Now that I've climbed out of the swamp

I've been sewing a Sense and Sensibility Edwardian Girl's Apron for Crayons, as part of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew project. I'm not a very confident sewer (remember the skirt?), but I did get going pretty quickly on this and was almost done, pockets on, seams sewed, loops made at the back--until I realized that I was too short on bias tape for the edging, and I'll have to get back to the store and buy more before I can finish it. (Crayons likes it anyway--she says that now she can be a "pioneer.")

Rats.

That might have been because I messed up one of the pockets (after I'd already bound it) and had to make another one. But I still don't think there would have been enough. Note to self: next time buy way more than the yardage chart says.

Photo and proper review to come--after I get back to the store.

Dewey goes to Vacation Bible School

Every summer of my childhood, we went to a Baptist church's VBS. (Our church didn't have one.) As so many people remember from old VBS's: the cookies and Kool-aid flowed Deep and Wide, and the crafts were largely popsicle sticks. The theme for the week might be "Following Jesus," and I have no idea who published the materials but they--at least the stories for grade six or so--were pretty meaty. One year it was a version of Nicky Cruz's Run Baby Run, about gangs in New York; another year I remember reading missionary stories that must have been about John and Betty Stam, because I can still hear this Dr. McCoy voice in my head saying something like "Dangit, Jim, those Lisu are going to learn about Jesus."

What also sticks in my head is the person who taught us older kids for the last two years I was there. I remember two things about him: first, that I always admired the commitment this young man had that made him come back and teach us rowdy kids, year after year. The other thing I remember is that he was killed on a motorcycle a couple of years later. I felt sorry that I'd never gotten a chance to thank him properly.

I've helped with several VBS's since then, at different churches. I've noticed how they're changing. Especially I noticed at the big church we attended while Crayons was very small--I didn't help those years, just watched from the parent's point of view, and that was the first time I'd seen one of these new Wow curriculums with so many kids, music videos projected on big screens, and more screaming during the music than I'd ever seen in a church before. The crafts were still paper plates and tie-dyed t-shirts, but overall there was a new, slicker, more packaged feel to the whole thing. The themes are now more like birthday parties or library reading clubs: outer space, treasure islands, even (last year) an amusement park. Kids go here, leaders say this and that, and then it's on to the next station...am I wrong in feeling that it's all getting a bit too programmed? (Especially when you find out that every other church in town, and maybe more than that, will all be using the same curriculum...VBS must be about the only time all year that we all get so ecumenical.)

As a parent, I also have a bit of a problem with some of the "discipline the parents" language that appears in the Director Manual I was given this summer. "Some parents may want their preschoolers to [stay with] older siblings. Firmly insist that the [preschool] activities are the best ones for preschoolers." It's not that I'm arguing with that, I'm just not that impressed by being "firmly insisted" at.

The church we have been attending for the last three-and-a-half years is very small, and our VBS is not very big either. It also leans more towards the traditional Kool-aid mode than the frantic screaming and plastic memory toys--probably because our membership, and in particular our VBS leadership, is largely made up of an older generation. Our imaginative, energetic friend who has directed the VBS for three of the four summers we've been there was a teacher for many years, and she runs things according to her long experience with children--no matter what the books say to do. We also don't have a policy of "firmly insisting" that parents stay out or that children go where they're not comfortable.

But we're still using the Big Mega VBS Curriculum--or at least the parts of it we could afford. No music videos, although we did get a CD of the music. No plastic toys. We didn't even get take-home papers or worksheets, which in my mind is a plus anyway.

I was given the Preschool level curriculum to use, which was a bit of a problem since the seven or eight children I was teaching were all five or six years old. (The rest were in one big group for the elementary-age children. We didn't have any preschoolers.) I didn't need to teach the Bible story, since that was acted out during group time each day. We didn't have the additional DVD stories for them to watch. I didn't need to do crafts with them, since everybody made crafts together later in the morning. I didn't even need to do many songs, since everybody sang together at the beginning and end. This is all to say that most of what I was given was unnecessary, or in some cases too young for my class...I had to dig through the teacher's guides and pick out what was left.

