Getting my children into the kitchen to cook is generally not a problem at all.  They all love to make their own creations; although some are more edible than others when they are on their own.

My son is the real cook though.  He loves to try new recipes and experiement with spices and herbs.  The Food Network is his favorite channel.  And cooking magazines always grab his attention. 

I am pretty conservative when it comes to cooking.  I like the comfortable of tried and true recipes; of which I'm a stickler for following it to the tee.  I generally don't make happy accidents, if you know what I mean.

Since I didn't learn to cook, save for 7th grade home ec, until after I was married (thank you Lord for a daring husband) I really didn't know how to teach my children the ways of the kitchen.  When I came across Pearables curriculum I knew I'd found a simple, step-by-step program that wouldn't frazzle my nerves, but would allow my children to make simple dishes that we could use, adapt, and enjoy.  For preschoolers we are using a book from Rod & Staff.  (I'll have to look up the exact title later.)

If children in the kitchen is new for you, and them, then I would suggest starting with easy-peasy things like cookies, grilled-cheese sandwiches, salads, and such like.  Always be there for safety and help though.

And as my dear son would say presentation is key.  It is also a key to cooking in Japan.  (Notice how everything in Japanese culture has purpose as well as beauty?)  Check out Sarah Joy Albrecht's blog (October 9th)  for a wonderful giveaway.  It will surely inspire your budding Food Network Star to new cooking heights!

Happy cooking!

Let's go all the way back to the Beginning.

Computers are one tool that I can't seem to get the hang of.  It has taken me countless hours to put together a flyer with photos and a slideshow to upload on YouTube.  Most of this done in the wee hours so that there is no hope of me remembering exactly what it was that I did to get it exactly like it is.  Boy, am I plumb tuckered out!

Please take a look and let me know what you think on the slideshow.   I'm to frazzled to try to figure out how to post the video in my blog (but I will take pointers from anyone who already knows!).  Thanks.

We are proud to announce that one of our broody hens, thanks to another undercover-chicken-raising neighbor, hatched two fluffy chicks.  One downy little guy is a ball of yellow fluff, whilst the other has various brown stripes down his back (reminds me of our Dorking chicks). 

The unlikely mama is our Scruffy hen, so named because she has spent the better part of this year nearly featherless on her back and upper wings (she does appear to be getting some feathers - just in time for winter).  The other hens, when they care to notice, appear to wonder what all the racket is.

What I did on my summer vacation.... What summer vacation?

We have been going at light speed since my last post.  We have stayed in town more than we did last summer, to be sure.  We determined to only go south to visit my parents once a month rather than every other week.  That has been nice, not traveling as much. 

However, we did decide to try running a booth at our local farmers market.  That has been fun, but takes half a day twice a month.  We haven't made a living at it, but have enjoyed all the other vendors and getting to visit with market visitors.  Our children even did an Irish dance demonstration one Saturday.  Of course, they pulled me in and I did two dances with them (my first performance in public) and it was fun.  We hope to do it again next year.

Our garden is growing!  Wow!  That has been fun this year.  It has been so neat eating produce from our own backyard.  We'd like to expand next year.  We also ate some chicken, well, more specifically, the rooster.  You will find a picture of him on the blog.  He was tasty though.  We'd like to do more of that next year too.

I haven't figured out how to load pictures from the new camera, well, even how to get them off yet, but I think I might be able to figure it out by Christmas!

We have done one camping trip this year.  We went to Silver City, Idaho, a ghost town of sorts.  There are now residents up there, not the ghosts, but not year-round.  We were up there as extras in a western short some friends were helping out with.  That was great fun!

My dear love is getting ready for elk and deer season.  This will be his second.  I hope he gets one this year.  He wants to try bow hunting some year.

I painted the living room and kitchen, the master bathroom, the half-bath downstairs and the guest bedroom.  Whew!  I did those painting jobs during my loves business trips because he doesn't like it when I change the colors.  He likes the new looks, but the process just kills him.  I'm liking the changes, very refreshing.

Let's see, what else.  Oh yes, we are planning to move this fall.  We have decided to sell our home, so if anyone is planning a move to Idaho, we have a cute, new home for you!  Really.  We plan to list it on Craig's List.  We haven't finished interviewing real estate agents, such a tedious process, but need to soon.  Of course the chickens will go with us and the two cats too, but we'll leave the new shed.  :O)

Thanks for stopping by to see what I did on my summer vacation.  I hope yours was slower paced.

