Starting a diet in the holiday season? Some may think so, but I say not. When you reach that wall where you believe the time to do something proactive, it does not matter what the calendar says.

 I have been overweight all my life, and my son is overweight. DH has become overweight as well. I had one of those watermark sorts of moments over the weekend that made me say this has to change. Now. I wont go into details, protecting the parties involved, but lets say it was a humbling moment.

 Before my pregnancies, I lost 110 pounds. Solved a 10 year struggle with infertility. The first pregnancy was a stillbirth, and the second pregnancy was high rest, requiring 5 months of bed rest. In that time I regained 70 pounds, my living son, and a lot of fears. Three subsequent pregnancies ended in miscarriage, all of which left me feeling rather insecure. I attempted weight loss again, losing 70 pounds, but doing so in a rather unrealistic fashion that I could not keep up with.

 This time I am going back to the program that I had the most success with- Weight Watchers. It is an intelligent, healthy, manageable program , and full of real life learning. Son is joining me on the journey as well as DH. Weight loss as a family will be a lot easier than as an individual.

 Wish us luck !

Thanksgiving was very nice- a chance to eat too much, chat and catch up with family and their own growing families. My nieces, who it seems, were babies just last week are growing into fine young women and having families of their own. It is a curious thing to change the diapers of one whose mother’s diaper you changed just a little while ago. Babies are one of the nicer things about holiday gatherings.  I observed and thought a lot about how some roles repeat from generation to generation, and sensed that this is just a tiny part of the larger picture or patterns of life. Hard to put into words, but definitely one of those grand “ah ha” sorts of moments.

 Today we got up early ,,,and headed for two places no one would be clamoring to visit. First stop was the woods for a hike through a tall grass prairie restoration in the very stiff, cold breeze. We had the entire 1,000 acre prairie to ourselves, to walk, look and listen. There is something very restorative about being in he woods. It’s a little easier to hear yourself think and to feel God tapping on your shoulder with answers o the questions that run through your head. Are we doing the right things in school ? Are they thriving? What would be a great way to make World War 2 interesting and meaningful? How many cups of meat can I get out of a 26 pound turkey ? You know the drill.

 After our walk we went out for lunch to a very cozy family friendly pizza place that had numerous old timey farm implements on the walls for decorations. Son knew was several of these were, which was fun and reassuring. The order of the day there was to throw peanut shells on the floor, and this made for a bit of approved “naughty” fun. It’s one of those things that make for a little mini book in the lapbook of family time memories.

 After that we went to the grocery store, and almost had the place to ourselves. We have done this in years past. No one seems to think of grocery shopping the day after Thanksgiving. No massive sales, just peace and needful things.

 We came home and I made yet another turkey for the leftovers. We love it and it works in any recipe calling for cooked turkey. Tonight I am running two crock pots to make turkey stock- so good in so many soups and such. Once again it can be used in anything calling for chicken stock. I only hope I have enough room in my freezer to hold it all,

 May your worst problem be struggling to find spaces and places to hold all of your bountiful blessings !

I've been tagged by Dot Here are the rules

  1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

  2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.

  3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, including links to their blogs.

  4. Let the people know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Sounds like fun !

  1.  I HATE to drive. I did not get my license until I was 30. I will drive now only in a dire emergency. No second car, so this works out very well

2. I scrub floors to help me think- or clean out a drawer, dejunk a pile or so forth.

3. I would rather eat a meal that I cook at home than eat in a restaurant. It’s not that it is not welcomed to be served, but I start thinking about the cost and such.

5. When I get sick or stressed out, music is the best medicine for me. Either playing in on the stereo or playing it on my guitar, it brings me to a place where I feel balanced and healthy

6. I dislike watching sports of any kind, but enjoy spending Sunday afternoons watching my husband and son watch them together. There is something very special about seeing them do guy stuff

7. I have made 13 full sized bed quilts and 25 wall quilts , but it has been about 4 years since I picked up a quilting project- and not sure why.

Ok so now to randomly tag somebody else:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/dbennett20/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/hanbury/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/SeekingJESUSnTeachingKIDS/

Two words- turkey jello. I made a turkey on Sunday and he helped m lift it our of the roasting pan and pour the drippings off into a container. I told him we use this to make gravy but first I put it in the fridge for a few to let the fat rise to the top to skim off.Well, we never go around to making gravy so it sat in the fridge over night, and by morning was a beautiful congealed mass- trust me this is a very good thing and means you have literally liquid gold there.

