Tightwad Gazette Revisited: On Used Things and Hacks

In Tightwad Gazette III, Amy Dacyczyn wrote:

"Even frugal parents who bring home yard-sale toys for their kids still give them only new toys for Christmas.  The new merchandise is given with more honor and enthusiasm, even when the quality is the same.  Kids learn that new is better...."

In the same article ("A New Way to Look at Used Things"),  she wrote:

"Conversely, it's also wrong to assume that used is always a better value.  Each has benefits."

And on one of our Abundance posts a few years ago (linked below), Alison commented:

"This is one of my pet peeves as well. I'd love to be like my grandparents, using household items 40 and 60 years after purchase but as you all have pointed out, that's not easy to do these days even if you are well-intentioned and determined."

Has anything changed since Amy's mid-90's musings on the mystique of new stuff?

As far as we Squirrels are concerned, no.  In fact, I'd say we're even more likely to be spending our money on certain types of used things than we were back then, thanks to Ebay, online used booksellers, and so on. "Vintage" has become a funkier cousin of "used."  And in some ways it is easier now to hang on to older things we still have, because it's now easier to find parts to fix them. 

I think our family has even moved to a level of used-stuff-appreciation beyond what we might have considered normal fifteen years ago...particularly in the area of gift-giving to each other, or in acquiring what you might call more frivolous, optional, or hobby items.  That comes partly out of the fact that what's out there in new stuff (for instance, toys) in our price range is pretty junky.  If you have a lot of money to spend, there are things out there of higher quality; but if you have to choose, say, between one new $10 item from the discount department store, and $10 worth of nice thrift-shopped stuff,  the used stuff usually wins out, and not just because you can get more of it.  When we're buying gifts for people outside our own family, though, we almost always buy something new, unless we know them really well.

And that's the catch.  I don't think our way of looking at stuff is very well accepted outside of the circle of people like Frugal Hacks fans and Treehouse readers.  If you're reading this, the odds are that you're probably a bit out of the mainstream too.  If you go, for instance, onto a forum discussing the Tightwad Gazette books, you'll read a lot of "ughs" and "that's borderline child abuse" and so on, especially from parents who I think are a bit younger than I am.  When we talk to people starting families, they take it for granted that they'll be buying all-new baby gear. Ecology is big and all that, but at the same time, kids growing up in this century are more conditioned than ever to be entitled to all the new toys that they want.  And that includes toys for grownups--electronics, huge amounts of clothing and shoes, new furniture whenever the old stuff gets a bit tired, fancy sports and exercise equipment whenever we make a new fitness resolution, and so on.

Amy pointed out some of the benefits of used stuff, when you can find it:  that, as I said, you can simply get more of what you want (a big bucket of used Lego vs. a small new package), or that you can find an older, better-made item from a used source.  I've heard people complain about newer slow cookers, that they often cook too hot and burn food, and that older ones are actually better.  As the commenter to our post said, you might find something older and still working, and find that it keeps on going practically forever.  (In the case of our older cars, though, current legislation forced them off the road even though they were still running fine.)  Or you might find that you can solve a problem or have more fun without buying anything at all...or just choose to keep using something even if it's no longer shiny or perfect.  I've posted about some of Crayons' "toy hacks," such as the time she took her own toys and set up something similar to a widely-advertised dolls' winter cabin.  At Christmas time, she set up one of her dolls in a shoebox sleigh, tied to (yard-saled) plastic horses...Mama Squirrel contributed a dollar store "snow blanket" for the snow.

And as Amy says, there are times when we buy new because that makes sense.  We bought some homeschooling books new this year because they were what we needed, and because we chose to support a family-run homeschool store with our purchases.   We bought Crayons' new boots at the discount department store, because we didn't have any bigger ones that fit her and we didn't feel like fooling with used boots.  We bought brand-new heavy-duty plastic shelving for storage (on sale), because we were tired of restacking cardboard boxes and we had no source of comparable used shelving.  We bought a couple of new snow shovels (for obvious reasons).  

But we'll keep on buying as much as we can used...both for our own needs, and just to prove that, often, you can get more for less.

Related posts:
Second-Hand Pants Song (link to You-tube video)
Abundance Post: Make It Do
Abundance Post: Wear it Out
Postscript to Wearing it Out

What's for Supper? Pakistani Beef Curry and Blueberry Crisp

Tonight's dinner:

Pakistani Kima from The More with Less Cookbook, adapted to use cauliflower and other ingredients we had in the fridge
Brown rice
Homemade tortilla chips (flour tortillas cut in triangles and crisped in the oven) (taking the place of chapatis or pappadums)
Yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce
Blueberry crisp (incorporating the end of a box of bran flakes into the topping); yogurt or milk

Pakistani Kima (our adaptation)

1/2 chopped onion
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 lb. ground beef
1 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. salt (much less than the recipe calls for)
dash pepper
dash each cinnamon, ginger, and turmeric
1 good cupful diced canned tomatoes
1 small head cauliflower, cut up (instead of potato)
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped
(The recipe calls for frozen peas, but we didn't have any)

Either saute the onion and garlic in some oil and then add the beef; or brown the meat until it is almost done (what we did) and then add the onion, garlic, and spices.  Either way, get everything in the pan up through the spices.  Then add in the tomatoes and whatever other vegetables you like.  Cover and simmer 25 minutes, checking to see if it needs more liquid.  Serve with rice.

What's for supper? St.Valentine's Day Dinner

Garlic bread rounds (cut from a submarine bun, spread with margarine and garlic powder, and broiled in the toaster oven)

Salad (lettuce, celery, apple,  homegrown sprouts, and dried cranberries for colour)

Chicken Cacciatore with fusilli (recipe below)

Cocoa Ricotta Cream in fancy dessert dishes, with star sprinkles (left over from a birthday)


Chicken Thighs Cacciatore

I put about eight partly-thawed boneless chicken thighs in the Crockpot, and added about a cupful of diced canned tomatoes, half a chopped onion, and a generous sprinkle (at least a tablespoonful) of tarragon dressing mix.  That cooked on high for about five hours, until the chicken was cooked through but not yet falling to pieces.  About an hour before dinner, I added a package of fresh mushrooms and a can of tomato paste...the tomato paste could have been added earlier, but I wasn't sure how much thickening the sauce would need.