Jiggity, jig!

We just returned from the Christian Heritage Home Educators of Washington conference in Redmond, Wa.  Wow!  What a wonderful, uplifting, challenging conference.  Every session struck a chord with me.  Encouraging me, filling my wellspring, calling me to look beyond this moment to my legacy and back to my heritage. 

Sometimes it is so easy, to easy, to get caught up in the here and now, in the mundane, day-to-dayness of life and forget what our real intent and purpose is through home educating our children.  It isn't about today's assignments, or next year's requirements, or even preparing them for a career.  It is about cultivating deep, personal relationships with these people who are our children, being the wind and the tiller that guides them to their own discovery of Christ and God's Hand in their lives, and giving them a vision beyond themselves to help them guide and grow their own families and the generations to follow.

We were so blessed to attend and I would encourage anyone within a two day's drive to attend next year.  Dr. Voddie Baucham will be speaking.  (It is about a 10 hour drive for us to attend.)

Soon I hope to post some photos, but I first have to figure out how to do that with the new camera.  Always something to learn!

There is something about spring that just begs for Chickens.  It could be the new green starting to appear.  It could be the sun rising a bit earlier and staying just a little longer.  It could be that the hens are laying eggs again and they taste SO good.  It could even be seeing the Canada geese flying in the other direction now.  But whatever it is exactly about spring that makes me think of chickens, I'm glad we have a few. 

Our chickens are now about a year old.  I am expecting egg production to be more regular.  I am also hoping that one of the five hens will go broody and we would get some new chickies.  The rooster's name is Michael Flatley (my children are Irish dancers), he is a Dorking (that is breed, not brains), and the various hens have been named after other Irish dancers, including their dance teachers, although they bear no resemblance, well maybe the in attitude.

Happy Spring!

I have been quite impressed with Dr. Ron Paul.  I listened to a six-part interview on Glenn Beck.  Now, don't jump to any conclusions.  I am not a regular Glenn Beck listener (for many of the same reasons I stated in my previous political note.) 

If you get a chance, jump over there to watch the video, read the transcript or look it up on YouTube.  He is all for less government.  Gotta love that!

I have to say, politics drives me crazy.  Why, you may ask.  Simple.  They never do things the way I think they should be done.  I hate the injustice of the "bad guys" not getting what they deserve, I dislike "Big Brother" in my business or even looking my way.  I just want everything to work out the way it ought; you know happily ever after.   Well, needless to say, it doesn't work like that in the political realm, so I dislike politics. 

My husband will occassionally tell me, I should run for office.  Yeah, right!  I am pretty sure I would never, that is never, get elected for anything, not only because the only political experience I have is 7th grade room representative, but because I refuse to dance the PC tango.  I would have to tell alot of people, "Life is isn't fair.  So get over it."  I just don't see that as being a really popular platform to run on these days.

I would like to submit a well written article about Mike Huckabee written by a fellow homeschool mom.  I know many home educators are really excited about him, but there is something about him that makes me hesistate.  (Not that he's the only politician that makes me do that.)  I think this article is worth your time.  The state of your homeschool and country will depend upon how educated you make yourself about every candidate.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/TOSPUBLISHER/445968/

This morning at breakfast I heard the following exchange:

Daughter 1 (11 years old) to Son 1 (8 years old):  "Hey, do you want to switch bowls with me?  I got a lot of dust and I just don't like it."  (Cereal dust that is.)

Son 1:  "Sure!"  (A little more enthusiastically than I would expect.)

Daughter 1:  "Oh, never mind.  I better eat it anyway.  When I have a husband I might have to eat the dust, so I better just get used to it."

From the blog of Life in a Shoe and Vision Forum   comes a generous contest.  We love Vision Forum products and their mission.  I have to post a wishlist that totals $150 or less; a difficult task but a joy to browse the catalog none the less.

Our Vision Forum wishlist (in no particular order):

1.  Passionate Housewives: Desperate for God

2. A Comprehensive Defense of the Providence of God in the Founding of America

We so wanted to be in Jamestown for the celebration, but this gift would be the next best thing.

