Pizza snobs

My children are quickly becoming pizza snobs.  I didn't realize that when we planted the garden we would mostly make fresh pizza sauce and make our own pizza dough to give the kids a healthy pizza for special occasions.  I was planning to make salsa.  Now, when I ask my children if they want pizza, they automatically say, "Yes, just make us some please."  This means that they want the fresh stuff over any store or restaurant.  I wonder what will happen as they get older and realize that fresh food is yummy.  I'm seeing a huge garden in our future.  Good thing we live in the desert where gardening is easy?

Funnies

While playing Scrabble my 5 year old daughter spelled the word "BEEF" my husband said "What's your beef?"  Without missing a beat she replied "My beef is chicken."

My son was coloring and I asked him "what is your favorite color?"
At first he replied, "I am still thinking about that."  Then, about 5 minutes and 6 colors later he said, "I've been thinking my favorite color is reddish.  Sorry, it's not your favorite color."

Today as we were driving away from the pool my son said "Mom, did you see that dragon fly?" 
"No, I didn't."
"It's ok, I'll take a picture in my mind and show you when you aren't driving."

Awesome, long lasting toy, Evenflo excersaucer

We bought this excersaucer 7 years ago.  It's now being used by it's fourth user.  My children are not small and they were not gentle with it.  We also used it while we remodeled our house to contain our son.  I just replaced all the batteries for the first time and only one toy is no longer usable.  I highly recommend it, if they still make them.  It's an evenflo by the way.

more school

My son was awake at 11:30pm again and asked to do more school.  He wanted me to read the organic gardening book to him, so I did.  I was tired.  I now know many things about organic gardening and he is telling me that we need chickens to help with our garden.  I think we might have to get chickens.  He also learned what a lowercase g is, so that's more what a 3 year old should learn.

Hmm, less than ideal

I told them to clean their room, I even sent their Dad to help.  Now three people are playing hockey.

Baseball game

We went to the baseball game last night, got some junk food, and watched the fireworks afterward.  It was fun to watch the children enjoy something out of the ordinary.  It was also funny to see my son at the game in his hockey jersey.  The part I really liked though was seeing each of them enjoy different things.  My oldest liked the food and spending time with Grandma.  My second liked the fireworks.  My son liked ther food, the baseball game, the people, the fireworks, Daddy's glove, and the National Anthem.

school at midnight

I thought that one of the advantages of homeschooling was scheduling.  Little did I realize what that actually means.
I finished my nightly chores last night about 11:20 and I was excited to go to bed before midnight.  Then, my three year old son asked me if he could do some school.  I silently cursed the nap I'd let him take in the afternoon and told him of course he could do school.  So, there I was from 11:25 until 12:15 teaching my son.  He did five workbook pages of math, and one addition page on his dry-erase book.  Then, he traced all his letters on the dry-erase book and asked to read some books.  We reviewed the sounds for a, m, and s and then learned the sound for l.  I was so tired I actually started falling asleep while he was practicing his letters.  Then, my husband reminded me that this was the reason we were homeschooling.  The major advantage of teaching when they children were most receptive to learning.  I agreed last night, but when the alarm went off this morning I started questioning my sanity.  Until, my son woke up and said "Thanks for reading this book to me last night Mom."  I guess I'll be doing school at all hours for a while any way.

smart cars?

We saw a smart car in the parking lot today.  My 5 year old said “What is that?”  I followed her finger and found that she was pointing to a smart car.  I said “That’s a car, they call it a smart car.”  Her reply “How can a car be smart?  It doesn’t even have a brain.”  Her sister chimed in, “It can’t be too smart it looks like a stink bug and those aren’t smart.”  Then, my 3 year old cracked me up with his two cents, “I wouldn’t even want a toy car that looked like that.”  Ahhh, guess what car we will never own.

our real, although, not rough camping trip

We went camping this weekend, for one night only.  We drove 400 miles to spend one night in the mountains.  Crazy I know, especially since we could have driven 25 to get to the mountains, but it was so much fun.  We decided that it is not about where we go, or even what we do, when we go out as a family to someplace it usually means making memories.  We made some great ones.  My 3 year old caught his first fish, much to his great joy.  My 5 year old named all of the wild flowers something strange.  There were butter buttons and spaceships and some other names I'll never remember.  The important thing is that she had fun.  My 7 year old didn't catch any fish, but it wasn't from lack of trying and she has a wonderful cast.  I think she needs a fly rod.  They all woke up about 3 hours earlier than normal and said they had the best time.  We weren't exactly roughing it, we went out to dinner and we have a tankless hot water heater in the trailer, with our comfy beds and an air conditioner.  We did follow my two rules of camping, take lots of food, and have a comfortable bed.  We also spent a wonderful weekend together and hopefully started a trend for the summer.