We served sauce and pasta separately, but you could combine them for serving if you prefer.  We also had grated Mozzarella cheese  on the table for topping--no deals on Parmesan lately.

Are you a curriculum junkie?

Are you looking for one magic product that's going to solve all your homeschooling problems?
Do you have a lot of stuff you thought you'd use and didn't but that you're still hanging onto?
Or, on the other hand--do you have the fullest table every year at the used curriculum swap?

Books and Bairns wants to know...and she has links to some other online discussion on this topic.

As for us...no, not junkies here.  Book lovers, yes...but, if anything, I tend to be under-interested in more "packaged" homeschool materials.  Partly because I can't afford to jump onto any curriculum bandwagon that's going to require more than a few dollars' output...that may mean that we miss out on some great but pricey stuff, but that's just the way things are.  Also because you can come up with a lot of your own great ideas by using books such as Ruth Beechick's 4-8 guide...and that does save on bubblewrap.

But even if something's cheap or free...well, I might try it out, and I have (otherwise I would never have signed on for the year of Review Crew), but generally I already know what has worked well for us and where we're headed, so I'm cautious about making big changes even with free stuff.  Knowing that Ambleside Online gives us year-by-year direction has been a huge blessing to us over the past decade--and has kept me out of many curriculum rabbit trails.  As for the subjects not directly covered by AO--math, languages, extra science--we've taken it year by year and switched mainly when we ran out of levels (Miquon Math).

What's your junkie status?

(Related post: Is there a homeschool store in your cupboard?)

What's for supper? Bratwurst and bits and pieces

Tonight's supper menu:

Bratwurst sausages, cooked in a skillet with enough water to steam
About a third of a bag of perogies, boiled and then added to the skillet
A bit of sauerkraut, added to the skillet at the end

Mixed sweet potatoes and black beans from last night, spread in a pan and breadcrumb topping added--an improvement on plain reheated leftovers
Applesauce, cottage cheese

Dessert:  whatever's around.

Thursday Homeschool Plans

9 a.m.: New hymn (see video), Tennyson's poems, and several pages from Marva Collins' Way, which we are reading parts of both for Black History Month and for some character building/academic inspiration.



9:20 a.m.: Crayons do math and Bible Geography with Mom. Ponytails work on independent math and other work.

9:50 a.m.: French: We are supposed to be reading from Les Insectes, but the book has temporarily disappeared so we may have to do something else. Also: French Bible copywork.

10:10 a.m.: Crayons take a break, Ponytails work with Mom.

10:30 a.m.: Ponytails take a break, Crayons do English with Mom. Review the parts of speech, and read two pages about how to make the most of watching educational "T.V. specials." Which shows how old that book is.

10:50 a.m.: "Educational T.V. Special." To be decided...we were going to watch a Christian dinosaur video that Mama Squirrel picked up from a freebie box, but after checking it out online it appears that there were quite a few issues with this movie, so we will choose something else.

Lunchtime: Ponytails work with Dad.

1 p.m.: Crayons do geometry (from Math Mammoth Grade 4) and finish a chapter from George Washington's World. Ponytails finish independent work and do any needed work with Mom.

2 p.m.: Group reading from Bulfinch's Age of Fable. Homemaking lesson: read several pages from the Food chapter in Hidden Art of Homemaking, and do some baking together.

3 p.m.: Teatime.

What's for supper? Fish and veggies

Tonight's supper:

Baked Alaskan pollock (frozen block of fish)
1 large sweet potato, sliced and baked
Canned black beans, baked along with the sweet potato
Kale
Reheated couscous
Cottage cheese
Banana mini-muffins

Food prices will be going up...again

One of Grandpa Squirrel's recent weekend papers (The Star) ran this article about projected rising food costs in Canada.

If you search Google News for related articles about higher food prices, you'll see similar articles in papers from the UK and Australia.

Actually I hadn't thought that prices around here had been that bad lately--it has seemed like we've been getting more groceries for the money, at least at the discount supermarket. We've found some very good deals on meat and day-old bread. But according to the article, we're in a bit of a safe bubble around here (check out this new-model upscale grocery)--and it could pop any time.

Not to spread black clouds around...but it's always good to be reminded. You never know when your saving skills may be what keeps your family going.

How homeschoolers do things: science at home

Check out the blog At Home Science for some very keen experiments and book ideas. Many of the recent posts are drawn from studies in one of Paul Fleisher's Secrets of the Universe volumes.

(Thanks to the Ambleside Online list member who pointed this blog out!)

Quote for the day: the centre is poetry

"To try to teach literature by starting with the applied use of words, or 'effective communication', as it's often called, then gradually work into literature through the more documentary forms of prose fiction and finally into poetry, seems to me a futile procedure.  If literature is to be properly taught, we have to start at its centre, which is poetry, then work outwards to literary prose, then outwards from there to the applied languages of business and professions and ordinary life."--Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination

What's for supper? (and why not to buy cheap baking powder and cocoa)

Tonight's supper:

Subversive Tuna Wrapup with white sauce
Combination of broccoli, red peppers, and a bit of frozen broccoli-red pepper-other mixture veggies
Small panful of frozen french fries

Choice of pie (left over from the weekend) or homemade chocolate pudding

And now a comment on cocoa.  The kind you bake with, not the kind you drink.

Some of us do not normally buy gourmet-type ingredients, nor do we particularly care or notice the difference, say, in whether the cheese mixed with the macaroni is on-sale store-brand or something grander (and necessarily more expensive).  And in many cases, unless you're feeding gourmets who make it their mission to care about such things, or have other reasons such as dietary concerns for wanting a particular level of organic or something-or-other-free, the cheap brand of most ingredients will do nicely for everyday cooking.  Well, okay, so we're a bit fussy about canned tuna--we prefer the next level up from the dog-food-type cheapest kind.  And we do look for a few low-sodium options such as a particular brand of sauerkraut.  But in general, generic is okay with us.  Even in baking, I often go for cheaper alternatives such as imitation vanilla.  I am not trying to win a baking contest, I'm just making oatmeal cookies.