So came time to make dinner yesterday and I decided to make turkey with gravy over noodles and a veggie. I called the biscuit to see what happened to the broth and showed him how to scrape off the fat. He looked, horrified and said "Mom, that’s turkey jello and it is so wrong!" I told him it was indeed jello and why it is that way ( collagen and  such) and this was probably where the original idea  for jello came from. He nodded. Then I told him we should taste it to see if it would need any flavorings for gravy. Oh, the horror ! Not only was there turkey jello, but eat it ? He did and his look went from horror to surprise to deep enjoyment. ‘Hey! It tastes just like turkey !"

Yes it does. Then when it was made into gravy and dinner, he was pretty impressed.

You know what is the second best thing about Thanksgiving ?

Left- overs !

Call me crazy, but having a pile of turkey meat and a vat of gravy sitting in the refrigerator th day after Thanksgiving makes me a happy woman. Some panic at the thought of the leftovers, but not me. It means turkey sandwiches, turkey and biscuits, turkey ala king, turkey fajitas and numerous little sneaky nibbles of bird between meals. As a kid this was one of the best things about the day after Thanksgiving the years my mom cooked the meal. Still rings true for me today.

I grew up as the oldest of 5, with 10 cousins and 26 great aunts and uncles who lived geographically close. Every holiday till I was about 12 , the clan would gather and my grandmother’s house for the meal, It was a special occasion- the doors would get removed from the hinges, placed on sawhorses, draped with tablecloths and set with her china and silverwear. The tables were graced with relish trays containing black olives, green olives, celery stuffed with cream cheese and pineapples, assorted pickles and spiced cranberry and apple rings. The meal was always the same- turkey, 3 kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli , turnips, parsnips, gravy and rolls. Gram would make 2 turkeys – one in the oven and another on a rotisserie on the porch.. It was crowded, filled with a thousand conversations. There was always at least 3 cousins who would play with you, a great uncle who would tell you a story and at least 3 great aunts who commented on “what a young lady you are getting to be”.  These things were the undiscovered treasures of my childhood.

I say undiscovered because I grew up with the belief that everyone gathered with his or her whole clan on a very regular basis, had an actual relationship with their great grandparents and had reason to know what a second cousin or first cousin once removed actually meant. Years later, when I was engaged to my husband, I got to see a very different picture of the holiday. Separated by half a country paints an entirely different Thanksgiving reality. To borrow a much said phrase “had I known then what I know now”, I would have paid more attention. I would have listened more closely to the stories. I would have asked more questions. I would have burned those wonderful images in my brain a little better.

The cycle seems to be coming around again. This time I am the Great aunt and my mom is the Great Grandmother. We will gather at her house this year, for the traditional turkey, stuffing, turnips and more. Mo formal table setting, but buffet style instead. 35 people in a 3 bedroom single level ranch house of 1,000 sq ft does not leave room for tables. On Sunday, I will make a turkey here strictly to have the leftovers- the second best thing about Thanksgiving!

So what then do I consider the first best thing? Family. Be they friendly, frightening, silly, strict or aggravating, they are yours and you are theirs. Who you are is in part because of whom they are, and like it or not you need each other.  So while we pause to say thank you for all of the bounty we have been given, take a moment to say thanks for the bounty that you came from- your family of origin. I don’t think we see their true worth until they are gone.

It’s sure been a busy week around here this week ! The usual round of every day chores, school and the additional excitement of planning an 80^th birthday for my oldest Uncle this weekend. 80 years is quite a milestone for that side of the family- most of the men die within weeks of reaching retirement age. He is the first to become and octogenarian, so it is both a celebration and a milestone.

 Thanksgiving is in less than two weeks, and it is still up in the air where the family gathering will be, if at all. We are at a sort of crossroads it seems. Up till 4 years ago I hosted every Christmas and Thanksgiving for about 20 years. When we moved to this place it became obvious that we simply did not have the room for the gathering- normally about 35 people. This year my oldest niece is a first time mom and wants to have the gathering in her home, but she lives too far from the rest of us for practicality. My husband is singing at two services on that day and by the time he finishes we would only make it for dessert ( if the traffic cooperates). The long car ride would be very hard on my mom , and is just too far for two other sisters. So my middle sister is trying to talk her into having the gathering at my Moms, but it seems it is a bit of an emotional issue. Hosting the gathering is sort of a right of passage in her mind, so I am trying to steer clear and just wait till the decision is made. If my niece hosts I will make dinner for the three of us. Lots of leftovers are not a bad thing, especially when it is turkey!

 Next week is sort of lap book fever for us. One on Thanksgiving, one on the Lewis and Clark expedition, one on Rocks and Minerals and one on Daniel. My son adores lap books, on any and everything. I love seeing him so excited about learning. What I don’t like is the time required to cut out all these mini books, so I am spending my free time this weekend cutting them out for all the lapbooks. Something tells me this might be a good time to pop in a mindless sort of movie while I cut. It may be the first time I get to sit and see something girly for a long time to come.