What I was supposed to do with my group, each morning, was provide some kind of follow-up to the Bible stories, help them learn the memory verse and Bible themes for the day, and play games. I did find a couple of games I liked in the curriculum materials, but some of the suggested activities made we wince. I refused to have them go around in a circle and sing "Here we go round the burning bush." I'm sorry, that's not only silly but it seems somewhat blasphemous as well. (We also--collectively--decided NOT to serve a snack called "Berried and Raised" on the day we learned about Jesus' resurrection.)

Dewey fills in one morning for the curriculum's official hand puppet

Anyway--what did our class do? Played Freeze Tag--to get unfrozen, you had to shout out the memory verse. Played What Time is it Mr. Moses? (that felt slightly less blasphemous than dancing around the burning bush). Jumped along a number line marked with pictures to help learn one tricky memory verse. Sang a couple of songs I dredged out of my memory. Listened to a couple of picture books that fit with the day's theme. Crossed the "Red Sea" (a balance beam we improvised). Watched Ponytails do a magic trick, and talked about how God really did make wonderful things happen (no trickery). Played Hot Potato and said the memory verse. Watched Ponytails chat with Dewey about flashlights and missing batteries. And so on.

And the kids really did enjoy the Bayou theme, as far as we took it, and the dock area that some wonderful volunteers created (with real bullrushes to hide baby Moses in).

A bit swamped

Down at Crocodile Dock.

Just hope the rain holds off until after we play "Block the Croc" this morning. (River made out of sheets--two kindergartners are crocodiles in the river--the rest have to cross the river and if they get tagged they turn into crocodiles too.)

Jammin' with Jay

My favourite busy blogging seniors are canning everything in sight again this year. Check out Jay's Jammin' and Momma's Corner for inspiration. I was particularly awed by the array of jars here.

Treehouse Status Report, and around the Blogworld

What we're doing: Getting ready to teach/attend Vacation Bible School this week--that would be most of us, except for Mr. Fixit who is back to work after his holiday.

What I'm reading: The King of Infinite Space and Inside Prince Caspian.

Sitting on our counter: A new Bravetti toaster oven, bought on sale. (why)

Welcome back to: Coffeemamma.

Congratulations to: Molytail--she won the Karito Kids doll!

Pray for: Birdie and MamaLion

Rejoice with: Javamom.

A blog to go visit

Coffee, Tea, Books and Me has an excellent pantry post today; but if you go over there, be sure to browse back through some of her other recent posts as well--it's always a nice place to visit.

Time's almost up to win a Karito Kids doll

Shopaholic Mommy is giving you the chance to win a Karito Kids doll. These girls are BIG: 21 inches. And they're pretty cute, too. (Crayons decided she likes Zoe best.)

All the ways you can enter are on the blog post: commenting, tweeting, blogging, whatever. But time's almost up: the giveaway ends July 3rd.

Missing your freebies?

Homeschool Freebie of the Day is back from holidays.

Update: our surplus photo

I added a photo to our surplus shopping story.

Happy Canada Day! :-)

Happy Canada Day!









~~Ponytails :-)

Happy Canada Day

And if you're among the 59% of Canadians who couldn't identify a picture of Sir John A. MacDonald, you have to go to bed without supper and miss the fireworks.

Sing along with Stompin' Tom (last year's post).

Make Do and Mend, at a great price

Hampstead House Books is offering Make Do and Mend for $5.99 (Canadian) right now. "Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations. If you lived on rations in WWII, you’ll feel nostalgic seeing these reproductions of government leaflets. If not, you’ll delightfully discover that thrifty wartime ways can apply in today’s tough times." There's also a short review here.

I had thought that the Deputy Headmistress once mentioned this book on The Common Room blog, but I can't find it there. Maybe it was another blogger? Anyway, it sounds interesting...and maybe useful, if you want to know how to make underwear out of old sheets.

