minced organic carrots
1 cup of minced organic celery
1 cup of minced organic green cabbage
1 Can of Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1/4 to 1/2 cup uncooked organic white rice
1 organic bay leaf, crushed
1/2 teaspoon organic thyme
1/4 teaspoon organic basil
4 teaspoons of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
2 quarts of water
2 Edward & Sons Natural Not-Beef Bouillon Cubes

*Note: Minced in my house means nearly pureed by my mini-chopper. Kiddos eat good stuff when the texture is more appealing to them...in our case...pureed.

I minced enough organic yellow onion in my mini chopper to make a cup. I brown my grass fed beef in olive oil and drain it, put it back in the pan and add the onions, stirring over medium low heat for about five minutes to get the onion flavor going. Remove from heat and set aside.

Back to the mini-chopper: Enough organic carrots to make a cupped of minced (I use the mini-ready-to-eat carrots and remember to give the guinea pig four or five while I have the bag out), enough organic celery to make a cup of minced, enough organic cabbage to make a cup of minced. I put all of these minced-to-pureed veggies into one big mixing bowl. Then I add the can of organic tomatoes, the crushed organic bay leaf, the thyme, basil, salt, and pepper...(I also minced some cooked bacon I had leftover from brunchfast and threw it in) and stir it all up really well. Set aside.

In my tall soup pot, I prepare the 1/4 to 1/2 cup of organic rice according to the instructions on the bag of rice. When the rice is done, I prepare the organic mashed potatoes in with the rice but according to the instructions on the box of mashed potatoes. To the cooked rice and mashed potato mixture, I add the two quarts of water and the bouillon cubes. Stir, stir, stir over medium heat for about five minutes. Add the cooked grass fed beef and onions, the minced veggie & spices mixture, and stir, stir, stir. I let it all get happy together for about an hour over medium low heat, stirring frequently.

When your soup is halfway happy, pop a dish of Immaculate Baking Company All-Natural Buttermilk  Biscuits in the oven and they will be hot and ready to serve up with your all-the-way-happy soup.

The Wise Turtle Husband LOVED IT, had seconds, gave it FIVE STARS.
Boy 8 - FIVE STARS, had seconds, but picked tomatoes out. He is my most sensitive to texture kiddo. Note to self: puree tomatoes next time.
Boy 6 - FIVE STARS. Did not have seconds, but probably because he came through the kitchen had multiple "taste tests" in the hour that the soup was getting happy.

Much left over in the tall soup pot, so I am freezing several containers for lazy, no-cook nights.

Our Magical, Evergreen Acre of the Universe

"Regardless of your particular spiritual or religious background, for most of us it is undeniable common sense that somehow, in some way, everything is connected with everything else - that there is a powerful source in the Universe from which everything flows..." ~Author Unknown

We live in a neighborhood in the city, part of a large area now consisting of subdivisions and medical offices.... cleared out from what used to be hundreds of acres of farm land.

On this cold day in December, as I look out across our neighborhood from a front window of my home in the culdesac, I see lots and lots of pavement, bare trees, dead patches of grass, and neatly manicured shrubs. 

What a blessing to be able to look into my fenced back yard in the dead of winter, and all the way around see a wall of GREEN. Unidentified brush and a majority of the notorious, considered a nuisance to some, invasive Japanese Honeysuckle....