Butter Chicken (my style, with what I have, and my kids eat it)

3 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion, or 1/2 cup onion chives (the chives are in the garden so there's that)
16 oz tomato puree
2 tsp Garam Masala
1-2 lbs chicken in bite size pieces
butter (I've used anywhere from 4 Tb to 8 Tb depending on what I have, I even left it out once and it still worked, when I left it out I used a Tb of olive oil)
heavy cream (again, I've used 2-3 cups and once I used soy milk because we were out of cream and it still works)

It works best if the chicken is mostly cooked to start with but it will cook in the sauce.  I usually use left over chicken from when we roast a whole chicken, but you can use any kind of chicken.

Puree, the tomatoes, onion, garlic, then melt the butter in a large skillet with high sides.  Put the sauce in to the butter, when it's all mixed add the cream.  Add the garam masala, mix.  Add the chicken and stir again.  One low heat, uncovered simmer for about 30 minutes, stir it regularly but not constantly.  Enjoy. 

This freezes well in tupperware and it's a great way to use tomatoes.

progress on our list (from some days)

These are the things I've gotten to do so far this summer.  We were trying hard to get some of them done soon, especially since it's been raining.

Reading a good book.  I've actually read several this summer, and I had a couple read to me, which was wonderful!!  Ella Enchanted (chapter book for children) is fun, as is Waking Beauty (picture book for everyone, even my husband enjoyed it)

Dancing to a good song.  We were all in the kitchen getting dinner ready when a song we all know came on the radio, we all started dancing.  Good thing nothing burned!

Dancing in the rain.  We have been doing this every chance we get, luckily we are actually having good rains this year.

Playing outside as the sun sets.  I started letting the kids play in the yard in the evenings even though it puts bedtime later.  I think the time spent with each other is more important.  Besides, they are trying to sell mudpies to the people driving and walking by the house.  I'm curious if they get any takers.

Swinging.  We went to the park in the evening and started swinging together, ah, it was relaxing.  Now we are considering a porch swing.

Coloring.  My son is letting me color with him almost every morning.  I'm not sure if the coloring is more fun, or if his directions are more entertaining.  I hear "Mom, color carefully, inside the lines, here's your crayon." from my 3 year old, it really is the best.

Eating popcorn.  We had a WONDERFUL time at tea with friends and we got to eat popcorn.  Ahhhh, tea.

my son's wisdom

My son and I were discussing what it means to be a grown-up and what you get to do versus what you have to do.  I asked him if he would still give me hugs when he was a grown up.  He said of course he would because I would still be his Mom.  We decided that one hug a day would be a great thing to start the day with, so, he said he would give me one hug every day forever.  I love my hugs, they are wonderful but lately he's been adding something.  About a week ago he started giving me two hugs saying "because I didn't give you one tomorrow."  This is so sweet and I love him for it, but it made me think.  Why not give an extra hug for tomorrow?  You haven't given them one tomorrow and what if you can't, you don't know what tomorrow will bring, you may not get to give that hug tomorrow.  Too soon he will realize that he isn't saying what he thinks he's saying, I'm sure he's more worried about yesterday, but I will not tell him to stop because I like my hugs for today and tomorrow.

More wacky stuff I had to say today

Today I again found myself saying things to my children I never imagined I would have to say.

Stop licking the rock.

Please take your finger out of the butter.

When you play hockey in the kitchen please don't use the bag of brown sugar as a goal.

I will take a picture of the receipt, but you have to give it to me right now.

And my favorite today...

Please stop brushing your brother's teeth, three times is enough.

Fun Reading Lesson

Today we weren't home for very long and so did not have much time for school but I wanted the girls to have a short reading time.  The problem with the original plan was that they were so excited from their outings that they couldn't sit still.  I changed tactics.  I got out the cookie cookbook and said they could make cookies if they found a recipe without butter because we were out of butter and they had to get all the ingredients out and mix up the dough and I would help with the baking.  Well, it took them about half an hour to find a recipe that had only ingredients we actually had on hand, but they were successful and managed to mix up some pineapple cookies.  Then they decided to bake them tomorrow because they wanted to help with dinner!  Reading lesson number two.  I won't tell them they were learning if you don't.

A special story for you.

Today we did a fun project for handwriting practice.  We made a group story.  We started out making pictures of things that we liked, dogs, flowers, trees, the park, and other stuff.  Then, we took turns writing sentences to make a story.  The five year old (A) started it, then the seven year old (S) continued and they took turns.  Then my son wrote "THE END".  Here's what they made...

Flowers.  S

Princess and queen. A

Rose garden. S

Tree with dogs. A

Playground. S

Cats with bread. A

The playground caretaker's house. S

fun today

My 7 year old daughter was talking loudly today.  I said "Who are you talking to?" she didn't hesitate, "I'm talking to myself."  I paused, then asked "Can you talk a little quieter to yourself?"  She thought for a second then said, "Then, I won't be able to hear myself."  I have no response for that one.

