The Boys at Hearts of Grace Academy - Homeschool Blogger

Eggplant Beef Casserole or Spanish Rice

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:54:00 -0500

I had one eggplant left over from produce two weeks ago that I planned on using tonight. I've never cooked nor eaten eggplant, so this would have been an experience. When I mentioned to DH what I planning on making tonight, he said that he wasn't impressed with eggplant when his father made it years ago. I asked him if he could be "impressed" with what I made so that the kids might like it. LOL

Fast forward to tonight. I slice the eggplant open. Um, not totally white looking, but there are um, some brownish markings. Not wanting to use produce that had already gone bad and not knowing if it had indeed gone bad, I threw it out.

Now here's where I decided to "punt". I already had ground beef thawed for the above casserole and rice was in the middle of cooking. So being in the "punt" mood, I decided to do a spanish rice version. Granted it doesn't taste as good as my moms, but then when does something taste as good as our minds remember.

As a side to the spanish rice, we're having coleslaw....again. I picked up the produce basket and there was another cabbage in it. I still had one in the refridgerator from produce last time. So I used half of that one and will still have more cabbage for more coleslaw for ~~months~~, er weeks to come. My official coleslaw taste tester, AKA Caleb, said that it needed cinnamon. He was definitely mistaken. I added more pepper, salt and paparika. By the way he doesn't like Rush's (the hamburger joint) coleslaw. He only likes Mama Jean's and of course mine. At least he better like mine.

Lunchtime Thoughts AKA Out of the mouth of kids

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:32:01 -0500

Here's the scene - Joshua asks if he can read an oversized "Life" book on our bed. Sure. I ask where is his brother. He declares he's outside "baptizing leaves." Um, okay. So I go to find Caleb and his "baptizing leaves" and thankfully the leaves were all safe.

But I noticed Dixie Grits in the yard looking like she was chewing on something. My first thought was a bird. Yes, if that was the case, my first call would be to my mother in law for any kind of HELP. Thankfully she left what she was chewing on alone. When I looked at the specimen, I thought it was a lizard. She has been known to um have a little lizardy snack, even though I thoroughly discourage such snacking. Upon further inspection of said specimen, I see that it's not a lizard.

Oh no, what ever could it be?

Yup, you guessed it -- A - (gasp) S N A K E......

Thankfully it wasn't much longer than my wrist to my fingertips so I didn't freak, but those that know me know I could have serioulsy FREAKED and I'm not afraid to call my Dear Hubby to come and rescue me from ugly reptile creatures. I remove the SNAKE from the now "snake eating" dog. The "snake eating" dog has now finally earned her keep.

So I find Martin and tell him what I've discovered about our "snake eating" dog. It was then that Joshua pipes up from looking at the "Life" book and tells his Daddy - "I need some education."

Have mercy!!!!!

On the menu ~ Monday

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:48:00 -0500

Today is a wet, rainy and apparenlty chilly day here in South Carolina. But that's okay - we need the rain.

We have our Boys Club co-op in about an hour, so this morning I had to actually think of what to make for dinner, that would literally be cooking itself while I am gone.

In the big freezer I went and found some beef for stew. How awesome. Pulled out a pack and quickly defrosted it while I did our Sonlight reading. While I cooked up the stew beef, I put one of the pie pumpkins into the oven so the flesh (or whatever it is called) will become soft. Then I decided to try using this French Bread recipe in regular loaf pans. I normally don't bother with a bread recipe that requires it to rise twice, but I'll make the exception for today. Because we have our produce co-op tomorrow and I still have at least 2 or 3 heads of cabbage, I think I need to do something to use at least one of them. I won't have time to make up a dessert, but I think this meal will be good and filling on a beautiful rainy day.

So Monday nights menu:

Beef Stew

French Bread

Coleslaw

Prayers needed for Chris Klicka's daughter to arrive in time

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:07:00 -0500

I'm sure others are posting it on their blogs....