Ah, the impression that stay at home moms kick back, sip coffee and watch endless daytime tv, interspersed with doing cutsie crafts with the kiddos, knitting pencil sharpener cozies and talking on the phone. Where do people get these ideas ?

A friend asked me today in email how I could stay home and stay sane because she would go nuts with so little to do. I chuckled and said you find ways. She replied that daytime TV is so boring, what else is there to do. I just said things come up.

 So, once and for all, revealed to the world , the behind the scenes look at a day in the life of a homeschooling stay at home mom. Let’s call this Too Busy to be Desperate Housewives. Actual events from an actual day, most events repeated by any other stay at home homeschooling mom at any given day of the week

 5 am- get up, pack DH lunch and breakfast, noticing the normal lunch tote is a little funky, so put it on the side to wash later and use alternative case to pack. Make mental note of what dinner is and if it is an early defrost or not. Meantime notice there are two slices of bread left so must make this morning.

 5:10- begin morning devotions and a cup of coffee in solitude. Glance at today’s school itinerary and assemble necessary materials. Do personal studies for the day

6:30- Son is up and DH is ready to leave for work. Go over days  errands, appointments and listen to son's questions about everything under the sun.

 7:00 – make bread and observe that flour is getting low, so stop begin shopping list for next pass. Remember that Aldis is having a temporary sale on 3 tiered baking racks, and something else. Hunt down flyer and note a few other things that are holiday must haves and add to the list.

 7:10- email , breakfast ( remembering to take supplements) and shower. Learn that the condition of the daughter of a friend is worst than estimated so include her in prayer chain. Clean bathroom, shag son in to pick up his room and get dressed. Water plants and remind self of plan to move the grandma tree for last three days. Determine it would be best done by myself. Really begin bread.

 8 :00- begin school. First subject is Bible studies. He is in a grumbly mood and decides writing the answers is torture. Quick mental juggling and I realize that the specific chapter/book covered today is a Veggie Tales show. Suggest we watch the DVD and do an oral exam instead. Son thrilled , all goes well till I asked him who inspired Joshua to take the actions he did in the battle of Jerico. ( answer is God). Blank stares, suggestions, prompts- 20 minutes later I give up and tell him the answer is God. He said “thank you mom !” and I tell him for future use if a question comes up about something in the bible , dealing with inspiration , ideas or messages, the answer 99 percent of the time is God. Realize that this child is going to be 18 in 2 ½ years and will have to support himself and make critical decisions…and shudder.

 9:30- bread ready to go into the oven , so I start it baking and we go out for our daily walk. Destination the park where son can wiggle all he wants.  I observe the birds, the changing trees and the fact that one of the trees has suffered from wind damage, with a tree limb precariously hanging.Meanwhile, son gets stuck upside down on the swing and needs my aid to get out.

 10:15- back home, make hot chocolate for son and tea from me. Call the office to report the tree- maintenance will deal with it. Start math class, and today was a refresher of roman numerals. He cannot remember so I write down the “cheat code”. Thus begins the argument that D is not 500, it is D and a letter cannot be a number. Mr Literal has a melt down and I try to be understanding, sympathetic and help him to understand this is a symbolic representation.. Bread is finished and while I am taking it from the oven, Biscuit unscrews every pen on the table to see how they work. I have a disturbing memory of how I wanted to see how turtle shells protected them as a child and I experimented by dropping them out a 4^th floor window.Yes, he is my son but no living things have been harmed. Back to math, then on to language arts (another melt down because he is asked to write the dialog for a cat whose owner is away- so I suggest another topic). Read an interesting short narrative about a quail, practice cursive ( will he ever learn !), and then on to Microsoft Word Lesson and Spanish lesson. Great fun learning how to say I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t want to go to the bank. I blow his mind and throw in the word for play, and he says “Hey ! You Know hat ! You are a smart little mama !” Get son to help move the tree and then we break for lunch. Notice tree has dropped a lot of leaves since it was placed there so out comes the Dust buster and vacuum cleaner for an unscheduled pass.

 11:45 lunch break. “Please, please please please make macaroni and cheese !” So I do so. Start pan of water on stove and the burner is acting funny- then suddenly the space between the burner and the oven is on fire. Pull everything off and remember it has been about 6 months since I cleaned there, so emergency clean. Pilot got clogged as well, so surgery on the range before making lunch. Note to self- oven MUST be cleaned before it catches fire as well…but when. Meanwhile, door to door trade person knocks, and comments that they are only looking for Spanish speaking people. Son asks what is this yucky stuff, and discover he is trying to help clean the range , and knocks out the pilot lights.