"Japanese honeysuckle is an evergreen to semi-evergreen vine that can be found either trailing or climbing to over 80 ft. (24 m) in length. Leaves are opposite, sessile, pubescent, oval and 1 to 2.5 in. (2.5-6.4 cm) long. Flowering occurs from April to July, when showy, fragrant, tubular, whitish-pink to yellow flowers develop in the axils of the leaves. Fruits develop in the fall and are small, shiny black berries. Japanese honeysuckle invades a variety of habitats including forest floors, canopies, roadsides, wetlands, and disturbed areas. Japanese honeysuckle can girdle small saplings by twining around them, and it can form dense mats in the canopies of trees, shading everything below. A native of eastern Asia, it was first introduced into North America in 1806 in Long Island, NY. Japanese honeysuckle has been planted widely throughout the United States as an ornamental, for erosion control, and for wildlife habitat."  http://www.invasive.org/browse/subinfo.cfm?sub=3039

The background for the evergreen brush, also all the way around: Tall, tall, TALL pines and cedars that we have no idea how tall in footage, but we intend to find out using trig. Being a house full of engineers and unschoolers, by golly, we WANT to find out and we WILL figure it out. ESTIMATION OF TREE HEIGHT: RIGHT TRIANGLE TRIGONOMETRY

My Evergreens, to me, are survival and hope, a reminder of beautiful things that have come, a promise of beautiful things to come, even through cold, harsh seasons in my life.

Although not really applicable to Evergreens and Winter, I do need to mention other seasonal "magic", things of significance to me.
I always believed that I would build on family land in my hometown, inherited from the paternal side of my family. Land I grew up on, lived, dreamed, played, loved, hated, laughed, and cried on. I held it sacred. I fed and entertained these dreams for years, completely consumed with the idea of it all, and convinced it would all make my life perfect and complete. Through a turn of events, those dreams were shattered....at the time very devastating, yet, now looking back, very perfect and necessary for me (Don't fight the God and Universe, for God and the Universe know exactly what comes next and I don't know shit). In hindsight, I see clearly the reasoning and it all makes perfect sense.
Falling in love with my husband and taking the leap to move into a house, in a neighborhood, in a city strange to me, was frightening yet extremely liberating for me.

Our Second Spring in our "new life", once our privacy fence was up and I felt safe to venture around the perimeter of the yard along the fence (and not be mauled by four pit bulls), which is like a mini nature trail since we did leave a large area of brush and natural habitat in the middle of the yard....

The first thing I discovered was Morning Glory! Wild Morning Glory...in the middle of a neighborhood in a city? My Granny, Ethel Jenkins, the most beautiful person ever I have known, loved Morning Glory. She had them in the front flower beds, and talked to me in my childhood, of her childhood, growing up with wild Morning Glory. This, to me, was confirmation of Granny's approval of my new life, and confirmation that she is here with us always in spirit. I love to walk along our Mini Nature Trail in the morn and see them open wide, then again at dusk to see them closing to take a rest. Every day is a new day. Rest your body and mind at night, and be ready to bloom beautiful the next day. Just like my Granny, the most beautiful bloom, blooms quietly, and only for those placed close enough to see, or for those who go out of their way to see, because they want to and choose to.

Later that summer, the boys came running to me with green "grapes"...Green Muscadine/Scuppernongs! I spent my childhood roaming the perimeter of the pasture on the tractor with Grandaddy, eating Muscadine straight off the vine. We have yet to determine exactly where the vines are, because we only find them on the ground. We are thinking the vines are high, wrapped in a tall, tall tree. We got a nice set of binoculars for Christmas AND Sam is quite the avid tree-climber, so we will find them. Hello Muscadines, your smell and taste bring back warm and tender memories of times past, and you are seemingly magically falling from the heavens into my backyard, to tell me that all is well and right and in perfect time in the Universe, and that blessings will continue to fall upon me as long as I am where You place me.