However, there are at least two baking ingredients that it pays to fuss over.  One is the lumpy cheap generic baking powder that leaves little bits of bitter near the top of the muffins.  Blech.  It also comes in a nasty container like a Parmesan cheese can (if you ever buy that kind of Parmesan cheese--I don't) with a swivelling top that's almost impossible to get a tablespoon into, therefore requiring me to decant it into another container, and this shaking-up-and-down-and-out process is time out of my life that I could really spend doing much more interesting things.

So no more of that; I'll either buy it in bulk or spring for the name-brand, which comes with a regular old screw-on lid.  Or substitute cream of tartar plus baking soda (see the Tightwad Gazette or search online for simple instructions).

The other thing I've decided it's worth paying more for is cocoa.  If your cocoa-using recipes come out kind of so-so, it might be the recipe, but on the other hand--it might be the cocoa. The Bulk Barn stores here sell Ruddy Red Cocoa, a Dutch-process alkalized cocoa.  According to their site, "the alkalizing process neutralizes the acidity, leaving a mild but rich tasting cocoa powder that lends a deep chocolate colour to your favourite recipes. If a recipe calls for "Dutch process" cocoa, this is the one to use!"  In the past year or so I've tried it in most of our favourite cakes, brownies, puddings and holiday recipes, and I am a convert.  I much prefer it to the lighter brown supermarket stuff, even if it's messier to scoop.   It's like the difference between fresh-ground pepper and powdered gray stuff.  Or Parmesan cheese in a can vs. freshly grated.  Or fresh nutmeg and pre-ground; not that I always use fresh nutmeg either, but you get the idea?

I finished off the end of the bag in the chocolate pudding, and I guess we will now have to use up some of the regular stuff I have in the pantry.  But I am planning to buy more of it before too long; good cocoa does make a difference.

Here's the chocolate pudding recipe; it's enlarged and adapted from the vanilla/butterscotch/chocolate pudding recipe in Betty Crocker's Cookbook.

Chocolate Pudding

3/4 cup white sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cocoa, see notes above (I might have put in slightly more, since I was dumping out the plastic bag)
3 cups of milk (I used a can of evaporated milk, thinned with water to make 3 cups)
1/2 tbsp. vanilla
chocolate chips for topping, optional

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa with a whisk.  Over medium heat, gradually stir in milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.  Be patient, this will take a few minutes and you don't want it to burn; turn on a good radio station or contemplate something worthwhile, but don't forget to pay attention to what's in the pot.  Keep whisking and remove from heat when it comes to a boil; stir in the vanilla.  Pour into a container of some kind--I prefer a square Pyrex cake pan so that it thickens and chills evenly.  Chill in the refrigerator with plastic wrap spread over the top to reduce skin buildup; you can sprinkle the top with chocolate chips first if you want.  Serves 4 to 6.

The personality of a crocheter

"I suspect that many people who continue to keep a crochet hook handy retain a pronounced ability to improvise; we think neither more nor less about what we're doing when we grab the hook and bit of string than we think about choosing to walk or skip or run. We bring a destination to mind and launch forth on a direct or a meandering path....In crochet, the basic component is tiny and yet self-sufficient: Each loop is complete at the same time....crochet plays a game whose rules and goal lines change with every movement: a game with no out-of-bounds, a game that perfectly balances control and freedom.

"Open a door, open a loop: Walk out to discover the wider world, raise a single, tiny, bent strand.

"What will come next?"--"One Loop at a Time," by Deborah Robson, in Hooked: A Crocheter's Stash of Wit and Wisdom. (Check it out on Google Books.)

What's for supper? (Thai Chicken and Poppyseed Cake)

Thai-Style Curried Chicken
Rice, Oriental frozen vegetable mix

Clementines
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, baked in a 9-inch pan instead of as muffins. I used 1/2 tsp. of lemon extract instead of lemon zest, and thinned yogurt instead of buttermilk.

Tightwad Gazette Revisited: Notebook of Frugal Triumphs...and blessings

In the Tightwad Gazette Volume 3, or the Complete Tightwad Gazette, there is a note from a newsletter subscriber, who said that she had begun keeping a "journal of frugal triumphs." She found that documenting and then reviewing small successes and "scores" was an encouragement on the days that didn't go so well.

I remember reading this at the time (around 1996) and keeping a similar list...I don't have it now, but I remember such things as finding not one but two dressy dresses in my size at a yard sale, right before a cousin's wedding; a neighbour passing on some extra milk to us (she didn't know we had just finished up the last of it); and Mr. Fixit bringing home free milk and juice that he got at the gas station for filling up his work van (it was okay to do that--the company he worked for didn't want the milk and juice).

I never counted those things as triumphs, though; I thought of them more as blessings than boastings. I read a quote--I think it was in the Os Guinness book I just finished--about atheists being in a pickle when they're feeling thankful and have nobody to thank.

And though I don't always keep a list on paper, I do remember many of the small and large blessings, of the frugal and financial sort, that we have seen over the years. Things like finding something useful at the back of the cupboard; finding a recipe that just matches what's on hand; having something offered to us that we needed; finding a good sale at the supermarket or a treasure at the thrift store. Here are a few of the most recent:

A black skirt for Mama Squirrel from the thrift shop, part wool, suitable for church. Price: $1. (Back in December, MS also found a couple of holiday outfits there for a total of less than $10.)

An extra week's wages for Mr. Fixit; he didn't take enough sick days over the past while, so it was made up in pay. That is a blessing in more ways than one.

Three thrift shop books on Saturday: two by Philip Yancey, and Becoming a Woman of Excellence by Cynthia Heald, something I had wanted to read. Also a copy--a bit battered--of Teddy Jam's Night Cars.

Marked-down chicken and other meat at the supermarket--it wasn't even about to expire. Mr. Fixit cooked the chicken last night for Sunday dinner and it was very good.

Marked-down chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies. Marked-down Italian bread at the more-expensive-supermarket on a day that was too stormy to go to our usual discount store.

Ponytails got 25 Mabel's Labels free with a coupon on the laundry detergent. And a free pair of cupcake earrings on a blog giveaway.

The Apprentice won a free t-shirt and a price card good for store discounts.

Sheets on sale.