What I'm reading

The Skystone, by Jack Whyte. I'm trying to finish it because it was on my list of books for this year, and because I started it, and because I'm kind of curious to see how the ending turns out, and because I'm enjoying the late-Roman-empire setting, but honestly I can't recommend it--there are some very, very graphic adult-content scenes. Which is too bad, because, written slightly differently and without All That Stuff, it would have made a pretty good young-adult historical novel, if that makes any sense. Lots of soldiers and adventures and a hunt for the mysterious "skystones" that once fell from the sky and seem to contain some kind of almost magical metal. But there's just too much other stuff in it that I don't like.

Homeschooling the Middle Years. From the library.

Towards a Philosophy of Education, by Charlotte Mason. Re-reading.

How do frugal squrrels spend a vacation? (and you're not going to believe THIS)

Yesterday we went to the surplus store and shopped our little squirrel hearts out. (We haven't been there for months and months, so it's forgivable.) What followed us home: several hairbrushes and related items, several packages of coloured paper and cardstock and file cards, several packages of glue sticks and glue pens, several blank notebooks, three mini packs of pastels, three rolls of electrical tape, a tool for Mr. Fixit that I can't remember the purpose of, and some other things. Mostly for 88 cents, 99 cents, $1.49 and so on. I'll post a photo when Mr. Fixit gets it uploaded.

Last night the younger Squirrelings had summer dance lessons, which happen to be in the community room at the mall. Not that we spend a lot of time generally hanging out at the mall, but it's not worth going back home in between. This week the discount department store there that starts with Z (a lot like the one that starts with W) is having a clearance on sheets--50% off already-reduced sheet sets. Which we have badly needed for awhile. We found a set for the parent-sized bed, a set for the Apprentice-sized bed, and three sets for the Ponytails-and-Crayons-sized beds. Good thing we're not fussy about colours, but we did find some good deals.

Also six drinking glasses, since we have managed to break most of the ones we had (not in a fit of violence, just occasional accidents) and weren't quite ready to start drinking out of canning jars.

OK, now for the you-won't-believe-this. Mama Squirrel needed some Post-It notes, so while she was trying to remember which end of the store had the office supplies, and trying to navigate her way over there with the cartful of sheets, she noticed...beside the barbecues and summer stuff--several aisles of backpacks and back-to-school supplies. All set up and ready to go.

People, it's not even July yet.

Less glitter to clean up

The DHM writes:

"Arts and crafts- these things were all billed as things parents often couldn't do by themselves or required a group....And I say this NOT in the spirit of criticism, honest. It's just that, when I expressed some befuddlement, or really, surprise, about why moms needed a co-op in order to do even the most basic arts and crafts stuff, the other moms all looked at me like I had three heads, and at least one had a wart on its nose and spinach in its teeth."

When our Apprentice was two and three and four, we were part of a community-centre co-operative playschool program, two mornings a week (when she was four we were homeschooling kindergarten so we cut it down to one morning plus a gym class). There were several reasons we got involved with this--it was run by our neighbourhood group, we liked the person in charge, it was a way for me to get to know other moms as well as for little Apprentice to meet some neighbourhood kids. Moms were on a schedule to help--some days you could drop your child off, other days you stayed and helped paste or sing or vacuum up the mess afterwards.

At one point the teacher mentioned that although the Apprentice seemed to enjoy the program, she hardly ever wanted to do the prepared crafts. (The children didn't all do crafts at once--there were "stations" that the children could visit during their activity time. They could do a craft, or go to the playdough table, or play with trucks, or whatever.) Gluing hats on snowmen, crayoning leaves, and things like that. She painted at the easel, sometimes, but did not usually do the crafts. Was that a concern for me?

I reassured her that I did not care if the Apprentice brought home even one glitter-glued snowman or Valentine or Mother's Day flower. For one thing, we lived in an 800-square-foot house, and I had only so much fridge-door space. For another, if she wanted to spend her whole time there playing with her friends, that was perfectly fine with me. [Clarification: I don't mean that she was disrupting the class, just that she was choosing her own activities during play time.] She could crayon at home afterwards if she wanted. I got to visit with my friends a bit too, in between vacuuming up sand and washing paint off kids' hands, and nobody was making me crayon.