Here's a link to the Chris Klicka Caring Bridge site:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/chrisklicka/journal

Here's the actual post - don't know whether Megan was able to leave on time as it's already 8:10 PM here in South Carolina.

PRAYERS NEEDED ASAP FOR A FLIGHT -

TRANSPORTATION ISSUE!

Dear praying friends,

We would be so grateful for your prayers right now for our daughter Megan. She is scheduled to fly out of Atlanta at 6:55 into Denver, but the weather is bad here (icy, 22 degrees). The flight out has already been postponed until 8:30pm, but they may need to postpone it longer.

If there are no further delays, she will now not arrive until 10pm, and it's a 2 hour drive in less than optimal road conditions (my trip up to Denver to pick up Ben & Bethany this morning took an extra 45 minutes because the roads were icy).

Megan is trying to get here before her dad passes away, and we know this would be VERY hard for her is she misses him (Chris took a distinct and definite turn for the worse this morning).

Please pray for the following:

1. That God might just miraculously clear up the weather in Denver, allowing Megan to fly out here sooner, rather than later

2. That she would not get stuck in the Atlanta airport overnight (she's all by herself; is this not a mother's nightmare?)

3. That Chris would hold on until Megan can get here and be able to connect with him.

4. That Chris' breathing will not be so labored that we'd have to put him on Morphine to smooth it out. It has been very labored on and off today. Once on Morphine, he will not be able to engage with any of us, including Megan.

5. That God will grant safety and good road conditions tonight for Bob (in a good 4-wheeler, pick-up truck), who is bringing Megan back to the Springs.

6. That I might not be anxious for Megan or Bob (okay, I already am); that I might keep my eyes fixed on my Lord in all of this and trust that His timing is perfect and He is holding everything together!

7. Some of our other children are agitated; I think they sense my concern and are also concerned--it just looks to me, however, like fussy irritability to me, garbed in teenage vocabulary and I'm having a little trouble being patient with them :)

THANK YOU for praying for us!!!

God IS good...ALL the time,
Tracy, for Chris and the Klickaclan

Autum or Christmas??

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:17:00 -0500

I believe based on the calendar that it is Autum. I have made chicken broth and thrown in two things of kale that were left over from our produce shopping. Caleb and I have been enjoying the formerly healthy kale that has been cooked in chicken broth. Yum-OOOO!!!

But from the livingroom I'm hearing "Little Drummer Boy" -- and before that it was Rudoloph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. If we are going to listen to Christmas music, let's bring out the Grinch!!! It just ain't Christmas unless the Grinch is here!!!!

Caleb's Weather Forecast

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:58:00 -0500

Just moments ago Caleb gave us his weather forecast. It's too cute not to share.

"The temperature is rain."

"Wet and Lizardy"

Think we might need to do a tad more on our weather studies. LOL

Oh Caleb....

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 14:09:00 -0500

I overheard Caleb say to Joshua, "Johsua, us men are going to war" -- where that came from, I don't know. Martin wondered why I was laughing and I told him. And when did "they" become MEN???? Martin said to Caleb that he must be going to the Alamo as he was wearing his coonskin hat, leather (fake) bag and had his musket, all from this year's Boys Club. Quite the Daniel Boone - Davy Crockett he wants to be.

Caleb was working on bringing out his dirty laundry. Martin saw he only brought out a shirt and a pair of shorts, held them up and asked Caleb if this was all his dirty laundry. (Note - they had just put away clean laundry yesterday). Caleb replied "what can I say, it's been a rough week". And if he had a rough week, what kind of week did I have??

June Summer Fun

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:07:00 -0500

The first Monday in June always starts our summer break. Lest you think we don't still do actual school work, we do, but not as much as we are on the go more.

The first week was Vacation Bible School at a local church. It was the Boomerang Express. Unfortunately we've never had success with any pictures taken inside a church, so I only have this picture to share.