Ponytails found a good sewing section in a recently-opened Walmart (somewhere we don't usually shop, so just her being there was kind of unusual); and they had the webbing she needed for her sewing project.

Finally: do you remember the story of Crayons' Crissy doll, how when we bought her she smelled so badly of cigarettes and how her original green plaid dress didn't survive the cleaning? Crayons found the same dress on E-bay last week (Mama Squirrel was helping her look at Crissy clothes) and she got it for less than a dollar--nobody else bid on it. When Mr. Fixit mentioned to the seller that the dress was for his little girl's doll, she cancelled the shipping charge. There are some very, very nice people out there.

What's for supper?--Applesauce Chicken

We haven't had A Year of Slow Cooking's Applesauce Chicken for a long time--I made it tonight with bone-in thighs, and baked it in the oven instead of in the slow cooker. I thickened it at the end with cornstarch--there was lots of sauce.

Go-withs:

Baked butternut squash
Couscous
Peas

Banana bread, yogurt

Revisiting The Tightwad Gazette, 2011

When I thought about doing some blog posts on The Tightwad Gazette, I was hoping to start a little closer to the actual 20-year anniversary of the newsletter's starting date.  I had a vague impression of "1991" in my head--turned out that, oops, this is indeed OUR 20-year anniversary, but Amy Dacyczyn started the newsletter in May 1990.

When I first knew Mr. Fixit, I was sort of a tightwad wanna-be; or perhaps a frequently-misbehaving tightwad.  By the time we got married, necessity made us both more than ready to tighten things up more than they had been; late-night courting pizzas had been fun, but a new house (even a small one) and a Squirreling soon on the way meant a different reality.  Plus the whole economy was in a bad spot during those years.  As I've said before, wedding rings were cheap; broccoli was expensive.

So all that is to say that, from our earliest Treehouse days, we tried to be careful with money; we had other books about frugality and quite a few broke-and-or-frugal friends to learn from; but I don't remember exactly when or how I first heard about The Tightwad Gazette.  The first book was published in 1992, but I bought it used sometime later, maybe in 1993 or '94.  The second book came out in 1995, and I got it with "four free books for joining" from a book club (I still had some things to learn).  At that point we started subscribing to the newsletter, and almost right away heard that it would be winding up in 1996.

Bummer.

But we did get several months' worth of newsletters, and then bought the third book when it came out at the end of the year.  Brand new, $17.95.  I knew it would be worth it.

So knowing all that, I guess our most intense apprenticeship with Amy would have been through the early to mid '90's.  I took the handles off a small pot, trying to make it fit inside our pressure cooker to make rice and beans (I gave up on that--pot and cooker were just the wrong shape). I tried a whole lot of things, especially food-related, from the books:  gelatin, popsicles, coffee mixes, chili, breadcrumb cookies, practicing "how to avoid feeling deprived," home haircutting (Mr. Fixit was the first to try that here); buying grains and beans from a co-op; juice-lid toys; the "snowball principle"; the "combining frugal strategies" principle; frugal-baby ideas; newspaper Easter bonnets; and egg-carton crowns.  (I passed on the dryer-lint Halloween mask.)  We didn't try everything (have never been dumpster diving either), but we learned one main principle:  nothing is too weird to try if it means you stay afloat.  And another one:   that a lot of "radical tightwad" ideas are just the "normal" of a couple of generations ago--less stuff, more time and so on.

If fixing, scrounging and occasionally doing without things meant that we could pay off our house, have me stay home with the kids (and eventually homeschool them), and stay out of credit-card debt--then, as Amy says in the intro to her first book, we weren't too frugal. 

It wasn't until years later that I realized, via Google, how many people out there had issues with certain frugal practices and Dacyczyn parenting points.  Given the number of critics who are STILL trashing Amy on message boards for powdered milk and making her kids clean their plates, it's no wonder that their family went into a more private lifestyle after the newsletter ended.   I still admire her, though, and am still learning through her books (I keep them with our cookbooks); Amy stuck her neck out, did the math instead of just saying "this should save you money," and took the risk of being called extremist. 

Maybe it's fifteen years since we connected, maybe it's more; it doesn't matter exactly.  The Dacyczyns' risk gave us more confidence to live the way we wanted, and to keep working on that over the years.  And for that, we thank them, and the Gazette.

This Term's Work: Picture Study

My choice for this term's art study is Woldemar Neufeld.

We were going to do Tom Thomson, but I have this lovely book that Mr. Fixit bought for me as an early Christmas present this year...and Neufeld, although he spent much of his life in the U.S., also did many paintings of this part of Ontario.  Here's a short bio page. 

We'll probably also visit the Neufield gallery.

When the fridge is empty...or full...(What's for supper?)

The week after New Year's is sometimes a strange one, grocery-wise. As Cardamom Addict pointed out, you may be using up the last of unusual holiday ingredients; in our case, we're also short on/out of a few things. Groceries tomorrow.

So what was in the fridge/freezer/cupboard for supper?

Well, there was quiche, left over from last night. But I was also thawing a package of ground chicken. My plan was just to cook it with a can of no-salt tomato sauce, and serve it over spaghetti. Easy if not inspired. But there wasn't anything extra to put into meat sauce--no mushrooms or peppers. So what about some kind of a white sauce? There was half-and-half cream, the last bought-on-sale grated Romano cheese, sour cream, mixed herbs that I had put together for a food gift (what was left afterwards), Scoobi-doo pasta, frozen peas...all of that went together in a skillet dish loosely based on Chicken Alfredo. It didn't look as fancy as Chicken Alfredo, but it tasted good. It could have maybe used a stronger dose of the herbs, but I was being cautious. Mr. Fixit added hot sauce to his.

And there was a head of iceberg lettuce, bought for economy, not for taste. The middle of the head was too yellow to eat, but the outside was fine. There were half a dozen carrots rolling around the crisper; I sliced one thin for salad and made carrot sticks out of the rest. To the lettuce and carrots I added the last of a bunch of celery, and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. I also opened a can of no-salt chick peas and put them on the table for them that wanted.

There was a rare can of refrigerated crescent rolls, bought last week when the supermarket had them for 99 cents. Ponytails put those together.

