I Couldn't Help Myself.

Normally I don't start with the Christmas music so early, but today I wanted some Christmas music. Maybe it was the rain outside. Maybe it was the candles burning inside. Maybe it was because we were making Christmas cards for our first try at the Christmas card swap. Maybe it was because when Christmas comes, we are that much closer to having our whole family all together...so, I put on the above pictured album. Christmas music, but not too Christmas-y. Good songs to start the holiday season with. Songs that I won't be sick of in a month. Songs that remind me of the most important point of the season to come.

Heart Dissection, Basketball and Such...

What a fun week! At the Monday homeschool group the kids had the opportunity to dissect hearts-one cow heart, one deer heart. They loved it! I loved that they got to do this and that I didn't have to do it. It sorta grosses me out, but I think it is a valuable learning opportunity.

Since it is the first week of November I dug out the Thanksgiving books. I had forgotten how many Thanksgiving books we had and how long some of them are. I should get them out mid-October next year.

For art this week we continued our discussion of medieval art, focusing on icons. That sounds all fancy, but we have a great art book that we are reading through and discussing. Having good curriculum makes things like that possible. Then we did a totally unrelated art project. The project was to create a scene or object from the book The Ox Cart Man using only torn paper. That is such a good book for Autumn. It is a favorite story of ours.

The kids raked up some leaves. We have so many leaves that they hardly made a dent in them, but it was a good chore (i.e. kept them busy) and they had fun doing it together.

A started basketball this week. I whined about it before he even started. Uggg...two nights a week going to practice... I am not a big sports fan. I would love to be. I would love to have "my team" and really be into how they do. But I just am not. I really don't care much about sports. I loved that the boys played soccer. Soccer is a lot of fun. But when it was over, I was happy. Then I offered up basketball. It is only a month long and is local and convenient, but I secretly hoped they wouldn't want to do it. But A did. B didn't.

Last night was A's first practice. And as I watched him, I realized he could really be a ball player. I mean, we will see how he does, but he made this shot that was really good. Of course it would have been better if he had dribbled the ball, but the way it went into the hoop...it was a good shot. And suddenly I wanted to stand up a cheer and yell and clap! I didn't. The other 4 parents in the stands probably would not have appreciated it too much. But, I got all excited inside thinking that I could really be into watching him play basketball. I didn't tell him any of that. He has to figure out if that is fun for him or not, without pressure from mom. But, thanks to M's genetics and not mine, A may well be a decent basketball player. And if he is, I may well become a sports nut after all.

C recently started taking two online classes through our local school district. She was doing a math class that way at home, but now she has added a Spanish class and is taking the classes at the school. She goes to a computer lab off the main campus. One of her best friends is doing the same thing. It seems to be a good thing for her. She spends her mornings at home, does English and a few other things then heads to the computer lab in the afternoon. Soon the district is looking to begin some student businesses and she is work with that as well.

Three afternoons a week she comes home and works for our neighbor for an hour or two. She is also doing some reading to prepare for a pottery apprenticeship. I think it is a good schedule for her. She is currently interested in becoming a mid-wife and has researched an on-line program for that. She is saving money from her job to begin taking those classes at some point. We will see if she continues to have an interest in pursuing that, but so far it seems like it might be a good course of study for her.

Homeschooling through high school can be intimidating. For me, anyway, it has been. I feel so responsible. And I feel a bit uncertain about what my real goals for education are and how it will all come together. I have goals in mind, but are they the right goals for my child? What are the right goals for this particular child? I have been thinking about that quite a bit. And in the midst of my thinking and occasional fretting, it seems to be coming together. Coming together in the sense that right now we have a schedule and direction that are working. A number of weeks ago I didn't feel that confident at all. It felt frustrating and overwhelming at times. It is coming together in the sense that I am watching my daughter mature and develop more into the individual she will become. And while the road is bumpy at times and the road is still long, it finally feels like we are on the right road for her. 6-8 weeks ago, I wasn't feeling like we were totally on the right road. God is gracious to lead and open and shut doors. So, for right now we will walk the path before us. It may change at some point and that is okay. This whole homeschool deal regularly reminds me to be flexible, to reevaluate my educational goals and approach and to be sensitive to each individual child.

