Fashion Show

August 28, 2010 in Just For Fun! by sar | 1 comment

My 15 and 11 year old daughters were in a Civil War Fashion show today.  There were over 40 participants.  The dresses were so beautiful!  My 15 year old had so much fun talking with all of the ladies about their dresses.  Because she made her dress, that gave her a commonality with the ladies.  They even announced that she had made her dress when she went up on stage.

My 11 year old wore one of my dresses.  It was the first dress my mom had ever made me for reenacting.  She was beyond excited as she loves everything that has to do with drama and wearing big, fancy dresses!  You really do feel like a beautiful princess when you wear those dresses.

I had one more princess at home.  My darling 13 year old held down the fort while I was gone.  She fed her brothers and dad lunch and supper.  She cleaned the kitchen, mowed the yard and made sure daddy had enough water so that he didn’t get heat stroke.  I love when my daughters get the opportunity to “be mom” for the day.  It boosts their confidence in so many ways!

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A Stoll Down Memory Lane

August 25, 2010 in Homeschooling by sar | 2 comments

I was working with my oldest on her Algebra today.  Ah, yes, I remember those days.  I was not homeschooled, at least not homeschooled the way my children are homeschooled.  I went to the area public school to receive my education.  I was going over the problems she got wrong and remembered sitting with my Dad doing the same thing.  There were times that I was sure I was actually hearing his voice coming out of my mouth.  As we went through each step of the equation, I would ask her a leading question and she would answer rather uncertainly.

Back in the day, my dad would sit down with a sheet of paper and we would each work the problem separately.  Then we would compare answers to see who came up with the right answer and why I got it wrong.  I often use those same techniques with my children, but today we worked them together on the board.

You know what is really neat?  I can do Algebra!  I understand it for the first time.  Is it maturity?  Nah!  You all know me…I think it is being the teacher.  I have always said that the best way to learn something is to teach it.

Hey Dad!  I finally got it!!  Better late than never!

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Furry Critters of the World…UNITE!

August 24, 2010 in Is That MY life? Oh well... by sar | 2 comments

If you have been reading my blog over the last year, you may recall my furry critter incident.  If not, hop over here and check it out!  Well, needless to say, I have more critters.  Over the summer we have had a situation with mice in the basement.  After a lot of baiting and setting of traps, we caught a grand total of six.  I know, gross, but at least they are gone!  The day was never started until after my Dear Son Number One ran the trap line.

Once you have gone a good amount of time without catching any more rodents, you start to feel pretty good about yourself.  You sit back and relax and enjoy life a bit.  Then WHAM, another critter shows up.  Praise God, this one isn’t in the house…yet!  I believe we have more of whatever that critter was that Violet killed.  I was looking in the garden and saw something scurry.

So we rounded up the troops and tried a little covert action to lure the thing out into the open so that the dog could do her duty.  After my nine year old son and 13 year old daughter took the cat into the garden to try to flush it out toward the 14 year old daughter and said dog, we lost track of it.  It never came out!  We finally gave up and went about our daily routine.

The children were in the front playing on the porch when they came in and said, “the rat just ran across the driveway”.  First off, I said, “it is NOT a rat, I don’t know what it is, but we are NOT calling it a rat.”  Next, we put Violet on patrol and tore up the bricks around the overgrown jungle I like to call a flower garden.  No luck.

We have since pulled out the books and have come to the conclusion that is might be either a Southern Red-backed Vole or a Hispid Cotton Rat (but I don’t say that last word out loud).

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Our Summer Preserving Endeavors and a Corn Recipe

August 11, 2010 in Homemaking by sar | 1 comment

I shared in the last post that I had a goal of putting up 100 quarts of tomatoes.  I know, it was a lofty goal, but if you know anything about me, I tend to the extreme.  At this point, I have canned 28 quarts of diced tomatoes, 3 pints of salsa (with a friend), 11 pints of tomato sauce (also with a friend) and 6 half-pints of tomato-peach salsa.  I have plans to can a batch of peach salsa, but my peaches have gone bad.  I also have some tomato sauce simmering on the stove ready to be blended, seeded and canned.  I am hoping to can about 9 pints.

Today, I came home with 16 dozen ears of corn.  We went to this wonderful fruit and berry patch.  When I asked him about his corn, he said that “you don’t cook my corn”.  I asked him if it would be alright if I cooked it.  He walked me back to his cooler and pulled out an ear.  Now, I have never eaten raw corn before.  I have just found that cooked corn is more to my liking.  I was SO surprised at how wonderful it tasted!  It truly tasted like it was already cooked.

Thus, 16 dozen!  I really don’t know what I was thinking!  It just tasted really good.  The children spent an hour and a half shucking it and cutting off the ends (nasty little worms), and I cut it off the cobs.  We were able to freeze up 38 three cup bags.  That might take us through December!  At the rate I make my corn casserole for church, it may be gone by October!

Speaking of corn casserole, here is the recipe:

Corn Casserole

1 pound corn (frozen)

1 8 ounce block of cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

1 can diced green chilies (optional)

In a large glass casserole dish, place all the ingredients.  Put in the microwave on high for 1 minutes intervals until melted down and bubbly.  I don’t use a microwave, so this is easily done on the stove.  Once it is heated through, serve.  I like to have this at Thanksgiving.  Once it is heated through, I stick the casserole into the oven to warm with everything else.

My good friend in Oklahoma gave me this recipe many years ago.  Whenever I make it, I always think of her.  It warms my heart

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My First Attempt

July 29, 2010 in Day To Day by sar | 2 comments

I am going to attempt to post to my blog for the first time since the Homeschoolblogger change.  I am sure that by this time, I have lost the last of my faithful readers (that would be my mom and dad).  In addition to having major changes to our server, I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off!  We have had a steady flow of people in for the last two months.  In addition to lots of things going on at church and starting school a month ago, life has been hectic.

We did succeed in freezing up a couple bags of peaches and dehydrating several trays.  Today, we are attempting peach jam.  Darling Daughter Number Two loves making jam.  A few months ago, she and I made strawberry jam and grape jelly.  They both turned out wonderfully!

We, also, put up 21 quarts and 10 pints of green beans.  I have never worked with beans that needed to be stringed.  Wow was that a surprising amount of work.  We did about a bushel and a half.  This was our first time using a pressure cooker.  Once I figured out all the details, we moved along like clockwork!  It did take all 6 of us (with the help of my uncle) about 4 hours to string and chop those beans.  If I do any more beans this year, they will be stringless.

My hope is to get tomatoes to can.  My goal is about 100 quarts.  I will be happy if I get any done.  I always like to have a goal in mind, but I also like to have a “plan B”.

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