I wanted to make cookies today, but we are out of butter and close to the end of the margarine, so it had to be an oil-based recipe. So I mixed up a batch of Sesame Cookies, made without the raisins but with chopped candied ginger added instead. (I used the end of a box of raw sugar too.)

There was some leftover gingerbread cake. And canned peaches if anyone had wanted them, but we were all full enough.

Sometimes you feel like you're starting with nothing. But you end up with something...and leftovers as well.

Friday School Plans...and Crayons' Epiphany Gala

What's up today for the Squirrelings?

Well, that's after we get enough clothes on to go out and shovel the steps and help Mr. Fixit clear the driveway.

We have been reading Little Town on the Prairie together this week before starting other classes--just something that got started on kind of a whim.  And we usually start with a hymn or O Canada--sometimes with the hymn books, sometimes with You-tube.

Then Crayons has table work with me--she has just started Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade 4 (thanks, Mr. Fixit, for printing it out), so she's doing addition and subtraction review in that book.  And I have to put a few dates together for her to paste into her timeline book--we are doing a Book of the Centuries but in a format that doesn't take as much writing.  Oh, and we have a science experiment involving popcorn.  And four pages of Robinson Crusoe.

Ponytails has ongoing work in math and science; she is doing an outline of a magazine article (from one of the units in Write with the Best) and studying nouns in Easy Grammar Plus.  Today is Canadian History day (we usually read that together) and she also has half a chapter of Story of the World Book 4 to read.  And some assigned pages from The Accidental Voyage (the last Mr. Pipes book of hymns and history).

Group times:  we are continuing our French lessons together, reading Louisa May Alcott's Jack and Jill, reading a couple of pages from It Couldn't Just Happen, and doing a picture study.  Except that it's now Friday morning and I'm not sure what picture we're doing.  I guess that will have to wait until after lunch.

Making stuff:  Ponytails has a couple of current projects; she'll probably post them on her blog when she's done.  Crayons has been extremely busy over the last few days since she arranged a Twelfth Night/Epiphany party for her Only Hearts Club doll (who's Hispanic), the little sister of the Only Hearts Club doll, the same-sized friends of the Only Hearts Club doll, and the rest of us human beings, who felt a bit like we'd been invited to the Miss Happiness and Miss Flower housewarming in Rumer Godden's book.  She made decorations, gave a speech, gave EVERYONE tiny Sculpey presents, gave us paper hats, and read us the Three Kings Day chapter of The Happy Orpheline.   I love it when the Squirrelings get old enough to think of things like that all by themselves.  Thanks, Crayons!

Christmas Dessert: Chocolate Trifle, now with photos

(The toothpicks are not meant to be decorative--they were to hold the plastic wrap up.)

This is the recipe we used for trifle--the same one we've used for several years, but it's been quite awhile since we've made one.  We cut back on the sugar in the whipped cream, and added thawed frozen raspberries.  What to put on top?  Mama Squirrel found some chocolate sprinkles in the cupboard, and The Apprentice used bell and star cutters to cut shapes from the leftover cake.

(Note:  we made this a day ahead, since the trifle part is better if it sets--but Mama Squirrel forgot that sprinkles on whipped cream tend to melt and bleed a bit.  Good thing we had a few left in the jar to top it up again.)

Photos:  Ponytails

Christmas Cookies: Last Minute (now with photo)

We got to Christmas Eve and the cookie stash was depleted...even the Butterscotch Bars were almost gone.  Note to self:  stop making the kinds of cookies that people like too much too many days before Christmas.

OK...time for one batch of something quick.  The fastest sugar cookie recipe I know!  (Remember Speed Baking?)

Push onto the pans.  Press with a glass.  Just about ready to go into the oven--and I thought of Grandma Squirrel's little canape cutters in the drawer.  I found the flower and star cutters, and cut a shape through each cookie--not lifting out the dough, just leaving it in the middle.  As they baked, the cut-out part baked back into the cookie, but left us with an impression of the shape. 

The stars turned out clearer than the flowers...but we had a bit of strawberry-flavoured frosting in the fridge (from the Apprentice's class brownie project), and that went on about half the cookies...plus...oh, up on the top shelf we had some pastel star sprinkles from someone's birthday! Yes!

So we have plain star cookies, and icing star cookies.  Sometimes last-minute baking turns out the best of all.

(How do you get strawberry-flavoured frosting?  Ice-cream/milk shake flavouring--The Apprentice had bought some last year to put in milk shakes.)

Photo: Ponytails.

Linked from Four Moms' Christmas Baking, December 2011.

What happened to the green burlap? (mini gift sacks)

That October rummage sale turned out to be one of the most useful we went to all fall.

The yarn mostly went into potholders; the blue fabric became a cover for my baking binder; the red candles went into our Advent wreath; we used the glass candle jar during the holiday season; Mr. Fixit has been reading How the Irish Saved Civilization. And then there was "one unopened package of "decorator burlap" in an interesting avocado-greenish colour (I'd guess it's been around for awhile)."

I cut the large sheet of burlap into twelve rectangles, and sewed each one up the side and across the bottom to make a small "potato sack."  (I zigzagged across the tops first so they wouldn't fray too much.)  Really easy--I mean, potato sacks aren't supposed to be perfect or fancy anyway.

After lessons were done one day, the Squirrelings and I had been playing around a bit with fusible webbing (Therm O Web HeatnBond Lite Iron-On Adhesive, if you need to know) and brown paper bags.  I made my own "iron on patches" by ironing webbing onto a piece of fabric, tracing small cookie cutter shapes onto the paper backing, and cutting them apart.  Instant iron-on appliques. 

I had the sacks.  I had the patches.  Moment of serendipity.

What went in the bags?  Sandwich bags of hot chocolate mix and crunchy salad toppers. And one of Peppered Pecans for a hot-tongued relative. A couple of them went to friends as small gifts, tied up with ribbon and candy canes. I tied the rest with brown yarn that had jingle bells and name tags strung on first; they were place markers/table gifts for Christmas dinner.

Not bad for a what's-in-your-hand.

This post is linked from Works-for-me-Wednesday: 2010 Reflections.

Use-what-you-have doll wardrobe (or, Crystal's Christmas Surprise)

What did Crayons and Crystal get for Christmas?