The teacher got it. Which is why we stayed for three years.

Peanut chocolate butterscotch bars

I took a pan of these bars (our Better Homes and Gardens Potluck Favorites booklet calls them Candy Bar Cookies) to our homeschooling friends' the other night--because they have peanut butter in them, they're not the sort of cookie I feel safe anymore taking to big gatherings; and Mr. Fixit can't eat peanuts, so I don't make them just for our family. But once in awhile--when we're having peanut-safe company--I make these just because they are so good. Kind of like chocolate-peanut butter-butterscotch candy on top of oatmeal bars. They're pretty good for holding together like they're supposed to, as well--something that often disappoints me when I try bar recipes.

So Many Scraps has already posted the recipe, so there you go. I should note that they're more flexible than the recipe might sound. I didn't have enough chocolate chips, so I filled in with more butterscotch chips; and the original recipe in the booklet says to sprinkle the whole thing with half a cup chopped peanuts (So Many Scraps skipped that step) and I didn't have peanuts either, so I just sprinkled it with the last few butterscotch chips--AFTER it had cooled somewhat and they wouldn't melt. Also you can cut back somewhat on the peanut butter; I was short on it so used less in the topping than the recipe calls for. It still worked fine.

P.S. Watch any foil sticking to the bottom of the squares. You might try parchment paper in the pan instead if that worries you.

Who?

I don't like Michael Jackson because he changed so much. But this video he made with Roberta Flack confuses me.



Jackson changed so much! There is a funny bit in that video; they put on space helmets and in later years he does the moonwalk. Do you like Michael Jackson's clothes in that video?


~~Ponytails

As southern Ontario as...strawberry pie

It's the middle of strawberry season here, and we bought two baskets of them last Saturday. One basket went to make jam. Ponytails used some of them to decorate the angelfood cake for The Apprentice. And we still had a big bowlful that had been washed and so wouldn't keep long...so Mama Squirrel planned to make a strawberry pie, kind of a rare thing in this Treehouse. We are more likely to make strawberry shortcake with biscuits. But it just seemed like the right thing...

Except that when Mama Squirrel went to examine the strawberries the next day, she found that their number had greatly decreased. Oops.

But we did have a box of blueberries that Mr. Fixit had added to the shopping cart.

So: some of the (remaining) strawberries went to make the glaze for the pie. We don't use pudding mix and Jell-O, it's a scratch recipe, southern-Ontario style...but I don't bother to push strawberries through a sieve like my grandma did, I just mash them and cook them with sugar and cornstarch and a little water and lemon juice. Like making a really quick jam. And the rest I mixed with the box of blueberries, put in a baked pie crust, and poured the glaze over. That's the nice thing about this kind of pie--you don't bake the whole thing, so you don't lose the texture of the fruit.

I think I like that as much as I do a whole pie made of strawberries.

What are we all doing?

Mr. Fixit is looking forward to a few days' vacation next week. And making more jam (he already organized nine jars of strawberry last weekend). And going to Cruise Nights.

Mama Squirrel is sorting out this year's school stuff and thinking through next fall's plans. And picking lettuce...and trying to figure out why Crayons has only one pair of shorts that fit her...and looking forward to trying out some surprise school stuff via the TOS Homeschool Crew.

Last night we had dinner and spent the evening with one of our oldest homeschool-friend families. We've had a tradition, most years, of getting together at the end of school and having a school-end or graduation ceremony (whichever was most appropriate) for all our girls. Last year the timing didn't work out for it, but this year we resurrected the tradition. True to tradition, it was one of the hottest days in June! But it was still a great time, and something to really mark the end of our school year.

