Memory Game

I've seen this on a couple of blogs and thought it looked like fun!

How to Play!!
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Kindergarten

I'm so excited to go back to kindergarten. Our homeschool is embarking on a new year, with Z turning 5, and C turning 3, it'll be the experience of a lifetime, to watch them imagine and explore their world at a new level, with the ability to understand more, and imagine more. To create more stories and new worlds, and put themselves in to the books they read. I'm excited, because as Mom, I get to be witness to it all.

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

- by Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK . Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Popcorn!

OK, so, I was telling a friend about the children's experience with microwave popcorn...it was their first time seeing it, as we usually use the air popper. We've been tasting all sorts of different varieties of popcorn (no, not the flavorings, different species of plant!) that we get in the Amish community nearby. You can also order them online http://www.amishcountrypopcorn.com/1pound.html . It really doesn't need oil or butter or salt...just enjoy the sweet natural flavor of the corn. Blue is the sweetest, the red pops up a bright white. Yum! Chayce calls them 'sheeps' once they are popped. Hee hee.

Anyhow, we have video of their first time with microwave popcorn. I didn't get all the cute reactions I thought I had, it's just the tail end of the moment as they start to eat. But, I promised I'd post it:

Prunes

This is Payge...attempting to eat prunes to help a little with...ahem, digestion. Anyhow, she seems to really love them & would get upset if they quit coming.

Peaches Come In A Can, They Were Put There By A Man

Not these! Ha! No, we've had the best week at our CSA, and the peaches are now on in full force! Today, these beauties became dinner. Stephen and I concluded that given the freshness of the ingredients, we'd need little sugar to prepare these into a yummy treat, and it would count as a balanced dinner since I would be using eggs, milk, fresh fruit, and freshly ground grain to make it. Sweeeet! Here's the very-low sugar, high taste, high nutrition recipe we came up with. Try it!

Take 20 or so freshly picked peaches, peel & slice them, discarding the pit. Lay the fruit in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. It'll be pretty deep, this is a lot of fruit, but that is the point.

In a bowl mix:
1/2 C canola oil
1 C sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 C milk
2 1/4 whole wheat flour (the fresher the better, white would work too, but then you can't eat it for dinner, it has to be dessert. )
4 tsp. baking powder (3 if using white flour, it doesn't need as much rising help)
a shake or two of sea salt

Pour mixture over the fruit. Bake until done (30ish minutes?) @ 350 degress.


This was the perfect treat after a day of white water rafting! Yes, we braved the East Race here in South Bend (it's a level 2). We didn't get pictures of us because, well, the water was was a bit fast and our hands were busy keeping us upright. By the way...we did not tip over! But we did get oh so drenched. It was so fun! Thanks for taking care of our wee ones, Tara!




Not us, but on the same course. We were in a two person raft, this is a five person.

The Heart of the Matter

So, it looks like the wee one is in tip top shape--let me explain.

Last week, we took her in for her 4 month check-up (can you believe it?) and she'd grown to a whopping 10 pounds. Now, given that she was born 8 pounds, 5 oz. the doc wasn't impressed, especially since this baby is not solely breastfed (she gets a night time bottle from daddy!). She'd also only grown another inch in length. All of this has been nice...she's light, her tiny clothes still fit, yada yada. I wasn't worried. The girl scoots, rolls, giggles, and grabs. Seemed like progress to me! Any how, given her size and her high level of sweaty-ness (this girl looks like she's just got out of the shower after any meal or nap...) the doctor ordered an ECHO on her heart. Well, it would seem that (as mother's intuition was stating all along) it must just be genetics. She's small, but spunky, spry, and silly. Healthy as they come, and according to the ultrasound tech...cute too!

Funny adendum: Of all three children to have blessed this home, this one is the first one people say is 'just like her mother'. We agree. My mother mentioned the other day that I, too, had an echo ordered on my heart at this age, and I , too, am just fine. Looks like we're off to a great start of "like mother, like daughter."

Snappin'

Today was farm day & it is the height of harvest for some yummy crops! We were pleased to bring home peaches, onions, carrots, lots of green beans, zucchini, raspberries, red lettuce, baby beets, yellow tomatoes, yellow beans...hmmm is that all? I think I'm forgetting something, but what? Anyway, I'm using this time to teach our children the value of work, and putting away their own harvest. It's fun to say, "Get the green beans you snapped out of the freezer for dinner, please." because they have such a sense of pride in the completed job, and it's finished product is something they get to partake of throughout the year. I snapped some photos while they were snapping beans, we had a great time washing them together, too, but I didn't want the camera by the sink (it's already on the fritz!).

Note Z's fancy finger work...snapping behind the leg. He also mastered snapping behind his back, and over his head.