Last but not least, we have a pecan tree. Yes. In our little yard, in the middle of a neighborhood, in the middle of a city. How many NEWER homes come with an established pecan tree? Very few. My Grandparents yard, which I had always dreamed of inheriting, has three or four HUGE, OLD, producing pecan trees. I played under these trees, climbed these trees, and collected pecans my entire childhood. I remember admiring the woodpecker holes, but never being able to spot the woodpeckers doing their dirty work. Being forced to walk away from those pecan trees was huge to me emotionally, because I thought that I belonged there with those trees for the rest of my life. I have never been more wrong.  Our little tree produces, only enough for the squirrels, but who cares. It is HERE, for ME, I'm sure of it. "I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong..."  ~Rascal Flatts

Our backyard, in the middle of the city, is full of wildlife all year round. Squirrels have fun running for their lives from the dogs. Jack Rabbits here, Jack Rabbits there, Jack Rabbits every where. Snakes. Snails and Slugs. Clever Crows form teams and steal dog food. Owls hooting, but as of yet we have not been able to spot their hiding places. A variety of birds, and most notable, male and female cardinals. The Cardinal is the NC state bird, yet I never saw so many before, daily, as I have since I moved to South Carolina.

Rarely are things the way you think they will be, but always, things are as they should be.

Quick & Easy

Who hates peeling potatoes as much as I do? I even tried to delegate it to my eight year old son, and he is not thrilled with it either, even though he gets to handle the KNIFE. So...I was making potato soup to take to a potluck Holiday Party. We peeled a five pound bag of potatoes for the soup. I put too much almond milk and "potato stock" in the soup, making it too liquid. Yuck. I was basically screwed, as it was almost time to leave for the party. A couple of months ago, I purchased two boxes of instant potatoes at Ingles: Edward & Sons Quick & Easy Organic Mashed Potatoes. Ingredients: Organic Potato Flakes, Organic Palm Oil, Organic Onion Powder, Sea Salt, Organic Black Pepper. Not bad stuff, huh? Something hit me and I grabbed a box. "What will happen if I pour the packet in the soup?" It will make it thicker, or it will eff it up. If it effs it up, I will stop and get a wing platter from Wing King Cafe. okay, here goes. It made it just perfect! In fact, screw peeling potatoes or buying them and having them go soft before I use them. Please, please, please, Ingles, have these taters when I come back, and always stock them.

Here's how I do my potato soup, and I apologize for the sketchy ingredient quantities, because I play around with it every time I make it. I find the recipe online that has the most ingredients that sound yummy to me, use it as a base, and add to it and take away from it to suit our tastes.

First I get a Garrett County all natural uncured seasoned ham nugget from Earth Fare ($11). I cut off less than half for the potato soup, and with the remainder we make sandwiches or I may use it in some other dish. I cut the ham into little cubes, like the disgusting ones you might find on a salad bar, only these are delish.

I use my little chopper to chop an onion or two and a few cloves of garlic.

In a skillet, I pour some Garlic Gold Oil and cook the garlic & onion until it is soft, sprinkle in about a tablespoon of brown sugar and stir it all around until it liquifies, then I add the ham chunks and cook about five more minutes, stirring it all around in the pan. I add two or three tablespoons of organic unbleached flour and stir it all around for about five more minutes. Then I add almond milk a little at a time and stir until I get a nice, thick gravy. This time I put in too much almond milk, so I did have to add some corn starch to thicken it. I try not to do this.

I would make the Organic Mashed Potatoes (two boxes) separate in a tall soup pot, then stir in the mixture from the skillet. Season with sea salt, black pepper. Stir, taste, season. Stir, taste, season.


Right now I have the tastiest Salmon Stew EVER on the stove, AGAIN...thanks to this little box of instant taters. I made the soup with NO POTATOES, then remembered as I was seasoning and tasting that Mike said I should put potatoes in it the next time I made it. Yikes. We used all of the potatoes for the potato soup the other night...What to do??? Hey! I have one box of Instant Organic Mashed Potatoes left! Hell yeah!

Serves 12

3 Tbsp Olive Oil
12 cloves of garlic minced (I nearly puree mine so the kiddos will get their garlic)
2 or 3 onions, diced or minced (same as above)
3 cans of all natural salmon (boneless & skinless if you don't want to end up picking out 5 million microscopic bones like I did this time.)
7 1/2 cups of almond milk (or cow milk if you like)
3 bay leafs
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the onions and garlic in the olive oil, in a skillet, until translucent. Stir in the salmon, cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring.