Next week we celebrate our wedding anniversary, and Canada Day. Canada Day falls in the middle of the week this year, which really confuses people who somehow expect that the first of July should somehow coincide with a weekend, because don't we always get a long weekend for Canada Day? Well, no, not really. But I think a lot of people will kind of create one anyway...especially now that the threatened LCBO strike has been settled. (I mean, you have to do something with all that beer you stocked up on just in case? Not at this Treehouse, but I can imagine quite a few other squirrels will be making the most of it.)

Happy summer!

What's Ponytails doing?

Celebrating the end of school with a class graduation party!

But I'll let her post about it herself.

What's the Apprentice doing?

The Apprentice is pretty much finished her high school exams for this year (English, biology, and computer engineering. Really.) But today she's taking an extra examination at a local community college, to complete the first level of her hairstyling certification. Next year she takes the other half of the exam...then she'll be certified as a hairstylist except for needing to complete more work hours. (It takes a lot of hours to do an apprenticeship.)

And then she's done school for the summer too! (Except that she still needs to write a homeschool philosophy exam for Mama Squirrel...probably the last she'll ever do.)

Crayons' Grade Two: This is the end

Janet at Across the Page put together an evaluation not of her second-grader's progress, but of the curriculum choices she made. (Included in a recent Carnival of Homeschooling.)

I've been thinking about posting something like that too--how this year's gone, what we're going to stick with or change for next year. So this is it...[Update: Well, that's what I intended to write, but this turned out to be more of a general we're-done post. Maybe I'll get more into evaluations later.]

This was our first year of having only one homesquirreler around during the day. The Apprentice, strangely enough, decided that she wanted to finish off one homeschool course this semester; but she's done that (Philosophy, the Big Questions) mostly on her own. And Ponytails was off at public school; so Crayons and I had to regroup a bit.

Mostly things went pretty well--we finished all or most of the books we had planned to, and then some--we even snuck in an extra Holling book and a Shakespeare story right at the end. Regular math seemed to peter out by the end of May...we were pretty much finished this year's Miquon workbook and I didn't want to start another one, so we just kept up with Calculadder and called it enough. We also got through quite a few of the Hidden Rods, Hidden Numbers (Cuisenaire rod) puzzles.

The year's science and nature plans didn't all work out as planned...some books got dropped partway through the year. Like Through the Year--it just didn't work well for Crayons as assigned work. A fun book to read in the back seat, but not really helpful for school. And we had planned to read both Among the Night People and Among the Forest People (books about wild animals and their habits) but just one of those turned out to be enough "people" for one year.

Goals for next year? A little more written work. And some other things that I'll post about later.

And summer vacation starts!

Shakespeare according to Crayons

Crayons decided to type her own exam response on the computer. Here's her version of Aegeon's life story from The Comedy of Errors...succinct enough?

I was on a boat and we had tied ourselves too the mast when the ship broke in half and I saw my wife and the kids get on a boat and I got on a boat too the end.!

How to live without a microwave...or a toaster oven

Cents to Get Debt Free says it's no problem.

Actually we didn't have a microwave until a couple of years ago, when one was passed on to us from a relative. Our secret? The toaster oven--that's mostly how we warmed things up, baked on hot days, and so on.

Our problem? Toaster ovens, like so many other things, are not made nearly so well as they used to be. Twenty years ago I was using one that lasted for several years--we replaced it after we were married, mostly because it was looking pretty much the worse for wear. The one we bought then lasted several years.

And the ones we've had since then? Too many of them, and they all lasted approximately two months beyond the warranty period, never mind whether they were digital or basic-style, small or pizza-sized, bought at the Big Discount Place or at the Small Reputable Hardware Store. We just had another one bite the dust, and I'm missing it, even though it was one of the smallest ones we've had (didn't fit a casserole dish properly) and never did bake as well as the others. There are lots of times in the summer that you just can't turn the big oven on, and microwaving isn't always the answer.

But we don't want to buy another meant-to-fall-apart. Mr. Fixit even thought of looking for, say, say, a 1975 model on E-bay, but it seems the shipping would be insane.