Actually these clothes aren't just for Crystal; she has to share them with her "sister" Crissy, who's about the same height but slimmer.  A few of them will fit one doll better than the other.

Crystal in the nightclothes we made her last year

Crissy in a dress "upcycled" from a wine bag

Where did the fabrics come from?

Last year we bought a "grab bag" of co-ordinating red and blue fabrics at the mill-end store, for about $7.  Crayons used some of it to sew a pencil case, but the rest of it was still uncut.  We also had a nice thick red scrap of material from a church sale (perfect for a bathrobe), a piece of print material from a long-ago rummage sale (I had always thought it would make a pretty doll dress), and a burgundy t-shirt (one with a lot of stretch) that we found at the thrift shop just before Christmas.  Total costs for a doll quilt and pillows, tote bag, and several items of clothing?  Counting a spool of red thread and the stuff we had on hand like elastic and Velcro, I'd say it was under fifteen dollars.

Oh, and the batting for the quilt and the tote bag was a dollar-store "snow blanket."  It was thinner than regular quilt batting, just right for doll things.

Where did the patterns come from?

Several of the things were made from patterns in Sew the Essential Wardrobe for 180inch Dolls, by Joan Hinds and Jean Becker, found on the discard shelf at the library. (The print dress, the blue print blouse, the red bathrobe, the pale blue nightie, the burgundy turtleneck, the checked pants.) There are full-size double-sided patterns folded into the back of the book; I traced them onto tracing paper although they could be photocopied instead.  This book leaves out facings, giving all the blouses and dresses a full bodice lining instead.  In other words, you make four fronts and two backs, or four backs and two fronts.  It takes a bit more fabric, but does a neater job, and once you've made one piece like that, you understand how it works for the others.

Others came from Bunkhouse Books' Stitches & Pins doll clothe patterns. Very easy to use, and some (like the skirt) don't even require paper patterns, just fabric cut to a certain size. From that package I made the reversible vest and an elastic-waist skirt.

The sweater pattern was found online.   (Not in the photo: ice skates and mittens on a string.)

The tote bag came from Kids Can Press Quilting, by Biz Storms. Putting that together gave me the idea to use the last bits and pieces to make a patchwork quilt. I didn't have a pattern--just used some ideas I had seen in patterns for other doll quilts.

The hairband, small burgundy purse, burgundy shawl to go with the dress, burgundy miniskirt, crocheted scarf, and the mini version of the tote bag, I made up as I went along. The hairband was made from some of the binding on the t-shirt, with a fabric star fused on.

How did it all work out?

Mama Squirrel started with the bathrobe on a November afternoon when Crayons was out. If that hadn't worked out so well, she probably would have stopped there. But a bathrobe needs a nightie, and over the next while she worked on one.  That pattern did create some struggles...but she finally got everything gathered and the white yoke sewed on perfectly...and inside out. Not wanting to go back to the stitch ripper for the umpth time, she compromised and sewed ribbon around the raw edge. And that still could have been the end...except that, even with the nightie fight, she was having fun sewing. And Crystal did need some new clothes.  And we did have that bag of red and blue print fabric pieces.

So we set things up in a bit of an assembly line.  Since there was a limited amount of fabric to work with, Mama Squirrel traced out some of the pattern pieces she thought she'd use, and pinned and cut them all at once, trying to match the largest pieces of fabric to the clothes requiring the most material.  Then it was just a matter of finding time and privacy to sew them, bit by bit.  Most of that happened in the last week of school (when the Squirrelings had a light workload and extra free time) and the week of holidays before Christmas (when it was quite acceptable for Mama Squirrel to say "OUT, I'm working on something.")

What kind of fastenings are on the clothes?

Mama Squirrel is not much into hardware.  The blouse, dress and nightie have Velcro closings.  The sweater has a button.  The shawl has a snap.  Everything else is pull-on.

We thought the pants and turtleneck outfit would be groovy enough for Crissy.

On Christmas Eve before bed, Crayons unwrapped the nightwear and the quilt and pillows.  The pillows are made from scraps of the t-shirt, with gingerbread shapes fused on for decoration.  The quilt top was made from rectangles and squares pieced together in strips, then placed on a square of snow-blanket for batting, and a piece of blue brushed fabric (long-ago remnant) cut 2 inches larger all the way around.  The backing was folded over twice towards the front of the quilt, and then top-stitched to hold the whole thing together.  It would have been fun to "tie" the quilt, but it didn't seem necessary.

(Recognize the thrifted blue yarn?)

On Christmas morning, Crayons unwrapped the large tote bag which was holding the rest of the clothes.  It was made from one of the few pieces of grab-bag fabric which had a print too large for dolls, and there was another large dark red piece left for lining.  Because we were so close to the end of the fabric, the tote bag has one red handle and one handle made of two kinds of blue fabric.  But Crayons says she doesn't mind.

Crystal wanted skates (crochet pattern)

Crystal, if you don't know, is Crayons' 18-inch doll.

And Crystal thought it would be nice if she got some skates for Christmas.

Yes, you can buy doll ice skates, but they're a bit pricey. Mama Squirrel saw this crocheted skate pattern on Cobbler's Cabin, and figured they would work. She didn't get them done for Christmas, but the Boxing Day lull gave her enough time to whip them together, and luckily we happened to have two two-inch paper clips (big ones) for the blades.

If you're trying these, I would warn you to count very carefully and use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of rounds--otherwise your shape will get way off. (Ask me how I know?) The groups of three single crochet in a row are meant to go right on the long sides of the oval sole; the two sc in one stitch are the "corners" of the oval. If you find yourself making the three sc at the short end or somewhere else, you'd better start again. Also, there are a couple of places where I took an extra slip stitch just to tighten up and end things off nicely--not in the pattern, but it doesn't hurt.

And a word of encouragement: once you've finished the first skate, the second one goes much faster.

P.S. Crystal got some other things for Christmas, too; we will put up some photos later on.

A Gift from the Un-Lonely Squirrel

Once, there was a fairy named Mama Squirrel. She lived in a treehouse with her loving husband and 3 beautiful squirrels girls. One day she said, "My, my, I had better get started on some Christmas presents!" So, Mama Squirrel took her magic fairy wand (errrrrrr, I mean crochet hook) and waved it about...