My 5 year old daughter drew a picture of a butterfly, with big teeth.  I asked her what it was and she looked at me like I'd lost my mind then replied.  "It's a butterfly monster Mom."  As though it were obvious and duh, what else would it be?  Again, I have absolutely no reply.

My 5 year old again. 
"Mom, why can't we fly?" 
"Well, we can fly in airplanes and balloons and things like that sweetie." 
"That's not what I meant, I mean how come we don't have wings like birds?" 
"I don't know, I would guess it's because we aren't birds.  If we had wings then I think we couldn't have hands, that would make building houses and stuff much harder wouldn't it?" 
"But Tinkerbell has wings and hands, why can't we be like fairies?" 
"Because fairies aren't real?" 
"Mom, you have no imagination."
She seemed really sad, perhaps I let her down.  I guess I should work on my imagination.

tidbit

When we were watching the fireworks show tonight my son kept turning around and telling me about the green ones because he knows green is my favorite color.  I was so pleased that he knew the color green because he usually doesn't care about colors.  He's such a sweet boy, I hope he never grows out of that.

added to the timeline

Today we talked about what it means to live in this country and we added some important dates to our timeline.  We added the birth of the nation and George Washington, then my daughter wanted to add the making of the Liberty Bell because they rang it when they read the declaration.  I had forgotten that but she remembered.  I think it's a good thing we've been using Liberty Bell stamps.  Then she wanted to add the year the Star Spangled Banner Flag was made so we did that.  It really made an impression on her at the Smithsonian.  If you ever get a chance to see that you really should, it was quite memorable.  Then, we sang "Happy Birthday" to our country.  I think it was a fitting way to end our study and the children thought it was fun.  The timeline is a great way to discuss history because they can see how it relates to things that they know.  Of course Ancient Egypt is so far away they have trouble relating to that, but seeing how far away it is still helps them understand it.  And then my daughter surprised me by explaining that if people were living in ancient Egypt they would put the rich people in the pyramids and they would then be dead.  I'm not sure she's getting all of it, but some stuff is sticking in her brain.  We may need to do some review next week.

some days

Some days are definitely better than other days.  Today was one of the other days.  It made me remember how much I love my family and my friends.  Today also made me think of ways to make ordinary days more of the some days, the days that are better.  Obviously I want to do this without spending lots of money I don't have because then I would have more of those other days while I was waiting to pay off all the money I spent trying to have fun.  So, I made a list of good memories I have to see how much money it would take to repeat those memories for my children.  Many of the things on the list don't cost much at all.

Watching the sun rise with a good friend.
Reading a good book.
Watching the sun set with a good friend.
Dancing to a good song.
Dancing in the rain.
Dancing in the rain to a good song.
Eating watermelon outside.
Playing outside as the sun sets.
Swinging.
Playing music with a good friend.
Listening to a friend play music.
Flying a kite.
Spending time in the forest.
Watching the sun rise while sitting on a rock.
Coloring.
Eating popcorn.

The list goes on, but I noticed three things that are repeated; friends, music, and outside.  I promise to try to make these memories possible for my children.  I am going to start by doing all of these things with my children before the first of October.  I'll keep you posted.

timeline

We were discussing history and when things happened.  We were having trouble getting across the idea of a long long time ago, like before Grandma was born, so we made a timeline.  Luckily the kids got some poster paper for their birthday, a 75 foot roll.  So, we made a 26 plus foot timeline, starting in 3000 BC and going to 2015.  It's awesome, 1/16 of an inch is a year.  Now the problem is where to put it.  We actually don't have a wall that long in our house, so we are discussing cutting it up or cleaning out the garage and putting it out there.  I might get a clean garage out of this activity.  Oh yeah, and the kids are starting to understand what a long long time ago means.

isms

My children have things that they say that make me laugh.  I should correct these things but I can't, I don't want to correct them because then my children would not be themselves quite.  My oldest daughter started most of them, but not all.  Here are my favorites:

Puddle up - this is used to call them all together for a meeting, instead of huddle up.
Siryup - instead of syrup.
steamwork - when they work together for something.
gramotor bars - a favorite snack.
pretty cheese with please - unique to my oldest son.

Part of me hopes they never use the proper words.

tomato woes

so I lost my precious yellow pear tomato to a bacteria, poor thing.  I am sad.  Then it got so hot that my ripe red tomatoes are cracking from the heat.  I am hoping that cooler temperatures this week will lead to better tomato results.  My son absolutely loves to eat the tomatoes so he was sad with me when we lost the yellow pears.  I guess we will have to put our hopes on the new celebrity tomato that we planted this weekend.  I will let you know how that goes.