In a tall soup pot, add the milk & bay leaf. Bring to a simmer but don't burn your milk! Add the mixture from the skillet. Add one box of the instant Organic Mashed Potatoes. Stir, Season, Taste, repeat...for about 20 minutes.


But WHY organic potatoes, you ask? Who cares???

Answer:

Potatoes are on the Dirty Dozen list...

"Not all of us can afford to go 100% organic every time we shop. The solution? Focus on those foods that come with the heaviest burden of pesticides, additives and hormones. According to the Environmental Working Group, consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by 80% by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating only the cleanest. If consumers get their USDA-recommended 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies from the 15 most contaminated, they could consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. Those who eat the 15 least contaminated conventionally grown produce ingest less than 2 pesticides daily.

EWG has been publishing guides to the "dirty dozen" of most pesticide contaminated foods since 1995, based on statistical analysis of testing conducted by the USDA and the FDA. The latest guide is now available. The dirty dozen list only reflects measurable pesticide residues on the parts of the foods normally consumed (i.e. after being washed and peeled). We have listed these 12 foods in the following pages, along with recommendations for foods other than fruits and vegetables that are best bought organic.

Can't find organic versions of these foods? We list safer alternatives that contain similar valuable vitamins and minerals. It's also important to remember that this dirty dozen list provides no information about antibiotics or hormones, or about the impact of producing food on the surrounding environment. It is for this reason that we point out some of the most important foods to buy organic, when taking a more holistic approach."

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods#ixzz18Jy1q9kJ

POTATOES:

"America's popular spud re-appears on the 2010 dirty dozen list, after a year hiatus. America's favorite vegetable can be laced with as many as 37 different pesticides."

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods#ixzz18JxVZN8U

Best Toy EVER!

Okay I have waited several days to forget about it, yet I still feel the need to address this, and I will apologize in advance that I have neither sugar to coat it in nor syrup to pour over the top......

I recently had a Facebook friend post pics of "Disturbing Toys." I can't seem to take my mind off of how small-minded some of us can be. We accept things as "the norm" because WHY? This toy was listed as a "Disturbing Toy", but not one pic portrayed a bottle-feeding baby doll, which, to me, is the MOST disturbing. We have indoctrinated our children for YEARS with bottle-feeding baby dolls, yet when a breastfeeding doll comes onto the scene, we are repulsed? Come on Mamas, your tits are for nourishing your babes, NOT formula in a bottle. I think this toy is amazing and desperately needed! If I had little girls, it would be under my tree this year. Hell, I may get it ANYWAY.



This is the FB caption:

"A girl wears a special halter top with flowers instead of nipples that cause the baby to make sucking sounds and move its mouth. The tagline for the toy reads, "Because you shouldn't have to wait until you have breasts before you start breastfeeding your baby." Umm...Well..yeah.. I think maybe you should. It is bad enough that they are selling dolls that pee and poop, but this takes it way beyond sanity!"


(^My reaction to the caption ~ GAG, PUKE, SCREAM) 


The flower "nipples" are representative of something BEAUTIFUL and NATURAL, you moron.

I will take this moment to be a real bitch. The person that posted this is ALWAYS sick and so are the kiddos....


 Umm....Well.....Yeah....


Be offended, and don't bother to comment to me on how you couldn't nurse because of this or that. I only nursed my daughter for six weeks, and only half-ass, because I was young, lazy, selfish, and stupid. At an older, wiser age, I nursed the boys for five years straight with impetigo, thrush, cracked, bleeding nipples, bleeding milk ducts, blocked milk ducts, mastitis, excruciating pain, giving up certain foods, meds, and drinks, no support from family, etc, etc, etc. By the time Josiah came along I had to "one-side" him. Go tell someone who loves to hear bullshit when you come up with your honorable, medical excuse for not nursing. Of course these cases exist, but not nearly as frequently as claimed.