She crocheted...

...and crocheted!

Now, Mama Squirrel kept crocheting until she had...

8 hot pads and one wash cloth:

One even had a special button on it!

5 tree ornaments/decorations:

One small mat:

A doily: 

4 bells: 

3 scarves: 

A panda for one lucky little one:

Two pairs of mittens:

And two afghans (two friends tried one out) :o) : 

 

 

And Mama Squirrel, her husband, and 3 lovely daughters lived happily ever after!

~The End~

Merry Christmas!

-Ponytails

Mama Squirrel's Technical Notes and Sources

Panda: pattern by Lori-Jean Karluk, published in Crochet Patterns by Herrschners, July/August 1991. Yarn: leftover black and white worsted.

Mittens: Adapted from this Canadian Living pattern. Patons yarn bought on sale at the mill-ends store.

Scarves: all the same pattern, just made up as I went along. The multi-coloured scarf is made all from one ball of thrifted yarn.

Hotpads and potholders: all adapted from this pattern on Bizzy Crochet and from a variation in the comments posted about the same pattern; all made from rummage-saled and thrifted yarn. This is truly a beginner-friendly pattern--no rounds to join or rows to turn.  And you can make them any size you want.

White mat: adapted from "Hanukkah Doily" by Agnes Russell, in Crochet World December 2007.

Red, white and blue afghan: adapted from "Berries and Evergreens Afghan" by Katherine Eng, in Crochet World December 2005. The designer used shades of rose, claret and greens for a holiday-toned afghan; I wanted to use up several weights and shades of thrifted red yarn (I bought a whole bagful of mixed reds), plus work in some chunky-weight red, white and denim-blue yarn I had bought a long time ago. It was fun to make because you work from the center stripe out in both directions, as if the pattern were reflected in a mirror. My afghan is a bit smaller than the original, but I had to stop when the yarn ran out.

Red, white and green throw: adapted from a basic mile-a-minute afghan pattern.  One package of unidentified-label yarn from the mill-ends store.

Thread tree trims: "Seven Wonders Tree Trims" by Marcia Pope, in Crochet World December 2005. You can tell these (and the other thread things) aren't really done--I still have to stiffen them, fix the loose ends and so on.

Bells: "Crochet Bells" by Maggie Weldon, in Country Crafts Winter 1996.

The Homeschoolers' Christmas (2010)

I wrote this quite a few years ago for our local homeschool group's newsletter; later it appeared in an American group's newsletter.  But I guess I can still post it here, right?  (No particular offense is intended to Saxon Math--you try finding a rhyme for...okay, just read it.)

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the nation

the holiday spirit was in full operation

The stockings were loaded, the presents were wrapped

And while moms checked  their emails and tired dads napped

Their angelic offspring made straight for the tree

And checked out the presents as quiet as could be.

They were hoping for skateboards and monster truck sets

Barbie cars, Barbie clothes, Barbie beds, Barbie pets

For video games that were violent and weird

And lots more to be sent from the man with the beard.

But in the last house at the top of the hill

A family of homeschoolers sat wondering still.

Said dear little Anna with a face full of woe,

“I wrote Santa a letter, so you’d think he would know

That I’m asking for CDs that make lots of noise

Like Hannah Montana and the Backstreet Boys.”

“It’s no use,” said Thomas.  “You know for a fact

We’ll get songs that will help us to add and subtract.”

“Don’t you remember” said big sister Kate

“The year we got Daily Grams books one to eight?”

“It’s not fair” said her brother, “I want Play Station Kombat,

But I’ll probably end up with a book about wombats.”

“Well, this year” said Anna, “let’s sit up and wait,

And when Santa Claus comes, we can all set him straight.”

So into the night they sat munching a snack

With the hope that St. Nick would show up with his pack.

But at the North Pole things were somewhat amiss

Santa’s computer had scrambled his list

As he packed up his laptop and toys for his travels

He wasn’t quite sure if the mess was unraveled

But he dropped all the toys with a loud “ho ho hoing”

Down the chimneys where they seemed they ought to be going.

At ten minutes past twelve (by their plastic teaching clock)

The homeschooled kids were aroused with a shock

And what should their wondering eyes soon be facing

But a sackful of presents marked “Ashley and Jason.”

There were DVD movies and belly button jeans

Purple haired trolls and a dance moves machine

A Queasy Bake Oven, two robots that fight

A Whatserface doll...and not one book in sight.

Their eyes how they twinkled!  With laughter so hearty

They tore open the goodies and started to party.

But Mamma in her jammies came in and said “No! 

There’s been a mistake!  All this junk has to go!”

She called up St. Nick who was flying overhead

And asked him to bring the right presents instead

He promised he’d track down the gifts for her tots

And get rid of the trolls and the fighting robots.

And not far away, spending Christmas vacation

With the sackful of toys were Ashley and Jason

At first they were puzzled and pouted a bit

And Jason said “what’s a gemology kit?”

He checked out the books and a model heart

And some software about  Impressionist Art

Then Ashley sat down with a book about flowers

And they sat there like that for about three hours.

Till Santa popped in and explained his mistake

And said he’d get back the Queasybake

And the Hannah CD and the movies to play

But Jason and Ashley said, “No way!

The stuff is ours, it’s staying here

And could you please bring us more like that next year?”

So Santa was in a bit of a stew

He had to decide what the dickens to do

He called on his cell to the house of homeschooling

Where there was a great deal of laughing and fooling

Their mom said, “All right, you can keep the stuff

But no more next year, enough is enough!

I’ve learned something too, I promise not to fax in

A Christmas order for anything by Saxon.”

So Santa went home with his empty sleigh

And worked on his laptop the rest of the day

He made some notes for next year’s ride.

“More gifts that get the kids outside.

And for the mother of Ashley and Jason,

A complete set of Charlotte Mason.”

He took off his glasses, he’d done his best,

And then lay down for a well-deserved rest.

           

But I heard him exclaim as he pulled the bed curtain

"Merry Christmas to all, and homeschoolers for certain."

What's Mama Squirrel up to?

I can't say too much here. But it involves less crocheting and more time with the Evil Sewing Machine. Here's a hint.
Here's another one.