Only 12:15 here- lots more school to go , household stuff and personal things. Not a bad day or a good one- just an average slice of life for a homeschooling mom.

This one comes from a Depression Era cookbook- filled with real ingredients that are long keepers, healthy and satisfying. Old recipes are filled with these qualities !

 
Apple Oatmeal Bars- makes an 8 inch square pan

 Crust

1 c oatmeal

½ t salt

½ c butter, softened  (1 stick)

1 c flour

½ t cinnamon

 filling

2 ½ c chopped apples

½ cup sugar

 In a bowl combine crust ingredients and cut with pastry cutter ( or use your bear hands to smash till it looks like a even crumb mess). Spray pan with cooking spray and press half of the mixture in as a crust- reserve half the mix.

 Preheat oven to 350

 Chop apples- I leave the peels on for a little extra fiber and pectin- toss in a bowl with the sugar. Spoon onto bottom crust, top with remaining crumbs, pressing them slightly on top filling. Bake in 350 oven for 35 minutes. Cool and cut into bars

The last two weeks have been rather busy with family commitments and just plain life. Got to visit my mom and sister last weekend, and had a very fun day of eating, laughing,chatting and playing karaoke. Got to watch my son and his best cousin buddy playing a spontaneous game of their own design, sort of a cross between a mad scientist and the Iron Chef. He would create imaginary “potions” out of different ingredients she would suggest, he would pretend feed them to her and she would act in rather silly ways. They were happy doing this for a long time, then dancing to music, then acting out Little Bunny Foo Foo. These two have quite the silly imagination when they get together.

Meanwhile, something has been inspiring me to stock up for winter in various ways. Perhaps it is just Midwestern thinking catching up with me at long last, perhaps it is a God breeze ( those odd promptings you get that later turn out to have been right on the money), but it is heavy on my mind. I have bough oats, barley, rice, beans, dried milk, canned meats and have filled my freezer with chicken stock, pre browned ground beef , cooked butternut squash and cooked chicken meat. This weekend I want to lay in a stash of dried fruit, flour, oil and a few seasonings/herbs. I discovered a new to us apple variety( ginger gold) , went a little crazy and bought over 10 pounds of these, along with about as many galas. For a family of 3 this is a bit crazy, so I drug out my 6 quart crock pot, filled it with chopped apples, spices and a little water, and made a big batch of apple butter. I no longer own any canning jars so this will go into the freezer in small packages. Apple butter on fresh, homemade English muffins is absolute bliss!

Our school is going well. We are using MCP math, and it has helped to root out some issues that my son has struggled with, and present the concepts in a totally different light, with the outcome of a solid, long lasting understanding. He adores it, and math has become one of his favorite subjects at long last. It is so comforting to be able to rest somewhat easy in that development!

The turning of the seasons is very obvious here – the fall colors have arrived and the nights have a definite chill to them. We have an ash tree right out our living room window, and my son has been observing it throughout the year. He finally seems to be really aware of this seasonal progression. The tree has turned golden , and last night we had some rather stiff winds come through, stripping one large branch entirely. The grass below was littered in golden “confetti”, and the bare branch stands like a bony hand reaching to the sky. Son looks at the scene, gets a big smile on his face and says “Wow! This is why they call it fall! All the leaves fall down!”

Sometimes these little observations can keep you smiling for weeks!

Hooray for Friday ! Been a busy week back to school here, and back to the rhythm of the mundane.  Moving into sewing lessons for this six week session, and at first Biscuit announced that he was scared to sew. I told him he has sewn before- buttons on garments and a simple seam. He kept telling me he did not want to sew his fingers, and it suddenly dawned on me that he saw me accidentally sew my finger with my machine last year. I assured him that this would not happen to him, and he relaxed. He did a hand sewn hem and a hand sewn seam very well, and really enjoys the process. Next week I am teaching him how to make a simple drawstring pouch for his Uno cards or such- it will be much more enjoyable creating something that will serve a functional purpose. At the end of six weeks he will have constructed a simple garment with a pattern, as well as the ability to repair garments and such.

Meanwhile, I thought I had a few more weeks before I needed to replace our microscope, but looking ahead at lessons for next week revealed I need it this coming Wednesday. Amazon and express shipping to the rescue ! Sadly the model I had in my wish list is out of stock, and will not be in for at least six weeks, so I had to settle on a second choice. It will do what we need for this year and perhaps next. I also discovered we will need a model of the lungs. Ideal would be a cow or sheep lung and assorted tubes. Hearts and brains are easy to come by, but lungs are more difficult. So instead I am constructing a model with an old spaghetti jar, two balloons and some silicon tubing. Will work just fine.