Make your decision to give your child the bottle of formula, but don't condemn a toy that promotes the natural and best way to nourish a babe!

Get yours now, they have a boy, and a girl!!!! Now we need a toddler doll as well to promote tandem nursing! http://www.amazon.com/Berjuan-1502-Bebe-Gloton-Breastfeeding/dp/B002QIWRA0

A Victorian Christmas

This book was used in the Victorian Christmas Card Presentation

The boys and I attended a wonderful home school history program at the Gaston County Museum today: A Victorian Christmas. We rotated through several different well-prepared and captivating presentations covering everything about a Christmas in the Victorian Era including, decorating, stockings, gifts and toys, Christmas trees, tree ornaments, sleds and sleighs, and cooking.


Sam got our party started immediately at the first presentation by revealing our unchurching. It was some Victorian toys, under a little Victorian Christmas Tree....a really nice wooden Noah's Ark complete with the Two by Two's. He admired it, I could tell, and as Mr. Jeff talked, Sam sat as close to it as he could. Finally, Mr. Jeff called attention to the ark..."Who knows what this is?"...and Sam, excited and still enamored with the boat and the animals, is going to allow another kiddo to answer a question about HIS boat LIKE HELL...Sam eagerly raises his hand, almost standing he raised it so forcefully...Mr. Jeff calls on Sam....Sam exclaims, "It's...one of those...........um.......JESUS THINGYS!" Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I am standing in the Bible Belt, amongst a clan of Baptist home schoolers and their parents I'm sure, and Sam calls Noah's Ark A JESUS THINGY! You should have seeen the look on Mr. Jeff's face, but graciously he replies, "Well, yes, but what IS IT?"...and all of the good little Baptist school-at-homers sing in unison..."NOAH'S ARK!" Freaking hilarious! Love it!



The things we found most interesting (besides the Jesus Thingy):

 Postage was like a collect phone call. If you sent mail, the person you sent it to had to pay the postage. People wanted to send beautiful Christmas greetings, but they didn't want to burden the recipient with the costs. This eventually reversed postage costs to the sender. We made Victorian Christmas Cards at this presentation!

We loved the wax ornaments, the real gingerbread ornaments, and the peanuts-wrapped-in-colorful-paper-to-look-like-candy ornaments, real popcorn as garland, and real fruits on the tree. We were fascinated that they put REAL candles all over the tree, and stood around the glowing tree soaking it all in for fifteen minutes, because fifteen minutes was the max the candles could burn without burning the tree and probably the house down with it. We don't have our tree up yet, so I'm sure the boys aspire to put REAL things on our tree now that they are impressed with the Victorian way....we will NOT be doing the REAL candles, and Mom will be watching closely to assure that no one ATTEMPTS it. We made Victorian Cornucopia Candy Holder Ornaments! They boys have already put pecans and who knows what else in theirs.  

We have talked about this before from seeing pictures in books, but they had the REAL stockings (socks) hung on the fireplace, to be filled with small toys, nuts, and fruits. The socks were usually hung by the fire anyway, any day, to dry. The speaker emphasized just how big of a deal something such as an orange would have been at that time of year back then, due to being out of season and lack of transportation. Wow the things we take for granted today.

We loved going into the carriage house and seeing the sleighs and sleds! The Transport Sled was most interesting...the Victorian Era's eighteen wheeler, minus the sleazy truck driver!

Our last presentation had a beautiful Victorian Christmas table setting that included a Gingerbread House and our favorite, a Gum Drop Tree!

There was a snowy model of the little town of Dallas, NC. Josiah LOVES models.They also have some really cool models of a mill and a mill town in this museum.

 

Last but not least, the Stereoscope! Too cool...Read about it here:  http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/collections/toys/html/exhibit01.htm



One of those JESUS THINGYS....Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

Fa La La La La!