Thank you for stopping by.  Visit Life in a Shoe for details on the giveaway.

I just love autumn!  The chill in the air.  The unpredictable weather.  The increased activity of the birds.  The honking of Canda geese as they fly overhead.  (Although I do sometime feel I need to duck my head as they fly over.  A reflex developed from seagulls at the beach maybe.)  {inhale deeply here, close eyes, and exhale}  Don't you just love the autumn, too?

I have taken all my tall corn stalks out of the garden; at least the ones left intact from the last couple of storms.  These I plan to lash to the columns at the front of the house.  As soon as I find some twine.  I have two pumpkins and a bi-colored squash out front on my child's bench.  The larger pumpkin was subjected to the paintbrush and the result is quite Martha-Stewart-y.  Soon I'll pick the strawberry corn and start drying it.

Tomorrow I plan to tackle a skirt for my eldest daughter.  We purchased, for $3, a mini-skirt and now will add a pretty floral fabric to it in order to bring it down to a more modest length.  I can't recall where I got the directions for doing it (I always need a pattern for everything), but I may have Googled "broom skirts" to get it.

I am also starting to reglaze two old wooden windows my husband salvaged last year for me.  I am quite excited about this project because I will hang them indoors.  Other than a few postcards and children's artwork I don't have any thing on the walls.  The only nails/screws in the walls are the ones holding the CD towers to the wall.  All that is about to change!

It is a good thing that autumn is just getting started.  I have alot to work on.

I haven't browsed to see how many others have written about the sixth anniversary of September 11th.  I do remember last year reading several blogs and crying all the while.  I can't say with certainty that I'm avoiding those memories or just writing them down.

I remember though.  We lived in Florida at the time.  September is a nice time to be in Florida, the heat is mellowing, but the sun is still shining.  That morning was beautiful, a twang of fall in the air, slightly cooler, crisp blue skies.  My husband had just left for work (i.e. he walked to the other end of the block to his office at church).  I was just turning my attention to getting the children moving when the phone rang.  It was my husband.  He had just turned on his radio (he likes a.m. talk shows) and asked me to turn on the T.V. because there was something going on.

I turned it on, not really knowing what I was to look for or find.  The picture on the screen was the first tower to be hit-- smoking.  The newscaster babbled "It could be..."  "Maybe it was..."  generallities that seem to go on and on and muddle my mind.  I tried to describe to my husband what was happening and what was being said.  Then, I saw the second plane banking.  I knew in my heart what was about to happen and started crying, saying to no one in particular, "Oh, no.  Oh, no."  Wanting to shout to everyone in the building, "Get out quick!"  As I talked to him, trying further to descibe what I had just saw, the towers started to come down.  My husband came home right away.  We prayed, I cried.  Then we tried to reach his brother who lives in NYC.  Of course, the cell towers were down and other ones were jammed with phone calls.  We prayed and called family in Oregon to see if anyone had gotten through.

There are some things that etch themselves into our memories and never fade.  The day I was told my best friend was dead and 9/11 are two of those for me.  We eventually got through to my brother-in-law.  He had had the day off from work and was watching the events unfold through a window not many blocks away at a friend's apartment.  Had he went to work, he would have disembarked the subway under those towers while these things were happening.  We are thankful he was not there; we still pray for those families whose loved ones were there.

So what do we do now?  Unfortunately, it seems, that the long-term memory of America is not very good.  I think that fewer really take time to remeber this day six years ago, and any event in our history longer than that is almost forgotten completely.  Just look at the all the tests and surveys that ask people about historical events or people -- so very few remember any past President Cliton or even what started the War in Iraq to begin with.  Sad, but true.

Today we went to our local school (which just opened this fall, built for $6.5 million) to vote on yet another school bond measure.  But that is another story.  After voting, my husband began telling me about the Glenn Beck radio show.  I am linking it here, because you need to know what is happening.  I don't care to listen to those kind of programs, so please don't think that I am endorsing them for you.  But this particular episode needs to be out there.

I think that most Americans have gone back to pre-9/11 thinking, living, etc. that the information in this episode of Glenn Beck is particularly worrisome.  It appears from things gathered, that terrorists are thinking of targetting our schools.  Now, I won't elaborate here, but I encourage you, dear reader, to prayerfully consider reading this transcript, or letting your husband read it and share what he thinks appropriate for you.    This is not just a case of  "Boy, I'm glad I homeschool" because should this day come to pass, God have mercy on us, it will be crippling to our nation.

