Saturday, July 25, 2009
Pickles
So this past wednesday I immersed myself in pickles. I prepared and canned 32 pints of pickles. That is way more than I have ever done before. I never even liked pickles until I made them myself last year. That's what happens when your friend offers you cucumber seconds and says make pickles!
Enjoy Life Unschooling Conference!
Have you heard of the Enjoy Life Unschooling Conference yet? This September for a cool 2 days, come and Enjoy Life with unschoolers of all ages in the mountains near Frederick, Maryland. We will have fabulous speakers, chat sessions, and funshops to fill your days. In the evening, there will be a campfire with music, s'mores, and storytelling while inside our coffeehouse will feature an open mic, a service project to help animals enjoy their lives, henna to decorate your body, crafts, and games. Registration is quite inexpensive for a conference, so come on and join us!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
My Problem
So I had my homeschool review a while back. I was told I had a problem. Wanna guess what it is? Go ahead, I'll give you a minute ....
Nope, that's not it. Not that either! My problem is that I am learning centered in my approach to homeschooling. Yes, you read that right. Being learning centered is a problem.
My reviewer said he was teaching centered. He had to be because of his job. I was learning centered and that was very different. We agree on that. He did suggest we meet in the middle so he could do his job easier. Could be worse!
Ok, so I didn't bring the samples of my kid's work. Bad me. They will get over it though. I brought two of those calendars which look like books - one for each kid. They have at least 5 different things on each DAY (and way more than 180 of them) which the kids did for learning purposes. I was told "Anyone can bring this in, we need to see what your kids actually did". Hmmm. This was the proof of my instruction. It seems a little silly that they truely want to see 5 pieces of paper from my kid. That is how we got into discussion about My Problem.
You are wondering what I have to do now, aren't you. I have to bring in samples of my kids' work to my next review - next year. That sure showed me, huh?! Yes, I might remember to bring the samples next time. Or I might join an umbrella group and not have to see them again. There are probable a whole host of fun ways to handle this situation, but a 12 step program for My Problem is not one of them :-) I like my problem.
Oh, my kids did start blogs however. We'll see how that goes...
Nope, that's not it. Not that either! My problem is that I am learning centered in my approach to homeschooling. Yes, you read that right. Being learning centered is a problem.
My reviewer said he was teaching centered. He had to be because of his job. I was learning centered and that was very different. We agree on that. He did suggest we meet in the middle so he could do his job easier. Could be worse!
Ok, so I didn't bring the samples of my kid's work. Bad me. They will get over it though. I brought two of those calendars which look like books - one for each kid. They have at least 5 different things on each DAY (and way more than 180 of them) which the kids did for learning purposes. I was told "Anyone can bring this in, we need to see what your kids actually did". Hmmm. This was the proof of my instruction. It seems a little silly that they truely want to see 5 pieces of paper from my kid. That is how we got into discussion about My Problem.
You are wondering what I have to do now, aren't you. I have to bring in samples of my kids' work to my next review - next year. That sure showed me, huh?! Yes, I might remember to bring the samples next time. Or I might join an umbrella group and not have to see them again. There are probable a whole host of fun ways to handle this situation, but a 12 step program for My Problem is not one of them :-) I like my problem.
Oh, my kids did start blogs however. We'll see how that goes...
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Bye Bye Trampoline - Hello Chickens?
Last week we took down our trampoline. It was used when we got it from our neighbor oh so many years ago. We have enjoyed it a lot. But ... the stitching started disintegrating, a few springs fell off, and then the fabric started ripping. It no longer was safe to jump on it and be sure that it would hold you when you landed. So down it came.
We had been thinking about ways to recycle or reuse the materials from the trampoline instead of adding to the landfill. The best by far was to turn the frame upside-down and attach chicken wire to make ... you guessed it ... a chicken enclosure! So what do you think? Should we start having chickens next year?
We had been thinking about ways to recycle or reuse the materials from the trampoline instead of adding to the landfill. The best by far was to turn the frame upside-down and attach chicken wire to make ... you guessed it ... a chicken enclosure! So what do you think? Should we start having chickens next year?