Well, anyway, the microwave is still working, so I guess--health concerns aside--we're in the opposite place right now to Debt Free. When that goes--I don't know.

Globe and Mail salt series continues

The Globe and Mail continues their series with several articles on going salt-free, what the government "should do about it," and so on; the Sodium Diaries blog, though somewhat depressing, is also educational. I'll post the links on our mostly-neglected food blog.

Crayons' Grade Two: Final Exam

This exam is not meant to be comprehensive or very difficult; it's only a sampling of what we covered this past term.

Writing

Write 2-4 lines of a poem that you memorized this term.

Dictation

"But he's smaller than most of the sheep," said Drew. "How are you going to get one dog to make all those sheep do what you want?"--Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Makers

Literature

1. We read the story of The Comedy of Errors.

“Aegeon had no money to pay the fine, and the duke, before he pronounced the sentence of death upon him, desired him to relate the history of his life, and to tell for what cause he had ventured to come to the city of Ephesus, which it was death for any Syracusan merchant to enter."

Explain what happened because of this. Here are some names and places you can use: Antipholus, Dromio, Adriana, Ephesus, Syracuse

2. Mr. Pipes wrote letters to Annie and Drew. Write a short letter back to him as an answer.

3. What was your favourite part of Seabird? Tell it in words or draw a good picture...or make a comic strip.

OR

3. Tell about the ending of Pilgrim’s Progress, or draw a good picture, or make a comic strip.

Library Skills

1. How does the Dewey Decimal System work? Give some examples of books you might be looking for and where you would find them;

or, tell me where in the library you would find these books:

How to Feed Your Pet Cat
100 Synonyms for Beautiful
Cooking with Popcorn
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A Child's History of the World

Handicrafts

1. Tell what you would need to do if you wanted to make a snowflake cloth.


Reading Skills

Ask Dad to choose something for you to read aloud.

Charlotte Mason Carnival

A message from the CM Carnival owner:

"The latest edition of the Charlotte Mason Homeschool Blog Carnival is posted here. Thanks to Brenda for hosting today; she's put together a lovely carnival."

Can you spell weird?

No more "i before e"--it's just too hard.

But if Charlie Brown could handle it...

Festival of Frugality

The Financial Highway hosts the latest edition of the Festival of Frugality. An Editor's Pick entry I enjoyed as well: "The three levels of frugality" at FabulouslyBroke.com. (Although it seems to me that UnFrugal doesn't exactly qualify as a level of frugality...more of an anti-level?)

Low Sodium with the Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is running a series on hidden salt and the problems of trying to cut sodium in your diet--oh, like we hadn't noticed that it's really hard? Of course it's not as simple as "Don't add salt to the vegetables." Here's their article "Salt: Hard to Shake."

Thankfully, Mr. Fixit's current diet recommendations are just to "take it easy on salt"--meaning, watch out for things like convenience foods, soy sauce, the real bad stuff. He is still trying to be careful by comparing labels. and choosing the frozen fries that are lowest in sodium (the generic ones, oddly enough), Shredded Wheat over higher-sodium cereals, and so on. But that is not nearly so hard as the 1500 mg per day as he was trying to do six months ago.

Anyway, here are the Globe and Mail Sodium Diaries--someone "taking the challenge." Here's a video--yes, the first bit is a commercial for accountants. Here's a quiz to take. And here's a "salt-o-meter" you can play with.

Favourite Cookbooks? (Bonus book to download!)

The Real Life Home has a post about her favourite cookbooks--why she likes them, favourite recipes. Want to join in?

Mostly I use my binder of recipes that I've printed out and clipped. So I could say that my favourite cookbooks include the Internet, Canadian Living, magazine ads, and my grandmother's recipe box.

My favourite cookbooks years ago were mostly vegetarian cookbooks, and I had a lot of them, especially before we went online. Most of them I've given away since then, especially the soy-based books, because a couple of the Treehouse people have discovered that tofu and TVP don't agree with them--I haven't even made our favourite Chocolate Pie in a long time, for that reason.