Actually I love my sewing machine. I do. It just has a tendency to run out of bobbin thread at the wrong time, or (much worse) to refuse to play nice with the bobbin thread at all. Throw in Mama Squirrel's general ineptitude with machines, tendency to sew things on upside down, and frequent inability to get the thread through the needle, and all I can say is that I'm glad there's a Mr. Fixit around. And that I have two stitch rippers handy.

But over the last few years the machine has started to learn Who's Boss, and it now obeys me almost as well as it does Ponytails.

What's on the Treehouse kitchen counter?

Already gone:

Malted Milk Buttons
Chocolate-Chocolate Shortbread
One batch of chocolate chip cookies made by Ponytails
One batch of brownies made by the Apprentice (for her Kinesiology class--don't ask)

Already made:

Quick Fruit and Nut Fudge
No-Bake Apricot Nuggets
Pumpkin Loaf
Orange-Coconut Granola

Still to come:

Double Ginger Drop Cookies
Chocolate Hazelnut Crescents
Banana Muffins
and anything else we think of.

Our Roman Roots: So Far So Good (review)

Our Roman Roots: A Catholic Student's Guide to Latin Grammar and Western Civilization, by James R. Leek, Ed.D. Review at HomeschoolChristian.com.

This is not a state-of-the-art Latin program, especially in its 1997 coilbound edition with cassette. It will not give you the ability to translate Virgil or to read the Vulgate Bible. But if you're looking for something more than just a prefixes/suffixes curriculum for students from grades 4 to 8, but aren't sure where to start, you might want to consider this book.

We are only up to lesson 5 of 15, which is just about where we should be in the one-year course; so I can only base our review on the first third of the book. But so far, I'm pleased.

Ease of use?--very, very easy, except that you or your students will have to set up separate notebooks with tabs before beginning the course. Occasionally I photocopy one of the pages for the Squirrelings to use instead of copying everything out, for instance if there is a multiple-choice written activity.

It's set up in 15 5-day lessons; unless you have only older students, I wouldn't think you'd want to take the whole thing in 15 weeks. You can either teach a whole lesson every other week and then use the next week for review; teach a lesson over two weeks; or mix things up as we have done (we started off slow but have done two full lessons in the past three weeks, leaving French aside until January). The books are set up with one activity after another, so it's easy to just pencil a mark or leave a Post-It note at the last activity you completed, and go on from there.

The fifth day of each lesson is a one-page quiz; sometimes these are quite tricky and they bring in concepts from previous lessons, so I would recommend a bit of extra review before doing them. We have done things like make Concentration cards with vocabulary words and Roman numerals.

Recommended age? I wouldn't consider it with children below about grade 4, at least as far as the grammar goes; they need to be able, almost right away, to grasp the concept of the genitive or possessive case, and that's not the easiest thing to explain. An example of that is "agnus Dei" (lamb of God), where the "of" is understood by the ending on "Dei." Also, many of the daily "Word Power" quotes that are to be copied into the notebooks require a fair amount of maturity to grasp, such as "Silent leges enim inter arma" (Laws are silent in war). Ponytails (grade 8) can complete some of the written activities faster than Crayons (grade 4) can, and I expect she will find some of the more advanced grammar easier; but Crayons has been doing just as well as Ponytails on the quizzes and the oral activities.

Most enjoyable activities: The Squirrelings, having some Catholic family history, like being able to astound everyone by saying grace in Latin. The songs (like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) are fun; we have added in two Christmas carols this month that are featured in later lessons. Ponytails has found a couple of opportunities lately to tell people "Errare humanum est"; and Crayons picked out the word "donum" in a Latin song heard at a school concert last night. (You-tube video, not from that concert though.) They also like acting out the imperative forms of verbs (commands) as given on the tape: the voice commands them to Sta! (Stand up!) Sede! (Sit down!) Verte! (Turn around!) and so on.

Most enjoyable aspects for me, after trying out two other Latin programs previously with The Apprentice: no long lists of vocabulary to learn, at least not so far anyway. No chants, at least not so far, unless you count chanting the numbers 1 to 10. The program is not too difficult for me to teach with my one year of high school Latin and that bit of previous experience. I enjoy seeing the Squirrelings make some of their own connections with the vocabulary rather than having to have me point everything out. When the tape commanded them to "Audi!" and "Vide!", Ponytails was quick to point out the connection with "audio" and "video."

I also like the fact that this is not a colouring-page, word-search kind of curriculum. Although it's simple and enjoyable, it avoids busywork.

Downsides? 1. Occasionally--very occasionally--a word or concept will come up that isn't explained right away; one example is that the words "est" and "sunt" (forms of "To be") suddenly pop into use without definition. If you don't have any Latin knowledge at all, you might want to have a friend around to call on occasionally, or at least look things up sometimes online if you get stuck.*** 2. If you don't want any Catholic material at all, you would not like this course. Protestants can use it although there are a few things you might want to omit. 3. Pronunciation is Ecclesiastical, not Classical (Ecclesiastical is pronounced more like Italian); this is fun for singing, but might cause a bit of confusion if you move on later to materials from other publishers. 4. We skip a lot of the "extension activities" (short essay or research topics) unless it seems it would be particularly meaningful to do them.

I think this course could be alternatively titled "Wow! You can speak Latin!" Latin isn't always fun; but this book keeps it from being a chore.

***UPDATE as of Lesson 6:  Starting in again after the Christmas break, I noticed that Lessons 6 and 7 introduce the Ablative and Accusative cases, although you don't really do much with them.  We took one extra session to sort through the idea of conjugations, declensions and cases, comparing what we know of English and French grammar with Latin, and I gave the girls a photocopied chart showing noun endings.  This was one place where I think the program could have used a bit more explanation, although, as I said, all you're actually doing with the Ablative at this point is just saying that someone is "In such-and-such-a-country," and changing the ending for the names of some countries.

What we're singing in Latin class

Advent III: Of snowglobes and snowstorms

Sorry I could not get this posted yesterday--computer time was short and I have been a little under the weather, in the other sense. This is for those who feel they're being shaken in a snowglobe lately. As the DHM noticed--the figures inside the globe stay put, even through the stormy blast.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

--Isaac Watts