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Holiday Light Recycling
I love it when a company acts as responsibly as they can. I just found this company, Holiday LEDS that sells energy efficient holiday lights (yeah!) but ALSO accepts your non-working holiday lights of any sort for recycling. Can't wait till the Season of Lights!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
A step up in recycling
I found a really cool web site just now and waned to share it. This fabulous web site entitled How Can I Recycle This? shares info on re-purposing all sorts of things. I just read about ways to reuse lanyards, conference badges, bicycle tires, and sandpaper. Wow.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Strawberry Jam
Yesterday morning I worked for about 4 hours on making strawberry jam. I was about up to the canning part when both kids woke up! We had already gone to a new farm (Homestead Farm in Faulkner, MD) to load up on berries for jam so I could start as soon as my eyes were open enough.
Hulling and chopping the berries comes first (along with washing if necessary). Then cooking the berries until soft. I decided I wanted a smooth consistency this time (instead of fruit chunks) so I used my blender on the whole batch. I sweetened with local honey, thickened with agar agar flakes, and popped it all in the canning jars. My recipe is not for a super sweet jam, I like the berry flavor to dominate over the sweetness. However my sweets-loving son said it was good. Here's the big-ass pot I used (thanks mom!) and the finished jars.
Here's the recipe:
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients:
8 quarts of fresh strawberries (which weighed a total of 10 lb 7 oz and measured out to be about 16 c)
1.5-2 c honey
8 T agar agar flakes (a seaweed)
Directions:
Cook strawberries until soft on medium heat (do not boil). Add honey to taste* (must cool berry mixture down for proper taste test) and stir well. Add 1/2 the agar flakes, stir, and continue on med heat for a few minutes. Do a consistency test**. Add 1 T flakes at a time until berry mixture is not quite solid enough for you. Stop there before you end up with a brick. Now get it in the jars and hide it until harvest season has passed!
Yield: about 2 cups
* The taste of hot things differs from cold things. The berries need to be cool for proper taste test. Here's how: use a small plate or bowl, chill it in the freezer for a few minutes, put a small dollop of mixture on plate, return to freezer until cool, then taste and adjust honey amount.
** Consistency Test: The agar flakes gel when they get cool/cold. Use the plate in the freezer trick again, but this time make sure the strawberry mixture really and truly gets cold. Always err on the side of not enough and too runny jam. Otherwise, you could add too much agar and end up with jam the consistency of a hockey puck.
Hulling and chopping the berries comes first (along with washing if necessary). Then cooking the berries until soft. I decided I wanted a smooth consistency this time (instead of fruit chunks) so I used my blender on the whole batch. I sweetened with local honey, thickened with agar agar flakes, and popped it all in the canning jars. My recipe is not for a super sweet jam, I like the berry flavor to dominate over the sweetness. However my sweets-loving son said it was good. Here's the big-ass pot I used (thanks mom!) and the finished jars.
Here's the recipe:
Strawberry Jam
Ingredients:
8 quarts of fresh strawberries (which weighed a total of 10 lb 7 oz and measured out to be about 16 c)
1.5-2 c honey
8 T agar agar flakes (a seaweed)
Directions:
Cook strawberries until soft on medium heat (do not boil). Add honey to taste* (must cool berry mixture down for proper taste test) and stir well. Add 1/2 the agar flakes, stir, and continue on med heat for a few minutes. Do a consistency test**. Add 1 T flakes at a time until berry mixture is not quite solid enough for you. Stop there before you end up with a brick. Now get it in the jars and hide it until harvest season has passed!
Yield: about 2 cups
* The taste of hot things differs from cold things. The berries need to be cool for proper taste test. Here's how: use a small plate or bowl, chill it in the freezer for a few minutes, put a small dollop of mixture on plate, return to freezer until cool, then taste and adjust honey amount.
** Consistency Test: The agar flakes gel when they get cool/cold. Use the plate in the freezer trick again, but this time make sure the strawberry mixture really and truly gets cold. Always err on the side of not enough and too runny jam. Otherwise, you could add too much agar and end up with jam the consistency of a hockey puck.
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