One I still use, or at least go to for ideas, is Nikki & David Goldbeck's American Wholefoods Cuisine: Over 1300 Meatless, Wholesome Recipes from Short Order to Gourmet. What I like: international menu ideas and the menu suggestions after a lot of the recipes; the "Food Factory" section (a lot of basic instructions for cooking beans, freezing things and so on), stock-less soup recipes, sauces and dips. Where we differ: their baking is almost always sweetened with honey, which is fine for some people but I still use sugar. Anything we don't like: I like their molasses-cranberry baked pudding fine, but it's a bit intense for my kids.

Another book that's gotten pretty worn is Whole Foods for the Whole Family, a La Leche League International Cookbook. Its 1981 date means that it's very big on cutting out sugar, less concerned about fat. Very family-friendly and with a view towards economy (recipes contributed by a wide variety of LLLl members). Things I've never made and don't plan to: the liver recipes (the Squirrels are not big on organ meats), and some of the regional things like Goetta (sounds like Scrapple) and White Boudin. Things I like: lots of "optionals" and choices, like baking recipes that use sugar or honey, butter or oil.

A very small book that I got when we were first married and still use sometimes: Eating Better...A Basic Shelf Cookbook. This is an early edition of the book still sold by the City of York Health Unit. [Hmm, I followed the links there and it doesn't seem to be available now. But here's a PDF of a similar book published by the Porcupine Health Unit.] Check out the no-salt seasoning blends!] Very economical and based mostly on real-life-keep-in-your-pantry items. (Does anyone else get annoyed by cookbooks that assume you have capers in the pantry?) Things I don't like: bland recipes made with hamburger (I think they improved them in later editions), and a terrible recipe for oatmeal cookies. Recipes I still like: stovetop rice pudding made with powdered milk, pudding mix made with powdered milk, bean salad.

There, that's three: we also use two volumes of the Harrowsmith Cookbook, all three Food That Really Schmecks cookbooks, the Beany Malone Cookbook, and Betty Crocker's Cookbook (because I can never remember how much sweetening to put in the whipped cream; I also like the meatloaf and brownie recipes). A few months ago I was also drawing heavily on some low-sodium cookbooks from the library, but we haven't had those out for awhile; they're a good source of no-salt seasoning mixes and other general ideas.

I never heard that word before, and a quiz

I think it has too many letters for Scrabble, but it could come in handy anyway: "Robinsonade." I've also seen it spelled "Robinsonnade."

Which means a story inspired by Robinson Crusoe. Like Abel's Island. Or Swiss Family Robinson. Or Lord of the Flies (sorry, Apprentice).

How long do you think this term has been used?

a) Since 1834
b) Since 1995
c) Since 1731
d) Since 2001

A Year of Crockpotting--soon on your bookshelf

Steph's book is now available for pre-order. Congratulations!

The things I did on Father's Day so far!

I gave Mr.Fixit some Homer Simpson socks for Father's Day. I also made a cake all by myself. Well, it was an angelcake bought from a local market. But I iced it in whipped cream, drizzled it in chocolate, and chopped strawberries and put them on top. For The Apprentice's birthday party.












Oh, and I took all those pictures. So, I gave myself a photography course. Yes, I like cake too! A-doo-da-le-doo! :-)

~~Ponytails

Happy Father's Day, Mr. Fixit

Picture found here.

All kinds of math (carnivals)

Denise at Let's Play Math posted a reminder about the Carnival of Mathematics #53 and also today's Math Teachers at Play #9 - Game Time! That one looks really fun, and here's a sample:

"You know those illusions on the back of cereal boxes where your eyes trick you into thinking two identical objects aren’t? Well, Pat Ballew has a very interesting post on the subject, including links to video and some java applets that let you play with and manipulate the shapes. Check it out: Fool me once, Fool me Everytime? posted at Pat’sBlog.

"And if you really want to confuse your brain and eyes, check out “A Pattern’s Math Magic” and Nick’s review of Tokolo Pattern Magnets and the math behind them at NYTimes Blog: The Moment."