After surviving an all boys, party-like-rock-stars sleepover, at which the boys took the "sleep" out of "sleepover", we are now well-rested and back for more. They boys opened a Christmas gift (K'nex Coaster), and have been busy at work putting it together. They became excited when they saw just how looong the track is, so they have aborted mission on the standard construction and are stretching the track from the balcony to the downstairs and all over the place. From this roller coaster mania, we so far have one broken lamp that the husband can repair, I'm sure, for the SECOND TIME due to the boys knocking it over (The first time was right after we became engaged, it had been broken in my apartment since the boys knocked it over there. He bought the parts and even installed a little  one, two, three, brighter, no dimmer switch, to prove his manly "I'm going to take care of everything from here on out-ness" :) I am not upset over the lamp, but I am upset over the Christmas plate that the lamp knocked over. Nana got it for me for Christmas last year, and I really liked it :( I'm not mad, the boys were not being rough, they were being creative and just didn't do their engineering calculations properly ;)

So I am making party mix, and I AM NOT using the free packets of Chex Mix party mix seasoning that were FREE - TAKE ONE...If you took one, you are feeding your family carcinogens. You can make your OWN seasoning at home with a few simple ingredients, and avoid poisoning yourself, your family, and your friends. They shouldn't be ALLOWED to give that crap away, much less charge $$$ for it! So anyway, back to my GOOD FOR YOU Party Mix...I opted out of the entirely Gluten-Free version, because we want Cheerios and Pretzels in our Party. If I take any to the Holiday Party tonight, many of my friends may not eat it, but that's just more for me to take home! My MIL makes an excellent home-made Party Mix, that my husband hides from us and will take a limb off if he catches any of US devouring it. She has yet to share her recipe with me. Nana is the one who pays attention to what everyone wants or loves, and makes sure they get it.

2 cups  Rice Chex
2 Cups Corn Chex
2 Cups Cheerios
1 Cup Peanuts
1 Cup Mini Pretzels broken into bits & pieces (I used Snyders)
^All of the Above: Put in a 9 x 13 casserole dish

Preheat oven to 250.

6 tablespoons of butter melted on the STOVE TOP(I use the microwave as little as possible because it messes with the molecules and who knows what that might do to a body!)
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire (I use Earth Fare Organic)
2 teaspoons of seasoning salt (I used Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt Original)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
^All of the above stirred up really well together, then pour it over the crunchies in the baking dish, toss and turn it until all of your crunchies are coated. Bake for one hour, stir every 15 minutes. My first batch is halfway done, and I am already munching on it every time I open the oven to stir. If there is any left when the timer goes off, I will serve it to the family and report back.

Okay I came home to only scraps left in the one party mix pan I left, so I am assuming that either the husband or the cats loved it very much. Sam seeded FOUR pomegranates today for the Holiday Party (he took a shot at peeling potatoes for the potato soup, but we decided he wasn't quite ready for that yet when I caught him taking short-cuts and cutting off chunks of potato with the skin ;), and Jen took all of the seeds home with her, because it was the only thing I brought gluten free. She did give me her tangerines AND her hummus, so I suppose we are squared up. Besides, we held back on the pom seeds and left some at home....muahahahahaha! The kiddos had a lot of fun at the Holiday Party, we received some nice baked gifts from friends, and we made some cool ornament crafts. We had a book exchange there, and Josiah scored some Natural Disaster books that he is really excited about.

 

 My teen daughter and I find it difficult to bond over many things, but one thing we DO gel on is MUSIC. We had a blast singing along to the tunes on her Ipod for the drive to the Holiday Party and the drive back. DANGEROUS! SCANDALOUS! <Only she will get this one.....roflol!

The boys and I finally read our Winter Solstice books last night, and they seemed a little bored until the first mention of evil spirits, trolls, and witches. We had our huge laminated world map in the bed with us looking up the locations of the different Solstice stories. The boys want to stick the toothpicks in the orange and use the flashlight to simulate axial tilt......