After a few days of rest, the boys went to their very first summer camp (as in overnight). The RA's (Royal Ambassadors) from church lead the group. They were loaded down with sleeping bags, tee-shirts, shorts, sunscreen and $40 for spending money. They returned with stinky, dirty, musty smelling clothes and luggage. Of course other moms had some of my boys clothes and I had some other theirs. As for the money, none left and only a few items to show for it. A few flashlights, a camp tee-shirt and these really cool light up glasses. Some day I'll get a picture of Caleb wearing them. You can't help but to laugh. Here are some pictures of them "patiently" waiting to board the church van.

One morning the boys found a butterfly on our screened in porch. They watched it and tried to take care of it by providing grass. Eventually the butterfly wanted to leave, but the boys were able to hold it via a leaf before it left.

And our deck is in disrepair but we are working on it. The boys decided they were going to swing. The creativity of these boys!!!

We ended the month of June with swimming lessons. See this post for more pictures.

Swimming Fun

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:27:00 -0500

The boys took about two weeks of swimming lessons last year with a private instructor and did well for never having lessons. So this year I was anxious to get them started. We ended up doing three weeks. We've also signed up for a membership at the local pool. They boys would probably spend every minute it's open at the pool, but sometimes people have to work. Where Joshua did better last year at swimming lessons, Caleb just excelled this year. But even though Joshua hasn't mastered the arm and breathing movements yet, he his more than willing to jump off the diving board as long as he has a "noodle". Caleb doesn't want anything to do with the diving board at the local pool. We were able to have him jump off the diving board while having lessons. What a pair of kids I have!!!

Here is a chalk drawing Joshua made for Caleb as encouragment

Introducing the newest member of the family....

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:42:00 -0500

So this is how it all started........

Thursday I picked the boys up from Pirate Gymnastics Camp and decided we'd go to the local animal shelter before heading home. Going to the animal shelter is a treat for them. Joshua likes the puppies and Caleb likes the kitties. Then we go to the big dogs who are very loud and somewhat scarey. And there he was, although his listing said he was a she. Ooops.....only a minor identity crisis for him!!! I could tell he was old and for the most part all he did was lay down while we were at his kennel. I spoke to the staff and asked if they were contacting the local Basset Hound Rescue groups. They assured me they would. I explained to the shelter staff that if needed I'd help transport the Basset to a rescue group either in or out of state. But if a rescue group didn't want him, then call me before anything happened to him.

On Friday the boys and I bring Martin to the shelter. At this point, we were able to bring the Basset into the play yard outside. Because he is overweight, he was brought out in a wheelbarrow -- wished I had my camera for that one.

By the time Saturday came around, I knew I couldn't wait for the rescue group to decide. Yup, we went. We adopted. We went straight to the vet closest to the shelter. We were at the shelter for almost 1.5 hours and the vet for almost 2 hours. Here are the highlights of the problems the boy has:

one eye was previously removed; he has an infection in the other eye and is unable to make tears; he is blind
a rather fresh wound over the eye that was previously removed
ear infection in one ear, but currently are treating both
skin infection (yeast) and will receive weekly medicated baths at the vet
a few cysts
dental health isn't good
heart worm positive
numerous areas were he received cuts etc and no hair will grow back now

In a nutshell, he's in ruff shape.

It's an adjustment for all of us to have a dog that is blind. We have about six steps from our deck to the back yard where "business" is done. He's getting better at going down the stairs, but I will probably always need to use a leash with him unless we are able to build a ramp in the future. Right now he mainly just sleeps, gets up to go outside, drinks and then sleeps some more. We took Dixie Grits up to the shelter on Saturday to meet the basset hound and for the most part she has been very good with him. Only a few snaps, snarls and barks, but overall I'd say she is getting along with him. Thankfully he is a very sweet boy. Here are some more pictures of the Basset Hound.