Remember Jesus' exasperation in the Garden?  "Could you not watch one hour?"  America watch.  And pray.

I was bemoaning my most current trial to a dear friend recently.  She sympathized with my plight and then told me to go check out The Pleasant Times (I think so I could appreciate that I am not suffering alone in this trial).

It all started back in our first Idaho spring...

We noticed many large mounds of dirt in one corner of our backyard in the spring of 2006.  I regularly trampped them down, knowing some little critter was busy at work.  I thought if all his holes were stompped tight he'd give up and move on.  He didn't.  However, he stayed in his little corner.  That was alright by me for it wasn't a corner where the grass was thriving and it was near the neighbor's yard; where I secretly thought he'd make his way too since their grass was much greener (really, the grass is greener on the other side).  Yet, the little fellow stayed put.

One summer day this year I saw a big fellow sitting in his newly dug hole in my FRONT yard flowerbed!  I was stunned to say the least because the distance from his backyard corner is considerable and he was now awfully close to my newly planted dahila croms (and don't they like bulbs?).  I immediatly informed my dear husband that he could now do away with the gopher.  (I think he had been secretly planning on this for some time -- he came home the next day with a bag that he hid away in the garage.)

I did try filling up some of the holes with large amounts of water and for some weeks there was no sign of new digging.  The neighbor came over one afternoon to tell me of her gopher trouble (I was secretly relieved that he had moved on) and I felt confident that now that Mr. Gopher had tasted of her professionally landscaped yard he wouldn't come back to our DIO (Did It Ourself) yard.  {Sigh}  That is not what happened.

We planted a garden.  Need I say more?  I have no flourishing pumpkin and squash plants (aren't they the cockroaches of the plant world?).  I have only two green bean bushes left.  Two days ago, Mr. Gopher started felling the last standing stalks of sweet corn left from the ravages of two Idaho windstorms.  Timber!! Just like an Oregon woodsman.  I could almost taste those cobs as they fell.

My only consolation is that it is fall and soon it won't matter how much produce is left in the garden, the ground will freeze up and Mr. Gopher will be stopped for the winter.  Unless of course he gets a hold of one the backhoes.

Wow!  It has been a long while.  I am so sorry.  I do have lots to share and some photos too, once I figure out how to get them in here.  I have barely been keeping up with my email.  I hope this month to do several entries in order to share what has kept me from blogging since forever.

We are well, but tired.  Looking forward to some changes in our lives and striking out a bit differently.

This has to be the most memorable Valentine's day to date for me.  Ever.  Hands down.  The day started out routine enough, with me getting a late start on the morning, breakfast finishing after 9 a.m.  My dh called to see how things were going, checking in with oldest dd to see, I presumed, how her attitude was and if she was doing what was required of her today.

Just as we were sitting down to school routine the doorbell rang.  I reluctantly rose, sort of hoping whoever it was would be gone by the time I got there.  (We get a great many door-to-door sales for some reason.)  A quick peek out the front window revealed a van (so they were still here).  When I opened the door, what to my wondering eyes should be revealed?  Four, flashy dressed men with mischievous grins.

It was a quartet from the Boise Valley Chordsmen!  A kindly man handed me a rose, then asked, "Would you like us to sing outside or come in?"  I was in utter shock, as I invited them in!  What is going on?  As they filed in and arranged themselves, I asked my children, "Did you know about this?"  All I received back was great big grins!  They sang two wonderful and heart-touching (my son's term for things that make me cry) songs.

Wow!  What a man is the one I call my own!  I will never forget this Valentine's day.  I dabbed tears of affection for my dear, hard-working, ever long-suffering husband, as the four filed out the door wishing me a Happy Valentine's day. 

 I wished I had not had on my working-about-the-house clothes!   

Yesterday we started a winter garden.  A dear friend of ours gave us an AeroGarden for Christmas (it arrived only yesterday).  We lost no time at all putting it together. 

It is a neat hydroponic growing set up.  Our first seven plants are various herbs.  It has an adjustable growing light hood and pump to circulate the water below.  We are all excited to see the green grow!  I think I checked four times last evening to see if anything had sprouted yet!