The last week of October.

I sorta hate to back date posts, but this was from last week and I never got around to posting it.

My kids were due for some routine vaccinations and when we went in to the doctor's office things were a little different. There are no longer any toys or magazines in the office and anyone with so much as a sniffle had to wear a mask. My girls both had mild colds, so they were masked up. Personally, I am glad the toys are gone. I didn't like for my kids to play with the toys in medical offices anyway.

Then came Halloween. The Friday homeschool group has a celebration and the kids got to dress up. C dressed up as Anne Frank, A as a cowboy, B as an astronaut and L as a Lion.

Yup, She Dresses Herself Sometimes.

Pumpkin Bread and Biscuits

More pumpkin goodies that are a family tradition:

Pumpkin Bread (from Cottage Living magazine)

I usually double this and add chocolate chips.

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (I use 1/2 unbleached white and 1/2 whole wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoons ground cloves

1/4 heaping teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups sugar (I like to use 1 cup sugar and 1/3 cup rapadura)

1/3 cup oil

1 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons canned unsweetened pumpkin

1 large egg

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until well blended. Pour into loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until loaf is golden. Let cool. Enjoy.

With the extra pumpkin from the bread, I recently made these biscuits:

2 1/2 cups flour (half unbleached white, half whole wheat)

3 tablespoons brown sugar or rapadura works nicely

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon each of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger

1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into small chunks

15 ounces of pumpkin (if i am a little short of 15 ounces, I add a bit of milk)

In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter. Add the pumpkin and milk. These can be rolled out and cut into circles or squares or dropped by the spoonful onto a baking sheet. I usually just drop them by the spoonful-it is a little faster. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

These are delicious and, if there are any leftovers, they are good for breakfast too! They stay moist and don't dry out overnight.

Ahhhh...Autumn

I recently found the above device at Goodwill. Remember these multiplication helpers? For a $1.99, I couldn't pass it up, especially since A is starting to learn multiplication.

This week we read Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington. What a sweet book for this time of year. After reading it we did an art project based on it. The project was to draw a pumpkin with a stem in the shape of the first letter of ones name.

Pumpkin Yumminess

Each Fall I purchase 29 ounce cans of pumpkin. Rarely do my recipes take exactly 29 ounces of pumpkin. That leaves me, every Fall, trying to recall which recipe takes how much pumpkin and what other recipe will best use up the remaining pumpkin. Sometime I should write it down, "When I make the cream cheese pumpkin muffins, there will be enough pumpkin left over to make ___________." That would be helpful. Instead, I come back to this same place each time the weather chills. This place of wondering, "Now, what did I make last year with that required 3/4 cup of pumpkin?"

Last week I made Poet's Garden Pumpkin Bars. The recipe arrived in a newsletter from Poet's Garden and has become an annual tradition. They are simply delicious. And easy.

4 eggs

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

Combine eggs, sugar and oil in a large bowl. Beat well. Blend in pumpkin. Sift (I actually never sift) flour, salt, soda and cinnamon. Add to pumpkin mixture.

Pour into a greased jelly roll pan. I use my rectangle stoneware pan with 1 inch edges.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool. Ice. Cut. Enjoy.

Icing:

3 ounces cream cheese

4 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Absolutely delicious, those Pumpkin Bars! But, there I was again with left-over pumpkin. I used it to make Pumpkin & Black Bean Soup. Mmmmmm....so tasty.

1 medium onion sauteed in a bit of oil and butter. Or I used dried onion. It was faster.

1 can (14.5 ounce) chicken or vegetable broth. I used some frozen broth. About 3 cups.

1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes. I ran these through the blender. We don't care for tomato chunks.

1 can (15 ounce) black beans. I used frozen beans that I had previously cooked. About 2 cups.

15 ounces of pumpkin puree

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 & 1/2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

salt to taste.

The recipe says to combine all ingredients and heat to warm, then eat. I actually combined all the ingredients and put them in the crock pot, on low heat for about 3 or 4 hours.

Eat with guacamole and tortilla chips or with crusty bread.

I think next time I will add some rice to this warm and cozy soup, which tastes even better the next day.