I am reading The World According To Garp by John Irving right now, as I wait on my Book Club friends to catch up with me on Hotel New Hampshire. Since I out-read them on this one, I am also going to out-drink them at the next Book Club meeting. I know. I aspire to do grand things!

December 9, 2010

Two days ago, a dear friend gave us a storage bin full of kiddo books from cleaning off her bookshelves. How did we get so lucky? An Unschooler with two boys = THE best books EVER! I didn't tell the boys, I just put the storage bin in the middle of the living room floor. They have hopped over it and played around it for two days now. Finally, today, Josiah is so "into" a book that I can't get him to hop off my bed so I can make it. I didn't recognize the book. I looked and the storage bin was open. Wow! Thank you Pam! Sam immediately discovered the UFO/Alien books and pulled them all out. (Sam has suddenly developed an intense interest in UFOs and aliens). Josiah loves the Magic School Bus books, especially the Waterworks. Anything with water, dams, tornadoes, storms, etc gets his undivided attention. Josiah and I also spent about an hour in the Usborne Puzzle Adventure book, in which we made a trip to Scandinavia, China, and Rome through time travel.


I am beginning to connect more with my local home school group. I met a person who I absolutely adore. She is a self-taught expert on herbs, and she had both of her babies at home! She has a wonderful personality, and she is so "real" and easy to talk to. We have a parade coming up in which we enter a float of our own for our group. It is a "farm equipment/animal only" parade, and I hear it is fantastic! I don't think we will get to ride on the float this time, but I am so excited to be able to experience such a parade!

Cassidy's Christmas Concert was amazing. Well, minus the troll that sat behind me. (Luckily, a REAL teacher eventually came and sat beside of me to take pics, and magically, the Troll Teacher Assistant behind me AND the rude teen with her shut the fock up for the remainder of the performances!) I have NEVER heard a high school chorus so developed. I am so proud of her to be part of such an amazing group, and I believe that Ms. Laney has been an important influence in Cassidy's life. Admission is two canned goods per person, all for Project Hope. I love watching the accompanist, and I envy how well and how easily she plays. I should have practiced when you tried to make me, Mama! lol Now that I am "playing" again, I can see that practice makes all of the difference. I will struggle with a piece until I have to just walk away from it. I will go back to the same piece the next day, and the part I struggled with before comes more easily to me. I also envy the interns. That should have been me. Life is music, and music is life. How easily what I loved so much was made unattractive to me through the distractions of high school. In 1990, NC State came to Hunter Huss to recruit people for their textile programs. Textiles started to disappear before we graduated from college!

The boys behaved so well during the concert, and on the front row, no less, that I let them stay up until almost midnight to munch on popcorn and watch A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey. It was scarey! Great effects, especially the evil horses! 

I received our Winter Solstice books today. I am really excited about this. (The above pics are saved images and not links, so don't try to "Look inside!") One actually has celebration activities in it! I also ordered other seasonal books, covering Christmas around the world, pioneer Christmas, etc. Our list of winter books we have read is very long, and will grow even longer as we go. So far, Josiah is smitten with the idea of decorating a tree with real candy & fruit (from Nonna Tell Me a Story: Lidia's Christmas Kitchen by Lidia Bastianich, set in Istria long ago...) IT is a very good thing to have many maps about when you are Unschooling, in the house, in the car. There is a way bigger world out there than what we confine ourselves to by playing the mainstream game.

I think Mike and I are having more fun with Hooper, our Elf on the Shelf, than the kiddos are....


I love you Jen. Because you packed up the Wasabi Peas and sent them home with ME!




Today I am thankful that we are not wasting our lives away dropping kiddos off and picking them up from school. I am also thankful that the boys are not wasting their childhood away doing homework and signing reading logs. I am so thankful that *I* am raising my children rather than sending them away to the school factories to be turned into sheep, while I work to buy more things. I am thankful for my husband, my Mr. Steady, who makes this all possible, and who is learning from us as we are learning from him. We are making moments, which is all you really have. As Jen said the other night..."There ain't no Uhaul behind  that hearse."

December 7, 2010

Two nights ago, as Josiah was taking his turn in "detox" (a 30 minute bath in apple cider vinegar and epsom salts), he glanced into my bedroom on Mike's side of the bed and spied a hint of Spongebob underneath some of Mike's clothes. He notified Sam, who was roaming freely in the room, and Sam investigated, finding the two Spongebob Snuggies I bought them for Christmas. I didn't get mad, I just gave them the Snuggies. They did such a fantastic job all day helping me out with cleaning the house anyway. They loooove the Snuggies! Sam has been asking for a "kid snuggie" for over a year now. Then I surprised them with the Elf on the Shelf. We read the book and talked about how we were going to play Elf on the Shelf. We agreed that when we find the Elf, we will make wishes for others, the world, the animals, but not for ourselves. We named the Elf Hooper after our favorite bar, Hooper's. It is now morning number two, and we still haven't found the Elf from yesterday yet! Ha! I hid him on the storage shelf in the laundry room. We also read the Christian version of The Christmas Story. I have some new books coming telling different perspectives of Christmas, from different religions and different areas of the world. I am especially excited about the Winter Solstice books. I hope to have a bonfire here on the 21st to celebrate.

There is a lot of excitement and wonder surrounding water freezing now that the temperatures have plummeted, especially freezing to the shape of the container. I am going to pull what I have here in our library and make it a science lesson, of course. Sam was fascinated with ice in the shape of the dog bowls as he did his morning chore of caring for the dogs, but he was especially thrilled with the ice in the shape of the sandbox toy...an ice castle! He wants to keep it it, so we put it in the freezer.

Yesterday we decorated gingerbread houses for the very first time. I have probably done it some time long ago that I don't remember, but the boys have never done it. I had a big bag stuffed full of different candies and icing for over a week, more prepared than I normally am for sure. The boys were just excited because it was at Kailey's house, and they weren't really sure what to expect, even though I showed them pics of gingerbread houses. When we got there at their favorite place and their favorite friends are sitting around tables covered with bags and bowls of candy, they jumped right in and loved it. I was so impressed that Josiah used Twizzlers as "logs" on the roof of his. Then he bit into it a couple of times. It was such a great day with awesome friends.  We are now looking forward to going to Asheville with friends to view the gingerbread houses on display at Grove Park Inn, then have pizza! Maybe we can get some ideas for next years decorating! Kailey surprised the boys with scarves that she knitted herself, and they didn't want to take them off when they went to bed last night. Sam rolled his up carefully, handed it to me, and said, "Mom, please take care of this, okay?"   Now they are curious about knitting on the looms, so I will pull the yarn and my looms out of the attic and let them give it a try. I used to sit and knit on them with Jen while the kiddos played, and the knitting also helped me calm my nerves through the many painful court dates I went through during my separation, divorce, and custody hearings. Oh, and my two assault charges. Ha. I made toboggans and scarves. I put the looms away years ago, probably because I then associated them with a painful season in my life. I can't see the boys sitting still long enough to finish a scarf, but then again, when Sam has an idea of what he is going to do in his head, he is going to do it come hell or high water. I'm not sure where he gets that from ;0) We'll see! I am now looking for one of the tiny looms that Kailey uses to make that particular style scarf. I have this set already: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=&q=circle+loom+set&rlz=1B3GGLL_enUS386US386&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=10438463860265545739&ei=s5n_TNy4EcWclge35PSpCA&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CDQQ8gIwAw# .....and an ass-load of yarn!

I'm going to have to pony up and learn how to tie them when they are finished...Jen always tied mine for me. Jen did a lot of "tying up ends" for me in those days ;)